Chapter 726: Advancing Before Hua Ni’s Eyes
The Ice Sculpture Capital, the Warm Snow Cup Grand Contest site.
“Success!”
“We knocked down the ice sculpture guardian!”
“Oh, finally someone passed.”
“The cheers in the arena interrupted the dragonman youngster’s memories. He stared out and saw the ice sculpture guardian being defeated.
The consecutive losses caused the arena to be quite depressed.
The first alchemist group to pass caused the other competing magicians to relax and grow more confident.
The dragonman youngster carefully observed, recognizing who the winner was.
“It is the current Blood Kin City Lord.”
This city lord came to the capital half a year earlier for this competition, leaving an assistant back in Blood Kin City to administer it. While all of his energy and time was spent on preparing for the Warm Snow Cup.
This conduct and bearing was not becoming of a city lord. But as a master alchemist, he was clearly outstanding, strong enough and very ambitious.
What Blood Kin City Lord was attempting was obvious at a glance – he wanted to fight for top three in the Warm Snow Cup and obtain the reward that would let him construct his own magician tower!
“Worthy of being a gold level alchemist and magician.”
“The rune circuits he created were excellent, and he considered all of the circumstances that might happen during the battle.”
“The other two silver levels are indeed fortunate to smoothly follow Blood Kin City Lord in his success.”
“His magic circuit design fundamentals are exceedingly outstanding, if I were doing it, I would take up at least five times as much of the puppet’s internal space. So many effects, from just twenty sets of magic circuits. How did he accomplish this?”
The alchemists were discussing spiritedly.
Magic circuit designing was a basic skill to these alchemists.
As a veteran alchemist, Blood Kin City Lord was not just strong, he was exceptional.
It was with the outstanding magic circuits he designed that allowed his puppet to have enough space to load military equipment and thereby defeat the ice sculpture guardian and advance.
It could be said that Blood Kin City Lord used his formidable power to pass the second round fair and square.
Not long after, another group succeeded.
“It is Xue Tuan Zi.”
The survivors had been paying attention to her.
The dragonman youngster cared because Xue Tuan Zi was a member of the duelists. Cang Xu valued her background much more, Xue Tuan Zi was herself outstanding enough, while her grandfather was even more so, he was the master of Snow Cake Tower and a genuinely powerful elder in the Alchemy Guild, one that possessed his own magician tower.
Magician towers greatly amplified magicians’ power. A magician who had a tower was absolutely a person of high standing. No matter if it was wealth or fighting strength, neither could be looked down upon.
Xue Tuan Zi and Blood Kin City Lord were both gold level alchemy masters, but their line of thoughts were utterly different.
She designed the alchemy puppet very peculiarly, it looked like a child yeti, chubby, shoddily made, mainly focused on defense, far more than its offense.
After the battle with the ice sculpture guardian started, the alchemy puppet took a beating the entire time.
However, as it was being beaten up, it was constantly absorbing those external attacks and turned them into internal energy. After enough internal energy was saved, a violent explosion occurred.
The ice sculpture guardian was blown up, leaving behind the small yeti. According to the Alchemy Guild’s rules, it was quickly judged that Xue Tuan Zi’s group would advance.
“You can do this?” Everyone was amazed.
Xue Tuan Zi’s method was undoubtedly quite a revelation to everyone. Many people benefited from it, and new ways of thinking were formed, but it was too late.
Making changes for the second exam was very hard, and many things needed to be prepared for it.
The dragonman youngster secretly analyzed, “Xue Tuan Zi is a duelist, and her background is very good. She is seeking and provoking duels and constantly going to arenas. Therefore, her battle abilities are also outstanding.”
“Her tactics and alchemy designs combined and expressed stability that could let her advance.”
In the twelfth round, it was Zi Di’s group to go onto stage.
Cang Xu and Zi Di kept together, but these two were not the protagonists in the audience’s eyes. Most of them were casting their sight on the third person.
The gold level alchemist – Cai Jing!
“An Alchemy Guild elder is actually competing.”
“How is he qualified?”
“Haven’t you researched the rules? So long as one is an Alchemy Guild Elder, they can participate in the Warm Snow Cup’s alchemy achievement exhibition. He can take part in any round or exam question.”
Essentially, the Warm Snow Cup’s first exam was to weed out the inferior people, and filter for the true alchemy elites. If an elder level figure cannot pass, then the Alchemy Guild must be incompetent.
