Pill Formed

"Customer? Customer!"

The middle-aged man spoke a few more times, but Lu Cheng didn't hear a single word.

It wasn't until the man couldn't help but shout at him twice that Lu Cheng finally snapped back to reality.

He offered a perfunctory excuse:

"Oh, my apologies, I was just startled by the price."

"Huh?" The middle-aged man's expression grew even stranger; he felt that perhaps Old Yang shouldn't be blamed for his bad temper this time.

"You're joking, customer. One tael and eight mace is already very reasonable."

"There are a few other shops nearby that are cheaper, but their goods are basically stained with blood."

"It's really not worth it for the sake of those three mace of silver."

Lu Cheng nodded:

"Indeed, it's not worth it."

A smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face as he stood up and asked:

"How many do you want, customer? You can rest assured regarding the source of the medicine."

Lu Cheng held up two fingers and shook them, saying:

"Twenty sets of medicinal ingredients."

"Very well, please wait a moment, I... wait, what?"

When the middle-aged man heard "twenty sets," his face immediately lit up with ecstasy.

But then, the smile froze on his face.

He paused, doubting he had heard correctly, and asked again.

Lu Cheng looked at him and repeated clearly:

"I want to buy twenty sets of ingredients for refining Blood-Activating Powder from you; how about you throw in a prescription?"

Now the middle-aged man was certain.

He had wronged Old Yang this time.

For a split second, even a worldly man like him wanted to raise his hand and tell the customer to "turn left at the door."

He took two deep breaths, barely managing to suppress his anger.

But he could no longer force a smile onto his face:

"You're joking, customer. This shop doesn't sell raw ingredients; you might want to look around in other rooms."

Sensing the suppressed anger in the man's tone, Lu Cheng was not in a hurry.

Instead, he spoke slowly:

"Oh? Why is the shopkeeper in such a rush to chase me away? We've been talking for so long, surely you don't mind chatting a bit more?"

"Why not listen to my proposal first? It won't be too late to kick me out if it truly doesn't suit your fancy."

Seeing Lu Cheng's demeanor, the man became curious instead.

He glanced at Lu Cheng, sat back down, and snorted:

"I have nothing better to do, so let's hear what you have to say."

As he spoke, he picked up the water he had originally poured for Lu Cheng and slurped it down.

Lu Cheng looked at the water in the man's hand and said:

"Since the profit from refining pills is so high, who wouldn't want to give it a try?"

"I will buy twenty sets of ingredients for Blood-Activating Powder from you at a price of six mace per set."

"You include a prescription for me."

"If I lack the talent to become an alchemist, I will still have to come back to you to buy the finished medicine."

"The money will naturally still be earned by you."

"If I manage to refine the pills, then I will buy all my future medicinal ingredients from you."

"Furthermore, any surplus Blood-Activating Powder will be left for you to sell."

"After deducting costs, you take three and I take seven."

Who would have thought that the middle-aged man would sneer in disdain after hearing this:

"What a joke. Do you think it's that easy to become an alchemist?"

"You have to memorize the Pharmacopoeia and study pharmacology from the age of seven. By ten, you have a mortar in your left hand and a pestle in your right, standing for an entire day."

As he spoke, the man fell into a memory, his tone becoming wistful:

"After three years of that, you then learn to compound medicine and roll pills."

"Only by reaching this stage is there a possibility of catching the teacher's eye, and if you're lucky, you might be taken on as a chore boy."

"From then on, you carry firewood, wash furnaces, and sweep the alchemy room. Only when the teacher is satisfied can you be promoted to a fire-stoking boy and begin to touch the art of alchemy."

"Do you think that's the end of it?"

The man shook his head, took a deep breath, and sighed even more heavily:

"That is only the beginning."

"A fire-stoking boy is still just a boy. Only when the teacher is in a good mood will they drop a word or two about alchemy methods and key techniques."

"Only when the teacher feels you have learned enough and mastered the tricks will they conduct an examination."

"Only those who pass the examination are accepted as disciples."

"Then, you must truly master every step and secret of the refining process before you are allowed to attempt it yourself."

"Seventeen years. It took exactly seventeen years to reach that point."

"Yet, only then do you find out whether you even have the qualifications to become an alchemist!"

"No matter how well you tend the fire beneath the furnace, or how perfectly you prepare the herbs, the moment you enter the furnace and cannot perceive the changes in the medicinal properties, you have no idea how desperate a person can feel!"

Having said that, he looked at Lu Cheng, his tone becoming aggressive:

"You don't even know what medicinal properties are, you don't know how to process herbs, and you don't know how to control the alchemy fire inside the furnace."

"Even if you had the talent, you still couldn't refine it!"

"And you want a three-seven split!"

"To tell you the truth, the profit is no different from what I get on my own, and I still have to go through the trouble of preparing the herbs for you. Do I look like I have nothing better to do?"

Lu Cheng listened to the man finish these words earnestly and did not get angry at the mockery that followed.

He could feel the unwillingness and resentment in the man's heart.

