Pill Completed

"Customer? Customer!"

The middle-aged man said several more things, but Lu Cheng did not hear a single word.

It was not until the man could not help raising his voice and calling out twice that Lu Cheng came back to his senses.

He casually brushed it off:

"Oh, sorry. That price startled me."

"Huh?" The middle-aged man's expression grew even stranger. This time, perhaps Old Yang's bad temper was not to blame.

"Customer, you must be joking. One tael and eight mace is already very affordable."

"There are several cheaper places nearby, but most of their goods are bloodstained."

"It really isn't worth it for those three mace of silver."

Lu Cheng nodded.

"Indeed. Not worth it."

A smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face. Rising to his feet, he asked,

"How much would you like, customer? You may rest assured about the source of the medicine."

Lu Cheng held up two fingers and gave them a shake.

"Twenty sets of ingredients."

"Certainly, customer, please wait. I... what did you say?"

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

But in the next instant, his smile froze.

After staring blankly for a moment, suspecting that he had misheard, he asked again.

Lu Cheng looked at him and repeated himself clearly.

"I'll buy twenty sets of ingredients for refining Blood-Activating Powder from you. In return, you give me a pill formula. How about it?"

Now the middle-aged man was certain.

This time, he had wrongly blamed Old Yang.

In that instant, even with all the middle-aged man's worldly shrewdness, he almost raised a hand and said, "Turn left when you leave."

He took two deep breaths and only barely suppressed his anger.

Yet no matter what, he could not force a smile onto his face.

"Customer, you jest. This humble shop does not sell medicinal ingredients. You may look around the other rooms."

Sensing the anger buried beneath the man's tone, Lu Cheng did not rush.

Instead, he spoke slowly.

"Oh? Why is the shopkeeper so eager to drive me away? We've talked for so long already—would a few more words make any difference?"

"You might as well hear my proposal first. If it truly does not suit your taste, it will not be too late to send me away."

Seeing Lu Cheng act like this, the man instead grew curious again.

He glanced at Lu Cheng, sat down, and snorted.

"Nothing else to do anyway. Then 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 profits from refining pills are so great, who wouldn't want to try?"

"I'll buy twenty sets of Blood-Activating Powder ingredients from you at six mace per set."

"You include a pill formula."

"If I lack the talent to become an alchemist, I'll still come back to buy finished medicine from you."

"You'll naturally still earn that money."

"If I can refine pills, then I'll buy all my medicinal ingredients from you from then on."

"Besides that, I'll also leave all surplus Blood-Activating Powder with you to sell."

"After costs, you get three parts and I get seven."

Who would have thought that after hearing this, the middle-aged man merely gave a disdainful sneer?

"What a joke. Do you think becoming an alchemist is so easy?"

"From the age of seven, you have to memorize the Pharmacopoeia and study medicinal theory. By the age of ten, with a mortar in your left hand and a grinder in your right, you stand there for an entire day."

As he spoke, the man sank into his memories, and his tone became rueful.

"Three years like that, then you learn how to compound medicines and roll pills."

"Only after reaching that stage might a teacher take notice of you. If you are lucky, you might be taken on as an errand boy."

"From then on, you haul firewood, wash furnaces, and sweep the Alchemy Room. Only once the teacher is satisfied can you be promoted to a fire-fanning boy and come into contact with pill refining."

"Do you think that is the end of it?"

The man shook his head, took a deep breath, and became even more wistful.

"That is only the beginning."

"A fire-fanning boy is still only a boy. Only when the teacher is in a good mood will he mention a word or two about pill-refining methods and key techniques."

"Only when the teacher thinks you have learned enough and grasped the knack will he test you."

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

"Then, only after truly mastering every process and trick of pill refining can you personally attempt refinement."

"Seventeen years. It took a full seventeen years to reach that step."

"But only then can you find out whether you truly have the qualifications to become an alchemist!"

"No matter how well the fire burns beneath the furnace, no matter how flawlessly the ingredients are handled inside, the moment they enter the furnace and you cannot sense the changes in their medicinal properties—you have no idea how despairing that is!"

After saying this, he looked at Lu Cheng, his tone turning sharp.

"You do not even know what medicinal properties are. You do not know how to process medicinal ingredients, nor how to control the pill fire inside the furnace."

"Even if you have the talent, you still cannot refine anything!"

"You get seven and I get three!"

"To tell you the truth, that profit is no different from what I'd make handling it myself, and I'd still have to go through the trouble of preparing ingredients for you. Am I so full that I have nothing better to do?"

Lu Cheng listened seriously to everything the man said. He did not get angry because of the mockery in the man's final words.

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

If he had known from the start that he lacked talent, he would not have wasted those years.

