Chapter 618: The Unordinary Pill Emperor
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Zhuo Pingan didn't utter any nonsense. He did not hesitate as he retrieved a storage ring and handed it to Mo Wuji, "Pill Master Mo, inside contains the immortal ingredients for a batch of Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill, as well as the pill formula. I will wait here as you concoct the pill."
Mo Wuji could feel that when Zhuo Pingan handed him the ring, Zhuo Pingan also sealed the array in the room that they were in. However, he wasn't afraid. At the very most, he and Da Huang would bring Zhuo Pingan down with them. There's nothing much to be afraid of.
The storage ring was not sealed. The moment Mo Wuji sent his spiritual will in, he saw more than a hundred strands of immortal herbs; most of them were Tier 7 immortal herbs. A pill which required 100 over herbs was already considered a relatively difficult pill.
The immortal herbs were maintained relatively well. From the looks of it, as Zhuo Pingan searched around for pill refiners, he must have picked up some skills on preserving immortal herbs.
Mo Wuji took all the herbs out from the ring and piled them by the side. Thereafter, be retrieved the jade letter from within the ring. As his spiritual will penetrated into the jade letter, he soon found the pill formula within. The pill formula was extremely detailed, and it even included some observations that some other Pill Emperors made during the pill concoction process.
This pill formula could simply be considered a perfect pill formula. But when Mo Wuji saw that the pill formula didn't mention anything about the Heavenly Desolate Grass and the Heavenly Nature Grass, he knew that it was still lacking.
The herbs that Zhuo Pingan gave him were strictly according to the pill formula; not a single one was missing.
Mo Wuji placed the pill formula down, but he didn't immediately start on the concoction. He was closing his eyes and rehearsing the process in his mind. After all, Zhuo Pingan only gave him enough herbs for one batch of pills. Even though he was a Honored Grade Tier 7 Pill Emperor, he would still need to prepare himself before trying a new pill.
Zhuo Pingan was not anxious as he waited silently by the side. In fact, Mo Wuji's actions caused his heart to be more at ease. He had met several Pill Emperors who simply start and follow according to the pill formula, but ultimately most of them would meet with failure. Even if they succeeded, they would only get two runes out of the Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill. To him, a Two Runes Glimpsing Pill was insufficient. To this kind of people that were so irresponsible with his immortal herbs, even though they were Tier 7 Pill Emperor, he would still cut them down.
Don't simply look at the fact that he's a Grand Emperor. It wasn't easy for him to obtain the Heavenly Desolate Grass. After all, he didn't only need one to two strands of it. Moreover, in the recent years, he discovered that the Heavenly Desolate Grass was increasingly hard to find. This sort of immortal herb was completely unable to be farmed, so one used Heavenly Desolate Grass was one less grass.
Only Pill Emperors that didn't rush to concoct the pill, but took the time to analyse and rehearse the pill formula, were more reliable. The longer time they spent rehearsing, the higher the success rate in concocting the pill, and more runes would also be formed. Most Pill Emperors take half a year to a year to analyse the formula; only a rare few were able to do it within half a year.
What left Zhuo Pingan disappointed was that Mo Wuji had only spent a day analysing before starting on the pill. To be honest, a day's analysis was akin to not doing it at all. However, since he had already formed an agreement with Mo Wuji, he couldn't renege on it.
After Mo Wuji brought his pill furnace out, he ignited his Scholar’s Heart.
Scholar's Heart was a Grade 7 immortal flame; the moment the flame appeared, Zhuo Pingan's eyes went bright. There was no need to talk about Zhuo Pingan, even Han Long's heart started pounding. They never expected that Mo Wuji would have such good stuff.
The reason why Mo Wuji didn't conceal anything was because he wanted Zhuo Pingan to be assured with his Pill Dao. That way, when Zhuo Pingan was protecting him, he would do so with greater effort. At the same time, Mo Wuji also knew that now that he had Da Huang, he no longer needed to be a person who curls his tails and hides his powers. Except for items like the Book of Luo and and Breath of Hongmeng, it wouldn't be of much impact for him to reveal his capabilities.
