"Slling good ans nothing! We want a refund! He’s just a slacking bastard!"
"You have to give us a refund! Damn it, I bet a hundred thousand on him!"
"Refund! Refund! Refund!"
The gamblers, red in the face, started shouting up a storm.
"Just a friendly reminder to our audience," the hostess said with a wide smile, "once a betting slip is sold, it cannot be returned or exchanged."
Just then, a tall figure in a demon-faced leather jacket and a hat approached the gamblers. "You all bet on Zhou Chen?"
"Obviously!"
"I’ll buy back your betting slips. Ten percent of their value." Li Xiye held up a single index finger.
"Ten percent? Why don’t you just fucking rob us instead?"
"You don’t have to sell, you know. Sell, and you’ll at least recoup so of your losses. Don’t sell, and you’ll go bankrupt and take a nice long leap off a tall building," Li Xiye said, her voice dripping with schadenfreude.
She glanced at her watch. "There are only ten minutes left in the first round. Ah... another person just submitted. If you wait any longer, those betting slips will be worthless. By then, I’ll only be buying them back for one percent of their value."
"Shit..." A gambler took a long drag from his cigarette, then chugged several mouthfuls of cheap alcohol. "Damn it... This one’s for a hundred thousand. You’re giving a ten-thousand slip for Billy in exchange. Fucking hell..."
Li Xiye’s lips curled into a faint smile. "No problem," she said coolly.
In the final ten minutes of the match, four people had already finished their alchemy. With one contestant disqualified due to poisoning, only five remained.
During this ti, Zhou Chen had only added pure water to his cauldron once. He made no other moves, simply eating his stir-fry in a leisurely manner.
The other four Alchemists were drenched in anxious sweat. The faster they finished, the higher their chances of advancing to the next round. They had to snatch that fifth spot to gain an advantage in the scoring phase.
"About ti."
Zhou Chen finished the last bite of stir-fry on his plate, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and elegantly wiped his mouth. Then, he lifted the scorching-hot lid of the cauldron with his bare hands.
BUBBLE BUBBLE.
Inside the cauldron, a thick, bright red liquid churned violently as bubbles rose and popped. Zhou Chen stirred it a few tis with a ladle, then abruptly cranked up the heat, evaporating the excess water from the potion.
Half a minute later, he turned off the heat. He ladled out the silky-smooth red liquid, poured it into a vessel, sealed it, and pressed the submission button without any rush.
"What?" The other contestants froze, their heads snapping in his direction.
’This guy actually managed to create a Regeneration Potion?’
’What the hell? Wasn’t he just trolling and slacking off? Why did he suddenly succeed at Alchemy?’
"How unexpected!"
The hostess exclaid in amazent, "Contestant Zhou Chen has successfully created a Regeneration Potion using his... peculiar thods of Alchemy! We don’t know about the quality yet, but perhaps this Regeneration Potion should be called ’Stir-fry Soup’?"
"Haha, just kidding! There are three minutes left on the clock, so not much ti remains for our other contestants."
Beads of sweat the size of peas broke out on the faces of the remaining Alchemists as they hastened their work.
In the end, two Alchemists managed to hit the submission button just before ti ran out. The other two were eliminated for going over the ti limit and walked away sighing, which earned them a barrage of curses from the gamblers.
The hostess announced, "Alright, now it’s ti for the judges’ scores! Let’s see the quality of the potions our contestants have created. First up, we have the work of contestant Billy."
Three elderly Alchemists took the Regeneration Potion crafted by Billy and began to inspect it, judging it from every angle and analyzing its effects.
"Not bad. An excellent piece of work," one of the elderly Alchemists said. "Contestant Billy followed every step of the textbook thod perfectly. A potion made like this is no different from one made by a registered Alchemist. Let’s proceed directly to the volunteer test."
A muscular, bare-chested man soon walked up to the judges’ table. The spotlights converged on him, making him the focus of the entire arena.
A beautiful woman in a bunny girl costu approached with a platter, upon which rested a dagger. The brawny man picked up the dagger and, without a word, sliced a gash into his arm so deep you could see bone. He didn’t even flinch.
