Immediately following that was the clattering sound of footsteps. A purple-clothed teenager walked over with quick strides. His sleeves were tossed to either side and the whole person was bustling and energetic.
His appearance was clearly arrogant and the gaze aimed at Gu Zuo was filled with contempt. It basically attached no importance to him.
Behind the purple-clothed teenager followed two young men who were a bit bigger than him. Their complexions were similarly overbearing. After reaching the front, one of the young men extended an arm and pushed Gu Zuo into staggering back.
Gu Zuo retreated quite a few steps, and his head was packed with black lines.
Dang it! Was this being bullied?
However, it was one versus three right now. Under the premise that he couldn’t secretly use his psychic power, Gu Zuo was certainly no match for them. His only option was to send a look requesting for help to that chubby, white-bearded old man.
Business would always be first come, first served, right? Although he sometimes didn’t mind yielding to avert trouble, there was a Sect Elder currently present. At the very least, he would also get to know this elder’s opinions. He couldn’t be bullied by others to the end and struggle without recourse.
The white-bearded old man’s expression was very unsightly: "The room has already been handed over to this disciple. Since you got here late, just wait a moment. After another Earth Fire Room becomes vacant, it will naturally be given for your use."
The face of the purple-clothed teenager was even more unsightly than the old man’s.
However, without waiting for him to open his mouth and say something, the two henchmen behind started arguing first.
"Do you know who our young master is?"
"An insignificant elder in charge of a Medicine Pavilion dares to not give face to our young master?!"
"Our young master’s rank is invaluable. It can’t be compared to an ordinary pharmacist!"
"You should know that the young master is just seventeen years old and he can already refine Xiantian Realm pills! Does this old fellow understand what this means?!"
Gu Zuo felt helpless.
These words were too...straightforward.
Truly, a display of an old-school villain, playing an immersive role of an evil tyrant.
The purple-clothed teenager’s expression became even more arrogant. He lifted his chin, waiting for the other’s decision.
Yes, being a Xiantian Realm stage two and having those pill refining techniques at that age, he was indeed an otherworldly genius to be chased no matter where he went. Because, so long as he didn’t fail halfway through, there was at least an eighty percent probability that he could refine medicinal pills that Atomic Realms could take!
As for a pharmacist who was above Human-Level, wouldn’t that be Golden-Level?
A quasi Golden-Level Pharmacist was naturally someone who deserved to be valued by everyone. What’s more, he never cut corners for his own pursuits. For example, one would realize from his words just now that while he could use higher ranked Earth Fires, which would raise his success rate, he wanted to use the lowest ranked Earth Fires to refine the equivalent pills, to hone his own medicine refining level — The core intention was precisely this once the unbridled tones were peeled away.
After being lectured at, although the white-bearded old man wasn’t happy with the att.i.tude of those two henchmen, he was still slightly astonished.
A quasi Golden-Level Pharmacist wasn’t someone the average person would want to offend.
This teenager was very young. His potential and prospects were enormous... Yet, this white-bearded old man wasn’t a n.o.body. His position in the Medicine Pavilion wasn’t low. If not for his occasional interest in going here to patrol, he wouldn’t have met Gu Zuo nor that teenager.
Normally, this white-bearded old man, who couldn’t bear to see things like bullying, conducted himself very fairly and his reputation was excellent. But at the same time, he also wasn’t overly conservative, and was very fond of confronting force with force.
At this time, while he wanted to defend the Sect’s impartiality, he also didn’t want to bear the grudge of a quasi Golden-Level Pharmacist. His heart involuntarily felt harried, and he hesitated.
Gu Zuo silently sighed.
Now it was his turn to be ridiculed on this small, open stage.
Ah, he would certainly have to yield. Otherwise, what else was there to be done? Just look at this white-bearded Elder. If he stuck to the rules, he would offend the other guy. This certainly wasn’t a good thing for him. Perhaps, after thinking it over, wouldn’t Gu Zuo also be remembered for this?
Moreover, if he didn’t yield, the spoiled brat over there would definitely start a feud with him... Wasn’t it just a delayed evaluation? Getting offended over not having your way wasn’t worth it.
