This was also the reason she had to be in charge and make sure the people around Leyvi were trustworthy. The talent that he gave to people was just too heaven-defying.
Thankfully, she had the Heavenly Fragrance Harmony Body to filter the people around him. If not, they can say goodbye, ahem, he can say goodbye to the harem life. It would be too paranoid to have people around, not knowing their intentions.
Anda grabbed the Bitterleaf Herb and put it into the old cauldron. She then executed the Azure Flame Technique, slowly heating up the herb.
Although the Azure Flame Technique was a fire control technique made more suitable for the refining process, it was still much better than her previous fire control technique for the overall process.
After it reached the recommended temperature as suggested by the Alchemy Vision, Anda performed the extraction technique, using the spiritual sense to aid her in extracting only the toxin-purifying essence from the Bitterleaf Herb.
At the same time, the moment the essence was extracted from the herb, she also performed the containing technique to isolate and preserve the essence.
Alchemists who were confident with their containing technique and their multitasking ability could just put away the essence they extracted at the top corner of the cauldron and proceed with the next ingredient.
But for those who weren't, they could take out the essence and temporarily seal it in a tube so they could focus on other ingredients.
Under normal circumstances, Anda would just put the essence away in the corner, but right now, she decided not to risk it because doing so would only save her some time and energy, with no real increase in the quality of the product. So, she'd rather play safe, considering the countless variables around her right now.
As for the remainder of the Bitterleaf Herb, she kept it away for future uses, because apart from the toxin-purifying essence, it still has other essences with unique properties that could be extracted for other purposes.
Seeing that Anda temporarily sealed the essence away to the side, Ori Oregano sneered.
"Hmph, only newbie alchemists do that. This ugly bitch was probably just lucky in the previous rounds. She even used a garbage containing technique for the competition. This round is made for me! Top-grade pills? Easy!" He muttered before starting his own alchemy.
From the audience's perspective, the alchemists from great backgrounds performed better and fancier extracting techniques compared to those from humble backgrounds, like Anda.
The audience who had started to support Anda, the dark horse of this competition, began to feel worried about the disadvantage.
"It's my fault. I should have been more aware of her circumstances and bought her better alchemy techniques." Leyvi blamed himself. "I never asked her about it because she seemed to be doing very well."
"Don't worry, if Big Madam deemed it necessary, she would have already made the necessary preparations. The fact that she didn't change her techniques yet only means that it wasn't needed." Layla explained and comforted Leyvi.
After all, as the family manager, she had worked closely with Anda for a while. She knew how Anda functioned.
"Really? That's good then. I thought I was a failed husband just now. Hahaha!" Leyvi laughed as usual.
Half an hour later, Anda finished extracting the required essences from the other four ingredients and began the refining step.
The time taken to refine the essence would differ from essence to essence. Some essences might take a few minutes and some essences might take hours. It might also be possible to take days for the refining to finish for some cases with rare ingredients.
During this step, Anda used the Heart-Pulse Refining Technique. After all, with the help of the Alchemy Vision, she had mastered the technique to a high degree in a short amount of time.
As for the other contestants, they didn't dare to use the techniques in this competition yet.
"Oohaha! Very nice! That lass is getting better and better at using my technique. Although I'm a bit disappointed that only a few people are using my awesome refining technique. They really can't appreciate the work of art that I created," Albert Wood commented.
"President, how about taking her as your disciple?" The middle-aged elder asked.
"Arjun, do you think that lass needs a master? Hell no! Her instinct is terrifyingly high. She adjusted accordingly the next moment a variable occurred. A person like this doesn't need a master. She will learn everything by herself." Albert expressed his opinion.
Arjun was stunned. "Really? She's that good?"
"Do you think I will lie?"
"President, you lie all the time. My trust level for you is only at 15%. You should be a politician instead."
"What? That low? You're fired! I'll pick someone else to be my assistant!"
Two hours later, Anda completed the refinement of all five of the essences. Since Poison Repellent Pill was just an easy alchemy product, the mixing step only involved non-reactive mixing.
This means that even if they failed in this step, no explosion would occur, only wasted ingredients.
Anda confirmed the recommended essence ratio for the mixing step after her Alchemy Vision made a quick calculation based on their purity.
She immediately controlled the Azure Flame Technique again and performed the essence mixing technique according to the correct sequence.
After completing the mixing, the five different essences blended together perfectly to form a single, stable mixture.
Once again, Anda controlled the Azure Flame to adjust the temperature for the last step, which was the forming step.
From the Extracting to the Mixing step, Anda had only wasted a very minuscule amount of essence, so the amount of mixture remaining was more than enough to make five pills, which was the maximum.
Anda divided the mixture into 5 equal parts and performed the pill forming technique. As the product took its final shape, she maintained a steady flame to smooth out any imperfections.
Afterward, Anda gradually reduced the flame to cool the cauldron, allowing the product to solidify completely. Once the five pills had fully formed and cooled, she retrieved them from the cauldron and placed them in a pill bottle prepared by the Alchemy Association.
Anda smiled. The pattern indicating top-grade quality appeared on all five pills. With this, she received full points for the first set of ingredients.
Anda took a full breath and sighed. She realized that performing alchemy in front of so many people was actually very taxing mentally.
It took her four and a half hours to complete a single set of alchemy. Half an hour more than what it usually took her to concoct this pill.
All kinds of noises would disturb your concentration at any moment and the feeling of countless eyes watching your every movement was absolutely uncomfortable.
She looked around and saw many contestants making mistakes in their alchemy because of the same problem. Because of those mistakes, they lose some portions of the essence, making it impossible to produce 5 pills.
As usual, Anda looked toward the Leyan Family and saw Leyvi waving at her again while winking. Anda giggled. All her mental fatigue went away, and she felt refreshed again.
"It's time for the second set," Anda said to herself.
"Dang, the Alchemy Association brought out modified things again. First, they used jade slips that could auto-mark the contestants' answers, now they used pill bottles that could block spiritual sense. I couldn't even check her Poison Repellent Pill's quality." Leyvi complained.
"It's more likely to hide them from other contestants. They are already looking very stressed. If they saw all the top-grade pills Big Madam made, they'd puke in their cauldron. Hehe." Layla speculated while giggling at her own joke.
Layla had managed most of Anda's alchemy products. She had absolute confidence that the majority of her pills would be top-grade quality. Not to mention, it was just an easy tier-2 pill.
At the same time, Ori Oregano also finished his first set of alchemy. He collected the five pills he just made and stored them in the pill bottle.
Hyahahaha! Ori laughed inwardly, seeing the four top-grade Poison Repellent Pills in the bottle.
The legendary art 'Heavenly Touch Alchemy Method' he obtained from the auction was truly amazing!
Originally, he only made 3 top-grade pills, but using the legendary art, he managed to increase another pill's quality to top grade just barely.
There's no doubt that he would be the number one in this round! The legendary art was too much to his advantage, after all!
Ugly bitch, Homun bitch, both of you just wait. I'll overtake your ranks soon. You don't know who you're dealing with. I'm the youngest prodigy in centuries of Medicine Valley! Hyahahaha!!
Meanwhile, Anda, who was about to start the second set, rolled her eyes. The gross smell had spread again. This evil kid really can't stop thinking about her, huh? I'm sorry kiddo, I already have a husband! The best in the world!
An hour later, all the contestants had completed their first set of pill making while a quarter of them had continued with the second set.
In the middle of refining the essence, Anda noticed that her precious old cauldron couldn't hold it for much longer.
She knew it would come soon, but it was sooner than expected and untimely at that.