Hearing what Xu Lingxiu said, Gu Zuo thought about it again. Suddenly, he didn’t have such big expectations for the competition between those high-level pharmacists.
But in general, high-level pharmacists would always be better at medicine refinement than low and mid-level pharmacists. Among those of equivalent ranks, even if these high-level pharmacists were of mediocre quality, their techniques would certainly have some areas worth learning. Otherwise, they simply wouldn’t have developed to this degree.
After making his decision, Gu Zuo’s originally subtle expression regained its normal look.
In any case, since he was here, he’d watch earnestly.
Right now, he didn’t discriminate against the capital of high-level pharmacists... Even high-level pharmacists who could only refine one or two Immortal Realm medicinal pills were the same.
After all, he still couldn’t refine one on his own!
Gu Zuo adjusted his mentality, and when he looked at the field, it was done very carefully.
It wasn’t surprising that Xu Lingxiu didn’t look highly upon those people. It was the so-called situation where “the amateurs watched the entertainment, while the professionals watched the methodology”. Other people would probably feel it was dazzling and particularly abstruse, but Gu Zuo could see that the cultivation methods and hand seals that the high-level pharmacists used were all relatively ordinary. Only by relying on proficiency and experience, and under the accumulation of many years, were they barely able to make a breakthrough and stand firm.
Among them, there really were some minor skills that raised the pill formation rate. It was just a pity that these skills were largely of no use to Gu Zuo. It was because the hand seals he practiced directly resolved these problems, and weren’t like ordinary hand seals, which contained many roundabout methods. As a result, pharmacists needed to use minor skills to make up for these deficiencies.
After an hour, all the high-level pharmacists stopped one after another.
This time, the selection was more complex, based on the degree of difficulty and product grade of every type of medicinal pill. In addition, the first two of the previous elimination rounds were done by martial artists. This time, it was the pharmacists — Even if they were Immortal Realm martial artists, aside from the likes of City Lord Xin who had an extreme understanding of medicinal pills, other people would basically have no way to conduct an evaluation.
Finally, the top two hundred were also chosen.
Merely, there was a mix of good and bad within the two hundred people. The discrepancies between first place and two hundredth place was rather large — This was the real difference between outstanding high-level pharmacists and relatively outstanding high-level pharmacists.
At this time, the first day of pill battle qualification rounds had come to an end.
The semifinals for the low, mid, and high-level pharmacists would be on the next day. As for these people’s pill battles, the rules would differ greatly from the previous state of affairs.
Gu Zuo was somewhat curious. He turned his head and asked: “Senior Sect Brother Xu, what are the rules for tomorrow’s pill battles?”
Xu Lingxiu’s eyes flickered with odd traces. Soon after, he said: “You’ll find out when you watch tomorrow.”
When Gu Zuo heard this, he sorted out his mood, and waited for the arrival of the second day.
Ah, this was an exam!
Also, it was a written examination... It was really unexpected.
Gu Zuo couldn’t help looking at the arrogant teenager sitting beside him: “Senior Sect Brother Xu, what are they testing?”
Xu Lingxiu curled his lips: “Just some general knowledge related to medicine refinement. Pharmacists don’t only need to refine medicine, they also need the ability to treat internal and external injuries. Through this assessment, the pharmacists are to select and match medicinal pills. If they can treat the many case studies written on that paper, they’ll pass.”
Gu Zuo: “...”
As it turned out, it was testing points in knowledge. But would they have to put it into practice afterwards?
The matter really was as Gu Zuo off-handedly mocked.
After these pharmacists were finished answering the test papers, a grading period was temporarily arranged. Once the tests were finished, the top one hundred test papers were selected from each of the three pharmacist ranks. The remaining pharmacists were considered to have failed the theoretical exam.
After this, an opportunity to act had arrived.
At some point in time, three hundred sickly-looking martial artists and ordinary people emerged from the other side of the field. They were distributed in groups of one a hundred people to the three pharmacist ranks.
