Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 74 - This Is Impossible!

The entire venue fell into deathly silence as soon as Liu Wuxie finished speaking. Since Yun Lan dared to take out the life-and-death waiver, he must’ve made all the preparations. Although they didn’t know what Yun Lan was planning, his confidence suggested that something must have happened the previous night.

“Go on. What conditions do you have?” Yun Lan smiled. As long as Liu Wuxie agreed to the life-and-death match, he would fulfill whatever condition Liu Wuxie had.

“Include the two of them along!” Liu Wuxie pointed at Du Mingze and Wen Song. “If I win, all three of them have to die.”

Liu Wuxie’s condition was straightforward.

“Why should we? Who are you to bet on the three of our lives alone?” Wen Song interjected. He was naturally the first to disagree because the stakes weren’t fair.

“You guys don’t dare?” Liu Wuxie sneered.

“I can agree to your condition, but I must add another condition. If we win, not only do you have to die, but you also have to hand over the refining method of the Golden Spirit Pill,” Yun Lan said. He had achieved his goal now, killing two birds with one stone.

Everyone around them finally understood Yun Lan’s plan. Not only did he want to kill Liu Wuxie, but he also wanted the refining method for the Golden Spirit Pill. He had anticipated that Liu Wuxie might not agree to a life-and-death match if it was just Xiao Mingyi alone, so he had set this trap and waited for Liu Wuxie to fall into it.

“Let’s sign the life-and-death waiver then!” Liu Wuxie couldn’t be bothered to waste time with them as four life-and-death waivers were quickly submitted. Clearly, Yun Lan came prepared.

Under everyone’s gazes, Liu Wuxie, Xiao Mingyi, Du Mingze, and Wen Song signed the life-and-death waivers. The moment they signed the waivers, they would be in effect, and not even Shangguan Cai could stop it. The losing party would have to die with no way out.

A mysterious power enveloped the four of them, a result of the life-and-death waivers taking effect.

When the four returned to their positions, Ji Yang finally stepped forth and walked to the first table. He picked up the porcelain bottle, checked the pill, and poured it into his palm. He was trying to analyze the ingredients and effects of this pill, relying on his knowledge.

Each person was only given seven minutes, but Ji Yang only used three minutes for the first pill and swiftly wrote down his answer before moving on to the following table. After him were Qin Letian, Zuo Hong, Gu Yongshuang, and so on. Even after the first batch was done, it still wasn’t Liu Wuxie’s turn.

“The third round this year is really tough. I’ve never seen many of them before.” The alchemists, who were done analyzing, gathered together to discuss the result among themselves.

“Yeah. I gave up on four pills,” everyone sighed.

A few hours later, the last ten participants finally got their turn, with Liu Wuxie being the last as they walked to the first table. Everyone else was practically done as they glanced at Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie picked up the first porcelain bottle and poured the pill out from it. He raised it to his nose and took a whiff before sneering. “As expected, there’s a problem with it!”

As Liu Wuxie’s golden soul sea began to spin, a strange energy flowed from his right eye to the pill in his hand. A peculiar scene unfolded as the pill was analyzed in his hand, and the herbs used to refine it appeared before him, hovering in the air. The effect and portion of each herb was fully revealed to him.

Through the first and second rounds of the competition, Liu Wuxie had noticed that his golden soul sea had grown stronger when the mysterious sapling was awakened.

In his previous life, Liu Wuxie had practiced the Ghost Eye technique, but it did not have this function, and it was a means to unleash a form of soul attack. However, after the mysterious liquid transformed his body from within the cauldron, the Ghost Eye underwent significant changes.

Liu Wuxie withdrew the Ghost Eye technique, and the hovering herbs disappeared from view. He then began to write down his answer.

“What is he trying to do? He has written for so long, and he’s still not done with the first pill?” came a faint mocking voice from a distance. The first pill should have been the easiest, but Liu Wuxie was still writing after a long time.

“He’s probably just stalling for time on purpose!” came another burst of mockery. But Liu Wuxie remained indifferent, holding his brush and paper as he walked towards the second table. As before, he used the Ghost Eye technique to analyze all the herbs used in the pill, and the herbs used to refine it appeared before him, along with the pill’s name.

“The Ghost Eye is too powerful. Shangguan Cai could never have imagined that I would possess such a formidable skill!” thought Liu Wuxie with a devilish smile on his lips. Even if someone had leaked information about the ten pills, it wouldn’t affect him because they could only know some of the pills’ effects at best.

As time passed, Liu Wuxie’s speed increased. In just two hours, he had reached the last table, and it was already close to dusk. When he finished writing down the information for the last pill, he put down his brush and paper, indicating that he had completed the task.

“May we have the three judges grade the answers!” announced Deacon Hua, intending to collect the answers and have them graded by the three judges, as was customary every year.

“Hold on!” Liu Wuxie didn’t hand over his answers and stopped Deacon Hua. He was practically certain that Shangguan Cai had bribed the three judges.

“Do you have anything else you want to add on?” Deacon Hua asked, looking at Liu Wuxie.

