Stella ignored Kassandra's questioning of the masked people and glanced around the hyped-up colosseum. The atmosphere was ecstatic to the point that she began to fear that the giant stone building would collapse.
Eventually, the crowd's cheers calmed down, and Elder Brent continued explaining the tournament's rules.
"Now that I have finished the introductions, I believe it's time to explain what will happen today," His Qi-empowered voice made it sound like he spoke straight into her ear. "Yesterday, there was a preliminary round whose goal was to weed out the fakes from the adept. Therefore standing before you today are certified alchemists with some capabilities."
Stella looked around and saw many of the rogue alchemists had grins on their faces as they waved to the crowd. Meanwhile, all the nobles she could spot had blank expressions as if this bored them.
She couldn't blame them as she felt much the same way. If not for Kassandra paying off the examiners to try and fail her, the preliminary round would have been easy, and this was just another step to the final that truly mattered.
Elder Brent continued, "Today will consist of two rounds. The first will last twenty minutes, during which the participants will be expected to create a Mortal-grade Body Strengthing pill. Examiners will then go around and give each pill a score from one to a hundred based on a strict set of criteria. The ten people with the highest scores will then participate in the final round where they can create any pill within their capabilities with their own ingredients."
The moment he finished the explanation, there was a sudden roar from the crowd that helped to drown out the outbreak of discussion between the alchemists. Stella listened in, and it seemed many rogue alchemists had come without any ingredients and were shouting out about how unfair it was.
Elder Brent raised his hand to calm the crowd.
"Fear not. Those without any ingredients can create a second Body Strengthening pill." Elder Brent smiled, "But as we all know, part of being an alchemist is your ability to source ingredients."
Stella smirked behind her mask at Elder Brent's words as she saw Kassandra's eye twitch slightly. Kassandra was clearly annoyed at having her words repeated by someone from a lesser family.
Elder Brent then spread his arms and put a lot of Qi into his voice as he shouted to the heavens, "You all have twenty minutes! Begin!"
Stella spun around and eyed her workbench.
Okay, twenty minutes should be plenty of time. I can produce a Body Strengthing Pill within ten minutes if I concentrate hard enough and everything goes right.
Stella reached forward and picked up the Qi Flowing Grass.
Full of impurities, this is definitely an ingredient that the Redclaws sourced rather than one grown by Tree. Wait, isn't this enough to make two pills? Maybe if I work fast enough, I can make two and give the best one to be scored by the examiner?
Stella shook her head. The drumming of feet and shouting from the thousands of mortals around her made it hard to concentrate on anything more than her inner thoughts.
Turning her attention to the small metal cauldron, Stella frowned behind her mask. She had never used a real cauldron, as she had always used Ash's weird fruit cauldron that made performing alchemy far easier.
Focus on that later. For now, I need to remove the impurities from these ingredients.
Stella closed her eyes and was about to begin the process when she felt a blast of lightning Qi right beside her, followed by thunderclaps that made her hair and clothes rustle.
Glancing to the side, Stella saw Kassandra lording over her workbench. The giant woman had a bundle of Qi Flowing Grass floating between her fingers as she blasted it with lightning, making burnt impurities rain and be carried away by a gust of wind into Stella's face.
Oh, this bitch. Stella gritted her teeth as her Star Core pulsed. If Kassandra could do something like this, then why couldn't she? Both Roderick and Kassandra were briefly stunned by the sudden pressure.
Now surrounding Stella was a field of distorted spatial Qi that stopped the impurities from reaching her and helped reduce the terrible noise. Was it a massive waste of the Qi she had cultivated over the past few weeks? Absolutely. Did she care? Not in the slightest. It was the Redclaw's fault for squeezing so many workbenches so close together.
Kassandra was broken from her concentration and glared at her, but Stella just returned a shrug and got back to work. Time was ticking, and she had already wasted a minute on nonsense.
Holding the bundle of Qi Flowing Grass in her hand, Stella activated the spatial plane, and the world around her became outlined in grids. Focusing on the grass, she identified tiny gaps where she could thread her Qi into the bundle of grass just like she had many times before.
Once inside, she directed her spatial Qi through shifting pathways and was astonished at the sheer volume of impurities within the grass.
Unlike the Qi Flowing Grass produced by Tree, which had clear pathways except for the occasional spec of impurity floating around, this grass's pathways were clogged up with impurities to the point it was blocking her Qi from progressing any further.
