The glow of the rosy clouds that fell upon this seal truly brought joy to some and sorrow to others.
Of the nine contestants participating in this competition besides Shi Xuan, the seven from the Lianfeng Sword Sect had already been frightened by Shi Xuan many times. Whether it was his superb alchemy skills or the terrifying lethality of his pills, they had become numb from being frightened three times a day.
So, despite the great commotion, these people were quite surprised, but thanks to Shi Xuan's long-term training, they were able to continue their work without any problems. In addition, the pills they were refining were the most familiar and simple first-tier pills, so the impact on them was negligible.
Then the Divine Cauldron Sect was not so lucky, especially Fan Mingzhu.
Last time, Shi Xuan was only the first to complete his elixir, and she was almost affected. This time, the radiant glow was so dazzling that it seemed to dazzle her very soul, and Fan Mingzhu's mind was immediately thrown into disarray...
Fan Mingzhu didn't believe that Shi Xuan was just a vessel to provide her with spiritual roots. After exchanging spiritual roots with her, he became a useless five-elemental-root waste. With such a level of aptitude, he probably wouldn't even be able to enter the outer sect during the Divine Cauldron Sect's disciple recruitment examination.
But why, why did Shi Xuan achieve all the top-grade pills and Dao seals that she herself couldn't? Could it be that spiritual roots are really something dispensable to her?
Shouldn't a normal person be devastated after such a severe blow? Damn it! How can she be so resilient, seemingly completely unaffected? Fan Mingzhu felt incredibly resentful!
Her chaotic thoughts caused her to drift off for a moment. However, the refining of second-tier pills, which was already somewhat challenging for her, allowed no room for carelessness. A momentary lapse in concentration disrupted her rhythm of alchemy.
Fan Mingzhu was powerless to salvage the beauty pill that was on the verge of collapse, and could only watch helplessly as it turned to ashes before her eyes.
In that instant, under the dazzling light of Shi Xuan, her pitch-black pill looked so dim. She and Shi Xuan were worlds apart; she should have been the cloud and Shi Xuan the mud. But now, that radiant light seemed to mock her: You are the mud!
Fan Mingzhu almost burst into tears, but she forced them back.
No, she's the kind of person who should be a winner in life. She has a father who is the sect leader of the Divine Cauldron Sect, and she also has a rare Heavenly Grade Fire Spirit Root in the cultivation world. Her cultivation is advancing by leaps and bounds, and no one in the sect can be more outstanding than her. She is not that "mud"!
Thinking of this, she shook her head vigorously. She still had time; she absolutely had to refine this beauty-enhancing pill!
Although Shi Xuan had already collected the pills, the time limit for this round was three hours, from morning to afternoon, which was extremely generous.
Shi Xuan produced the pill in less than an hour; she was too fast, not because the time was up.
Fan Mingzhu carefully selected and processed the materials again, calming herself down to repeat the previous steps. Although this beauty-enhancing pill was only a second-level pill, it was quite a stretch for her, who was at the eighth level of Qi Refining. However, her father had given her hands-on guidance on the beauty-enhancing pill before the competition, and she had practiced extensively, achieving a success rate of 70%.
As she restarted, the seven-person team from the Lianfeng Sword Sect also completed the pill-collecting technique, and seven sets of pills jumped out at the same time, neatly collected into the porcelain bottle.
A little while later, Gu Zhusheng's Foundation Establishment Pill was also completed. He cast a complex pill-collecting incantation and successfully stored the round pill in the bottle. Although Shi Xuan's Dao Seal had also affected him, with his ninth-level Foundation Establishment cultivation and rich experience in alchemy, he was ultimately able to stabilize it.
Only Fan Mingzhu was left, and the pressure on her became exceptionally great. Of the ten people in the entire arena, she was the only one who had not yet achieved the elixir.
Despite constantly reminding myself not to rush, I couldn't help feeling anxious in front of everyone.
Time passed while waiting for Fan Mingzhu, and eventually she succeeded in making the pill, but the smell emanating from the pill seemed a little off.
The disciple in charge of the Fuyuan Sect placed ten bottles of marked pills on the judges' long table.
Without a doubt, everyone chose to open Shi Xuan's bottle of pills first. It was a pill with a Dao seal, a pill recognized by the Heavenly Dao, so naturally everyone wanted to see it first.
As the representative of the Lianfeng Sword Sect, Shu Yuanguan naturally opened the porcelain bottle and poured out a Rejuvenating Pill bearing a Dao seal. The pill's surface wasn't the usual lustrous white; instead, it was imprinted with a layer of shimmering, iridescent markings. Although it appeared white at first glance, under the refraction of sunlight, it displayed a breathtakingly beautiful, multicolored glow!
The several alchemists could not contain their excitement. They had only ever heard of the Dao Seal in various sects, but had never actually witnessed it. Such scenes were only recorded in the sect's history books, but had not appeared for many years.
It is said that the Daoist tradition is declining and the disciples of the cultivation world are not as good as the previous generation. The Dao Seal has not appeared for hundreds of years, but now it has appeared. This may be proof that the cultivation world is about to revive!
The group stared at the shimmering elixir for a long time before reluctantly putting it back.
"The younger generation is truly formidable!" Elder Yu said. "Let's give the first place to the Spirit Recovery Pill that produced the Radiant Light Dao Seal. Does anyone have any objections?"
The other judges readily agreed; the moment the rosy dawn appeared, the winner of this competition was already decided, and there was no need for scoring.
Although Fan Hongde was unwilling to relinquish the crown he had held for many years, the magnificent sight of the rosy clouds left him speechless, and he had no choice but to grit his teeth and accept it.
Next, the judges looked at the seven porcelain vases neatly arranged in front of them and felt a bit of a headache.
Right under their noses, these people, with the same rhythm and movements, formed pills almost simultaneously. It was expected that the quality of their pills would be virtually identical.
Let's check the quality of the finished product first.
The seven porcelain bottles were opened one by one, and as the judges had expected, all seven bottles of Rejuvenation Pills were of the highest quality, with almost no difference in quality. Each bottle contained exactly seven pills, with the difference being so small that it was difficult to distinguish them at first glance.
This has never happened before in the Grand Competition of Alchemy, as if they were taught by the same master.
In reality, being able to refine the Rejuvenation Pill to the highest grade is exceptionally impressive for these disciples. However, having one person achieve this is excellent, but having a bunch at once is a headache. How do you evaluate them? From pill quality to pill-forming time to yield rate, they are almost identical—how can you rank seven people equally?
Since it's a scoring system anyway, the judges just gave out their scores without much thought. The overall score was 9 points for quality, 8 points for success rate, and 8 points for production time, for a total of 25 points. For a first-grade pill, there was only the basic score.
It is worth mentioning that Fan Hongde gave the lowest score among all the judges.
After the septuplets were evaluated, only two people from the Divine Cauldron Sect remained: Gu Zhusheng's Foundation Building Pill and Fan Mingzhu's Beauty Pill.
The first to be evaluated was Gu Zhusheng's Foundation Establishment Pill, which was of superior quality. Four pills were successfully formed in one go. This is a very good result, especially considering that they are second-tier pills. The scores given by the judges from the six sects were also quite good, but there were still some interesting differences.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
