740 First Round
After 2 rounds of what felt uneventful due to the participants being unable to hear any of it, group 3 was finally called for their turn.
Alex walked up to the group of staff members who were calling for them.
"Good luck," Zhanrou said from behind and waited.
Alex reached the staff and was made to go through a formation. Since the formation was upside down, he wouldn't be able to see what it was without using his spiritual sense.
While he wouldn't mind using it during the alchemy, he didn't want to blatantly show it off right here.
"25 years?" he heard the shocked sounds of some staff members next to him.
Alex quickly turned around and realized that the formation was meant to check his age. 'No wonder they are shocked,' he thought.
He couldn't help but wonder what they would do if he was here 2 years ago when he had the same knowledge as right now and considerably more talent considering his body hadn't regressed to such a hot mess.
The staff members then took his name and affiliations and put him amidst a group of 19 other people.
Alex looked at the group and saw that there wasn't really anyone that he recognized. There was a person or two that he saw before but he didn't count them as he didn't know them at all.
As Alex waited to walk out, a wave of spiritual sense washed over him.
"Please get your storage bags checked before you walk out," a voice said and everyone got in a line to get their storage bags checked.
Alex handed it over and the saint realm cultivator checked it. Since he only had a cauldron in his storage bag, he was allowed to go out easily.
Some of the other ones had to keep back their storage bags because of the items they had.
"You can move out one at a time now," the staff said and the first person in the line moved out. As soon as he was out, Alex heard the host speak out loud and introduce the participant.
One by one, everyone started walking out, and finally, it was Alex's turn.
"Next up, we have Yu Ming. A 25 years old, True King 5th realm cultivator that is also a True Heaven Alchemist. Most of you may know him as the person who spread the recipes for medicinal pastes, but he is also the first Alchemist that was appointed by the Royal family in a long time," the host spoke up.
'Wow, he sure knows a lot,' Alex thought with a surprised look.
After a few more introductions, they were finally all on stage and the first competition for the group was underway.
The competition, as Alex had expected from the other competition, was an ingredient recognition competition.
There were exactly 100 ingredients in front of the group, but they were hidden in a bunch of wooden boxes that were meant to keep their energy intact.
"You will all get at least 5, and at most 10, chances to come up here and pick an ingredient for yourself. Your task is to name it."
"If you answer the name correctly, you get 2 points. If you don't, you lose 2 points. These points will be deducted from your overall points so be careful."
"If you happen to choose an ingredient and don't know its name, you can choose to not say anything to preserve your points."
"Okay, so let us have you lined up for the competition. For the sake of fairness, we will do it by age," the host said.
Alex didn't even have to look around to know that he was the youngest. He lined up in the front and everyone else was lined up behind him with the help of the staff members.
"Come on up," the host said. "You will have 10 seconds to answer."
Alex nodded and walked to the front to see 100 different boxes laying around. '100 boxes and 20 players. It does seem fair,' he thought and randomly chose a box.
"Box 76," the host said. "What could possibly be inside?"
Alex slowly opened up the box and saw a branch that was full of greenish-blue thorns.
"Aquamarine Bellrose's thorns," Alex said.
"Correct! 2 points," the host said and took the box. Box number 76 was now off the table.
Alex returned to the back of the group and looked up at the floating images that were meant for the audience.
Surprisingly, the ones he could see always had the ingredients hidden. The second person after him hesitated for a moment and handed back the item.
Then the third one went and answered, getting it correct. Of the 19 others, about three-quarters of them answered, while the other quarter chose not to answer.
Finally, it was Alex's turn again. He walked up to the ingredients, picked one, and answered.
"Blue Spirit Vine."
"Correct!" the host said.
Then, Alex returned back to the line again. The same thing went on one after another until Alex had gone through 5 different rotations and had answered all 5 of his ingredients.
He had gotten all 10 points that were meant for everyone to get. And yet, his 6th turn came up as there were still 18 or so ingredients remaining that people had failed to answer.
Due to the host's announcement, most people had skipped the number that others had failed to answer or in some cases even made mistakes.
Alex could've chosen those, but he needed to play the game to get as many points as possible. As such, he had left the harder ones for last so everyone would have to skip over those and not get enough points.
Alex picked his 6th ingredient and answered it nonchalantly. Getting his 12th point, he returned back to the end of the group and waited for the group to answer.
If even 3 of them didn't manage to answer or got it wrong, Alex would get to guess again and that was all he wanted.
He waited for the people to go up front and name the ingredient, but to his surprise, there weren't just 3 people that failed to name the ingredient, there were 11.
Meaning, that when Alex's turn came around for the 7th time, there were exactly 9 ingredients left.
Alex went forward and named one of the 9 remaining ingredients, getting him 14 points.
He waited for the other 8 ingredients, silently hoping the others couldn't name it.
The other 19 members went through the round again, and Alex's turn came up again. This time, there were 4 more ingredients remaining.
Alex hadn't opened up these boxes so he was curious why everyone was failing these.
He went ahead and opened one of the boxes to find a Blue rose flower that just screamed Blue Spirit Rose, and that was what Alex wanted to say. However, before he could answer it, he realized that his mind was thinking of another answer on its own.
He looked at the flower curiously and noticed something that was hard to notice if he wasn't looking for it. Underside the blue flower, there was a patch of black that would otherwise be mistaken as a shadow.
"True Wound's Rose flower," Alex answered.
"Correct!" the host shouted.
Alex smiled and went back to the group. But even as he did, he realized that even after all of this time, he was still having to rely on Alchemy God's knowledge.
'How much more do I have to learn Alchemy before I can name an ingredient accurately without the skill's help?' he wondered.
He watched the people struggle to name the remaining 3 ingredients. By the time he was back there again, 2 of the original 3 remained.
'Again huh?' he thought and walked forward. He opened one of the boxes to find a fruit that he thought was Surging Henbit Orange. However, he didn't answer and checked it more carefully.
There was an answer in his mind, but he ignored it for the sake of finding the name on his own.
He stared at the fruit for 5 seconds before realizing that the leaves were rather thin and very dark green. Not to mention, the veins on the leaves were pointed in the other direction.
'Wait, this is not Surging Henbit Orange, this has to be Thin-leaved Skunk Orange,' he thought.
When he checked it with the answer in his mind, he realized he was right.
"Thin-Leaved Skunk Orange!" Alex answered.
"Correct!" the host said.
Alex smiled and returned to the group with only 1 box remaining on the table.
He counted his points and realized he had 18 points at the moment, and if everyone failed to answer the remaining box, he would get his 10th turn.
Alex didn't think that was possible as there were 19 members in front of him.
However, to his surprise, every single one of them failed to answer the name.
'How hard could it be? People should know by now not to go with the obvious answer,' Alex thought.
When his turn finally came around, he walked ahead and picked the final box.
He opened the box and saw a piece of ginseng in there. What was perhaps more surprising was that the name of the ginseng was pretty simple.
However, when he tried to answer it, he realized that there was a certain pull on his mind from the ginseng that was disturbing his thoughts.
'No wonder they couldn't answer,' he thought. 'They couldn't even think straight.'
Fortunately, Alex's mind wasn't so weak to fall victim to such manipulation. So, he loudly answered, "Mind Swallowing Ginseng."
"Correct!"
