Chapter 303 - Fraudulent Competition (2)
It must have been a joke if they expected them to locate dozens of medicinal ingredients from three thousand ingredients. The task would have still been difficult if they had half a day to do it, let alone half an hour.
However, the next announcement freaked them out even more.
“There is no repetition amongst the 3690 ingredients. Once someone had taken a specific ingredient, you will not find another one within the pile.”
Only one each of the 3690 medicinal ingredients?
Some of the participants felt as if the sky had darkened, and they nearly fainted.
There were more than a hundred participants, and no one could guarantee that the medicinal ingredients that they needed would not clash with someone else’s formula. Some of the ingredients had a wide range of effects and thus were required in many different potions. Furthermore, the majority of the participants were from the same grade and class.
That meant that all of them knew about the same intermediate-level potions that they could produce for the competition.
Did that not also mean that most of the participants would fight for the same medicinal ingredients?!
Everyone felt as if they would puke blood. That competition was a fraud!
However, no one dared to say anything as the Herbalist Division’s competition had always been abnormally tricky. Anyone who dared to raise any concerns about the content of the competition would immediately be eliminated. They would not be allowed to participate in any competition for a year.
So, even though everyone did not like what they had heard about the rules of the competition, they decided to keep their mouth shut.
When no one caused a commotion about the rules, the teacher nodded in satisfaction and continued with the announcement. “When you have located the medicinal ingredients, you have only ten minutes to process it. However, we only have ten sets of apparatus, and the first ten students would be able to choose between them.
Only ten sets of apparatus?
Did that mean only ten students could proceed to the second round?
The students looked at each other. It looked like only one out of thirteen students could proceed to the next round, and that statistic shocked everyone there.
The teacher then continued with the announcement. “After ten minutes, you will need to refine the potion based on your memory. You have three hours to do that. If anyone failed to produce a complete potion in three hours, then we will assume that you had snatched the apparatus for no reason at all, and you will be banned from any of the division’s competition for the next three months.”
When the teacher mentioned that particular rule, the students who wanted to leave things to luck were sorely surprised.
Most of the students had very simple thoughts about the competition. They were only there to win the hundred thousand gold coins that Tang Nazhi had promised them. Therefore, most of them had planned to grab a few random medicinal ingredients and then keep the apparatus occupied. They thought that they would win if they could seize all ten sets of apparatus before Shen Yanxiao could finish with her medicinal ingredients. If they could do that, then the gold coins would be theirs.
However, the last rule had dismissed their plans. They did not mind the ban from the competitions, but it was a big issue if it affected their teachers’ assessment of their abilities.
Three hours was more than enough to produce a junior-level potion unless they were a beginner who had only just learned herbalism.
Furthermore, other than Shen Yanxiao, the rest of the participants were second and third-year students.
Even if it were an intermediate-level potion, the time required would not differ by much.