Chapter 357: 357
“There must be something wrong here!” the elder surnamed Yan roared, his face painted with disbelief.
Not just him, even Elder Su found it quite strange.
“What’s wrong? These are all handwritten by Fang Lin, can you find any mistakes?” Elder Su looked sideways at the elder surnamed Yan, speaking dismissively.
The elder surnamed Yan was furious. He scrutinized the three pieces of paper from beginning to end, his face becoming darker the more he read.
In the end, the elder surnamed Yan couldn’t find any issues and could barely restrain himself from ripping up the papers out of anger.
Old Woman Gu also had a sullen expression. The impact of those three pieces of paper was incredibly shocking, absolutely out of the ordinary.
“Since there’s no problem, announce the results.” Zhuge Cang handed the papers to the middle-aged man and instructed.
The middle-aged man nodded, controlling his trembling hands as he left with the papers.
Elder Su hummed an unnamed tune, leisurely sitting down, wearing a grin that seemed about to break open his face.
In contrast with him, the elder surnamed Yan and Old Woman Gu seemed rather somber. To anyone not in the know, it would seem as if someone owed them a considerable sum of money.
At this moment, the gathered crowd of laypeople and the genius Pill Refiners of the Three Lower Kingdoms had grown rather impatient. They had been waiting for a long time, yet a result hadn’t been announced. What was taking so long?
Suddenly, as the middle-aged man returned, all gazes in the audience fell upon him. Many were filled with anticipation, wanting to know who had the most well-rounded and best-crafted Pill Formula.
The middle-aged man laid the pill formulas in front of him and scanned the crowd. His gaze lingered a bit longer on Fang Lin.
Fang Lin still had that lazy demeanor, acting as if none of this had anything to do with him. His eyes were even closing, as if he could fall asleep at any moment.
This attitude of his caused a few people from the Qian Country to roll their eyes at him. You’re supposed to be representing our Pill Alliance of Qian Country, can’t you behave a bit more properly? Everyone else is sitting upright and composed, but here you were, slumped down and on the verge of dozing off.
The middle-aged man composed himself, recovering from his initial shock. He looked at the audience and shouted, “We have reviewed all your pill formulas; we even had City Lord personally review them. Therefore, you shouldn’t worry about their legitimacy. Even if you don’t trust us, you should trust Master Zhuge.”
Upon hearing this, many in the crowd nodded in agreement. If it had only been the middle-aged man and the two stewards from the Pill Alliance reviewing the formulas, errors might have been made.
But after Zhuge Cang’s inspection, the final results were guaranteed to be trustworthy.
After all, in these Lower Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Cang was a highly respected figure. Anyone who mentions him must regard him with respect.
“Hurry up, we’re all waiting.”
“Exactly, we trust Master Zhuge.”
“Whose pill formula is the most perfect?”
A number of people were shouting, but the vast majority remained quiet.
A faint smile appeared on the face of the middle-aged man: “I’ll just say it first, the pill you guys identified is called the Fire-suppressing Pill. You didn’t identify it incorrectly. However, only sixteen of you managed to perfect the formula by eighty percent.”
The middle-aged man quickly named the sixteen individuals.
Among them, seven were citizens of Yun Country, five were from Meng Kingdom, and only four were from Qian Country.
This contrast made it quite clear that the ten talented people from Yun Country had more influence than those from Meng Country and Qian Country combined.
But the crowd wasn’t too concerned about these sixteen individuals, after all, this was only the number of people who managed to reach eighty percent perfection of the Fire-suppressing Pill formula.
“There were four of you who managed to perfect the formula to ninety percent,” the middle-aged man quickly said, and named the four individuals.
Among these four, as expected, were Zhao Shenkong, Guo Zhen, and Su Xiaotong. The last one was a genius from Yun Country.
At this moment, the crowd exploded, and all eyes turned towards the two individuals from Yun Country.
Especially Zhao Shenkong, who grabbed all the attention. Though he was one of the four, it seemed like he shone brighter than the rest.
“Ha ha, you wrote on three whole pages, but it was a pity that it didn’t do you any good.” Li Jianlong looked at Fang Lin and laughed, his words full of obvious mockery.
Fang Lin responded with a faint smile, “If it’s useless, then it’s useless. Can’t I just write for fun?”
Li Jianlong didn’t say anything more, but his mood was quite good. His pill formula was more than 80% complete and he was amongst the 16 people.
It wasn’t like Fang Lin who filled three whole pages, and didn’t even achieve an 80% completion rate. This was just too laughable.
The others also glanced at Fang Lin one after another, some disdainfully, some coldly, and others sighed in their hearts.
Compared with his performance in the first round of identifying herbs, Fang Lin performed very poorly in this round of crafting pill formulas.
Although it was only just the beginning, Fang Lin didn’t seem to be very skilled in the art of creating pill formulas.
“But one person’s formula surprised me. Not just me, but also City Lord Zhuge, and Stewards Lu and Chen were also full of praise,” the middle-aged man added.
Upon hearing this, everyone looked surprised and astonished.
And Fang Lin, who was seated and seemingly on the verge of falling asleep, gave a slight smirk.
Zhao Shenkong’s face changed immediately, his brows slightly furrowed.
“Who could have created such a pill formula?”
“And it went so far as to receive praise from all three city masters?”
“Isn’t that a bit too exaggerated?”
Many people voiced their doubts. After all, what the middle-aged man had said was extraordinary. Would a simple Fire-suppressing Pill formula garner so much praise from the three City Masters, no matter how perfect it was?
It’s not like it’s some rare and obscure pill. It’s just a Fire-suppressing Pill, the degree of difficulty isn’t that high.
Su Xiaotong felt something was amiss. He turned to look at Fang Lin and seeing the latter’s indifferent attitude, became even more puzzled.
The middle-aged man paused for a moment, turning his gaze towards the direction of Qian Country.
This gesture didn’t escape the crowd’s attention, and they all looked surprised, following his gaze.
It didn’t fall on Su Xiaotong or anyone else, but on Fang Lin who was lounging around!
The faces of Li Jianlong and Li Feng froze, while the others were all staring in astonishment.
Fang Lin again? How could this be possible?
“Fang Lin from Qian Country wrote three different pill formulas. Each of them was perfected to a hundred percent, without any errors or flaws. They could be considered perfect.” the middle-aged man announced in admiration.
The entire crowd was shocked to its core, their expressions appearing as if they’ve seen a ghost. This was even more shocking than when Fang Lin identified the Snow Lotus with Pair Flower.
Especially the genius Pill Refiners from the Three Kingdoms, they stood there dumbfounded as if they had turned into stone.
Only Fang Lin was still as nonchalant as ever, even letting out a yawn.