"Not bad!"
Master Mo took it, opened the box, and glanced inside before giving his verdict. "Now our Zichuan Pill Shop has another Pill Master!"
With that, he also confirmed Lin Changheng's status as a Pill Master.
A smile appeared on Lin Changheng's face as well.
"Unruffled by honor or disgrace. Very good. Keep it up."
Master Mo was generous with his praise, then said, "In six months, we'll return to the Xu Family, so you can refine pills and advance your cultivation."
"Six months? The Great Reclamation should be getting underway by then, shouldn't it?"
"Indeed." Master Mo thought for a moment, then revealed another piece of news. "Originally, we could have returned in three months, but Zichuan Market is going to be abandoned. The clan decided we should withdraw together, to save us running back and forth."
This news gave Lin Changheng a sudden shock.
Zichuan Market had flourished for decades. Five years ago, it had shown signs of decline and begun to wither, prompting the Xu Family to withdraw one Pill Master. Now they were actually abandoning it altogether?
And this "abandonment" surely meant not just one family pulling out, but many factions abandoning it together!
Before he could ponder it further, Master Mo continued, "Your status is different now. There's no harm in telling you these secrets, and you can prepare ahead of time."
With that, Master Mo turned to leave. Before going, he remembered to return the wooden box to Lin Changheng, believing it held special significance for him.
Lin Changheng accepted it with a smile. All he knew was that this was worth two low-grade spirit stones!
Still, the impending changes in the market filled him with apprehension, and he resolved never to leave its bounds.
The news soon spread throughout the Xu Family's pill shop, then began trickling out into the market.
Within three days, everyone in Zichuan Market knew that the Xu Family's pill shop had gained another ranked Pill Master, one who had risen from an apprentice.
Lin Changheng finally received a reply from the Xu Family's clan leadership as well.
Just as Master Mo had recommended, Lin Changheng would retain his previous apprentice benefits, but his old duties were abolished.
The clan also sent over two apprentices with some grounding in the craft to help out.
Next came the main point:
The division of the pills he refined.
Each month, Lin Changheng had to refine ten batches of [Crimson Flame Pills], with five pills per batch. The shop would provide the ingredients, and he had to turn in a quota calculated at a fifty-percent pill success rate.
Everything left over, however much there was, would belong to Lin Changheng.
He could sell it to the shop at market price or use it for his own cultivation.
For the first month starting now, a lower success rate would be accepted to let him practice.
"What do you think?"
Master Mo lifted his teacup and took a sip as he asked for Lin Changheng's opinion.
"I accept the clan's arrangements."
Lin Changheng quickly did the calculations. At his current pill-refining level, producing five pills in one batch was right at the limit of his abilities.
Ten batches of [Crimson Flame Pills] per month meant fifty pills.
With his understanding of the pill Dao and his Fire Control ability, a hundred-percent success rate would be no problem as long as he proceeded carefully and nothing unexpected happened.
After handing over fifty percent, Lin Changheng would still net twenty-five [Crimson Flame Pills].
The market price for one [Crimson Flame Pill] was two spirit stones, which meant fifty spirit stones.
Adding his monthly apprentice stipend of three spirit stones, he would pocket fifty-three spirit stones!
Converted into money, one month's earnings would equal his entire income over the past year and a half.
No wonder people called pill refinement a mountain of gold, and Pill Masters the people who mined it. Their efficiency at earning spirit stones was simply astonishing!
But he would not reveal the full extent of his abilities.
After all, a hundred-percent success rate was far too shocking. It might even stir ulterior motives and prying eyes within the clan and outside it, which would be bad news.
People being abducted and imprisoned as pill slaves was hardly uncommon.
A few years ago, a genius Talisman Master from Zichuan Market had mysteriously disappeared outside the market, vanishing from the face of the earth. No one had seen him since!
Lin Changheng could bear the name of Pill Master, but the title of "genius Pill Master," with its promise of being raised high only to be slaughtered? No, thank you!
Besides, he already had a plan. Publicly, he would keep his pill success rate at around sixty percent, selling that extra ten percent to the shop in exchange for spirit stones.
The remaining forty percent would have to stay hidden.
He would keep some for his own use to accelerate his cultivation, then find opportunities to sell the rest.
"Excellent."
Seeing that Lin Changheng's sudden change in status had not drastically altered his attitude, Master Mo nodded. "Then that's how we'll proceed."
Next,
He summoned two young people, a man and a woman, both unfamiliar faces.
The man was named Xu Liucai, and the woman Xu Liuli.
They were none other than the two pill-refining apprentices newly sent by the Xu Family.
"Why don't you choose one?"
Master Mo spoke with a cheerful smile, letting Lin Changheng pick first.
"I'll take him."
Without much thought, Lin Changheng passed over the female apprentice, who had the air of a modest young lady and was watching him with wide eyes, and pointed to the honest, kindly-looking male apprentice.
"All right."
Likewise paying no attention to the two apprentices' expressions, Master Mo smiled casually.
A month soon passed.
After completing the Pill-Combining Hand Seal, Lin Changheng emerged from the other pill-refining room that had been reopened. Xu Liucai, who was keeping watch outside, saw the door open from within and hurriedly rose to bow. "Master Lin."
"Go on in. Keep a close eye on the furnace fire."
After giving that instruction with a smile, Lin Changheng entered a small room newly cleared out on the shop's first floor.
Master Mo had originally intended to partition off half his cultivation room on the second floor for Lin Changheng to rest and cultivate in, but Lin Changheng had firmly refused.
He had strongly objected on the grounds that a disciple should not share a hall with his master.
Thus, a separate room had been set aside on the first floor.
Master Mo appeared indifferent and even criticized Lin Changheng for being overly pedantic, but inwardly he felt immensely pleased, convinced that he had not spent these years teaching the wrong person.
So when Lin Changheng suggested that the new apprentices might not handle the failed pills properly, and that since they would not be staying in Zichuan Market much longer, he might as well take care of them himself, Master Mo readily agreed.
He guessed that Lin Changheng merely wanted to use the failed pills to conceal his true success rate a little. What else could he do with them?
Besides, anything beyond the fifty-percent quota was his to handle as he pleased.
So Master Mo stopped overseeing the matter and entrusted the handling of all the failed pills to Lin Changheng.
He even gave him the failed and inferior [Wood Origin Pills] as well.
"Huh?"
Looking at the stack of long wooden boxes that appeared out of thin air before him, Lin Changheng froze.
The unexpected windfall nearly blasted straight through his heart. His face twitched as he struggled to contain himself, so he hid his reaction behind a stunned expression. Master Mo, however, chuckled and said somewhat sheepishly, "Then, Changheng, could you handle the [Wood Origin Pills] as well?"
Something seemed off...
Was he feeling embarrassed?
Did Master Mo think my surprise came from displeasure at being saddled with extra work?
Good heavens, how could that possibly be?!
"I'm willing to lighten your burdens, Master Mo!"
Outwardly, however, he tightened his expression, looking ready to charge up a mountain of blades or down into a sea of fire, and immediately agreed.
He was terrified that Master Mo might reconsider and take the offer back.
"Good, good, good! This old man truly wasn't wrong about you!"
Master Mo's smiling face blossomed like a daisy. His hearty laughter carried through the floorboards and could be heard clearly downstairs, leaving the shop assistants and manager working there exchanging bewildered looks, with no idea why Guest Official Mo was so delighted...