"Wow! Storage ring? I heard they need master-level blacksmiths to make storage rings." People refered to space ring as storage ring.
"They are very rare and just 1-meter cube cost 10 gold coins."
"Even storage pouches were brought from a distance place."
Yuki was not satisfied because Kanakuba family had a long history and their ancestors tresures were very valuable, "100 gold coins are only 30% of Kanakuba family assets."
"Little brat, there are many gold coins, precious herbs inside the ring," Kanesuke replied, "that will be more than enough for the bet, let's start this stupid contest already, I still need to enjoy my new gift," while looking at Megumi.
Yuki got mad but she stroked her left waist with right palm to calm herself and said, "Ok, once we sign a written agreement, we can start."
Everyone had to fear fragrance pill association because of their monopolization of pills, their under handed methods, so the association people had their eyes about their head but here was this little girl with no due respect whatsoever.
Any man who eat salt would get angry for that and Hisamoto was no exception, "You want a written agreement?"
"Yes, this is the first time I am seeing you people," Yuki replied, "so obviously I won't trust you. He even sold his daughter, in this world blood is the strongest trust, if he can even break that, then how can I trust him."
"No need to go that far, just swear on heaven," Akihiko suggested.
"Father, those are just superstitions. We need an agreement," said Yuki.
'In this world, swearing is more trusted than agreement and it is true to a certain extent, this world people won't go back on their word when they swear on heaven,' system explained.
Yuki got convinced and agreed, "Ok, let them swear."
Hisamoto and others didn't have a choice as many people were watching that. No matter how much control they had, they couldn't stretch until breaking point.
So everyone swore on his or her bets, then Yuki and Kanesuke sat in front of their furnaces to start the competition.
Hisamoto announced, "This competition is about the quality of the pill, regardless of what kind of pill, whoever makes the highest quality pill, they will win this competition and you have only 1 try. Start the competition."
He was trying to take advantage of Yuki's beginner inefficiency but no was that stupid to let him make the rules.
"How could you decide the rules?"
"She is still a beginner. You should give her at least 3 tries."
"You are on one side of the bet, how can you set the rules?"
"Fine, it's 3 tries then," Hisamoto reluctantly agreed. The ultimate miser title could be seen on his forehead.
Yuki and Kanesuke both started the fire and started putting herbs. While controlling the fire, suddenly Yuki's head ached one time.
She paused with a troubled look because she couldn't control the fire properly. 'your spirit power got exhausted due to previous continues practice,' the system notified.
'Why didn't you say that before?' Yuki asked in a panic, the wood just burnt while Yuki just sat there without movement.
Gakuto felt something was wrong and then the elder, who was guarding Yuki before, came to Akihiko and reported, "Family head, the young miss was practicing nonstop until now, I think she was out of spirit power."
"Crap, we sent her to fail," Akihiko freaked out in regret, "she is a little girl so she won't know how to measure her energies. It's my fault for not thinking about that."
"What should we do?" Gakuto asked, "We already put all of our assets."
Both of them confirmed that their family was doomed and started to plan how to keep themselves alive.
Yuki felt very devastated, she became pitiful with fear of losing assets because of her, she couldn't muster any ounce of energy, then she looked at Gakuto.
Gakuto felt bad for putting his 14 years old girl to such a burden, if she fails then the 2 families would only have their clothes remaining, no one would forgive her for pulling them to the road.
Everyone saw that fear in Yuki and guessed that she was not able to make pills. 'Well well, I am getting free treasures, how should I use them?' Hisamoto started to plan his future by confirming that his side would win.
Yuki didn't like the feeling of fear to add she heard, "look," from the audience. She looked at Kanesuke, he made pills in just 5 minutes. Yuki supporters all felt despair by looking at the pills Kanesuke proudly holding in his palm.
"That? That is 70% quality, right? If I'm not mistaken," said a man in the audience.
That made all the Yuki supporters lose hope in Yuki because the highest quality she did was only 60% and improving 10% in 3 tries was almost impossible, to add she was exhausted.
