With a command, all the seals on the tray were opened. Ling Tian quickly picked up the shriveled and completely lifeless spiritual medicine in the tray and examined it carefully.
In just five breaths, Ling Tian already knew the secret. He put down the elixir and used his spiritual consciousness to imprint the answer into the special jade pendant.
He submitted his answer the fastest of all, which naturally attracted the attention of many people on the stage. Was he truly talented or just a facade? A lot of murmurs began to spread among the audience.
After submitting his answer, Ling Tian closed his eyes and waited for the result to be announced. This level was not difficult for him.
After a while, all the contestants had finished answering. The seven elders on the stage reviewed the answers one by one in a very fast manner. In just half a quarter of an hour, the answers of more than 20,000 contestants had been reviewed.
At this moment, a powerful divine consciousness swept across the competition venue, and the jade stone engraved with the answer actually emitted red and white light. Ling Tian looked at the jade hand in front of him that was emitting white light, looked at the current situation, and understood.
"Okay, first round of spiritual medicine identification. Contestants with white light pass, contestants with red light please leave."
"What? I failed? Impossible! How could my answer be wrong? It must be your misjudgment."
As soon as Yuan Xiao finished speaking, a contestant from the East Region shouted excitedly, which also aroused the emotions of many defeated contestants, making the scene a bit ugly.
"Are you questioning us?"
Yuan Xiao snorted coldly and then sucked the jade from the man. "Your answer is the Complex Flower, a thousand-year-old flower with detoxifying and blood-suppressing properties. It's the main ingredient in refining the Resurrection Pill and the Decaying Skin Pill. Am I wrong?"
"That's right."
"Very good, then tell me, what is inside the bones of a thousand-year-old complex flower?"
"Of course it's complex...seeds."
The man realized his mistake, his voice became smaller and smaller, cold sweat poured down, and he was extremely terrified.
"Hmph, since you know there are complex seeds, do you see any seeds inside this complex flower?"
"The most important thing for an alchemist is to be familiar with all kinds of spiritual medicines, especially the years. Pills made in different years can vary greatly. You are so careless. You are not worthy of being an alchemist."
As soon as Yuan Xiao finished speaking, the man felt a pain in his dantian, and immediately vomited blood and collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach and howling in pain, "My dantian, ah~~"
"I've already shown some mercy by not taking your life by dragging you on. Furthermore, our judgments are always fair and impartial. Anyone who dares to confuse right and wrong will be shown no mercy."
Jiang Ye, the leader of the East Region, had a gloomy face and said a few words to a disciple beside him. It seemed that the fate of the man just now was predictable, but no one cared. No one would pity such a thing.
"Alright, let's continue the competition. The next round will be a competition of soul strength and soul power utilization. There is no time limit, and you can only compete until you can no longer hold on."
As Yuan Xiao spoke, hundreds of staff members placed soul beads on the tables of the contestants who had passed the first round. The rules were simple: press your hand on the soul bead to release soul power. There was a finger-sized scale on the bead. As you released soul power, the soul bead would naturally record the height of the scale, thereby judging the strength of the contestant's soul. Furthermore, within the bead was a space. The contestant needed to concentrate a wisp of soul and enter it, constantly dodging the countless light points within. Once a certain number of light points hit them, they would be forced to exit the space, marking the end of the competition.
"The second game begins!"
As the referee announced the order, most of the contestants pressed their hands on the soul beads impatiently, and the entire venue was filled with dazzling lights of various colors.
Ling Tian took a few glances, retracted his gaze, and concentrated his mind by placing his hand on the soul bead. Under the influence of soul power, the scale slowly moved upwards. He watched the scale with the corner of his eyes. Seeing that it was about to reach the top, Ling Tian decisively stopped the supply of soul power, and the scale stopped at the value of nine.
Even so, Ling Tian's performance was quite eye-catching, and many viewers were talking about it.
"This year, the Northern Territory has produced several contestants with strong souls. It seems that the Western Territory is in danger this year."
"It's difficult. After all, we're already outnumbered. There's no chance of winning the final melee alone."
When the discussion above was quite heated, a dazzling light shot up into the sky, and even the seven elders in the referee's seat were moved by it.
"Yes, Fan Zhendong from the Eastern Region has reached five-star soul strength, almost approaching six-star. At his age, he can have such strength, which is even stronger than us back then. The future is promising, haha!"
“It’s really good!”
Yuan Xiao showed a hint of satisfaction. At this time, another ray of light shot up. This ray of light came from Fu Chenxi from the Southern Region. Before he could praise him, an even stronger ray of light shot up into the sky, with the momentum to crush everything.
"This is the soul strength that breaks through six stars!"
Yuan Xiao exclaimed in surprise, and so did the other old men. Six stars is a watershed in soul strength. This level of soul power is the standard for becoming a saint-level alchemist. Even for them, after thousands of years of practice, their soul strength has barely reached the level of seven stars. How can they not be happy?
"Okay, okay, hahaha!"
Three "good" words came out of their mouths in a row, which shows how satisfied these seven old men are.
Behind the referee's seat, the happiest person was Wu Minghong, because the contestant who made Yuan Xiao and the others so satisfied was Li Cuimei from their Northern Territory.
"Elder Wu, you gave us a big surprise without making any noise. It seems that our Western Region is at the bottom of the list this year."
The speaker was Liu Yujie, the leader of the Western Region. There was a hint of bitterness in his words, but he was open-minded and didn't take it too seriously, because he really didn't have much hope for this session. Instead, the leaders of the two Southeast Regions had gloomy faces. It was not that they were afraid that the Northern Region would shake their overall ranking this time, but if Li Cuimei took first place, the three days of Star Realm training might allow her future achievements to far surpass theirs.
There was no further discussion. All the players on the field had completed the first stage of the second game. Apart from the stunning performance of Li Cuimei and three others, there were no subsequent performances that caused excessive emotional fluctuations.
"Rest here for a quarter of an hour, adjust your state and prepare for the second stage of soul power utilization."
The contestants relaxed and almost all of them were meditating to conserve their energy. The audience in the venue became lively and left their seats to go to the back hall. Their purpose was of course to place bets, and Li Cuimei's stunning performance had already made her the super favorite in their minds.
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