Chapter 87: Sabotage

William finished up in the Great Hall and took a trip to Wild Clover for a quick meal before heading home for some rest.

-Potential Farm: +3 PP

He woke up early in the morning to see that the Potential Farm had already yielded results. It seemed that the Potential Farm would give him points at the same time each day.

3 Potential Points per day? So I will make back my investment in just over a month...

William found this to be a pretty good deal, especially since Cultivators tended to spend a long time in secluded Cultivation. This would at least ensure that William was always earning Potential Points and wouldn't always have to go out and cull the local Magical Beast population when he was running low.

That being said, William didn't plan to upgrade the Potential Farm anytime soon. He walked to the Alchemy Hall like the previous few days and prepared for the final day of the Alchemy Competition.

Yuming was waiting for him. "Are you ready to lose to me today?" he teased.

"In your dreams!" William walked inside together with Yuming and took his usual seat on the stage.

Yuming gave him an apologetic look, "Sorry Will, I'm going to sit far away. Who knows what kind of Tribulation you will summon this time? I at least want to score in the top three!"

William nodded in understanding. He wasn't going to give up on the first-place rewards, so he was more than prepared to do exactly what Yuming and the others feared. He cracked his knuckles and brought out the cauldron that Yuming had let him keep after yesterday's competition.

Most of the other competitors were present already, even though the stage was only around half full. There would only be fifty Alchemists on the stage today, who previously placed in the top 10 of their respective group.

Elder Arthur stood up as soon as the last Inner Core Disciple took his seat. "You've all done well to make it this far. Today marks the final day of the Annual Alchemy Competition, so be sure to do your best to win the grand prize of a Gold-Ranked Fire Root!"

Elder Arthur's words made the Alchemists cheer. This was the most generous Alchemy Competition in the last dozen years or so. They eagerly listened to Elder Arthur's next set of instructions.

While William was stirring, though, he noticed that the difficulty of stirring the cauldron was increasing. This wasn't listed in the recipe; this was something else.

He inspected the cauldron while trying to maintain his speed, but couldn't find any problems. The stirring became more and more difficult until it felt as if William was trying to stir a thick molasses. He performed a simple inspection on himself using Life Sense, and that's when William noticed that there was a thick black tar inside his joints that would normally be impossible to detect.

He panicked and almost lost control of his cauldron. Elder Tianshen noticed something was wrong but didn't interfere since William was in the process of refinement.

William's arms became more and more useless until he could barely move them. I have to do something!

His mind spun as he desperately tried to resolve his current situation. He could call for help, but the pill ingredients would be lost before anyone could assist him.

He thought of a solution.

William forced a slow hand movement and called some Mana to his fingers, creating a strand of Wind Element Mana on each fingertip. He controlled the Mana to take hold of the cauldron's ladle and physically let go, allowing the Wind Element Mana to do all the work.

-Developed a complex new spell: +5 Potential Points

-New Spell: Wind Grasp

Success! William was able to stabilize the ingredients with Wind Magic, but the Mana expenditure wasn't small.

"Elder Tianshen!" he called out with a slight sense of urgency.

The Elder rushed over, noticing something was wrong with the talented young man, his arms hanging limply by his side while Mana of the Wind Element stirred the cauldron for him. It was obvious that William wasn't doing this to show off. "What is it?"

"I can't move my arms. I think someone did something to me!"