Chapter 117

Chapter 117: Excellence Can’t Be Hidden

The instant Ye Wan Wan’s furnace opened, the tightness left Fang He An’s face.

He grinned wide and said: “Junior sister, you’re amazing.”

Before Fang He An could shout, Li Wan Zhi bellowed from below the stage: “Junior sister is amazing, the best, the very best! Supreme Sect is trash, trash, nothing but trash!”

The audience stared.

Brother, do you want to turn around and look at who is sitting right behind you?

Li Wan Zhi had run to the front of the stands. Behind him were rows of Supreme Sect disciples. He waved a flag by himself, shouting for junior sister to go, then stomped on the Supreme Sect without seeming to notice the people right behind him.

Hearing him, Ye Wan Wan looked his way and smiled.

[Trash should have been thrown out long ago.]

Fang He An laughed and said: “Keep it up.”

Ye Wan Wan answered: “Senior brother, don’t worry.”

After that brief loss of composure at the start, Ye Wan Wan was calm again.

Soon elders came by to inspect their pills. Pleased, the elder looked over each batch and said with a smile: “Not bad, not bad. All First Grade, and the highest quality reaches High Grade.”

“Pass.”

All three passed together, and all three passed with the highest grade of the round.

Murmurs rose around them.

“Using ordinary herbs to produce First Grade High Grade pills is almost the limit of the round. These three are very talented.”

“No kidding.”

The three advanced to the next stage.

Chi Yan frowned and asked Ye Wan Wan: “When did you learn alchemy? You said you didn’t like it before.”

Fang He An picked at his nose and drawled: “Can’t you guess? To protect your fragile pride.”

Chi Yan gritted his teeth: “I wasn’t asking you.”

Ye Wan Wan said evenly: “My senior brother told the truth.”

Chi Yan froze.

Ye Wan Wan turned to him and met his eyes. She said quietly: “I used to spare your feelings, so I didn’t study many things I could have learned. Even the ones I learned, I hid. But I’ve realized something. A genius’s light can’t be covered.”

She looked ahead and said: “I’m this excellent. I can’t hide it.”

Fang He An and Li Wan Zhi lit up and shouted: “Junior sister is right.”

Li Yan’s eyes warmed with a smile as he said: “Junior sister is also a little playful.”

Bai Jian clenched her fist and said: “She’s excellent. That’s all.”

Shen Nan Zhou lowered his gaze and laughed softly. Yes.

The contest moved to the second stage. It tested Grade-Two pills. First-grade herbs appeared in the medicine cabinets, but no second-grade herbs. The requirement was to choose a Grade-Two pill recipe from nearly three hundred ingredients and successfully refine it.

The time limit was two days.

An elder announced: “A Time Formation Array has been set over the platforms. On stage you will have two full days, which equals six hours outside the stage. No one will disturb you during those six hours.”

“If you choose to withdraw, raise your hand and you can leave the stage.”

Gasps rose from the seats.

“Two days to make a Grade-Two pill? Isn’t that too strict? A Grade-Two alchemist usually needs ten days to half a month.”

“Otherwise why call it a contest for geniuses?”

Fair enough.

The second stage began right after the first. Chi Yan and Ye Wan Wan didn’t leave the platform. Before it started, Ye Wan Wan and Fang He An switched back to their original places.

Fang He An asked with worry: “Can you handle it?”

Ye Wan Wan smiled and said: “Senior brother, don’t worry.”

She would defeat her own shadow herself.

They switched back. Chi Yan kept staring at Ye Wan Wan. She said calmly: “Keep staring and I’ll make a move.”

She turned and smiled: “I don’t remember any rule here that says we can’t.”

Lu Qing Xuan’s eyes lit up as he asked: “Really?”

An elder of the Dominion Pill Sect coughed and announced loudly: “Fighting is forbidden in an alchemy contest.”

Lu Qing Xuan went quiet.

Li Wan Zhi shouted in anger: “You’re targeting us.”

The presiding elder on stage also announced: “No fighting.”

