Different from processing, the basic skills of steaming, boiling, frying, broiling, cannoning, baking, and flying are all predetermined in advance, placed in a bamboo tube, and drawn by the judges on the spot; The topic of the incense is relatively free, and it is up to the contestants to decide.

Loudly announcing the rules of the arena, the steward glanced at the more than thirty incense players, and finally said, "...... After everyone thinks about the topic, they go to get the spices, remember, the spices must be received at one time, and those who do not receive enough or are wasted on the spot will not be responsible."

In order to show fairness, the spices used in the bucket incense are provided by the General Assembly.

“…… Master Bai is also coming to participate? Mu Wanqiu came out with the spices and met a master in his thirties who was wearing a brown floral dress.

didn't know her, Mu Wanqiu answered vaguely, and looked down at the pair of cards she had just received in her hand.

“…… Master Bai doesn't know me? The master chased after him, "My surname is Li, I am from Baiji in Dongjie, and it is common for you to go to Cardamom Xianglou to send Guanyin incense." Glancing at Mu Wanqiu's pair of cards, "Master Bai is in the No. 7 incense room?" "I'm on the fortyth, and I'm on that side......" and pointed to the northwest.

Mu Wanqiu turned her head, and there was indeed a row of low wooden houses on the side, with numbers marked with a red pen on the door, and she left quickly.

“…… Master Bai plans to make incense? Following Mu Wanqiu's side, Master Li looked down at her bucket, "Hey, you received so many laurel leaves?" ”

Mu Wanqiu covered the bucket, "Master Li plans to make incense?" ”

"I ......" Master Li looked at the barrel, "I chose to concoct, I don't know which ancestor came up with the topic, the first question turned out to be making nail incense, tsk, that, the amount of incense is not large, and it is rare in daily life, and there are few ...... that can be concocted."

"Kaoka?" Mu Wanqiu curiously rummaged through a few nail incense shells in Master Li's bucket, "Don't look at the nail incense as inconspicuous, but it is the most basic test, if you don't soak it well, there will be a fishy smell......"

This incense should be boiled in yellow mud water for a day, then in rice swill juice for a day, and finally boiled in honey wine for a day, washed and cooled before artillery.

She had tried to concoct it, and it took a lot of effort.

“…… It's not," Master Li nodded, "The early topic is so biased, I might as well choose incense products......" and turned to Mu Wanqiu again, "Look at the materials you received, it seems that you want to make Buddha incense?" He added, "There are only a few kinds of Buddha incense that have been turned over and over again, and then there are no new tricks, and it is the most difficult to get ahead......

"Yes, don't skip words. These Mu Wanqiu really didn't think that there were many temples around Shuoyang, and she only felt that compared with other incense and drapery incense, this kind of sacrificial incense was more widely used.

"Of course......" Master Li nodded, pointing to a tall and thin master in front of him, "You see, even Master Ma of Yue Ji has chosen the ...... of the incense."

Master Ma's Buddha incense Shuoyang is famous.

Mu Wanqiu looked thoughtfully at Master Ma, who bent down into the No. 12 incense-making room, "...... He didn't choose Buddha incense? ”

"Yes......" looked left and right, Master Li leaned into her ear, "I heard that Princess Jade will get married next year, and she is collecting incense products everywhere, and this year's pavilion incense such as curtain incense and pei incense is the cheapest...... "I heard that even the two masters of Yao Ji have chosen the balm......"

“…… Is it not skipping words. Mu Wanqiu was a little surprised, "No wonder the number of people choosing incense products has doubled this year......

"That's it......" Master Li pointed to her wooden barrel, "Before you start, you quickly change the ingredients, so you can make a pill incense to try, once you are chosen, you have the opportunity to give it to the princess, that is the royal perfumer......"

“…… The Royal Perfumer? ”

The situation of Gu Qin becoming the royal perfumer in the previous life flashed in front of her, Mu Wanqiu's heart moved, and then she shook her head and said secretly, "...... Even if I have a secret technique, I can't fight her now," he looked at the barrel in his hand and looked up again, "...... Can you still swap without skipping words?

"Yes, as long as the material is not delivered, you can change it" Master Li pushed her, "Go quickly, this Buddha incense really doesn't make a ......profit," he remembered, and grabbed Mu Wanqiu again, "Do you really know how to treat cypress leaf incense?" ”

"I ......" Mu Wanqiu froze.

"Yao Da went to the incense guild to complain......" Master Li quietly pressed her ear, "said that you deliberately deceived the opportunity to participate......"

Defraud?

Mu Wanqiu smiled, "...... What will the incense store say? ”

"I don't seem to say anything...... Master Li shook his head and looked left and right, "I can't get used to her arrogant, bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, you be careful, she is still going to connect everywhere this morning, saying that if you can't take out the cypress leaf incense in seven days, you will jointly punish you......" Seeing someone looking this way, Mu Wanqiu was busy relieving.

Looking thoughtfully at Master Li's distant back, Mu Wanqiu turned around and walked towards the feeding room.

……

On the last day of the competition, it also pushed the Douxiang Club to **.

On the scarlet carpet platform, several acrobats were in full swing, causing bursts of applause from the audience.

