Hearing these words, Pill King Rong's spirits immediately soared.
In the first round of the second stage, they had been given spiritual medicine ingredients to combine into pill formulas. That round, Pill King Rong had been certain he would win. After all, his favorite and most proficient area was breaking down and combining pill formulas.
Unfortunately, despite performing well in that round, he had run into a Heavenly Pivoting Pill Arrangement. The opponent had stumbled into a lucky break and beaten him.
Now, in this round, they were given pills and had to break down their ingredients. This was essentially the reverse of the second round's second task.
That task had given them many ingredients and asked them to combine the highest-grade pill possible.
This task gave them pills and asked them to dismantle and break down the raw ingredients.
Whether forward or reverse, this was Pill King Rong's greatest area of expertise.
Moreover, this task had not been designed by any single judge—every judge had participated in creating it. This greatly reduced the possibility of getting lucky.
Could you get lucky identifying one type of pill? What about two, three times?
With a total of nine pills, the probability of getting lucky would be much smaller.
Pill King Rong felt this was an absolutely perfect opportunity for him! This was his chance to shine!
Since entering the competition, he had lost two consecutive rounds in the second stage, and then lost the first round of the third stage as well. The situation had already reached a critical point.
If he lost one more round, that would be four consecutive losses, and the entire grand wager would be lost.
"Hmph, that brat relied on some underhanded tricks from the Unorthodox Pill School to scrape out three lucky wins. Let's see what kind of dumb luck he can pull off this time!"
Pill King Rong was inwardly very indignant.
He felt that his talent and foundation as a sixth-rank Pill King were absolutely incomparable to those of a second-rank Pill King. The three consecutive rounds he had lost before had all been frustrating.
Except for the first one, where the opponent had used the Three Lives Pill to beat his Jade Marrow Pill—that loss he accepted without complaint—the other two, he was not convinced at all.
The Heavenly Pivoting Pill Arrangement—he felt he had lost to luck.
And the round where he had to refine his own pill—he had lost to the judge's rules.
"This round, I will absolutely win! I must make this brat understand that a second-rank Pill King and a sixth-rank Pill King are ultimately not in the same league!"
Pill King Yu distributed eighteen pills to the two of them, nine each.
"Examine them carefully. Your nine pills are each identical to your opponent's. Remember, there is one more rule. To ensure the fairness and excitement of the competition, as long as you correctly identify six ingredients for each pill, it counts as a pass. Of course, all six ingredients must be correct. If even one is wrong, that pill's analysis will not pass. If you both end up with the same number of successfully analyzed pills, then we compare the total number of correctly identified ingredients—whichever of you has more will be the winner."
A single pill generally contained at least seven or eight raw ingredients, with some containing over a dozen.
As long as six ingredients were correctly identified for each pill, it counted as passing. This did lower the difficulty to a certain extent.
However, any single pill's analysis absolutely could not contain a wrong ingredient.
If an error appeared, that pill's analysis would fail.
This meant they could not analyze recklessly, sacrificing quality for speed.
You could identify fewer ingredients, but you absolutely could not make mistakes.
"You both understand the rules?" Pill King Yu's gaze was deep and penetrating as he looked at both contestants. He had to confirm they understood the rules.
Once the competition began, whether they understood or not, they would have to follow them.
"I understand." Pill King Rong's fighting spirit surged. This was his greatest area of expertise, and this round was absolutely his opportunity to turn things around.
So Pill King Rong beamed with vitality, his spirits high and energetic.
Jiang Chen smiled faintly and nodded, glancing at the high-spirited Pill King Rong with a cold laugh inwardly.
"This Pill King Rong is smug and complacent—looks like he's skilled in this area. But playing pill games in front of me? On this entire Divine Abyss Continent, who is worthy?"
It wasn't that Jiang Chen was arrogant. In terms of pill theory, forget the Divine Abyss Continent—even in the Myriad Heavens Planes of his previous life, how many could sit down and discuss the Dao with him?
Seeing that both parties had confirmed the rules, Pill King Yu waved his hand. "Return to your competition areas. Begin."
As a judge, Pill King Yu might have appreciated Jiang Chen, but when it came to the rules, he truly would not play favorites. The content of this round's competition fully proved that point.
Nine pills analyzed together—this also reduced the luck factor to a certain extent and strengthened the assessment of fundamental knowledge.
Even Wang Teng could find nothing to complain about. In fact, on the surface, this task even seemed to lean slightly in favor of their Taiyuan Pavilion.
However, Wang Teng was the type who liked to play innocent whenever he gained an advantage. When things went his way, he kept quiet, feigning ignorance while silently profiting.
But if he felt even slightly disadvantaged, or if the rules went against him, he would shout and fuss as though he had suffered some tremendous injustice.
This style of only winning and never losing was a vivid portrait of the Royal Court's great factions.
"Pill King Rong, in this round, this young lord is counting on you. Give it your all, turn defeat into victory, and I'll credit you with the greatest merit. As long as you win the wager and we take Taiyuan Pavilion, you'll be the chief Pill King of Taiyuan Pavilion from now on!"
It had to be said—Wang Teng was extremely skilled at rallying morale and keeping his subordinates under control.
Sure enough, once this promise was made, Pill King Rong's fighting spirit grew enormously, sweeping away the dejection from his previous consecutive losses.
Wang Teng saw that the second round of the third stage was this type of content, and his mood improved considerably.
What annoyed him, though, was that on the faces of Father and Son Wei, he couldn't see the worry or displeasure he expected. It was just as Third Young Master Ji had said—the Father and Son Wei were more composed and more dignified!
This put Wang Teng in a foul mood. Were Father and Son Wei really that confident? This round, Pill King Rong could practically secure a guaranteed win—was Father and Son Wei not the slightest bit worried?
Wang Teng didn't believe it. He felt Father and Son Wei were putting on a brave front, putting on an act.