Chapter 1385: No Rush
In the end, Zhou Ruoran still restrained the excitement in her heart and did not rush directly to the Great Alchemy Competition to reunite with Ding Fan. She clearly hoped that Ding Fan could achieve a good result in this competition, which would surely make Ding Fan famous. In that case, even her master, the sect leader, would certainly agree to let her be with Ding Fan. Of course, even if her master didn't understand, she would resolutely follow Ding Fan.
One must know why Zhou Ruoran came to the Cultivation World; isn't it to find Ding Fan? Of course, Zhou Ruoran did not want to have a falling out with her master and leave unhappily. After all, she was very grateful to her master, who had taught her a lot of cultivation knowledge, and she was clearly indebted. Zhou Ruoran is not someone who doesn't understand gratitude.
Of course, Zhou Ruoran also knew in her heart that such a thing was unlikely to happen. She believed that Ding Fan's strength would surely be recognized by her master. She had immense faith in Ding Fan. Even though Zhou Ruoran and Ding Fan had been apart in the Cultivation World for some time, she still had unwavering trust in him. You must know that Ding Fan is the only man she truly loves, a fact that could never change.
Furthermore, Zhou Ruoran knew that Ding Fan clearly had remarkable strength at this point. After all, she had heard plenty of rumors about him. Others might think these are just mere tales, but Zhou Ruoran naturally believed that Ding Fan possessed those capabilities, given that the Ding Fan she knew was just that incredible!
At this moment, it wasn't just Zhou Ruoran who deeply missed Ding Fan; Ding Fan was no different. Ding Fan had been yearning for Zhou Ruoran for quite some time. Since arriving in the Cultivation World, Ding Fan consistently searched for Zhou Ruoran and others, filled with longing. Even now, during the Great Alchemy Competition, Ding Fan's heart still deeply missed Zhou Ruoran.
Ding Fan was very clear in his heart. His purpose for participating in the Great Alchemy Competition was to make a name for himself, so that Zhou Ruoran could find him more quickly. Depending solely on the strength of one or two individuals was extremely limited. However, Ding Fan wasn't focused on the audience below; he had already looked around before, and clearly did not see Zhou Ruoran or Gusu Qingwen.
So Ding Fan decided to finish the Great Alchemy Competition properly before doing anything else.
At this moment, Ding Fan also heard some discussions around him. Clearly, while many spectators had high expectations of him, even more of them doubted him. After hearing some of these discussions, Ding Fan realized earlier that an alchemist had written a pill recipe with twelve spiritual materials, claiming the championship of the second round of the Great Alchemy Competition.
Of course, Ding Fan also heard some information about this alchemist named Zhang Hao. The crowd believed that his achievements were due to cheating, which Ding Fan found somewhat amusing, though he didn't care. For Ding Fan, the second round of the Great Alchemy Competition was evidently not challenging, but it surprised him that someone dared to take the risk and cheat.
At that moment, Ding Fan couldn't help but find it a bit funny. He didn't care much; even if the other's results were better than his, it didn't matter. After all, Ding Fan's goal was just to become famous. As for winning the championship, he wasn't very interested. However, he heard the champion reward was a piece of golden silk protective clothing.
When Ding Fan heard this reward, he couldn't help but feel tempted, clearly not expecting such a rich reward for the competition winner. Ding Fan naturally knew the preciousness of this golden silk protective clothing; it was extremely valuable, even mythical. Countless cultivators had never truly seen this item.
Since it's something legendary, Ding Fan was tempted, but he didn't change his original intention. Clearly, his goal was simple: to find Zhou Ruoran and Gusu Qingwen, and to gather information about the Wild Wolf Gang. After all, these were the most important things to Ding Fan; everything else was of no concern.
As for the golden silk protective clothing, although Ding Fan was somewhat tempted, he maintained an attitude of letting things happen naturally. If it's yours, it's yours; if it's not, you can't force it. Even if he tried to force it, he couldn't get it; besides, this is Dancheng, so forcibly obtaining it would not be possible and would inevitably drag He Qianyao into trouble.
So Ding Fan didn't think much and let everything happen naturally. Shortly after, the tenth group's Great Alchemy Competition began. Some staff handed out medicine pills to ten alchemists. As soon as the participating alchemists received the pills, they quickly began refining them. Clearly, these participating alchemists had considerable skill; most were aware that the pill given was not simple. Only by continually refining more pills could they determine which spiritual materials were in the recipe. After all, writing the complete recipe was evidently impossible for many alchemists.