How had this Qi Flowing Grass even absorbed any Qi at all with pathways this blocked up? I can only thank the heavens that I am in the Star Core Realm and have saved up a lot of Qi for today. Otherwise, I would be running low on Qi from removing these impurities.
I wonder how someone like Kassandra even plans to have enough Qi left over to create that tier-two pill later... actually, I know how. I bet she already has purified ingredients, so all she has to do is spend Qi on combining the ingredients... how smart.
The bundle of Qi Flowing Grass became the stage for a great battle between Stella and the impurities. Thousands of tiny portals barely the width of a single hair snapped open and closed to bring the impurities outside. It was clear to Stella that spatial Qi wasn't the most efficient when removing impurities in both time and Qi, but she didn't care. She would win anyways.
"Phew," Stella wiped the sweat from her brow as she set the near-perfect Qi Flowing Grass on the table. Up next was the Dragon Marrow.
Quickly glancing to the side, she saw Kassandra had already started purifying the Dragon Marrow, while Roderick Terraforge didn't even seem to have started purifying anything. Instead, he was busy looking around for something.
Stella was curious, so she followed his gaze and saw Dante Voidmind, Celeste Starweaver, and Kane Azurecrest a few tables away. All three of them had finished purifying the Bone Marrow and had moved on to the final ingredient, the Starlight Lotus.
She had no idea why Roderick was looking at them and wasn't focusing on purifying the ingredients, but to be fair, she was also getting distracted.
Ugh, it's impossible to focus! I miss my nice and peaceful cavern surrounded by quiet darkness and a pleasant floral scent. How can anyone perform alchemy under the scorching sun while having thousands of people screaming at you and working with such crappy ingredients?
Stella's brain was a clouded mess—she had been highly stressed for days as she oscillated between brute force learning alchemy without a teacher, participating in high society social events, and planning out how to start a civil war that had the chance to backfire and lead to the annihilation of the Ashfallen Sect and the death of Tree.
She was exhausted, but she had to perform. Feeling frustrated, she grabbed the jar containing the Dragon Marrow. To her surprise, it was far better quality than the Qi Flowing Grass, so purifying it only took a few minutes.
"Fifteen minutes remain!" Elder Brent called out, and Stella felt her hands shaking slightly as she reached for the Starlight Lotus. The Qi Flowing Grass had been riddled with impurities, while the Dragon Marrow had been quite good quality. How would the Starlight Lotus fare in comparison?
It sat in a small bowl of water, and from a glance, Stella could tell it was relatively low-grade because the coloring was off. The lotus had a dull grey pigment rather than the majestic blue of the Starlight Lotus that grew on the side of the monolith back at Red Vine Peak.
Picking it up confirmed Stella's suspicions. It was even worse quality than the Qi Flowing Grass, to the point it was half dead.
Stella couldn't help but glare up at Elder Brent and silently curse his nine generations for being so useless at sourcing high-quality ingredients. She understood this was supposed to be a test, and the ability to purify impurities was part of that, but this was just torture.
Time passed quickly as Stella wrestled the half-dead thing back to life.
"Ten minutes remain!" Elder Brent's words made Stella grumble as she set the now purified Starlight Lotus on the workbench. It had taken her half the provided time to get a set of ingredients she was happy with. Nearly all three were as close to perfect as she could justify...
If only they had given us a full day so I could thoroughly purify them. Alas, with these ingredients, I think the best I could make is a low-grade tier-two pill.
Stella bit her lip behind her mask as she turned to the metal cauldron that dominated the workbench. A part of her had been putting this off because it would verify if her alchemy skills were really her own or just a result of being able to use Tree's cauldron and perfect ingredients.
Without further delay, as time was running out, Stella carefully placed half of the ingredients she had purified into the cauldron. It was only as she looked at the ingredients still on the workbench beside the cauldron that she suddenly realized she was an idiot—there had been no need to waste time purifying all the provided ingredients!
"Tsk," Stella clicked her tongue as she placed her two hands over the cauldron and closed her eyes. Once again, the spatial plane appeared in her mind as she bathed the cauldron in her soul flame.
Calming her breathing and focusing, Stella manipulated her soul fire as if they were ghostly hands to bring the ingredients together in a way she had done many times.
