Chapter 129: End of the First Round

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As Xiang Hua finally started to take the competition more seriously, both Yan Mei and Xun Wei, seeing the masked boy's alchemical skills, felt that a dark horse had appeared in the competition.

Neither of them was now certain they could defeat him, and this fact only put more pressure on them.

At first, both had entered the competition believing they had what it took to secure a spot in the imperial tournament.

With the appearance of Xiang Hua, the situation had shifted slightly, but they still had a good chance of securing a spot.

Now, however, with the addition of this mysterious person, it was no longer a certainty.

While the other participants began to feel the pressure of the competition, Ethan, who was the main cause of it all, continued to refine in peace.

Although the remaining pills were all Level 1 high-grade, they were problematic to prepare due to many delicate steps that took time, no matter how fast one was.

Rushing them would only risk reducing their purity and final effect, so Ethan, who had enough time to prepare them, did not rush the production.

Time passed quickly, and before anyone knew it, the remaining 30 minutes were gone.

Tan Chi, who hadn't taken his eyes off him the entire time, wiped his forehead as he looked satisfied at the six vials of pills he had produced.

Three vials contained a batch of three pills, while the other three contained only one pill each.

Unlike Ethan, who produced a batch of three for each pill, Tan Chi had strictly followed the requests listed on the sheet.

He didn't want to waste more time producing more than required and risk making only some of the listed pills, as this would lower his chances of winning.

Of the three pills, two were high-grade, and this, combined with the fact that he had managed to produce six pills out of the 10 required, gave him confidence that he would pass.

With a smile on his face, he finally looked up from his workstation to glance toward his opponent's station.

"Hm? Where did he go?"

He saw that the station was empty, with neither the masked boy nor any pills displayed.

He looked around for answers and finally spotted him near the examiner.

"Could he have given up?" he thought as he picked up his vials of pills and brought them to the examiner.

Unfortunately for him, reality was far from what he thought.

When he arrived, he saw that on the table where the examiner was waiting, there were nine neatly arranged vials of pills.

The unique thing about these vials was that each one contained at least three pills.

He could tell they were all different pills, and for a moment, he thought they were all the ones listed on the sheet. Explore more stories at m-vl_em,pyr

But then he shook his head, thinking it was absurd to produce nine in such a short time, let alone three of each.

Arriving at the counter, he placed his six vials of pills and waited for the examiner's verdict.

Although he was sure he had passed, he still had to wait for the examiner's decision.

The examiner, seeing that Tan Chi had submitted his pills and was still waiting, couldn't help but ask:

"Do you have any questions for me?" he asked calmly.

Tan Chi, not understanding why the examiner was asking him such a thing, simply said no and continued to wait for the verdict.

Seeing that Tan Chi continued to stand there, the examiner couldn't help but ask again.

"Hm, but then why are you still here?" he asked calmly.

Once again, Tan Chi didn't understand the meaning of his words, so he finally said:

"And the final verdict?"

At these words, the examiner seemed confused and glanced down at the two rows of vials on the table.

'Isn't the result obvious? 'he thought, shaking his head, as he said:

"As you can see, the winner is the masked boy," he said, pointing to the two rows of glass vials.

"…"

And so, without knowing it, Tan Chi, who thought he had victory in his grasp, found himself with a blank expression for the rest of the competition.

Ethan had finished producing the remaining three pills five minutes early, and since there was nothing else to do, he handed in his pills and returned to wait with the group who had yet to compete.

The examiner, when he saw him submit the vials, nodded with a particularly satisfied expression and said nothing more.

Ethan knew better than anyone that the pills he produced were flawless, not only because he received notifications from the system but also because he had raised his alchemical skills to such a level that he could produce all the pills below Level 2 with absolute certainty of their final quality.

Even with the low-grade Level 2 pills, he had some mastery, but it wasn't as refined as with the Level 1 pills.

That being said, now that he had a high-grade Level 2 recipe, he could make even more progress at this level. S~eaʀᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

With his alchemical mastery at Level 2 and his knowledge of pills, he had already done much of the work; the rest would come from the experience gained through continuous and consistent pill refining.

When he returned, he saw that almost everyone was watching him with attentive gazes, as if he were some sort of exotic species they had never seen before.

'What's with them? ' he wondered, ignoring them and finding a spot to wait for the rest of the competition to proceed.

After a few minutes, the second group of participants stepped onto the field and positioned themselves at the two stations.

Just like before, neither side wasted time, refining non-stop until the end of the hour.

In the end, a skinny boy with strangely pale skin won.

After them, the remaining participants also stepped forward, and in another two hours, the first round of the competition was completed.

In the end, apart from Ethan and the pale boy, Xiang Hua and Yan Mei won, both with relative ease.

Yan Mei managed to produce seven of the required pills, while Xiang Hua managed to produce nine, just like Ethan.

That said, she didn't seem happy with her result, and this was because, unlike Ethan, she hadn't produced a batch of three for each pill.

The victories of the two girls were expected, and even their opponents didn't seem too discouraged by this result.

Finally, the second round of matches was about to begin, and in this round, the losers of the first round had only one chance to turn their situation around.