Just as Nark was about to enter the warehouse, another thin old man walked towards him from afar. Before he even reached Nark, he yelled, “Nark, give me 20 Lilacs. I need them urgently.”
Nark stopped in his tracks, turned around to him with a bitter smile, and said, “Master Markelyle, Joan has already taken all the Lilacs. If you want them, I can only find five or six for you. Why don’t you wait for the caravan to arrive?”
For every force, pharmacists were indispensable, and the Darkness Shrine was no exception. Although Sendros was a very accomplished Master of pharmaceutics, he was still the leader of the Darkness Shrine, after all, and it would be impossible for him to spend all his time preparing potions. Moreover, Sendros might be interested in concocting potions, but it was not what he wanted. His real goal was still to one day enter the Sanctuary-realm and become a Sanctuary powerhouse who stood on the peak of Anril. Hence, he decided to leave it to a group of professional pharmacists to prepare the potions that they needed daily, and Markelyle was the head pharmacist of the Darkness Shrine.
Although Markelyle was only a level-17 Archmage, he had a high status in the Darkness Shrine because he was the chief pharmacist. Even Sendros and the several other high priests of the Darkness Council would be extremely polite to him whenever they saw him.
However, Markelyle had been rather upset in the past few days because he had dropped by the warehouse to collect the herbs he needed, only to be told that someone had taken them all in advance on several occasions. However, when he returned to question his subordinates, none of them admitted to taking herbs from the warehouse privately.
“Which rascal took away so many Lilacs? What do you need so many for? To cook up a dish!? Nark, did you secretly sell the herbs? If you don’t give me an explanation today, let’s find a place to reason things out!” Markelyle hollered as he dashed forward and stomped his feet to vent his dissatisfaction.
With a wry smile on his face, Nark pointed his finger at Joan, who was hiding in the corner.
“Master Markelyle, you can’t blame me for this, you’d better ask Joan,” he said to the infuriated Markelyle while casting Joan an apologetic glance. He did not want to receive a lashing from the old man.
Markelyle immediately stopped scolding Nark, and instead turned to glower at Joan menacingly as if he were going to devour him. He gritted his teeth, and said, “Your name is Joan, eh? Why don’t I remember seeing you in the Darkness Shrine? Have you eaten all those herbs!?”
“Uh, Master Markelyle, you’re mistaken. These herbs are not for me, but Master Felic. Besides, High Priest Sendros has instructed us to prioritize Master Felic’s needs, so please wait for a while,” Joan said while facing Markelyle’s intense gaze, trying to explain. He couldn’t help but retreat and take a few steps back, though.
“Felic? What Master Felic… Sounds familiar,” said Markelyle, who found Felic’s name familiar after carefully thinking about what Joan said just as he was about to continue reprimanding.
“Master Felic is the President of the Tower of Dusk, as well as a pharmaceutics Guru. High Priest Sendros admires him for his standards in pharmaceutics. This time, Master Felic seems to be preparing a potion for High Priest Sendros; hence, the high priest asked me to be his assistant, and I was told to place his needs before everything else,” Joan frantically explained again.
“Oh… What a joke. What kind of potion would require so many herbs? The herbs you have taken the past few days would be enough for me to prepare 100 Shadow of Darkness potions!” Markelyle barked after hearing Joan’s explanation and recalling who Lin Li was. However, his anger did not diminish. Instead, he walked towards Nark and snatched the list in his hand. After taking a look, he grew even more infuriated, and he admonished, “What kind of pharmaceutics Master is he? How can these herbs be used together? He even asked for such a large quantity. What does he want to do!?”
Joan did have some understanding of pharmaceutics, but he was not an actual pharmacist. To be exact, he was just at the beginner’s level, and could not tell based on observation what potion Lin Li was trying to concoct, much less since neither Lin Li nor Sendros mentioned what it was. Besides, Lin Li was merely conducting experiments in the past few days to verify some technical methods that he could use to prepare the Tribute of Darkness, and did not have any plans to prepare any complete potions.
