Back to the Peak by 决绝 (Jué Jué): Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Manufacturing Medicine

Since the contest now was about medicine, Shi Qingyang had nothing to do. He originally planned to stay in the rest area to the side, but Cheng Xuze unexpectedly called him over.

The place where Cheng Xuze sat was the VIP seat behind the referee’s seat. At this moment, the seats in other places were full, but there were still empty seats here. Not only that, the line of sight here was also very good. After wearing binoculars with adjustable focal length, one could view the situation of each contestant in the field.

Shi Qingyang’s attention, of course, was on Cheng Ran. Although Cheng Ran performed very well in the ant nest, there were too many people here now, so he showed obvious nervousness. Shi Qingyang adjusted his binoculars, and he could even see sweat on the tip of his nose.

When he entered the hall, Cheng Ran drew lots at random. He got number seven, and was now sitting in that position. In front of him, there was a computer on which questions popped up. In this competition, everyone had half an hour to do as much as they could. Finally, the score was calculated according to the number of questions they answered, as well as their error rate.

In fact, Cheng Ran was best at this, but there were too many people around him. He couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy. After listening to the words of the beginning of the competition, he even subconsciously looked at Shi Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang kept staring at Cheng Ran. At this time, he stood up and waved his arm vigorously. Although he didn’t say anything, his supportive attitude was extremely clear.

Shi Qingyang sat in a good position. Cheng Ran glanced at him, and the daze on his face disappeared. He gathered himself, lowered his head and began to concentrate on the questions.

“This is just a test of theory. Don’t you know how good Xiao Ran is?” Cheng Xuze patted Shi Qingyang on the shoulder. He glanced at the scene from time to time, but for the most part, his eyes were mainly glued on the handheld computer in his hand.

As soon as Shi Qingyang bowed his head, he saw that some investigation reports were displayed on Cheng Xuze’s computer, and he also saw Yin Ming and Yin Hao’s name in it.

Cheng Xuze had deliberately let him see: “I always thought it was those people in Yangtze City who were jealous of us who dared to fight against Xiao Ran, but I didn’t expect that they would have something to do with the Yin Family…” If it weren’t for Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran explaining their suspicions to him, then after Cheng Ran’s disappearance, it would have been likely that Cheng Xuze would have gone straight to investigate people who coveted the Almighty Elixir.

“Did Grandpa discover anything?” Shi Qingyang asked.

“Your master once asked me to check the members of the Yin Family who’d been exiled. At that time, I sent out a search, and I’ve now received the report… Some of the people listed are still working, some are dead, and those who are working have been sent to remote areas. All of them may have been substituted,” Cheng Xuze said, “Don’t worry, I will get to the bottom of this.”

“Thank you, Grandpa,” Shi Qingyang said.

“This is also my revenge for Xiao Ran.” Cheng Xuze then shared with Shi Qingyang some of the things he had investigated.

Cheng Xuze was surrounded by Shi Qingyang on one side and Wang Qing on the other, with Cheng Hong sat beside Wang Qing. Just now Cheng Xuze had been tilting over the computer. He once tried to see what Cheng Xuze was looking at, but Wang Qing blocked him

He stopped his son from looking, and now he was chatting with some ass-kissing stranger!

Cheng Hong grew more and more angry. Thinking of what had just happened, he felt regret and frustration. He wanted to check the online news with the contact terminal, but thinking that this was a public place, he couldn’t be as indifferent to other people’s eyes as Cheng Xuze.

In the end, he could only sit stiffly and watch Cheng Ran on stage.

There were many people who followed Cheng Ran with their eyes. During the contest, everyone’s name was displayed, and Cheng Ran had come in with Cheng Xuze, so everyone knew that he was Cheng Xuze’s grandson. Naturally, they wanted to see his skills. Even the big screen next to him gave him a close-up.

Interference devices were used in the field, preventing communication with the contestants. Naturally, Cheng Ran wouldn’t cheat, but his speed of doing questions was a little too fast. This time, the questions were all multiple-choice questions. Pictures and words were given on them. Most people had to take time to think about the question before they could be sure, but Cheng Ran just took a glance and quickly chose the answer.

This… If he wasn’t a genius, then he was a waste of a learner! Many people who didn’t know medicine couldn’t help but feel that Cheng Ran was choosing randomly. Only some people who knew medicine understood that Cheng Ran’s answers were correct.

Ran Xue sat in the VIP seat, next to several pharmacists from Anhang City. In the beginning, some pharmacists introduced their disciples on the stage, but as time passed, everyone’s eyes fell on Cheng Ran.

They saw very clearly that not only did Cheng Ran answer the questions very quickly, but also chose the correct answers. Not only that, he was a little flustered at the beginning, but later he became extremely focused, which was the state pharmacists needed.

