202 Competition 5 (1/2)
The foundational questions were then followed by questions concerning low-ranked grade 1 pill. This would then be followed by refining the pills before increasing the rank or grade. This pattern would be used throughout the competition.
It was easier and more efficient to first weed out those who didn't even have the theoretical knowledge before letting them refine the pills.
Simulating pill refining cost much more than just asking some questions. And since the formation would consume massive amounts of energy it was much cheaper to reduce the simulation of pills to the minimum.
With the theoretical knowledge drilled into his brain by his master, Ivan didn't have any problem answering the questions concerning grade 1 pills.
Questions such as, what ingredients the Lesser Healing Pill required or which step during refining was especially important for the Lesser Bloodreplenishing Pill. Even more difficult questions such as the possible side effects of the Lesser Absorption Pill were answered effortlessly by him.
Following this section was the practical part. Something where his method was highly different from those other participants.
Just about every participant was a cultivator with the cultivation of Foundation Building or above. This level of cultivation was required for them to use their Qi outside by infusing it into a pill furnace. With lower cultivation, it was impossible to exert one's Qi outside of the body, making pill refining for them impossible.
But Ivan and all the other low cultivation pill refiners from his home realm worked differently. They didn't use Qi for pill refining but instead used the mana produced by their mana source.
Both forms of energy were capable of controlling the medical ingredients and refining them. They also could facilitate the pill condensing and providing the necessary energy to make it a success. In the end, they were both energy and that was what the process of pill refining required.
But while both could be used, technically it was better to use mana. In the end, it was something generated by oneself and thus provided a much better capability of control, while Qi was, in the end, something that had been absorbed from the outside before it had been made into something under control.
Of course, it was also much easier to increase Qi which meant that mana would become exceedingly unimportant the higher the cultivation. Especially since with higher cultivation, there generally was also an increase in the ability to finely control Qi.
But during the early stages, using mana provided a huge advantage to Ivan over the other normal cultivators. Using his finely controlled mana together with the technique taught by his master, allowed him to speedily refine the grade 1 pills.
The points from the practical section of the competition were calculated according to the purity of the pill as well as the speed at which it had been refined. This allowed Ivan to collect a lot of points during this section since he was able to refine faster and more precise than his counterparts.
It was only when it came to refining pills of the second grade when he started to have trouble. The theoretical part was still easy but the practical refining part brought him to his limit. He just didn't have enough mana.
Between refining, the formation would simulate a refill of all kinds of energy, allowing the participant to start the refining at the best possible state. This was done to ensure fairness. But something that couldn't be done was to keep this status during pill refining. It would have messed up the process of refining too much.
And this meant that the energy could run out during the process of refining a pill
Now with the second-grade pills, this flaw was shown with Ivan. He just didn't have enough mana to finish the forming of the pill. During the forming stage, a pill would absorb a large amount of energy in order to stabilize its structure. Even a slight imbalance of energy could completely mess up the structure, leading to failure.
By finely controlling his mana and applying it in the most optimal way, Ivan was capable of reducing wastage during this process but if the minimal energy required for the pill to form was above that he had available, then even without wasting anything, he would still be unable to finish the formation of the pill.