The pill battles had the same time limit as the martial dao battles: four hours.

As seconds flowed into minutes, the only thing the audience could do was anxiously wait with bated breath. Thanks to the fact that both were competing in isolation, no one outside knew what they were doing.

Four hours were almost up. According to the rules, each person could only write a maximum of seven answers. A correct answer was awarded a point, but an incorrect one didn’t result in a penalty. Points were understandably deducted for extra answers, so the contestants would write seven answers at most. 

Huang’er had only written two answers upon her scroll so far. Both were ingredients she was reasonably sure about.  She had a few ideas about the remaining blank spaces, but was still deliberating. The answers in her mind resided on the border of plausibility. There was some supporting evidence for them, but they were largely blind guesses.

The passage of time meant that she could no longer delay. Near the four-hour limit, Huang’er wrote all...