Two hour remains of the civil selection contest.

“Mistress, something isn’t right about these charcoals.” Sounding faintly unwell in her voice, the one calling out was Little Crow who’s charged with overseeing the flames.

The girl had just added a couple of pieces to the dying flame. Yet, instead of coming back to life, the fire grew dimmer as a result of her actions. Then with a touch, that’s when she realizes the bottom of the coals were slightly damp and wet!

“What are we going to do, should I go and ask the other teams to borrow theirs instead?” Remorseful and guilty, she dejectedly asks.

Oh what have I done…. Mistress already told me to check the charcoals beforehand, but I ended up messing that up by only looking through the top two layers and forgetting the bottom one.

“No one is going to pay any attention to us at this point, nor would the members of the Dan Palace. Since they are willing to go this far then it could only mean they are not afraid of us exposing them.” Turning sharp in the eyes, Ling Yue promptly shot a glare over to the VIP seats currently housing the Sacred Maiden.

The sudden change in the girl’s expression wouldn’t go unnoticed by the interested parties of course. First to see the abnormality was Feng Shen, causing the boy to furrow his brow. Then afterwards it was Xia Hou Qi of Da Xia who cared greatly for his crush as well.

It’s been some time since the prince started learning under the dwarf. No matter how inept he was over concocting Dan pills, he still had a good understanding of how the process should go. Right now, the fragrance that once filled the hall has dissipated from Ling Yue’s cauldron, signaling something has gone awry.

“The fire’s about to go! The fire under that cauldron is about to go out!” A bystander calls out upon notice.

There’s only two hours before the end of the contest, a crucial time for any contestant. To have the flames die out now could only mean one thing, and everyone knows it.

In an instant, whispers and gossiping voices could be heard across the field regarding the situation, this also included Elder Wei Bo from his judges’ panel.

This Ye Ling Yue has a lot of talent and potential in alchemy, but her luck is too unfortunate.

“Mistress?” Tears were ready to leak out of Little Crow’s eye.

“Ho~ What are you crying for you silly. If it was Little Squeak here instead, he would be turning around to spit at those responsible. Come, do your boss here a favor and lend me your flames.” Rubbing the little girl’s hair to help elevate the mood, Ling Yue then readily tosses one of the coal pieces into the cindering pile of used wood.

After her initial stupor at the act, the little ‘phoenix’ then realizes what her mistress meant and why she would be chosen over Lan Caier for the occasion.

“I won’t disappoint you Mistress!” That said, a flush of red swiftly overtakes the little girl’s cheek as her excitement exploded.

Swoosh~

The little girl huffs heavily, blowing a gush of hot air in the general direction of the cauldron and causing a giant plume of searing heat to ignite from underneath the container. Not only was the burn hotter than anything until now, in a matter of seconds, a real phoenix made up of fire actually materialized into existence. Then following a beautiful rainbow glow and a jittery bird call from this mysterious creature, the flaming existence promptly made a swooping loop into the air before diving right into Ling Yue’s cauldron where she’s currently working on the pill.

In a matter of seconds, the field was once again hit with an overwhelming level of fragrance, sending the audience into an uproar with their grandiose move.

Though no one present could tell why a ‘fire phoenix’ would just suddenly appear from the fire, but it didn’t hurt the girls and brought them to everyone’s attention.

Before long, the burn on the last incense stick had come to an end as well, thus drawing the curtain to this three-day long contest.

For those who couldn’t complete their work in time, these poor souls had no choice but to resentfully leave the competing stage. Of the hundred or so contestants that entered, only one-third remains. Even so, that didn’t mean they are all equal.

Of those taking the lead, the first was the Kai Jiang Manor who finished first, followed closely by Zhu Ge Yi of the Sky Armor Sect in second, then finally it came to Ling Yue and Little Crow’s team who managed to complete theirs last in third.

It’s no surprise to anyone for Chen Minzhi to finish first in terms of speed considering he had the help of a legendary artifact, after all, it was a tool from one of the nine great sects of this world. There’s bound to be some perks when one has friends in high places. And sure enough, following the initial great brilliance of red from being delidded, what fell into everyone’s eyes were ten beautifully patterned red Dan pills sitting in the middle of the Origin Fire Cauldron.

Cheers erupted like a volcano from the Kai Jiang Manor’s side.

Ten red patterned reincarnation Dan pills, that’s the same as having a perfect success rate. However, in light of his grand feat, ‘Chen Minzhi’ only stood there indifferently before the crowd like his great achievement was as expected.

As discontented as it was for Zhu Ge Yi from the Sky Armor Sect, the senior had no choice but to swallow this indignation out of consideration for the Origin Sect’s influence. He didn’t do bad at all; in fact, he did exemplarily well and went beyond his limits for the occasion. Sadly, a yellow was still a yellow grade, even if there were fifteen in total.

As for the rest of the contestants, they were mostly yellow with the occasion red one appearing in-between. However, they all had one thing in common, the end product only ranged from four to six at most, a far cry from the Kai Jiang Manor and Sky Armor Sect.

Finally, after much waiting and anticipation, it was Ling Yue’s turn near the end.

Delidding her cauldron under the witnessing eyes of the audience, what came into view was something none expected due to how damning it was. It’s not red, it’s not yellow, it’s not even the proper blue pattern, rather it’s an assortment of colors like a rainbow.

That’s right, what the girl and her little assistant created were five very different reincarnation Dan pills. Not only were her numbers much less than some of her peers, the pills didn’t even have the proper pattern and only had the colors right!

First there’s the red, yellow, and blue, those colors are normal, but there’s also two oddly colored pills of gold and green.

Seeing this, Xue Pian Ran from her VIP seat could no longer hold back the cynical light from those eyes, Feng Shen, so this is the type of woman you fancy? She can’t even make a proper patterned pill!

Now the Sacred Maiden greatly regretted her folly of covering up for Princess Qing Bi when she ordered the tampering of the charcoals. If she knew Ling Yue couldn’t even handle this much then she could’ve just stood by and watch. Now she’s left herself vulnerable with this hole.

Likely perplexed or simply curious, several of the elders within the Dan Palace decides to personally examine the strange pills themselves to confirm there’s no mistake. But after looking over the strange beady items back and forth, they could discern nothing of special. In fact, they soon discovered it’s even lacking the needed qualities to deem them a success.

“This is impossible. How can it be like this? The pills definitely caused a miracle of summoning a phoenix flame during their creation, how come they are failures….” The only one remaining was Elder Wei Bo who was muttering to himself. As for the rest of the judges, they’ve long walked away to assess the remaining contestants who still needed help.

The rude remark should’ve infuriated anyone who took pride in their work, but not Ling Yue. The girl showed nothing like an angry brat who got insulted, rather that smirking grin in the lass’s face only hinted at ridicule over the Dan Palace’s incompetence to identify her work.

Suddenly, Elder Wei Bo got a very bad feeling about this, forcing him to furrow those brow in unease. “Everyone, forgive me for interrupting but my incompetence has left me unable to discern the quality of these pills. I would like to request help for a secondary appraisal.”