This child of the Cheng family was really a good seedling to learn medicine! Cheng Hong had such a son, who knew why he left him in Spark City.

80% chance, he really was an illegitimate child?

Half an hour passed almost in a flash. As soon as the time stopped, the computer in each student’s hand automatically locked its screen. At the same time, everyone’s grades were also displayed on the next screen.

Of the people who came here to compete, most of them were good seeds. Although it lasted only half an hour, everyone answered a lot of questions, but no matter how much others did, they didn’t complete as much as Cheng Ran. Moreover, Cheng Ran not only finished more, but also had a 100% accuracy rate!

Nowadays, you could use the contact terminal to check data anytime and anywhere. Even if you encountered unknown medicinal materials, you could scan them with the contact terminal, and all kinds of information would come out immediately. Because of this, although the people who came to the competition today were the best in their academies, they couldn’t guarantee a 100% accuracy after facing so many tricky problems. In fact, the accuracy of most people fell between 80% and 90%, with the exception of Cheng Ran.

Under the eyes of so many people, of course, he couldn’t cheat, and with his speed, he could just read the question at most. Was there time to ask others the answers to help him cheat?

You know, many people watched his close-up on the big screen and wanted to answer the question alongside him, but before they could even finish reading the question, Cheng Ran had submitted his answer…

“Mr. Cheng, your grandson is really great!” The dean of Anhang Academy, who was sitting in the referee’s seat, turned around and complimented him. Although a referee was arranged for this game, it was mainly computer judgment, which had little to do with him. At this time, the result of the computer judgment had come out, and Cheng Ran was undoubtedly first.

“You flatter us, that child is only good at this,” Cheng Xuze laughed, but the pride on his face could not be covered.

“I believe he will win the championship!” The dean of Anhang Academy added. He sent the outstanding students from the first and second grades of Anhang Academy this time to show their abilities to the people from the surrounding tertiary cities, but he didn’t expect that on the brink of the competition’s start, Cheng Ran actually came.

At that time, he was very worried for fear that the people of Spark Academy would lose too horribly, and Cheng Xuze would seek trouble with him. You know, many students of their Anhang Academy began to learn to memorize medicinal materials at the age of seven or eight, unlike schools in tertiary cities, where students had to enter school at the age of sixteen to officially start learning this. So even if the students were only in the first or second year in the Academy, they were better than the students of others who were in their third or fourth years.

Just now, he wanted to say a few words to the students from his school and let them go easy on the competition. Later, he didn’t do this because he was afraid of it being found out. Now, he was glad that he didn’t do it – if he really let those students intentionally fudge their results, Anhang Academy would really lose in the end!

He was also stupid. The students of Anhang Academy had learned in advance, but Cheng Ran was born in the Cheng family, so he might have started learning even earlier. What need did they have to intentionally try to go easy on him?

“Thank you for your kind words,” Cheng Xuze laughed.

In fact, the theory competition was very boring for those who watched it. In contrast, people had more anticipation for the next segment, of the actual production process. You know, various problems could occur when creating medicine. There had even been novice medicine explosions on the competition field, which was much more interesting than the theory examination.

The computer was replaced, and the mobile operation platforms were pushed up one by one. On these mobile operation platforms, various medicinal materials filled the surfaces.

Competitions like this didn’t stipulate which medicine the contestants had to create. Generally, people would have the freedom to choose. For example, this time, hundreds of medicinal materials and various formulations were given, and then the contestants were required to prepare a medicine using them in an hour.

The time of one hour was very short. It was naturally very challenging to make a sufficiently outstanding medicine in this time period. After the medicine was made, it would also be tested by computer, and then the ranking would be given according to various data.

Shi Qingyang finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. They were not short of money. Cheng Ran had the chance to learn to create medicine at home every day for over a year. His talent made it impossible to have any worries over his performance at this time.

Seeing Cheng Ran looking over from a distance, Shi Qingyang didn’t care that many people were now looking at him, and waved his arm hard again.

Cheng Xuze sat beside him and was relieved to see this scene. He and his wife were childhood sweethearts at the beginning. His wife’s qualifications were ordinary, so she often cheered him on when he competed, which was similar to Shi Qingyang’s actions now.

Youth really stirred up nostalgia.

Cheng Xuze was lamenting his youth, but Cheng Hong beside him couldn’t help but have a deeper opinion of Shi Qingyang–Cheng Ran and this Shi Qingyang completely ignored him, what did this mean?

Shi Qingyang didn’t know Cheng Hong’s mind. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care. At this time, all his attention was on Cheng Ran.

Now Cheng Ran had focused again and began to pick out all kinds of medicinal materials and dispensing solutions. Just like before, his speed was much faster than others. Soon, his medicinal materials had been processed and he had started mixing the medicine. What he manufactured was a second-level rad-energy supplement. The configuration time of this medicine was generally about 50 minutes. It was just good enough to participate in the competition, but it was not outstanding.

