After learning the simple information as well as some more that explained the process, Alex moved on to the second book about the competitions.
After reading for a while, he understood that the 4 guilds came together to hold a competition every year for a specific production skill of cultivation.
According to the book, this was to promote the production skills to more people since they were an integral part of cultivation.
There were exactly 7 production professions that had competition take place. They were Artifacts, Painting, Talisman, Music, Formations, Spirit Foods, and finally Alchemy.
All in that order.
Each of these professions had a competition taken year after year, for a total of 7 years.
Then, there was a gap of 3 years to let something else take place that the book didn't tell him about, but Alex concluded that it must be some sort of competition as well.
