2177 The competition(Chapter preview)

Two days later, Sima You Yue followed a few elders to watch the alchemist guild's competition.

News that Sima You Yue had arrived spread, and knowing that she was going to watch the competition made everyone incredibly excited. Especially when she entered the competition location with the leaders. Everyone cheered loudly, and it was incredibly lively.

"These youngsters. In the past, we didn't see them welcoming us so excitedly." Xia Chang Tian complained teasingly.

"Of course. It's not like you don't know what kind of position You Yue has in their hearts." He Chen Dong replied lightly.

Sima You Yue was taken aback by their crazed fervour, "No way, right? I've never stayed in the alliance at all and never interacted with them. Why are they acting so crazy?"

"However, they know about the things that you've done. What happened in Fair Eastern City and the Sage Pavilion, as well as the black robed men. You don't need to do many things, they just have to be shocking enough." Xue Chang Lin said.

"That's right, there's also your talent in alchemy, tool refinement, seeker spirit master and arrays, beast taming as well as poisons. Tell me, which one don't you know? Which one are you not great in? Even if you don't do anything, your position as the vice alliance master. Your existence is enough to drive them crazy." Xiang Yang smiled and teased her as well.

Mm, fine. She felt like she had laid low enough, she didn't think it would still be like that.

"Let's take a seat."

The group took their seats as the host went upstage. In the past, everyone would naturally quieten down at this time. However, everyone was incredibly excited today and the whole plaza was extremely noisy. Many were even continuing to chant Sima You Yue's name.

The host looked at the platform helplessly.

"You Yue, just say a few words to everyone. Otherwise, I don't think that the competition will be able to proceed today." He Chen Dong said.

"Alright." Sima You Yue stood up and waved both hands. The plaza immediately quietened down. This difference in treatment simply made the host want to cry.

"Thank you everyone, for such a warm welcome! It really gave me quite a shock. However, the competition today is serious, so everyone, please quieten down and let the competition begin, alright? I will watch the alchemists compete along with you. Those who are competing today, you have to do your best! I wish you all the best!" She smiled lightly after speaking and sat back down.

Those in the alliance started to become excited again, and the alchemists who were going to compete became even more excited.

They had seen Sima You Yue's skills in alchemy before and some had just heard about it. At this point, she was equivalent to a deity in their hearts. Now that their goddess was encouraging them, they were pumped full of adrenaline. Even the female alchemists were rather excited, and were unable to be jealous of her at all.

Something like jealousy was a strange thing. If she was only a little better than them, they would be jealous of her. However, once she reached a level that they could not even dream of attaining, that jealousy would turn into admiration, worship. They couldn't be jealous at all.

The host tried to quieten them down again, and they were more obedient this time because their goddess had told them to be quiet and not to impact the competition.

The host was secretly in tears again. Why were they not so obedient just now! They really deserved a beating!

"Alright, let us now begin today's competition. May the various alchemists enter the arena…"

Sima You Yue watched as the host announced the rules. It was similar to the competition that she had participated in before. The first round was a written examination. Each person had one exam paper, and on it was written many ingredients and questions on alchemy.

At this time, Xia Chang Tian handed one set of exam papers to her. She took a look at the questions, which came in a thick stack. There were easy and difficult questions, tricky, rare and crafty ones too. There were even those that were rarely seen and would not often be used.

She answered all the questions and returned it to Xia Chang Tian. Xia Chang Tian knew the answers long ago and very quickly read through her answers.

Full marks!

Xia Chang Tian was not at all surprised by this outcome. Based on her abilities, this wouldn't stump her at all.

"That last question. My guess is that many won't know the answer, right? Why would you set such a difficult one?" Sima You Yue asked.

"Someone will know it." Xia Chang Tian said, "Right now, the alliance is planning to nurture some talents. Not just the talented ones. We can even nurture the stray ones."

Sima You Yue understood. These tricky questions were the ones they specially chose to sieve out the ones that they wanted to nurture. If someone was able to answer this question, even if they did not get good grades, they would be chosen as well.

Xia Chang Tian continued, "Just like a ridiculously talented person like yourself exists, if we want to grow the power of our alliance, we cannot look at the talents like we used to."

The others were still scratching their heads, but she had already finished and given it to them to evaluate. This showed the distance between them, which was more than just a hair's breadth.

"Are you praising me?" Sima You Yue smiled.

"There's no use praising you. What we need is to become stronger." Xia Chang Tian said, "It's a heavy burden and one that is far away!"

"It will." Sima You Yue replied.

Sima You Yue secretly felt like it was still a good thing that those black-robed men had appeared in the past. At the very least, they had given rise to the various guilds and gave them a sense of urgency so that they would stop being so arrogant. The real danger would be if they remained cocky and were unable to progress!

After the stipulated time was up, the contestants handed in their exam papers. The competition was considered to be over.

In the afternoon, the presidents of the other guilds did not come. It was only Sima You Yue, Xia Chang Tian and a few other vice presidents who came.

In the afternoon, the results were released. When the time came to begin the next part of the competition, all those who were not advancing in rank returned to the gallery to watch the show with the others.

Sima You Yue watched their competition for a while, then discussed the candidates with Xia Chang Tian. She realised that there were really a few good ones amongst the pool.

When the competition ended, Sima You Yue and Xiang Chang Tian left together. They went to the resting area, where Sima You Yue took out a thick book on pill recipes and handed them to him.

"These are?" Xia Chang Tian looked at those pill recipes in shock. The more he looked at it, the more shocked he was, "You Yue, where did you get these? Many of these are pill recipes that have been lost for a long time!"

"I happened to chance upon them in the past." Sima You Yue said, "I've seen the pill recipes in the alliance. All of these ones are new."

"Great! Great! With these, our alchemist guild will once again rise to another level!" Xia Chang Tian was incredibly excited. He had fallen into a daze from those pill recipes.

Sima You Yue saw him in a daze and laughed, "Then you can go ahead and take a look at it. I'll head back. See you at the competition tomorrow."

Xia Chang Tian no longer had the presence of mind to deal with her. He waved at her and said, "You can go back, go back."

Sima You Yue smiled as she left.

It was nightfall, the best time to kill.

In a number of places in the inner regions, a few camps were made outside. They were slowly surrounded. Before they died, they only saw a group of black-robed silhouettes.