Hence, when Joan heard Markelyle’s question, he remained silent and couldn’t answer him at all. All he could do was mutter, “This is Master Sendros’ instructions. Anyway, it must be very important…”
“He is simply abusing the trust given to him by High Priest Sendros! I don’t believe that he’d need so many herbs to prepare a potion. I bet he pocketed most of the herbs. These heathens indeed cannot be trusted!” Markelyle exclaimed, making a judgment that he believed to be the most reasonable based on his experience as a pharmaceutics Master.
“No, no, Master Felic is not such a person,” said Joan who, of course, knew that Lin Li was not such a person, because he had personally seen a large amount of herbs getting turned into waste. That seemed to be worse than pocketing the herbs, however.
“Hmph, I bet you have something to do with this matter too. Take me to see Felic and see how I expose his tricks in person!” Markelyle said as he grabbed Joan without hesitation.
In the quiet laboratory, Lin Li frowned slightly and took a seat at a random spot in front of the table, after which he began writing, and his pen made various noises on a piece of paper. Formulas were written all over sheets of paper which were then cast aside. Lin Li paused and the frown on his forehead eased up a little. Staring at the results of his calculations, a look of enlightenment formed on his face.
Throwing the pen on the table, Lin Li suddenly stood up and walked towards the deck where he began to get busy again. After Lin Li handled the precious herbs using various methods, he turned them into glistening refined liquids that contained massive power, and arranged them neatly on the test tube rack.
At this moment, the door of the laboratory suddenly opened, and Markelyle dragged Joan in from outside, only to see Lin Li getting busy in front of the deck. Joan struggled while explaining along the way in a bid to break free from Markelyle so that he could report to Sendros. However, when he was dragged into the laboratory, he finally knew that there was no way things could be salvaged, and thus fell silent.
Joan thought that the hot-tempered Joan would definitely barge into the laboratory and kick up a big fuss as soon as he entered. After all, he was cursing along the way, and didn’t stop for a moment. Clearly, he was infuriated. Hence, when he realized that he couldn’t stop Markelyle from breaking into the laboratory, Joan had no choice but to cover his ears and eyes, deciding to let things be.
However, Joan did not expect Markelyle to be quiet after opening the door of the laboratory and entering. Markelyle did not fly into a rage like Joan expected, and even his breathing seemed to have been deliberately slowed down. Joan moved his hands away from his eyes nervously and glanced at Markelyle cautiously, only to see that Markelyle, the pharmacist who was clamoring about wanting to expose the thief, gaping a little and staring at the figure in front of the deck with a peculiar light in his eyes.
In fact, it was not uncommon for pharmacists to take advantage of their employers who didn’t understand pharmacy by claiming to prepare some potions that the employers were clueless about, and then adding some herbs that they wanted for themselves to the formula. It should be regarded as an unspoken rule. When Markelyle was younger, he had also done such a thing, and was also aware that many of his colleagues were doing the same. Even when he was exposed, he would simply lie and claim that his actions were for the sake of keeping the potion’s formula confidential. However, this time, Markelyle truly couldn’t imagine how stupid one had to be to do something so brazen without hiding it.
However, when he really broke into the laboratory and saw Lin Li who was getting busy in front of the deck, Markelyle was immediately attracted. He temporarily put aside his intention to stir trouble and kept his eyes fixed on every movement of Lin Li’s. He couldn’t help but sigh and think to himself, This Felic is indeed rather capable, but unfortunately, he’s doing such shameful things.
Since Markelyle could become the chief pharmacist of the Darkness Shrine, he was naturally quite accomplished in pharmaceutics. Watching Lin Li’s fluid movements that were full of finesse, he was suddenly unwilling to step forth and interrupt him.
Of course, Lin Li knew that someone had entered. Conducting the experiments wouldn’t make him slip into a trance, but he simply didn’t bother to pay attention to Markelyle, because he thought that no one in the Darkness Shrine would make things hard for him. He didn’t pause in his movements at all.