If he had known from the start that he lacked the talent, he wouldn't have wasted those years.

To have fought with all one's might for seventeen years only to end up with nothing—anyone would find that unbearable.

"The years gone by, whether good or bad, are all a part of one's life."

"Admittedly, seventeen years of effort flowing down the drain is frustrating, but I suspect it is precisely this period that has given you the capital to run this business."

"As for the affairs of life, the winds and clouds change; who can say for sure what will happen?"

After saying this, he turned to leave.

"Wait." The man suddenly spoke up:

"Six silver coins per set, twenty sets. Pay half upfront, and come find me tomorrow to collect the herbs."

"..."

Now it was Lu Cheng's turn to be puzzled.

The man explained:

"A mosquito's leg is still meat, no matter how small. A silver coin is still profit."

Lu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and took out his only six taels of silver:

"Then it's a deal. From now on, all the Blood-Activating Powder I refine will be sold through you."

The man snatched the money and waved his hand impatiently:

"I was talking about the cost of the herbs. As for refining medicine, keep dreaming."

Lu Cheng did not argue; he smiled and lifted the curtain to head out.

Watching Lu Cheng's disappearing shadow, the man suddenly slapped himself:

"I must have lost my mind to actually believe he could refine medicine."

Yet, even so, the man did not regret his sudden change of heart.

Perhaps it was because Lu Cheng had listened so intently while he was recounting his past.

Or perhaps it was because Lu Cheng's final words had touched something within him.

Regardless, it was just a worthless alchemy recipe; giving it away was no great loss.

But more importantly, he was struggling to pay the rent for this stone house.

Don't let the man's words fool you.

Most people who come to the Black Market to buy medicine are looking for a bargain.

Old Yang has legitimate sources, and others have lower prices.

Caught in the middle, he was having a truly difficult time.

The next day, having borrowed another six taels from the chubby boy and the skinny beanpole, Lu Cheng appeared at the Black Market once again.

The man let out a huff the moment he stepped inside, grumbling under his breath:

"I really fell for your trick, kid."

"I don't know what got into those people, but they suddenly decided to restock the medicine warehouse."

"They bought up every herb on the market in just a few short days."

"It's a good thing you came to me; if it were anyone else, you definitely wouldn't have been able to gather all these ingredients."

As he spoke, he pulled a bundle from beneath the wooden counter with a "thud":

"Count them up, twenty sets."

Hearing that the market had been cleared of herbs, a spark flashed through Lu Cheng's mind, as if he had caught onto a fleeting thought.

But after a moment of reflection, he couldn't quite grasp it.

Besides, with the items he needed right in front of him, his eagerness left him no room to dwell on it; he only wanted to quickly test if [Heavenly Mandate] could deduce alchemy.

The bundle was quite large, containing over a dozen types of herbs, neatly sorted and categorized.

Each type of herb was bundled tidily, with its name and quantity labeled on top.

Resting atop the herbs was a piece of yellow paper, densely packed with writing.

Lu Cheng couldn't wait to pick up the yellow paper, reading it carefully from start to finish.

The moment he finished, a brilliant golden light erupted within his sea of consciousness.

[Heavenly Mandate: Ten Thousand Laws Converge]

[Alchemy: Blood-Activating Powder] learned. Deduce?

While pleasantly surprised, Lu Cheng also let out a sigh of relief.

He immediately issued the mental command:

Deduce!

[Alchemy: Blood-Activating Powder] deduction complete!

Within a pillar of golden light that reached the heavens, a black silhouette sat cross-legged, hands hovering as if refining medicine.

[Alchemy: Blood-Activating Powder]

[Grade: None]

[Proficiency: Novice (170/200)]

[An auxiliary medicine used by those in the Refinement Realm to recover their bodies. It is not difficult; one only needs to understand pharmacology and the properties of the herbs to refine it.]

Before Lu Cheng could emerge from the excitement of learning to refine Blood-Activating Powder, [Heavenly Mandate] flickered once more.

A new message arrived.

[Alchemy] learned. Deduce?

Hm?

There's more?

Alchemy...

Medicine refining...

Is there a difference?

Lu Cheng subconsciously issued the command to deduce.

[Alchemy] is deducing...

After waiting for a long time, the words "is deducing" remained unchanged.

Only then did Lu Cheng realize that this [Alchemy] could not be deduced in a short time.

Fortunately, it wouldn't hinder his ability to refine the Blood-Activating Powder.

He decided to let it continue deducing.

No matter what it eventually produced, it certainly wouldn't do any harm.

Sensing an aura approaching, Lu Cheng snapped back to reality.

He turned his head to find the man less than half a foot away.

"Is there something wrong with the prescription?"

Lu Cheng shook his head:

"The pill formula is excellent."

This was the truth; the formula the man provided not only detailed the proportions of the medicinal ingredients but also the order in which they should be added.

It even included the reactive changes of each ingredient at various times after being placed into the pill furnace.

The latter was something that absolutely did not need to be written down.

Those were the alchemical secrets earned by an apothecary apprentice only after fanning furnace fires for who knows how many years.

