20 men and women walked in from the left, and 20 others walked in from the right.
The ones on the left wore robes of vermillion and purple, defining colors of the Southern Continent. The ones on the right wore robes of green and azure, defining colors of the Eastern Continent.
They arrived on the stage and stood on either side.
The stage was prepared with everything an alchemist would need and was divided into two halves in which the two groups of alchemists would perform alchemy and other tests in the competition.
The headmaster welcomed everyone and started explaining what was going on.
The alchemy competition was meant to show off the alchemy knowledge of each side, and there was no better way to do so than through an alchemy match.
However, it also wasn't possible to just have 20 of the best alchemists to fight against the ones that were brought, so the school had come up with a different system of choosing opponents for the ones that had come from the Southern Continent.
The opponents were chosen from the Alchemists in the School that was both close in age and cultivation base to each of the alchemists from the Southern Continent.
As such, the opponents that were chosen for them were all alchemists that could be considered their peers.
Alex's eyes narrowed as he looked at the very first person in the group of the Eastern continent's alchemists. A young man with blond hair stood with a proud face.
Alex looked for his badge, but it wasn't there at all. It was hidden for the sake of the competition.
He looked on the opposite side of the man and saw Jai Heiyun. He frowned slightly as the thought that this man had been chosen especially to match up against her.
Which meant that he was in the Saint Core realm, and was very young by comparison. He could be no older than 80 years at most. In the Eastern Continent, that was akin to being a teenager.
The headmaster began explaining the rules of the competition. Each person was handed a talisman with information about the requirements to level up through the various Alchemist levels in the school.
The alchemists had to go through each of the various different tests for the levels, including ingredient recognition, recipe learning, making pills, and pill creation.
Depending on their results in each of the tasks, they would all be handed ranks in today's competition.
The first of the competition was ingredient recognition. The 40 alchemists were made to come to the middle of the stage where a simple formation had been prepared.
20 alchemists stood on each side, opposite to their opponent as they were each handed a metal talisman.
Alex watched the stage as the explanation for what they were supposed to do was given to them.
"What do you think?" the Dragon Emperor asked. "Will your alchemists manage to a lot of ingredients?"
"Well, I can't say for sure," Alex said. "They should know a lot, but I do not know if a lot is enough or not at the moment.
The Dragon Emperor chuckled slightly. "How about we make a bet to see whose alchemists will score the most amongst?" he asked.
Alex chuckled lightly as well. "While I have great pride in my men, I cannot trust that they will win in all honestly. Be as good as they may, they have been learning properly only for the past decade. While your men, who know how long they've been learning for."
"Tsk, you should bet even if it's just for the fun of it," the Dragon Emperor said.
"Then I would be betting on a losing battle," Alex said. "Besides, even if we did bet, what would the stakes be? I'm half expecting you to just ask me for the things you are already asking for."
The Dragon Emperor didn't say anything in response to that allegation. "What about your choice? You said you'll give me one today," he asked.
"I mentioned I would give it to you by the end of the competition, didn't I?" Alex asked. "The event is only starting. Let's just wait for it all."
The Dragon Emperor shook his head and looked at the large screen that had appeared in the sky above them. On the screen were two lists of 20 names, one shaded in red, another in blue.
The 40 alchemist names had the number 0 next to them.
"Is that what's going to keep track of the scores?" Alex asked.
"Each correct guess into the medallion should give them a single point," the Dragon Emperor said.
"And the headmaster just mentioned that there are a total of 20 thousand ingredients," Alex said. "Depending on how long they will have to guess the ingredients, we might be here all day long. I'm afraid you probably won't get your answer today, Dragon Emperor."
The Dragon Emperor gave a small smirk. "As long as I get a satisfactory one at the end of the competition, I'm alright," he said.
The headmaster finished explaining the rest of the rules. Once everything was ready, she asked the contestants to prepare.
"Are you worried, your Majesty?" the king of the Emerald Kingdom asked.
"No," Alex said. "Even if my people lose, I'm certain they will put up a good fight."
The other kings gave words of encouragement as well after hearing what he said. However, from their tone, Alex could tell that not a single one of them believed that the Alchemists from the Southern Continent had any chance to win.
A small smile formed on Alex's face. 'Just you watch,' he thought.
The competition began and an ingredient teleported in front of Jai Heiyun who was the first of the 40 alchemists to receive her ingredient.
She had 2 seconds to completely look through the ingredient and try to recognize it. She wasted no time looking at the small blue flower bud that had only halfway bloomed.
'Blue Silk flower,' she recognized it in no time at all. When 2 seconds passed, the ingredient disappeared from in front of her, teleporting to the young man that was about 3 meters away from her.
She now had 1 second to write the name of the ingredient. She quickly wrote down the flower's name on the metal object in her hand.
Immediately a point was added to her name on the board. The moment she was done naming, the next ingredient arrived.
It was a vial of black powder with specks of white light shining from it once in a while.
'Starcoal Pollen,' she recognized it as well and wrote the name down as she waited for the next ingredient to come in.
When it did, she named it as well.
It wasn't just her. As the ingredients started passing to the next person in line, and then to the next one after them, the number on the scoreboard in the sky was increasing one by one with no one missing them at all.
Alex looked at the board, happy that the first few ingredients naming were going well. However, it was just for a while. The first half of the ingredients were probably easily recognizable ones.
The problem in the competition would most definitely come in the second half where naming the ingredients was going to become much, much more difficult.
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