When the competition begins, participants must first submit their invitation letter to the Executive Officer of the Celestial Bureau.

If you’ve already registered and your qualifications have been approved as a Refiner by the Celestial Bureau, you’ll receive an invitation letter like this.

When the competition starts, you must personally return the invitation letter to confirm that you’re the one participating.

Watching the steward of the Celestial Bureau scan Tang Zifeng’s face with a specially made spirit device, Qirong clicked his tongue and said, “They are really strict with this Refiner’s Competition.”

Maybe because he hadn’t seen many competitions in the Southern Mountains, Qirong thought these checks were overly strict.

Qin Ruqing crossed her arms and also looked towards Tang Zifeng.

She chuckled at Qirong’s words, “It’s not that bad.”

Compared to the entrance exams in their previous lives, like for universities and civil service exams, these checks were much stricter.

After using the spirit device to confirm that the person who registered and the one participating today were the same, the Executive Officer then handed Tang Zifeng a form to fill out.

Most of the information was straightforward, but there was one unusual requirement: participants had to pre-fill the spirit tool they planned to refine for the upcoming competition.

Seeing Tang Zifeng hesitate, the Executive Officer kindly explained, “There are two reasons for filling out this section. Firstly, it allows the assessors to preview and assign appropriate examiners to focus on Refiners of their interest, avoiding missing talented individuals. Secondly, it’s to maintain order in the competition. In previous competitions, some participants plagiarized others’ works or changed their own spirit tools at the last minute, leading to disputes afterward. Therefore, this time, participants need to pre-fill what they intend to refine—but remember, once filled, it cannot be changed midway.”

Recognizing Tang Zifeng as the guest elder of the Qin family, the one who crafted the acceleration device, the Executive Officer emphasized a few more instructions out of respect for the Qin family.

Tang Zifeng nodded calmly.

As he was about to write, he glanced at Qin Ruqing.

Qin Ruqing stood tall in her red attire, arms crossed, shining brightly in the crowd.

Seeing Tang Zifeng look her way, Qin Ruqing smiled faintly, confident and composed.

Beside her, Qirong whispered silently with his hand by his mouth, probably cheering Tang Zifeng on.

Even Luwei made an encouraging gesture with a clenched fist.

It seemed as if Tang Zifeng suddenly filled with strength.

Without further hesitation, she swiftly wrote on the form under “Pre-registered Spirit Tool”:

Starfall Bursting Balls.

Three bursting spheres linked by chains.

Each hit causes massive damage, and a triple hit can break through the defenses of Core Formation cultivators, dealing significant damage.

(The final effect greatly depends on the user’s strength. The stronger the user, the more damage the triple burst can potentially cause, theoretically up to triple.)

After finishing, Tang Zifeng confidently put down his pen and returned the form to the Executive Officer.

The Officer, who was casually checking, froze when his eyes landed on the pre-filled spirit tool line.

He looked up abruptly, staring at Tang Zifeng with surprised and uncertain eyes.

Tang Zifeng calmly asked, “Is there a problem?”

The Executive Officer reminded her, “Have you thought it through? Once you’ve pre-filled your spirit tool, you cannot change it during the competition. If the actual spirit tool you refine during the competition differs from what you’ve pre-filled, your qualification will be revoked.”

“Rest assured, Officer. I’ve made up my mind. There will be no changes,” Tang Zifeng replied calmly.

After pondering for a moment, the Executive Officer raised his hand, and a young attendant standing nearby handed a number plate to Tang Zifeng, saying, “This is the workshop assigned for Master Refiner to refine your spirit tool. You are number sixty-eight.”

Tang Zifeng nodded and turned towards Qin Ruqing.

Meanwhile, the Executive Officer, still deeply shaken, gazed after them as they walked away.

He overheard a tall woman in red asking, “Tang Zifeng, which name did you finally choose?”

“Tang Big Brother, did you choose my Thunderstorm Sphere? It feels like the most suitable choice,” someone else said.

“…”

The Executive Officer sighed inexplicably.

Suddenly, he pulled out another form from the pile beside him.

The description of the pre-filled spirit tool on this form was remarkably similar to Tang Zifeng’s.

Naturally, this form belonged to Tang Biao, the genius Refiner of the Tang family.

To be honest, the Executive Officer had anticipated Tang Biao’s choice of refining this spirit tool.

After winning first place in the previous Refiner’s Competition and stunning everyone, his subsequent works had been mediocre.

For today’s competition organized by the Celestial Bureau, which was crucial, he chose to refine his most famous work and improve upon it, which was the safest approach.

Many renowned Master Refiners, to avoid tarnishing their hard-earned reputation in important events, would also choose this approach.

In response, some younger Refiners would deliberately avoid creating works similar to those of the Masters out of respect and caution.

Yet today, Tang Zifeng chose to refine a work that was strikingly similar to Tang Biao’s famous creation.

Was this a coincidence or intentional?

Moreover, the Executive Officer’s gaze fell on the surnames of both forms—they were both surnamed Tang…

Previously, the Executive Officer hadn’t paid much attention to this surname because there were many Tang families in the Western Mountains, not just any one could be from the West Mountain Tang family.

Now, seeing this, it seemed less like a coincidence.

After thinking for a moment, the Executive Officer grouped these two forms together and placed them neatly with other papers.

He instructed the attendant, “Take this stack to the assessment officials.”

“Yes, sir,” the attendant replied, sweeping the important forms into a special storage spirit tool and then departing.

Ahead, Tang Zifeng, who had been questioned incessantly, finally revealed his choice.

“I’ve chosen the Starfall Bursting Balls,” she announced.

Qin Ruqing chuckled and turned to Qirong and the others. “She picked mine! I always said my names are the best!” She then patted Tang Zifeng on the back. “Good choice!”

Qi Rong interjected, “But ‘Thunderstorm Sphere’ would have had more impact!”

“I consulted with Brother Tang already. Since the spirit tool isn’t of thunder attribute, having ‘thunder’ in the name could easily mislead others,” Qin Ruqing explained.

Qirong looked disappointedly at Tang Zifeng, hoping for an explanation.

Tang Zifeng could only say, “Indeed, there are no materials with thunder attributes.”

“Alright,” Qirong conceded reluctantly.

As they spoke, they returned from the main hall to the square.

The Refiners who had submitted their forms now needed to wait in the square.

On the platform in the square, many seats were arranged.

Qin Ruqing scanned the area and saw many leaders of prominent families—people like clan chiefs and elders whom she had met at previous family meetings.

Gradually, people began to gather

At the meeting of the Celestial Bureau, Fifth Lingyu, a high-ranking member, arrived fashionably late, swinging his long sleeves.

He sat in the most prominent seat on the high platform and immediately wanted to lie down.

But he quickly remembered that this wasn’t his soft velvet chair at the bureau. Disappointed, he propped his chin on his hand.

A family head wanted to chat with the director but didn’t dare to disturb Fifth Lingyu, who was resting with his eyes closed.

Soon, a recorder came and whispered something to Fifth Lingyu, who then opened his narrow eyes and said, “Interesting.”

But the recorder knew he wasn’t truly interested.

The bureau’s officer began distributing forms to the important figures on the high platform.

The forms contained information about the participating artifact makers, their famous works, and the spiritual artifacts they would craft today.

These important figures were the judges for the artifact-making competition.