Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex searched around for information on the guild competitions and found some records of older competitions.

According to them, he didn't have to worry about making pills for the 2nd day's competitions as well. It was only on the 3rd day that the competition became about making pills.

According to the records, the 2nd day's competition was most likely going to be about pills, just not making them.

Alex read up some more on the rest of the records in an open library, but no one was looking at him. After all, he had completely changed his face to come out today.

Ever since people realized that the number 1 participant, the 25-year-old prodigy, Yu Ming was staying in one particular hotel, they had been camping it day and night to meet him.

Not only that, there were many people who actually came to meet him too. What surprised Alex the most was that the guild wasn't providing any sort of security as people were openly scanning his room with their spiritual senses.

Fortunately, the room had spiritual sense blocking formation, so Alex was somewhat safe. Still, walking outside wasn't possible, so he had to teleport away from his room to his mother's room and then leave that way.

Fortunately, no one could see past his disguise, so he was fine.

After the library, he went to the alchemy guild to search for Yin treasures, but there weren't any that would help him.

Disappointed, Alex returned back to the hotel and started preparing for tomorrow's competition.

The competition was held for 4 days, over the course of 7 days. So, there were 3 days of break, one in between each.

When the 3rd day arrived, the 2nd day of the competition commenced.

Alex's disguise wore off and he made his way to the competition ground along with his mother and the rest of the people.

Because this was the competition day, no one dared block his path. Not only because they respected him enough to not bother him, but also because the Lightsworns were flying around the city, maintaining peace.

Once Alex reached the cultivation ground, he separated and went towards the contestant hall once more.

"You are number 7," a girl told him as he walked in.

"I was number 3 the other day," Alex told her.

"It changes every day," the girl replied.

"I see," Alex said. "Thank you for letting me know." He then made his way to Zhanrou who was excited to meet him.

"You left too early the other day. I didn't even get to congratulate you," she said.

"Save your breath, it's only the first day," Alex said. "Who knows what sorts of mistake I will make the following days."

"You are too pessimistic," Zhanrou said. "What group are you in today?"

"7," Alex said. "What about you?"

"2," Zhanrou said. "I'm kinda glad I don't have to go against you today."

"Me too, I guess," Alex said. "I wonder if it's on purpose because of how high our points were for the first day."

"Maybe? It would make sense to separate us for the sake of entertainment," Zhanrou said.

"Congratulations on being first for the first day," Zhou Ren said. "But it's only one day. You can't just be good with ingredients. You need to be good with the other aspects of cultivation as well."

"You weren't bad yourself, brother Zhou," Alex said. "I'm afraid you will do way better now that you're so motivated. I might have to step up my game."

Zhou Ren showed and hid an angry face in seconds and instead smiled. "Yes. It's a shame we're not in the same group. It would be fun to compete from the start."

He walked away, leaving the two of them to talk to each other.

After a few minutes, the staff started moving around and soon the host started starting today's competition.

Not long after, the 1st group was called upon.

Silence ensued throughout the whole room as they were once again not made privy to the contents of today's matches.

Alex sat down nearby and waited for the matches to end. Unfortunately, they weren't allowed outside to see what was happening as that would give them an advantage, so Alex had to wait for over 6 hours before it was his turn.

By the time his group was called, the only person that was still remaining that he recognized was the middle-aged man in the corner of the room.

This was the man who took 2nd place on the first day.

Alex stood up and left for the checking area before he was let outside.

Once outside, Alex saw the crowd cheer up when they saw him. Suddenly, a pressure he hadn't felt yet started forming deep inside of him.

'Am I feeling nervous?' he thought. He couldn't see why that wasn't the case. In front of so many people, having to do his best when he didn't even know what was happening, he was slightly scared.

Not to mention, his arm depended on it.

Once again, Alex and the rest were passed along empty talismans to write it, only he wondered what he was going to have to write.

Alex was then handed a storage pouch which he checked inside to see 10 different vials, all with numbers on them.

"Your job now is the check into those vials, recognize the pill, and write down the ingredients required for that pill in the order of the recipe."

"Each answer is worth 2 points. For every wrong answer, you will lose two points. For every right answer that is not in the correct order, you will lose 1 point."

"If you cannot recognize the pill, you may call the staff to help you. However, for each pill they will reveal to you, you will lose 1 point from your overall points."

"You are allowed to eat the pill if you wish. Begin!"

Alex took out the first vial and opened the stopper to see a pinkish pill.

He smelled it once and immediately recognized the pill. "Swift Fox's advancement pill," Alex thought. The moment he did, the entire recipe for the pill came into his mind.

Without hesitation, he started writing the entire list of ingredients in the order they would go in.

Once done, he opened the 2nd vial and recognized that pill too. So, he started writing down the ingredients for that pill as well.

Then the third, and the fourth. It was on the 5th pill that Alex had to slow down and figure out what the pill was.

He looked at the color and analyzed the smell. Using those two pieces of info, he went through his mind to see through all the pills he had made until now.

Since this was a test about knowing recipes, he was sure that there was no recipe that would be hard to acquire, but that still left hundreds of pills to sift through.

Finally, he found what he was looking for and wrote down the recipe.

He did the same for the sixth and the seventh pill as well. Then, he was stumped on the 8th pill.

The 8th pill was completely white with no impurities on a visual level. It had some mild smell but nothing you could smell from a normal distance.

Alex tried to go through his mind but there were just too many generic white pills that smelled like nothing, so it was hard to tell what the pill was.

In the end, he had to eat the pill to figure out what it was.

As soon as he ate the pill, Alex felt the Qi around him get pulled in even faster than normal.

'Ah!' he thought and remembered a pill he made not very long ago for a mission.

'That pill huh?' he thought and wrote down the ingredients.

The 9th pill was the same. A generic white pill with no smell. Without hesitation, Alex ate the pill and felt his face start to change.

'I see,' he thought and quickly wrote down the ingredients of the pill.

Finally, he ate the 10th pill and felt a little squirming on his left arm as if it was trying to heal it.

'Got it,' he thought and named the ingredients for that one as well.

Once all was done, Alex handed over the talisman to the staff who checked it.

"All correct," the staff said. Just like that, Alex got another 20 points.