Lu Ming froze, then recalled what had happened at the Half-Pill Shop some time ago. But back then, he had relied entirely on the Fire Lotus Mark to identify the pills hidden inside those mud pellets. It actually had little to do with his own abilities.
So he shook his head. "I don't know."
Naturally, he couldn't reveal anything about the Fire Lotus Mark.
"It's normal that you don't know. After all, identifying and sensing Pill Qi is something only some high-grade pill masters can do. But some exceptionally gifted people possess this ability before they ever come into contact with the Dao of Alchemy, and such a talent is quite suited to studying it," Zhou Xuan said.
"Oh..."
Lu Ming only half understood. He knew about pill masters: they enjoyed considerable status. The graded pill masters in all of Qingyuan Market could be counted on one hand, and every one of them was an honored guest of the major factions. But their Thunderfire Hall had no way to get in touch with them. The cost of learning the craft was too great; how could their Thunderfire Hall afford to support one?
"Want to see if you have that talent?" Zhou Xuan asked with a smile.
Lu Ming blinked. "It doesn't cost anything to try, does it?"
Zhou Fuling chuckled beside them. Zhou Xuan also smiled and shook his head, then said to her, "Go fetch the Pill Qi Disc."
Zhou Fuling knew that Zhou Xuan wanted to test Lu Ming. Her eyes turned, and she went into the house and brought out a triangular disc containing dozens of golden pellets.
When Zhou Xuan saw the golden pellets in the triangular disc, he froze for a moment. "I told you to bring an easier one."
The golden pellets were specially made, with pills wrapped deep inside, making their scent and Qi difficult to detect. It was somewhat similar to the methods used at the Half-Pill Shop, but more difficult.
Zhou Fuling smiled. "He's a genius, isn't he? If we don't make it a little harder, how can we test the depths of his ability?"
Zhou Xuan rolled his eyes at the girl but said nothing. He placed the Pill Qi Disc in front of Lu Ming and spoke casually.
"Give it a try. See if you can sense the Pill Qi and pick out the golden pellets that contain pills."
Lu Ming looked at the golden pellets on the disc before him, his heart drumming a little.
He didn't know whether the Fire Lotus Mark would work, but things had come to this, so he could only steel himself and give it a try.
With a mind to try, Lu Ming reached out under the watchful eyes of Zhou Xuan and Zhou Fuling. He picked up the golden pellets one by one, pretending to ponder them while keeping his senses fixed on the Fire Lotus Mark on his Divine Ability Bone.
For several golden pellets in a row, the Fire Lotus Mark showed no reaction at all.
That made Lu Ming a little uneasy. Could the golden pellets be shielding the pills so effectively that even the Fire Lotus Mark couldn't do anything?
It looked like he couldn't keep up the act of having a talent for pill refining.
But when Lu Ming picked up the next golden pellet with some embarrassment, a faint stirring finally came from his Divine Ability Bone. A fiery light appeared on the Fire Lotus Mark, exactly as it had at the Half-Pill Shop.
Lu Ming breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed it did work after all!
His confidence soared. He set that golden pellet aside, then took each of the remaining pellets in his hand and sensed them. In the end, he picked out three more, making exactly four with the first one.
"You've picked them out?" Zhou Fuling leaned over curiously and took the four golden pellets. She then activated her own Dao of Alchemy divine ability, trying to sense the Pill Qi, but after working at it for quite a while, she could only vaguely make out a faint fluctuation of Pill Qi in one of the pellets.
She truly couldn't sense a thing from the other three.
Zhou Fuling felt a little embarrassed. "You didn't just pick four at random, did you?"
Zhou Xuan couldn't help laughing. "Your skills just aren't up to it. There really is Pill Qi in all four he picked."
Unwilling to accept it, Zhou Fuling crushed the shells of the golden pellets between her fingers. Sure enough, an intact pill was hidden inside each one. Somewhat chagrined, she muttered, "He does have a little talent for pill refining."
"Just luck," Lu Ming said. He was thick-skinned, but also very modest.
