Cui Yu gently put down the work in his hands, blew off the metallic dust from it, but when he looked up, everyone on the field except for the Shadow Throne contestants had already completed their work.

Stepping off the field, Fang Hong reached out his hand to him. Cui Yu hesitated for a moment, looked at the other party, and then reluctantly reached out to bump fists. "Well done," Fang Hong gave a slight smile and offered a word of encouragement.

Cui Yu heard this without saying a word and turned to look at the scoreboard, which now displayed the results of each team.

The scores of the first round clearly showed the gap between the different teams.

Ragnarok, scored 89.5 points, total points 89.5 points;

Golande Artisan's General Guild, scored 92 points, total points 92 points;

Ancient Tower Artisan Guild, scored 93.1 points, total points 93.1 points;

Shadow Throne, scored 80.1 points, total points 80.1 points;

Elfendo Council, scored 91.3 points, total points 91.3 points.

Both the teams from the preliminary rounds faced the real contestants, and their scores were somewhat underwhelming. But to say the least, the Shadow Throne was downright disappointing, ending up at the bottom with barely eighty points.

In the first round of the competition, the participating teams clearly split into three tiers.

The top tier teams were Golande Artisan's General Guild, Ancient Tower Artisan Guild, and Elfendo Council, all scoring over 90 points, while the second tier closely followed with Ragnarok, and lastly, the Shadow Throne trailed far behind, lagging nine full points from the preceding team.

As soon as the scores were announced, the murmurs among the crowd grew noticeably louder. People had already heard that this year's Ancient Tower contestants were exceptionally outstanding, so taking the top place in the first round was not unexpected.

Elfendo Council's score was also fairly commendable, with 91.3 points, at least within the first tier. Everyone knew the other two teams were main competition contestants, so the results were still somewhat acceptable.

On the other hand, those not familiar with the Southern Region Alchemist Alliance asked in Wandering Horse's live broadcast: Who exactly is this Elfendo Council, and how come it's somewhat capable?

While explaining, Horse glanced at the scores. He was concerned about Ragnarok's score, which at the beginning was falling behind, although not by much, less than four points. But after looking through Ragnarok's remaining three contestants, it was clear Cui Yu was not the weak spot. Among Ragnarok's four contestants, Liuli Yue was the weakest link.

If they lose too many points in the second round, it would be quite disadvantageous for Ragnarok in the subsequent matches.

He looked somewhat worriedly at Fang Hong standing aside, but due to the tournament organizers' distant view, he couldn't clearly see Fang Hong's current expression, though he faintly felt the other seemed rather composed.

This made him breathe a little easier.

The biggest upset of the first round was clearly the Shadow Throne's score, the nearly fifteen-point gap leaving everyone quite shocked: Was there such a big difference between the two preliminary groups? They couldn't help but think so in their hearts.

But once the second round scores were revealed, there was an uproar—

The second round was Crystal crafting, with the Main Core Crystal being one of the three major crowns of contemporary Alchemy— the other two being Dragon Knight and Airship, although the Main Crystal comes in various types, none were simple.

Fang Hong could only say to Liuli Yue: "Do your best."

They had no one skilled in this field, the contestant was going up almost like cannon fodder, which made him feel a bit guilty.

Yet Liuli Yue proceeded without a word.

The match lasted approximately ten minutes, and once again, a Shadow Throne contestant was the last to finish, after the staff confirmed everything was correct, the scoreboard displayed the scores:

Ragnarok, scored 85 points, total points 174.5 points;

Golande Artisan's General Guild, scored 93.5 points, total points 185.5;

Ancient Tower Artisan Guild, scored 93.5 points, total points 186.6 points;

Shadow Throne, scored 84 points, total points 164.1 points;

Elfendo Council, scored 91.7 points, total points 183 points.

Clearly, Ancient Tower Artisan Guild still led with a slight advantage, but Elfendo Council not only wasn't lagging behind, they were actually subtly catching up. Fang Hong couldn't help but glance in that direction.

Vikki, the main contestant from Ancient Tower, and that bespectacled young man hadn't competed yet, both were evidently the core members of the team, seemingly planning to exert their strength in the later rounds. Golande Artisan's General Guild was moderate, seemingly not in the running for the championship; if Elfendo Council didn't pull any surprises, they appeared to aim for securing second place.

After all, Golande Artisan's General Guild hadn't completed forming their team yet, there were still quite a few vacancies.

But Fang Hong had a clear understanding—Elfendo Council would almost certainly face unexpected events, in the next round Linen would come into play, an outstanding craftsperson who had been to the Hall of Thousand Doors, not to mention Rolin afterwards.

Simply put, Elfendo Council was controlling the scores—Count Westwood Sibika was trying to craft them into the image of the ultimate contestant, turning the tables in the last moment. Such an image was indeed more loved by ordinary people, but in Fang Hong's eyes, it seemed a bit too deliberate.

At the moment, however, people discussed Shadow Throne's points more.

With a total of 164.1 points over two rounds, not to mention the main competition teams, even compared to the other preliminary team, Ragnarok, they were ten points behind, truly at the bottom.

At this level, Shadow Throne was almost impossible to eliminate Rose Cross Army, the audience wasn't foolish, some voices about fixed matches arose in discussions. But what made Tianlan furious was that the subject of suspicion turned out to be among the preliminary teams Ragnarok.

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