“Fine, then let’s duel with skill,” Ye Wan Wan said with a hook of her lip as she looked at Chi Yan. “Fellow Daoist Chi, you won’t lose to someone who only started three months ago, right?”

Chi Yan’s pupils shrank.

Three months.

“I know you want to rile me up, but why tell a lie that anyone can see through?” Chi Yan sneered.

Three months to become an alchemist. Impossible.

The elder raised his voice: “Begin. No talking between alchemists.”

Ye Wan Wan said nothing more.

But the challenge was set between her and Chi Yan. They moved at the same time.

Fang He An glanced at Ye Wan Wan’s expression. Seeing that she wasn’t shaken, he relaxed.

When the stage began, the array arts activated, and people on stage couldn’t hear the outside world. In the eyes of those outside, only private alchemy rooms veiled in gauze remained. The alchemists and their recipes could not be seen.

This was to protect the alchemists.

Below the stage, Li Wan Zhi paced anxiously. Only then did he notice hostile stares. He swept his gaze back and saw Dou Ming and the others.

He snorted and said: “What, want to hit me? If you’ve got the guts, come hit me. They banned fighting on stage, not down here. Come on.”

Seeing a few stand up, Li Wan Zhi took a step back and said: “Oh, you’re really coming? Then I’ll use my ultimate move.”

He dropped into a horse stance, fists to his waist. He sucked in a breath, then shouted toward the Supreme Sect crowd: “Eldest senior brother!”

“Help!”

He turned and ran, straight for the Heavenly One Sect group.

The Supreme Sect disciples chased, but someone flicked two pebbles in secret at Li Wan Zhi’s knees. Li Yan flashed behind Li Wan Zhi and flicked his sleeve. The pebbles turned to powder.

Silence fell around them.

“Nascent Soul Stage.”

“So young.”

The Supreme Sect disciples stopped chasing at once.

Hiding behind Li Yan, Li Wan Zhi lifted his chin at Dou Ming and the others like a proud peacock and taunted: “Come on.”

Dou Ming clenched his fists.

Ji Chang Huai called out: “Junior brother, come back.”

The disciples of Azure Cloud Peak didn’t dare defy him. Dou Ming shot Li Wan Zhi a cold look and left.

Li Wan Zhi started to call after them, but Li Yan rapped him on the forehead with a laugh and said: “That’s enough. If a real fight breaks out, I won’t lose, but you will. I can carry your senior sister and junior brother away. Where would you run?”

After all, the Supreme Sect had more than thirty people. Four against thirty-plus was still a bit much.

Li Wan Zhi knew that and followed Li Yan back with a pout. He said: “I just can’t stand it. They hurt our junior sister so badly and still have the nerve to question her, like she’s a traitor. Where do they get that nerve? If junior sister hadn’t left, they would’ve bullied her to death. She wouldn’t be standing here like this.”

Shen Nan Zhou’s expression shifted. In the last life, Ye Wan Wan had never taken part in the Grand Sect Tournament. Not once.

Li Yan softened and said gently: “Winning under the stage doesn’t count. We’ll win it back on the stage.”

Bai Jian nodded and said: “That’s right.”

Li Wan Zhi looked at Li Yan. Li Yan nodded back and said: “Win it back.”

Li Wan Zhi nodded hard and said: “Okay.” He couldn’t lose. Fang He An couldn’t lose either.

Six hours was only a brief moment to cultivators. With a short meditation, time passed.

When the array arts over the platforms dissolved, everyone knew it was over. Compared to the six hours outside, Ye Wan Wan and the others had lived through two full days.

Fang He An looked a bit drained. Chi Yan showed a hint of weariness. Ye Wan Wan’s face didn’t change at all. She was the same as always.

Li Yan, Bai Jian, Li Wan Zhi, and Shen Nan Zhou watched for a while and relaxed.

Chi Yan, on the other hand, kept frowning at Ye Wan Wan. She hadn’t raised her hand to surrender.

“Time’s up. Open the furnaces.”

With the elder’s announcement, all of the alchemists opened their furnaces together.