William was overjoyed to hear he would still earn 96 points despite Elder Tianshen's help during the Tribulation. He quickly took a peek at the remaining Alchemist's cauldrons, pleasantly surprised to find no one capable of stealing his number one spot.
While he waited for the others to finish, the System message he had been waiting for finally appeared.
--UPGRADE SUCCESSFUL--
SYSTEM RANK: (E --> E+)
-177 Extra Potential Points added to progression towards the next System Rankup
*New features available
-Potential Farm: The Host can now purchase a mental farm that will award daily Potential Points depending on its rank. The rank of the farm cannot exceed the System Rank.
-System has reached version 1.6, and has increased the chance of Rare Talents appearing from Talent Shop purchases.
-Host earned Potential Points during the System Upgrade. Detecting rewards...
The final System message relieved William. He was worried that the System wouldn't give him any Potential Points because of the upgrade. Thankfully, the System was only stupid sometimes.
-The stupid System can hear your thoughts. Idiot.
The System is all powerful and amazing with no flaws whatsoever! William praised.
William sighed mentally and read through the new features. There wasn't much, but he was very interested in the Potential Farm function.
System, show the Potential Farm.
-Still calculating Potential Points rewards, please wait...
Ugh okay. William wasn't sure why the System was taking so long, but he didn't complain, lest the System decides to reduce his reward.
He invited Yuming over from the stands to chat while they watched the Inner Core Disciples refine their pills. The Alchemists saw this and placed some of their attention on their chat, hoping to get some timely tips.
William saw what was going on and smiled, but he had no intention of helping his competitors this time. After all, a Silver-Ranked Fire Root was at stake.
-Evaluation completed. Issuing rewards..
-Survived a Heavenly Tribulation: +10 PP
-Refined a pill: +1 PP
-Perfectly refined a pill: +2 PP
-Refined your first Tier 4 pill: +25 PP
-Perfectly refined your first Tier 4 pill: +100 PP
-Unlocked Title: +5 PP
-Trial Taker (Rare): You have transcended at least 3 Heavenly Tribulations. With great risk comes great reward. 5% resistance to Heavenly Lightning, +1 Attention.
Attention? What is that? William spent five points to ask the System. It was expensive, but William found it necessary.
-Attention measures how much the Heavens have noticed you.
William felt this statistic was a bit ominous. In most stories he read, the Heavens would turn out to be an evil thing that controlled the future of all creatures. If it was the same here, then William worried that his new stat would become a headache in the future.
Elder Arthur's voice awoke William from his thoughts. "Today's competition has ended. The first place winner is William with a score of 96 points! Disciple William, please come up here and accept your Fire Root." he beckoned William to approach the judges' table.
William did as instructed and accepted a Silver-Ranked Fire Root that was identical to the one Lu Bingying and Yuming received.
-Discovered an Element Root: +100 PP
Elder Arthur mistook the sparkle in William's eyes for extreme gratitude. "You've earned it young man, now go enjoy the rest of your day."
"Thank you, Elder." William stored the Fire Root safely in his Space Ring and retrieved his share of the refined pills. He now had two Tier 4 Iron Stomach Pills, two Tier 3 Mana Gathering Pills, and two Tier 2 Soul Refinement Pills.
Now that the pills have been refined, William didn't have to worry about storing them in his Space Ring. Unless he repeatedly stored and removed them, the pills would have nearly the same effect when consumed.
William bade Yuming and the Elders farewell, then went back to his residence. He wanted to use the Fire Root as soon as possible.
Of course, not everything can go as planned. Standing outside William's residence was a group of female Outer Core Disciples wearing angry expressions. He didn't recognize any of them, so he assumed they weren't from the newest batch of disciples.
One of the girls noticed William and pointed in his direction, "There he is!"
William was even more confused now. He approached the group of girls, "What are you all doing outside my house?"
"You know what you did, you shameless asshole!" a girl with long blue hair snapped.
"Uh...no I don't. Who are you?"
"You're a new disciple so obviously you don't recognize me. I am Jeanine, but there is no way you can use that excuse on Miss Rin!"
William had no clue what Jeanine was talking about. "Miss Rin?"
"I said you can't use that excuse! There's not a person on this continent that hasn't heard of the youngest granddaughter of Supreme Left!"
"Ok, she's someone popular. What does that have to do with me?" William was becoming slightly annoyed at this ridiculous group of fangirls.
Jeanine placed a hand on her hip and huffed. "It has everything to do with you! You can't honestly tell me you don't investigate your opponent before you challenge the Ranking Board, right?"
The pieces clicked in William's mind. So that's it...how does this happen every time?!?
-Maybe the Host should consider reading for once.
Since when did you become so talkative? Thıs text ıs hosted at novel fire.net
William ignored the System that was obviously never on his side. He looked at Jeanine seriously, "I'm guessing the person ranked 301st on the Ranking Board is this "Miss Rin", but why does it matter if I challenged her?"
"No one is allowed to challenge her! Are you an idiot?"
William scratched his head. "Then why is she on the Ranking Board if I can't challenge her?"
"Well..." Jeanine didn't know how to explain all this. Obviously William was an idiot that accidentally picked Miss Rin as her opponent.
Her angry tone lessened, "If it was really a mistake, then just revoke your challenge."
Now William became angry. "I don't care who she is! I'm not canceling the challenge. Besides, she accepted it herself. Obviously she is also willing to fight me!"
Again Jeanine was left speechless. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you! You better pray that she isn't injured during your fight, or there will be consequences."
William waved his hand to dismiss the group, then entered his residence. They couldn't chase him inside because of the Arrays, so they were forced to leave or stand by for no reason.
William pondered what the girl said while making dinner for himself and Atticus. Jeanine was unnecessarily angry, but her words were reasonable. Clearly Miss Rin wasn't challenged very often and was very popular within the Sect.
The granddaughter of Supreme Left, huh? How come out of all the disciples in this Sect, I happened to pick the one person that could bring even more powerful enemies to my doorstep?
The challenge wasn't going to take place until two days from now anyway, so William still had some time to change his mind. Right now, it was better to focus on the Alchemy competition.
I will be competing against Yuming and Lu Bingying tomorrow...I hope they don't get too upset when I win...