After cleaning the pill furnace multiple times, he threw the immortal herbs in.
Zhuo Pingan had seen many Pill Emperors concocting the Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill. By now, he was also quite familiar with the Pill formula. To concoct this pill, the first step was to purify the Heavenly Desolate Grass; the main reason why the Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill was so hard to concoct was exactly because of the Heavenly Desolate Grass. Thus, it was important that the Heavenly Desolate Grass be the first to be purified. If the others were purified first before the Heavenly Desolate Grass, it might waste the previous efforts if the Heavenly Desolate Grass wasn't purified properly; the essences would end up with too much impurities and the concoction would fail. In reality, it was also according to the pill formula to place the Heavenly Desolate Grass in first.
Today was the first day he saw a pill refiner first place a herb other than the Heavenly Desolate Grass into the pill furnace. Instead of the Heaven Desolate Grass, he added the Rainbow Mulberry Stalk.
When he saw that the first herb that Mo Wuji placed in the furnace was the Rainbow Mulberry Stalk, Zhuo Pingan's face turned dark. He started to suspect that Mo Wuji was merely boasting previously. After all, Mo Wuji was truly too young. One must know that whether it was the Pill Dao or the Smithing Dao, they were the culmination of countless ages of experience. Mo Wuji was not even a thousand years old, was he really a Tier 7 Pill Emperor?
As he played around this that thought, Mo Wuji had already threw the rest of the immortal herbs into the pill furnace. At this instant, the medicinal dregs were already being disposed out of the pill furnace; one could clearly see how fast Mo Wuji’s purification was. In Zhuo Pingan’s memories, other Pill Emperors would take at least 2 hours to purify the Heavenly Desolate Grass before placing the other herbs into the pill furnace. Then, they would take another two to four hours before discarding the medicinal dregs. Their speeds weren’t as exaggerated as Mo Wuji’s.
He did not know that Mo Wuji could be said to be the number one herb purifier in the entire Immortal World. To Mo Wuji, the reason why he placed the Rainbow Mulberry Stalk in first wasn’t because he wanted to be unconventional. He was clearer than any other pill refiner about the difficulty of purifying the Heavenly Desolate Grass. The reason why the Heavenly Desolate Grass was called so, was because of how the impurities intertwined with the medicinal essence. They were so strongly intertwined that they gave the impression of lasting together till the end of time. [1] The Heavenly Desolate Grass was completely unable to purify.
Since it could not even be purified, then what more about pill concoction? Thus, in an average pill refiner’s eyes, the Heavenly Desolate Grass could not be used for pills. Only Tier 7 Pill Emperors and above could grudgingly use the Heavenly Desolate Grass in pills. But whether or not they were deceiving others and themselves, only the Pill Emperors themselves know.
Previously, Mo Wuji had tried purifying the Heavenly Desolate Grass before, so he know exactly how hard it was to purify. However, Mo Wuji was only a Tier 4 Pill King back then. Now, he was a Tier 7 Pill Emperor and his cultivation was vastly higher than what it was back then. Thus, Mo Wuji believed that he should at least be able to purify the Heavenly Desolate Grass to 90%.
The reason why he placed the Rainbow Mulberry Stalk first was because the Rainbow Mulberry Stalk essence required simmering; it would not lose its spirituality because of a longer time. During the entire pill concocftion process, this step would only have a minor effect. However, to concoct the perfect Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill, Mo Wuji even factored this detail in.
Four hours passed and Mo Wuji was done with his purification. It was just as he expected, now that his Pill Dao had improved and his cultivation had increased, refining the Heavenly Desolate Grass had become much simpler. The reason why he stopped was because he felt that he should have already purified the Heavenly Desolate Grass to 90%. If he were to continue purifying, he might reach 99%. When that happens, it would become a true Heavenly Nature Grass.