Separated by a layer of red gold hanging curtain, the back of the platform is on the east side and the judges' seat swaying opposite, temporarily put a long case, the spices and incense products concocted by the contestants were served up one after another by the small officials of the venue with a unified black lacquer autumn pear wood carved tray, and the name tags on the tray were covered with red paper, which added a bit of mystery and solemnity to the incense fight.

The audience was crowded, and everyone watched the acrobatics, while waiting for that solemn moment, all wanting to see who would dominate the ups and downs of this year's competition?

“…… All the incense has been handed in? President Yin, Gu Qin and other ten judges were behind the scenes inspecting the incense and spices in front of the long case, touching here, banging there, and seeing that the small officials at the venue served another pill incense, President Yin asked.

"Master Hui......" The little official respectfully put the incense away, "A total of thirty people participated in the incense competition, and thirty-four copies have been recovered, and there are still two ...... missing."

"Go and urge ......" Gu Qin picked up a pill incense and sniffed it under his nose, and threw it away, "Tell them that if they can't hand it in after the hour, they don't have to hand it over......

In response, the small officials at the venue ran down.

"It seems that none of these incense products can enter Master Gu's eyes" Seeing Gu Qin throw another box of balm into the plate, President Yin shook his head and sighed.

"Shuoyang is famous for sacrificial incense, and the topic should be based on incense sticks...... Gu Qin sighed, "Sacrifice the original and seek the end, avoid the long and seek the short, I really don't know what these masters think?" ”

Shuoyang is known for concocting spices, correspondingly, the incense technology is very backward, very bad, in Gu Qin's eyes, Shuoyang's incense products are also Buddha statues can still be slightly handed, and it is worth her to stretch out her nose and smell it.

Also looking at the incense case, President Yin was surprised, as if he had made an appointment, none of the thirty-four copies that had been made were incense sticks for sacrifice, and he unconsciously showed a touch of deep thought, and his eyes swept over the faces of the judges one by one.

Fu Ling, the big girl who followed Gu Qin, shuddered, and her eyes drifted into the distance.

“…… A total of 15 people participated in the processing group, and all the spices were handed over. Seeing that President Yin's eyes fell on the spices, the steward in charge of collecting the spices said in a low voice.

"It's not too early, let's taste the spices first......" President Yin turned back to discuss with Gu Qin.

“…… It's okay," Gu Qin nodded.

President Yin waved his hand behind him.

One of the servants immediately ran out.

Immediately after the gong in front of him stopped, the acrobats were busy and quietly retreated.

The fiery red golden twilight was slowly pulled away.

A small official at the venue had already brought a long case, put it at the front of the table, and the maid brought out the celadon open hand stove, incense tweezers, incense spoons, incense brushes, incense cones, incense clips, incense shovels and other incense tools.

"It's started, it's ......"

There was a commotion in the audience.

As the saying goes, connoisseurs look at the doorway, force to see the lively, there are so many people at today's incense fight, even more than the first day, not all are connoisseurs, and the result of wanting to fight incense is only one aspect, the most important thing is that today there are incense artists who come from the great cause to perform incense.

The little guy set up the yaoqin on both sides of the venue, and four elegant and plain pianists came out and sat down on the low table behind the yaoqin.

Ding ding dong, a melodious piano sound came from the stage.

All the voices were gone.

Xue Zhen, a fragrance master wearing a goose-yellow daisy smoke saro skirt, slowly walked out of the backstage, bowed gracefully to everyone, sat down behind the desk full of incense utensils, and raised her hands lightly, she picked up the celadon open hand stove, with a light demeanor and elegant movements......

“…… Good"

There was a burst of cheers from the audience, and the atmosphere immediately became enthusiastic.

With the quiet sound of the piano, President Yin and Gu Qin and other ten judges were already sitting on the judges' seat, and the four green-clothed maids methodically brought the concocted spices to them in turn.

They are all tasting masters, no need to ignite, just a glance can distinguish the quality of the spices, more than ten points of spices were quickly taken away more than half, several masters scored, and then were brought to the desk of the pen clerk in turn, in public to remove the big red paper that covers the name of the sign, the clerk quickly counted the score.

Then it is announced in public by the steward.

With bursts of violent applause, on a huge list at the front desk, the names of the contestants were inserted one by one.

Seeing the maid holding a plate of sandalwood slices glowing with purple light, Gu Qin's eyes lit up, and she reached out and took one and put it under her nose, for a long time, turned her head and handed it to President Yin.

After tasting it for a long time, President Yin waved his hand at the green-clothed maid.

The little maid briskly brought the sandalwood piece in her hand to the incense master Xue Zhen.

"Look at ......" Jin Hai pulled Yao Jin, "Your sandalwood piece has been used as a sample for incense performance"

As a rule of thumb, most of the people who can be used as samples in the finals are the winners.

"You see it, it's really mine?" Yao Jin's voice trembled slightly.

The black lacquer tray for the spices is uniform, and the name tags are obscured again, making it difficult to tell who is whom.

"No, your sandalwood chips glow purple, everyone else's is pale yellow"

The last question of the concoction group is the sandalwood used to concoct Buddha incense, for this, Master Yao Ji Pei's one-handed masterpiece Da Zhou is famous, and Yao Jin uses her recipe.

No need to compare, no one in Shuoyang can surpass her

“…… Great," Yao Jin's eyes lit up with excitement, and his cheeks were red.

Yes By].