Chapter 1020 - Competition 2
“Indeed. We should observe him closely later on.” Sima You Yue said.
“Mmhmm.”
Once all the results were released, Ji Qing Yuan announced the names of those who advanced past the first round.
His words were as direct as ever.
“Those whose scores are ninety-five and above should report promptly at noontime tomorrow for the competition.”
When he had concluded, everyone began to leave.
Sima You Yue glanced at the platform. Shao Yun Xiao and Xian Chang Tian were walking in the front with Wu Lingyu and Shui Qing Man the the others trailing behind, listening obediently to what Shui Qing Man was saying.
“I’ve always been rather curious. Shao Yun Xiao is merely the pavilion master of a pavilion in the central regions. Why is he able to sit with Xia Chang Tian and the others as one of the guests of honor of the pill battle?” Han Miao Shuang rushed up to Sima You Yue’s shoulder to look at the platform together.
“It truly is a little strange.” Sima You Yue said, “If he came from the inner regions, that would be less unexpected and we could still reason it. However, Shao Yun Xiao is merely a pavilion master from the central regions whose status isn’t that high. How could he be a guest of honor?”
“Only the President and Subdivision Leader would know that.” Su Xiao Xiao said.
“You can go ahead and ask. However, we should first go back to the inn.” Sima You Yue caught up with Mao San Quan and left.
“Let’s go, we’ll go back and rest. We did so many questions today, I’m dead tired.”
“But Junior Brother is really powerful. He was even able to turn around the common-sense combination of Scarlet Star Grass and Flaming Cliff Grass.”
“Since he has already proved it to be false, you can’t call it common sense anymore.”
“That’s true.”
“…”
On the morning of the second day, the competitors arrived at the plaza bright and early, waiting for the competition to begin for the day.
When it was eight o’ clock, Xia Chang Tian came in with a group of men. The moment they arrived, Ji Qing Yuan got up on the stage and said, “The second round of the competition is going to begin. Contestants, come up the stage.”
Sima You Yue and Han Miao Shuang and the others walked to their respective places as Ji Qing Yuan waved his hands. A table appeared in front of each of them.
“Inside the drawer contains the question that we will be tackling this round. You have to refine the pill that is written on it within a given amount of time.” Ji Qing Yuan instructed, “Finally, we will score you based on the pill’s rank, quantity and time taken. You may begin now.”
The contestants opened the drawers and inside it lay a piece of paper along with a pile of medicinal ingredients. There were three portions of each type of herb.
“This table should be some sort of spatial tool.”
Sima You Yue took out her question, and it wrote that she was to refine a six or seventh ranked pill according to what was written on it.
The contestants in the second group were all below a hundred years old. Therefore, the ranks were not that high. She looked at those in the front row and could tell at a glance that the ingredients were for pills at seven or eight rank.
As she ran her eyes over it, she saw the person that she had noticed the other day.
He was in the last row of the first group. Sima You Yue was in the first row of the second group. The two from yesterday were diagonally across each other, and this person was now the one standing in front of her.
It was as if the person could feel Sima You Yue’s eyes appraising him as he turned around to look at her before turning away expressionlessly.
“How strange.” Sima You Yue shrugged before beginning to look at the pill recipe in her hands.
This pill competition was about the same as the ones from before. However, the difference was that past competitions required them to refine just one pill. However, this pill competition required her to refine three different types.
She examined the three pill recipes. The first one was a commonly seen one, the second was a little rarer while the third one was a very uncommon one. Very few had actually seen this before.
The three pill recipes had to be done consecutively. They were not only testing their skills, but had extremely high demands of their mental strength. Working continuously would definitely wear them out.
Of course, they never said that you were not allowed to eat pills to replenish your mental strength. However, even if you ate pills, you would still need some time to recover.
Sima You Yue looked around. Those around her had already taken out their furnaces to begin refining.
Those who were able to participate in this pill competition were all of high standing. That was why their furnaces were all of higher ranking. On the other hand, she casually took out a furnace that looked rather wretched.
“Ha ha ha, such an ordinary furnace. Is it really able to refine pills?” The ones watching from above noticed her furnace and mocked.
“It should have no problem refining pills.” The one beside added, “After all, third and fourth ranked pills are pills too, right?”
“But it’s not enough for one to refine a third or fourth ranked pill for this competition.”
“Nobody will think that you’re a mute just because you speak a little less!” Gu Xi turned around to shoot them a deadly glare.
It turns out that those who were making those cynical remarks were from the Gu Clan. Because of what happened yesterday, they had some animosity towards Sima You Yue.
Actually, there were many who had taken notice of Sima You Yue’s furnace. The fact that she had managed to publicly demonstrate the fusion of Scarlet Star Grass and Flaming Cliff Grass gave everyone too much of a shock. It wasn’t that surprising that more people paid attention to her.
“Could it be that your academy does not have the resources to prepare a better furnace?” Beside Mao San Quan was a person who was on fairly good terms with him and he teased him.
Mao San Quan glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and ignored him, continuing to focus on the competition on stage.
Han Miao Shuang, Su Xiao Xiao and another three students were competing in the first group. Sima You Yue was the only one participating in the second group.
Sima You Yue didn’t notice that she was the center of focus for more than ten thousand of them. She didn’t think, either, that her furnace would become a topic of discussion as she lowered her head to continue setting up her pill ingredients.
Wu Lingyu watched her busy silhouette from above and the side of his lips hooked into a light smile.
He just had to wait. Once he waited a little longer, he would be able to go to her.
Once Sima You Yue finished setting up her ingredients, she began her refinement. The other participants had long since started refining.
She purified each pill ingredient before proceeding to fuse them then bind them. By the time she just started the binding process, others had already finished refining their first pill and the medicinal smell wafted throughout the stage.
When she finished refining it successfully, others had already long since finished refining their second pill.
She was not like the others who had elegantly placed them into their pill bottles. She just simply grabbed them and placed them into her jade bottle before beginning to refine her second pill.
“Yue Yue really isn’t nervous as all.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about. There’s still a lot of time!” Mao San Quan said, “These people were so anxious at the start, but this will cause them to lose even more mental energy. These people will surely tire at the end.”
Just like Mao San Quan said, many of them began to feel weary by the time they finished refining their second pill. In order to sustain themselves to the third round, they ate their mental strength recovery pills and were waiting to recover their mental strength before continuing to refine pills.
Those people did not just wait around idly as they recuperated. They looked around them, appraising the contestants around them.
Many watched as Sima You Yue slowly completed the refinement of her second batch of pills, looking as if she were not planning to rest as she took the ingredients for the third type of pills and started her refinement.