This was also the reason why Lu Cheng's proficiency level reached one hundred and seventy the moment he learned to refine Blood-Activating Powder.

Lu Cheng gripped the yellow paper, stepped back, and gave the man a slight bow.

The man was stunned for a moment and reached out with both hands to help him up.

But before he could touch Lu Cheng, he heard Lu Cheng speak:

"This junior has one more request; I wonder if I might borrow your stone room and your pill furnace?"

The man was so angry that he saw stars; he braced one hand against the wooden table and pointed a finger at Lu Cheng, shouting:

"You... you..."

A quarter of an hour later, Lu Cheng excitedly sorted out the first set of medicinal ingredients.

Afterward, he began to process them according to what was written on the pill formula.

He first placed several root-type ingredients into a mortar and pounded them hard.

Because he had never done this kind of work before, he failed to control his strength, and half a root fragment flew out on the very first strike.

The man let out a "pfft" of laughter.

Lu Cheng ignored him completely, picked it back up, and pounded it again.

After pounding for a long while, he produced a mortar full of crushed powder with uneven particle sizes.

Next, he chopped and crushed the leaf and flower ingredients according to the pill formula.

By the time everything was done, half an hour had passed, and Lu Cheng was drenched in sweat.

The man had watched the entire process from the side and couldn't help but mock:

"Kid, you should take a good look at the pill formula. What does it say? 'Stir until uniform, with a consistent color,' but look at the ingredients you've prepared."

"What kind of mess is this?"

Lu Cheng looked at the medicine he had been mixing for ages; although it was uniform, the colors were indeed inconsistent.

Pursing his lips and hesitating for a long time, Lu Cheng chose to ignore the man's words and proceeded to the next step.

He placed firewood in the stove and lit it.

As the flames rose, Lu Cheng set a three-legged bronze cauldron the size of a human head onto the stove opening.

Once the furnace walls were heated, he quickly poured the mixed medicinal powder inside.

He then crouched in front of the stove, adding firewood with one hand while stirring the powder with a medicinal spoon in the other.

At this moment, the figure in his sea of consciousness mimicked Lu Cheng's every movement.

Even the furnace fire, the pill cauldron, and the ingredients beside him were exactly the same.

Whenever the figure performed a certain action or the pill cauldron in front of him emitted a glow, Lu Cheng would quickly follow suit.

The eyes of the man watching from the side gradually changed.

Although Lu Cheng's movements were clumsy, every step from lighting the fire until now had been controlled with remarkable precision.

If he could maintain this, perhaps he really might...

But before the man could finish his thought, a burnt smell wafted out.

The first batch, failed.

The man shook his head.

The point where Lu Cheng failed was the first major hurdle.

It required judging the medicinal properties of the liquid within the cauldron within a single breath, then adding the corresponding auxiliary ingredients.

A moment too late, and it would be burnt.

And there were three other places even more difficult than this.

Lu Cheng removed the pill cauldron, cleaned it, and prepared the second set of ingredients.

This time, the pounding went much smoother, and the particles were significantly more uniform.

When lighting the fire, he also took care to control the intensity, not daring to let it burn too fiercely.

But this time, the problem occurred at the first hurdle again.

The furnace temperature was too low, causing the medicinal powder to clump together and fail to disperse.

The second batch, failed.

It had been over two hours since Lu Cheng entered the Black Market.

The medicinal herbs were left with the man.

Lu Cheng departed just before the market closed.

Returning to the Long Wind Escort Agency, he continued his martial arts training as usual.

A few more people were missing from the plaza.

Lu Cheng could clearly feel an unusual swelling occurring within his body.

His "rebound" was fast approaching.

The Blood-Activating Powder had to be refined immediately.

That evening, Lu Cheng returned to the Black Market once again to begin refining the medicine.

This time, unsurprisingly, he failed again.

Lu Cheng simply gave up, leaning back into his chair.

Closing his eyes, his consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness.

Within the sea of consciousness, a figure held its hands out as if supporting something.

An illusory medicine furnace appeared before it.

The flames beneath the furnace flickered and pulsed.

Lu Cheng stared at the figure for a full half-hour.

Only when every detail was etched into his mind did he open his eyes.

The fourth batch, failed.

The fifth batch, failed.

Despite five failures, Lu Cheng felt no discouragement.

His skill had improved significantly.

He was only half a step away from reaching minor mastery.

[Alchemy-Activating Powder]
[Grade: None]
[Level: Entry (196/200)]

Five batches of herbs to raise his skill to minor mastery was entirely worth it.

He believed that the parts he couldn't grasp at the entry level would become much easier once he reached minor mastery.

The facts were indeed as Lu Cheng had expected.

After the sixth failure, Lu Cheng's alchemy level suddenly rose.

As Lu Cheng opened the furnace for the seventh time.

A pile of white, fine-textured powder with a fresh medicinal scent appeared inside the cauldron.

As soon as this scent emerged, the man sat bolt upright.

He stared at Lu Cheng in disbelief.