The Sword God of the Universe

Chapter 537: Chapter 537: Answer Sheet No. 66

The judges at the Highest Staircase Square were nervously reviewing each and every answer sheet, while the Pill Masters at the third-tier square were anxiously waiting.

Jing Yan, Qiu Fang, and another female Pill Master representing Youhai Commerce were all gathered together, discussing the just-finished second challenge of Identifying Pills, and comparing answers to each question.

For the first four questions, the three of them had identical answers. By the fifth question, some discrepancies appeared. The answers from Qiu Fang and Jing Yan were exactly the same, while the female Pill Master had some minor errors, but it was not serious—she should receive nine points.

However, by the sixth question, the differences became even greater. After asking for Jing Yan’s answers, both Qiu Fang and the female Pill Master looked rather unhappy.

After comparing the answers to the seventh question, Qiu Fang and the female Pill Master stopped talking and didn’t feel like comparing the last three questions anymore—they lacked confidence. Moreover, for the last three questions, they had simply written anything down.

The judge reviewing the first question worked quickly, going through seven or eight answer sheets in a moment.

”Number sixty-six?”

”Let me see!”

”Hmm, not bad, the answer has no issues, ten points!” After carefully inspecting Jing Yan’s answer sheet, the judge nodded and directly gave out a perfect score.

He was reviewing the first question, so basically, they were all ten-point scores. Pill Masters participating in the second assessment were unlikely to get even the first question wrong.

The judges for the second, third, and fourth questions were all in a similar situation, with almost every answer sheet getting a full score of ten points. The review was simple, as long as you could name the Elixir and write out all the ingredients used in its refinement, you’d get full marks.

If there were minor errors in the listed ingredients, points would be deducted accordingly: one point off for each incorrect ingredient, up to a maximum of six points off. However, simply naming the Elixir correctly would already earn four points.

In this second challenge, the score was four points for the Elixir name and six points in total for the ingredients used in its preparation.

For example, if an Elixir required a total of thirty ingredients, the Pill Master would get a point deducted for each incorrect ingredient if they wrote down all thirty, even with one error.

The judge reviewing the fifth question also paid special attention to number sixty-six, Jing Yan.

It couldn’t be helped—Jing Yan had achieved a perfect score in the first challenge, and it would be difficult not to draw attention. Therefore, whenever it came to reviewing number sixty-six’s answer sheets, the judges always paid particular attention, harboring some expectations.

”Very good! Perfect! This number sixty-six indeed has some ability!” the judge of the fifth question remarked with a nod and a quiet chuckle.

”What? Is number sixty-six’s fifth question also a full score?” someone asked nearby.

Judges also communicated with each other during the review process.

”Yes!” the judge nodded and said, ”Number sixty-six’s fifth question has no issues, ten points.”

”Heh, his first question was also ten points!”

”Hmm, the second question is ten points!”

The judges for the previous questions all said with a smile, their gaze then shifting to the judge of the sixth question.

”Don’t rush me, I haven’t reviewed number sixty-six’s answer sheet yet!” said the sixth question’s judge upon seeing the gazes from the others.

This was normal. The higher the grade of the Elixir, generally, the more ingredients used, and the longer the review took. Thus, the judge for the first question was the quickest in his review.

It wasn’t much later that number sixty-six’s answer sheet appeared in front of the sixth question’s judge. He carefully started to examine the sheet.

”Impressive! Flawless, the answer has no issues,” the judge for the sixth question remarked with slight admiration after looking over Jing Yan’s sheet.

”So, number sixty-six, the sixth question is also full marks?” another judge immediately asked.

”Yes! Definitely ten points, not a single error. He even included some alternative ingredients; it’s nothing short of perfect. I even wanted to give him more than ten points; too bad the highest is only ten,” the sixth question’s judge praised.

Upon hearing this, the others were somewhat stunned.

This number sixty-six was indeed a genius of the Alchemy Dao.

At this time, the seventh question’s judge, unintentionally sped up his pace. He had heard the conversations of the previous judges, so he, too, became curious and wanted to see number sixty-six’s answer sheet for the seventh question.

”There it is!” The seventh question’s judge reacted upon seeing the number sixty-six.

”This...”

”This kid wants to defy the heavens! It’s... another perfect score!” the seventh question’s judge took a deep breath and exclaimed.

The seventh question was much more difficult; none of the previous seven or eight answer sheets he had reviewed scored over six points. So he couldn’t help but be shocked when he saw Jing Yan’s answer sheet.

”The seventh question is also full marks?”

”That’s a bit incredible!”

”Could this kid actually score ninety points in the second challenge?”

”It’s hard to say, but just these first seven questions alone add up to seventy points, getting twenty points on the last three questions seems likely!”

The judges’ eyes all began to sparkle.

An overall score above eighty in the second challenge was quite an achievement. Although the difficulty of the second challenge wasn’t much different compared to previous years—not as huge as the gap seen in the first challenge—it was still an exceptional feat. Looking at the second challenge scores from previous years, there weren’t many Pill Masters who had managed to achieve eighty points.

It was extremely rare for Pill Masters in previous Alchemy Grand Ceremonies’ second challenges to reach ninety points; there might not even have been any. The highest score in the last Alchemy Grand Ceremony’s second challenge was in the eighties, not reaching ninety.

Basically, a Pill Master who scored over seventy points would be able to advance to the third challenge.

In other words, looking at just the first seven questions, Jing Yan had already all but stepped into the third challenge.

”Brother Zhong, hurry up and review, quickly see how many points number sixty-six scored on the eighth question!” the previous judges were all looking at the judge of the eighth question.

”What are you rushing for? Don’t I have to look at each answer sheet?” The eighth question’s judge glanced at the others, rather annoyed.

Although he said this, deep down, he was very curious as well.

The others all chuckled, but they didn’t urge him any further. They all stopped what they were doing and waited for the eighth question’s judge to review the answer sheet of Alchemist Jing Yan, number sixty-six.

”Here it is, number sixty-six!” The eighth question’s judge brightened and said.

”Oh? How many points?” someone immediately inquired.

”Let me look first!” The eighth question’s judge responded, but his eyes remained fixed on the answer sheet in his hands.

”The name of the Elixir is correct, four points!” he nodded as he said.

”How about the ingredients?”

”How did he answer the ingredients? Could there be many mistakes?”

”The eighth question is very hard, just identifying which Elixir it is already quite difficult!”

”Hmm!”

A murmur rippled between them.

”How is this possible... this...” The judge for the eighth question, after seeing Jing Yan’s list of ingredients, his eyes widened in surprise.

”Brother Zhong, what’s the matter? Could it be that number sixty-six also got full points on the eighth question?” The seventh question’s judge asked with raised eyebrows.