The registration process to receive competition numbers grew more interesting by the minute. The number of people coming to register kept increasing instead of decreasing. Those who registered online got to move through faster lines, but there were many alchemists, especially those not particularly skilled with modern devices. After discussion, the Association decided to open several additional on-site registration points.
"I'm back!"
In the middle of one of the faster-moving lines, a small figure ran in hugging a red doll. Her mouth was full of snacks, making her cheeks puff out. Behind her, a thin young man carried various bags of snacks with a dry smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Yeye! Where did you go?"
Hui'er grabbed her little sister's hand and wouldn't let go. The two of them were like Yin and Yang. Hui'er's outfit was exactly the same as Tang Yeye's in every way, except hers was light red. When they stood together, they looked perfectly coordinated.
Dragon Queen had been ordered by Bai Fanxian not to openly reveal her identity. When Tang Yeye accidentally released her hand, the "doll" tumbled down and plopped on the floor. Mei Ying, who was standing beside them, had to quickly pick her up before someone stepped on her.
"Little Red wanted to eat snacks. So I took Little Red to buy some."
Tang Yeye shifted the blame to Dragon Queen, who couldn't speak out loud. But she still sent out her voice through qi without moving her mouth.
"Hmph! Wasn't it you who dragged me there?"
"Oh! I bought snacks to share too." The little one pulled Hui'er while pointing toward the General's hands. Liu Yianfei's hands were now full of many bags of snacks, which he happily distributed to the children.
At first, the group of people waiting in line were about to show their displeasure, thinking these two were cutting in line. But both of them were just children with a man taking care of them, and he clearly wasn't here to register for competition. So they let it go quietly.
This happened at every competition. Families and friends would come to cheer and give support. From that group, the one who actually looked like he'd compete was probably just that old man wearing dark sunglasses and a flowered shirt, looking like he was here for vacation.
That's right. Sword Master Zheng Renyi wanted to prevent anyone from making a fuss today since he just wanted to come cheer for his granddaughter. So he went and asked Huang Zihuan to help find some disguise equipment for this occasion.
And it wasn't that he ended up in this state because the old butler bullied him. It was because his granddaughter liked this outfit.
This great Sword Master, whose current cultivation power was equivalent to an army Field Marshal, was now wearing a pink flowered Hawaiian shirt with shorts. On top of that, he also wore brown flip-flops and black sunglasses.
Even people who knew him before would hesitate to greet him. The old man was confident that today, no one would disturb him.
"Next in line, please~"
The sweet, clear voice of the registration staff called out, snapping everyone's attention back. Zheng Renyi quickly walked forward first. The old man's outfit managed to startle the staff member as expected. But with her experience, she maintained a natural smile and spoke normally without issue.
"Grandpa, you'll be competing, right? May I see your online application form?" The female employee pointed to a sign that listed all the required documents. But it wasn't as she expected. Zheng Renyi quickly waved his hands in refusal and pushed the three little children forward instead.
"I'm here as their guardian. These three children are the ones registering."
The moment he finished speaking, both the young staff member and the applicants waiting in line all froze and turned to look. They bent down to look at the three children whose heights had only just cleared the table edge by a little bit, their faces full of surprise.
"Um... you'll be registering for the amateur division, right?"
The young woman could somewhat understand. This year, the competition was divided into amateur level, not exceeding Tier 2, and finally unlimited level.
For the amateur level, most participants would be very new alchemists. Some were still ordinary people who had only just started cultivating not long ago. It was a level meant for people interested in this path to try participating in the competition for fun.
"No... we'll be registering for the not exceeding Tier 2 division."
Hui'er spoke up as the representative of all three. This was what my lady had decided from the very start. Bai Fanxian viewed that competing with people who still made mistakes even when refining Tier 1 pills wouldn't help them at all.
So this past week, she had crammed massive amounts of raw materials and necessary knowledge for Tier 2 alchemists into the three children's heads. As for martial arts, there was no problem. Hui'er and Tang Yeye had already reached Martial Artist level a while ago. As for Mei Ying, she had followed closely behind and reached it three days ago through absorbing massive amounts of pills.
