The dead Void Maw Swallowing Whale, after swallowing everyone, was still floating upwards.
So when the Players rushed out of the giant beast's belly, they were already not far from the water surface.
Under Cui Dingtian's rapid swimming, everyone was quickly dragged out of the water.
"Splash--"
"Wow!"
"Huff huff!"
"We're saved..."
The moment everyone surfaced from the water, Lao Tou immediately retracted his skin, coughing violently as he began to sink towards the bottom.
Zhao Qian was quick-witted and grabbed him.
"Old Cui!"
Su Yida quickly struggled free, afraid of sinking down with Lao Tou again.
Tao Yi frowned slightly upon seeing this, reaching out to guide a piece of driftwood over and placing it under Cui Dingtian's armpits.
Cheng Shi didn't pay attention to this; what concerned him most at the moment was that the torrential rain and giant waves, which had been so imposing just a few hours ago, were now nowhere to be seen.
As far as the eye could see, it was a vast expanse of ocean, with nothing but various floating objects and countless corpses of unknown creatures; there was no longer any trace of dangerous natural disaster.
He looked around in surprise, asking in disbelief:
"It's over?"
No one could answer this question.
Gao Yu also pulled over a log, placed it across his chest, and let out a heavy sigh.
"Good, it seems I still have a chance to celebrate my 18th birthday."
Tao Yi, looking miserable, gave a bitter smile and submerged her body below her neck in the water.
At this point, nearly 20 hours had passed since the Trial began.
The sun hung in the distance, radiating light and heat, scorching the sea surface and causing their skin to sting.
It took everyone half a day of gasping for air after surfacing to confirm that all of this was not an illusion.
The disaster was truly over.
Even if only temporarily.
"Cheng Shi, save him, Old Cui is not doing well!"
Zhao Qian pushed a piece of driftwood closer, his face anxious.
Cheng Shi frowned, feeling increasingly that Zhao Qian's attitude towards Cui Dingtian was a bit strange.
He did care about Lao Tou, but aside from lending a hand when convenient, he didn't provide extra support during other dangerous moments.
Could it be...
Forget it, don't think about that for now. Regardless, it was Old Cui's merit that they managed to escape Death.
Cheng Shi quickly swam towards the old man.
The moment his hand grasped Cui Dingtian's wrist, he found that the old man's condition was truly terrible.
His heart wasn't beating violently after exertion; instead, it was beating slower and slower, as if he was truly about to turn into a Mummy.
Was this a side effect of him unleashing his divinity?
Or the price of his talent?
It was far too severe.
In this situation, ordinary healing spells could only delay his Death, not save his life.
Old Prosperity might have been useful, but the portable space was locked, so this medicine was nowhere to be found.
Wait!
It wasn't nowhere to be found!
"Gao Yu!"
Cheng Shi tightly held Cui Dingtian's hand and shouted towards Gao Yu:
"I need a medicine furnace! It must be at least 15 centimeters, with a grinding wheel, mixing device, and pressurizer, and it must be fire-resistant and high-temperature resistant!"
Gao Yu was startled for a moment, then quickly nodded.
His toolkit had already been completely torn apart by the Void inside the giant beast's belly, but the tools and materials inside were not lost.
Because he had stuffed them all into his abdominal cavity!
He was using the erosion of flesh and blood to prolong the Time the tools would dissipate!
These tools were his only reliance at hand; once lost, the path of the Trial would be impossible to traverse.
So, besides this clumsy method, there was no other way.
He saw him frowning tightly, biting his teeth, and using a sharp wooden branch to cut open his newly healed belly, then taking out things and quickly hammering them.
The specifications of medicine furnaces on Hope Continent were largely similar, differing only in material and additional devices inside the furnace.
Cheng Shi's requirements were clear and specific, and there were just enough materials to forge a palm-sized furnace, so Gao Yu quickly hammered it out.
The moment Cheng Shi received the medicine furnace, a strange light flashed in his eyes, like "I'm going to gamble big this Time."
Everyone saw the look in his eyes and knew that the current Cheng Shi was very crazy, but also very uncertain.
As for what he was uncertain about...
Perhaps it was the matter of refining medicine on the spot?
"You can refine medicine?"
Su Yida was a bit bewildered.
Gao Yu listened to this and curled his Mouth.
If Su Yida had overheard the entire conversation back then, he would have known that what Cheng Shi was most interested in was alchemical creations, and this school of thought wasn't just about puppets; strange and dangerous medicines were also their tireless pursuit.
Cheng Shi looked nervous and did not respond to him.
"Cui Dingtian's condition is very bad. Originally, the divinity of decay should be circulating within him, but as you can see, this divinity is being suppressed by some other force.
If we let him continue like this, at most by tonight, he will truly turn into a Mummy.
My healing talent is limited and cannot reverse his condition.
But!
I still have one method I can try!
That is refining medicine!"
Under everyone's astonished gaze, Cheng Shi opened the medicine furnace.
"Everyone should have heard of Old Prosperity, an A-Level potion that combines the divinity of Memory and prosperity.
When I was learning to refine medicine, I simulated its medicinal properties and refined a potion with a very similar effect."
"You can refine A-Level potions???" Su Yida exclaimed in disbelief, then immediately questioned, "But there's no divinity here?"
