Outside the Hall of Spiritual Flourishing stood thirteen enormous purple-copper vats. Each was so wide it would take five people joining hands to encircle it, and each brimmed with dark green liquid that gave off a faint fragrance beneath the sun.
More than twenty disciples in short black tunics had tied up their hair and bared their forearms and calves. They dipped brushes into the fragrant liquid and scrubbed the medicinal ingredients inside the vats.
Each vat stood a full ten feet high, so they had to climb long ladders propped against them, carefully fish out the ingredients, and wash them thoroughly.
The work was almost torture, yet these disciples clearly enjoyed it.
The Longevity Sect had taken in more than seventy disciples this time. Yao Ninger had screened out over twenty, and Su Che had taken them all in, Lü Zheng included. Now they washed and scrubbed here, doing odd jobs all day.
Today's task was to clean the ingredients Su Che would use for alchemy. They were so cheerful because he had promised rewards to the three who worked hardest.
The rewards were spirit elixirs personally refined by "Yang Sui."
Su Che sat on a raised platform before the Hall of Spiritual Flourishing, dressed in loose, plain robes, his hair hanging free. Reclining in a rocking chair, he sipped tea and watched the disciples work below.
Beside Third Young Master Su sat a handsome man with refined features. His face was beautiful to an almost uncanny degree, and his hair was divided into two colors: jet-black on the left, crimson on the right.
Like Su Che, he reclined in a rocking chair, but rather than drinking tea, he rested with his eyes closed.
Behind them, Sun Cheng carefully tended the tea stove, feeding it small pieces of charcoal