Chapter 1134: Second Round

"Second round starts."

The moment the elder announced it, Firia hurriedly took out the Alchemist Furnace and threw the ingredients inside. Alex, on the other hand, started drawing an array for her.

Firia warmed the ingredients up before lifting them to the sky and releasing her fire to the air, hitting the array that Alex created earlier.

The array was none other than the Dragon Gate Refining Array, the array that Alex had used when refining the White Ash Pill back in Eulja.

Firia's fire turned from a carp to a full-fledged dragon that soared to the sky while refining the ingredients with its fire energy.

Alex saw this as a chance and isolated each ingredient with his Space Element like how he increased the temperature earlier.

There was one important step for Divine Bone Pill. It was to melt every single ingredient. To do it as quickly as possible, Alex's enclosed space could be utilized, so they could almost skip the entire process and fuse it within thirty minutes.

In this step, Alex had nothing to do other than maintaining the array, so he turned around to see other participants.

As expected, there was only one person who took his attention. It was none other than the guy who had been taunting him.

'Hmm. After this amount of insults he threw at me, I feel like this is not as simple as seen. He must have some confidence in dealing with me or someone is actually ordering him to do something like that. Unfortunately, I can't see the latter for the time being,' thought Alex while observing what Roy was doing.

It seemed he was normally refining like any other participants here, but it all changed when the woman came into the picture. Before using her as an array master, Roy suddenly choked the woman before ripping the woman's clothes, revealing its skin.

Surprisingly, underneath her clothes were many wounds that had yet to be healed. The female couldn't even say anything because Roy already cut the woman's belly with his nails, letting her bleed.

He then waved his hand, controlling the Spiritual Energy to lift the blood and fuse it with his ingredients. The blood became the catalyst to speed up the process of refining.

"!!!" Alex widened his eyes. Although he didn't know this woman, he indeed felt sympathy for the woman who was subjected to that kind of treatment. However, he had no intention of helping her and becoming the hero of justice.

'Firia. What is that woman called?' Alex asked, knowing that this woman was probably treated as an object instead of a person.

'Pill Slave. There are women and men in this universe that have a special physique that can enhance one's pill quality, including the refining speed. That woman is something like that.' Firia answered with a thought transmission.

'There are also men?'

'Yes. He probably used that woman to relieve him as well while torturing her with this kind of treatment. He only maintains that woman's life, so she can keep producing the special blood, albeit, for them, it's the torture they need to endure for the rest of their lives, considering they must have been subjected to not be able to commit suicide.'

'Hmm…' Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head. 'If I say I won't do anything, will you be disappointed?'

'No. I know you and your character. For us, she is nothing but a stranger. However, I still believe that ending the woman's life will make her feel better. It's a kind of relief for them. There are strong-willed ones, so you probably want to ask them first. You are going to make a move to that guy, right?'

'Yes. This is still a suspicion, but I feel like this one is a real deal. So, there might be a battle here. I will try to help you, but you should ready your Teleportation Array Plate if I can't help you.' Alex nodded.

'I understand. Anyway, these people are popular even among elders in this tower. Many don't condone such an act, but in their original worlds, it's something normal. Losing the right to use them is the same as losing their fire to refine pills. I'm sure you understand why they allow it, right?'

'Yep.' Alex nodded. 'Well, I may be called evil by other people, but by no means am I a monster. I still have standards.'

'Haha. I expected that line.' Firia chuckled before looking above her. 'It's going to be ready.'

'No. Hurry up.' Alex suddenly moved toward her and channeled his power inside her body again when he saw that Roy actually used more blood than he was supposed to, reaching the fusion stage at the same time as Firia.

However, the woman fell to the ground with a pale face. Her eyes were hollow and her consciousness was fuzzy. Without any feeling, Roy kicked her, so she didn't stay together with him while refining the pill.

Alex closed his eyes and wished the woman luck in her next life before focusing on his pill. 'This time, I don't feel like losing.'

'Understood.' Firia turned serious as she clapped her hand and channeled all her energy to refine the pill.

Meanwhile, Roy tried to taunt Alex again by saying, "Hahaha! I'm going to win this time. Shame to you, Spirit God."

Alex ignored him and raised his hand before releasing his fire to help Firia. "I'm going to help you directly."

Firia nodded.

Alex's Pure Fire gushed out of his body as every single person in this hall who had Fire Element in their body, including all participants, felt the suppression of Alex's flame.

