Chapter 224: The Competition

Chapter 224: The Competition

The tools required for the competition, such as alchemy furnaces and artifact forges, were provided by the Jiuhua Zong, and the witnesses inspected them beforehand.

After confirming that there were no issues and that the quality was identical, Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin officially took their places in the arena.

Chu Ning and the other three were seated in a corner of the high platform to watch the competition.

When they saw Lu Jikang frowning slightly as he held the jade slip at the alchemy table, the crowd had a good idea of what to expect.

Indeed, Lu Ji had studied some alchemy techniques before.

Just as Ge Liuyang had said, there were similarities between alchemy and artifact crafting techniques.

However, if it were a intermediate-low grade potion, he might have been able to manage.

But the intermediate-medium grade potion was clearly beyond Lu Jikang's alchemy capabilities.

On the other hand, the short and unassuming Gu Guanlin seemed to have a good deal of experience in alchemy.

He carefully examined the jade slip, while simultaneously studying the spirit herbs laid out beside him.

The subsequent process unfolded as the crowd had anticipated.

An hour later, when the white-haired elder named Peng announced the start of the alchemy competition, the two competitors began their alchemy attempts.

Even those with a rudimentary understanding of alchemy could now discern the difference in skill between the two.

Lu Ji's techniques were by the book and unremarkable, devoid of any special flair.

In contrast, Gu Guanlin employed a mysterious and intricate fire control technique.

As time passed, the aroma of alchemy began to waft from Gu Guanlin's furnace, while Lu Jikang's remained silent.

Lu Ji's expression grew more anxious, and he cast a series of incantations onto his alchemy furnace.

"Bang!"

The sound of a failed attempt reverberated through the arena.

Lu Ji's defeat was now apparent to all

A chorus of disappointed sighs escaped the mouths of the Jiuhua Zong disciples.

Although they had known that Lu Jikang was not adept at alchemy, they had still harbored a sliver of hope. Now, that hope had been dashed.

As long as Gu Guanlin successfully refined the potion, the first victory would go to the Da Luo Zong.

Gu Guanlin's alchemy proceeded without a hitch.

After opening his furnace and retrieving the potion, he placed four pills into a small jade bottle and sent it flying towards Elder Peng.

Elder Peng examined the pills and showed them to the other four witnesses before nodding in satisfaction.

"Gu Guanlin of the Great Firmament Sect has refined four intermediate-medium grade pills. Lu Jikang of the Nine Petals Sect failed to produce a pill. The Great Firmament Sect wins this round."

Hearing this, Chu Ning turned his gaze towards Gu Guanlin on the high platform.

To be able to refine four pills on the first attempt at an intermediate-medium grade potion, this person's skill in alchemy was indeed commendable.

Even within the Jiuhua Zong's alchemy pavilion, there would be few who could match this achievement.

Elder Peng then proceeded to arrange the next round of artifact crafting.

At this moment, the middle-aged Confucian scholar standing beside Elder Peng rose to his feet.

He took out two blank jade slips and, in full view of the crowd, copied the contents of the jade slip containing the Nine Luo Refinement Technique that Elder Peng had shown them earlier.

After ensuring that the five witnesses had inspected the jade slips, he waved his hand, sending both slips flying towards Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin in the arena.

Elder Peng smiled at Yu Changge and the others, saying, "As the Nine Luo Refinement Technique will be used in the upcoming rounds for the other four competitors, we won't be sharing it with you just yet.

We will also need to separate the participants with sound barriers to prevent them from communicating with each other after their matches.

We have confirmed that the refinement techniques on both jade slips are identical.

As for the crafting materials, they will be shown to the competitors shortly.

We ask for your understanding in this matter."

Upon hearing Elder Peng's explanation, Yu Changge and Ao Langtian nodded their assent.

The crowd waited silently as Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin perused the contents of the Nine Luo Refinement Technique.

Half an hour later, Elder Peng announced that time was up.

It was unlikely that the two competitors could have fully grasped the intricacies of the refinement technique in such a short time.

"The two of you may now begin your artifact crafting competition," Elder Peng said. "You must use the Nine Luo Refinement Technique that you have just learned."