Although he still wasn’t very willing, when he thought about it again, he would still give up his seat to the elderly or children even in the modern era. This was... Ahem, respecting the old and cherishing the young.
En, the old and the young were both the same.
Hence, Gu Zuo took the initiative to say: "In that case, I’ll just wait for a while. This young master is dignified and cultured. It goes without saying that he should use it first."
After he finished speaking, he spurned himself for a second.
The white-bearded old man blanked. He never expected the similarly young Gu Zuo to do this of his own accord... Merely, didn’t the meaning of these words have a bit too much flattery? He furrowed his brows and turned his head to look at Gu Zuo’s expression. He found that Gu Zuo’s face actually lacked any flattery.
Then, he twirled his mustache and smiled.
Good kid. Interesting.
The impression the white-bearded old man had of Gu Zuo deepened. The Earth Fire Slip in Gu Zuo’s hand was handed over to that purple-clothed teenager: "Since it’s like this, you can use it first."
The purple-clothed teenager saw that Gu Zuo was sensible and cupped his hands cheerfully. Pleased with himself, he said to Gu Zuo: "You’re not bad. Surely you know my name? Later on, if there’s something you don’t understand in the field of medicine refinement, you can go to the Violet First Floor and ask me. I’ll give you the power to find it. If I’m in a good mood, giving you some prescriptions is also possible. You got it?"
Gu Zuo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he still sycophantically said: "Yes, yes, yes. Many thanks, young master."
But in the end, who was this young master...
The narcissistic purple-clothed teenager led the two henchmen to the Earth Fire Room, leaving behind a "sensible" Gu Zuo and that white-bearded Elder.
Gu Zuo felt a little awkward. Say, what was he supposed to do now? Wait here in vain?
The white-bearded Elder said with a smile: "If you’re interested in being a teacher’s a.s.sistant, would you like to come over with me to investigate the path of medicine refinement?"
He said it was investigating, but really it was him intending on giving some pointers to this unlucky Gu Zuo.
Gu Zuo’s eyes shined and he promptly said: "This disciple is very willing!"
Once he was done speaking, he hurriedly followed after.
Although he possessed a system, he didn’t feel like he was one with the universe or invincible. He could sense an internal Qingyun Sect medicine refining level from this chubby Elder, so it really couldn’t have been better!
Afterwards, an old man and a young teen went "investigating" side by side.
Actually, it was mainly the white-bearded Elder asking questions and Gu Zuo answering them. If Gu Zuo was unclear about something or if he was diverging from the main point, the Elder would give Gu Zuo the explanation.
With the pa.s.sage of time, a profound amazement emerged within the white-bearded Elder’s heart.
This amazement was different from knowing that the purple-clothed teenager could become a Golden-Level Pharmacist. What he was surprised about was that while Gu Zuo was very young and was still a nominal disciple, his knowledge of the path of medicine refinement was just that extensive — He could even mention one or two things about some rather esoteric subjects.
Only, the white-bearded Elder also discovered that Gu Zuo had figured out everything on his own and hadn’t received any systematic education. He knew some things, but as for the details, he didn’t understand what was and wasn’t important.
It was as if he obtained some theories through certain channels, but those theories weren’t completely digested. For example, Gu Zuo was aware of a type of medicinal pill called the "Qi Explosion Pill". During desperate straits, a martial artist could take it to upgrade their power by a large realm to confront an enemy. After the event, there would be a month of convalescence.
He knew the pill’s prescription, but he didn’t know that there were some tricks to purifying the pill while refining it. He also didn’t know that adding in medicinal herbs later could increase the number of successful pills.
As a result, the white-bearded Elder believed that through some fortuitous encounter, Gu Zuo should’ve obtained the "legacy" of a peak Human-Level Pharmacist. It would’ve had a pill book inside, but that pharmacist’s experiences wouldn’t have been written down. This would’ve brought about such a phenomenon.
— In actuality, it was because Gu Zuo was very cautious and evaded many questions. As for the so-called tricks of medicine refinement to increase the medicinal pills and so on, the item books really didn’t have them.