——After all, if you want to test the quality of a Regeneration Potion, what could be more definitive than a live human trial?
The brawny man picked up the Regeneration Potion made by Billy and poured it onto the ghastly wound on his arm. His expression changed instantly, as if he were enduring imnse pain.
One minute and fifteen seconds later, the wound on his arm had completely healed under the potion’s effect, not even leaving a scar.
Upon seeing this miraculous scene, the audience erupted in a tsunami of cheers, seemingly convinced that Billy had already secured the championship.
"This is one of the most effective Regeneration Potions I’ve ever seen," the brawny man said. "The wound healed quickly, there’s no discomfort after the fact, and even the lost blood was replenished. The only drawback is the few seconds of intense pain when the potion makes contact with flesh. That could be distracting in a fight."
"A very high evaluation from Brother Hu! Now, let’s take a look at the potion from our second-place contestant, Lü Qiang," the hostess said with a smile.
After the judges’ appraisal, Lü Qiang’s potion was found to be nearly identical to Billy’s in terms of quality, but it fell slightly short in practical application—the healing speed was too slow.
The third-place finisher, Goblin Ah Bin, had slightly modified the potion. He sacrificed so healing speed to completely eliminate the few seconds of intense pain.
The fourth-place contestant’s skills were also solid, but compared to the top three, the quality of his potion was a notch below.
Next up was the fifth-place finisher, Zhou Chen. The audience was on the edge of their seats, eager to see what level of quality this guy’s potion would achieve.
"This... The liquid is so smooth, without a single impurity! Its quality far surpasses all the other entries so far!" a highly respected senior Alchemist exclaid, his face a mask of shock.
’Such profound mastery of Alchemy. How did he achieve this level of purity?’
Hearing the judges’ comnts, Billy and the others frowned. The entire arena fell silent, as no one had expected the seasoned judges to give such a high evaluation.
"Contestant Zhou Chen, may I be so bold as to ask a question?" one of the judges asked.
"Go ahead."
"The stir-fry... is that part of your Alchemy process? Or were you doing it on purpose?"
"On purpose."
Zhou Chen gave a faint smile, his gaze sweeping over Billy and the others. "Because brewing this potion is too easy, I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge. I didn’t expect that even with the handicap, my potion would still co out on top... All of you really need to work on your professional skills. Especially the so-called three-ti champion. Is that all your title is worth? This? Is this all you’ve got?"
Hearing such a blatant taunt, Billy’s face darkened. "Are you looking down on ?"
"No, no, no, don’t misunderstand. I’m not targeting you. I’m talking about everyone here..."
Zhou Chen grinned, a smile that Billy and the others found utterly repulsive.
"——you’re all trash!"
After a mont of stunned silence, the arena exploded with deafening cheers and shouts, like a full-blown riot.
The audience loved this kind of arrogant contestant. This was the kind of excitent they craved! This was the good stuff!
"He’s so arrogant! I love him!"
"WOOHOO! Fight! Fight!"
"I want to see rivers of blood!"
The venue was a cacophony of shouts. The hostess finally managed to find a mont to cut in. "Ahem, ahem. Now then, let’s see the effects of the Regeneration Potion made by contestant Zhou Chen."
The brawny Brother Hu slashed his arm, blood flowing freely, and then poured Zhou Chen’s potion onto the wound.
Then, everyone’s eyes went wide with disbelief.
In less than forty-five seconds, the wound healed completely. The speed was astonishing, and there was no pain at all. In fact, it felt cool and quite pleasant.
Brother Hu’s jaw dropped. He recounted his experience, his voice filled with disbelief.
Once all the contestants’ creations had been judged, the hostess announced in a loud voice, "Well then, there is no doubt who the champion of the first round is."
"Congratulations to contestant Zhou Chen on winning the first round of the competition and successfully advancing!"
·
The first round of the competition ended, and the five advancing contestants returned to their respective preparation areas.
Zhou Chen smiled and waved to Li Xiye, then sat down next to Li Xiangyang. He lowered his voice, "Do a favor."
"What is it?"
"Investigate that contestant nad Lü Qiang," Zhou Chen whispered.
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