I left my bottle there and waited to hear Violet’s assessment.

Pill Master Burning Crotch... er, Burning Tyrannical Stallion, sent his attempt-at-seduction smile over to Violet. She smiled politely back.

He obviously took this as encouragement. Instead of just examining it visually, he didn't take his eyes off her and brought the bottle closer to his nose. He slowly inhaled the scent. Then he blanched.

I barely stopped myself from laughing. When dealing with pills this potent, it was best not to smell them as their scent could sometimes simulate their effect. If he wasn't distracted by trying to seduce uninterested parties he would have remembered this.

So, what was he going to do now that he had the runs?

Oh? Glittering beads of sweat appeared on his forehead and he carefully passed the bottle to White Lily who took it while tactfully ignoring his situation. He sat up straight and forcefully smiled at Violet.

“Excellent craftsmanship, Apprentice Violet Pill,” He barely managed to get out before sitting up straight and visibly concentrating on not letting his body react.

Actually, if he had been a healthy Golden Core, it wouldn’t have affected him. But he’d overindulged... and was probably slightly poisoned from overuse of pills... and maybe he had an unmentionable spiritual energy resistant infection... I assumed. But that wasn’t my problem.

This level of schadenfreude was delightful. I was very happy I stayed to watch.

“I agree with Pill Master Burning Tyrannical Stallion,” White Lily said. ”Your concocting was near perfect. Excellent work.”

Violet’s lips turned down at the ‘near’ qualifier but she couldn’t say anything to a Nascent Soul big wig.

White Lily passed the bottle over to Pill Master Ruthless. This time, instead of nearly gushing over the pills like he did for me, he merely examined them and nodded.

“You’ve produced a quality product. You pass this round, Apprentice Violet Pill.”

Damn. That reaction was cold. I think I like this Pill Otaku more than White Lily.

Violet froze at the icy assessment, but bowed and thanked to the judges before collecting her bottle that was next to mine.

When she saw the contents of mine she jerked her head up and searched the room only to have her eyes land on my little frame. I smiled cutely at her like the beautiful immortal child I was.

“Could you please hand me my bottle, Senior Violet Pill Fairy?”

Her lips twitched as if she couldn’t decide to strangle me or interrogate me. Eventually, her eyes widened a bit. Did she discover that I was the girl in the bamboo forest yesterday?

She grabbed my bottle and tossed it to me. I caught it with spiritual energy and threw it into my storage bag.

With a satisfied grin, I took a step to go tidy up my space. Before I could take a second the manager called to gather the remaining contestants. Out of 40, there were now only 14 left.

Considering the lopsidedness of these old tournaments, it wasn’t surprising. Most of the remaining competitors had bone ages in their late 40s and realms in Foundation Establishment, Violet and myself being the only odd outliers.

“Congratulations, on completing the last round with a Sky Rank pill of medium quality or higher!”

Excuse me? I just needed to get medium quality? Shit. No wonder everyone was staring at me when my pills came out.

“We’ve placed a different set of pills on the board and await Pill Master Burning Tyrannical Stallion’s choice.”

The very pale judge’s face grew paler as he used a bit of spiritual energy to pull at a pill recipe at random. He sent it flying into the manager’s hands. The poor guy remained seated like his life depended on it... I was starting to worry about his health.

Shit wasn’t good to hold in like that.

“The next pill will be...” the manager paused until the tension could be cut with a spoon. “A pill that is a necessity for any Body Cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Stage... A pill so volatile, it is described as insane. A pill nicknamed, the Cauldron Killer.” He held up the paper. “The Nine Snakes Explosive Tempering Dan.”

Then he began writing the two dozen Spiritual Plants on the board that made up this pill’s formula.

Cauldron killer, huh? I glanced at Old Smokey. Well, not on my watch. We’d make it through this together! He was my first cauldron in this life, after all. And I just worked so fucking hard to get him into a good condition. I wouldn’t let him break just from a little Nine Snakes Explosive Tempering Dan. Fortunately, I was an amazing alchemist. Hehehe.