Yet, this absence was because the prescriptions that the item books provided were the most perfect. Those methods that increased the pill success rate, increased the number of pills, but decreased the product grade were naturally undesirable.
Of course, Gu Zuo wasn’t without help with the white-bearded Elder’s hands-off "teaching". While he comprehensively received the system’s knowledge, he hadn’t encountered many losses. He also didn’t have many genuine moments of diligent self-study. Perhaps in the future, he might have a bottleneck.
Thus, at the very least, with Gu Zuo already obtaining some other revelations, it could arouse another kind of qualitative change.
In this way, Gu Zuo would ultimately reach an even higher level of success.
[Hidden Mission: Realizing the heart of medicine refinement.]
[Mission Items: None.]
[Mission Rewards: >]
[Completion Mode: Unrestricted.]
[Completion Time: Unrestricted.]
[Mission State: Already Complete.]
Gu Zuo: "..."
The system wanted to join in on the fun again?
This really was feeling more and more wrong — It was as if the book that was especially presented to him just so happened to require the formality of doing a mission. However, the one who benefited was him...
Following that, Gu Zuo continued "investigating" with the white-bearded old man.
Gu Zuo didn’t expose too many things any longer. While he knew all of the questions the old man asked, he only answered thirty percent of them. Sometimes, he pretended to not know outright. It was just like so, but he still gave the old man many shocks. The old man felt that he was lucky; he also felt that his apt.i.tudes were pretty good and that he was very hardworking. Later on, even if he couldn’t be compared to that purple-clothed teenager, he would certainly become a very capable person.
The two discussed things and a short while unwittingly pa.s.sed, just like that. They didn’t snap out of their desire to continue until someone walked in front of them.
As it turned out, it was a pharmacist who’d already finished their own evaluation. This moment required the white-bearded old man to conduct a commentary.
"Elder Huo, please take a look..." That pharmacist started talking, and couldn’t help giving Gu Zuo a private glance. Their heart secretly thought: Who was this teenager? Why did he seem so close to the elder?
That white-bearded old man — Elder Huo seized the opportunity to halt the conversation. He took the Earth Fire Slip from the pharmacist’s hand and gave it to Gu Zuo: "My a.s.sistant only needs to go here to refine medicine. Beyond the doorway, you can take medicinal herbs. After successfully refining, just bring it to me to have a look."
Gu Zuo respectfully saluted: "Yes, Elder Huo."
After that, Gu Zuo turned around and walked towards the Earth Fire Room.
Elder Huo then switched gears and took the three porcelain bottles from the pharmacist who just came out.
He started to evaluate this person.
On the other side of things, Gu Zuo walked down the Ley Line Hall.
It was very bizarre here. After walking past several flights of stairs, one could sense a strong and blatant fire qi. After carefully sizing it up, one would find that the fire qi was spilling out from the rooms to the left and right sides.
The so-called Earth Fire Rooms were precisely these rooms.
Gu Zuo clearly saw that the flight of stairs actually had several levels. The lower the level must have been the higher the grade of the Earth Fire. Based on what
> had stated, he knew that when a pharmacist was refining basic medicine, they could use ordinary flames — For example, he once used a Blazing Fire Stone to provide firepower, but in the future, the flames he needed would differ to some extent. In addition, there were some particular medicinal pills that required special flames to be refined.
The so-called Earth Fire was actually a type of above-average grade flame that was most commonly used by pharmacists.
Basically, the great majority of medicinal pills could use this kind of flame to carry out refinement.
A fire-attributed ley line could produce large amounts of flames and the flames would be divided into grades by purity and temperature. In general, the closer it was to the core, the fiercer the flame would burn.
The one Gu Zuo needed to use was only a fifth ranked Earth Fire Room, so naturally it was only on the uppermost layer.
Just as he walked to the entryway, someone stopped him.
Gu Zuo promptly took out the Earth Fire Slip. Once that patrolling martial artist saw it, he nodded in confirmation: "This token’s correct. Write down the medicinal herbs you need and give it to me."
