Book of Elixirs

Another half month passed.

Chen Chong stood before the pill furnace, staring blankly at the extra Tiger Bone Pills in the porcelain tray. The panel plainly displayed—

[Alchemy (Mastery 23/10000)]

Mastery.

Over the past few days, he had refined more than a hundred batches of Tiger Bone Pills. From three pills per batch at the start, he now produced five or six. His success rate kept climbing, and the quality grew ever steadier.

The moment the pill furnace opened, medicinal fragrance filled the room. Even he could tell that these pills were no worse than Chen Huaixu's.

But the breakthrough in Alchemy had brought more than merely an increase in the number of pills.

Chen Chong looked at the extra pills on the table. Two or three more per batch meant more than ten extra pills in a day.

Naturally, he could trade those pills for silver. But with his progress this fast, no matter how wildly Chen Huaixu imagined things, he would never be able to imagine this?

A month ago, he had been a guard who had "learned alchemy by eavesdropping." A month later, his output had doubled. How could he explain that?

Chen Chong put the excess pills into a porcelain bottle and hid it away. He would keep them for himself. Tiger Bone Pills strengthened sinews and bones, invigorated the blood and regenerated flesh; they benefited both the Skin Tempering Realm and the Nourishing Flesh Realm.

Chen Chong no longer refined pills in the courtyard, but in the main room of the alchemy house.

This had once been Chen Huaixu's workshop. It was broad and bright, with blue bricks underfoot, one wall filled with medicine cabinets, and a large window in the other wall facing the old pomegranate tree in the yard. Chen Huaixu had visited less and less as he aged, so the room had been left vacant.

With a single word from Chen Huaixu, Yuan Zhiwu approved it and had people clean the place up before assigning it to Chen Chong.

Every afternoon, a clerk from the accounts room would come carrying a cloth bag. Today was no exception.

The clerk was fourteen or fifteen, thin and small. As he entered the main room with the bag, his eyes nearly bored straight through it.

The mouth of the bag hung loose, revealing gleaming fragments of silver and copper coins within. He placed the bag on the table, bowed, and withdrew.

Chen Chong took the bag with practiced ease and weighed it in his hand. A little over one tael. By the time he pulled out the silver, the clerk had already left. Chen Chong sat in his chair and gathered the silver fragments into a pile.

More than one tael a day.

He recalled working as a menial at the apothecary, earning twelve copper coins a day. Now, one day's earnings surpassed half a year of that.

An alchemist. Money really did come fast.

After counting, including today's earnings, he had more than twenty taels. Chen Chong put the silver into an iron box and returned to his room in high spirits.

Sitting at the table, he opened the panel.

Besides refining pills these past days, he had not neglected martial arts either. Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests and the Five Tigers Severing the Mountain Blade had both reached the beginner level, but their proficiency had stalled. He needed to spend silver to simplify them before he could continue practicing.

"Simplify Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests."

"Simplification successful. Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests—Tiger Roar."

"Simplify Five Tigers Severing the Mountain Blade."

"Simplification successful. Five Tigers Severing the Mountain Blade—Swing the blade."

Chen Chong looked at the two new lines on the panel. Swinging the blade was easy to understand—it meant swinging the blade. But Tiger Roar?

He opened his mouth and tried making a sound.

"Awoo~"

Wasn't that a wolf's howl?

[Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests (Proficient 98/1000)]

"Woof woof!"

[Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests (Proficient 99/1000)]

Chen Chong's face darkened with black lines. Was this right? Tiger Roar, and here he was going awoo, awoo like a wolf. Had the panel misunderstood the technique?

Yet his proficiency truly had increased. Chen Chong gritted his teeth and howled "awoo" in his room for half an hour. His throat went dry before the number on the panel finally rose to "156/1000."

That night, the guard in the neighboring room knocked on his door and asked, "Brother Chen, is that... a dog you're keeping in your room?"

Chen Chong said, "...No. I'm practicing."

After some time passed, Chen Chong decided to move somewhere else.

Practicing Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests every day was indeed a little strange. Howling "awoo" back and forth in the apothecary's rear courtyard meant there were ears beyond the wall. Sooner or later, people would take him for a madman. With a separate courtyard, he could let himself go more freely.

He found a small courtyard in the eastern part of the city.

The landlord was an old widow whose son traveled elsewhere as a merchant. Half the courtyard stood empty. Chen Chong inspected the house: three main rooms and a side room, a well in the yard, and a crooked jujube tree growing by the wall. The monthly rent was one mace of silver. He paid for three months and moved in.

The small courtyard was not large, but it was quiet. When he practiced morning and evening and howled a few times, only the sparrows in the jujube tree fluttered away.

