Chapter 35 (1/2)
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.