Having placed all three of the potion bottles that she had filled up on top of the table, Qing Yi could not help curiously looking over the pills that the participants standing almost shoulder to shoulder with her had made.𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
On her left, there was a young girl around the same age as herself. Looking over the pills laid out in front of her, Qing Yi felt quite interested upon noticing how identical and perfect the pills in front of her looked.
The person on her right on the other hand… Let alone having his pills look identical, the dozen or so pills in front of the young man to her right were all sorts of different colours blended together. The most dominant colour being pink.
From this alone, Qing Yi had a feeling that the young man would not be making it through the first stage of the competition…
""…""
At the same time Qing Yi was looking over the two people's pills, they were also looking over the three potion bottles that she had brought up with her, both having a curious look on their face as they inspected her potion bottle with a curious look on their faces.
Not alone in this endeavour, a few of the other nearby participants were also looking over towards Qing Yi's potion bottles with a similarly curious expression on their faces.
After all, among all of the remaining participants, Qing Yi was the only person who had managed to make a Dragon Force Potion! Among the little over 10 people who had chosen to make a potion during the alchemy competition, Qing Yi was the only one to succeed!
…
As Qing Yi and the few participants close to here were looking over what each of them had managed to make during the time they had been given, Fang Shi made his way down towards the participants together with his disciple, Cai Yu.
"Hah…"
Arriving in front of the first participant, Fang Shi could not help but sigh to himself as he looked down at the weirdly green pills looking like they were about to melt under the sun.
"It's a failure! You used an incorrect spiritual herb in place of the Red Dragon Sage Spiritual Herb, causing the pill to grow unstable… The herb you used instead, was a poisonous herb called Venom Blood Leaves. If I anyone ate this pill… Let's just say they would not live to tell the tale unless they had a strong enough cultivation…"
Saying this to the participant with a solemn look on his face as he quickly understood what went wrong with the participants pill making, Fang Shi soon moved onto the next participant.
"Well done, this is a Dragon Force Pill! Although it was a bit miss coloured due to the fact that you left it in the cauldron for too long. Other than that, the pill is fine, it only lost a bit of its efficiency!"
Nodding his head upon seeing the next participants Dragon Force Pill, Fang Shi didn't show any sign of happiness while saying this before moving onto the next participant.
Even if the participant number two's Dragon Force Pill was enough to move onto the next step of the competition, Fang Shi knew very well that the participants ability was not what he was looking for.
"I-I made it!"
Not aware of the fact that Fang Shi had just ruled him out as a potential disciple, the participant who heard that he had made it into the next stage of the competition happily smiled before waving towards one of the spectator rooms where the people who had come alongside him were located.
Like this, Fang Shi slowly began making his way around the tables placed around the platform. Inspecting each of the participants Dragon Force Pills within only a few seconds before moving onto the next, as the participants were either sent out of the competition space due to failing or moved onto the next stage by successfully making a Dragon Force Pill!
"W-why is the pills succeeding not the same colour…?"
After Fang Shi began inspecting the Dragon Force Pills, all the participants soon came to realize that the Dragon Force Pills that successfully moved on to the next part of the competition were not always the same colour.
Instead, they were in all sorts of different colours. From red to purple and from blue to yellow.
There was no definite colour to the Dragon Force Pill! Instead, it looked like it could be any sort of colour…
This realization instantly caused a large portion of the participants to panic, as most of them had pills that were the same red colour, while those with weirdly coloured pills losing hope in making it to the next stage of the competition. Regained hope, as they began looking forward to Fang Shi inspecting their Dragon Force Pills.
Among all of the tension that had suddenly appeared among the participants, Qing Yi was the only person who remained unaffected.
At the moment, Qing Yi had turned her attention away from the other participants pills. Instead beginning to search through the spectator rooms all around the competition space. Hoping to spot her master and the rest of the elders that had come together with her to the Iron Sky Kingdom.
Searching through the spectator rooms, Qing Yi soon spotted her master calmly smiling towards her from one of the spectator rooms. The other elders also came into view, as Qing Yi found herself smiling a bit nervously upon noticing that everyone was looking over towards her.
She could even see Elder Gong Bo, one of the Core Elders of the Alchemy Hall nervously looking over her Dragon Force Potions before looking over towards the location of the Artisan Alchemist slowly moving closer and closer to her.
Seeing this, Qing Yi could not help smiling wryly to herself, as she reckoned that Elder Gong Bo was most likely the person who was the most nervous about the outcome of this competition…
"-Sadly, you used the wrong spiritual herbs. Not even a single one of the spiritual herbs used in these pills are among the five needed to make the Dragon Force Potion!"
Waving over towards her master and the other elders for a minute or so, Qing Yi was surprised to suddenly hear an old and solemn voice echo out just beside her.
He's here! How did he make it here so fast! There should at least have been 10 or so participants left before me…
Staring over at the old Artisan Alchemist currently in the process of judging the young man to her right side, Qing Yi could not help realizing that none of the 10 people to her right had managed to make it onto the next stage of the competition!
From the looks of it, the young man currently in the process of being judged was not going to make it either…
"Hah…"
Watching as the old Artisan Alchemist finished his judgement along with giving the young man a few suggestions of what he could improve in. Mainly suggesting for him to read a few more spiritual herb encyclopaedias when he got back home, Qing Yi suddenly felt herself grow nervous the moment she felt the old Artisan Alchemist fixate his gaze onto her and the three potion bottles she had placed on the table.
"Hm…? A potion? I guess this is the only potion that managed to be finished on time…" Hearing the old Artisan Alchemist mutter this to himself, as she felt his eyes go from solemn to curious while looking over her three potions before picking up one of them, Qing Yi felt herself beginning to sweat.
Something she had only ever experienced when she was extremely nervous before she started cultivating. Ever since she had reached the Qi Condensation Realm, she had never experienced something like that!
After all, for a cultivator, having complete control over one's own body was by far one of the most important aspects of cultivating…
"This is great! The Dragon Force Potion you made has no signs of any problem with the spiritual herbs used, and it looks like you got the timing of everything done perfectly! I can't find any mistakes with it!"
Hearing the excited voice of the old Artisan Alchemist as he put down her Dragon Force Potion before looking over towards her with a look of approval, Qing Yi could not help but let out a sigh of relief before smiling happily.
She had made it onto the next stage of the alchemy competition!
Filled with happiness, Qing Yi proudly looked up towards her master and the other elders who happily waved back at her.
…
Smiling as he waved towards his disciple who had just made it onto the next stage of the competition, Xuan Hao soon narrowed his eyes before looking down towards Fang Shi the moment Qing Yi turned to look somewhere different.
"…"
That old fossil is aiming for my disciple!