After he was done speaking, he pushed a piece of paper and brush over.
Gu Zuo didn’t dare neglect anything and quickly finished writing.
The martial artist then turned to a doorway and seemed to mutter several words. After coming out, he was given a Fangcun Cloth. Gu Zuo took a look inside and, sure enough, there were several batches of medicinal herbs that he needed.
Afterwards, Gu Zuo followed the martial artist to the doorway of an Earth Fire Room. He inserted the token into a crevice of the doorway, and walked inside.
The next moment, an even denser heat greeted him and the door behind him promptly closed.
Gu Zuo’s heartbeat was a little quick.
This was too excessive, right? This was a sealed exam!
However, he currently had lots of experience. As he was really taking the exam, he quickly took several deep breaths and made himself calm down completely.
Immediately following which, Gu Zuo walked in front of the large-scale pill cauldron.
The Earth Fire Vein was indeed a strange location. One would see a lengthy, drawn-out stone, red like a fiery serpent, that extended to the left and right. Everywhere it pa.s.sed was unusually dry. There was only a small hole underneath that pill cauldron. At this moment, a flame gushed straight out from within as it rumbled and scorched the cauldron.
The flame’s size and temperature was already fixed, but it wasn’t necessarily suitable for refining medicinal pills. In this case, how to make suitable adjustments and to what degree would test a pharmacist’s Fire Controlling Seals.
Of course, a fifth ranked Earth Fire was meeker than other ranked Earth Fires. It was also very easy to control it.
After Gu Zuo gave it a glance, he thought about fixing it as quickly as possible. He immediately sat cross-legged on a big praying mat in front of the pill cauldron.
Okay. The time to test his capabilities had come.
As the first time using an Earth Fire to refine pills, he shouldn’t have too big an accident... Right?
Once he composed himself, Gu Zuo started to fully use his Fire Controlling Seal.
He promptly discovered a difference in this time’s utilization.
It was very easy to control the firepower produced from a Blazing Fire Stone. And after activating his seal on the Earth Fire, he found that the Earth Fire was unexpectedly coy. It sputtered back and forth and wasn’t willing to obediently roast the pill cauldron.
Gu Zuo’s heart stirred.
From the Earth Fire’s changes, he felt that the biggest difference between it and ordinary flames was that it was quick-witted.
It seemed like it had some spiritual nature, and had the appearance of being lively and mischievous.
Gu Zuo thought it was very interesting. But despite it being interesting, what he needed to do wasn’t to play around, but to carefully refine pills. It was a foregone conclusion that he would need to thoroughly control this Earth Fire and make it his to use.
Thus, his cultivation method operated within his Dantian and even more true qi burst forth into the hand seals. His psychic power also discharged, enveloping the entire pill cauldron to monitor the Earth Fire’s tendencies.
In the blink of an eye, the Earth Fire received the Fire Controlling Seal’s effects, and the originally high leaping flame dwindled down a bit. However, it still wasn’t willing to behave. Unexpectedly, it started to dodge left and right. This spectacle was immediately detected by the psychic power, and quite a few hand seals were continuously exerted towards those two directions. This caused the Earth Fire to continuously draw up towards the middle.
After some time, the Earth Fire was finally somewhat obedient.
Gu Zuo let out a sigh. His forehead also had a rivulet of sweat.
Normally, when he used a docile flame, he wouldn’t have thought about it. If this flame with a bit of spiritual nature wasn’t tamed, it would’ve really been hard to manage.
Fortunately, his Fire Controlling Seal didn’t go wrong and he smoothly settled the Earth Fire.
Immediately following that, the entire sequence of events were just like before.
Many medicinal herbs were thrown into the pill cauldron. This process was one Gu Zuo did skillfully. Not that he could do it with his eyes closed, but he was very clear about when to throw in the types of herbs, as well as how long it took them to dissolve and when he could mix them.
But, something was currently going wrong again.
It was still due to the Earth Fire.
An Earth Fire’s temperature was unlike an ordinary flame’s. After taming, it would still be different. A Fire Controlling Seal could control the direction of its flow, but it couldn’t control its firepower.
