Chapter 70: In the Dark
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor:
Pharmacy 19 was located pretty far away from Mo Wuji's residence. He spent three minutes trying to get to the entrance of Pharmacy 19 even though he sprinted all the way here.
Each of the pharmacies had an accompanying pill lab and therefore, Pharmacy 19's corresponding pill lab was Pill Lab 19. Mo Wuji also found out why Pharmacy 19 had the least number of pill refiners who came here to refine pills.
The answer he got was that the success rate of refining a pill was very low in this particular pharmacy. It did not matter who came here to refine pills, the rate of failure was just way higher than any other pharmacy and the difference was not simply a matter of a few percentage points. As more people heard about this, they stopped trying to refine pills at Pharmacy 19.
It appeared that Wu Kai's arrangement for Mo Wuji to work there helped him to focus and Mo Wuji would always be grateful for this. Concurrently, this arrangement was limiting Mo Wuji's potential development in the future. After all, Mo Wuji's intention to learn more about pills was made known to Wu Kai from the very beginning.
How could I learn if no one will be here to refine pills?
The truth was that it was Wu Kai’s wish that Mo Wuji would not learn more about pharmacology. Logically speaking, Mo Wuji could spend 100 years learning and still not be able to achieve anything. However, Wu Kai did not want to rule out the possibility that Mo Wuji could indeed be a talented pill refiner and end up being accepted by a pill master as a disciple.
Wu Kai could not imagine himself bowing and paying respects to Mo Wuji if he were to really become a pill master's disciple.
"Don't you know the rules? Why are you so late?"
Mo Wuji barely stepped into the pharmacy when he heard an enraged voice from within.
Mo Wuji took two steps back as his eardrums were nearly about to burst. This was when he had a clear look at the man who shouted at him. It was an old man with a messy beard and equally messy hair. Furthermore, he had traces of drug stains on his body.
Mo Wuji did not dare to stare as he hurried to bow, "I had to change before meeting a pill master like you. This was why I was late."
In fact, Mo Wuji did not even sleep. Mo Wuji was worried that he would be at the receiving end of a lashing if his excuse of being late was that his residence was too far away.
The old man's tone and attitude towards Mo Wuji changed after listening to Mo Wuji's explanation. Moreover, when he summoned for Mo Wuji, there was barely any light in the sky.
"Take my slip to purchase some ingredients from the spiritual herbs warehouse. Do it quickly because you can forget about working here if you waste just a single second," The old man then handed Mo Wuji a jade slip as well as a beast-skinned paper before turning and heading back into the pharmacy.
Mo Wuji was afraid to offend him, and hence, he sprinted towards the spiritual herbs warehouse.
The Formless Blade Sect's spiritual herbs warehouse was located inside the Hall of Affairs in which Mo Wuji had previously inquired about. The Hall of Affairs was where disciples came to collect resources for cultivation, missions and quests as well as to claim their contribution points. Furthermore, one could purchase anything and everything here as long as he had contribution points. In short, this is the most eventful place in the entire Formless Blade Sect.
Mo Wuji was only a service disciple who was unable to collect contribution points. He had to serve for at least a year to be able to qualify for the collection of contribution points.
Mo Wuji took a glance at the beast-skinned paper before guessing that it might be a pill formula.
There were over ten herbs written on the paper in which Mo Wuji knew of. These included Iron Spot Flower, Grey Hemp, Green Fire Fruit etc. Based on the characteristics of the herbs, Mo Wuji's guess was that it was a formula for quenching. It could very likely be for quenching spiritual channels.
Mo Wuji could sense there was something wrong with this formula even though he had never seen it before. It was not because his drug refining ability was way above the old man but because of his knowledge of the characteristics of these herbs as well as his recent research on the pill manual. He strongly believed that the mixing of the Iron Spot Flower together with the Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds will lead to the unstable medicinal effects of the Green Fire Fruit.
Mo Wuji believed that even the highest tier spiritual ingredients came from a plant. A spiritual ingredient will never be able to escape from its biological nature.
According to the manual's description of both the Iron Spot Flower and Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds, the mixture of these two herbs would result in the Green Fire Fruit losing its wood properties. Most of the pill refiners chose to use the Green Fire Fruit because of its wood properties therefore it would be pointless to use the Green Fire Fruit if it's wood properties were affected.
This was of course true unless a very strong pill refiner is capable of controlling all three herbs. However, Mo Wuji did not believe that old man was that capable of a pill refiner.
Mo Wuji had no idea how important or crucial the Green Fire Fruit was to the success of this pill.