With the double boost of Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests and Tiger Bone Pills, Chen Chong's realm experience rose rapidly.

The progress bar for the Skin Tempering Realm climbed all the way from "5/1000" to "467/1000." At this pace, in another month or so, he would be able to touch the threshold of the Nourishing Flesh Realm.

But every day on his way home, Chen Chong felt that something was off about the streets.

There were more refugees.

There had once been only three to five beggars at the eastern street crossing. Now, a whole crowd squatted there.

Their clothes barely covered their bodies, their faces were sallow and thin. Adults held children, while the elderly leaned against the walls. Some sold their sons and daughters, grass markers stuck beside them as they sat expressionlessly by the roadside.

Chen Chong did not know what had happened. He had kept both ears shut to the affairs beyond his window, devoting himself heart and soul to refining pills and practicing martial arts, but refugees would not appear out of thin air.

That day, Chen Chong went to the street to buy tea. He knew nothing about tea, but Chen Huaixu had a taste for it.

Chen Huaixu had taken good care of matters in the alchemy house. Chen Chong wanted to pay him a visit, and he could not very well go empty-handed.

He asked the clerk at a tea shop, who said Songluo was the best, produced in Huizhou, and cost three mace of silver per tael. Chen Chong bought one tael, wrapped it in oil paper, tucked it into his robes, and headed for Chen Huaixu's residence.

Chen Huaixu lived in the western part of the city, in a two-courtyard residence. Its frontage was not large, but once inside, there was a whole new world.

When Chen Chong was led in by a maid, Chen Huaixu was reclining sideways on a couch. One maid kneaded his legs while another fanned him beside him.

Both maids were sixteen or seventeen, with graceful figures and pretty faces. One wore green, the other red.

"You're here?" Chen Huaixu lifted his eyelids slightly. "Sit."

Chen Chong presented the tea. Chen Huaixu took it and sniffed it, a smile appearing on his face. "Songluo? You're quite willing to spend, boy."

The maids brought over tea and pastries. Chen Chong drank tea with Chen Huaixu and chatted about pills for a while before saying, "Elder Chen, this disciple wishes to learn some other pill formulas. I've already mastered Tiger Bone Pills, and I want to try refining something else."

Chen Huaixu glanced at him, took out a thin booklet from the low cabinet beside the couch, and tossed it over.

"The basic pill formulas are all in there. Essence-Nourishing Pills, Qi-Congealing Powder, Blood-Invigorating Paste. They're all entry-level. Read them yourself. If there's something you don't understand, come ask me."

Chen Chong accepted the booklet and gave it a rough look. There were more than a dozen pill formulas inside, listing the medicinal ingredients, quantities, and heat control. He put the booklet away and continued talking with Chen Huaixu for a while.

The green-clad maid danced in the hall, her slender waist swaying gently as her long sleeves flew.

The red-clad maid knelt beside Chen Huaixu, refilling his tea and pounding his back. Chen Huaixu half-closed his eyes, looking thoroughly at ease.

As evening drew near, Chen Chong rose to take his leave. Chen Huaixu had a maid bring him a box of pastries. "Bought them on the street. They taste decent enough. Take them home and eat them."

Chen Chong declined once, then accepted.

By the time he left the Chen residence, dusk had already spread across the city, and the shops along the street were closing their shutters one after another. As he walked back through the alley, he paused when he passed a street corner.

A woman was curled up beneath the wall.

She looked to be in her twenties, so thin her cheekbones jutted out. Only a few scraps of coarse, tattered cloth were wrapped around her body, barely covering anything.

She held a child in her arms, perhaps three or four years old, eyes closed. Chen Chong could not tell whether the child was asleep or had fainted from hunger.

The woman had wrapped every scrap of cloth she could spare around the child. More than half her own body was exposed, and her knees and elbows were covered in bluish-purple frostbite.

No passersby stopped. They all walked around her.

Chen Chong stood there for a moment.

He said nothing more. He walked over, placed the box of pastries by the woman's feet, and turned away.

The woman raised her head. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Chen Chong returned to the small courtyard and shut the gate. The sparrows in the jujube tree had already returned to their nests, and the courtyard was so quiet that only the wind rustling the leaves could be heard. He sat on the rim of the well and looked at the panel.

[Alchemy (Mastery 23/10000)]

[Technique: Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests (Proficient 156/1000)]

[Technique: Five Tigers Severing the Mountain Blade (Proficient 12/1000)]

[Realm: Skin Tempering (467/1000)]

The numbers were rising. The days were passing.

Chen Chong withdrew his gaze, rose to his feet, and assumed a stance in the courtyard.

"Awoo—"

Tiger Roars Through the Mountains and Forests. Practice first. Everything else could wait.