Even if they lost, it didn't matter. Bai Fanxian wanted all three of them to gain these experiences.
"...I understand. Your numbers are 1,211, 1,212, and 1,213. Keep these name tags safe and don't lose them."
The young staff member handed over sticker tags about two palms in size. They had the applicants' names written in the corner, along with a large number displayed in the middle.
Liu Yianfei, who now not only had both hands full of snack bags but also had to tuck Dragon Queen under one arm, was quite surprised at the number of people registering in this division. It seemed like there were far more than he'd expected.
Zheng Renyi walked out to stand beside him. He stroked his beard and suddenly fell into thought.
"I went and checked with several old companions. This past month, the number of cultivators who managed to break through to the next level has increased unexpectedly."
And that had allowed many people who'd been stuck at the peak of Qi Gathering level to step into Martial Artist level. That included Tang Xiuhan, Tang Yeye's father. The middle-aged man had woken up one morning in shock to discover he could advance to the next level just like that.
In truth, after hearing this news today, the entire Tang family had wanted to come cheer for their daughter and little granddaughter so badly their hearts nearly burst. But with work obligations and being held back by Bai Fanxian, they couldn't make it.
.
.
.
Morning time was completely used up just for registration. The Association and Yang family had already planned that this competition would drag on for a full three days. So when afternoon came, the contestants were moved into the grand hall and divided according to the division they had registered for.
Unrelated people weren't allowed inside anymore. The three little ones had to say goodbye to Liu Yianfei and Zheng Renyi at the entrance. Fortunately, Dragon Queen looked like a doll and stayed in Tang Yeye's arms the whole time. The staff checking at the gate didn't think anything of it and allowed her to enter as well.
At least they could be confident that no one would be able to bully them when the adults weren't around.
Inside the hall, it was packed with several thousand people. The most numerous were the applicants in the amateur division, and it descended in order from there. In the unlimited division, the fewest people had registered. Counting them all together, there were probably only about a hundred or so.
But this place was worthy of being a major recording station. The moment everyone had entered, a pair of male and female hosts quickly began proceeding with the program. Several cameras in the room moved around systematically to capture the atmosphere. The viewers who had been separated off to another corner were watching this scene with great interest.
"For the first round of testing... we will be testing all divisions together simultaneously..."
The moment the host said this, murmuring sounds arose from both the viewers' side and the contestants. Those in the unlimited division revealed smiles. In contrast, the amateur division started showing worried expressions on their faces.
"What does that mean?"
"Will this be fair?"
Seeing the crowd starting to get confused, the male host nodded in satisfaction that the situation was going as they'd planned. They wanted to capture this scene to use for adding interest when it was broadcast.
"Don't worry! Because the first test is... material identification!"
The moment he finished speaking, large doors beside the stage opened up. Before long, dozens of male and female staff members were pushing carts that were overflowing with many alchemy raw materials. There were herbs, mineral chunks, and even raw materials from living things that could be seen. Altogether, there were more than several hundred types!
It could truly be said that the Medicine Association had agreed to open its own warehouse for many people to see this time.
"For every alchemist, the foundation is knowing each raw material type well. For the amateur division, the material scope will be Tier 1. The not exceeding Tier 2 division will be Tier 2!"
"We will start testing one hundred people per room. You one hundred people will be separated to rooms with one hundred types of raw materials without type limits on display. You have only five seconds to answer the name of the material on the table correctly, before that material gets changed!"
The male host explained the rules. Moreover, on the large monitor screens, images of the exhibition rooms next door that had already been divided into blocks were being displayed. And in each block, there would be each type of material with a staff member standing there who would give points when you answered correctly.
This time, station employees had been emergency-ordered to come help the program. Plus there were many people from the Association. So they didn't need to worry about not having enough people.
"For speed, we've prepared three rooms like this! This grand hall will display real-time scores for viewers and other contestants to enjoy together!"