He had struggled with all his strength for seventeen years, only for it all to come to nothing. No one could bear that.

"Whether good or bad, the years that have passed are all part of one's life."

"Certainly, watching seventeen years of effort flow eastward in a single day leaves one unwilling to accept it. But perhaps it was precisely those years that gave you the foundation to do this business."

"In life and worldly affairs, winds and clouds shift without end. Who can say for certain?"

After saying that, he prepared to leave.

"Wait." The man suddenly spoke.

"Six mace of silver per set, twenty sets. Pay half first, then come get the ingredients from me tomorrow."

"..."

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

The man explained,

"No matter how small a mosquito's leg is, it is still meat. One mace of silver is still profit."

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

"Then it is settled. Any Blood-Activating Powder I refine in the future will be sold through you."

The man snatched the money away and impatiently waved him off.

"I was talking about the ingredients. As for refining pills, go dream your spring and autumn dreams."

Lu Cheng did not argue. Smiling, he lifted the curtain and walked out.

Watching Lu Cheng's departing figure disappear, the man suddenly slapped himself.

"I must have lost my mind, actually believing he could refine medicine."

But though he said that, the man did not regret suddenly changing his mind.

Perhaps it was because Lu Cheng had listened with unusual seriousness when he spoke of the past.

Or perhaps Lu Cheng's final words had stirred something in him.

It was only a worthless pill formula, after all. Giving it away was no great loss.

But more importantly, he was nearly unable to pay the rent on this stone house.

For all the fine things the man had said,

most people who came to the Black Market to buy medicine were looking for cheap prices.

Old Yang had legitimate sources, while everyone else sold for less.

Caught in the middle, he truly had it rough.

The next day, Lu Cheng borrowed another six taels from Fatty and Thin Bamboo Pole.

Then he appeared at the Black Market once more.

The moment he entered, the man snorted and muttered in complaint,

"I really got taken in by you, kid."

"Who knows what madness got into those people? They suddenly wanted to replenish their medicine stores."

"In only a few days, they actually bought up all the medicinal ingredients on the market."

"Luckily, you came to me. If you had gone to anyone else, they definitely would not have been able to gather everything."

As he spoke, he yanked a bundle out from beneath the wooden counter with a bang.

"Count them. Twenty sets."

Hearing that all the medicinal ingredients on the market had been bought up, a thought flashed through Lu Cheng's mind, as though he had caught hold of something.

But after considering it, he could not make sense of it.

Besides, what he wanted was right before his eyes. In his eagerness, he had no mind to examine it closely. He only wanted to quickly test whether Heavenly Mandate could deduce pill refining.

The bundle was quite large. Inside were more than ten types of medicinal ingredients, neatly sorted into categories.

Each kind of ingredient was bundled tidily, with labels stating its name and quantity.

At the very top of the ingredients lay a sheet of yellow paper densely covered in writing.

Lu Cheng impatiently picked up the yellow paper and carefully read it from beginning to end.

The moment he finished, golden light blazed within his Consciousness Sea.

[Heavenly Mandate: Ten Thousand Laws Converge]

[Pill Refining: Blood-Activating Powder] learned. Deduce?

At the same time as his delight, Lu Cheng let out a breath of relief.

He immediately issued the command in his mind.

Deduce!

[Pill Refining: Blood-Activating Powder] deduction complete!

Within a golden pillar of light that reached from heaven to earth, a black figure sat cross-legged, hands held empty before him as though refining pills.

[Pill Refining: Blood-Activating Powder]

[Grade: None]

[Realm: Beginner (170/200)]

[An auxiliary medicine used by those in the Force Refining Realm to restore the body. It is not difficult to refine; knowing medicinal theory and understanding medicinal properties is enough.]

Lu Cheng had yet to emerge from the excitement of learning how to refine Blood-Activating Powder when Heavenly Mandate flickered again.

Another message arrived.

[Alchemy] learned. Deduce?

Hm?

There was more?

Alchemy...

Pill refining...

What was the difference?

Lu Cheng subconsciously issued the command to deduce it.

[Alchemy] is being deduced...

After waiting for a long while, the words "is being deduced" remained unchanged.

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

Fortunately, it did not prevent him from refining Blood-Activating Powder.

He would simply let it continue deducing for now.

No matter what it deduced, there would be no harm in it.

Sensing an aura drawing near him,

Lu Cheng suddenly came back to his senses.

Turning his head, he saw that the man stood less than half a foot away.

"Is there something wrong with the pill formula?"

Lu Cheng shook his head.

"The pill formula is excellent."

He meant it sincerely. The pill formula the man had given him not only listed the proportions of the medicinal ingredients, but also the order in which they were to be added.

