Listening to Alex acknowledge the alchemists on the stage made everyone in the seating area focus back on them. Alex did so too. He checked back on the competition.
Wan Li was still the fastest. He had practiced pill-making so many times that he knew by instinct what he could do to save up on some time. Add onto that fact that he read up on it every single day, he was a beast of an alchemist.
Zhou Mei was quite good as well. Her years of practice weren't in vain either. She was proving her worth as the 2nd best disciple in the Hong Wu sect in front of everyone.
Fan Ruogang was having a hard time keeping up. She was mostly used to making pills slowly while having fun. She didn't like the competition aspect of pill-making. Still, since this was one, she didn't want to lose either.
The 3 disciples from the Spring Song sect seemed to be keeping up quite well as well.
Soon the competition was on the last stretch as well. Everyone started putting in their final ingredients and started making the pill.
The entire audience that was focused on the competition watched with bated breaths. The different sects taking part in the competition prayed that theirs be the first person to stand up.
Alex watched with plenty of anticipation as well.
Suddenly, there was movement. Wan Li stood up from his seat while pulling along a pill with his cauldron and ran to the pill tester.
No sooner had he reached the pill tester, 3 other participants stood up at nearly the same time. They were Zhou Mei, a disciple from Royal Fu Academy and another from the eSpirit Song sect.
They were all a step behind Wan Li, however, as Wan Li's pill crossed the 25% threshold without a problem and only stopped moving once the fog on the pill tester reached 29%.
The other 3 dropped in their pills on the pill tester as well and waited. Everyone had successfully managed to cross 25%, yet they didn't realize who crossed first. They would've to wait for the host to give them the result.
Fan Ruogang was a little late and was the third group of participants to stand up. However, she was sure that she wouldn't get into the top 3 now. She was quite sad.
Still, she hurriedly put her pill onto a pill tester and watched it go up to 26%. She had barely survived.
The other participants stood up one by one and started filling the lineup of pill testers as well. Surprisingly, around 20% of them had failed to produce an Earth-grade pill.
They seemed to have made a bit too many mistakes than they should have. After a while, all of them had submitted the pills and it was time to reveal the results.
The host walked up to a small podium and started speaking.
"Congratulations to all of you who passed. That was an amazing show of skill that I know anyone with the most simple of alchemy knowledge can appreciate."
"Unfortunately, skill alone won't help you win the competition. What will is speed, and here we have the list for the top 3 winners."
" On the 3rd place, we have, from Hong Wu Sect, Zhou Mei." A round of applause appeared as Zhou Mei herself was surprised that she managed to win the competition.
"On the 2nd place, we have, from Spirit Song sect, Han Long." Another applause sounded as Han Long smiled. He seemed pretty confident about the second place even before getting it.
"And in the 1st place, the winner is from Hong Wu Sect, Wan Li," The host shouted. Sounds of shouts and applause surprised Wan Li very much. He wasn't used to having too much attention and was starting to get a little nervous.
Fan Ruogang took the opportunity to jump on both Wan Li and Zhou Mei and hugged them as she congratulated those two.
"Damn it. I wish I could be in the top 3 too, then all three of us would be in the top 3," she said.
Soon they started walking back to the seating area.
"I will go back now too, master," Alex said. The competition was over and their sect members would be leaving soon.
"Alright. We will talk next time. You will take part in tomorrow's competition, right? We will watch that," Wen Cheng said.
"Take care, Junior brother," Luo Mei said. Alex said his goodbyes and left. Even as he left, he could see the stares from the girl named Su, and the guy called Yang Ma.
Alex ignored them and walked to the Hong Wu sect's seating.
"Ah, you are back, disciple Yu. How was your time? You did watch the competition instead of talking all the time, right?" the second Elder said.
The third elder snickered from the side. "Yes, second elder. I managed to see every competition quite well," Alex said.
"Good. This is a very good opportunity to view all forms of production and fighting methods using by cultivators in one place. We shouldn't miss it at all," the second elder said.
Alex could see the truths in those statements.
Soon, Ma Rong returned with the 3 disciples. Everyone congratulated the three of them as soon as they returned. While Wan Li had acquired 100 points, and Zhou Mei had gotten 33 points, Fan Ruogang had also managed to come at 5th place with 20 points.
Together with Tang Bao who earned 14 points, they had earned a total of 167 points from simply 2 different competitions.
They were now at 377 points and were 146 points away from entering the 1st grade. They all celebrated for a while. Afterward, since there was no more competition taking place, the group decided to leave first just like yesterday.
Alex wasn't against this idea at all, as he was looking forward to returning back to the hotel and logging out. His cousin should have already taken the capsule by now and he couldn't wait to try it out himself.