Although it wasn't his own ability, the Fire Lotus Mark was on his Divine Ability Bone. In a sense, they were one, so if he insisted on calling it his talent for pill refining, that would actually be acceptable too.
Zhou Xuan smiled and asked Lu Ming, "Are you interested in the Dao of Alchemy?"
Lu Ming answered honestly, "I can't afford to learn it."
The Dao of Alchemy was a bottomless pit. One could very well pour enormous resources into it and still struggle to get started. Even after getting started, one might remain stuck as a low-grade pill master, unable to obtain a worthwhile return. It could even drain one's time and effort, affecting the advancement of one's divine ability realm.
So although pill masters were highly sought after, without the guidance of a renowned teacher and a major investment, it was basically impossible to enter the field.
"I can teach you. I'm a master of the Dao of Alchemy. In terms of attainment in the Dao of Alchemy, there probably isn't a pill master in Qingyuan Market who surpasses me," Zhou Xuan said.
Lu Ming stared at Zhou Xuan in shock. Only a pill master capable of refining high-grade pills could be called a master of the Dao of Alchemy, and those so-called high-grade pills were the very pills Divine Ability Masters needed for cultivation.
Pills of that level were extraordinarily expensive. A single one often cost tens of thousands of Heavenly Gold Sand or even more. The entrance fees their Thunderfire Hall had collected this time might not even cover the price of half a high-grade pill.
And Lu Ming hadn't expected Zhou Xuan, standing right in front of him, to be a rare master of the Dao of Alchemy!
With such attainment in the Dao of Alchemy, he was indeed qualified to say that no pill master in Qingyuan Market surpassed him.
Precisely because a master of the Dao of Alchemy was so valuable, Lu Ming was all the more bewildered. Why was Zhou Xuan treating him so well?
After all, under normal circumstances, the fee to become the disciple of a master of the Dao of Alchemy and learn the art of pill refining would probably be enormous. On top of that, one would have to owe a substantial favor. To put it bluntly, a third-tier Divine Ability Hall like theirs wasn't even qualified to owe such a favor.
Yet now, Market Master Zhou Xuan was offering to teach him pill refining of his own accord. This was even rarer than a meat pie falling from the sky.
Was it simply because he could sense Pill Qi and had shown some decent talent for pill refining? But that shouldn't be enough. A man like Zhou Xuan had seen and heard much. Perhaps Lu Ming really was a promising seedling for pill refining, but Zhou Xuan was neither family nor friend to him and had no reason to help him along.
Then why?
Lu Ming suddenly looked at Zhou Fuling beside them. The girl had a graceful figure and was quite pretty, and a bold guess popped into his head.
Could it be... Does Zhou Xuan want me to marry into his family?!
Lu Ming looked troubled. That won't do, will it? I'm the Lu Clan's only grandson. The Lu Clan is counting on me to carry on the family line. If I go and marry into another family, won't Lu Jin break every one of my legs?
He sighed inwardly. If that was what Zhou Xuan had in mind, then he could only refuse, painful as it might be.
He was a fine man in his prime. He couldn't eat that kind of rice just to learn pill refining!
Besides, Lu Ming himself wasn't really all that interested in pill refining. He knew his supposed talent for sensing Pill Qi came from the Fire Lotus Mark, so he wanted to try it and see whether contact with the Dao of Alchemy would let him discover more of the Fire Lotus Mark's wondrous uses.
Beside them, Zhou Fuling noticed that Lu Ming's gaze had suddenly grown strange as he looked at her, leaving her utterly puzzled.
"Then... do I need to prepare a gift to become your disciple?" Lu Ming asked hesitantly.
Zhou Xuan waved his hand. "It's only some instruction. It won't go as far as taking you as a disciple, and there's no need for that. But I do have one condition. If you can meet it, I'll give you instruction in the Dao of Alchemy."
"What condition?" Lu Ming couldn't help glancing at Zhou Fuling again.
Zhou Fuling said irritably, "If you keep looking at me so strangely, watch out or I'll beat you up."
Zhou Xuan, meanwhile, took a piece of purple jade from his robes and handed it to Lu Ming.