Chapter 35: The Spring of Low-Level Cultivators
When Liu Feizhou noticed that the old woman"s pills seemed to be more popular than his, he started paying attention to her pill refining habits and techniques.
Liu Feizhou was very good at learning from observation. He discovered that the old woman had gotten much more skilled after a couple batches of pills. Her control of the flame was also extremely good. In addition, her timing when condensing the pill and her grasp of the flame was perfect. She was truly a talent.
Liu Feizhou adjusted his own pill refining style based on Su Tingyun"s technique. In the end, he discovered that the new method not only required less effort, the quality of the resulting pills was also slightly higher. However, the increase in quality this time also had to do with that fact that he had been refining the pills half-heartedly before.
Near the end, he became mentally worn out so his failures had also increased. The more time that elapsed, the more severe the symptoms of the people who were still poisoned. All the cultivators outside had their hearts in their throats as they stared at the closed door.
"We still have a dozen disciples that haven"t been cured."
"We still have four. I heard that Master Xu"s side has much fewer pills so that means it"s not only four."
On the contrary, the female cultivator from the Red Dress Hall looked rather calm and composed. Their Red Dress Hall was made up of female cultivators and they cultivated the pratykabuddhayana way. Thus, they usually didn"t rush to the front line in battles so they had the least amount of people poisoned. As of now, there was only one person that hadn"t gotten a Detox Pill. And it just happened that she really didn"t get along with that person as well.
A bang came from the room again. Everyone knew that this batch of pill was another fail and became even more anxious. However, no one dared to do anything to disturb the Alchemists inside.
The person that had failed was Liu Feizhou.
The lid of the cauldron flew out and medicinal dregs splattered everywhere. Although he had immediately moved to dodge, some dregs still got on his clothes. It was dark black and had a stinky fishy smell rather than the usual faint fragrance of a formed pill. It caused Liu Feizhou, who liked cleanness, to be so irritated his veins pulsed.
Although it was just a second rank medicinal pill, Alchemists would still get tired from having to refine for such a long time period without rest. In addition, it was just some insignificant people. What did their lives have to do with him? Even the best Alchemists had no way of guaranteeing their pill formation success rate. The number of pills he had refined had long surpa.s.sed the amount Master had asked of him. He had only continued to refine them because the others hadn"t refined enough.
That"s why, even if he gave up and stopped now, no one could do anything to him.
Liu Feizhou"s eyes darkened as his aura became gloomier. He cleaned up the pill cauldron and was about to head back to change his clothes. He didn"t plan to come back. Yet right at this moment, Su Tingyun finished another batch of pills.
This batch had 21 formed pills. The quant.i.ty was less than before but the quality wasn"t much different.
Su Tingyun stood up and went to open the door to hand out the pills. When she got up, her knee joints made a loud crack like the sound of frying beans. Her facial color was pale and her lips were chapped. It was clearly the symptoms of spiritual energy and spiritual consciousness overuse.
However, it didn"t seem like she felt the pain. After she delivered the medicinal pills, she started cleaning the furnace in order to refine another batch.
"Are you not tired?" asked Liu Feizhou in surprise.
"It"s not bad ah." Though her complexion was poor, she didn"t feel terrible. After all, she had always refined pills continuously regardless of day or night like this in the past so she was used to it.
"No wonder you"re so skilled at refining second rank pills," said Liu Feizhou in a pensive tone. He muttered to himself, "If it weren"t for the fact that your apt.i.tude was limited, you would definitely have high accomplishments in pill refinement."
Normal Alchemists would all stake their old lives to refine high-level medicinal pills. Who would waste their effort on low-level medicinal pills? Even if there were Alchemists that wanted to research and improve pills, they would still only focus on high-level pills. However, low-level pills were the foundations of pill refinement. If one continuously refined it, could it be possible to increase the quality of all the low-leveled medicinal pills? Perhaps even make it so that the effects were better than that of high-level pills?
"You"ve always refined pills this way?"
Practicing until your facial color was pale, your primordial spirit was worn out, and your spiritual consciousness was near dry, yet still not stopping for a break?
Su Tingyun had stopped paying attention to him and just gave a faint reply.
"This is the so-called challenging the limit, isn"t it?" Liu Feizhou lifted his hand and rubbed his forehead. Then, he flicked his left wrist. The cauldron that he had put away once again moved to float right above his palm. Pill fire emerged from his palm. The flames were much weaker as refining pills like this consumed much more energy and caused much more mental fatigue. However, that old woman hasn"t given up so how could he, Liu Feizhou, possibly lose to her!?
After continuing to refine for two additional days and nights, the amount of pills Liu Feizhou and Su Tingyun refined ended up greater than the total amount that all the other Alchemists had refined. That meant that sixty percent of the several thousand poisoned disciples had been cured due to their grace.
Su Tingyun had overtaxed her primordial spirit. As she walked outside, she felt so floaty that she felt like she was walking on cotton. Liu Feizhou was also exhausted. His phoenix eyes were completely bloodshot and his thin lips were slightly pale. His bun had fallen and his hair was scattered in disarray. His bright purple robe was stained with medicinal dregs and gave off a stinky smell. His appearance was seriously terrible.
However, this extreme pill refining session had used up even the last trace of spiritual energy in his body. He couldn"t even cast a Dust Wall. It could be said that he truly cut a sorry figure.
Opening the door, Liu Feizhou saw that there was still a small group of cultivators standing around the door. He felt the impulse to just slap them and tell them to scram.
He had frantically refined pills without rest. The amount of pills he had refined had long surpa.s.sed the others by a great amount. As of now, two days and two nights has pa.s.sed. Those who haven"t been cured no longer needed to be cured, so what were they still hanging around here for!?
