Active Ingredients and Impurities

After learning the purpose of Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi's visit, Xu Ling smiled and said, "Strength Enhancement Potion with a purity of over 90% is considered perfect quality. Mr. Bai also specified that it must be level 8 or above, which makes it even rarer... As far as I know, it's not available in the sales hall."

After a pause, Xu Ling said, "Mr. Bai and Miss can go see the store manager... However, he seems to be in a bad mood lately."

"Feeling down? Why?" Bai Xiaowen asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, it seems to be related to the store's drug sales." Although Xu Ling was the sales team leader, she was just a low-level manager.

Bai Xiaowen originally didn't want to trouble Zhang Jing and Sun Hecheng, but he had no better option at the moment. He and Li Shuyi thanked Xu Ling and walked easily through the internal staff passage to the Alchemy Department at the back.

Outside the office of the old store manager Zhang Jing, Bai Xiaowen heard Sun Hecheng's voice.

"The Titan Guild is going too far. The guild leader has to think of something; we can't let them be so arrogant."

The old shop manager, Zhang Jing, also rang out. "What good ideas can we come up with? Titan Guild is A-rank Guild, one of Jinghai's flagship guilds. Even if they opened a branch in the Chihuo District, or even right across from us, what could you do? We support staff shouldn't be thinking of causing trouble for the guild; we should just endure it..."

Sun Hecheng was still somewhat unwilling. "But our sales have dropped drastically..."

Knock, knock, knock.

Bai Xiaowen overheard a few words and felt it was impolite to eavesdrop outside, so she knocked on the door to signal her.

Who is it?

The office door opened from the inside, revealing Sun Hecheng's square face.

"Uncle Sun, Grandpa Zhang, it's me!"

Li Shuyi greeted Sun Hecheng and Zhang Jing politely, then pulled Bai Xiaowen inside.

The office door closed again, and Sun Hecheng's previously gloomy face softened considerably. Zhang Jing's face, on the other hand, broke into a wide smile, his wrinkles smoothing out. "Hey, aren't you guys in college? It's not the weekend or a holiday, what brings you here?"

Li Shuyi said with a grin, "Xiao Wen and I are in the Combat Department, which is different from the regular departments. We can attend classes as we please, and there are no credits."

"But you can't be lazy, you still have to attend the classes you're supposed to attend..." Zhang Jing kept nagging.

Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi listened attentively to Zhang Jing's long rambling. Then, Bai Xiaowen changed the subject. "I just heard you chatting with Master Zhang. Is there some problem with the pharmacy?"

Zhang Jing was unwilling to discuss the matter further, perhaps not wanting to distract Bai Xiaowen and the other person. He waved his hand and smiled, "It's nothing, it's nothing... I haven't even asked you yet, what brings you here this time?"

Bai Xiaowen said, "I want to buy a strength -Enhancement Potion, the kind that actually adds about 4 points, and its grade should be below level 8, but the purity should be high... I couldn't find it in the front hall."

Zhang Jing joked, "I knew you wouldn't think of an old man like me unless it was something important..."

The two gave an awkward laugh.

Zhang Jing stroked his chin and got to the point. "Strength Enhancement Potion below level 8 of tier 1 generally have a theoretical effect of 4 points. To achieve an actual effect of 4 points... well, 75% purity can achieve an actual gain of 3 points. But the crucial last point is based on probability; the purity needs to be at least 87.5% to have a 50% chance of increasing that last point."

Bai Xiaowen nodded and added, "A 50% chance is still a bit low. I wonder if the store has any perfect quality ones?"

Zhang Jing smiled.

Sun Hecheng, standing to the side, said, "Perfect quality potions with over 90% purity aren't easy to make; it depends on luck. Take me for example, I average 3 to 5 bottles of perfect quality potions per month, but most of them are low-level. Potions of level 8 or higher, on average, only produce one or two bottles per year."

"How could there be so few?" Bai Xiaowen was startled. He knew Sun Hecheng's pharmaceutical output; producing several thousand bottles of potions a year was no problem, making him a true workhorse. So, only one in a thousand were truly high-quality, perfect potions?

"This involves the factors that affect purity," Sun Hecheng explained. "Little Bai, do you know why the purity of medicine varies, and it's almost impossible to reach 100%?"

Bai Xiaowen hesitated for a moment. "It's because the medicinal herbs themselves contain slight impurities."

"That's only one aspect," Sun Hecheng said. "More importantly, it's the proportion of active ingredients in the medicinal materials."

"Proportion? Before making medicine, how many grams of each medicinal material are needed are weighed in advance according to the proportion formula, right?" Bai Xiaowen said.

"The 'active ingredient' I'm referring to is the 'energy particles' in medicinal herbs! For example, the Silverleaf Herb used to make Silverlight Potion contains ' Life Particles,' which are the active ingredient."

"The weight of medicinal herbs can be measured in advance, but the effective components within them cannot be precisely measured. Even with the same weight and appearance of Silverleaf Herb, the Life Particles it contains will certainly differ."

Sun Hecheng continued, "When preparing a medicine, if you need two active ingredients, A and B, each accounting for 50%, and you weigh out 100 grams of each type of ingredient, it appears to be 50% each. But in reality, the type of ingredient might contain slightly more active ingredient particles, making up 51% of the final composition, leaving only 49% of the type of ingredient, type B."

"Pharmaceutical manufacturing is a chemical reaction process. Only 49% of the total dose of the Class A active ingredient will react with the Class B active ingredient to become the drug. And what about the extra 2%? For this bottle of drug, that 2% can only be impurities. Useless active ingredients are impurities."

Sun Hecheng concluded, "The above are the simplest examples. Actual prescriptions are much more complex, and the higher the level of the Enhancement Potion, the more types of medicinal materials are required in the formula, and the more difficult it is to control the proportion of effective ingredients. If the first one is 1% too much, the second one is 2% too much, and the third one is 3% too little, the total amount of impurities accumulated will be terrifying."

Zhang Jing added with a smile, "Purity also depends on the Alchemist. Ideally, the next step should begin immediately after the reaction of the active ingredients has finished, with seamless transitions. Even if it's done 0.1 seconds too early, the active ingredients won't have enough time to react, resulting in impurities; a 0.1-second delay could even lead to pharmaceutical failure..."

"No two leaves in the world are exactly alike, and no two pharmaceutical processes are exactly the same. In the details, Alchemist need to rely on their intuition to control the process. This is also why it is impossible to use machines to process medicinal materials and make Psionic Potion; the waste rate of mechanized production is too high, and the cost is simply unbearable."