After the first round of Herb Identification, ten of the thirty alchemists participating in the Direct-Line Alchemy Competition were eliminated outright. Some favored contenders were reluctantly knocked out, while others whom few had expected much of remained.
As everyone marveled at the competition's ruthlessness, they also could not help marveling at the prodigious alchemist who had emerged from the Feng Collateral Branch.
Not only had he lasted until the end of the first round of Herb Identification, but he had also correctly answered the hundred additional questions set by the four direct-line elders in just five minutes, becoming the first alchemist in the competition's history to receive Feng Family Guest Privileges after only the first round.
Since the second round, Herb Catalysis, was still to come, the alchemists were assigned to a designated rest area to wait for it to begin in ten minutes.
Perhaps because his performance in the first round had been so dazzling, the seventeen other qualifying alchemists, apart from Feng Fu and Feng Xuan, all stared at Jun Wangchen during the break. Almost all their discussion revolved around him, with only a few remarks concerning Feng Fu and Feng Xuan.
These seventeen alchemists were both excited and nervous. They were excited because they had passed the first round, but nervous because three formidable competitors still stood ahead of them. The slightest lapse could mean elimination.
Even as they talked, they did their best to restore their energy and focus, keeping themselves in peak condition for the second round of Herb Catalysis.
Although Jun Wangchen's presence in the first round had weighed on them like a mountain, leaving them barely able to breathe, they knew that once they had passed Herb Identification, it did not matter if he had come first.
After all, the second round of