“Great Master Cai Jing obviously could participate in the achievement exhibition, but as it happens, he decided to participate in this exam question…”
“Damn it, to be wealthy enough to hug such a thigh.”
“Humph, we don’t know how much he was paid.”
“Speaking of which, even though Cai Jing became an Alchemy Guild elder, he has a very dark past. Many years ago, to make money, he counterfeited many products and disturbed the entire nation’s alchemy marketplace.”
Some familiar with the alchemist looked at Hua Ni.
Hua Ni narrowed her eyes, rigidly glaring at Cai Jing.
She had been scheming to eliminate Yao Ma (Zi Di), but in the end, Cai Jing took part in the competition to safeguard Yao Ma!
Cai Jing had just joined the guild, and not long after being appointed elder, he immediately made a play against Elder Hua Ni!
His guts were too fat.
At first, Hua Ni still believed that Cai Jing was unaware of the inside story and severity. Therefore, she personally contacted Cai Jing, yet Cai Jing refused without the slightest hesitation.
At once, Hua Ni fumed with unbearable anger!
Due to the rules, Hua Ni couldn’t raise difficult questions. She and Cia Jing were elders both, and even if she wanted to suppress and push aside the latter, she couldn’t do that at the moment.
In short, Hua Ni was enraged but could do nothing for the time being.
She could only tenaciously remember this slight by Cai Jing.
Of course, this also included Cang Xu.
After signing up, the groups were determined. The Alchemy Guild, Li Jian Clan, and Jing Xiang Clan all secretly contacted Cang Xu, wanting him to desert. In the end, all were cleverly put off by Cang Xu and he ultimately rejected them all.
He was undoubtedly playing with these three factions!
The exam began.
Zi Di and Cang Xu hastily moved. Very quickly, the weak alchemy foundation they showed caused many master alchemists to frown. This standard of supporting work was not presentable.
But Cai Jing was a true clutch!
·
He was a gold level, and although his reputation as a counterfeiting great master was bad, it conversely proved his skills. As a magician, he was able to meet Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong’s standards, open the secret door, and acquire the grafted magic plant inside, a task impossible for many gold level alchemists.
One must know that Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong was a druid, and his inheritance was set aside for druids.
Why did the Alchemy Guild have to appoint Cai Jing as the one who would continue to excavate Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong’s inheritance? Could it be because he was familiar with them? Of course not! His “unrivaled” alchemy strength in the domain of magic plants was somewhat exaggerated. But in the massive Alchemy Guild, it was really hard to find anyone who was comparable with him.
Those that were Cai Jing’s match or stronger were usually heavy weights and had more important business to attend to.
In short, Cai Jing served as the main force, displaying a critical role that allowed the alchemy here to go off without a hitch.
Zi Di’s group’s finished product looked like an ice gargoyle. It was the shape Zi Di was most familiar with, and also had mass popularity, conforming with the norms of society.
During the fight, the ice gargoyle performed well. Not only was it agile, but it also attacked first and even had rich expressions.
When it was wounded during the fight, the ice gargoyle actually resembled a living person, its frost calls of pain dumbfounding many spectators.
That was overthinking things a bit.
Cai Jing was an expert at micro-magic formations. His main method of cultivating magic plants was engraving all kinds of micro-formations on the outside and inside of magic plants, so these magic plants could hear his commands, and be used for other purposes like amplifying the magic plants’ power, or complementing the magic plants’ shortcomings, and so on.
During his duel with the dragonman youngster, the latter confirmed his strength. Like the explosive peppers, after he carved micro-formations into them, he could derive a person’s face into them.
The principle was through magic formations; he could bestow an object with spirituality.
The ice gargoyle was thus a living presentation.
And the ice sculpture guardians all had the same design – human soldier, blade in the right hand, shield in the left. They were balanced in all aspects and didn’t have any obvious shortcomings or strong points. The biggest failing was that they couldn’t fly.
The ice gargoyle could flutter and hover through the air, and not long after the battle began, it held the upper hand.
This kind of advantage was maintained, lasting until it turned it into a victory.
Thus, Zi Di’s group smoothly advanced.
“We passed!” When the dragonman youngster saw this, he laid down his worries and let out a breath.
When Zi Di returned, he merely nodded, then turned around and left the venue.
According to the plan, next he had to hand a matter immediately.
“You passed the second exam; you really have skills to go so far as to be able to persuade Cai Jing.” Elder Ju Jin secretly relaxed, since the survivors had leverage on him, he had no choice but to go along with their plans.