“I do have a request,” said Liu Wuxie. “I ask that the three judges take out the answers and post them on a board along with the participants’ answers below. That way, everyone present can grade them together.” Liu Wuxie’s request was simple: open scoring. With the standard answers available, everyone present could participate in the grading process.

“I support Young Master Liu’s suggestion. It’s fairer this way,” said Kuang Qiu, standing up to support Liu Wuxie. “After all, this involves a life-and-death match for four people, and we can’t afford any loopholes.”

Everyone could sense that something was fishy about Yun Lan’s sudden proposal of a life-and-death match, and the Kuang Clan owed Liu Wuxie one for Kuang He’s breakthrough.

“I also support Young Master Liu!” Ke Wen stood up to support Liu Wuxie. After him, more pavilion masters stood up, requesting public scoring.

“Are you questioning our integrity as judges?” asked Sang Yan, clearly displeased as this was not according to the rules.

“Not at all,” replied Liu Wuxie. “Since a life-and-death match has been introduced into this competition, I don’t believe my request is unreasonable.” His words were logical. Since the judges had not stopped the life-and-death match, they should not object to his suggestion unless they had something to hide.

“That’s right. This round involves a life-and-death match, and I agree that public scoring is the fairest option!” Bi Gongyu argued in favor of public scoring, so that everyone present could witness it.

The three judges also didn’t expect so many people to support Liu Wuxie, and they soon decided after a brief discussion. Sang Yan said, “We’ve unanimously decided to conduct public scoring, and everyone present can score the answers together!”

After all, if they didn’t agree to it, they would appear guilty, and they had no choice now but to post the standard answers on the board.

“Participants, please post your answers on the board,” Deacon Hua said. The wooden board was soon covered with answers, with Ji Yang being the first to post his answers. Shortly after, Deacon Hua posted the standard answers at the top of the board; everyone could see them at first glance. The standard answers included the names, formulas, and effects of the pills involved in the competition.

Xiao Mingyi and Du Mingze couldn’t hide their smiles as they looked at the standard answers, trying their best to contain their laughter.

As everyone from the observation area came down, thirty-five pavilion masters stood before the wooden board to verify the answers. Some people had similar answers to the standard ones, while some were pretty different.

“Young Master Ji Yang is impressive. His answers are close to 90% of the standard answers.” A burst of exclamation came from the crowd. This kind of situation had never happened before in previous years, and it was impressive if someone could come as close to 70% with the standard answers.

Many of the pills used in this year’s competition were newly created, and their effects and formulas had not yet been made public. The Great Yan Dynasty obtained the formulas through exchange with other dynasties, who also held similar competitions and exchanged formulas with the Great Yan Dynasty to promote the exchange of knowledge about pills. Even with the formulas, it was impossible to refine the pills without the proper refining technique.

“Young Master Qin Letian isn’t bad either, achieving 70% accuracy,” said someone as they compared the answers. Despite the significant difference from Ji Yang’s answers, Qin Letian’s were not bad. As they continued to compare, they found that Yan Ruyu’s answers were 50% accurate, which gave an idea of how tough this year’s competition was.

“What’s going on? Why are Du Mingze, Xiao Mingyi, and Wen Song’s answers similar to Ji Yang's? This is ridiculous!” Many people focused on Du Mingze and Xiao Mingyi’s answers as this concerned the life and death of Liu Wuxie. But they were stumped when they saw their answers because the coincidence was too great.

The pavilion masters began to look at each other with disbelief. Could this be a coincidence?

The fact that they weren’t together during the competition and didn’t have the opportunity to exchange answers suggested that there was only one possibility: they knew the answers beforehand. This would explain why their answers were the same, especially for Wen Song, whose standards were well known. If he had obtained 10% accuracy on his own, it would have been a heaven-defying feat.

Thus, everyone couldn’t help turning to look at the three judges. Sang Yan also noticed the serious issue because the answers were divided into three parts. Master Mao held answers to four pills, while Sang Yan and Zhou Xinsheng each held answers to three.

So there was only one possibility: the headquarters had leaked the answers before the competition. But pursuing it was no longer important as the round involved the life and death of four participants.

Bi Gongyu swayed and almost collapsed, as it was practically impossible for Liu Wuxie to win, relying on his answers alone. But everyone carried on looking down because it was time to determine Liu Wuxie’s fate.

“Liu Wuxie, prepare to die!” shouted Wen Song impatiently, jumping up and eager to trample Liu Wuxie under his feet.

“You think you can beat me since you have the correct answers? What a joke,” Liu Wuxie sneered. Others might not dare to speak out, but he wasn’t one of them. He had no taboos, and it didn’t matter who leaked the answers because these three would be dead people soon enough.

“Trying to struggle? Let me see how you’ll die later!” Xiao Mingyi sneered. There was no evidence to prove that the answers were leaked to them beforehand. So it didn’t matter, even if someone suspected it. After all, who would offend the headquarters for Liu Wuxie?

“This is impossible!” An exclamation interrupted everyone. Yun Lan was the first to look at Liu Wuxie’s answers, and he jumped after seeing them.