Who knew whether Pill Master Shi’s intent was indeed to reduce the wood properties of the Green Fire Fruit? Mo Wuji could not bother any more because he was only at the stage of understanding the characteristics of each spiritual ingredients. He had absolutely no knowledge of pill formulas.
...
There was already a lot of movement in the Hall of Affairs early in the morning. Mo Wuji rushed over to the spiritual herb warehouse and handed the jade slip as well as the beast-skinned paper over saying, "Pharmacy 19."
The one in charge of preparing the spiritual ingredients laughed and actually managed to get what Mo Wuji needed very swiftly.
"Pharmacy 19 does seem to be very idle," the man in charge handed Mo Wuji the spiritual ingredients before adding this statement.
Mo Wuji could not sense his sarcasm as he laughed together with him before replying, "Indeed. This is the first time in half a month that I've been ordered to collect ingredients."
The one in charge suddenly whispered, "Brother, hurry get ready to change a place."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you have any idea what formula you are collecting the ingredients for? This formula is called the Channel Solidifying Pill in which Pill Master Shi recently acquired. I've heard that this could solidify the tenacity of the spiritual channels, ascending the potential of a cultivator. This belonged in the category of the Tier 3 spiritual pill. Pill Master Shi is only a Tier 2 pill refiner therefore this would be too difficult a task for him. Let me warn you, Pill Master Shi had already changed 7 pill labs and every time his refinement failed, he will change a lab along with the service disciple that was working with him..."
Mo Wuji heard this and became furious. How dare he do this to his service disciple when it was his own incapability to blame. If this was really to be true, he would be fraught with grim possibilities. If Mo Wuji were to be chased away by Pill Master Shi, he highly doubted that Wu Kai could help persuade Pill Master Shi to let Mo Wuji continue staying in the residence at the Blood Lotus Lake.
Mo Wuji had finally established himself, found a great place to cultivate and was awaiting more opportunities to learn even more about cultivation. He really did not want to leave now.
As he noticed Mo Wuji's dumbfounded look, the man comforted him and said, "Brother, I suggest you hurry and hand him the ingredients, then find Deacon Wu to think of a quick solution."
He believed that Deacon Wu must be the reason why Mo Wuji was placed at Pharmacy 19.
"Thank you senior apprentice brother. May I ask if you happen to have any Water Velvet Vine here?" Mo Wuji knew he had to ask for it himself. It seemed evident that it was not intentional to place both Iron Spot Flower and Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds instead it was Pill Master Shi's poor judgement.
The man nodded his head, "Yes, however, this was not in the list that Pill Master Shi wrote down. If you wish to buy this personally, you have to exchange it with your contribution points."
Mo Wuji said with a little embarrassment, "I only have gold coins as I am not yet qualified to collect contribution points. How about I offer you 1000 gold coins to help me exchange a stalk of the Water Velvet Vine?"
The man took out the Water Velvet Vine almost immediately, "Water Velvet Vines are very common. 100 gold coins will suffice."
"Thank you senior apprentice brother, my name is Mo Wuji," Mo Wuji replied gratefully as he appreciated the good nature of this man for not making use of this chance to earn more gold coins.
"My name is Fei Bingzhu. Hurry back because Pill Master Shi's temper isn't exactly very good," the man reminded Mo Wuji once again.
Mo Wuji bid farewell and hurried off. He wanted the Water Velvet Vine because he knew it was capable of keeping the wood properties of the Green Fire Fruit therefore increasing the success rate of the concortment of this drug.
According to the introduction of the manual, the combination of Iron Spot Flower and Ring Cloud Bamboo Buds could result in the release of a large amount of golden energy. A capable pill refiner would be able to use the golden energy to further increase the quality of the pill. However, a incapable drug refiner could lead to the misuse of the golden energy and hence ruin the wood properties of the Green Fire Fruit. The rich water energy of the Water Velvet Vine could help moisturise the wood energy hence reducing the consumption of the wood energy.
Mo Wuji did not dare to try controlling and utilising the golden energy as he was worried it might affect the effectiveness of the final product. However, now that he found out that the wood properties of the Green Fire Fruit are still needed, he had to add in the Water Velvet Vine. In other words, a third tier pill could be concocted by a second tier pill refiner if Water Velvet Vine was added. The only drawback would be that the quality of the pill may be reduced slightly.
Mo Wuji would not bring the Water Velvet Vine just like that. He would tinker the Water Velvet Vine into a concoction and then spread this concoction onto the epidermis of the Green Fire Fruit.
The success of this approach could rely on luck because if the fire was not well controlled, the water properties of the Water Velvet Vine could disappear, rendering it useless after all. Mo Wuji had to try his luck because the worst possible scenario would just be for him to leave.