Victory Decided
"A new prescription?" The Potion Venerable's eyes lit up. "Good, give me the prescription, and I'll have someone prepare it right away."
"Gu Ding, let's also use the new prescription. Each time we refine the new prescription, it costs 100 points. We only have half an hour left. If we are overtaken in points, it will be very difficult to catch up," the Sea Emperor suggested.
"Alright then." Gu Ding immediately called out to the Potion Venerable, "Potion Venerable, I also want to use the new prescription!"
The fact that the two used a new prescription was both surprising and expected. Everyone believed that the talent of Gu Ding and Belanger as pharmacists couldn't have been achieved without receiving a powerful pharmacist's inheritance, as their level of expertise couldn't be reached through personal training alone.
Receiving the inheritance means they must have obtained some exclusive potion formulas from their masters. This is why, from the very beginning, the Potion Venerable proposed a scoring system for the new formulas; he foresaw the possible outcome of this competition from the outset.
"Potion Venerable, I have five new prescriptions. Please prepare them for me." Belanger said, glaring at Gu Ding, his eyes clearly saying, "You little brat, you're still too green to mess with me."
"Potion Venerable Master, I also have five new medicine formulas. Please prepare them for me as well," Gu Ding retorted, not to be outdone. He knew exactly what Belanger was up to. A successful concoction of a new potion earned 100 points; five consecutive successes would yield 500 points, allowing him to far surpass Gu Ding. However, what Berlang hadn't anticipated was that the Sea Emperor's inventory of new potion formulas far exceeded Gu Ding's.
"Hmph, I have more than ten new recipes, enough to finish refining in the last half hour. I don't believe you have more recipes than me." Belanger looked at Gu Ding with disdain. He didn't think Gu Ding's resources could compare to his own.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint this guy," Gu Ding thought to himself with a smirk.
Soon, all the ingredients for the five new prescriptions provided by Gu Ding were ready, while only three of the five prescriptions provided by Belanger were ready, with the other two prescriptions lacking ingredients.
Upon learning of this, Belanger simply assumed Gu Ding was lucky. However, he didn't realize that because the Sea Emperor had so many new prescriptions, he deliberately chose those without many unusual ingredients to avoid wasting time changing prescriptions.
After obtaining the medicinal herbs, Gu Ding raised his eyebrows defiantly at Belanger, whose face was full of hostility, and then immediately began refining the new prescription, making Belanger grit his teeth in anger.
With the new medicinal ingredients, Gu Ding's refining speed finally slowed down, because only potions of Perfect Quality counted towards his score. If the refining was not done well, points would be deducted. However, these new medicinal formulas in the Sea Emperor's possession were not actually new to Gu Ding. He had always had a habit of refining all the formulas of each level of alchemist he reached at least once, until he could refine a bottle of Perfect Quality.
Having prior experience, the refining of Gu Ding wasn't particularly difficult, which many alchemists recognized at a glance. It was simply that the use of new equipment made the refining process slightly different from before.
For his first new potion, Gu Ding chose Epidermis Strengthening Potion. This potion is only suitable for Body Refinement Cultivator and can increase their physical defense by two minor levels. It was a commonly used potion in Ancient Era. However, in this era, its usefulness is very limited because there are too few Body Refinement Cultivator.
It took Gu Ding more than six minutes to finish brewing this potion, while Belanger on the other side finished brewing another new potion shortly after him.
The two then began refining the second new potion, which was of Perfect Quality, and the time interval between completions was still no more than one minute.
Belanger has finally collected all five of the potion ingredients that he replaced.
The two continued their sparring, with the third and fourth moves already completed. There were less than five minutes left before the sparring ended.
Belanger finished even later, and when he checked the time, he saw that Gu Ding had just begun preparing the medicinal herbs and started refining them. He grinned maliciously. "Potion Venerable, my refining is complete."
Belanger abandoned the attempt to refine the fifth potion, partly because he knew he couldn't complete it, and judging by Gu Ding's previous refining speed, he estimated Gu Ding couldn't either. Failure to refine it, or a failed attempt, would actually deduct 100 points. Gu Ding currently only had 54 more points than him; if Guding failed, he would win. Therefore, he chose to remain on the sidelines.
Many onlookers, seeing that Gu Ding had already begun refining, felt it was a pity. They had all witnessed Gu Ding's previous refining processes, which generally took around 6 minutes and 30 seconds, with the fastest not exceeding 6 minutes. Now, with less than five minutes remaining, it was naturally unlikely that he would finish refining it.
Upon hearing Belanger say that the refining was complete, Gu Ding, after preparing the materials, grinned at Belanger and then began refining at an astonishing speed, nearly twice as fast as before, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
At 3 minutes and 56 seconds, Gu Ding finished refining the last potion. When everyone saw the golden liquid swirling in the potion bottle, emitting a beautiful luster, they were all stunned.
"Potion Venerable, my refining is complete." Gu Ding finally handed the last vial of medicine to the Potion Venerable.
After examining the items, the Potion Venerable nodded in satisfaction. "Indeed, it is of Perfect Quality. So I hereby announce that Gu Ding's final score is 1234 points, Belanger's final score is 1080 points. The winner of this competition is the Pharmacist Gu Ding!"
A fleeting, obscure glint appeared in Belanger's eyes, which was quickly replaced by a smile. "Congratulations, Gu Ding."
"Don't forget what you promised me." Gu Ding wasn't really interested in accepting everyone's congratulations. To him, it was just a small sparring match, and winning wasn't a big deal. What he cared more about was Hake's safety.
"Don't worry, I, Belanger, will naturally keep my promise." Belanger said this and turned to leave, not even taking back the set of refining tools given to him by the Potion Venerable, nor the potions he had refined.
"What a waste..." Gu Ding shamelessly took both sets of refining tools, the temporary refining table, and all the potions, not even letting go of the extra medicinal materials.
The Potion Venerable, however, pretended not to see anything and continued to utter polite words of "inspiration."
"This sparring match was truly spectacular, unprecedented! Although Mr. Belanger lost, his success rate in concocting Perfect Quality potions was a remarkable 100%, which is no small feat. And Gu Ding's achievement is even more impressive. He's only a two-star God-rank alchemist, with a lot of room for growth, yet he's already at such a high level. Everyone should learn from these two genius alchemists..." (To be continued~^~)