When he finished speaking, the screens all around changed again. They became detailed scoreboards lined up in order. But right now, no one had started yet, so everything was still at zero.
"To not waste time! We will start the first test right now!"
When the host's voice ended, the contestant groups were divided into many groups without following number order. It was unclear whether it was good luck or bad luck for the three little ones, because all three of them ended up together in Group 10, which was the very last group that would get to go in for testing!
"So boring..." Tang Yeye complained softly while sitting and waiting in a corner of the room. Right now, testing had reached Group 7. Each group took about twenty minutes. Score results and silent footage were being broadcast through several screens in the hall for viewers to watch.
Because even though this was a competition, it was also a television program. From the competitors' perspective right now, it might be boring. But if you looked at it from the viewers' perspective right now, what they were watching was the score chase between several favorites in the competition who were currently being tested.
"Oh! We have a new leader, viewers!" The male host himself was diligently doing his duty. He pointed toward a screen that now had one name whose score was clearly soaring upward.
"Congratulations to Mr. Fu Rong! Right now you're number one in the not exceeding Tier 2 division. Mr. Fu Rong's score is at 121 points!"
Not long after the host finished speaking, the doors opened and the three hundred people who'd gone to test in this round came back out. For the not exceeding Tier 1 division, there would be a full score of 50 points. Not exceeding Tier 2 was at 150 points.
Because the quantity of material types at Tier 2 was much more than Tier 1, the point distribution was like this.
Fu Rong, who'd walked out, was turning to wave at the camera. For this division, he considered himself quite the strongest. He could refine high Tier 2 pills at maximum. So this would be the division that would make him shine the brightest.
But the young man was still secretly surprised. Even he, who had been so confident in himself, when he actually went in to test, there turned out to be over twenty types of materials from both Tier 1 and 2 that he'd never seen before. The staff members taking care of those materials were also cultivators from the Association who protected them like precious treasures.
He didn't know where the Association had found those materials.
But when he thought about how even he didn't know them, he didn't need to worry that ordinary alchemists would know them either. You could tell just from looking at the scores on that board.
Fu Rong laughed comfortably. The male host even pulled him up to interview on stage up close. But while he was recounting the hardships of his childhood, the viewers who were keeping watch on the scoreboard started making a commotion!
There were three names that were soaring upward continuously with shocking speed!
At first, most people couldn't really tell. But when all three of them passed through the score range where most people usually clustered and came out, they started standing out!
One hundred.
One hundred and one points.
One hundred and two points.
They kept increasing without stopping to rest. Even some Tier 3 alchemists were interested.
The fact that they could increase up to one hundred points meant that at the very least, all three of them must be in the not exceeding Tier 2 division. Because mostly, standard alchemists of this tier would have scores like this.
But all three of them still didn't stop. Those scores continued surging upward. The rankings under those names kept decreasing non-stop. Meanwhile, all three shot up to touch 120 points!
Fu Rong himself wiped the sweat from his forehead in relief. But before he could say anything more, the scores of all three started increasing crazily once again!
One hundred twenty-three.
One hundred twenty-four. They'd passed Fu Rong already!
One hundred twenty-six.
One hundred thirty!
Those numbers continued surging upward. The graphs of all three stood out prominently at the very top of the table with equal scores. It depended only on who would answer first. Those scores still didn't stop.
One hundred forty-seven.
One hundred forty-eight.
One hundred forty-nine.
One hundred fifty. Full points!
Throughout the entire hall, everyone became shocked. Three names were showing off brilliantly, leaving fourth place Fu Rong far behind without even a trace. They swallowed their saliva because this test had been confirmed by many experts who'd come out saying that it was extremely difficult!
So then who were these three people? Both the viewers and contestants were wondering. It was at the same moment that the program director ordered displaying all three names on every screen in the room.
Rank 1. Hui'er — 150 points!
Rank 2. Mei Ying — 150 points!
Rank 3. Tang Yeye — 150 points!