Another day has passed. Anda collected the final five Poison Repellant Pills she had just concocted and stored them in the pill bottle.
Except for the second set, she had successfully reached top-grade quality for every pill.
Her alchemy speed could be considered average, not too fast and not too slow, so she estimated that the round to end in two or three more hours. At this moment, Anda was very annoyed because Ori frequently directed his hostility toward her. She had to endure his nonsense for almost two days.
The gross smell intruded on her space, constantly in between his alchemy process. If possible, in the future, she would like to beat up this annoying evil kid to a pulp. Thankfully, her husband was always there to soothe her mind and heart. If not, she would have already flipped out long ago.
On the other side of the stage, Norin Homun had also finished all ten sets of Poison Repellent Pill, leaving her quite satisfied with her performance this time.
The presence of so many alchemy geniuses had awakened her competitive spirit, causing her to perform much better than usual. Her concentration throughout the third round was top-notch.
In her clan, she had always been the best among her peers for so long, to the point of feeling lonely. Nobody dared to compete with her.
But after the second round, the feeling of being behind someone gave her excitement. It made her strive to improve more. Norin felt that for some reason, the situation regarding her twin sister, Dorin, and her father felt trivial now.
Norin wanted to indulge in this new excitement she felt. She wanted to give her best for herself, not for anyone else. She had regained back a long-lost feeling when she started alchemy. Alchemy is so fun!
"Huh? This feeling, it's familiar." Anda sensed something for a split second and looked at Norin. It was something she experienced before, but not completely the same. She couldn't put her hand on it. She observed her for a while, but nothing happened.
"Maybe I imagined it," Anda whispered to herself and then observed other contestants who were still in progress.
"Hmm? Why did Anda stare intensely at that young lady from the Homun Family?" Leyvi asked, intrigued by her sudden actions.
"Maybe she wants her in the family, too." Leyvi heard Layla, Valenia and the maids answer his question at the same time with the same exact words. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then laughed loudly, including Lilian.
Leyvi was speechless.
It's over, Anda's ideology has poisoned them all. That was the first thing that crossed their mind after they heard his question. He felt that even Nala and Selene would have the same thought process after spending more time with Anda.
Magnus Goldstone, who secretly listening to the conversations that happened behind him, was quite speechless too. How did the girls around his son-in-law could get along with each other so well?
His wives and concubines were always at each other's throats trying to win his affection, not realizing that it only made him annoyed and gave him a headache. If he tried to speak up for any side, they would only perceive his action as favoring her and get more upset.
Maybe he should ask him for his advice on this matter, but that would be too embarrassing. He, as the older one, should be the one more experienced in this matter, not the other way round.
A few hours later, the final contestant concluded his pill concoction.
Elder Godari stepped forward and announced the end of the round. "Since everyone was done, I declare the end of the third round! Have you kept your pills in the bottle we prepared? Make sure you do because if you are somehow stupid enough to keep them in another bottle, be ready to receive zero points."
The contestants looked around to see if anybody was that retarded.
"Alright, without wasting more time, let's begin the point tallying." Elder Godari controlled the formation again.
"Same as the jade slips, the pill bottles had also been modified to achieve the same purpose. In a few minutes, it will finish scanning and sending the information to the ranking screen. However, before that, it will show us the list of the contestants who cheated first." Elder Godari's expression turned serious at the latter part.
"Huh? Cheater? Some people dared to cheat?"
"It's over for them. Why do they have to do this?"
"There's always someone like anywhere you go."
A few seconds later, six names appeared on the screen. The names of the contestants who had been identified to be cheating appeared on the screen. Four males and two females. Five of them came from wealthy backgrounds.
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"No! No! I didn't cheat! It must have made a mistake! No!"
"Someone framed me! I'm innocent! Please believe me!"
They immediately started denying everything, absolutely panicked and desperate.
Elder Godari immediately turned into a blur, quickly snatched the pill bottles in their possession, and verified the pills in person. Even though he was certain that the detector wouldn't be wrong, he still had to confirm it himself.
He sighed, looking disappointed. "All six pill bottles contain Poison Repellent Pills that someone made before the alchemy competition started. All six of you are disqualified from the competition and from now on you will be blacklisted from all Alchemy Association establishments!"
"Nooo! Please! Give me another chance! I won't cheat anymore! Please!" They were desperately kneeling in front of Elder Godari, asking for another chance or their future would be over.
"Hmph, get lost! You think you are so smart, but whoever tries to mess with the Alchemy Association will not have a good ending!" He raised his voice.
Just because he appeared amicable, these dumbasses thought they could take advantage of that and cheat.
Alchemy Association is the giant of the Cloud Continent. We have been doing this for a long time. Do you think your small brain can outwit the entire organization?
Soon, the disqualified contestants were tossed out of the Grand Stadium. Some were wailing, and some expressed hatred.
The people related to the cheaters were furious because they might get affected too by their stupid actions.
"Dammit! I have warned him many times to never cheat! But he still did it. This moron! I'm going to kill him when we get back! Idiot! Implicating the family!"
Elder Godari couldn't care less about this kind of people. Even if they continued to become alchemists, it would be hard for them to gain any footing after being blacklisted.
If they couldn't even follow the rules and compete honestly in front of so many people, who knows what scams they would engage in later? He didn't want the alchemy world to be filled with these types of alchemists.
"Ehem, pardon me for the quick intervention. The pests have been chased away. Now, I will present to you the results of the third round and their overall rankings!" He controlled the formation and refreshed the large screen.
1. Anda Leyan (90+98.4+199)= 387.4
2. Norin Homun (100+91.7+190)= 381.7
3. Ori Oregano (80+96.1+180)= 356.1
4. Mia Fafifa (60+92.3+180)= 332.3
5. Victor Goldstone (60+82.6+185)= 327.6
6. Natalie Clover (70+93.1+160)= 323.1
7. Amelina (70+79.9+170)= 319.9
8. Asmondol (60+87.9+165)= 312.9
9. Sarah Goldstone (60+77+175)= 312
10. Lars Vomil (60+85.4+162)= 307.4
11. Minami Clover (50+89.2+160)= 299.2
"Holy! That Anda Leyan had passed Norin Homun!"
"49 top-grade pills and only 1 high-grade? Is that one high-grade pill from her second set? Doesn't that mean if not for her cauldron breaking, she would have made 50 top-grade pills? What kind of efficiency is this?"
"Why do I feel like Ori Oregano wasn't that great? They hyped him up so much as the youngest prodigy in centuries."
"Are you stupid? The youngest prodigy in centuries is not the same as the best prodigy in centuries. You forget he is still 16. In another 10 years, he might dominate the next alchemy competition!"
"Look, in the top ten ranks, only Lars Vomil missed a pill."
"Yeah, I saw that. He made a crucial mistake on the fourth set. That's probably when he lost a pill."
"I hope Mia Fafifa can overtake Ori Oregano. I remember she started at rank 10 and now she climbed to rank 4 already. She's amazing! I'm supporting her all the way!"
"The two from the Goldstone Family did well this time, but it doesn't look good for the Clover Family. The fight for the top ten is quite fierce."
Asmondol felt quite surprised after he saw the rank. He thought he could get a better rank after he copied the miraculous technique from Ori, but it seemed that he had underestimated the other contestants too much. Most in the top ten did better than him.
Norin Homun stared at Anda with amazement. Her fighting and competitive spirit rose again. She was in the best condition this round. Her alchemy was better than ever, but Anda still performed much better than her.
Norin Homun slowly regarded Anda as her rival.