First, Stella had to mold the Dragon Marrow into a flat disc. She then layered the Qi Flowing Grass in an intricate pattern that was decorated with Starlight Lotus petals. Over and over, she completed this pattern, all while keeping her soul fire under control and making sure not to accidentally push some impurities from her soul flame into the ingredients and degrade the pill.
Okay, looking good, just need to do the final layer, and then I should have a near-perfect pill to be graded...
"Five minutes remain!" Elder Brent's Qi-empowered voice bypassed her spatial Qi field, briefly distracting Stella long enough for her to notice something shrouded in foreign Qi was running toward her at high speed.
Her eyes snapped open, only to face a grinning Roderick Terraforge shrouded in earth Qi barreling at her. Stella dodged to the side to avoid him, but her eyes widened when she realized his true objective had never been to hit her.
"Stop!" Stella called out as she tried to redirect the brute with a portal, but he easily smashed through it by flaring his earth Qi. She then tried to reach forward and pull him back from smashing into her table, but a tiny lightning bolt smacked her hand from grabbing his robe in time.
There was a loud crash, and everyone was broken from their concentration as they turned to see the scene of Roderick Terraforge lying flat on top of the workbench and cauldron.
The table was snapped in half, the cauldron shattered into pieces, and her almost-formed pill was ruined.
Stella stood there, unsure what to even make of the situation. It was unbelievable that they would cheat this blatantly to the point of attacking her. Was this really how the higher families acted while attending an event of a lesser family? Did they simply have no respect or care for consequences?
Elder Brent lept down from the raised platform and arrived beside her in a flash of crimson fire, "I saw what happened, so there's no need for excuses."
Roderick Terraforge slowly stood to his full height, brushed off the sand and bits of ingredients, and looked down at Elder Brent with that same shit-eating grin, "Whatever do you mean, Elder Brent? I got too lost in my pill-making and tripped on my own foot. It's not my fault Roselyn was in the path of my unfortunate tumble."
There was a wave of boos from the crowd, and it was only now that Stella realized that the colosseum had actually gone relatively quiet with everyone, including the rogue alchemists that should've been busy making their pills curiously looking her way.
Elder Brent raised a brow, "What pill-making? You didn't even bother to purify a single ingredient."
Roderick awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, "Well, you see, I'm a rather novice alchemist, so it was all rather overwhelming."
"Your lack of skills does not give you a reason to meddle with another participant." Elder Brent snorted, "You are hereby disqualified and banned from all future alchemy tournaments hosted by us."
There was a round of cheers from the mortal audience, and the rogue alchemists surrounding them exchanged nervous glances. From their murmurs, Stella picked up that they couldn't believe a Redclaw would speak to a Terraforge in such a way.
But she didn't care about that as she ground her teeth in silent rage behind her mask. Roderick's dismissive attitude to demolishing her efforts and Kassandra's casual involvement in the incident infuriated her. Did they have no shame?
Elder Brent and Stella exchanged a glance, and it was clear what they were both thinking. Kassandra would normally also be disqualified, but as per the plan, she needed to make it to the finals.
Roderick raised his hands, his grin never leaving, "Okay, I accept my disqualification. Carry on with your little tournament."
Elder Brent seemed content to let the troublemaker leave, but Stella wasn't.
"Hold on a minute."
Roderick, Kassandra, and Elder Brent shot her questioning gazes.
"Why should I?" Roderick sneered.
Because if you leave so soon, I can't slit your throat. Stella held back her true feelings and said the first thing that came to mind.
"I believe what he did to me was done with nefarious intentions on behalf of someone else," Stella said loud and clear so everyone could hear her, "Therefore, I suggest he is detained so the Redclaw family may question his affiliation after the tournament has concluded."
The reason for his imprisonment was unimportant. All Stella wanted was to stop Roderick from leaving before she was done with humiliating Kassandra.
"Stella, this isn't part of the plan," Ashlock spoke within her mind.
"Nor was Roderick ruining my progress. It's not my fault he's dug his own grave," Stella retorted mentally, "You wanted a civil war, and I just thought of a way to get another family involved."
"Mhm, okay, I trust you. Just calm down and think carefully about what you are doing. Are you sure about this?"