At that moment, Yuki blamed herself for practicing other kind of pills instead of practicing 1 kind of pill because then she could have made a high quality pill. It was all because she was eager to learn how other pills work.
She started to fall in despair, the one thing her mother, in her previous life, always warned was not to be in debt with anyone but if she fail now she was going to get a big debt to her families for supporting her blindly.
She felt very cold thinking about the ridicules she was about to get, the fire was getting dim as if her cold was spreading to it. Her body was getting wrapped closely.
"Is that it?" a shout came from her back that made Yuki realize she was not herself. She turned around in wonder to see Mira, "you are already a waste. None of us believed you could do it since the beginning."
"Mira, stop talking," Akihiko tried to stop her but she didn't.
"We are just giving away our assets to those people as forgiveness," Mira continued, "but giving them directly would make people think that we are scared of them," she started to cry, "that's why....*sob sob* that's why we put a loser like you into this competition so that we could give our assets to them, *sniff* this has nothing to do with a waste like you."
She said that to encourage her, assuring that it was fine to lose all of their wealth because she saw Yuki's practice and she saw every pill she made, even after exhaustion Yuki pushed herself many times which made Mira start to admire Yuki.
That gave Yuki a realization that everyone already have up, so there was no reason to not try one more time. That triggered her 2nd petal, she closed her eyes then suddenly huge amounts of spiritual energy started to converge towards Yuki. Everyone got wondered by feeling that.
Yuki's opponents were in awe to see such a young girl about to open her 2nd petal. Her supporters immediately jumped and formed a circle around her while facing people with weapons in their hands.
"Forgive this sudden interruption," announced Gakuto, "we are only trying to protect our cultivator. It is not honorable to interrupt someone when breaking through but I can't trust people here."
Hisamoto got angry and shouted, "Are you indirectly saying we are dishonorable?"
"I am not talking about you," Gakuto replied, "I am talking about Murata and Nakamura families," as he gave specifics, Hisamoto couldn't argue further.
Akira was in a dark place with 4 petals surrounding him. "I am here again. It seems my 2nd path will be set today. I want to become an alchemist worthy of true respect," he said. Then on the petal in front of him, golden lines appeared.
Akira read it, "way of alchemy. Constantly grow alchemy strength to become alchemy god. Show the people who alchemists really are. Punish those who use alchemy for scams. If you fail to pursue alchemy, you will be punished." Then Yuki opened her 2nd petal.
When she opened her eyes her supporters were surrounding her for her protection, Kanesuke suddenly became humble and asked, "May I know who is your master little girl?"
No one could believe Kanesuke would suddenly turn 180 so suddenly but then they understood Yuki was very special and this amazing speed of growth could only be possible by a backup of someone powerful.
She ignored him and started controlling the fire, Fuminori couldn't digest the fact that Kanesuke was giving up, so to provoke him he said, "Master Kanesuke, she doesn't have a master, she just found some materials in the Kanakuba family library and used them to become this strong."
"Then why didn't others become strong with her?" Kanesuke asked, he want to make sure not to offend anyone powerful.
"That's because no one found it," Fuminori continued, "The Kanakuba family has 10,000 years of history, I am sure if we search the Kanakuba family, then we can find many techniques. To tell you the truth her talent is just 1 in spirit, 0 in essence and body, so if she could cultivate to this point, then just think how far we can go when we acquire them."
"Yes, the master thing must be a lie," Kanesuke got convinced as it was convenient to him and as no one would dare to lie to him.
Fools, well at least this trait of thinking for their own convenience was common on earth too, Yuki giggled inside.
As she was performing alchemy, her head was aching, a voice constantly ringing in her head to comfort her and give up on the competition and just take rest (that is not the system, everyone will get that voice when they are exhausted).
But Yuki persisted, she went beyond her limit of usage of her energies and finally condensed her pills. She was too exhausted and as she suddenly got relaxed after the pills came out, she fell unconscious.
She was about to fall but Gakuto caught her with his left hand and pills in his right hand, he saw the pills and smiled with pride, "you have done your best," he said by taking her into his hands.