Cheng Shi ignored his remark again.
"I named it 'Shuhui Reversal'. Drinking this potion allows one to cast aside all pain and immediately restore the body to its peak state!"
"But?" Zhao Qian seemed to guess something, frowning as he continued.
"Yes, but...
The potion has very strong side effects.
The injured person will fall back into illness five days later, and the speed of approaching Death will be greatly accelerated!
In other words, this is a potion that overdraws life force. You can understand it as five days of final radiance."
After Cheng Shi finished speaking, he turned to look at Cui Dingtian.
"Old Cui, I know you are looking for your son, but if you survive, there might still be hope, but once you die here..."
Cui Dingtian's blurred consciousness was desperately resisting the arrival of Death. His hand suddenly grasped Cheng Shi's in return and squeezed hard.
Understood.
Without another word, Cheng Shi tore off a piece of flesh from his arm and put it in.
This action startled everyone.
"Refining medicine with flesh and blood?" Gao Yu was stunned.
"Otherwise? Flesh and blood are the best materials for medicinal properties, and my flesh and blood contain healing power.
However, my flesh and blood alone might not be enough. Even though this potion doesn't require divinity, it still carries the power of prosperity and Memory..."
Without needing to finish speaking, everyone's gaze followed Cheng Shi and turned towards Tao Yi and Su Yida.
Tao Yi's eyes widened in shock, but she quickly nodded resolutely.
Enduring the sharp pain, she used her branches to scrape off a piece of skin and flesh from her arm and sent it into the medicine furnace.
After doing all this, she seemed to fear that the power of prosperity was insufficient, so she again used her branches to prepare to scrape off the skin and flesh from her other hand as well.
Fairly speaking, Old Cui's current state was entirely due to saving everyone.
In Miss Tao's view, whether considering future team assistance or out of gratitude, if he could be saved, he must be saved.
What's more, this little pain of skin and flesh was just a drizzle compared to what they experienced underwater before.
Her thoughts were simple, but Cheng Shi stopped her in Time.
"Refining medicine is about controlling quantity and proportion. Some things are not better the more you have!"
After speaking, he pushed the medicine furnace in front of Su Yida.
Su Yida's face was cloudy and uncertain.
To be honest, he himself had no resistance to saving Cui Dingtian and was very willing to help.
Because whether it was Cui Dingtian's strength or his character, he was the best teammate worth relying on.
But the problem was, he wasn't a true believer of Memory!
Seeing Cheng Shi speak so convincingly, he had no doubt that this Priest could refine this potion.
But he was afraid that if the refining failed, his identity might be exposed.
Exposing his identity wasn't actually a serious consequence; the most serious thing was that because of this, the entire Trial team was very likely to lose three combatants directly.
Cui Dingtian, himself, and... Tao Yi!
This was almost a complete disaster!
Since Su Yida had such concerns, would Cheng Shi not have thought of it?
He wouldn't!
He had calculated everything long ago.
Because He was also deceiving!
To be honest, before getting Ados's alchemy notes, He didn't even know what a medicine furnace looked like.
His medicines were refined out of thin air.
But not today.
The sealed portable space made Him lose the environment where He could just make things up.
So, to succeed, He had to put on a play!
His mind was working frantically, almost emptying all His knowledge of refining medicine, and then doing His utmost to add details and describe the effects, all to make the act of refining medicine more believable.
If it weren't for Tao Yi and Su Yida, perhaps things wouldn't have gone so smoothly.
But Fate was precisely clever here:
The team happened to have a believer of prosperity, and a believer of Memory.
Even if the essence of this believer of Memory was Fraud.
But it didn't matter!
Let's recall the ability of the talent Offering to Nothingness again: when five outsiders, excluding oneself, acknowledge the Existence of a fabricated item, the item exists.
Undoubtedly, at this moment, everyone present believed that Cheng Shi could refine this potion.
Then, except for Cheng Shi, the other four people believed that Su Yida was a Mage of Memory and believed that He possessed the power of Memory.
Only Su Yida himself had some doubts about whether his flesh and blood could successfully refine medicine.
So the biggest gamble in this situation was not someone else, but Su Yida himself.
What Cheng Shi was gambling on was that Su Yida could convince himself, convince his own Heart to admit that He indeed possessed the power of Memory, and therefore the refining of medicine would not fail.
In this situation, Cheng Shi wasn't simply deceiving Su Yida.
He was waiting for Su Yida to deceive himself!
As expected, countless thoughts flashed through Su Yida's mind in that instant, and finally, a reasonable yet absurd conclusion was born:
That is, although His power of Memory was obtained through Fraud, in the eyes of others, it was still the power of Memory.
Therefore, according to His will, the act of refining medicine should not fail.
Hesitation quickly flickered in His eyes. Su Yida hardened His Heart, tore off the flesh from His arm, and threw it into the furnace.
It's done!
The moment Su Yida made His move, Cheng Shi knew it was done!
To hell with five days of final radiance!
As long as they survived for three days, survived the Trial, there would be plenty of opportunities to save His life later.
If they didn't even last three days and everyone died, then there would be nothing else to discuss.
Cheng Shi excitedly closed the medicine furnace and looked at Zhao Qian with a crazy smile.
"I need fire!"