Since their group was already the last, and many previous alchemists hadn't written out the recipe, it was clearly impossible for them to write a complete recipe. What mattered now was how many spiritual materials were identified correctly. So the tenth group of alchemists understood that the more spiritual materials listed correctly, the higher their scores. Thus, most alchemists followed the same method in the second round of the competitions.
At least for most participating alchemists, the method was the same. The pill given in the competition was clearly not an ordinary pill. To most alchemists, experimenting with each spiritual material was extremely difficult. Evidently, the pill was rare on the market, showing that the participating alchemists were quite competent.
This is also a very normal thing, after all, this is the Great Alchemy Competition in the Donglai Continent. Clearly, average alchemists have no qualification to participate in this Great Alchemy Competition, but the second round of the competition has obviously stumped many alchemists. For these participating alchemists, continually refining medicine pills and constantly attempting to get the correct spiritual materials is an extremely difficult task.
It is imaginable how remarkable it was when Elder Herr used his strength to write out these nine kinds of spiritual materials; even a Fifth Grade alchemist could only write out about three types of spiritual materials. Of course, because there is a time limit in the competition, only the time it takes three sticks of incense to burn, it's not impossible for those slightly more skilled alchemists to write out about nine correct spiritual materials, but it obviously takes a lot of time, at least a day's worth.
This is the gap between higher grade alchemists and lower grade alchemists. Thus, when the tenth group's alchemy competition started, almost all the alchemists were racing against time to try refining medicines. Regardless of what medicine they were refining, clearly, the more medicines they refine, the more they can identify the correct spiritual materials, and isn't this precisely the point of this Great Alchemy Competition?
In a moment, the alchemists in the tenth group moved very nimbly, refining medicines at a very swift speed. However, there was an exception among the alchemists; despite some time having passed since the start of the competition, this alchemist's movements remained very slow, yet seemingly methodical, but this competition wasn't about who had the steadier hands, it was clearly who had the faster hands!
This exceptional alchemist was none other than Ding Fan. At this moment, everyone who saw this scene was shocked. Whether it was the audience following Ding Fan or the other alchemists, there were obviously a lot of people, but everyone who saw this scene couldn't help but be surprised. In their imaginations, Ding Fan's skills were supposed to be extremely fast, unparalleled by other alchemists.
After all, during the first round of the competition, Ding Lin performed amazingly and even expressed an alchemy cauldron preservation method before the competition. Once the first round of the competition ended, he received significant attention from Elder Wang. Clearly, an alchemist with such prowess in alchemy should have rapid movements even when organizing spiritual materials.
This is what everyone was hoping to see, but Ding Fan's performance had completely dumbfounded everyone. Clearly, among the alchemists in the tenth group, Ding Fan received the most attention from the crowd, and naturally, he also garnered the most interest throughout the entire competition. But at this moment, Ding Fan's actions had left everyone completely dumbstruck. His hand movements were not just generally slow, but unbelievably slow.
It's important to realize that at this moment, other alchemists had almost completed refining three medicine pills, but Ding Fan had just barely finished organizing the spiritual materials. When he calmly took out his alchemy cauldron, just as everyone thought Ding Fan would place the already organized materials into the cauldron, he unexpectedly stretched languidly and then began to recheck the previously sorted materials…
At this moment, upon seeing Ding Fan's actions, some people in the audience were already spitting blood!
"Damn! Can you go any slower? You must know this is a competition! Time is money!"
"Exactly! What's up with Brother Dalin! Could it be he's given up? That can't be, right? Even if you're scared by the previous scores, there's no need to be so exasperating!"
"Please! Brother Dalin, can you be a bit more earnest? Now's not the time to pamper your bear waist! We all know your waist is great!"
"I kind of feel Brother Dalin is sometimes quite earnest, but I just can't understand why his speed is so slow! Knowing every other alchemist in the competition wishes they could grow a few extra hands, yet Brother Dalin is stretching! It's simply unbelievable!"
"Perhaps Brother Dalin knows this second round of the Great Alchemy Competition is just too difficult, so he's saving his strength and giving up this round. After all, there are three rounds in total, and securing first place in two assures the championship."
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