The various other Kings and important figures consoled Alex on the fact that there was no shame in losing to alchemists of the Eastern Continent. After all, Eastern Continent did have the best alchemy knowledge among all the other continents.
Alex smiled, thanking them for their words.
"Your alchemists are not bad," the Dragon Emperor said after the commotion was over. The alchemists on stage were made to rest for a bit before the next tests started.
"Our alchemists need to know all the ingredients so that they can pass the test. You don't have something like that at your place, do you?" he asked.
"No, we mostly just accept them based on their talent in pill-making," Alex said. "They are required to make a lot of pills, so we look for endurance and ability to make good pills. All other talents as an alchemist come second."
The Dragon Emperor nodded. "And yet the ones at the top did better than my own people," he said. "They might have lost the first competition, but they have certainly proven themselves."
Alex smiled at the Dragon Emperor's words. He thought the same.
Once the alchemists were done resting, the second test began. The alchemists were all handed different pill recipes as well as two sets of ingredients required for that recipe.
They all read through the recipe and realized that it was a recipe none of them had seen before.
The headmaster explained the next test. "Your task now is to learn the recipe in your hand as fast as you can and make a pill out of it. The time limit is 1 hour and it will start when someone makes the first pill. If no one makes any pill within the first hour, everyone will be disqualified."
"The winner will be based on the quality of the better pill of the two as well as the time that was taken. Begin."
The alchemists immediately started looking through the recipe, learning it.
Alex leaned on his arm, watching the competition.
"Is it boring," the Dragon Emperor asked. "Just watching and not getting to participate?"
"Hmm… well, I can't lie that it is," Alex said. "But joining will be more boring, I suppose. There's no point unless there is a challenge."
"I get you," the Dragon Emperor said. "I've been the same for quite some time too."
Alex looked at the Dragon Emperor. "Do you want to compete against me?" he asked.
The Dragon Emperor looked at him, considering the question for a moment before shaking his head. "You can make pill clouds, I cannot. You are already better than me," he said.
The many people that were around them were surprised to hear the Dragon Emperor say that Alex was better than him. They had known the young King was an Alchemist of great renown back in his continent, but they didn't expect him to be better than the Emperor.
They were now curious how well he could make a pill.
The competition down below took some time to get interesting. However, once someone made the first pill around the half an hour mark, which came out to be around 48%, the secondary timer activated which forced the rest of the alchemists to start working harder.
Multiple alchemists started making pills. While getting high-quality pills was good, it was necessary to do it fast. Were it any other time they could wait as long as they wanted. But right now was a competition and they had to follow the rules.
Still, there were a few people that just didn't bother because they knew that a high-quality pill would outweigh speed any time of the day.
Jai Heiyun read through the recipe multiple time, envisioning how she would make the pill. She did a mental simulation of how she would control the ingredients, how she would control the heat, what sort of timing she should vie for, etc.
Once she was done, she opened her eyes and looked around to see that everyone had already started and she was the last remaining alchemist that had yet to make any pill.
She looked at her opponent who was already busy making his pills as well. So, without wasting any time, she began.
The ingredients flew into the cauldron, one by one, as each ingredient turned to powder. The energy that was released from the ingredients was contained in the cauldron with the help of the many formations that were around the stage.
Heiyun proceeded to control the energy as it mixed and once everything was over, she employed the Profound Revolution of Myriad Combination technique to form the powder into a pill.
Once the pill was ready, she pulled it out.
From what she could tell just based on her instincts, she hadn't done the best that she could. The pill had most definitely come out bad.
She looked around her and saw that her opponent had already started making the 2nd pill. She looked at the sky and saw how he had done.
'65%?' she thought. Then, she placed her own pill into the formation to check its quality and saw the number that came out.
62%.
'I knew it,' she thought and started working again.
Alex looked through the list with a contemplative look. While the results that his alchemists had shown were good, they were still not as good as he had hoped.
Individually, there were quite a few of them that did well. However, collectively they were performing a little worse than their opponents.
Most of them had finished the 2nd pill so the result was starting to make itself clear.
The image flickered as results were added. Alex saw one of his alchemists achieve the same harmony as his opponent, but he had done it a minute later.
Similarly, another one of the alchemists had taken a bit more time but had done slightly better.
He ignored most of their results and only focused on the leader of his Alchemist guild, Jai Heiyun.
Her opponent was on the last pill and had finished as Alex watched him. He pulled out the pill and placed it onto the formation next to him as the result appeared in the sky.
72%. Jumping from 65% to 72% in just a single pill was quite impressive, and surprised many of the big names that were present.
"That young man is going to be important someday," one of the people said. "Does anyone know if he is already in a sect or not?"
Alex secretly shook his head as h heard them talk. He still believed in his own people, especially Jai Heiyun who had the second-best pill-forming technique he had.
Alex's attention snapped back to the stage as he saw her pull out her second pill. Spiritual senses were blocked off, so he couldn't exactly check how good the pill was, but from what he could see with his Demon Eyes, the pill held a lot of energy.
"Hmm," he smiled a bit. "Not bad for a second try."
Heiyun placed the pill on the formation and watched the result appear on the screen in the air.
77%.
She had managed to make an Immortal pill on the very second try.
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