Chapter 130 - Crooked Path (1/2)

A 16-year-old girl stood at that table, still young and unaware of the true world. With so many looking at her, she couldn’t help but blush and fidget.

“Xiao Lian, you don’t need to be so nervous. Just speak up.” Xiao Ya smiled.

Xiao Lian regained some of her calm by taking a deep breath, but looking at Zhuo Fan’s pill in her hand, she got redder.

Not from shyness, but at how hard it was to describe. She didn’t know what was wrong with her at the time, that she judged this pill to be 1st grade.

She now felt embarrassed when she thought about how she declared her verdict. Despite all that, she had no choice but to proceed, “Young master Song refined an Appetite Pill!”

She then lifted it way up high, letting its fragrance drift about.

However, the crowd was silent, before bursting out in laughter.

“Ha-ha-ha, is that even a pill? He is a cheat after all!”

“That thing is not even a 1st grade pill! They give it to children to help digestion! Is that what you call a pill?”

“I can make a handful of them in less than a minute. I won’t accept it if he wins with this!”

…

The crowd was getting rowdy again. Xiao Lian was scared. Because this was her judgment, she couldn’t avoid punishment.

She turned her hateful glare at Zhuo Fan. Blaming him.

Any random quack on the streets could make this Appetite Pill. Why did she have to speak out for the most basic pill?

She didn’t know, but Iris Overseer knew fully well, “He must’ve used Bewitching Whispers. He used it first on Dandan and now on Xiao Lian, in the 3rd layer of Qi Condensation.”

“Humph, this brat is on a crooked path.” Peony Overseer snorted, “Damn girl, you always have that dopey look on your face. Are you still under his spell?”

“Master, senior aunt undid it for me!” Blushing, Xiao Dandan watched Peony Overseer shyly, then her eyes looked pitiful when she turned to Zhuo Fan, “Actually, I couldn’t be happier if he used it on me again!”

Peony Overseer held her forehead and sighed. What’s so charming about that brat? That got her brash disciple so smitten?

Chu Qingcheng didn’t mind, only sighed, “Bewitching Whispers isn’t important. What matters now is that Song Yu failed to become the winner. The Vicious Pill King will once again condescend us. The only thing that changed is turning cheating into Xiao Lian’s mistake.”

The scene played out as what Chu Qingcheng had said. Xiao Ya gestured for the excited crowd to calm down, “Forgive us, this is a mistake on our disciple’s part. The first place in the first round will…”

“Wait!”

Zhuo Fan waved and eyed her from the side, “Judge, you’re not taking my Appetite Pill for a 1st grade pill?”

“Ha-ha-ha, you call that a pill?” Yan Fu cut Xiao Ya roff before she could reply with his ridicule and made those around him laugh.

Thousands of scornful pairs of eyes bore into Zhuo Fan.

[You dare come to a competition with such a pill? You must’ve been blind!]

Perking the corner of his mouth, Zhuo Fan looked passed the mockery sent his way and spoke matter-of-factly at Yan Fu, “Then please, oh the best alchemist of Pill King Hall, Vicious Pill King’s prized pupil, young master Yan Fu, enlighten me. Just what exactly is the Appetite Pill?”

“Of course it’s…”

Yan Fu suddenly froze. He recalled something but he didn’t get the chance to continue.

Snickering, Zhuo Fan turned to the crowd, finally resting his cold smile on Yan Fu, “What, cat got your tongue? Ha-ha-ha, then let me refresh your memory. There are 12 pill grades, and 1st grade is the lowest. I can just throw the ingredients in the fire and, as long as it’s refined, the least it’ll be is 1st grade!”

The hubbub stopped in a flash, from the sheer shock his words implied. Even the faces of those mocking him froze, yet their eyes were bulging out of their sockets.

[Why didn’t I think of that?]

Because the Appetite Pill was that easy, that simple, even a normal person could make it.

This made the alchemists look past it.

But by definition, the lowest grade a pill could be was 1st grade. As long as the ingredients were refined, it was called a pill. Even the a botten of the barrel pill is considered to be 1st grade.

Speaking of it from this point of view, the Appetite Pill was undeniably a goddamned 1st-grade pill. Although, for everyone else, getting the first place in the Hundred Pill Meeting with such a lame pill was too insulting.

This led to everyone turning to Xiao Ya to hear her verdict.

Xiao Ya fell on pins and needles. Every single one of the participants here gave their all, even with a 1st-grade pill. They all wanted to excel.

Who could have foreseen such a weirdo use the lowest of the lowest pill to compete in the meeting? And to top it all of, he fuckin’ won!

Giving him first place would make the other alchemists feel unfair. So Xiao Ya could only compromise, “Young master Song, your pill may have somewhat fulfilled the bare minimum, but the first pl…”

“Is mine!” Zhuo Fan cut her short.