He gestured towards the middle-aged Confucian scholar.

"Chen, here, is an expert in artifact crafting and will be able to tell if you deviate from the prescribed technique."

Chen nodded and threw two pieces of black metallic material towards the competitors.

His eyes, along with those of the Jiuhua Zong disciples, remained fixed on the two in the arena.

As the chief executive of the Jiuhua Sect's Artifact Pavilion, Lu Jikang carried the hopes of his sect for this round.

Soon, the two competitors had examined their materials and began the process of refining and purifying them in their newly exchanged forges.

Chu Ning's gaze shifted between the two before settling on Lu Jikang, observing him intently.

Although Chu Ning had no prior experience with artifact crafting, his Spirit Vessel body granted him an extraordinary sense for the art.

At this moment, he could vaguely sense that Lu Jikang seemed to have a slight edge over Gu Guanlin.

Thus, he watched closely, eager to learn.

After all, he would be competing against Ao Xuan in this discipline soon.

This was a good opportunity to familiarize himself with the process.

Oddly enough, although Chu Ning had been clueless about artifact crafting before, he now seemed to instinctively understand what Lu Jikang was doing.

The power of the Spirit Vessel body granted by the system was indeed formidable.

Not only Chu Ning, but also some of the more experienced and artifact-savvy individuals in the crowd, began to notice this subtle advantage.

After repeating this process several times, the material in his hand, which was originally the size of a fist, had shrunk to the size of an egg.

A while later, the middle-aged Confucian scholar suddenly spoke up:

"Time's up!"

Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin stopped their refinement and threw their respective materials towards the high platform.

The middle-aged Confucian scholar grabbed the two pieces with a casual hand motion and examined them briefly before passing them to Elder Peng and the others to inspect.

Then, the middle-aged Confucian scholar spoke:

"Both sides used the Nine Luo Refinement Technique. In terms of refinement quality, Lu Jikang of Jiuhua Zong has a slight edge. Jiuhua Zong wins this round of competition!"

"Oh!!!"

As the middle-aged Confucian scholar named Chen finished speaking, the venue erupted in cheers.

The Jiuhua Zong disciples' faces broke into smiles.

They had realized that although the Da Luo Zong had come aggressively, they were not invincible.

Although Chu Ning and Yuan Rongzhang did not join in the loud cheers, their faces also reflected a hint of joy.

A thoughtful look appeared in Chu Ning's eyes.

"During Brother Lu's artifact crafting earlier, aside from his skillful control of fire for tempering, his forging technique also held profound mysteries, likely incorporating some kind of magical power.

There also seemed to be a certain rhythm and force in his actions."

Chu Ning secretly recalled Lu Jikang's artifact crafting techniques in his mind.

"I'll remember all of this for now and compare it with the Refinement Technique later. Perhaps I'll gain further insights."

As Chu Ning thought, he also kept an eye on the situation in the arena.

After the pill concoction and artifact crafting competitions ended, Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin descended from the high platform and flew into a hundred-zhang-wide battle arena in the center.

This arena, surrounded by rippling restriction fluctuations, had been prepared by Jiuhua Zong in advance.

Of course, for safety's sake, the witnesses and Ao Langtian's group had also inspected it.

At this moment, as Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin entered, the atmosphere in the venue became tense.

Unlike the previous two competitions, this bout would not only involve direct confrontation between the two but also carried the risk of serious injury and decided which sect would take the lead in the first round.

"According to the rules set by the representatives of both sides, there are no restrictions on the means of combat, except that no lives should be taken.

If one party feels unable to continue, they may concede early."

The white-haired elder named Peng made this extremely simple statement and then sat down.

His words caused the disciples of both sects to turn solemn.

In fact, there wasn't much difference between this and a life-or-death battle.

In the arena, the short-statured Gu Guanlin, as soon as the elder finished speaking, abruptly raised his hand.

Then, an extremely fierce magical fire blade slashed towards Lu Jikang.

At the same time, a pitch-black longsword appeared in his hand.

Flames flickered around the longsword, indicating it was no ordinary weapon.