However, Mo Wuji was not sure whether he could actually achieve that. Regardless of whether he could do it or not, he was not going to try it out now. Now, he did not intend to truly concoct a Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill, so he did not need to purify the Heavenly Desolate Grass to become a true Heavenly Nature Grass.
Zhuo Pingan looked at Mo Wuji’s complex hand seals as he continuously removed the medicinal dregs; in Zhuo Pingan’s heart, he started to suspect whether the previous Pill Emperors were quacks, and only this Pill Master Mo was a true Pill Emperor?
In reality, the difficulty of the Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill wasn’t in the concoction itself; its first difficulty was purifying the Heavenly Desolate Grass, and its second difficulty was injecting vitality into the pill.
However, these two didn’t pose any problems to Mo Wuji; a portion of his vitality from his vitality channel had already soundlessly entered into the pill furnace.
No matter what, Mo Wuji wasn’t going to use his own body’s vitality for Zhuo Pingan’s pill.
With the vitality entering the pill furnace, as well as the high purity of the immortal herbs, the pill concoction process became very simple.
In another four hours, Mo Wuji waved his hand and six faint green Seven Runes Glimpsing Pills were sent into the jade plate that Mo Wuji prepared.
The six pills each had five faint, grey runes, and they were brimming with vitality.
"You really succeeded? And its unique grade Five Runes Glimpsing Pills?" Zhuo Pingan stood up agitatedly as he stared at the jade plate in Mo Wuji’s hands.
If it was some other pill refiner, he would have already grabbed a pill and tried it. However, he slightly apprehensive towards Mo Wuji; Mo Wuji completely had no fear for a Grand Emperor like him, and Mo Wuji was someone with true capabilities.
"Dao Friend Zhuo, you’re wrong again. These pills look like they’re unique grade, but they could barely even be called top grade. In fact, they should only be in the intermediate grade," Mo Wuji explained.
Even though he had only concocted one batch of the Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill, his understanding towards the pill was far more than Zhuo Pingan. If he wasn’t even able to create a Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill with seven runes, how could it be unique grade? His Five Runes Glimpsing Pill should only be considered interemediate grade, and he was sure that those Four Runes Glimpsing Pills that Zhuo Pingan used previously were basically all low grade pills.
"Pill Master Mo, can I try those pills?" Zhuo Pingan fidgeted with his hands, a hint of desire appeared in his eyes. The previously arrogant and threatening Grand Emperor had long disappeared.
Mo Wuji passed all six Glimpsing Pills over, "I concocted these pills for you. Try one."
Zhuo Pingan eagerly grabbed one Five Runes Glimpsing Pill and threw it into his mouth. In merely a few breaths time, an expression of disbelief appeared within his eyes.
Immediately, his pale white skin seemed to have some additional red colour. Even Han Long could feel Zhuo Pingan’s life force increasing. Moreover, there seemed to be something within Zhuo Pingan stabilising his life force.
"Great pill. Pill Emperor Mo, previously I was blind. I almost missed out an opportunity with Pill Emperor Mo. I hope that Pill Emperor Mo would forgive me." It was not unexpected for a Grand Emperor to have this bit of open-mindedness. Moreover, Zhuo Pingan was truly contented at this moment; he had finally met a pill refiner that could help him concoct pills. He could finally see some hope of him recovering his health.
Mo Wuji nodded his head. After waiting Zhuo Pingan to calm down from his excitement, Mo Wuji acted exhausted as he said, "Dao Friend Zhuo, concocting this Seven Runes Glimpsing Pill has a severe impact on my longevity. I feel a bit fatigued right now. It will take a long time before I can concoct the next batch of pills."
[1] Until the end of time here is actually an idiom that contains the Chinese characters for Heavenly and Desolate. In literal terms, the idiom is talking about staying together till the heavens turn barren.