The ones who appeared before the low-level pharmacists were Houtian martial artists and ordinary people. The ones who appeared before the mid-level pharmacists were mostly martial artists at Xiantian stage six or lower. And the ones who appeared before the high-level pharmacists were all martial artists who were above Xiantian stage six — After all, it wasn’t so easy to gather over a hundred Immortal Realm martial artists with all sorts of ailments and injuries. The strength of the martial artists being used as patients would also be weakened somewhat.
Gu Zuo continued to helplessly watch these pharmacists act like physicians, where one person treated one patient. Ah, they started with feeling the person’s pulse. Ah, they used all sorts of methods to check the patient’s condition. They pondered in an imitative fashion, and wrote down some medicinal prescriptions. Then, they instructed their newly-assigned medicine runners waiting on the side to bring back the herbs.
Following that, among the necessary medicaments that the pharmacists diagnosed for their patients, if there happened to be some that they could refine by themselves, then they could do so. If they were unable, then they could only order the medicine runners to fetch the corresponding medicinal pills.
The pharmacists had to treat their patients on the spot. If the patient completely recovered, it was considered a pass. If the patient’s condition was complex and didn’t recover completely, but there was a very big improvement, then it was also considered a pass. At the same time, if they only used the medicaments supplied by the City Lord’s Mansion to treat the patient, their score would fall, and if they personally refined the medicinal pills, their score would rise.
After such a tumultuous period, the top thirty were finally selected, becoming the ultimate winners.
They could enter the finals.
After he slowly finished watching, Gu Zuo let out a long sigh.
This was really...quite bothersome.
Fortunately, it had finally ended.
Just like this, the Pill Battling Assembly’s second day was also conducted smoothly.
Closely following this was the main event. The Pill Battling Assembly’s finals.
The third day.
Gu Zuo’s heartbeat was a little fast.
At last, he would also be an active contestant and would represent the Sect when he took part in the pill battles... Merely, he didn’t know who he would face today. What would be the methods for the pill battles?
On the competition field for the finals, there were still fifty to sixty people of each pharmacist rank remaining.
These people either came from large powers with deep foundations, or emerged from innumerable battles with impressive skills. The level of brilliance in this pill battle competition couldn’t be compared to the previous two days.
As one could well imagine, the number of pharmacists, and even martial artists, who came to watch the finals today were much greater.
If one hadn’t participated in the competition, the cost of the tickets to enter wasn’t comparable to the previous few rounds. Moreover, even if someone paid a high price, because space was limited, it created a situation where tickets were in high demand — If one’s luck was poor or they didn’t have the right social connections, it was basically impossible to get into the venue.
As a competitor, Gu Zuo entered the field along with Xu Lingxiu and Li Yunquan.
Li Yunquan went directly to the right-hand side. Meanwhile, Gu Zuo and Xu Lingxiu arrived at the center field, and sat in front of medium-sized pill cauldrons.
Correct. The standardized pill cauldrons used by differently ranked pharmacists had also changed.
Then, Gu Zuo became aware of the details for today’s assessment.
— There wasn’t any need for written examinations or anything like that. For the contestants of the finals, there would be genuine pill battles and patient treatment. In addition, while treating the patient, they had to use medicinal pills that they refined on their own. Otherwise, they would inevitably be filtered out. At that point, they would lose.
Gu Zuo held his breath with rapt attention. First, he listened to the rules for those pill battles.
Danyun City required that, during this bout of competition, the distance between the pharmacists’ seats would be relatively close. They could also attack and defend against one another through pill refining.
Methods of attack included the use of clashing medicinal powers emitted by pill fragrances to blow up the opponent’s pill cauldron. And defenses required pharmacists to smoothly refine their own medicinal pills under the effects of other pill fragrances, and so on.
If one ultimately couldn’t refine medicinal pills, it was simply impossible to obtain the patient whom they needed to diagnose and treat.
After he finished listening to these rules, Gu Zuo looked all around.
Fortunately, there were still a couple of people between him and Xu Lingxiu. If not, the people who came from Qingyun Sect would engage in “friendly-fire”. However, individuals from other powers were also scattered about. In this respect, Danyun City was quite impartial.
For the same reason, the pharmacists of the three different ranks were separated very far apart. This would prevent any mutual interference.
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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