Fortunately, He didn't involuntarily release the Pill Splitting Qi and managed to make a single pill. With 30 seconds left on the clock, he took the finally prepared pill out of the cauldron and walked to the front.
He stood up and walked behind Huang Fu to register his new pill.
Many other participants were just done checking their pills yet none of them had done better than Huang Fu or Wan Li with their 49%. That was still the best harmony in this competition.
However, Huang Fu had another pill, and people were expecting more from him the second time around.
The various participants silently waited for him to put in his pill. Huang Fu didn't care about the onlookers and walked up to the pill testers before putting in his pill.
As soon as the pill touched the base of the pill tester, fog started rising up the side of the tester. It slowly rose and crossed 10%, however, it wasn't stopping right now.
It showed no signs of slowing down even as it reached 20%. Alex came over to watch just at that time and watched the pill tester work instead of putting in his own.
The fog slowly rose past 25% and reached 30%. However, there was still some distance for the fog to move up. 31, 32, 33%. The speed of the fog slowed down a little, but not a lot.
It was still going up at an acceptable rate. Soon it crossed 40%, and people got more attentive. They doubted that the pill would stop in the early 40s, but you never knew.
41, 42… 45%. The fog still rose and was now reaching the high ranking harmony level. Up until now, the third place was held by Han Long, who had made a pill with 48% harmony.
While the second and first place was shared by Wan Li and Huang Fu with 49%. However, that would soon change.
46%, 47%, 48%… 49%. The pill's harmony level reached the same level as the one with the highest rank right now.
However, there was something else about the number 49%. This was the highest harmony one's pill could have while it was in the Earth grade. A single percentage higher, and the pill would be in Heaven grade.
50%
Everyone gasped when they saw Huang Fu's pill cross the threshold and jump into the Heaven grade category. Han Long sighed when he saw that. He was already sad about making a pill that was 1% away from the winning rank, but now it was 2% away.
Wan Li felt sad too. He was the winner of the competition along with Huang Fu, but now, he jumped one step ahead, leaving him behind in 2nd place.
However, Huang Fu's pill wasn't done yet. Just as everyone was surprised about seeing the pill in the Heaven grade, the pill tester had the fog rise a single percentage more.
51%
The different viewers whether they be the other participants, staff or the audience realized, the pill wasn't done yet. There was more harmony that the pill had to show still.
52%
This brought out more reactions from the crowd. Huang Fu had 3% higher harmony than the person in the 2nd rank. While the number seemed small, it was a very hard number to achieve.
Finally, the fog stopped moving and stayed still. The final harmony of Huang Fu's pill was 53%. He was a clear-cut winner of the competition now.
Huang Fu smiled after seeing the result and went ahead to grab his pill. At the same time, Alex moved forward as well, but he was going to put in his pill.
He put in the Bronze Tiger's Rage and watched the fog slowly build up around the pill tester. His first pill was 43% in harmony level due to it being one of the double pills, so, most people had ended up ignoring him.
The only person who was watching Alex's pill tester were the staffs who were obligated to do so, Wan Li who wanted to see how his fellow disciple was doing, the girl from his sect and Alex himself.
Everyone else already believed that the winner of the competition was revealed and had gone to congratulate Huang Fu.
Slowly the fog build-up reached 10% and climbed up at a high speed. In front of the onlookers' eyes, it climbed up to 20%.
In the audience, all the Hong Wu sect members and some of the Tiger sect members were looking at Alex's pill tester's numbers go up.
Ma Rong especially, who knew just how good Alex was, was looking at his pills with great attention. The others had praised her for raising a good disciple when he showed a pill with 43% harmony when he hadn't been in the sect for long, however, he had been disappointed.
Now that it was his second pill, she expected greater results.
The pill tester soon reached 30% mark but showed no sign of slowing down. It caught the attention of a few more people, but wasn't enough to cause a commotion yet.
32%, 34%, 36%.
Alex watched as the harmony level soon reached 40% right in front of everyone. However, it still wasn't showing any sign of slowing down.
41%, 42%, 43%.
The harmony level gradually got higher and crossed his previous pill's 43% to reach 44%. The people from his sect commended him for doing better than last time, however, Ma Rong expected more and wanted more.
So, as she watched, the harmony level reached 45%.
It started to catch the attention of more people as it went up one more level and reached 46%. People were now starting to curiously watch his pill.
47%
The fog around the pill tester went up once more and people started looking with wide eyes. Han Long's eyes were especially wide as he wished for the pill tester to stop raising.
But things rarely happened as one wanted. And so, the Harmony level increased one more step and reached 48%.