Elder Huo stopped before a heavy iron door.
Behind the wooden counter ahead sat an old man with a grizzled beard, his head lowered over an ancient book.
"This is Elder Hu. He manages our Alchemy Department's Medicine Vault in the Outer Academy, and he's an experienced Fourth-Rank Alchemist himself," Elder Huo introduced.
An Yi stepped forward and cupped his fists politely. "Greetings, Senior Hu."
Elder Hu looked up. Recognizing An Yi, he hastily stood and waved his hands with a wry smile. "How could I dare call myself your senior, Master Nangong? That was a Fifth-Rank Pill! Who knows whether these old bones of mine will ever have a chance to touch that threshold in this lifetime?"
An Yi replied modestly, "I just got lucky. To tell you the truth, I'm still a dabbler who can blow up a cauldron even while refining second-rank pills."
At that, Elder Hu did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Enough, stop dealing me blows like that. You'd better say things like that less often. If someone who didn't know your background heard you, they'd probably think you were deliberately mocking them."
As he spoke, Elder Hu took two Storage Rings from his sleeve and tossed them to An Yi. "These are for you."
An Yi caught them and looked down at the rings in his hand, somewhat puzzled. "What are these?"
Elder Huo explained from beside him, "One of these two Storage Rings contains all sorts of basic pill recipes, along with insights passed down by generations of our Alchemy Department's predecessors. To prevent them from leaking out, these scrolls can only be read once."
"The other Storage Ring contains the medicinal herbs for those recipes."
"Before coming here, I specifically asked Elder Hu to prepare all of this for