The Alchemy God entered the hall and congratulated all those who passed.
"To remind you all once again, those who have passed this competition will continue on until the end. At the end, we will choose 100 of you based on how well you've perford throughout the entire tournant."
"So, do your best, and I will see you all next ti."
The ones who had passed were dismissed again, while the ones who had failed were kept behind.
"What do you think he tells the ones who failed?" Killersky asked.
Alex shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't had any contact with people who failed," he said.
"I have," Killersky replied. "But they didn't tell . Apparently, they were vowed to secrecy or sothing."
"Maybe he offers them a job," Aethersage said. "Just because an Alchemist failed in a competition doesn't an they're bad. Maybe he finds the best of those who failed and takes them under his arm, to nurture them further."
"Do you think so?" Killersky asked. "I don't know if I would believe that."
As they left, Alex walked up to Jai Heiyun, who seed to be walking alone. "Are you alright?" he asked.
She looked up. "I'm… okay," she said. "I just feel bad for Sister Riveroak. I was sure she would pass, but… did you see her ranking?"
Alex nodded. "532, wasn't it?" he asked. "If only she had lasted maybe 20 minutes longer, she would've passed."
"Yeah. She must be feeling really bad right now, to lose such an opportunity," Jai Heiyun said.
Alex couldn't imagine.
"How did you pass?" Alex asked. "Considering your cultivation base, I would've assud you would fail too."
Jai Heiyun shrugged. "I managed, thanks to my body constitution," she said.
Alex paused. "Your body constitution? You have one?" he asked.
Jai Heiyun looked at him with narrowed eyes. "How did you not realize? I was the leader of your royal alchemy guild for so long," she said.
Alex gave an awkward smile. "I assud you were good because of your talent. I never guessed it had to do with your constitution."
Jai Heiyun shook her head. "It isn't exactly a constitution that helps with alchemy in particular. It just happened to do so today," she said.
Alex nodded but didn't ask her what it was. She could tell him on her own should she feel the need to.
Once they were outside of the secret realm, they went their own way. Alex t up with his master and the rest back in his place, who was quite happy with Alex's performance, despite him not even reaching the top 10 this ti around.
"I know how difficult it was. Brother Grimsight told they took away your Qi. I was worried you would lose much earlier than you had, but you surprised in the end. You managed to last way beyond what I had thought you would. It is unfortunate that you didn't reach the top 10, but I don't hold that against you. You did the best you could."
Alex smiled at those words. His master held a very high expectation for him, but there were tis when he was realistic about things, reasonable with his expectations.
"You should do better in the next two competitions, though. I want you to win the whole thing."
Alex nodded. He went on to explain how the tournant was set up for the remaining competition, which surprised Silvermist a little.
"They aren't failing anyone in the next competition?" Silvermist asked. "That's a weird choice."
"I thought so too," Alex said. "I thought there was a trick there at first, but the Alchemy God said the sa things to us as we left. So maybe he is giving us a competition where doing your best isn't required as much."
"Or…" Silvermist said. "The next competition is the one where you have to do your best."
Alex cocked his head. "What do you an, master?"
"Didn't you just say that the competitions have a hidden point system to rank you at the end?" Silvermist asked.
Alex nodded before his eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you believe that the next competition is going to hold the most points of all?" he asked.
"I don't see why not," Silvermist said. "Telling you that you can slack off for one competition, and making it the only competition where you can't slack off, is a pretty good way to check who the good alchemists are and who are not."
He looked at Alex with a firm look. "No matter what, you will do your best in the next competition as well."
Alex smiled and nodded. "I had no other intentions to begin with, Master."
Alex went up to Pearl and Whisker next and talked to them for a bit. It was a good way for him to understand how the audience felt during the competition since his Master wasn't good at conveying that information.
He wanted to talk to Momo next as well, but just then, they heard soone at the door.
"I'll go get it." Pearl walked away to open the door. A mont later, he returned. "Senior Firestar is here."
Silvermist looked up, surprised. He went to the door himself this ti and brought Firestar in.
Alex stood up as the woman walked in, the person who had given him a place to stay for two years when they were in Eclipsing Heaven, and bowed. "Greetings, senior Firestar. It is a pleasure to et you again."
Firestar smiled. "When I saw you back in my store, I had believed Brother Silvermist to have taken you out of desperation. I wished you the best, but I never believed you could do it. And yet, it turns out the truth was that you never needed my well wishes in the first place."
She looked toward Silvermist. "I must say, I have never been as jealous of you before this, Brother Silvermist. Not even when you got Senior Grimsight to act as your protector."
Silvermist laughed out loud in pride. "Everyone who underestimates my disciple deserves the shock," he said, and then his face got serious.
"But that's not what you ca here to talk about, is it?"
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