Lu Ming didn't know what the three women were thinking, and even if he had, he wouldn't have paid it any mind. Given their backgrounds, they would probably have found it hard to understand his situation.
After taking Lu Ming's Heavenly Gold Sand, the old shopkeeper began cleaning away the yellow clay with a medicinal solution, extracting the pills one by one.
The first few were all in terrible condition, with only the faintest traces of medicinal potency remaining. They were practically ruined pills.
The onlookers shook their heads repeatedly. The youngster was still too young and didn't know how deep the waters were in places like this. He thought that because he had struck gold once, he could do it again...
The old shopkeeper grinned, exposing her yellow teeth. "Young man, all sales here are final. Whether you get anything or not has nothing to do with this old woman."
Lu Ming only smiled, keeping his eyes on her as she washed the pills.
"Huh?"
The old woman suddenly let out a cry of surprise. Once the special yellow clay had been washed from the mud ball in her hand, it revealed a pill in perfect condition. As soon as it emerged, it gave off a faint pill fragrance.
"Whoa, is that a High-Grade Bone Refining Pill?!" The onlookers immediately cried out in surprise. They could all see the extremely faint, fragmented golden patterns on the pill's surface.
Although the Bone-Tempering Pill was only half-finished, and its medicinal potency was far inferior to that of a true High-Grade Bone Refining Pill, it was worth who knew how many times the thirty grains of Heavenly Gold Sand he had spent.
Even Zhou Fuling, Li Shuang and Yan Zhizhi were taken aback, apparently not expecting Lu Ming's luck to be so good.
Before they could react further, however, the old shopkeeper swiftly washed the remaining mud balls clean. The expression on her swarthy old face became a sight to behold.
Of the five mud balls she had washed, four more turned out to contain pills in relatively good condition. Most importantly, one of them was a Dharma Pattern Pill.
Although it was only a Low-Grade Dharma Pattern Pill with incomplete medicinal potency, Dharma Pattern Pills were worth several times as much as Bone-Tempering Pills!
"Wow, how can his luck be that good?"
"This kid got five pills out of ten mud balls? And one of them was a half-finished Dharma Pattern Pill?!" The onlookers around the half-pill shop erupted, disbelief written all over their faces.
Everyone present was an old hand who had tried their luck at this half-pill shop before. When had they ever seen a success rate like this?
Judging by their value, the pills were probably worth more than a thousand grains of Heavenly Gold Sand altogether.
How had this kid done it? Was it really luck?
Several doubtful gazes turned toward Lu Ming, whose face was filled with wild joy, like a gambler who had hit the jackpot.
"Quick, give me the pills." Lu Ming put on a look of wild joy and hurriedly held out his hand, urging her on.
The old shopkeeper's face was full of anguish, and her lips trembled. But having spoken so confidently just now, she could only resentfully stuff the pills into Lu Ming's hand.
She had taken a terrible loss!
"Don't you ever come back here, kid!" the old woman cursed through gritted teeth.
Lu Ming didn't care. One lucky haul like this was enough, so he put away the pills and turned to leave.
But Zhou Fuling stepped forward to block him. Her lovely eyes fixed on him with surprise and suspicion, and her red lips parted. "How did you do it? Can you smell pill fragrances too?"
"What? I've never even refined a pill. How would I know anything about pill fragrances? I just got lucky." Lu Ming shook his head repeatedly.
Zhou Fuling's delicate brows knitted slightly. Could good luck let someone come away with such a haul from a place as murky as a half-pill shop? Did he really think it was a charity?
But Lu Ming had no desire to say more to her. He slipped past her into the crowd and disappeared.
Zhou Fuling hesitated, but didn't follow.
Yan Zhizhi, who was standing beside her, said, "A blind cat must have stumbled upon a dead mouse. Even you couldn't see through the yellow clay, Fuling. How could a country bumpkin from the Divine Ability Hall have the skill to do it?"
Although Li Shuang said nothing, she shared Yan Zhizhi's view. After all, how could Lu Ming possibly do something even Zhou Fuling couldn't?
Zhou Fuling's lovely eyes flickered. She was certain that Lu Ming's success hadn't been pure luck, but he probably hadn't used a "fragrance-smelling" method like hers either. He had used some other means.