For a moment, Gu Zuo was lost in — Ah, the speed of the herbs transforming into medicinal liquid was much faster than what he was used to!
But in the end, Gu Zuo was still a "veteran". Due to the monitoring of his psychic power, he timely discovered that the situation wasn’t right. He quickly calmed down and did another Fire Controlling Seal as well as a succession of Scattered Flower Seal, Fusion Seal, Clean Medicine Seal, and so on to condense those medicinal liquids into pills even faster.
A good while later, there was a peal of clattering sounds and quite a few medicinal pills abruptly shot out from the cauldron. They were then collected by Gu Zuo who used another hand seal.
Then he let out another sigh.
This round of medicine refinement...still had unexpected things frequently occur. One would nearly be incapable of reacting in time.
Gu Zuo lowered his head and inspected the condition of these medicinal pills.
The ones he currently refined was a cauldron of Qi Linking Pills. Among them, there were ten top grade pills, three high grade pills, and three mid grade pills... Those high and mid grade pills were naturally created because he wasn’t proficient.
Just enough. He took three mid grade pills so he could report back after completing his task. He wanted to spruce up his achievements a bit and added two high grade pills.
After that, the second batch of herbs were refined. There were ten top grade pills and six high grade pills. Compared to the one just then, there were some improvement.
Once the Qi Linking Pills were settled, the remaining Qi Generating Pills and Rejuvenation Pills couldn’t have been any easier. In addition, Gu Zuo also had a certain understanding of the Earth Fire. There wasn’t the least bit of pressure when refining, and in a short while, he already smoothly refined the two types of pills in one go.
But the aftermath he created was...that the sixteen pills were all top grade.
Gu Zuo: "..."
What was that about not overextending himself? If he took these medicinal pills out, it would be a clumsy attempt at hiding!
Fortunately, there were two batches of these herbs... Although his own storage s.p.a.ce also had a collection of these types of herbs, who could know if the medicinal herbs that were brought for pill refining had something special about them? As a result, it was better to follow the rules.
During the next pill refining, Gu Zuo was even more careful.
Hence, there were ten top grade and six high grade Qi Generating Pills, as well as ten top grade, four high grade, and two mid grade Rejuvenation Pills.
There wouldn’t be any problems with this kind of concealment, right?
Only, after the entire refinement process was done, Gu Zuo, who was preparing to take a step out, stopped again.
He suddenly remembered that his pill refining speed was...particularly fast.
Just now, he used up a little more than half an hour in total? When he watched the three pharmacists, who were recruited by his dear big brother, refine a cauldron of Qi Generating Pills, the fastest time was also half an hour... He had six cauldrons and still brought along the Qi Linking Pill; a type that was regarded as a little difficult.
After that, Gu Zuo turned around.
He took out the medicinal herbs from his storage s.p.a.ce and spread them out on the ground beside him.
In order to pa.s.s the time, he might as well continue practicing his control over the Earth Fire and raise his experience! If he went out, he might not necessarily be able to find an Earth Fire. Of course, the ordinary flames he used were also handy...
Following this, cauldron after cauldron of medicinal pills would continuously shoot out from that giant pill cauldron.
— Actually, Gu Zuo still wasn’t thinking things through.
Although the Earth Fire’s spiritual nature was hard to tame, once it was tamed, it could strengthen a pharmacist’s controlling power even more. Being skilled at controlling fire was naturally a great help with the particulars of medicine refinement.
Moreover, although ordinary flames were docile, the created pill’s product grade was hard to say. On the contrary, that Earth Fire might’ve really have a trace of spirituality. It usually let the pills that pharmacists refined have superior product grades.
Gu Zuo had never encountered such problems.
The cause also wasn’t known, but even though he used the most ordinary flames, he would always be able to refine sixteen top grade pills as well as gather a strand of medicinal qi.
He naturally wouldn’t understand. Ordinary pharmacists would rather sacrifice a portion of that successful pill rate to use that spiritual Earth Fire. It would let themselves refine even more pills with better conditions.
