Chapter 2113 — Not a Hard Question
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"In that case, contestants, take your places and prepare for the contest to begin!" Old Master Zhao said. "The poison-mixing machine will begin preparing the poisons; contestants, draw your lots here!"
There was no chance of cheating in such details—so many eyes were watching. Wei Zhao casually drew a lot and stepped to one side, and so did the others. Everyone went straight to the draw without fumbling about, clearly unwilling to let anyone suspect them of cheating.
When the drawing was done, half the tags remained in the bucket. Those tags corresponded to poisons in the mixing machine as well, but since no one had drawn them, they were naturally unused. This too was for the sake of fairness.
Each contestant, according to their tag, collected their own little bottle from the mixing machine, walked to one side, sat down, and began identifying the poison within.
Identification was Wei Zhao's strong suit. As a child, he had grown up practically in a heap of medicinal herbs, and the old man had set him such nasty problems every day. Be it venomous insect or toxic herb, there was almost nothing Wei Zhao could not identify—unless it was something exceedingly peculiar, like the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit, something he had never seen.
But such precious things could never appear in the contests of the hidden family summit. To casually mix such a treasure into a poison as examination material would be a wanton waste of heaven's gifts; even if a family won, the loss would outweigh the gain.
So Wei Zhao merely tasted the poison in his bottle ever so slightly, spat it out, and used true qi to encase and expel the remnants in his mouth. Then he quickly picked up his brush and wrote on the paper the names of ten venomous insects and toxic herbs, and rose to his feet to signal that he had finished.
Seeing Wei Zhao the first to stand, Old Master Zhao's face twitched twice. Was that not a little too fast?
Old Master Tang and Old Master You wore looks of equal shock. Wei Zhao coming out so early meant only one of two things: either he had given up, or he had already finished identifying. But would Wei Zhao ever give up?
From what they knew of Wei Zhao, he was not one to surrender easily. Not only would he not give up—he would strive with all his might for first place.
"Leader!" Han Xiaohu rushed over the moment he saw Wei Zhao stand. "All done?"
"More or less." Wei Zhao showed little pride. This was his strong suit; winning was winning, nothing worth boasting about. The earlier contests had cost him some effort and thought, but this one had held no suspense at all.
Whether Wei Zhao had given up or finished identifying, the disciples of the Hidden You family and the Hidden Tang family could sit still no longer. The second to emerge was a disciple of the Hidden Tang family, with a disciple of the Hidden You family close behind.
They had no intention of letting Wei Zhao win and then, after losing first place, forfeit second and third as well—that would be a humiliation beyond all bearing! This contest had been designed to target the Hidden Tang and Hidden You families, yet it had instead made Wei Zhao's name. How could they take that calmly? (To be continued)