“Two of them broke through successfully. One of them became a cripple and two more died instantly!”
Shang Xia’s pupils shrank after hearing their fate. “It’s so dangerous. Why would they…”
Before he could complete his sentence, Shang Xia discovered what was inappropriate about it.
Zhang Haogu’s bitter laughter rang through the air. “Damn brat! Do you know how rare a rank four advancement medicine is? It’s not something you can refine just because you have an advancement formula! You need to gather all the herbs and treasures in order to refine one! Every single one of them is extremely precious! There’s also the matter of extermination qi…”
Shang Xia couldn’t help but think about what Shang Pei said to him in the spirit cave.?“It’s good to be able to use an advancement formula, why would we be choosy about it?”
Zhang Haogu’s voice rang in his ears again. “The situation looks a lot better now because we managed to withstand the various trials and assimilate with the Mysterious Coral World… Hmph… How long can our prosperous state last? Do you know how many people are eyeing our rank four resources? You’ve just touched the edge of the Martial Extermination Realm! Do you think that those seniors who have been waiting for many years to advance will be willing to give up their opportunity just because Kou Chongxue gave the word? Some of them have been waiting for ten years now!”
Zhang Haogu continued testing Shang Xia’s compatibility with the advancement medicines while talking. Clearly, the kid’s luck wasn’t that good as the longest the light went was 6.4 inches.
“Kid, you’re in trouble now…” Zhang Haogu shook his head and sighed. “Your compatibility with these medicines aren’t that amazing. You still need a ton of extermination qi and other items to advance. Do you wish to continue testing with those nameless medicines or those we suspect are rank four advancement formulas? Or are you going to choose the Nanke Wine?”
The Nanke Wine was the medicine that Shang Xia was the most compatible with.
Looking at the needle, Shang Xia sighed helplessly, “Let’s carry on.”
Zhang Haogu wasn’t surprised by Shang Xia’s choice. It was too bad he had to keep getting pricked by the needle.
While Zhang Haogu continued with the tests, he asked casually, “I heard that the Institution is willing to give you a set of advancement medicine. However, you will have to prepare your extermination origin on your own. The Shang Clan will be allocated with one strand of loose extermination origin. Are you planning to use that?”
Shang Xia frowned as he looked at his arm which was full of tiny needle holes. “I don’t know.”
His confusion wasn’t about whether or not the clan would give him the strand of extermination origin to break through to the Martial Extermination Realm. Instead, he didn’t know whether or not the Shang Clan only had one strand of loose extermination origin.
Zhang Haogu completed the testing process for the nameless and suspected rank four advancement medicine quickly. Their expressions were unsightly as the highest the light got was 6.8 inches.
Pulling his beard, Zhang Haogu sighed, “6.8 inches… It’s pretty close to 7, don’t you think?”
During the testing process earlier, Shang Xia had already made up his mind. As long as the light didn’t extend past the 7 inches mark, he wouldn’t use any of the medicine.
He only agreed to continue the testing process as he wanted to prepare himself to get a formula and medicine that can be improved by the Crimson Soul Tablet.
Shang Xia grasped some sort of rule after he played around with the Crimson Soul Tablet in the Changfeng City. He discovered that the tablet couldn’t create something out of nothing. It needed a base to carry out its deductions.
Unfortunately, there was no world origin for him to absorb at the moment. If Shang Xia allows the Crimson Soul Tablet to carry out its deduction, the tablet would be on the brink of destruction!
As such, Shang Xia wanted to reduce the burden on the tablet as much as he could. He wanted to look for a set of advancement medicine he was the most compatible with so that the tablet wouldn’t need to exert too much effort to optimize it!
Even if he obtained a set of advancement medicine from the institution, Shang Xia was afraid that he was going to have to refine a whole new set according to what the Crimson Soul Tablet came up with.
He could only hope that the institution would have enough resources and herbs for him to refine a brand new set.
“Let’s continue.” Shang Xia sighed.
“Continue? What are you talking about?” Zhang Haogu nearly dug his ears after hearing what Shang Xia said.
“Aren’t there still the incomplete ones?” Shang Xia chuckled.
Turning extremely serious, Zhang Haogu warned, “Hey, don’t mess around here. We actually know that those medicines are incomplete. We left it here in order to examine them and do some research. You can’t use them to advance… It’s too dangerous!”
Shang Xia extended another finger and laughed. “It’s not every day that I get to come in. It would be great if I tested all of them. After all, I wish to see how unlucky I can get!”
Grunting softly, Zhang Haogu burst into a bout of sudden laughter. “Alright. This old man expected as much. With your talent, you won’t use any advancement medicine with such low compatibility with yourself. Luckily, you’re still young and can afford to wait a few more years. If you can’t find anything now, you can look for one slowly. Since you want to test out the five incomplete sets, let’s do it!”
Shang Xia looked at the bottle Zhang Haogu raised and he joked, “Who knows? I might even be able to come up with a way to refine these medicines by coming up with my own formula in the future…”
Coughing twice, Zhang Haogu no longer bothered with whatever Shang Xia said.
The moment they started the testing process, Shang Xia’s luck seemed to take a turn for the better. When they tested the second of the five bottles, the light extended to 7.2 inches.
“This isn’t bad!” Zhang Haogu muttered before taking out another bottle. He knew that even though it seemed suitable, Shang Xia wouldn’t dream of using an incomplete medicine.
When they tested the fourth bottle, the light reached a whopping 7.9 inches. That was pretty rare. Other than Shang Bo, whose compatibility with the Multi Illusory Wine reached 8 inches, it was almost the highest Zhang Haogu had seen.
Shang Xia raised his eyebrows in shock. However, he managed to swallow whatever he wanted to say as he awaited the result from the last bottle.
If he had no other choice, he would wait for an Origin Tide to erupt in the battlefield between the two worlds so that he could absorb the world origin. With enough world origin to prevent the Crimson Soul Tablet from shattering, he would optimize and fix the incomplete medicine Zhang Haogu was holding.
Even though it might take a long time for him to find an erupting Origin Tide and his cultivation might stay stagnant for a long time, his fate might be better than those described by Zhang Haogu who had to wait for ten years to be allocated resources from the institution to break through.
Opening the last bottle, Zhang Haogu sighed before pricking Shang Xia’s finger again. The two of them didn’t really expect the last bottle to be that compatible with Shang Xia. After all, two of the five bottles already caused the light to cross the 7 inches mark. What were the odds of there being three bottles of incomplete medicine with high compatibility?
The light extended slowly up the needle. It crossed the 4 inches mark easily as it rose to the 7 inches mark. It didn’t stop there! To their surprise, it broke through the 8 inches mark and extended slowly up to the 8.6 inch mark!