"The competition begins."
With Fu Nian's order, the intense and exciting pill - refining competition kicked off on the stage.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
In less than a moment, the pill furnaces of many alchemists on the stage exploded.
It seemed that these alchemists lacked experience in dealing with the suddenly changing rules. The explosion of their pill furnaces was within their expectations and was quite normal.
Many alchemists were in a panic but still fully concentrated on refining pills in the shortest time possible, because time was also counted in the score.
Different from others, Zhao Shuning just stood in front of her table, looking at the pile of materials in front of her without moving.
What she needed now was not speed.
If she didn't master the properties of various spiritual herbs and the heat for pill - refining at the beginning, her pill furnace would eventually explode.
Moreover, when the pill furnace exploded, it would also cause different levels of damage to the spiritual herbs.
The spiritual herbs in front of Zhao Shuning were very fragile.
If she operated them recklessly, not to mention refining pills, it would even be a problem to preserve their original value.
Original value?
Zhao Shuning seemed to think of something.
She looked up at Lan Anran.
"Senior, may I ask if the final judging standard is to maximize their value?"
Lan Anran nodded.
"Of course."
Zhao Shuning let out a sigh of relief.
After that, she completely ignored the spiritual herbs in her hands.
The alchemists who came on stage together all wanted to refine high - quality pills, so they looked down on the low - quality spiritual herbs.
Zhao Shuning shouted to them one by one.
"Big brother, could you give me two Yimi Flowers?"
"Take them all if you want. They're all useless herbs. They're of no use to me."
"Okay!"
"Little sister, could I have your damaged Purple Spirit Grass?"
"Take it. Anyway, it's already damaged. The pill refined from it must be flawed. I don't even want it."
"Sure!"
"Big brother over there, could I have the Silverflower that you dropped on the ground and don't want?"
"Take it, take it."
Just like this, while collecting the herbs that the alchemists looked down on, Zhao Shuning kept running around. Before long, there were already many low - level herbs on the ground in front of her.
"What on earth is this little girl trying to do?"
"She's picked up so many herbs that others don't want. Is she here to clean up the garbage for others?"
"What on earth is she up to?"
Behind the curtain, Yan Ruyu sipped her tea gently.
Feng Zhan said charmingly, "Your little girl doesn't follow the usual path. I can't figure out what's in her mind."
Yan Ruyu just smiled without saying a word.
Xiaoning'er had a lot of ideas. She never did anything without a purpose.
Since she had collected so many herbs, they must be useful to her.
Zhao Shuning looked at the mountain of low - level herbs in front of her, then at the scorching sun in the sky and the incense stick, which was already half - burned.
"Time is passing so fast."
There were still many sounds of pill furnaces exploding around.
When Zhao Shuning went to collect the unwanted herbs, she basically got a clear understanding of the herbs for this competition. Many of them were flammable and explosive. To make high - level pills, they had to be perfectly blended together.
However, the properties of each herb were different, and it was difficult to control the heat.
These people were all aiming for the best pills.
But they didn't notice Lan Anran's words.
That was to maximize the value.
Everyone was busy refining their own pills, and obviously no one noticed what Zhao Shuning was going to do.
The scorching sun above became even hotter.
The time Zhao Shuning was waiting for was almost here.
She held her breath, then slowly raised her hands. A special light unique to alchemists sparkled in her eyes.
"I didn't expect that there would be such a young alchemist in our Dongze Wilderness."
"Although it's very difficult for her to win this competition, at such a young age, it's really not easy for her to stand on this high platform and face everyone calmly. She will surely achieve something in our Dongze Wilderness in the future."
The people below were chattering about what was going on on the stage.
At this moment, Zhao Shuning was fully concentrating on her mental method.
Only to see her cherry lips slightly part.
"Burn!"
The flame from her palm actually split into twelve small pill furnaces, surrounding her.
"Twelve pill furnaces!"
"This little girl is not simple!"
Even Feng Zhan behind the curtain dropped the pastry in his hand in surprise.
"Buranyi, what on earth is your little girl up to?"
Yan Ruyu sipped her tea calmly.
"Just wait and see, brother. You'll know later."
Dividing one pill furnace into twelve could allow multiple pills to be refined at the same time, but the quality of the refined pills would be greatly reduced.
Didn't Zhao Shuning know that no matter how many low - level pills, they couldn't be compared to one high - level pill?
On the stage, Zhao Shuning completely ignored the strange looks from everyone.
She evenly divided the herbs that others didn't want on the ground into twelve parts and then put them into her pill furnaces.
"Using what others don't want to create value?"
"This little girl has a good idea."
Refining such low - level pills was something that a second - rank alchemist could do. Now that Zhao Shuning was a fourth - rank alchemist, controlling twelve pill furnaces at the same time was not a difficult task for her.
Moreover, with the scorching sun shining brightly, she could also use the power of the sun to shorten the time for starting the fire in the pill furnace.
The time was greatly reduced.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Zhao Shuning clenched her hands, and the herbs wrapped in flames showed their refined appearance.
The flames receded, and the twelve round pills returned to Zhao Shuning's hands.
The twelve One - Yuan Entry Pills were like a windfall. Such things were definitely the more the better.
You should know that in their Qinghui Town, even one of these pills would cost a fortune.
In the competition, the sect provided the materials for them to show their skills.
And the reward was the pills they refined themselves.
Zhao Shuning put the twelve One - Yuan Entry Pills into her Qiankun Bag.
Then she let out a long sigh of relief. It felt so good.
At this time, the white - clothed young man below showed a smile on his face. Xiaoning'er was still the same as before.
Behind the curtain, Feng Zhan pointed at Zhao Shuning on the stage and said, "Buranyi, did you see that? She's openly amassing wealth during the competition! This kind of behavior is really—"
"Really wonderful."
Making use of waste and maximizing her own interests without harming others, there was nothing wrong with Xiaoning'er's approach.
Seeing the doting smile on Yan Ruyu's face, Feng Zhan swallowed the words "despicable" back.