"Pure Fire?!"

The elders dropped to the ground, kneeling in front of him. All participants failed to make their pills because of the suppression that took their flame away. Meanwhile, only one person could withstand this pressure. Yes, it was Roy.

Alex's expression turned cold as he said, "I'm sorry, everyone. I don't feel like losing today, so I'm going to be serious for a bit."

The fire enhanced Firia's flame even further as both Original Element and Sacrificial Element intertwined, creating a new synergy between them.

Seeing this, Roy suddenly panicked because he felt that Alex's Pure Fire could actually suppress his own Pure Fire. If not because of the mysterious fire in his body, he would be down on the floor like all others.

"Kh!" Roy gritted his teeth and decided to use the fire as well.

Unfortunately for him, he was too late because that shock earlier gave all the time Firia and Alex needed to complete their pill.

Firia grabbed that pill and showed it to the people as Alex sealed his Pure Fire again.

"This is a Divine Bone Pill. We win the second round." Firia announced, looking down on Roy.

Alex, on the other hand, cupped his hand politely to other people and the elders. "Once again, I would like to apologize for my rudeness. I did it because of a certain someone. And don't you think it's weird that you still feel the suppression even though I have put away my fire?"

Alex pushed all the blame to Roy and directed their attention to Roy's fire.

"!!!" Roy gritted his teeth as he never thought Alex pulled this kind of move.

All the people looked at Roy with anger in their eyes. The audience felt sad when the woman that Roy brought was treated like that. Although some elders used the same method, they didn't treat the women that badly, making a foul taste in their mouths.

At the same time, they hated Roy because of his continuous insults. In fact, if Alex killed Roy here, they would think nothing of it other than he deserved it.

After all, had they changed position with Alex, they would have killed him before the competition.

Even the fact that Alex forced them to fail was ignored and directed to Roy instead. After all, he would have done the same if he didn't win this round. In other words, Alex just did everything to protect himself.

Little did they know that their judgment was already polluted by Alex's calm actions this whole time. This was one of the traps he had set up the moment he wanted to expose Roy. Of course, he started becoming a schemer after getting the training from the Dungeon God's inheritance place.

Unfortunately, before anyone could say anything, Roy had already formed his pill, which also meant that he completed the task.

"I still complete my task. What do you want to say? I still qualify for the next round." Roy ignored their rage and continued being shameless.

Despite the hate he had this whole time, the elder, who announced everything until now, had no right to take Roy's right to advance to another stage.

"Because there are only two people competing for this spot, this third stage will also become the last test. The requirement will be refining the best pill you can. The time limit is a day."

When the elder announced it, the participants felt disappointed. If possible, they truly wanted to beat Roy right now because he was actually the one ruining everything.

Alex, on the other hand, smiled and turned around, looking at Firia. "What do you want to make? I will help you with my Pure Fire. Of course, I'm just your supporter today. You're still going to be the one refining the pill."

Firia smiled and gently nodded her head while saying, "I will be making High Rank 9 Pill, 100 Medicinal Pill."

"Oh?" Alex nodded. Just like the name implied, the pill would require one hundred purifying medicinal herbs, which could detoxify any kind of poison. If it were to be refined by a Pure Fire, the detoxifying effect would be amplified.

If this were a normal 100 Medicinal Pill, the price would be equal to three White Ash Pill. After all, this pill could cure every single poison. Much less the one that was created by Pure Fire. And when they recalled how Alex's suppression was actually stronger than Roy's Pure Fire, they realized that this would be a treasure.

Although Roy's mysterious fire could rival such a thing, they knew it was a different type of fire, so they thought the purity couldn't be compared to that of a Pure Fire. Hence, if Roy refined the same pill, which could be the hardest pill to ever make,  he would lose without a doubt.

In other words, this round was Alex's victory.

"Do you think you can beat me just like that? I will also make 100 Medicinal Pill. Your Pure Fire won't be able to beat my Phoenix Sun Fire. Unlike a normal Phoenix Fire, this fire has been refined by the Sun Essence. This is the greatest fire that you could ever meet because this fire comes from another universe! This is the purest form of fire because it comes from the Fire Disturbance!" Roy became desperate the moment he understood the situation.

Unfortunately for him, this was the exact thing Alex wanted him to do.

'I've got him.'