“Stop… Stop, do you have a death wish!?”
Just as Lin Li was about to finish his final step and pour the liquid from a test tube into the flask, Markelyle, who had been engrossed in watching Lin Li’s fluid movements, suddenly sobered up and frantically summoned a magical shield at the same time that he hollered angrily.
Markelyle was not just a master of pharmaceutics in name. Although he could only see the liquid in the test tube, he could tell with his rich experience which herb the essence in the liquid was from just from the color and attributes of the liquid. Now, he was completely sure that Lin Li had added the juice of Fire Berries into the flash. It was not that the juice of Fire Berries could not be used, but rather that he had also seen Lin Li adding other extremely powerful herbs like Wisteria and Black Flame Flowers into the flask. Adding the juice of Fire Berries at this moment would be akin to adding fire to a barrel of gunpowder.
His movements were so fluid and full of finesse, and his techniques are superb. How can he make such a low-level theoretical mistake!? Markelyle thought to himself, finding it a pity. However, nothing he did would be of help at this moment. Once the small flask of potion exploded, its power would probably be close to Legendary-level. After giving the reminder, Markelyle had no choice but to prepare a magical shield and watch as the magma-like potion in the test tube was poured into the flask.
A soft sizzling sound followed.
The big explosion that Markelyle expected did not happen, and the originally colorful potion in the flask instantly turned into a clear orange liquid with the addition of the juice of Fire Berries. However, before Markelyle could relax a little, he saw Lin Li, who he felt was courting death, performing another horrible action. Lin Li actually picked up the flask and shook it in front of himself, after which he moved the flask towards his lips, raised his head, and chugged the potion. He even licked his lower lip with his tongue as if the potion was extremely delectable.
“Tastes like orange,” Lin Li remarked as he put the flask down and turned around to look at the duo at the entrance of the laboratory. He questioned, “Joan, where are the herbs I asked for? Why have you come back empty-handed?”
With a look of dismay, Joan hurriedly opened his mouth to explain.
“You want more herbs? What do you take pharmaceutics and potion-concoction for? Do you know what you have done just now? You…” Markelyle chided with his magical shield before Joan could even explain. Markelyle dashed towards Lin Li, and was about to teach the brazen young man a lesson.
“This is?” Lin Li asked, glancing at Joan in bewilderment.
“This is Master Markelyle, the chief pharmacist of the Darkness Shrine,” Joan introduced while standing beside Markelyle nervously for fear that the old man would do something to anger Lin Li.
“Kid, do you know how dangerous your actions were just now?” When Markelyle heard Joan’s introduction, he had no choice but to hold his temper back a little, straighten his back to puff up his thin chest, and speak with his chin slightly raised.
To Markelyle’s surprise, Lin Li was completely indifferent to his status as the chief pharmacist, and even ignored his presence. Lin Li simply nonchalantly said to Joan, “Oh, didn’t I say that I don’t want anyone to disturb me? Forget it, go get the herbs.”
What? What!? This young man is too arrogant! What does he mean he doesn’t want anyone to disturb him? I’m the mighty chief pharmacist of the Darkness Shrine, and even Sendros is extremely polite to me. Yet, I’ve become an insignificant person here! Markelyle thought to himself in exasperation. He initially wanted to support Lin Li and guide him along, but he couldn’t help but lose his temper again.
“Who is your teacher? You’re too rude. I’d love to find out who your teacher is…” Markelyle was just about to yell at Lin Li, but to his surprise, the latter turned around and returned to the deck, seemingly still wanting to conduct a pharmaceutical experiment. He chased after Lin Li, only to see the paper on the table next to him. He glanced at it casually, but as soon as he looked away, he suddenly seemed to have realized something as he immediately turned his head back and dashed towards the table.
“This, this is…” Markelyle looked at the paper which was filled with various pharmaceutics formulas, and couldn’t help but breathe faster. He seemed to have also forgotten the purpose of his visit.
