This pill duel also had a time limit. The time limit was two shichen — four modern hours.
As time ticked away, second by second, everyone below could only watch in helpless anxiety. The two dueling parties were completely isolated in separate spaces. Those outside had no way of knowing what was happening with either side.
The four hours were running out fast. According to the rules, each participant could submit at most seven answers. Of those seven, each correct answer earned one point, while a wrong answer incurred no penalty.
Of course, if anyone wrote more than seven, they would be docked points.
So, at most, they could only fill in seven raw materials.
At this moment, Huang'er's answer sheet had only two entries written down. These two were the ones she was most confident about. Five answer slots remained blank.
Of course, Huang'er had a few other candidates in mind, but she was still deliberating. Those answers were all ambiguous — they had some basis, yet also carried a whiff of pure guessing.
As time continued to slip away, Huang'er could no longer afford to deliberate. Seeing the deadline about to expire, she steeled herself and filled in all the uncertain answers she had been agonizing over.
And at that exact moment, the time ran out.
The barriers opened, and both parties walked out from the dueling stage. Huang'er's expression betrayed no joy or frustration, but King Huidan's face looked somewhat grave, his gaze drifting from time to time.
Both answer sheets were submitted.
This was a contest of gentlemanly honor — each side graded the other's answers. Naturally, no one would dare pull any tricks in such a wager, because before the duel, both parties had sworn to compete fairly and absolutely resort to no chicanery.
When King Huidan saw that Huang'er had actually gotten two answers right, he was somewhat surprised. The pill he had provided was extremely obscure, and he had expected his opponent to be completely lost, unable to find any direction at all. Yet to his surprise, she had identified two of the ingredients correctly.
"Hmph — whether that's blind guessing or genuine analysis, who knows?" King Huidan thought. Seeing how young Huang'er was, he found it hard to believe this was the result of real analytical skill.
As for the Pine Crane Pill, King Huidan had also managed to identify two ingredients, but both were auxiliary materials. When it came to the main ingredient, he hadn't the faintest clue.
Thus, in this second round, both sides had only identified two raw materials.
"In the second round, both sides identified two materials — the result is a draw!" When Grand Emperor Nian announced this outcome, he was secretly somewhat amazed.
This kind of wager required an extraordinarily high level of technical expertise. In Grand Emperor Nian's view, this strikingly poised young lady from Peacock Sacred Mountain would most likely be no match for King Huidan.
He had never expected that Miss Huang'er would actually fight King Huidan to a draw.
The draw sent a wave of murmurs through the crowd. Clearly, no one had anticipated that a tie would appear so quickly.
King Huidan was visibly frustrated. He had stepped into this fight expecting nothing less than a victory. Instead, victory had failed to materialize, and he had ended up with a draw.
He felt quite disheartened, but there was no time for brooding. After leaving the stage, he used a mind-transmission to report to Grand Emperor Danji: "Your Majesty, the pill I just analyzed contains a terrifying vital force. I suspect it is the Pine Crane Pill!"
This unexpected news sent a jolt through Grand Emperor Danji's heart. In an instant, a flood of thoughts surged through his mind.
The Pine Crane Pill!
Even a towering figure in alchemy like Grand Emperor Danji was now consumed by greed.
"The Pine Crane Pill… Does such a miraculous pill truly exist in this world? Where did King Zhen obtain this pill? Who could have given it to him?" Beyond the greed, Grand Emperor Danji's mind was also wracked with intense jealousy.
After the initial shock, all those emotions crystallized into a single, iron resolve: "I must get my hands on it. No matter what, I must obtain this Pine Crane Pill!"
Grand Emperor Danji had very little doubt about King Huidan's judgment. King Huidan was one of his most trusted subordinates.
Though King Huidan rarely made public appearances, Grand Emperor Danji never questioned the depth of his alchemical expertise.
If he judged that it might be the Pine Crane Pill, and with such certainty, then the matter was almost certainly reliable.
Moreover, from Peacock Sacred Mountain's perspective, if they were going to bring out an obscure pill, nothing could be more obscure than the Pine Crane Pill.
Grand Emperor Danji knew every single pill in Taikyuan Pavilion like the back of his hand.
So, the Young Master certainly wouldn't bring out any ordinary pill. If he was going to present one, it had to be something exceedingly rare and unheard-of.
Which meant the Pine Crane Pill was no surprise at all.
Huang'er achieving a draw — for Peacock Sacred Mountain, even if it couldn't be called good news, it was certainly not bad news.
At the very least, in this alchemical contest, Peacock Sacred Mountain had not fallen behind. Though the third round was the Young Master versus Grand Emperor Asura, everyone instinctively felt that the Young Master would surely win this one.
As expected, the third round played out exactly as everyone anticipated. Though Grand Emperor Asura tried to put up some resistance, he himself had truly never invested much thought in the art of alchemy.
Forget competing with King Huidan and King Cedian — even compared to his former subordinate King Budan, he was decidedly inferior.