Lu Jikang now held a giant hammer in his hand, which he swung down with force.

A fire radiance flew out, clashing with the fiery red blade radiance in the air.

At the same time, Lu Jikang's body emitted a muddy yellow magical power shield.

Obviously, this late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator from Jiuhua Zong had not let down his guard in terms of defense.

Just as his shield lit up, Gu Guanlin on the opposite side waved his hand, and several talismans were fully activated.

Judging from the power of the talismans, they were all intermediate high-grade, and there were even a few advanced-grade talismans among them.

However, Lu Jikang was also well-prepared and blocked them all while launching several attacks of his own.

Both sides clearly came well-prepared for this duel, unleashing various techniques.

However, the audience knew that the true deciding moment would come when both sides had exhausted their means.

Gradually, the two stopped using talismans and began to continuously attack each other with their magical artifacts.

Obviously, even with ample preparation, their resources were running low after such intense and continuous fighting.

At this moment, Gu Guanlin suddenly took out a talisman and activated it.

As his body was enveloped by the talisman, the longsword in his hand disappeared, replaced by a short sword.

"Magical artifact!"

Chu Ning, watching from a distance, couldn't help but exclaim inwardly.

He knew that his opponent had just played his trump card.

Lu Jikang in the arena naturally also understood this and turned solemn.

He waved his hand, and a shield appeared in his hand, along with a silver flying dagger.

"Also magical artifacts, and two of them!"

Chu Ning was slightly surprised to see the shield and silver dagger in Lu Jikang's hands.

It wasn't easy for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to wield magical artifacts, as it required a tremendous amount of magical power.

To simultaneously wield two magical artifacts was even more challenging.

After all, not everyone possessed Chu Ning's abundant magical power, allowing him to wield magical artifacts even at the early stage of Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, not everyone's magical artifacts were like the Twin Fire Rings, where the mother ring could absorb relatively weak magical power to gather and drive fire-attributed spiritual energy, enabling the daughter ring to launch powerful attacks.

Lu Jikang had already been fighting for a long time, and it was clear that his magical power had been greatly depleted when he brought out the magical artifacts.

In the next moment, Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin swung their hands simultaneously.

The silver dagger and the short sword flew out, shooting towards each other.

The silver and crimson radiances fiercely collided in the air! The next moment, they abruptly veered off course and shot away.

The crimson short sword flew towards Lu Jikang, slamming heavily into the shield that had appeared in front of him.

The shield shattered, but the inner shield blocked the attack!

On the other side, the silver dagger struck Gu Guanlin's talisman shield, hitting him squarely.

"This man is wearing armor!"

Soon, the crowd also discovered the reason.

Under the impact of the silver dart's power, Gu Guanlin's outer robe tore, revealing a metallic suit of armor underneath.

This armor was clearly no ordinary item; under the silver dart's strike, it remained completely undamaged.

At this moment, the slightly dazed Gu Guanlin wore a cold smile.

He abruptly raised both hands, and a short, conical weapon appeared.

In the next moment, several rays of lightning shot out from it, crashing down towards Gu Guanlin.

"A lightning-based spell! This person actually has a Thunder Spirit Root, a variant Spirit Root!"

Upon seeing Gu Guanlin's attack, everyone from the Jiuhua Zong turned pale.

Lu Jikang, who was in the middle of the arena, also had a slight change in expression. At this moment, he had no spiritual power left to support his continued use of the shield treasure in his hand.

However, the lightning attacks came from all directions, and he couldn't block them all with his shield even if he wanted to.

He could only use ordinary spiritual artifacts to gather a protective shield.

But this spiritual power shield was useless against Gu Guanlin's lightning-based attacks.

When Lu Jikang's external spiritual power shield was shattered for the third time, a lightning spell heavily struck his body.

"Puh!"

Lu Jikang trembled, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

His face turned deathly pale.

It was clear that this attack had seriously injured him.

Lu Jikang still refused to admit defeat, and he was about to launch another offensive with the spiritual artifact in his hand.

"Jiuhua Zong concedes this match!"

Just then, Yu Changge stood up and said in a deep voice.

