The Highest Bounty - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: I Want to Compete with You Again
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The White Rhinoceros gene fortifier had never been refined to a perfect quality before due to the defects in the prescription. Yet, in front of him, a teenager who seemed to only be about fifteen years old had done it. It made all the pharmacists present at the time want to pinch themselves.
Amongst the crowd, there was also some busybodies who had recorded the whole process of Gu Ding conducting the refinement and then secretly uploaded it to Medicine King Valley’s unencrypted network to be shared.
Although Neptune saw the video when it was first shared, he did not block it. He felt that it was not necessary to tell Gu Ding about such a thing. From his perspective, the pursuit of fame and fortune was all for one’s vanity, and only real strength was eternal. As long as one became strong to a godlike caliber, one could essentially single-handedly decide the rise and fall of a cosmic nation. The reason why he did not stop it was because Gu Ding lacked a lot of resources at this stage. If there was a strong power for him to rely on, the initial development stage would go smoother.
Thus, Gu Ding did not know about the spread of the Neptune’s ideas and videos. 3
Gu Ding took more than 20 minutes refining the medicine this time, mainly because it was his first time using the microscopic instrument and thus, needed to spend some time adapting. Moreover, since it was his first time refining a gene medicine, he did not dare slack even a second throughout the entire process, preferring to slow down and ensure that he successfully refine the medicine rather than race through the whole thing due to his competitiveness.
Refining a perfect quality White Rhinoceros Enhancer on his first try was an unexpected surprise for Gu Ding. His original plan was to just put in effort every time to produce quality products. During the refining process, he had been afraid that he would commit some mistakes that would cause the medicine to become defective.
Seeing the color of the medicine in Gu Ding’s hand, Sa Ze felt a little emotional. The other person could refine the perfect White Rhinoceros fortifier, indicating that they had the correct prescription. If one had the correct prescription, they might have a chance to refine the perfect White Rhinoceros Enhancer too.
However, what concerned Sa Ze most was that the other person seemed to be younger than himself. In terms of his performance just now, it seemed that the other person had never even touched a microscopic instrument before this, and that it was their first time refining the White Rhinoceros Enhancer. Refining a perfect quality medicine on their first try?! Sa Ze doubted the other party’s luck. However, he had seen with his own eyes the entirety of the other person’s refining process. Although slow, he could hardly pick out a flaw throughout the refining process. He got the feeling that it was no coincidence that the other party had refined a perfect quality White Rhinoceros Enhancer.
After refining the medicine, Gu Ding stood unmoving, his mind carefully replaying the process him refining over and over again. He realized that he had made no mistakes anywhere along the line, save for the fact that he had been a bit slow at the start. The next time he refined it, he was confident he should be able to limit the whole process to be completed within twelve minutes. However, he should strive to be like Sa Ze, as the refining should be completed in less than ten minutes. Therefore, he was afraid that he would need to practice more than ten times before he could achieve such a feat.
Of course, refining a perfect quality White Rhinoceros Enhancer meant that Gu Ding had won this round of the challenge. However, Gu Ding was not satisfied with the result. This round was not a fair one. He had gotten ahold of a complete prescription, but the other party had used a defective prescription. Gu Ding had also seen the start of Sa Ze’s refining process. If the other party was more careful and had slowed down his refining speed a little, as well as gotten the complete prescription, there would have been a chance that he would have refined a perfect quality White Rhinoceros Enhancer.
Seeing Gu Ding looking toward him, Sa Ze smiled helplessly and nodded at Gu Ding. “I lost this match.”
“This match does not count. The prescription I have is a complete version whilst your prescription is defective.” Gu Ding shook his head before grinning. “Let’s compete one more time!”
Sa Ze did not expect Gu Ding to be gunning to go another round. He had followed the teacher to many places over the years and he had seen many pharmacologists. Usually, the winner would not agree to a second bout. So, he was very happy when he heard Gu Ding’s offer to compete again.
The White Rhinoceros Enhancer prescription itself was flawed, in addition to it being a medicine that Sa Ze was not very good at. He did feel a little discontented about his loss in the previous round due to two reasons. Firstly, he was not sure if Gu Ding had made perfect quality medicine by sheer luck, and secondly, he had not been able to show his full strength.
“I’m the best at refining speed enhancers, boasting about an 8% chance of refining perfect quality.” Sa Ze said, “I noticed during your refining process, that it seems this was your first time operating a microscopic instrument. In that case, we will not compare speeds this time and simply see who can refine a higher comprehensive quality medicine. Since it is my strongest field, I am more familiar with the refining process. So, I will make twenty bottles. You can make twenty-five bottles and choose twenty bottles of those bottles with the highest quality from the batch to be compared with mine. What do you think?”
Gu Ding shook his head. “I disagree.” 1
Sa Ze had proposed this because he felt that refining speed enhancers were more advantageous for him. He had offered to let the other party refine an extra five bottles and then let him select the best of the bunch. If the opponent was a demon-grade pharmacologist whose ability was on par with his own, then it would be enough for him to try his hand with a leeway of two or three bottles. However, proposing to let the other party refine five more bottles was nothing short of trying to protect the other party’s dignity.
“Then, how do you want to compete?” Sa Ze frowned slightly. He thought that his proposal was fair, so he did not expect that Gu Ding, who was the first to even initiate another match, to not agree.
“It’s fine if we each make twenty bottles. I don’t need to make five additional bottles.” Gu Ding raised his objection. From his perspective, the other party had proposed unlimited time, instead only choosing to view the comprehensive quality of the finished bottles of medicine. Therefore, there was no need to rush. The refining of the first bottle of medicine would be enough for him to familiarize himself with the entire refining process.
Moreover, although the speed enhancer also possessed a genetic agent, it was not as difficult to refine as the White Rhinoceros Enhancer. Since he could refine the White Rhinoceros Enhancer to perfect quality, as long as he made no mistakes throughout the operation, it should not be too difficult for him to refine a perfect quality speed enhancer.
The other pharmacologists at the scene heard Gu Ding’s words and felt that he was being a little too arrogant. Sa Ze had admitted that he was familiar with this kind of medicine and had an 8% chance of refining perfect quality results. This rate already exceeded performance of ordinary C-level genetic pharmacologists, which was enough to show that his opponent had the Devil’s talent in refining medicine.
In contrast, as a newcomer who had only just come into contact with microscopic instruments, it would take him more than twenty minutes to refine a bottle of medicine. When he had refined the perfect quality White Rhinoceros Enhancer earlier, no matter how one looked at it, luck had played a part in his victory. Many other pharmacists agreed that this miracle should not repeat itself. With this, Skyriver Sector might still be unable to escape the fate of being swept away by Sa Ze’s victory.
“Then it is up to you. In any case, the offer for you to refine five extra bottles still stands. Whether you want to use it or not is for you to decide, I won’t interfere or force it.” Sa Ze thought that his opponent’s inflated self-confidence right now must have come as a result of his previous victory coming too easily. He was also secretly determined to shut down the other party’s arrogance.
On the other hand, Gu DIng was not being arrogant at all—he just felt that there was no need to refine any more than this.
“Then, let’s start!”