Number One Under Heaven

Chapter 74 - Desire for Attention

Seeing how they were standing there like statues, Xuan Cheung pulled out an hourglass out of thin air and showed them, "What are you standing there for? The time is already ticking. Don't blame me if you fail because you wanted to stand there like an idiot."

"!!!!!" The contestants did not have time to think or complain and ran back to their Cauldron to begin Pill making.

Xuan Cheung watched them panic with a smile, 'It would've been boring if I didn't do something like this.'

"Wow, as expected from a Pill Grandmaster. If it weren't something like this, it would've been another generic Pill Contest." People started talking again but in whispers.

The moment the contestants got back to their Cauldron, they started to analyze the ingredients given to them.

"What are they doing? Why are they just staring at the ingredients? Weren't they just panicking about the time starting?" Someone with little knowledge on Pill making asked.

"If they don't analyze it, how will they be able to tell how old the ingredients are? Before a Pill Master starts making their Pill, they must first inspect their ingredients to determine their quality and age! They must also adjust their flame strength to match the age and quality of the ingredients, if not, the ingredients may burn from overheating!" Said an Expert.

"Wow, making a Pill was actually this complicated?!"

"Of course. Why do you think that we have so little Pill Masters around?"

The ingredients inspection had taken around 15 minutes before everybody began making their Pill.

'I need to spend less time on ingredient refining so I can have more time for the next two phases. It is already hard enough to make the Pill, so it is pointless for me to focus on the quality in my current conditions. All I need is a Low-Grade True Qi Pill! If I aim for a higher grade, it will reduce my chances of succeeding by a large margin!' Gin Seng thought. What is the point in showing off anymore when he is already standing on the edge of a cliff at the beginning of the contest?!

'I am confident that everybody else has the same thought as me right now!' He picked up an orange colored flower from the pile of ingredients and summoned his Divine Flames before swallowing the flower in it.

The orange colored flames floated in his palms for a few minutes before dissipating and leaving behind the same flower as before it got swallowed.

"Eh? Nothing about the flower changed, so what was the point of his actions just now?" Someone asked.

"Only the outside looks the same, but the inside is entirely different! You can't sense it, but the impurities within that flower have been reduced by 5 percent! As expected from the genius son of the Gin Family!" Said some Spirit Realm Expert.

"Only 5 percent? So little?"

"What the hell do you know? To get 5 percent in a few minutes is already splendid! If some ordinary Pill Student were in the same shoes as him, he would've probably gotten around only 2 percent! When it comes to the purity of a Pill, even one percent can make a huge difference!

All the contestants on the stage were doing the same thing, picking up an ingredient before covering it with their Divine Flame for a few minutes. Nobody wanted to lose face by failing to make a Pill in front of such a large audience, so they rather drop the quality of the Pill to gain extra time to increase the chances of creating the Pill!

Approximately 30 minutes later, the contestants finished with their ingredients refining and were ready to proceed to the next step, liquefying all of the ingredients in the Cauldron. This step usually takes up the most time when creating a Pill because they were required to put in one ingredient at a time. Unless they are skilled enough to liquefy more than one ingredient at a time without messing up the other one, there was no other way to shorten the time spent on this step. If they try to increase the flame power, it will only burn the ingredients.