Round 2 of the New Talent Competition, the metallurgy competition is about to begin.
The ingredients were brought in, the referee signaled the start of the competition, and the 20 contestants began to choose suitable ingredients and then weighed and measured them to find a way to combine them into the most perfect compound for the metallurgical process, each in their own way.
15 minutes passed, most of the contestants had finished measuring the ingredients and started the smelting process. Duong was no exception, he even pretended to be a bit clumsy in dividing the ingredients like the other contestants.
In addition to raw materials and accessories, the organizers also support the contestants with a mini metallurgical tool kit that looks like a blender in Duong’s world. First, the contestants need to put the main material, copper balls, into the machine and carry out the melting process.
This alchemy tool was originally a primary Fire attribute immortal treasure. As long as the candidate added spiritual power to support it, the temperature would increase quite quickly. With a Ta level spiritual power like Duong’s, it could reach over a thousand degrees Celsius in a few minutes.
After the copper was melted, the contestants began to add each type of material and adjust the spiritual power to support the fusion process. Common metallurgical tools would have an automatic fusion function so that Spirit Masters could also smelt, but this was a competition so the contestants had to do this process themselves.
After the fusion process is complete, the temperature drops and the bronze mass begins to solidify into shape. Finally, there is the cooling process.
20 bronze blocks were born one after another. Their shapes were a bit more primitive than before, but their colors were brighter, shinier, and a bit shimmering, because they were bronze blocks that carried spiritual power.
Time was up, Duong was the third person to finish the test because of his delay, the first person to finish was Luyen Vien Trung, followed by Long Mi, Ho Dao was bitterly ranked 4th.
The way the judges judged reminded Yang of cooking competitions, the judges consisted of four alchemist grandmasters sitting on one side of the stage. The 20 contestants were divided into five rows, the first row being the four fastest, the last row being the four slowest, each holding a box containing the finished product for the judges to score.
Based on completion speed and quality of finished products, Luyen Vien Trung scored 87 points, Long Mi scored 89 points, Duong scored 90 points, and Ho Dao scored 92 points.
Yang snorted in disdain when he saw the results, and at the same time, he heard two similar voices in his left ear, which were from Long Mi and Yuan Zhong. The reason was because Hu Tao’s test was graded by his grandfather, Grandmaster Peng Zhen. His grandson took the test, and he graded it. Hearing this was already funny. Many people secretly despised him, but no one dared to say it. Being an alchemist grandmaster of the alchemist association could be said to be extremely powerful and wealthy. If one offended him, one would have to quit their job.
Speaking of Duong’s score, 90 points, this surprised many people.
“That Lam family guy also got 90 points, the possibility of cheating is very high!”
“Yes, he definitely knows the questions so he practiced many times!”
“I don’t think so! The Lam family is an alchemy family, it’s no wonder this guy is good at alchemy!”
“That’s right! The Lam family has never passed the first round before, so there’s no chance to show off their alchemy abilities.”
“Even if you are good at alchemy, you will fail when it comes to refining treasures!”
“If he doesn’t come in last place in the next round, I’ll run around the field naked!”
At the end of part 1 round 2, combined with the 89 points of round 1, Duong achieved a total score of 169, rising to 2nd place. Although it was called 2nd place, Duong actually ranked 4th, because the 3 leading contestants Trung, Mi, and Dao all had 173 points.
After the scoring process is over, the contestants return to their resting positions and then begin the second part of round 2.
Part 2: Refining treasures, the contestants will draw lots to choose 2 similar parts of 2 different high-class treasures, these 2 parts will be disassembled into hundreds of small pieces and mixed together, the contestants must reassemble them into 2 complete parts within 100 minutes. The score is based on the time to complete the test, in addition, if the parts are damaged or not completed within the time limit, they will be eliminated immediately.
This assembly part is similar to the model assembly game, but the test does not allow the use of instruction manuals, and there are many similar details, identical in size and shape but different in weight and material, and there are also details so small that a magnifying glass is needed to see clearly, causing the contestants to have a very difficult time.
With the support of Google, Duong completed the test perfectly after 83 minutes, receiving 92 points, tied for 2nd place with Vien Trung with a total score of 231, Long Mi continued to lead with 232 points. In addition, in this test, 8 contestants were eliminated because they did not complete within the required time or damaged the details.
This time the audience was completely surprised. The test was drawn publicly, choosing parts from hundreds of different high-grade spiritual treasures, so there was almost certainly no chance of cheating. Yet, the candidate from the Lam family, who was looked down upon by everyone, had done excellently.
There are still many people who doubt: “He must have hit the jackpot!”
“Or is it cheating in the lottery?”
But most of them began to acknowledge Duong’s “talent”: “It seems we were wrong, the Lam family finally gave birth to an outstanding talent.”
“I don’t know how the next round will be, but looking at his current achievements, it can be said to be a miracle for the Lam family.”
Suddenly there was a burst of boos, a middle-aged man stripped off his clothes, jumped down from the stands, ran half a lap around the field, and was caught by the neck by security and taken out.
