Rise of the Alchemy God

.

Ethan's days were relatively calm.

He continued his usual routine, with the intensity of his training with Bai Yu having increased.

He still hadn't fully mastered control over his current strength.

He was able to regulate his physical power during attacks, and he also had some control over his speed.

He had gradually improved his control over spiritual energy as well, and he was now able to levitate much heavier and larger objects.

He had tried riding a sword, and although balance itself wasn't an issue, he still needed to train to avoid expending more energy than necessary.

With his limited Qi reserves, he had to learn how to utilize every bit of Qi in his body efficiently, to avoid unnecessary energy loss.

During his sparring with Bai Yu, in his mind, he could adjust his strength to simulate a battle between someone at the peak of the second stage fighting against someone in the third stage of cultivation.

Of course, he couldn't perfectly regulate the strength since he hadn't yet reached the third stage and had no real idea of the power level, but with some help from Bai Yu, who guided him in this, he was able to achieve this outcome.

Bai Yu had already mentioned that while this practice helped,

it didn't necessarily mean he could fight someone at the third stage as effectively in the real world, as there were many variables to consider in a real battle.

He advised Ethan to use this training as a foundation and adjust it according to the situation during actual combat.

Normally, one would avoid such simulations, but Bai Yu, despite not being familiar with many human combat techniques, had proven to be highly skilled due to her vast intuition, honed through years of battle experience.

This, in turn, had helped Ethan improve his own combat techniques.

Besides this, Ethan continued refining pills.

For mid and high-grade pills, he used the system's lab, as these needed to be mass-produced and were of little personal use to him.

However, he personally refined the perfect-grade ones to avoid losing too much in terms of Qi and SP gains.

In what had been less than a week in the outside world, for Ethan, who had spent much time in the minor dimension, almost a year had passed.

It would have been longer if he had spent all his time in the dimension, but he refrained from doing so for various reasons.

That said, his gains during this year of training in the minor dimension had not been small.

His cultivation base had already reached the peak of the second stage, and just like before, the system had offered him an SP exchange to move on to the next stage.

The total SP he had to pay this time was 1,000, in other words, 10 times more than the previous time.

For his current self, this amount was manageable, so he didn't think much of it and advanced to the next stage.

The more Ethan interacted with the system, the more he noticed that for various improvements, whether recipes,

the Qi required for each level, or in this case, the ability to advance to the next stage, everything seemed to increase by a factor of 10.

Ethan wasn't sure why this was the case, but by this logic, to upgrade his alchemy skills again, he would need to fork out 50,000 SP, which was an unreachable number for him at this point.

The same applied to his Qi level.

.

[------------------------------

Name: Ethan

Cultivation: Dantian Expansion (Level 1)

Qi: 465/20000

Physique: Heavenly Body of the Sacred Flames

Strength: 246

Agility: 231

Intelligence: 207

Soul Strength: 150

[Shop]

[Storage]

[System Points]: 5130

------------------------------]

.

"..."

Ethan almost had a heart attack at the sight of how much Qi was required for the next levels of this stage.

He had already noticed that his progress had slowed recently, and it wasn't due to a problem with cultivation or the amount of Qi he was gaining from refining pills.

Instead, it was the ever-increasing amount of Qi needed for each level.

It had taken him an entire month of hard work to gather enough Qi to reach 10,000, which was required to hit the 10th level of the second stage of cultivation.

Now, just thinking about the fact that each level would require 10,000 more Qi terrified him.

He was finally starting to understand why, the further cultivators advanced, the more time they spent in secluded cultivation.

At least half of the sect's elders were in secluded cultivation and would only come out if their presence was absolutely necessary.

The only silver lining in all this was that after several months, he had finally managed to save up 5,000 SP.

If it were up to him, he would have earned them much faster, as long as he had enough materials. He could have used the system's lab to do so.

But after considering how much Qi and SP he would lose in the process, he decided against it.

He wasn't in any rush, so he decided to take his time.

After all, while it felt like nearly a year for him, in the outside world, barely a week had passed.

There was no point in speeding things up.

He was already improving in almost every aspect at a rate several times faster than the rest of the sect's disciples.

Acting recklessly would only get him into trouble, especially since he still did not have the ability to completely hide his abilities from beings, such as the sect master.

She wasn't an enemy, and although he hadn't interacted with her since their last encounter, he could at least tell she wouldn't force him to reveal his secrets.

At least not for now.

He had no idea how she would react if she saw that in just one week, he was already in the third stage of cultivation.

Ethan wasted no time and opened the shop interface, heading to the skills section.

Although he wasn't in a rush and was already doing a good job, after consulting with Da Shu about the sales of his pills, he found out that while there were no major obstacles for now, the other royal families wouldn't let him monopolize the Level 1 pill market so easily.

At the moment, he didn't have the strength or reputation to counter their forces, but once he increased the grade of the pills he sold, the situation would shift somewhat.

Especially since Da Shu had suggested a way to boost his reputation as an alchemist.

It involved participating in the selection for the Imperial Alchemy Tournament and successfully competing in it.

With his skills, he shouldn't have any trouble placing in the top 15, if not the top 10.

Da Shu had confirmed this after seeing how effortlessly Ethan produced high-quality pills without any apparent issues during the refining process.

He had no idea how Ethan managed it, but he had never tried to investigate further.

Instead of participating in the beginner's category, Ethan decided to compete in the expert category.

At first, he was hesitant to join, mainly because it would require him to reveal his identity, something he wanted to avoid for the moment.

But after learning that alchemists weren't required to disclose their identities, and that only their skills mattered in the competition, he finally decided to take part.

Ethan wondered how they would determine a person's alchemy level and age without revealing their identity, but Da Shu told him that the organizers had tools to verify things like age and skill level.

Da Shu mentioned that having an alchemist association badge would be enough to prove his abilities, and based on the competition's entry requirements, a two-star silver badge should be enough.

Ethan had initially thought that even master alchemists might participate, but finding a master alchemist under 100 years old was almost impossible, and none of them would bother joining a competition like this.

At their level, there was no need.

The mere fact that they were master alchemists was enough to make them famous, and this competition, which was primarily a platform for younger alchemists to make a name for themselves, held no value for them.

However, many of them would at least attend the competition or go there to scout for someone skilled enough to take under their wing.

This was one of the many advantages of the competition and also the reason why so many wanted to participate.

They knew that as long as they performed well, they would at least gain popularity for their brand, which meant more customers.

Many great families also used this competition to promote their alchemists or recruit the best ones.

That's why Da Shu suggested Ethan participate, knowing it would be a significant boost to his reputation and brand as an alchemist, putting them in a stronger position, making it harder for other business families to attack.

There were two weeks left until the selection began, and Ethan had already registered thanks to Da Shu's help.

Now, he just had to wait for those two weeks and secure a spot in the competition, which would be held in the capital of the Long Empire.