Chapter 74 - This Is Impossible!

Chapter 74 - This Is Impossible!

The entire venue fell into deathly silence as soon as Liu Wuxie finished speaking. Since Yun Lan dared to take out the life-and-death waiver, he must’ve made all the preparations. Although they didn’t know what Yun Lan was planning, his confidence suggested that something must have happened the previous night.

“Go on. What conditions do you have?” Yun Lan smiled. As long as Liu Wuxie agreed to the life-and-death match, he would fulfill whatever condition Liu Wuxie had.

“Include the two of them along!” Liu Wuxie pointed at Du Mingze and Wen Song. “If I win, all three of them have to die.”

Liu Wuxie’s condition was straightforward.

“Why should we? Who are you to bet on the three of our lives alone?” Wen Song interjected. He was naturally the first to disagree because the stakes weren’t fair.

“You guys don’t dare?” Liu Wuxie sneered.

“I can agree to your condition, but I must add another condition. If we win, not only do you have to die, but you also have to hand over the refining method of the Golden Spirit Pill,” Yun Lan said. He had achieved his goal now, killing two birds with one stone.

Everyone around them finally understood Yun Lan’s plan. Not only did he want to kill Liu Wuxie, but he also wanted the refining method for the Golden Spirit Pill. He had anticipated that Liu Wuxie might not agree to a life-and-death match if it was just Xiao Mingyi alone, so he had set this trap and waited for Liu Wuxie to fall into it.

“Let’s sign the life-and-death waiver then!” Liu Wuxie couldn’t be bothered to waste time with them as four life-and-death waivers were quickly submitted. Clearly, Yun Lan came prepared.

Under everyone’s gazes, Liu Wuxie, Xiao Mingyi, Du Mingze, and Wen Song signed the life-and-death waivers. The moment they signed the waivers, they would be in effect, and not even Shangguan Cai could stop it. The losing party would have to die with no way out.

A mysterious power enveloped the four of them, a result of the life-and-death waivers taking effect.

When the four returned to their positions, Ji Yang finally stepped forth and walked to the first table. He picked up the porcelain bottle, checked the pill, and poured it into his palm. He was trying to analyze the ingredients and effects of this pill, relying on his knowledge.

Each person was only given seven minutes, but Ji Yang only used three minutes for the first pill and swiftly wrote down his answer before moving on to the following table. After him were Qin Letian, Zuo Hong, Gu Yongshuang, and so on. Even after the first batch was done, it still wasn’t Liu Wuxie’s turn.

“The third round this year is really tough. I’ve never seen many of them before.” The alchemists, who were done analyzing, gathered together to discuss the result among themselves.

“Yeah. I gave up on four pills,” everyone sighed.

A few hours later, the last ten participants finally got their turn, with Liu Wuxie being the last as they walked to the first table. Everyone else was practically done as they glanced at Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie picked up the first porcelain bottle and poured the pill out from it. He raised it to his nose and took a whiff before sneering. “As expected, there’s a problem with it!”

The three judges also didn’t expect so many people to support Liu Wuxie, and they soon decided after a brief discussion. Sang Yan said, “We’ve unanimously decided to conduct public scoring, and everyone present can score the answers together!”

After all, if they didn’t agree to it, they would appear guilty, and they had no choice now but to post the standard answers on the board.

“Participants, please post your answers on the board,” Deacon Hua said. The wooden board was soon covered with answers, with Ji Yang being the first to post his answers. Shortly after, Deacon Hua posted the standard answers at the top of the board; everyone could see them at first glance. The standard answers included the names, formulas, and effects of the pills involved in the competition.

Xiao Mingyi and Du Mingze couldn’t hide their smiles as they looked at the standard answers, trying their best to contain their laughter.

As everyone from the observation area came down, thirty-five pavilion masters stood before the wooden board to verify the answers. Some people had similar answers to the standard ones, while some were pretty different.

“Young Master Ji Yang is impressive. His answers are close to 90% of the standard answers.” A burst of exclamation came from the crowd. This kind of situation had never happened before in previous years, and it was impressive if someone could come as close to 70% with the standard answers.

Many of the pills used in this year’s competition were newly created, and their effects and formulas had not yet been made public. The Great Yan Dynasty obtained the formulas through exchange with other dynasties, who also held similar competitions and exchanged formulas with the Great Yan Dynasty to promote the exchange of knowledge about pills. Even with the formulas, it was impossible to refine the pills without the proper refining technique.

“Young Master Qin Letian isn’t bad either, achieving 70% accuracy,” said someone as they compared the answers. Despite the significant difference from Ji Yang’s answers, Qin Letian’s were not bad. As they continued to compare, they found that Yan Ruyu’s answers were 50% accurate, which gave an idea of how tough this year’s competition was.

“What’s going on? Why are Du Mingze, Xiao Mingyi, and Wen Song’s answers similar to Ji Yang's? This is ridiculous!” Many people focused on Du Mingze and Xiao Mingyi’s answers as this concerned the life and death of Liu Wuxie. But they were stumped when they saw their answers because the coincidence was too great.

The pavilion masters began to look at each other with disbelief. Could this be a coincidence?

The fact that they weren’t together during the competition and didn’t have the opportunity to exchange answers suggested that there was only one possibility: they knew the answers beforehand. This would explain why their answers were the same, especially for Wen Song, whose standards were well known. If he had obtained 10% accuracy on his own, it would have been a heaven-defying feat.

Thus, everyone couldn’t help turning to look at the three judges. Sang Yan also noticed the serious issue because the answers were divided into three parts. Master Mao held answers to four pills, while Sang Yan and Zhou Xinsheng each held answers to three.

So there was only one possibility: the headquarters had leaked the answers before the competition. But pursuing it was no longer important as the round involved the life and death of four participants.

Bi Gongyu swayed and almost collapsed, as it was practically impossible for Liu Wuxie to win, relying on his answers alone. But everyone carried on looking down because it was time to determine Liu Wuxie’s fate.

“Liu Wuxie, prepare to die!” shouted Wen Song impatiently, jumping up and eager to trample Liu Wuxie under his feet.

“You think you can beat me since you have the correct answers? What a joke,” Liu Wuxie sneered. Others might not dare to speak out, but he wasn’t one of them. He had no taboos, and it didn’t matter who leaked the answers because these three would be dead people soon enough.

“Trying to struggle? Let me see how you’ll die later!” Xiao Mingyi sneered. There was no evidence to prove that the answers were leaked to them beforehand. So it didn’t matter, even if someone suspected it. After all, who would offend the headquarters for Liu Wuxie?

“This is impossible!” An exclamation interrupted everyone. Yun Lan was the first to look at Liu Wuxie’s answers, and he jumped after seeing them.