Just as Liu Feizhou raised his hand, he saw the people in front give a deep bow. "Many thanks, great Master, for helping us."
"If it weren"t for Master"s pill, my older brother definitely wouldn"t have survived." The eyes of the youngster that spoke were red. He was holding a medicinal gra.s.s in his hand. "This is a medicinal gra.s.s that my Senior Brother gathered at the field practice island. It"s a small offering, but please accept it."
The medicinal gra.s.s was third rank. The value was neither very high nor very low. However, with how crowded the island was right now, to have been able to find something on the island was already very good.
Liu Feizhou definitely did not lack in third rank medicinal gra.s.s. However, the youngster was currently offering the item respectfully while looking at him with a face full of adoration. This feeling was a little strange.
He secretly put down his half-raised hand and his eyes started to blink nonstop. His eyes were already bloodshot due to being exposed to the fire for too long, and now that he was blinking so much, tears were practically about to leak out. Su Tingyun gaped in astonishment when she saw this.
It couldn"t be that Liu Feizhou, this sharp-tongued man, was so moved that he was about to cry, right?
These disciples that needed medicinal pills were mostly disciples whose abilities were average. If the Alchemists had not worked with all their heart to make enough pills, their brothers probably wouldn"t have survived. Thus, the gratefulness that everyone currently felt was sincere. Su Tingyun was also pretty happy. If they understood gratefulness, that meant that this cultivating world wasn"t completely cold-hearted. See? Even Liu Feizhou was about to cry.
Liu Feizhou naturally sensed her looking at him with a deeply moved expression. He curled his lips, then said unhappily, "I"m tired, I"m going to rest. Don"t block the way."
Though his tone of voice wasn"t polite, all the cultivators immediately parted for him. Some others were also holding gifts. They continuously thanked him with sincere att.i.tudes.
The abilities of these people were nothing much. Liu Feizhou didn"t even need to use spiritual consciousness to check the things they were holding. He could tell with a glance that there was nothing special. The third rank medicinal gra.s.s that youngster had was already the best. That was probably why he had been pushed to the very front.
"Refining the pills was simply the task that Master gave, there"s no need for thanks." After he said this mildly, he turned and left. Everyone sent him off with their eyes. This was sincere respect, not forced respect due to the fear created by power. Hence, the feeling it brought seemed different.
Liu Feizhou didn"t speak but his lips moved slightly. It had been a rare occasion for his kindness to flare up. The result actually didn"t turn out that bad. Except, aren"t these people here to try and curry favor with him, this future Alchemy Master? Thinking to here, Liu Feizhou instantly started to feel disdain for them again. The smile at his lips that he himself had not been aware of also disappeared with this thought.
Yet right at this moment, he heard someone behind him say, "Master Wei, the effects of the pills you refined were really good. My brothers" complexion immediately recovered after eating them. They got better so fast!"
"This is a just a small offering, please take it."
Master? As if she counted as one!
Liu Feizhou: "Humph."
Su Tingyun didn"t expect that she would also receive these people"s attention. The reaction of the youngster from earlier was especially unexpected. His face was red as he said, "Master Wei, actually, I…"
He was a newly accepted Blade Sect disciple. Last time, he had discovered medicinal gra.s.s on the field practice island. However, before he could gather it, the island had sunk into the sea and they got sent back to Wuliang Sect. The person who had gotten poisoned this time was his older brother who had entered the Blade Sect ten years before him. His brother had only gone with him to try their luck after he described some of the special areas of the island to him. In the end, he ended up getting poisoned.
From the start the Blade Sect was declining in influence and his older brother also didn"t have very good ability. If there hadn"t been enough Detox Pills to pa.s.s around, his brother would definitely be one of the ones who didn"t get one. The Senior Brother who had gotten the pills last time thought that Master Wei"s pills were of poorer quality, that"s why they were given to the batch of people his brother was in. In the end, they had recovered the fastest. The poison had been cured in just an hour. The effect was even better than the pills of other Alchemists.
Actually, he wanted to give his medicinal gra.s.s to Master Wei. However, he didn"t dare to. Master Liu was the actual Alchemy Master. He heard that Master Wei was just one of Master Liu"s servants and he didn"t dare to offend Master Wei.
The youngster lowered his voice. "Actually, you were the one that saved my older brother"s life. I…" He twisted his sleeve. "I have nothing else to give."
"Oh, don"t mention it. It was natural to help." Su Tingyun waved her hand. The reason she worked so hard was mostly out of habit since she usually refined pills for Xiao Mei this way. She couldn"t bring herself to stop before using up her last bit of spiritual energy and spiritual consciousness.
It turned out that just as Su Tingyun was waving her hand, the youngster took out a flower and offered it to her. "This type of flower is really fragrant. When placed in the room, it helps with focusing and calming the heart."
There were quite a lot of these flowers in the back mountain of the Blade Sect. However, they grew on the side of the cliff so it was rather difficult to pick them.
Someone"s giving her flowers ah!
Not to mention, that third rank medicinal gra.s.s had actually been intended for her. Thinking to here, Su Tingyun started feeling pretty giddy. She accepted the flower happily, said goodbye to them, and made to leave. However, due to overexertion, she went soft at the knees and almost fell. Thus, everyone went together to help her back to her room, allowing Su Tingyun to, for the first time, experience the warmth of spring from other cultivators.
That night, she slept very soundly.
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Credits: Sponsored by Patreon Supporters, Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Yours Truly
[Chiyomira’s Corner]
Such a sweet chapter.
TT-TT So reluctant to let go of this… but it"s for the best. Thank you all for reading. Thanks to the sponsors for supporting. I hope whoever that picks it up will be a good translator. (Person who picks up my baby better have high release rates and good quality （♯▼皿▼）!) Otherwise, see you guys again in like a year~
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