In the next moment, he flashed into the arena, surrounded by spiritual power restrictions.

At this moment, Gu Guanlin's next lightning spell was about to strike Lu Jikang.

Yu Changge waved his hand, and the lightning spell disappeared in mid-air.

He then gave Gu Guanlin a cold look.

The latter's face turned embarrassed.

"I couldn't stop in time."

Yu Changge didn't say anything further and led Lu Jikang out of the restricted area.

There wasn't much noise in the arena.

Lu Jikang was the one with the highest cultivation level among the three from Jiuhua Zong, and he had two spiritual artifacts, yet he still lost in the spellcasting match.

This was unexpected for the disciples of Jiuhua Zong, and everyone fell silent.

Gu Guanlin wasn't the one with the highest cultivation level among the three from Da Luo Zong.

The one with the highest cultivation level was Ao Xuan!

Now, Lu Jikang, who had the highest cultivation level among the three from Jiuhua Zong, had lost to Gu Guanlin, who didn't have the highest cultivation level in Da Luo Zong.

In the first round of three matches, Jiuhua Zong only won one, which cast a shadow over Jiuhua Zong's chances of winning today.

Yu Changge led Lu Jikang back to the high platform.

"Brother Lu, I am incompetent and have let you two down."

Lu Jikang forced a bitter smile toward Chu Ning and Yuan Rongzhang, his words filled with guilt.

Chu Ning and Yuan Rongzhang wanted to comfort him, but Elder Peng took a step forward and said, "Sect Master Yu, according to the rules, we need to separate this disciple since he has already seen the Nine Luo Refinement Technique."

Yu Changge nodded and took out a pill, which he handed to Lu Jikang. He then returned to his seat.

Elder Peng then led Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin to the side.

The five witnesses simultaneously cast spells, placing isolation restrictions on the two.

This way, although Lu Jikang and Gu Guanlin could still hear the outside world, they couldn't communicate with anyone.

"Let the second round of the competition begin!"

As Elder Peng spoke, Yuan Rongzhang, who had been standing next to Chu Ning, stepped forward.

On the other side, Leng Daichun from the Da Luo Zong also stepped out.

"The remaining two portions are both intermediate high-grade pill formulas. Fellow Daoist Jia, please draw one of them."

Elder Peng then took out two pill formulas and asked the Golden Core female cultivator to draw one of them.

He then copied the formula onto two jade slips, which he showed to Yu Changge and Ao Langtian for confirmation.

He then gave the jade slips to Yuan Rongzhang and Leng Daichun.

The two immediately took the pill formulas and the spirit herbs and flew into the pill concoction platforms above the arena.

Chu Ning sat on the high platform, his eyes fixed on the expressions of the two in the pill concoction platforms.

When he saw that their expressions were abnormally calm, without any major fluctuations, he couldn't help but furrow his brows.

"It seems that both of them should be able to refine intermediate high-grade pills."

With this thought, Chu Ning's eyebrows knitted slightly.

Among the three matches in this round, Yuan Rongzhang's best chance of winning was in the pill concoction.

After all, he hadn't heard of Yuan Rongzhang having much experience in artifact crafting.

As for the Da Luo Zong, since they had proposed this method of competition, these three must have some involvement in pill concoction and artifact crafting.

It was just a matter of their level of proficiency.

So, Yuan Rongzhang's chances of winning were slim.

As for the spellcasting match, Yuan Rongzhang was only at the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment realm, while Leng Daichun was at the late stage.

Winning would be even more difficult.

Fortunately, over the past few years, Chu Ning had come to understand Yuan Rongzhang's pill concoction skills to some extent, and he knew that his friend had made great progress.

When refining a new type of intermediate high-grade pill for the first time, if all went well, he should still have a fairly good chance of achieving a 40-50% success rate.

That still gave him a decent chance, as not everyone had pill concoction skills like Chu Ning.

As Chu Ning was thinking about this, Elder Peng announced the start of the match.

Chu Ning watched from the high platform as the two cast their spells to control the fire and began extracting the spiritual herbs.

In the next moment, his expression turned serious.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end