Chapter 93: Testing Skills (Part Three)
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After a long while, the spirit herb essences that had been divided into over twenty clusters each shrank into white pills the size of quail eggs. Success! Yue Qianchou struck the furnace lid open with a palm from the air, and the pills inside were quickly ejected by the hot airflow. Yue Qianchou quickly jumped up and spread out the hem of his robe to catch them all – he didn’t have Guan Weiwu’s level of cultivation to be able to draw them all over with a wave of his hand.
After landing, Yue Qianchou counted carefully – twenty pills, not one missing, and there were no black waste pills like those his master had refined. But the color seemed somewhat different from what his master had produced. He picked up one to examine carefully – the fragrance was rich, it was white and lustrous, smooth and round, with a faint white glow covering its surface. It seemed to look even better than what his master had refined.
That’s not right! With his beginner-level technique, could he actually refine better pills than his master? Could it be that they only looked good but were much inferior in medicinal efficacy? Yue Qianchou suddenly remembered the Foundation Establishment Pills he had refined – Chen Feng had succeeded with two pills, Guan Yu had used seven, and he had used three more at Floating Immortal Island before that, adding up to ten. He himself was even more exaggerated, having used twelve pills. Could this have nothing to do with medicinal efficacy?
No good! He had to take them to his master to see – perhaps his master would know where the problem lay.
Yue Qianchou gathered up the hem of his robe and walked to the largest pill chamber in the center, puzzled and unable to figure it out. When he entered, Guan Weiwu was holding pills in his hands, shaking his head and sighing – clearly he had refined another unsatisfactory batch.
“Master.” Yue Qianchou called.
“Hmm?” Guan Weiwu said without looking up: “Not enough spirit herbs? Go get some yourself.”
“That’s not it, Master. I refined a batch of Qi Recovery Pills and don’t know how well I did. I brought them specially for you to help me take a look.” Yue Qianchou said embarrassedly.
Guan Weiwu looked up in surprise: “You refined a batch of Qi Recovery Pills? So quickly? Let me see.” He didn’t believe it – knowing nothing, how could someone possibly refine pills on their first attempt?
Yue Qianchou approached with his gathered hem and spread it open. Twenty smooth, round, lustrous white pearls lay quietly in the cloth, waiting to be picked. Guan Weiwu first glanced at them – with his experience, he could naturally tell good pills from bad at a glance. Immediately after, as if unable to believe it, his eyes widened.
Damn! Sure enough, there’s a problem with my refining, but you don’t need to be so shocked, do you? If you have opinions, just say so directly – I’ll humbly accept them. Yue Qianchou smiled unnaturally: “Master, where did the problem occur? This disciple can’t figure it out no matter how hard I think. Please correct me, Master!”
Guan Weiwu reached out with trembling hands, picked up one pill, and examined it over and over in front of his eyes, then smelled it repeatedly in front of his nose. Finally, with a serious expression, he said: “Did you really refine this with your own hands? How many sets of spirit herbs did you use to refine this?”
“Uh…” Yue Qianchou was stunned. Damn! He’s not worried about me wasting more spirit herbs, is he? If I say I used one set, he might ask me to return the extras. Damn! You master shouldn’t be so stingy. I’m even stingier than you – once something’s in my hands, it’s not so easy to get back.
Yue Qianchou said somewhat sheepishly: “What are you saying, Master? Naturally this disciple refined them personally. This disciple wouldn’t dare deceive anyone, especially not you, Master! That… that… I used four sets of spirit herbs to barely manage to refine one batch.”
Hearing that four sets were used, Guan Weiwu showed an expression of “as expected,” grabbed all of Yue Qianchou’s Qi Recovery Pills and put them into his own storage bag, then turned to the corner to pick out several more sets of spirit herbs for refining Qi Recovery Pills. He said to Yue Qianchou: “Come, take me to see the place where you just refined pills.”
Seeing that his master wasn’t pursuing the matter of using extra spirit herbs but instead wanted to personally guide him, he couldn’t help but nod excitedly and lead the way. As soon as the two walked out, they immediately attracted many people’s attention. Those they passed all bowed: “Elder Guan.” Guan Weiwu had something on his mind and ignored everyone who called to him, only knowing to follow his disciple.
