Rise of the Alchemy God

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The first part of the third round of the competition had finally come to an end, with 25 out of 50 participants advancing, and an additional 7 moving forward after battling once more against others who, like them, had lost in the first round.

Although the performance of the beginners' category hadn't improved much compared to the beginning, it was a fact that there had been some slight progress.

All the previous rounds had eliminated those whose skills were still below a certain threshold, and now only the most powerful remained in this category.

This was already evident from the last matches, where the competition had become much more serious and intense.

Everyone who could not withstand this new pressure was inevitably eliminated, including Wang Li-na, who, despite showing her worth, ultimately lost by a narrow margin.

For her, reaching this point had honestly been a significant achievement, so to some extent, she was satisfied with her results in her first participation in the imperial tournament.

That said, like many others in her category, she too longed to advance further and secure a higher position, but the harsh reality was quite different from her expectations, and in the end, she had to be content with her current standing.

After the first part of today's competitions concluded, there was a 30-minute break, and finally, the second round of matches commenced, involving this time those from the experts' category.

Today's schedule was divided into two parts, one for each category, with each part allotted a total of 6 hours, thus two groups of participants from each category would compete.

The experts' category had fewer than 50 participants remaining, so the number of competitors in the first group was clearly much smaller than in the novices' category.

In this first group, from Ethan's team, only Yan Mei participated, while Ethan and Xiang Hua would join the second group of challengers.

Yan Mei gathered her courage and, as soon as the competition began, she, like the other participants, entered the competition area and took her place on the designated platform.

What she had to face in this challenge was a boy with long gray hair, left free.

He had a slightly pale complexion, as if he hadn't seen sunlight for several months.

He had a tired look, but his eyes showed a lot of energy.

Ethan, noticing the participant against whom Yan Mei would compete, couldn't help but shake his head.

The participant was none other than one of the three demon cultivators who had entered the competition.

Throughout the tournament, Ethan kept a close watch on them to not miss any unusual actions.

He already knew their plan, and given where the tournament had progressed, he didn't doubt that the setup had already been arranged.

He just had to find it, or rather, know its exact position; Bai Yu would take care of the rest.

Having already dealt with the cultivator wandering through the capital city and the half-demon supervising him, she could now assist him in managing these three.

Not that he really needed help since he could tell that none of them had surpassed the fourth level, and for him, who could compete on par with those of the fifth stage, the fourth level was child's play.

If it weren't for the tournament, Ethan would have captured them all, made them spill the beans, and then exorcised them with his new ability.
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After seeing how the giant's body was purified from the influence of demonic Qi, he needed more test subjects, preferably alive.

With them, he could experiment further with his new physical ability and determine its maximum and minimum extent.

After all, if his ability could purify a being without killing it, he would have a useful weapon against demons and potential subjects corrupted by them.

He had already realized that brute strength alone wouldn't suffice against demonic energy; he also needed to eradicate it in some way, and that's where his new ability came into play.

As he watched, Ethan could only hold back for now and mutter:

"For now, you're safe, but you won't be for long."

As if sensing malevolent intentions toward him, the boy with gray hair felt a chill run through his body as he looked around, confused.

'Was it just my imagination?'

Once everyone took their positions, the announcer wasted no time and finally initiated the first round of the second part of today's competitions.

Immediately, all the participants pulled out various materials and began to work on them while igniting the fire beneath the provided cauldron.

Clearly, everyone had already decided which pill to create and was just waiting for the start.

Just like in the competition for the first category, where differences in skill compared to their initial matches were already noticeable, the same was true for the experts' category, with significant disparities evident.

The minimum requirement for purity and level had risen to 50% of level 2, in other words, a medium-grade level 2 pill at minimum, and this time, there was also a minimum requirement of how many pills to produce, which was at least 3 pills.

The requirement itself was not difficult, especially for the participants remaining in the experts' category, who were more than capable of refining pills at this level easily.

With three hours at their disposal, each made their action plan and proceeded, focusing on their own station while ignoring everyone else, including their opponent.

Yan Mei was no exception, as she had already gotten to work for a while.

Ethan had already noticed that Yan Mei's refining skills had improved significantly since the last time he had seen her, and from what he had observed over these days, he could say that she was most likely already at the initial level of a master alchemist;

in other words, she was probably already capable of producing high-grade level 2 pills with ease and attempting those of the next level.

Of course, she was far from being comparable to his own progress, but unlike him, who relied on the system, she had honed her refining skills up to that point.

Ethan didn't see this advantage over the others as something to be ashamed of.

He believed everyone had their own opportunities and problems.

Some had more, some had less; in a sense, the system could be considered part of his strengths, and making the best use of his abilities was not wrong at all,

he didn't care if it was right or wrong.

He had long since stopped caring about others' opinions.

He knew that others wouldn't decide his fate;

it was what he did that mattered because those actions would determine his future.