Chapter 163
"Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you the Winner of this year’s spell crafting competition, Black Dragon of the Shadowed Blade Sect." The announcer calls and everyone in the audience cheers.
Karl approaches the judges and shakes hands one after another with a big smile, enjoying the spotlight. "Thank you very much for the opportunity. Today’s category was a fun one, and the contestants all did a great job." he says, loud enough for the crowd to hear him.
They all step aside to talk about spells and Mage type cultivation, while the stage is filled with cultivators I recognize from the alchemy judges table.
"If all the successful Inner Court alchemy contestants can gather and assemble here in the next twenty minutes please!" The lead judge calls out with an enhanced voice.
We start working our way to the stage, all just as eccentric looking as we were this morning, so the outfits weren’t entirely a psychological tool to help undermine our competitors.
"Greetings competitors, I hope you’re all prepared for today’s results. We had a much greater than expected result with this year’s randomly chosen materials. We had five successful grade 4 pills, one grade 5 pill over 90 percent purity, and most amazingly, a grade 6 pill over 90 percent purity. Almost all were different recipes and all used the same selection table." The announcer calls out with a smile.
"Upon review, we found that not one but two contestants today used advanced substitution techniques to replace ingredients for their pill with one that was available on the table. An impressive standard we hope will be repeated in future competitions. We will begin with the five grade 4 concoctions, if their makers will please proceed to the table.
I notice patched coat is up there, but he said we was creating an amphibious breathing pill.
"First up, in seventh place, this canine senses pill at 72.3 percent purity." The man with green fishnets on his arms waves to the crowd who cheers him on. He might not be an amazing alchemist, but it seems he’s a local favorite. Maybe he runs a shop in town? Grade 4 pills of any quality are still pretty precious.
"Next, our six place finisher is this Wiseman pill at 74.1 percent purity." There’s a few chuckles in the crowd among the cheers. After all his big talk, he got sixth place.
"Fifth and Fourth place are both grade four polymorphism pills at 74.9 and 78.6 percent purity. Give the contestants a big round of applause!" The contestants go up to claim their pills and rewards.
"In third place, at a whopping 94.1 percent purity is this Deep Diving Pill. Now the contestant named it Amphibious Breathing, which is part of the Pill effect, so judges have ruled that the contestant did not break the rules." the man in the heavily patched coat goes up to claim his reward, a collection of rare herbs and a small plaque, waving to the crowd.