Seeing Tiriana peacefully sleeping on her lap, Tanulia knew what she had to do.
”Go set a course to the Maven,” Tanulia ordered the alpha guardians staring at her. Hearing the order, the guardians obediently bowed their heads before leaving the room. They were trained to bey orders, not question them. That was why none of them dared to ask why they had to go to Maven, a kingdom in the Southern continent.
******************************
The next day when the sky turned bright, the flourishing city of Oxshore woke up along with the thousands of citizens. Only a few minutes after the first sunray emerged from the horizon, the citizens began to flow through the streets.
The place within the city, which was most crowded and lively today, was the arena. Since today was the grand finale for the individual competition, the number of people flocking to the arena doubled.
As time elapsed, the entrance doors of the guild slowly opened as the sun rose. Immediately, the mass of people outside began flooding in like tides.
Noah entered through the participants’ entrance as yesterday and walked until he arrived at the ground scattered with jade tables. He lifted his eyes and looked around, only to find that Leilan and Jennifer had actually arrived earlier than him. Besides the two of them, several competitors passed the two rounds of the competition yesterday. The group of alchemists were conversing and smiling with one another.
When Noah arrived, everyone, who appeared to be discussing something softly, suddenly lowered their voices significantly. Yesterday Noah shocked everyone with his skills. In their minds, he was the leading horse to win the competition.
”Master Noah, you are quite early,” Jennifer greeted Noah and strolled towards her place as Noah walked by her side,
”And you’re earlier than me,” Noah did not like her attitude when they first met. She belonged to the Voldigard family, which even his teacher told him to mess with. Besides, she was also Grandmaster Alred’s disciple. Hence, Noah did not appear to be too cold. He just smiled back and greeted casually.
”Did you rest well Master Noah? We all need to be in our peak state,” Jennifer softly asked,
”of course” Noah nodded. However, he did not rest as she thought. He was busy surveying the arena, the place where Hendrix stayed, and the guild studying all the ways one could try to assassinate Hendrix. According to Atian, the chances of assassinating Hendrix would go to near zero after he leaves Ozer. Hence, if one wanted to kill Hendrix, one had to try when he was in the arena.
”Don’t hold back anything Noah. Because I won’t” Liu Ling walked over to Noah only to challenge him. Looking at Leilan’s smug face, Noah just responded with a smile,
”I’ll have it no other way,”
On the VIP seatings, the judges and a group of elders and nobles gradually settled into their seats. When Noah looked over at them, Hendrix gave him a friendly smile. Noah’s gaze swept across the VIP seats to find Edith waving at him while sitting behind Ghost in his usual black robes.
Noah also noticed Eve, Jennifer’s elder sister conversing with Ghost like never before. Surprisingly, another green-haired girl sat beside Eve and Noah knew her. She was Ghost’s disciple, Olivia Palmer.
Recently his elder aunty told Noah that she had arranged for him a marriage to her friend’s daughter. According to her, that marriage would further strengthen the Winston family. Since political marriages were pretty standard in this world, Noah didn’t mind as long as the girl was okay with the marriage.
Noah had no idea that girl was none other than Olivia.
As time slowly flowed by, more and more competitors flooded into the open ground. Finally, all the competitors who had entered the ground went to the jade table they used yesterday. The alchemists who remained in the arena were the cream of the crop. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have reached the final round. Reaching the final round would alone open many doors of opportunities for them as well as get them into the Alchemy guild. Still, every single one of them wanted to win the competition and know the rewards for winning.
When the bright sun was high in the sky, the seats had all filled with countless crowds.
”Clang!” In an instant, a clear bell sound resonated through the open ground for a long time.
The moment the bell sounded, Noah, who had his eyes tightly closed, opened them. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves before raising his head to look at the VIP seatings.
”Ladies and gentlemen,”
Hendrix spoke to the crowd on the high platform as his light gaze swept through the entire place. Instantly, the people stopped their ruckus and turned their focus to him.
”Today will be the last and final day of the individual competition. The finale will decide the victor. You all put so much effort and hardwood to reach this stage. There is only one obstacle standing in your way. I wish you all the best,”
According to Atian, Hendrix would stay two more days until the end of the group alchemy competition. Then, although Michael had better things to do, he could spend a day or two with Olivia, who longed for Michael’s support. Moreover, she wanted him to witness her students in action.