Now, in the past seven or eight minutes, Cheng Ran had put the crucible over the heater. However, he did not pay attention to the medicine, but set the time on the console, and then quickly took several other herbs.

In this practice competition, Anhang Academy specially invited a lively and articulate female junior pharmacist as the commentator. Although she was only a junior, she knew a lot about medicine. Next to her, there was an intermediate pharmacist as a consultant, who immediately gave clear explanations on the medicine that everyone in the field was trying to make, and also explained the various happenings.

As a commentator, she knew which contestant everyone paid the most attention to. At the beginning, when Cheng Ran chose his medicine, she already announced the medicine that Cheng Ran intended to mix, but the second-level rad-energy supplement really had no advantages, so although she praised a few words, she couldn’t boast too much. Yet she didn’t expect that as soon as she turned around, Cheng Ran unexpectedly took out another medicine.

Seeing this, the commentator’s eyes lit up: “Contestant No. 7 chose another medicinal material after he began to prepare the second-level rad-energy supplement. If I’m not mistaken, he plants to prepare two medicines at the same time! Let’s see the medicinal materials he chose, such as sour pulp fruit, amaranth leaf, elm peel… This is the same as the medicinal material chosen by contestant No. 12. This should be used for anti-miasma medicine, which has the effect of detoxification. If someone outside the city falls into a coma due to heatstroke, or from encountering a damp and hot toxic environment in the wild, they can recover consciousness after drinking this anti-miasma medicine. In the area of Nanguang City, there are many places where one must drink the anti-miasma medicine in order to enter… “

“Anti-miasma medicine and second-level rad-energy supplements are both common medicines, and the time to create them  is about 50 minutes each, but the combination of the two would take someone at least two hours to completely create. Now the console we prepared was for a single person, and can only heat one agent at a time. I don’t know how contestant No. 7 plans to mix them both. Let’s wait and see!”

The commentator had been praising Cheng Ran, but the consultant next to her didn’t like Cheng Ran. He had reached his level through his own hard work. Cheng Ran was just a teenager, but so many people thought so preciously of him that it naturally stirred up jealousy: “I’m not optimistic about Contestant No. 7. It’s understandable that he wants to mix two medicines to increase his score. If the console was a double, it could be completed in an hour, but the single console makes it a challenge to mix two medicines. Finally, even if the manufacturing is successful, the quality of the two medicines will not be very high. In a sense, this is a waste of medicinal materials…”

“You’re the one wasting medicinal materials!” Shi Qingyang listened closely. Even though he was also nervous about Cheng Ran’s actions, he couldn’t allow others to say such things about Cheng Ran, and immediately whispered this.

“Just let them talk. What does it matter?” Cheng Xuze laughed. Shi Qingyang looked very mature before, but now he was acting a little juvenile.

“You’re right, Ranran is much better than him,” Shi Qingyang laughed.

Although Cheng Xuze knew that Cheng Ran had no radiant energy and could not compare with others, parents always thought their own children (and grandchildren) were the best, and he immediately agreed: “Yes, Ranran is much better than that guy.”

Many people overheard Cheng Xuze’s words, including Cheng Hong. After others heard them, they kept up their compliemnts, but Cheng Hong only felt a fever on his face.

A person who didn’t even have radiant energy could compare with an intermediate pharmacist? Did they think they were funny?

Although he didn’t read the online news, he also knew that if Cheng Ran really shone this time, there would be more people standing on Cheng Ran’s side. Moreover, he had given a solemn speech before that he had sent Cheng Ran away because of Cheng Ran’s poor health. Now Cheng Ran was all fine; wasn’t this a slap in the face?

Obviously, he was just a person who didn’t even have radiant energy…

Cheng Hong thought of this, and suddenly his heart moved. Cheng Ran’s identity, which had not been disclosed in Spark City before, was only known by people at the top until the incident of his disappearance, which caused his identity to suddenly be exposed. It was precisely because of this that people didn’t know that Cheng Ran wasn’t even a rad-energy user.

There were also some rumors on the internet about Cheng Ran’s lack of radiant energy, but at that time, Cheng Ran’s life and death were uncertain, and no one cared about this. Now, at this time, Cheng Hong could let this matter explode and let everyone know about it.

In this way, it could at least confirm Cheng Ran’s bad health. In addition, he could also say that Cheng Ran obviously did not have radiation energy, but insisted on studying at a radiation energy academy. He had no choice but to send Cheng Ran to Spark City…

With this in mind, Cheng Hong immediately opened the contact terminal and asked someone to give this explanation.

Cheng Xuze and Shi Qingyang didn’t pay attention to Cheng Hong’s affairs, because at this time, the contest was about to end.

Posted in Back to the Peak Novel Translations and Tagged back to the peak