Chapter 121: The Difficult First Round (1/2)
Chapter 121: The Difficult First Round
Translator: Sparrow TranslationsEditor:
After Feng Zhenqiu left, a middle-aged woman walked to the middle of the round altar, bowed towards the four directions and said, ”I'm Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda's Ming Ning. I am the chief presider over this Five Elements Pill Competition. Dean Feng was right, there are very few in our five empires who can step into the Heaven Realm's Three Great Heavens. As the saying goes: Heaven never seals off all exits. The Five Elements Desolate Domain is this way out for the people of our five empires, and the opportunity to enter it will be decided in this competition.
In this competition, there will be five Tier 6 Earth Pill Refiners, including myself, as the judges. I believe that as long as you can achieve good results, you will be able to obtain a good placing.
The first round will be an elimination round. May all participants use the jade tokens to guide you to your pill furnace.”
”Wuji, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose. Just let loose and don't get too worried. We can always come again during the next competition. Previously, we only managed to get 97th place. So it won't be too much of a drop if we don't get anything this time around,” Zhen Shaoke said to Mo Wuji encouragingly.
Mo Wuji nodded, ”Mr Zhen can be rest assured. Regardless, I will put in my best effort in this competition.
Even if Zhen Shaoke could come again in the future, it might not mean the same for him. On the other hand, the fact of Nine Moons Pill House obtaining the 97th place in the previous competition didn't really come as a surprise to Mo Wuji. How many big sects and powers were there within the five empires? In truth, Nine Moons Pill House really didn't count for much. Being able to enter the top hundred was already a pretty good result.
Holding the Nine Moons Pill House jade token, Mo Wuji was brought to a pill furnace near the side. Even though the intervals between the pill furnaces were big, the pill furnaces near the sides were still relatively squeezed.
After waiting for the participants to settle in place, Pill Master Ming Ning announced loudly, ”Due to the relatively large number of contestants, and to have a more convincing test of ability, our first round will be on purification. It will be graded upon 100 points, and the first 300…”
Hearing that it was about purification, Mo Wuji celebrated in his heart. This was a topic which he had no worries about. He was confident that he would not be worse than typical Tier 4 Earth Pill Refiners even when it came to Tier 4 spiritual herbs.
”The ingredient we’ll be purifying is the Tier 4 Iron Core Bodhi Fruit. Everyone will be entitled one fruit and a red firestone. You can find them in the pill furnaces. May all participants now place the jade tokens into the side of the pill furnace to open it. The competition will now begin…”
Hearing Pill Master Ming Ning announce the start of the competition, almost all of the pill refiners immediately placed the jade token into the sides of the pill furnace and retrieved the Iron Core Bodhi Fruit and red firestone.
However, Mo Wuji stood by in a daze, and did not immediately retrieve his items. The initial joy he had when he heard about the purification topic had long disappeared.
The Iron Core Bodhi Fruit was one of the hardest spiritual herbs to purify among Tier 4 spiritual herbs. This fruit had a tough exterior; it would be difficult to extract the essences even with earth fire, much less the lowest grade red firestone?
It could be said that this round was the most difficult for him, as his cultivation was the lowest among all the pill refiners.
To purify this tough spirit fruit, a higher cultivation would naturally make it easier. A low grade firestone could be made up with by using elemental energy and hand techniques. The lower the grade of the firestone, the higher the elemental energy needed. Now, he was using the lowest grade red firestone. What could he do?
Zhen Shaoke’s gaze landed on Mo Wuji. Seeing the others starting while Mo Wuji stood unmoving, he could not help but sigh in his heart. As the Young House Master of the Nine Moons Pill House, how could he not know the difficulty Mo Wuji was currently facing? He had already calculated his odds, but he did not expect that the first round of the competition to have an emphasis of cultivation level.
With Mo Wuji’s Channel Opening Stage cultivation, purifying the Iron Core Bodhi Fruit was already not a simple thing, much less emerge in the top 300 among these thousands of pill refiners.
The reason he chose Mo Wuji was because Mo Wuji’s pills seemed to transcend grades. According to his experience with previous competitions, the final round would definitely be a pill concoction round. It was not impossible to enter the top 100 with a supreme grade Tier 3 Mortal Pill.
In the previous competition, there was exactly a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner who trumped over a Tier 4 Earth Pill Refiner because of the grade of his pill.
But looking at the current predicament, Mo Wuji could very well be eliminated in the very first round.
After being at a loss for a full minute, Mo Wuji finally placed the jade token into the side of the pill furnace and opened it. Despite the difficulty, he was not going to be eliminated in the very first round.
After opening the pill furnace, he could see a fire red firestone, as well as a fist-sized black fruit. Besides those items, there was also a jade vase. There was a number of the jade vase which corresponded to the number on his jade token. It looked like this number was only imprinted after the jade token had been inserted into the pill furnace.
Mo Wuji placed the jade vase to the side before igniting the red firestone. Since he had already started, there was no time to be doubtful and be filled with hesitation.
The fire beneath the furnace raged; Mo Wuji slapped the exterior of the pill furnace consecutively. With these simplest of hand techniques, he cleaned the pill furnace.