The two monarchs finally walked out of their corners moving toward each other in the center.
"Congratulations on finishing early," Alex said as he arrived next to the Emperor who had a weird look on his face.
"You managed to finish as well," the Emperor said. "I thought you were going to fail."
"Why would I have failed?" Alex asked. "Because of the ingredients, you gave me? No, it only helped me come up with an amazing pill."
Alex's bright smile served as a source of frustration for the emperor. He truly wanted to see him fail so that he could gain what he had without having to trade anything important for it.
However, seeing as that he had managed to make a pill, one with a pill cloud showing up, the Emperor started to get worried.
"What sort of pill did you make?" the Emperor asked.
"Isn't it better for everyone to find out at once?" Alex asked. "The headmaster should begin any moment now."
"Everyone, it is time for the judging," the headmaster said. "I have both of the majesties' pills in these two storage bags on my hand. I will choose at random and tell you what it is about."
"Please give it a score out of 100 on what you think about the effect of the pill," the headmaster said. "We will not be judging the quality of the pill itself."
Everyone nodded.
The only woman pulled out a talisman at random. She ignored the part that included the recipe for the pill and instead started with the description.
"This pill is a poison pill that when eaten or fed will corrode the person's flesh as soon as it dissolved in their body. Their body would melt from the inside, and even Qi will have a hard time containing it."
"As a pill its effect is also many times greater than what it would be if it were just a normal poison paste, giving it potency that was hard to achieve with normal poison."
"Since it was a specifically made poison pill rather than a naturally available poison, it will also require a pill specifically meant to counter it. Normal antidote pills may slow down its effects, but it will require a tailor-made pill to remove the effects completely."
"The ingredients required are also generally cheap and easily available, with the main ingredient Spotted Fire Lizard's scales being traded in from the Beast Paradise all the time," the headmaster spoke.
She turned toward the 6 kings and queens that sat on the stage and spoke. "Please score the pill between 1 and 100 in terms of how useful and usable it is."
The 6 kings thought to themselves and talked to each other to get their view on the pill.
Being a poison pill and a strong one at that, it could easily kill someone. However, for that to happen, you needed to be able to feed the pill to someone.
If you could do that forcefully, you would never need that pill at all. But then again, they were worried this pill could belong to the emperor, who they wouldn't want to anger by ranking it low.
After a series of talks, the kings came to a score of their own and wrote it down before handing it over to the old headmaster.
The headmaster took the scores and tallied them.
"The poison pill has achieved a total of 435 points out of a possible 600 total," the headmaster said. "That gives the pill an average of 72.5 points from each of the kings."
The audience cheered as they felt that the pill deserved that score. They were all more than happy about the pill's score, except for the Emperor himself.
He didn't show it on his face, but internally he frowned rather deeply. This was a pill he made without much work. He had expected Alex to lose, so he didn't think of putting more effort into making the pill.
Now, it was coming back to bite him. He knew that the pill didn't deserve such a score. As a poison pill, maybe. But as a pill in general, it wasn't one of the best.
Any pill you needed to feed someone without their knowledge or consent usually ranked pretty low in terms of scores if all it did was kill that person.
The Emperor looked toward Alex who was calm throughout it all. He had hoped for Alex to fail, but here he was.
'Well, I still have a chance,' he thought to himself. 'Let's see what sort of pill you have managed to make.'
The headmaster pulled out the second talisman.
"This is the other pill," the headmaster said as she started reading from the talisman again.
"This pill…"
She paused for a moment before carefully reading what it said. He eyes widened while her face drained color at a simple shock at what she had just read.
"Headmaster?" the Crown Prince called out to her. "Is everything okay?"
"Huh? Oh yes, yes," the woman said, but her eyes said something else.
"Okay, then please continue. We are waiting for the explanation," he said.
The woman nodded and looked at the talisman again before taking a deep breath. "This is a pill prime full of Water elements that when eaten… can temporarily turn your regular spiritual vein to Water Spiritual vein."
She paused for a moment, letting the words sink in for everyone.
The kings and other figures on the stage nodded for a second before their heads stopped moving and their faces grew serious.
"What did you say?" the Gold Kingdom's king's eyes narrowed as he spoke up on his own for the first time.
"It is as I say, your majesties," the old woman said. "This is a pill that can turn one's neutral spiritual roots into Water spiritual roots temporarily."
Everyone was too stunned to comment on it as they dwelled on what it meant to eat that pill.
Nearly every person in the world was born with a regular spiritual root that was capable of moving around normal Qi. Most also had other elemental spiritual Qi on top of that, but due to there being 7 possibilities, the chances of one having a Water spiritual root were generally low.
Because of that, many people weren't able to learn various skills and techniques that asked for one to have a Water spiritual root, which made them miss out on a lot of opportunities.
However, if what was being said was true, then it was possible for someone to be able to use Water Qi as well, as long as they were ready to temporarily give up on their normal Qi.
The Emerald Kingdom's king stood up and moved toward the old woman. "I have a Fire and Metal spiritual root, and have no Water spiritual root. Let me eat that pill and see if it really can do what you've said."
The king didn't even care that the pill could belong to the emperor anymore. The possibility of the pill itself made him move up.
The headmaster hesitated for a moment as the pill veins would easily give up the reality. At that time, the Emperor arrived next to them, making the King back off.
"Give me the pill," he said. "I will test it out."
