Krune looked at the medicinal liquid in the cauldron that was ready to become a pill. All he needed to do was to take the last step.
'Should I try it? But if I fail, I won't be able to achieve the condition that Senior Palo requested. Still, I really think it might work.'
The idea that Krune came up was to use the Extreme Infusion technique that he learned with his Purple Fire. In addition, he would use his Burning Law too. He knows that the Burning Law alone is already enough to make the normal spiritual fire to become fierce. But that is also because his control over it isn't good enough.
'Oh well, if I can't join the Headquarters, I can still take regular jobs. It's not like they pay much lower than them anyway. The only problem is that because of my poor control with the Burning Law, I took way too long to finish everything. The twelve hours are almost up already too. Anyway, let's start!'
Krune then gave up forming the pill and immediately changed the form of his Spiritual Fire. Its color suddenly changed to purple, which puzzled everyone looking at him.
Palo, of course, was one of those watching at the moment.
'Purple? What is that? I've never seen an alchemist using a purple spiritual fire.'
He then checked it with his Divine Sense and got even more puzzled.
'Weird, I can feel a power similar to the Tribulation Lightning, but why is it purple? Anyhow, let's see what he is planning.'
Krune ignored everything happening around him and started to use the Burning Law as well. Immediately after, the already hard to control Tribulation Fire became even more fierce.
'But this is okay. I just need to hold for a single minute, and that will be enough.'
Krune had already finished the entire process of creating the Medicinal Liquid for his pill, so there wasn't really anything else to be done anymore. Using his purple fire to increase the level of the pill was just a last-second method. Of course, it is a very risky one since he is also using the extreme infusion technique, which is hard to control as well. One minute was simply Krune's limit.
The effect of the Law of Burning immediately started to take place in the medicinal liquid, and the Extreme Infusion Technique added more and more energy to the composition.
'I'm using High-Level Herbs and Minerals, so it should be fine.'
10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds...
Krune' cauldron started to tremble, but Krune couldn't care less about that, he only paid attention to the medicinal liquid inside.
40 seconds, 50 seconds...
Krune was already feeling the burden of controlling the purple fire, extreme infusion, and Burning Law. Beads of sweat streamed from his whole body. It was evident how hard it was to control all three at the same time, even for him.
60 seconds!
'That's it!'
Krune was about to let out a sigh of relief when suddenly, the energies inside the medicinal liquid started to fall into chaos. Krune looked at that, and his face immediately went pale!
'Wait, wait, wait! Aren't those High Level materials? Why is it losing control? No, no, no!'
Unfortunately, the cauldron and medicinal liquid didn't listen to his thoughts.
Noticing that he would fail the pill creation, Krune greeted his teeth and threw caution to the wind!
"To hell with it! I will form this damned pill even if I have to lose everything!"
Krune didn't notice that he had shouted instead of think, but he couldn't care less either even if he did.
Knowing that there was almost no time remaining, he immediately started to gather the medicinal liquid and form the pills. In fact, with the amount present, he would be able to make three of them.
"Gather, gather, gather! Faster, faster!"
The fact that there was so much energy inside the cauldron ended playing a big role in the pills formation. Krune used that same energy to further compress the medicinal pills. Finally, the Cultivation Stabilizing Pills were formed.
"Success!"
Or so he thought.
It's not because the pills were formed that the chaotic energy inside disappeared. Especially after it had been fueled by both Krune's purple fire and Burning Law.
Just as Krune was about to take the pill, the cauldron lost control, and the energy inside rushed out! He only had the time to grab one of the pills before the energy in the cauldron sent him flying! The remaining two pills ended up becoming part of the fuel for all that energy.
Palo and the other examiners looked at that, and their faces went pale too.
"Not good!"
He and the other elders immediately rushed over to help.
Still, it was too late!
BOOM!
Palo and the other elders then took a formation around the explosion. They used their spiritual energy to create a barrier to contain the blast. Due to the difference in cultivation between Krune and the elders, they were more than enough to contain the explosion and prevent it from spreading.
Still, Kaio and a few more alchemists around Krune's workstation were caught in the situation anyway. Palo also covered them with his Spiritual Energy so that they wouldn't be hurt by it.
When everything was over, the 50 or so workstations around Krune's one were reduced to crumbles.
Palo and the other elders then retracted their Spiritual Energy. They took a look at the apocalypse view in front of them and felt like crying. Such a situation happened right in front of everyone, not to mention those watching it through the internet. Palo knew that he would be in for a scolding from the higher-ups later.
Slowly, Kaio and the other alchemists started to walk away from the wreckage. Although Palo covered them with his Spiritual Energy, it was just to protect against the Spiritual Energy Blast. It didn't prevent them from hitting a few walls or kicking on the ground here and there. They didn't have any serious injury, it was all nothing more than a few bruises. Still, they looked quite miserable.
Finally, some of the pieces of walls started to move in the area around the center of the explosion. From below it, Krune, or better, Jolk, began to dig his way out. When he looked around, he couldn't help but think.
'Just why this kind of thing keeps happening to me? I must have destroyed an entire Universe in my previous life, that must be it!'
Jolk started to make his way to Palo's direction while everyone looked at him. It was evident that they noticed that the explosion originated from his workstation.
'Sigh... whatever. At least I'm still with a different appearance and name, so everything should be fine. I just need to think about an excuse.'
After Krune arrived in front of Palo, he could see that he had quite an ugly expression.
"Cough, cough. I think someone sent me poor quality materials. Because of that, they couldn't hold the energy inside and ended up exploding."
Palo's expression got even worse after hearing that.
"Ohhh... All the herbs sent to the participants are previously checked by me through Divine Sense. So you are saying that I made a mistake and that ALL the herbs sent to you were of poor quality, is it? Not only one or two, but every single one necessary to create your pill, right?"
Krune immediately started to sweat.
"Errr... you know, maybe I used just a little bit too much energy. Yes, that must have been it. There is no way that Senior Palo would ever make a mistake."
Palo's mouth twitched after seeing how easily Krune changed his own words.
'Is there another wisp in this Universe more shameless than him?'
Palo sighed and tried to think on the positive side.
"Anyway. Because the competition was almost over, all the alchemists affected by your explosion had already delivered their pills before this event. The explosion will not affect their results anymore."
He then looked at Krune and said.
"Unfortunately, it seems like you won't be able to deliver a pill anymore, so this is the end of the Alchemist Competition for you."
Krune smiled after hearing that.
"Oh, it's okay. Just as the cauldron was about to explode, I was able to save one of the pills."
Krune then handed over a bottle with a pill inside.
"There you go. I'm sure I won't let the Alchemist Organization down with this pill."
Krune said that while showing a proud face.
But Palo felt like giving Krune a beating instead.
'Is there a better way to let the Organization down than blasting over 50 workstations in front of everyone? You are saying that on purpose, right? Right?!'
Of course, Palo had more pressing matters at the moment other than scold Krune's shamelessness.
He told the other examiners to take care of the place and returned to the stage.
"Cough, cough. Although a small accident happened, all the alchemists involved are fine and had already delivered their works. The end results will not be affected, so we will now start analyzing the pills."