The embarrassing but humorous situation marked the end of the second round. The 12 contestants were given a break to eat and rest after two stressful rounds, before entering the third round.
Part 3: Alchemy, of course the candidate is not required to find medicinal herbs or refine the medicine into pills, this can take from several days to a month. This part of the test is a “smelling” test.
The product of refining treasures is called Treasures, and the product of refining pills is called Treasure Pills. Similar to treasures, treasure pills are divided into types: Spirit Pills, Immortal Pills, Holy Pills, Divine Pills, each type is also divided into low-grade, intermediate-grade, high-grade and super-grade. Different from common medicines used to treat diseases, improve health, treasure pills are products used to heal injuries, treat spiritual poisons, strengthen spiritual power, develop the soul… to put it simply, treasure pills are medicine for the soul.
The third part of the test seemed the easiest but was actually the most difficult. Each contestant drew a black box, these boxes were numbered in order of drawing, each box hid a mid-grade elixir, leaving only an air hole for the contestant to smell and guess the ingredients of the pill. Don’t think about guessing the name of the pill based on the smell and then guessing the ingredients from the name, because these elixirs all used ingredients that created similar smells. Unless you were a long-time alchemist, you could guess the exact name of the elixir based on the smell among hundreds of similar elixirs.
That’s for ordinary people, but Duong possesses “supernatural knowledge” so he doesn’t need to smell to know what’s inside the box, but of course he wouldn’t be foolish enough to show it all.
Each contestant was given a pen and paper to write down the ingredients they guessed, while the other contestants put their faces in the snorting box like addicts. Duong also pretended to snort, but in fact he was waiting for the results of the other contestants, to see who got the most correct answers, he also answered with the same number of correct points, just enough to maintain the top spot while avoiding suspicion.
As a result, Long Mi correctly guessed 18 out of 50 medicinal herbs, receiving 36 points. Duong correctly guessed 19 types, receiving an additional 38 points for a total of 269 points, rising to the top spot. Long Mi ranked 2nd with 268 points, Vien Trung ranked 3rd with 261 points, and Ho Dao ranked 4th with 260 points. These are the 4 contestants who entered round 3, the final ranking round.
The excellent performance helped Duong, who was the most despised person in the competition, become the top candidate for the championship. The contemptuous whispers no longer appeared, but instead there were admiring applause, compliments, and questions about Lam Trang Duong Lam family’s information. Even many alchemists and grandmasters who were watching the competition nodded in approval. Some even rated Duong higher than Trung, Mi, and Dao, not because Duong had a higher score, but because in terms of money and family background, Duong was far inferior to these three people.
The second round of the competition ended, Lam Trang Duong suddenly became famous, as soon as he left, dozens of reporters rushed to surround him and asked about his father’s health, husband and children, and all kinds of physiological abilities, to the point that the Alchemist Association had to send security to disperse the crowd, then sent a car and two Spirit General level bodyguards to escort Duong back to the Lam family’s apartment.
…
The Lam family residence was still apprehensive today so they didn’t dare to go cheer for Duong. This academic competition wasn’t broadcast live because of the policy of protecting the privacy of the talented people, so everyone sat in front of the dormitory yard waiting for Duong to return with the results.
Homeowner Lam Chi Khanh stood, stood, sat, sat, walked back and forth, and ended up forgetting where his chair was, and accidentally sat on a sharp stone stake that tore his pants. While being helped up by everyone, a luxurious carriage pulled by a spirit horse entered the apartment complex’s yard. Outside the gate, there were two Spirit Generals standing guard to prevent outsiders from entering.
The mouths of the entire Lam family fell open wide when the familiar figure of the young man stepped down. He grinned, raised his fist, and gave a thumbs up to signal good news.
Lam Chi Khanh asked tremblingly: “Y… did you pass?”
Duong looked at the tear-stained face of old Khanh, then looked at the expectant faces of the others, and a wave of emotions rose in his heart. Originally, there was no feeling at all, originally they were using each other, originally there was no relationship at all, but now he felt very sympathetic, very sad. This family had to bow their heads because of their arrogance, had to be humiliated because of their arrogance.
But thinking about it carefully, aren’t they arrogant? The weakest branch of the Dragon Clan, only relying on their efforts in mining and alchemy to rise to become a member of the noble alchemy guild, they were laughed at because their overall alchemy was inferior to anyone, but in reality, when it came to alchemy, how many people could compare to them? They were humiliated and looked down upon, was it really because they were arrogant, or was it because the world was jealous?
Duong smiled, all the anger and hatred in his heart disappeared, he nodded and replied lightly: “We’re in the finals, uncle…”
The children danced and shouted with joy, in their hearts they idolized Duong as a hero, the young men and women cheered with excitement, the humiliation in their hearts was drowned by pride, the middle-aged and elderly people were silent, tears flowing in joy of liberation.
Too much, just in the final but not the champion?
What do they need to be champions? The mistakes of the previous generation that made the next generation not dare to raise their heads have now been made up for by this generation. From now on, they don’t need to raise their heads, they just need to not lower their heads.
Another celebration, this time all night long.
…