When Hendrix’s voice fell, the crowd exploded into a thunderous roar, screaming as loud as they could in excitement.
Noah rubbed his ears as they became numb by the deafening sound. He turned his head around to see Jennifer and Leilan calmly looking around the crowd. The latter, however, had a cold smile on his face,
”This is my moment,” Leilan snickered. He had been training for the competition for a long time. For him, failure wasn’t an option. No matter what, he had to make his teacher proud.
Clap!
The thunderous clap echoed through the arena, instantaneously canceling all the noise. When the arena became silent, Hendrix began to explain about the final round.
”Unlike the previous two rounds, we won’t provide you with any ingredient or formula. In other words, you must successfully brew a potion or concoct a pill of your choice to the best of your ability in under an hour. The alchemist who refined the pill or potion with high purity and gets the most votes from the judges will be crowned as the winner,”
When the competitors in the arena heard Hendrix’s clear voice, many felt excited, except for some who did not prepare any suitable formulas or had sufficient ingredients. If they failed, they only had to blame themselves for being careless and not prepared.
As Noah’s gaze swept all around him, he noticed Leilan’s bright face. The latter was grinning. While Jennifer remained with her head held high as though she had absolute confidence in her formula and ability to refine something with a high purity level and miraculous effect.
In the VIP seatings, Michael frowned slightly. To him, the round seemed yet again unfair. Among the competitors, some were two-star alchemists and some were three-star alchemists. Surprisingly there were no four-star alchemists among them as the few who competed were eliminated yesterday. So naturally, three-star alchemists could refine a pill or a potion with a higher purity level than the two-star alchemists. The ability to refine purer products what made them three stars in the first place.
Hence, when asked to brew a potion or concoct a pill, whatever the three-star alchemist makes would have a higher purity rate than a pill or potion made by a two-star alchemist. In other words, the two-star alchemists stood no chance against the three-star alchemists.
”Remember, purity isn’t the sole determinant in the final. Whatever you make should impress the judges and get their votes. Keep that in mind,”
As though Hendrix had sensed Michael’s thoughts, he reminded the competitors. His words gave some comfort and courage to the two-star alchemists.
”Since everyone is already familiar with the examination rules,” Hendrix slowly raised his hand and abruptly waved it down on the high platform. A faint sound reverberated throughout the entire place, “The final round will now begin!”
Just like before, the ghostly giant hourglass materialized in the air as the competitors immediately took out everything they needed from their space ring. From the audience seats, countless gazes stared intently at the over one hundred competitors on the open ground below, waiting for their splendid performance today.
After Hendrix went to sit on his chair, the trio in the center did not do anything. Instead, they coincidentally remained silent and mused with a frown, recalling everything they needed to know about the potion they were going to make.
The silence persisted for nearly ten minutes before Jennifer and Leilan took out their cauldron and a set of ingredients from their space ring.
Hearing the sound of the cauldrons landing on the jade tables, Noah frowned as the cauldrons that the two pulled out were clearly not the same ones they used yesterday. Seeing the profound auras that were emitted from the ancient looking jade cauldrons, it was clear that the cauldrons clearly belonged to the Epic Class.
(Item classes => Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary)
They surpassed Noah’s cauldron, which belonged to the Rare class.
”That little brat,” sitting beside Ghost, Eve mumbled,
”She took grandpa’s cauldron,” Eve said with a helpless chuckle only loud enough for Michael and Olivia to hear,
”Better cauldron will definitely raise her odds to win,” Olivia whispered to Olivia,
”She better win this. What do you think Ghost? You’re still betting on Noah?”
Michael nodded. If nothing dramatic happened, he knew Noah would win the competition easily because, unlike them, he knew Noah’s secret.
”Lord Gabriel, is that the cauldron you used decades ago?” Alred asked, pointing at Leilan’s jade cauldron, which had a tint of redness to it,
”Yes,” Gabriel responded with a simple nod,
”If my memory serves me right, you used it to take the champion spot during that year’s competition. It seems you’re pretty confident in your student,” Alred amused,
”He will win this,” Gabriel’s voice was full of confidence and trust. All the judges had already begun to bet on their favorites. Still, they had no idea the competition would become a butchery.
Edith suddenly stood up, walking toward the door in the back while the judges and the nobles were observing the alchemists on the ground. Michael noticed Edith leaving but didn’t pay any mind to her.