Chapter 70: In the Dark (1/2)
Chapter 70: In the Dark
Translator: Sparrow TranslationsEditor:
Pharmacy 19 was located pretty far away from Mo Wuji's residence. He spent three minutes trying to get to the entrance of Pharmacy 19 even though he sprinted all the way here.
Each of the pharmacies had an accompanying pill lab and therefore, Pharmacy 19's corresponding pill lab was Pill Lab 19. Mo Wuji also found out why Pharmacy 19 had the least number of pill refiners who came here to refine pills.
The answer he got was that the success rate of refining a pill was very low in this particular pharmacy. It did not matter who came here to refine pills, the rate of failure was just way higher than any other pharmacy and the difference was not simply a matter of a few percentage points. As more people heard about this, they stopped trying to refine pills at Pharmacy 19.
It appeared that Wu Kai's arrangement for Mo Wuji to work there helped him to focus and Mo Wuji would always be grateful for this. Concurrently, this arrangement was limiting Mo Wuji's potential development in the future. After all, Mo Wuji's intention to learn more about pills was made known to Wu Kai from the very beginning.
How could I learn if no one will be here to refine pills?
The truth was that it was Wu Kai’s wish that Mo Wuji would not learn more about pharmacology. Logically speaking, Mo Wuji could spend 100 years learning and still not be able to achieve anything. However, Wu Kai did not want to rule out the possibility that Mo Wuji could indeed be a talented pill refiner and end up being accepted by a pill master as a disciple.
Wu Kai could not imagine himself bowing and paying respects to Mo Wuji if he were to really become a pill master's disciple.
”Don't you know the rules? Why are you so late?”
Mo Wuji barely stepped into the pharmacy when he heard an enraged voice from within.
Mo Wuji took two steps back as his eardrums were nearly about to burst. This was when he had a clear look at the man who shouted at him. It was an old man with a messy beard and equally messy hair. Furthermore, he had traces of drug stains on his body.
Mo Wuji did not dare to stare as he hurried to bow, ”I had to change before meeting a pill master like you. This was why I was late.”
In fact, Mo Wuji did not even sleep. Mo Wuji was worried that he would be at the receiving end of a lashing if his excuse of being late was that his residence was too far away.
The old man's tone and attitude towards Mo Wuji changed after listening to Mo Wuji's explanation. Moreover, when he summoned for Mo Wuji, there was barely any light in the sky.
”Take my slip to purchase some ingredients from the spiritual herbs warehouse. Do it quickly because you can forget about working here if you waste just a single second,” The old man then handed Mo Wuji a jade slip as well as a beast-skinned paper before turning and heading back into the pharmacy.
Mo Wuji was afraid to offend him, and hence, he sprinted towards the spiritual herbs warehouse.
The Formless Blade Sect's spiritual herbs warehouse was located inside the Hall of Affairs in which Mo Wuji had previously inquired about. The Hall of Affairs was where disciples came to collect resources for cultivation, missions and quests as well as to claim their contribution points. Furthermore, one could purchase anything and everything here as long as he had contribution points. In short, this is the most eventful place in the entire Formless Blade Sect.
Mo Wuji was only a service disciple who was unable to collect contribution points. He had to serve for at least a year to be able to qualify for the collection of contribution points.
Mo Wuji took a glance at the beast-skinned paper before guessing that it might be a pill formula.
There were over ten herbs written on the paper in which Mo Wuji knew of. These included Iron Spot Flower, Grey Hemp, Green Fire Fruit etc. Based on the characteristics of the herbs, Mo Wuji's guess was that it was a formula for quenching. It could very likely be for quenching spiritual channels.
Mo Wuji could sense there was something wrong with this formula even though he had never seen it before. It was not because his drug refining ability was way above the old man but because of his knowledge of the characteristics of these herbs as well as his recent research on the pill manual. He strongly believed that the mixing of the Iron Spot Flower together with the Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds will lead to the unstable medicinal effects of the Green Fire Fruit.
Mo Wuji believed that even the highest tier spiritual ingredients came from a plant. A spiritual ingredient will never be able to escape from its biological nature.
According to the manual's description of both the Iron Spot Flower and Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds, the mixture of these two herbs would result in the Green Fire Fruit losing its wood properties. Most of the pill refiners chose to use the Green Fire Fruit because of its wood properties therefore it would be pointless to use the Green Fire Fruit if it's wood properties were affected.
This was of course true unless a very strong pill refiner is capable of controlling all three herbs. However, Mo Wuji did not believe that old man was that capable of a pill refiner.