Having finished judging Qing Yi's Dragon Force Potion with a happy smile present on his face, Fang Shi nodded his head towards Qing Yi to show his approval towards her before moving onto the young girl standing to her left.
"Hm… Looks like you also made it through to the next stage-"
Not listening in on the Artisan Alchemists judgement, Qing Yi had instead been caught off-guard by a young woman in her early twenties following closely behind the Artisan Alchemist.
Whoosh~
"Hm? Looks like you are quite decent for your age… Especially given the fact that you specialize in potions instead of pills…" Picking up one of her Dragon Force Potion before saying this, the young woman soon put it down again before following after the Artisan Alchemist who had already managed to go through three participants during the duration of the young woman's short inspection of her Dragon Force Potion.
Who was that? A disciple of the Artisan Alchemist?
Thinking this to herself, Qing Yi could not help but look towards the young woman slowly following the footsteps of the Artisan Alchemist as she inspected some of the participants after her master was done.
The only difference being the fact that she only inspected one person for every 10 her master inspected…
Somehow… Qing Yi felt that the young woman looked way more like an exalted master only paying attention to a select few who stood out, while the Artisan Alchemist was the disciple going ahead and doing the hard work of inspecting everyone before his master to make sure only the best was left when she arrived...
"Hehe~"
Not able to stop a small laughter from escaping her mouth upon imagining the old Artisan Alchemist as the disciple and the young woman as the master, Qing Yi stopped herself as she felt the young girl to her left look over towards her with a curious expression on her face.
Wondering why Qing Yi beside her had suddenly begun laughing all of a sudden.
"D-did something happen…?" Building up a bit of courage, the young girl asked Qing Yi. Wanting to find out why she had suddenly started laughing before quickly looking away with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Hm? Not really, I just found it funny how the young woman looked more like the master compared to the actual master…" Answering the young girl beside her who had also managed to move onto the next stage of the competition like herself, Qing Yi did not try to hide the reason for laughing earlier.
Motioning over towards the young woman walking behind the old Artisan Alchemist with an aloof and distant expression etched onto her face most of them time. Only changing into a curious expression whenever she inspected one of the Dragon Force Pills from the participants after the Artisan Alchemist.
"Haha, she does indeed look like the master…" Laughing a bit to herself upon looking over towards the direction that Qing Yi motioned her towards, the young girl barely managed to stop herself from laughing too loudly.
However, the voice of the young girl still managed to reach the ears of Fang Shi as he was about to inspect one of the last few Dragon Force Pills. Worst of all was the fact that he had also managed to hear what Qing Yi had said about him that lead to the young girl laughing at him!
How does that damn brat Cai Yu look more like a master than me!?
Thinking this to himself, Fang Shi glanced back towards Cai Yu walking only a few meters behind him with an aloof expression while staring into the distance while casually glancing over a few of the participants pills from time to time before looking away again.
From an outside view, it looked like she did not put any of the passing participants in her eyes. Only rarely inspecting a few of the most exceptional participants.
"…"
That brat… She is clearly doing this on purpose!
"Failure!"
"Failure!"
"Not even close, you used the wrong spiritual herbs!"
Losing his temper upon realizing how his own disciple was seemingly trying her best to make him lose face in front of the participants, Fang Shi angrily looked over the last three pills before instantly disqualifying them and moving back onto the platform.
"Wha-"
"I'm disqualified!?"
"What just happened…?"
"Now let's move on to the second stage of the alchemy competition!" Ignoring the three bewildered participants who had just been eliminated within a second of each other, Fang Shi caught the attention of the participants who had managed to make it through the first stage of the alchemy competition with his words.
No one paid any attention to the last three participants to be eliminated from the alchemy competition, as they were escorted out of the competition space like the rest of the disqualified participants.
The only thing different compared to them and the rest of the participants, was the fact that none of them got any guidance from Fang Shi in how to improve… They had at least expected that they would get some guidance from the Artisan Alchemist even if they were eliminated!
Even worse, the 'participation reward' they would get from being eliminated in the first stage of the alchemy competition was not really worth traveling all the way to the Iron Sky Kingdom. This was even more so the case if they came from a sect or kingdom with the same power as the past Heavenly Sky Kingdom…
In the end, the three participants all felt incredibly sad and disappointed as they made their way out of the competition space.
"The second stage of the competition will be different from the first stage. This time around, you will have to make the highest-level pill or potion you currently know! Among all of you. Only the top twenty will move on to the third stage!" Completely ignoring the three disappointed stares from the three participants who had been eliminated last, Fang Shi went on to explain the details of the second stage of the alchemy competition.
"You will have half an hour to rest before the second stage will begin. During this break, everyone should make sure what pill or potion you plan on making!" Along with these few words, Fang Shi soon turned to leave the platform together with his disciple.
Leaving behind the remaining 87 participants who had made it through the first stage of the competition to think about what sort of pill or potion they wanted to make for the upcoming second stage.
"Everyone! You can take a rest over here and get something to eat and drink!" Just as everyone had begun planning over what they wanted to make, a loud voice interrupted their thoughts as a small part of the space for the alchemy competition had turned into a buffet filled with all sorts of food, water and snacks.
"I… I do feel quite a bit hungry…" A participant who was only in the Qi Condensation Realm was the first to move, as he soon began to grab a large variety of food before beginning to eat.
Rumble~
" Let's just get something quick…"
Soon enough, over sixty of the participants had made their way over to the buffet to get something to eat.
Among the remaining twenty or so participants, Qing Yi could not help but frown as she looked over towards the buffet with narrowed eyes.
The Artisan Alchemist had clearly told them that they had half an hour break to rest and figure out what potion or pill they wanted to make… He never said anything about the buffet that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere…
Was the buffet perhaps a trap of sorts to waste the time they had been given to think up what potion or pill they wanted to make during the second stage of the competition?
Thinking this, Qing Yi could not help but glance over towards the participants absorbed in eating all sorts of delicacy with a pitying look on her face.
Finding out what sort of pill or potion one wanted to use was not simple and would take time to figure out.
After all, she and the rest of the participants had no idea what spiritual herbs would be available to them during the second stage of the competition!
With that in mind, Qing Yi began thinking about several different potions she had made together with her master during the past week.
The potions she had practiced with her master were all high level and at the same time each of the potion used different spiritual herbs. During her practice with her master, Qing Yi had found herself learning about new spiritual herbs she never knew existed before and learning how to use them every day!
Thinking back to the week leading up to the alchemy competition, Qing Yi could not help but smile happily as she looked up towards her master before quickly focusing back on the task of figuring out a wide variety of potions, she could make no matter what spiritual herbs were available to them during the second stage of the alchemy competition!