Chapter 248 Trap Full of Traps.

In the competition arena, isolation hoods were raised around each contestant. These hoods not only block sound but also restrict visibility. This means that people outside can see the contestants' alchemy movements, but the contestants inside cannot see the outside, minimizing external influence. Moreover, if the contestants feel that the space is too stifling, they can adjust the pattern on the isolation hood to simulate various backgrounds such as grasslands, arenas, or alchemy rooms, etc. Yun Tai couldn't help but suspect how many pharmacists can still uphold their ideals and continue to practice and enhance their abilities when they have been pampered like this?
Prince Qi, sitting in the VIP box, asked Vice President Zhan Yi with some dissatisfaction, "Isn't this question a bit..."
This question seems to be made specifically for Bao Yuntai to pass! But the problem is, how can you eliminate other pharmacists with such a simple question? It's even possible that intermediate pharmacists will make mistakes because they can't remember the formula for the promotion pill. To keep a low-level pharmacist for the sake of Yuntai, while eliminating intermediate-level pharmacists, if this news spreads, it will definitely become a laughingstock throughout the continent.
"Prince Qi, you will know if you continue watching," Zhan Yi Tu smiled and answered.
Is the Pharmacy Guild's members really so foolish? Doing such thankless tasks.
There are naturally many people with the same doubts as Prince Qi. Of course, there are also many clever ones who have noticed some clues.
“事情肯定没这么简单。依我看他们应该在药材里面动了手脚。如若不然副会长不会强调桌面的药材用完这件事情。要知道，准备参加比赛的，谁不会事先训练一下。晋级丹怎么可能还需要练三次才会成功？肯定还有其他的评定标准，不过没有说罢了。”澜沧郗发表了自己的看法。
"What do you think?" Yunyi is preparing to test his younger brother and see if he has made any progress after going to the front line.
"I think Xiaoshi is overthinking. Perhaps this assessment is testing the stability of the pharmacist's mental state." Yunhao replied.
“如果在药材里面或者鼎炉上动手脚岂不是更加能够测试出这一点？”云昭梅发表着自己的见解。
“这有什么用？在炼丹前检查炼丹炉和药材是最基本的步骤，每位药师都应该知道。怎么可能……”水雪丽反驳道。
Unfortunately, she didn't finish her sentence when suddenly, there was a loud bang on the competition stage, directly hitting her face. And it wasn't just one hit, but a series of beeps as the isolation hoods of several participants turned orange, indicating that their first attempt at alchemy had failed!
"It seems that not all contestants have such a good mentality." Yun Hao smirked and glanced at Shui Xueli.
In such a short period of time, they are already refining pills, obviously these alchemists haven't even inspected those medicinal ingredients, they just use them directly.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Are you in a rush to be born again? We still have a whole month's time!" murmured Shuixue Li, feeling frustrated. If she couldn't refine an advanced-level pill within a month, she might as well consider a career change. There's really no point in persevering if it's not working out.
Not long after, the color of the orange isolation cover turned red. This means that the second alchemy attempt failed again! The audience in the stands couldn't sit still anymore and stood up one after another, craning their necks to see more clearly, who was going to be eliminated so early, if they knew the person. More people also realized that it's not scary to fail once, but to fall at the same place twice, that's a problem!
Sure enough, in an even shorter time, the isolation mask turned jet black and then dissipated into nothingness. On the stone platform in front of the failures, it was in a complete mess. They were all dispirited and greatly devastated. I suppose they didn't expect to be eliminated so swiftly and cleanly in such a short period of time.
Several warriors from guilds walked in and escorted the eliminated contestant out.
One of the pharmacists seemed unable to handle the blow and exclaimed, "There's a problem! All three sets of medicinal materials are flawed, it's simply impossible to refine them into advancement elixirs!"
Now there's no need for him to shout. The audience has also realized that the competition's medicinal herbs have been tampered with. As a result, a problem arises - with insufficient medicinal herbs, how will the pharmacists successfully refine the promotion elixir? This may be the first challenge of today's competition.
"Where exactly are Yun Tai and her team?" There are too many participants, and Yun Zhaomei hasn't found Yun Tai and her team's location yet.
"There should be a lot of people following her, so it's unlikely that she's being sidelined." Yun Hao replied.
What kind of look is that? She's just in the middle of the second row, isn't she.
"She hasn't started alchemy yet? Will she make it in time?" Xilan Cangxi exclaimed in surprise.
"What is she fussing about?" Yun Zhaomei was also worried for Yun Tai. Although he didn't understand alchemy, seeing that most of the pharmacists in the field had already lit their pill fires, he naturally followed suit. He couldn't believe that Yun Tai's alchemy speed was faster and the quality was better than those intermediate pharmacists, could he?
Yun Tai is really not wasting time. As a science student, she is accustomed to using numbers to communicate when studying alchemy. How many degrees to maintain for how many seconds, how many grams of medicinal ingredients to add, and so on. Therefore, at the beginning, she drew several marks around the hourglass as a time reference. After estimating the time, she started checking the alchemy furnace and using tools, and finally inspected the three sets of medicinal ingredients. Upon investigation, Yun Tai couldn't help but shake her head and sigh. Indeed, having a good teacher has its advantages. Look at all these disgusting traps, who knows who came up with them? One careless move and you fall into a pit! Yun Tai is not sure about the situation of the other participants. At least here, the traps are full.
First of all, the alchemy furnace used for refining pills is not cleaned properly, with residues sticking to the bottom. If one starts refining pills without even looking and assumes everything is fine, the consequences can be disastrous. Although higher-level pharmacists may be able to salvage the situation using their mental power, the quality of the resulting pills would be compromised. Moreover, Yun Tai believes that this alone can deceive many pharmacists. It is important to note that the pharmacist profession is highly esteemed, and unless it is during the learning stage at the academy, it is unlikely for pharmacists to personally deal with tasks like cleaning the alchemy furnace.
Next, the instrument used to weigh medicinal materials is made of a wood called litongmu. However, this litongmu wood cannot be mixed with the medicinal plant danshen. The combination of the two plants would produce a trace amount of toxin. Unfortunately, danshen is an essential herb in the upgrading pill. The grinding bowl used for preparing the medicine is made of a stone called yanyingshi, which has strong thermal conductivity. In other words, when fragments of yanyingshi are mixed into the alchemy furnace, the difficulty of controlling the temperature during pill refining increases exponentially.
Finally, it's the quality of the medicinal herbs, the year, and so on. Looking at the results, all three batches of medicinal herbs indeed have issues. When she examines the suitable medicinal herbs according to the formula, she finds that there is just enough for one batch. In other words, this is another trap of inertia thinking. In reality, there is only one opportunity. Success does not guarantee progressing while failure leads to direct elimination. There is no second or third chance at all.
As she finished inspecting and resolving the issues, Yun Tai glanced at the hourglass and indeed it had exceeded the time. No wonder they had given her a month to complete it. Just cleaning these things up had consumed a lot of her energy.
Zhān Yìtú nodded with satisfaction at Yún Tái's actions. Alchemy is not child's play. Setting aside innate talent and strength, as a pharmacist, the first thing one must do is to be meticulous, beyond meticulous. (Note: The translation provided above is a literal translation of the text. It may not capture the exact intended meaning or convey the literary nuances of the original Chinese text.)