Since Jiang Chen had already identified the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill, there was no need to expend so much effort on it. However, the decomposition process was still necessary.
What if the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill used substitute materials? If he wrote down the original ingredients but substitutes had been used, he could be marked wrong.
Jiang Chen decided it was best to decompose it first and then analyze each ingredient individually.
With the concept of the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill already established, the rest came easily. The extraction and analysis process was comparatively simpler now that he already had the answer in mind.
The results confirmed that the materials in the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill were genuine—no substitutes had been used.
It wasn't that Jiang Chen was being overly cautious; rather, the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill was a product of the Unorthodox Method. The Unorthodox Method was known for its unpredictable style, with an emphasis on strange and bizarre ingredient combinations, and Jiang Chen had to stay on guard.
After completing his analysis, Jiang Chen wrote down the results, listing all ten ingredients one by one.
This round turned out to be surprisingly simple.
"Heh, I didn't expect this round to give me such an easy edge. But I reckon quite a few people will stumble here. The ingredients used in the Unorthodox Method are the hardest to identify. I'd say there won't be few who fall at this hurdle."
Jiang Chen naturally didn't take any pleasure in that thought—instead, he felt a quiet worry for Mu Gaoqi and Ling Bi'er. If they could recognize the Unorthodox Method's style in this piece, things would be manageable.
But if they treated the Heavenly Heart Nirvana Pill as just an ordinary pill, then the analysis would become far more difficult.
Still, both Mu Gaoqi and Ling Bi'er were no ordinary alchemy prodigies. If something like this tripped them up, then they had no one to blame but themselves.
Besides, the Unorthodox Method was the same challenge for everyone.
Jiang Chen didn't dwell on it any further. After a brief rest, he moved on to the third round.
Having made such enormous gains in the second round, Jiang Chen could already confirm that he had effectively locked in the individual championship of the Illusory Wave Mountain Alchemy Competition's genius division ahead of schedule.
The third round featured over a hundred different ingredients laid out on display.
"This round really isn't just testing alchemy ability—it also tests creative thinking, the alchemist's eye, and their breadth of knowledge."
With so many materials, there were clearly more than one or two pills that could be crafted. Jiang Chen swept his gaze across them, and several pill names flashed through his mind.
But he rejected them all, one by one.
Those pills were all only Saint Grade mid-tier; he would need to produce perfect-quality pills to earn full marks, and Jiang Chen wasn't willing to take that risk.
That was because the materials provided could produce, at most, three pills. Out of three attempts, producing even one perfect-quality pill was no small feat.
Soon, Jiang Chen identified another combination—a Saint Grade high-tier pill. At Saint Grade high-tier, he only needed to produce a superior-quality pill to earn the full two hundred points.
Jiang Chen thought it over, examined the ingredient combination once more, and ultimately chose to pass.
"In theory, this Phoenix Cry Pill at Saint Grade tier eight wouldn't be difficult to produce in superior quality. However, the Phoenix Hatchling Grass in the formula is somewhat lacking in quality. If I attempted to refine it, there's a good chance something would go wrong."
Jiang Chen valued safety above all, and ultimately decided to give up on refining the Phoenix Cry Pill.
He gazed at the over one hundred types of Spiritual Medicine ingredients before him, showing no rush to begin.
He knew that since the organizers had set these rules, there had to be a way to combine them into a True Saint Grade pill.
A True Saint Grade pill—even if it came out at inferior quality—would earn a perfect score. In other words, as long as Jiang Chen could formulate a True Saint Grade pill and successfully refine it into an actual pill, regardless of its quality, he would receive full marks.
Pills were classified into tiers: Mortal Grade, Spirit Grade, Saint Grade, True Saint Grade, Earth Grade, and Heaven Grade.
Saint Grade pills were intended for cultivators at the Yuan Realm.
True Saint Grade pills, on the other hand, corresponded to the Saint Realm.
In other words, True Saint Grade pills were what ordinary Saint Realm powerhouses used.
Each tier was further divided into Low, Middle, and High stages.
Jiang Chen cycled through the ingredients in his mind over and over again.
He had completed the first and second rounds at breakneck speed, taking less than a day in total, so he had plenty of time to spend on this third round.
Every move he made, naturally, did not escape the eyes of those sect heavyweights.
Palace Master Dan Chi watched Jiang Chen charge through the first and second rounds like an unstoppable force, and his heart swelled with satisfaction.
Bringing this young man Jiang Chen to Dan Qian Palace and forging an alliance with the Treasure Tree Sect—at this very moment, it had been fully proven that this was nothing short of a brilliantly wise decision.
Having learned their lesson from the previous three competitions, Wei Wuying and the others had grown numb to Jiang Chen's feats. They knew that trying to judge him by conventional wisdom was simply no longer viable.