"It's been hundreds of years. How can you be so certain, sir?"
Xu Yi exclaimed in surprise.
Fatty Steward lifted his chin. "You're not one of our kind, so it's only natural you don't understand the finer points. You should know that pharmacology rests on dialectics: the harmonizing of yin and yang and the balancing of the five elements. Hundreds of years ago, our predecessors placed the greatest importance on keeping the five elements in harmony when creating a prescription. They often tested a formula hundreds or thousands of times before perfecting it. Then, five hundred years ago, the world of alchemy produced an exceptionally gifted master, Ning Zetian, who developed the Five Elements Pill, which was used specifically as an auxiliary medicine. Since then, we in the medicinal trade have only needed to study the properties of herbs; there's no longer any need to fuss over balancing the five elements. Whatever the prescription, simply add a Five Elements Pill, and balance will follow."
"But the prescription in your hands was clearly created by someone who carefully balanced the five elements. So it must be an Ancient Prescription from hundreds of years ago!"
Xu Yi nodded, taking the lesson to heart. Feeling much more at ease, he asked, "May I ask if you can prepare a medicine with effects close to those of this prescription?"
Fatty Steward gently stroked his smooth chin. "What's so difficult about that? The prescription in your hands is, to put it plainly, a poison. Its effects are so overbearing it could kill a one-horned elephant. I imagine the person who devised it intended to use these potent medicines to drive the blood and qi into a frenzy, swelling the meridians in hopes of quickly expanding them. But its effects are far too fierce. When the