Stella let out a breath and settled down a little. However, the second she looked back up and saw Rodericks's face, she couldn't hold back, "Tree, I have carefully considered and analyzed the situation and concluded that without a doubt, I want to stab his fucking face."
Ashlock chuckled, "I see. Well, I will handle this for you..."
"Is that a good idea?"
"Absolutely, just blame it on the Silverspires. That's what we sacrificed some of our profits for!"
Roderick seemed to find Stella's words deeply amusing as he strode toward her, "Oh? You want to detain me? A descendant of the Terraforge family? I would love to see if you have the audacity."
Stella smiled behind her mask as she felt a ripple of spatial Qi spread throughout the area under the sand. A moment later, a large portal manifested behind Roderick.
The man turned to look behind with wide eyes, "What the—"
Before he could finish his sentence, the giant black wooden arm of Titus emerged from the portal and grabbed Roderick. Roderick tried to struggle and fight back but was powerless against the Star Core Ent that effortlessly dragged him away.
The portal snapped closed, sending a gust of wind that picked up the sand from the arena floor, making everyone squint. Everything happened so fast that even Stella might have second-guessed herself without a prior warning. But as the dust cleared, it was obvious that Roderick Terraforge was gone.
"What was that?" Kassandra shouted at Elder Brent. The man seemed clueless, so he gave Stella an odd look.
Stella shrugged, "Hired security by the Silverspires. They knew some arrogant nobles would think they could mess around and cheat, so they took countermeasures."
"But that seemed rather excessive even for the Silverspires." Kassandra's brows furrowed as she looked up at Ryker Silverspire standing under the shade of the demonic tree.
Stella didn't care for Kassandra as she went to look at the state of her purified ingredients. To her relief, the spares left on the side of the workbench had survived the fall and were just nestled in the sand.
Picking them up, she walked over to Roderick's hardly-used workbench and set herself up, "Elder Brent, there are still a few minutes until the end of the test, right?"
Elder Brent nodded, "Due to the disturbance, I will add a few minutes as the test should have technically finished. Are you fine with that?"
Stella nodded, so the Elder returned to the platform and announced, "Test resumes! You all have five minutes left."
Only five minutes? Stella cursed as she scrambled to the cauldron. She had five minutes to create a body strengthening pill that would put her in the top ten out of all the applicants left.
Throwing all the ingredients in, she repeated the steps from earlier, just faster this time. The pattern of the Qi Flowing Grass was a little wonky, and the Starlight Lotus petals were sometimes placed a little too high or low, but Stella pressed on—there was no time to humor her innate desire for perfection. This was a rushed job.
"Time's up!" Elder Brent shouted right as Stella folded the Dragon Marrow into a ball shape and blasted it with her soul fire.
It was done.
Resisting the urge to collapse on the ground and nap, Stella fished the pill from the cauldron and inspected it.
Shit, I don't know much about grading pills, but this is worse than my first attempt at alchemy with the twins and Elder Marget. So it should be a Mortal-grade pill at best.
Stella looked to the side and saw Kassandra eyeing her completed pill, and she was grinning.
That's not a good sign...
Stella didn't have much time to wonder about her fate as the sandy arena became flooded with examiners holding parchments. They meticulously made their way through the participants, inspecting pills and cross-checking with one another to make sure multiple examiners reached a common consensus on a person's performance.
"Mortal grade pill, score 32."
"Failed pill, score zero."
"Mortal grade pill, score 56."
"Failed..."
Stella's heart pounded as she watched the examiners draw closer while keeping her ears peeled. She hadn't heard anyone get a score above sixty by the time a young man from the Redclaw family arrived before Kassandra.
"Kassandra Skyrend, please show your freshly created pill." He said while holding out his empty palm.
Kassandra proudly handed over a pill that looked like a glass ball with twinkling stars and dashes of green within.
The Redclaw man's eyes widened as he looked between his parchment and the pill multiple times. While the man was perplexed, two more examiners showed up, and they also seemed marveled by the pill.
After a while of intense discussions, they landed on a number.
"Spirit grade pill, score 89."
Kassandra took the pill back from the examiner and smirked at Stella.
"Roselyn, please show me your freshly created pill," The Redclaw man asked, and Stella reluctantly handed over her pill.
There was a tense moment as the three examiners eyed her pill. However, to her surprise, they seemed almost equally impressed by her performance, and after a few moments of discussion, they reached a verdict.
