BXBX NOVEL Chapter 836 - The convention begins
The meeting process had been posted, all the students knew, today was the competition of alchemists, thus they already went to the outdoor square behind sect’s mountain early.
A high tower was temporarily built in the middle of the outdoor square, with a furnace on top. The viewing platform surrounded the outdoor square, with a platform at the front for the chairman, the height of the platform was higher than the temporary tower.
When Sima You Yue dragged both Han Miao Shuang and Su Xiao Xiao, Fatty Qu and companion were already seated at the viewing platform. Seeing 3 of them walking in, Fatty waved to them.
Sima You Yue brought them up, with the seats reserved for them.
“You guys are late, if no one was reserving the seat, you guys would have to stand downstairs to watch.”
Sima You Yue smiled, “I knew you would reserve the seat for us. If we came earlier, there’d be nothing for us to do.”
Han Miao Shuang saw over ten thousand people in the outdoor square, with the viewing platform almost full, and there were still half of the people standing downstairs.
“So many people!”
“This is my first time seeing such a magnificent sight in the sect.” Su Xiao Xiao sighed.
“Senior, have you never attended before?”
“There were Three Great Conventions when I joined. But I didn’t attend it at that time, and I wasn’t in the sect. So I have never seen it before.” said Su Xiao Xiao.
“Three Great Conventions only happen once in ten years, Xiao Xiao only joined eighteen years ago, so he never really attended before. ” Han Miao Shuang continued, ” Usually people who are closed, close themselves off, those that are outside, will be outside. They only get together when there are Three Great Conventions.”
“As a result, this is the sect’s rare occasion.” Sima You Yue looked at the hundreds of furnaces, estimating the number of internal sect’s alchemists, and asked: “Are all the alchemists joining the competitions?”
“Yes!”
“Are all the topics the same for high and low levels?”
“Of course not!” Fatty Qu said, “Ouyang and the rest said, the front row is free play, the few rows at the back are used by grade seven alchemists, further back rows are used by grade six alchemists.”
“What’s the difference between the first and last row?” Sima You Yue puzzled.
“Those are for grade eight and nine alchemists.”
“There’s grade eight and grade nine alchemists?” Sima You Yue’s eyes widened, ” At that grade, they can be teachers?”
“You can say that, but reportedly, almost no one has used that row before.” Wei Zi Qi said, “After all, for those who are still students, it is nearly impossible for them to become grade 8 alchemists. But it is said that someone achieved it before, that’s why that row remains there.”
There’s a rule in the inner sect, that regardless of occupations or identity, one can only stay here for up to four hundred years. After four hundred years, once will automatically be considered as a graduate.
At this point, all the alchemists in competition drew a slip of paper from two boxes, revealed the paper to teachers at the side, and walked to the front of the corresponding furnace.
“Are they only allowed to use the furnace prepared by the sect?” asked Fatty Qu when he saw Bei Gong Tai and Ou Yang Fei also drew a number and into position.
“No.” Han Miao Shuang said, “These furnace’s aren’t of good quality. Students can prepare their own furnace, or they can use other’s too. In fact, very little people will use the furnace prepared by the sect. The furnace will be kept by the teacher later.”
“In that case, why does the sect prepare furnaces for them?”
“It is a tradition passed down from generation to generation.”
When the students enter the square, a few teachers will come in together and pass by them, asking if they want to use their own. If the student says yes, they will keep the sect’s furnace away, then students can bring in their own.
Like Han Miao Shuang said, most of the students chose to use their own furnace, only a few keep to the sect’s furnace.
And for the two front rows, nobody went up.
When the preparations were done, Mao San Quan walked in while leading a group of teachers in as they sat at the platform.
The teachers stood side by side, cleared their throat and started talking to the students about the sequence of events. It started with the importance of Three Great Conventions, then rankings and more. Then, they followed up with the arrangement for the next few days, and lastly, the rule of today’s alchemy contest.
“This year was divided into two rounds as usual. First round is to refine the medicine assigned by the sect, the second round will be free play. The first round will be ranked according to the workmanship of the medicine and the time spent, grade six will be lined up behind grade seven.”
“Round two will be free play. Within a fixed period, the medicine you choose to refine will be judged by the sect’s teachers based on workmanship.”
“The final result will be ranked based on both results from the two rounds. Now, the alchemy contest will officially begin. ”
“You’ll find a remedy below the table, same for grade six and seven. There are three materials on the table, you have two hours to study the recipe, three chances to refine it. Start now.”
The alchemists took out the recipe from the drawer and started studying it.
Han Shuang Miao cut in front of You Yue saying: “I heard from Jiang Jun Xian, this sect’s competition and alchemy contest’s rule is almost the same, it will probably be the same for us.”
“Did Eldest Senior know about this?”
“He participated in an alchemy contest.” Han Miao Shuang said, “That time he joined as Jiang family’s young master. It was also then that he was chosen by Master as his student. Now that I think about it, his motive was to take this opportunity to get near his Master.”
“When was that?” asked Sima You Yue.
“Fifty years ago.” Han Miao Shuang said as she tucked her hair behind the ear, “That guy first followed Master, a few years before me.”
“I didn’t expect that we would still join the competition even without Master around. ” Su Xiao Xiao said.
“So, since Alchemists have their pill battle, do Armament Masters have Armament contests, Array Masters have Array contests, Beast Tamers and Seeker Spirit Master have similar contests?” Sima You Yue asked.
“Beast Tamers don’t have such contests, but the other occupations do. Master only focuses on alchemy, and doesn’t focus on the other contests, so I’m not sure.” Han Miao Shuang said, “Instructor Mao should know. Why are you asking?”
“I just thought of it so I was just asking.” Sima You Yue smiled.
Previous generations of Ximen’s family never had an outstanding Alchemist and Armament Master, so she wasn’t familiar with this. This question just occurred to her, since they were all powers that belonged to the mainland, since they had pill battles, other professions should have similar forms of competitions as well.