Yang Qian, who was directing people in their work, saw them and didn’t know what had happened. Could there be some problem with the place he had arranged for Yue Qianchou? He quickly followed to check.
Yue Qianchou pointed to the pill chamber where he had just refined pills: “Master, it was this room.” Guan Weiwu nodded: “Let’s go in and take a look.”
Yang Qian, who had followed, thought to himself that there really was a problem with the pill chamber. But how could there be a problem? It had been used for thousands of years, and no one had ever mentioned any problems. How could there suddenly be problems when Elder Guan’s disciple came?
Thinking of Guan Weiwu’s tyrannical behavior regarding pill refining matters – if anyone dared to cause problems with pill refining affairs, he would definitely torment them to death, otherwise how would he have earned the title ‘Pill Maniac’ – Yang Qian’s heart tightened. Please don’t let there be any unmanageable situation! He quickly followed inside.
When Yue Qianchou had left, the earth fire under the furnace hadn’t been turned off, so it remained as it was when he entered. Guan Weiwu circled the pill furnace twice, examining it carefully, but didn’t see anything unusual, though it wasn’t as good as his own pill furnace. He pointed at the pill furnace and asked: “You used this furnace to refine just now?”
“Yes, Master!” Yue Qianchou nodded. Yang Qian, who had followed in, also examined it carefully but found no problems!
Guan Weiwu separated one set from the pile of spirit herbs he was carrying and handed it to Yue Qianchou: “Refine once more using the same method as before. Put your heart into it.”
Yue Qianchou was delighted – his master was indeed going to personally guide his pill refining. He quickly said: “Yes.” He skillfully threw in the spirit herbs, closed the furnace lid, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the process of refining Qi Recovery Pills.
Seeing his disciple had entered the pill refining state, Guan Weiwu really wanted to inject his divine sense into the pill furnace to see what his disciple’s refining process was like, but was afraid of interfering with his disciple. He held back on the side, not even daring to breathe heavily, put away the spirit herbs, and took out the Qi Recovery Pills Yue Qianchou had just refined to examine in his hands.
Yang Qian found it strange – what exactly were this master and disciple doing? He walked toward Guan Weiwu wanting to ask what was wrong, but saw Guan Weiwu anxiously waving at him repeatedly, making gestures for silence. This scared Yang Qian into standing there with him, not daring to move.
With the experience of refining the previous batch of Qi Recovery Pills, Yue Qianchou controlled this batch even more leisurely, performing a spectacular divine sense control game inside the pill furnace – unfortunately, no second person could see it.
After a long while, Yue Qianchou’s closed eyes finally opened. Just as he waved his palm to strike open the furnace lid, he heard Guan Weiwu shout: “Come!” He raised his hand and drew over the ejected pills, comparing the pile he had drawn over with the one pill he originally held in his hand. After looking, he discovered that they were indeed pills refined using the same technique, and there were a full twenty pills without a single waste pill.
Yue Qianchou stopped and walked over to ask: “Master, is there any problem?”
Guan Weiwu sucked in cold air through his teeth, shaking his head continuously. He stuffed all the pills in his hands into his storage bag and shouted at Yue Qianchou and Yang Qian: “You two are not allowed to disturb my pill refining.” Seeing him speak so seriously, both nodded repeatedly.
Guan Weiwu rolled up both sleeves, took out a set of spirit herbs, and directly threw them into the pill furnace to begin refining.
Yue Qianchou knew this refining would take quite some time. He stood to the side quietly recovering his vital energy and slightly damaged divine sense. Having refined two batches of pills in succession, there was some consumption, but it was incomparably better than when he used to refine Foundation Establishment Pills.
Yang Qian on the side was shocked. He had also seen the batch of Qi Recovery Pills that Yue Qianchou had just refined – that appearance, that luster, and that faintly visible pill halo. Having stayed at the Alchemy Pavilion for nearly a hundred years, he could naturally distinguish good pills from bad ones. A full twenty pills! Not a single waste pill, and that pill halo that only appeared on supreme-grade pills – heavens! It was actually refined by Guan Weiwu’s disciple. How was this possible? Even Guan Weiwu probably didn’t have this level of skill.