It even detailed the changing reactions at each stage after the various ingredients were placed into the pill furnace.

The latter had not needed to be written down at all.

Those were pill-refining secrets earned only after a pill boy had fanned the furnace fires for who knew how many years.

That was also why, the moment Lu Cheng learned to refine Blood-Activating Powder, his proficiency had already reached one hundred and seventy.

Lu Cheng pinched the yellow paper, took two steps back, and gave the man a slight bow.

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

But before he could touch Lu Cheng, he heard him speak.

"I have one more request. Might I borrow your stone room and pill furnace?"

The man was instantly so furious that stars swam before his eyes. One hand braced against the wooden counter while the other pointed at Lu Cheng as he roared,

"You... you..."

A quarter of an hour later, Lu Cheng excitedly sorted out his first batch of ingredients.

He then began processing them according to the pill formula.

First, he placed the various root and stem ingredients into the mortar separately and crushed them with force.

Since he had never done this sort of work before and had not mastered the strength required, half a piece of root flew out on his very first strike.

The man let out a snort of laughter.

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

After pounding for quite a while, he produced a mortarful of fragments in uneven sizes.

Next, he chopped and ground the leaf- and flower-type 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 could not help mocking him.

"Kid, take a good look at the pill formula. What does it say? 'Stir evenly, with a uniform color.' Now look at the ingredients you prepared."

"What kind of ghostly mess is that?"

Lu Cheng looked at the medicine he had mixed for ages. It was evenly mixed, but the colors were indeed uneven in shade.

With his lips pressed together, Lu Cheng hesitated for a long time before choosing to ignore the man and proceed to the next step.

He put firewood into the stove and lit it.

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

Once the furnace walls had heated up, he swiftly poured the mixed medicinal powder inside.

He then crouched before the stove, adding firewood with one hand and stirring the powder with a medicine spoon in the other.

At this moment, the figure in his Consciousness Sea mirrored Lu Cheng's movements.

Even the furnace fire and pill cauldron before it, as well as the medicinal ingredients at its side, were exactly the same.

Whenever one of the figure's movements—or the pill cauldron before it—gave off a flash of light, Lu Cheng immediately followed with the corresponding action.

The man watching at the side gradually changed his expression.

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

If he kept this up, then perhaps he really could...

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

The first batch had failed.

The man shook his head.

Lu Cheng had failed at the first difficult point.

He needed to judge the medicinal properties of the liquid inside the cauldron within a single breath, then add the corresponding supplementary ingredient.

One instant too late, and it would burn.

And there were three points even harder than this one.

Lu Cheng removed the pill cauldron, washed it clean, and prepared the second batch of ingredients.

This time, grinding the medicine went much more smoothly, and the particles were considerably more uniform.

When lighting the fire, he also took care to control the flames and did not dare let them burn too fiercely.

Yet this time, trouble still arose at the first difficult point.

The furnace temperature was too low. The medicinal powder clumped together and would not disperse.

The second batch had failed.

By then, more than two hours had passed since Lu Cheng entered the Black Market.

He left the medicinal ingredients with the man.

Lu Cheng departed before the market closed.

After returning to the Long Wind Escort Agency, he continued practicing martial arts as usual.

There were a few fewer people in the square again.

Lu Cheng could also clearly feel a different kind of swelling in his body.

His "counterforce" was about to arrive.

The Blood-Activating Powder had to be refined as quickly as possible.

That night, Lu Cheng returned to the Black Market and began refining medicine again.

This time, as expected, he still failed.

Lu Cheng simply stopped and leaned back in his chair.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into his Consciousness Sea.

Within the Consciousness Sea, the figure held its hands in the air.

An illusory pill furnace appeared before it.

The flames beneath the furnace flickered and surged unsteadily.

Lu Cheng stared at the figure for a full two quarters of an hour.

Only after every detail had been etched into his mind did he open his eyes.

The fourth batch failed.

The fifth batch failed.

Despite five failures, Lu Cheng was not discouraged in the slightest.

That was because his skill had improved enormously.

He was only half a step away from Minor Achievement.

[Pill Refining: Blood-Activating Powder]

[Rank: None]

[Realm: Beginner (196/200)]

Five batches of ingredients to raise his skill to Minor Achievement was entirely worth it.

The points he could not grasp at the Beginner realm would surely become much easier once he reached Minor Achievement.

And reality indeed unfolded as Lu Cheng had expected.

After the sixth failure, Lu Cheng's pill-refining realm suddenly rose.

As Lu Cheng opened the furnace for the seventh time,

A cauldronful of snow-white powder, fine in texture and carrying a fresh medicinal fragrance, appeared inside.

The moment that scent emerged, the man abruptly sat upright.

He stared at Lu Cheng in utter disbelief.