Jiu Jin looked towards Cai Jing, hiding a look of pity, “Elder Cai Jing’s prospects are dark. He personally took part in the exam and helped Yao Ma. What’s the difference between that and slapping Elder Hua Ni right in the face?”
“In the future, he is bound to be targeted by Hua Ni!”
Just as Jiu Jin was sighing ruefully, someone appointed by Hua Ni suddenly contacted him.
It went more or less like this: Hua Ni was considering Elder Jiu Jin’s contribution in the organization of the Warm Snow Cup. He was being “rewarded” by being promoted to the manager of the Alchemy Guild branch in Grey Stone City.
When Elder Jiu Jin heard this, he stared blankly, doubting his own ears.
Grey Stone City was very poor; they didn’t even have bird poop. Even if he was the Alchemy Guild branch leader there, it couldn’t compare to being a comfortably off elder in the capital. This was no reward; it was a penal sentence!
Finding it hard to believe, Jiu Jin ran through the crowd to the judging panel and asked Hua Ni about this.
Hua Ni coldly looked at him, her heart full of resenting what Cai Jing just did, and didn’t bother playing around. She directly said, “Jiu Jin, I haven’t investigated into your business with the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps because of our past friendship.”
Jiu Jin felt like he fell into an icy hole in that split second.
“Hahaha, if Elder Jiu Jin doesn’t want to transfer, then it would be better if he excavated Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong’s inheritances with me.” Cai Jing came up from behind, instead of returning to whence he came from, he instead walked over to the judging panel.
Cai Jing looked at Hua Ni and around him, then suddenly, he revealed a flower pot. Inside the flower pot was a gold level grafted magic plant.
His move immediately attracted everyone’s gaze.
Cai Jing publicly declared that this grafted magic plant was what lay behind the secret door of Great Master Fan Sheng Za Shong’s inheritance.
And as expected, those words caused everyone to cry out in surprise.
Some insiders suddenly realized where Cai Jing got the confidence to compete with Hua Ni – his meritorious service!
This immense merit was sufficient to turn a newly promoted elder like him into one that truly stood firm in the guild.
Cai Jing gazed at Jiu Jin, and continued, “I also have to thank you, Elder Jiu Jin, it was from you that I had a revelation. Therefore, this here is your merit too.”
Jiu Jin was astonished, he had no relations with Cai Jing, so why was he lying and defending for his sake?
But then Cai Jing secretly transmitted to Jiu Jin, quickly making things clear – this was all the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ plan!
For a moment, Jiu Jin was both alarmed and delighted.
Like Cang Xu expected, Hua Ni learned that Jiu Jin was being blackmailed by the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps from the Li Jian Clan and was unreliable. She didn’t dismiss and replace Jiu Jin, but rather purposely let Jiu Jin take information, using that list of names as a trap, to scheme against the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
On the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ side, under Cang Xu’s advisement, they saw through this trap but also didn’t contact Jiu Jin ahead of time to inform him that the survivors had already recruited Cai Jing so he could plan accordingly, this conversely, lulled Hua Ni and other enemies into a false confidence.
Hua Ni sat there on the judging panel, looking very ashen, everyone could see her ghastly mood!
Cai Jing helping Zi Di pass slapped her face.
Due to this humiliation, she tried to vent her anger on Elder Jiu Jin.
Instead of her anger being vented, Cai Jing skillfully turned things around.
Cai Jing was willing to give a part of his contribution to Jiu Jin. What grounds did Hua Ni have to send Jiu Jin away and demote him unofficially?
“What’s going on? How did Graft Town’s inheritance excavation undergo such immense progress all at once?’
Hua Ni had been paying close attention to this guild mission every day.
Because recently, there were many people begging to her, many guild members desiring to force their way in, and on the extreme end, some who wanted to directly suppress Magician Da Bei’s position for the sake of this lucrative job.
Da Bei’s external reports had always been that they had made zero progress.
This was zero progress?!
Hua Ni didn’t suspect Cai Jing was lying.
Because it was too easy to verify. Only an idiot would do that.
The other elders on the judging panel looked at each other.
The situation had repeatedly developed beyond their expectations.
Hua Ni was struck without warning and lost a good deal of face. Cai Jing’s side obviously came prepared.
Simultaneously, some in the audience looked at Magician Da Bei in the arena, their eyes carrying blame, resentment, while others were rejoicing in another’s misfortune.