But Lu Ming had never studied the pill-refining arts, nor could anyone have taught him to refine pills. So how had he managed to pick out those half-finished pills so precisely from among so many mud balls covered in yellow clay?
At that moment, Zhou Fuling suddenly recalled something Zhou Xuan had once told her while teaching her to refine pills.
Zhou Xuan had said that some people exceptionally gifted in pill refinement had a talent for sensing pill Qi.
Pill fragrance could be concealed with yellow clay, but pill Qi was more mysterious and difficult to discern or detect.
Could it be... that Lu Ming possessed such a talent for pill refinement?!
Zhou Fuling's gaze shifted as she looked toward where Lu Ming had disappeared into the crowd, a flicker of curiosity rising in her heart.
With that thought in mind, Zhou Fuling recalled Lu Ming's earlier behavior. She no longer saw it as the greed of a gambler; instead, it seemed to carry a hint of the composure of a wise man casting his line, everything under his control.
If Lu Ming had known how her attitude had changed, he could probably only have sighed inwardly: when it came to a girl's thoughts, you really shouldn't try to guess.
One moment she was putting you down, and the next she was finding a glow of brilliance in you all on her own.
After leaving the half-pill shop, Lu Ming waited at the agreed place until Lu Qingyan arrived.
"Have you spent all the money I gave you? Use it sparingly."
"The materials for setting up the Divine Ability Restriction really are expensive, but we have to buy them. The herb garden is outside the city, close to the 'Black Rain Zone.' If we don't protect it and it gets destroyed, our Thunderfire Hall will be left drinking the northwest wind."
When Lu Qingyan saw Lu Ming, he sighed and said this, hoping to make the boy understand the family's circumstances.
Lu Ming merely smiled and handed him a cloth bag.
"What's this?" Lu Qingyan took it in puzzlement and opened it. Inside, he saw five perfectly round pills lying quietly in the bag.
"Five pills? Four Bone-Tempering Pills and one Dharma Pattern Pill? They're all half-finished, but where did you get so many half-finished pills?" Lu Qingyan was astonished. He had given Lu Ming three hundred grains of Heavenly Gold Sand earlier, which was obviously nowhere near enough to buy these pills.
"I bought them at a half-pill shop," Lu Ming said.
"A half-pill shop? Impossible!" Lu Qingyan had naturally heard of such shops, but as far as he knew, they were all bottomless pits. If anyone managed to buy even one pill in a day, they could thank their lucky stars. When had he ever seen a success rate like this?
Lu Ming shrugged, leaving him to believe it or not.
"Really? How did you do it?" Seeing his reaction, Lu Qingyan mostly believed him. After all, there was no point in Lu Ming lying to him.
"Of course it was thanks to my abilities. You know," Lu Ming said with a smile.
Lu Qingyan recalled the fortuitous opportunity inside Lu Ming's body and understanding dawned on him. He shook his head with a chuckle, put the pills away and said, "I'll go deal with these. They should fetch around a thousand-odd grains of Heavenly Gold Sand. Not bad, that's quite a windfall. I can get you two High-Grade Bone Refining Pills."
"But don't rely on these unorthodox methods too much in the future. The waters in those places are deep. You've been there once, and if you go back again, you'll be making trouble for them. If you run into someone with ill intentions, you're bound to be in danger. You're the Divine Ability Child of our Lu Clan. You can't take risks in a place like that." As his father, he still gave his son a few words of warning.
Lu Ming nodded obediently. He hadn't intended to profit from it anyway; he had merely picked up a little something while he was there to ease the pressure on the family.
"Dad, trade them for a Dharma Pattern Pill instead. You need one for your cultivation now too," he suggested. The family's resources were all being poured into him these days, and Lu Qingyan hadn't used a Dharma Pattern Pill to cultivate in a long time.
Lu Qingyan waved a hand, telling him not to worry about it, and turned to find Steward Xu. Before long, he returned with two High-Grade Bone Refining Pills.
"Keep them safe."
He handed the pills to Lu Ming, then waved and headed out of the merchant association. "Come on, let's go back to the hall."
Lu Ming had no choice but to put them away, then hurried after him.