Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Junior Martial Sister Xia!” Wei Haolan called out.
However, the concoctions master named Xia Qing just frowned and waved her hand impatiently before continuing to measure out ingredients and mutter to herself.
Wei Haolan looked helpless. She said to Mo Tiange, “Fellow Daoist Ye, would you mind waiting for a while? I really don’t know what to do with her.”
Mo Tiange chuckled. “Concoctions masters are generally a bit eccentric. I’m not in a hurry; take your time, Sect Head Wei.”
Wei Haolan smiled apologetically then ordered her disciples to prepare a couple of seats. The two of them had been sitting and chatting for a while when Xia Qing suddenly stood up and called out loud: “Done! Open the furnace!”
“Junior Martial Sister Xia!” Wei Haolan used this opportunity to call her again.
This time, Xia Qing finally heard her. She scratched her head then turned towards them. “Oh, Senior Martial Sister Sect Head, what’s wrong?” The way she was speaking sounded like she was chasing away a fly.
Mo Tiange couldn’t hold back her smile. In fact, Xia Qing was quite pretty; if she took care of her appearance, she could also be considered a beauty. Unfortunately, she was a sloven who completely didn’t care about her own appearance; her hair was a mess from her scratching, and her clothes were misshapen. If it wasn’t for the cultivator’s temperament she possessed, she would most likely be mistaken for a beggar.
Wei Haolan pulled Mo Tiange forward. “I’ll give you a brief introduction. This is a cultivator from Xuanqing School in Kunwu, Fellow Daoist Ye Xiaotian.”
Xia Qing wrinkled her brows. She wasn’t even the slightest bit curious towards Mo Tiange, so she simply lifted her hands to salute her. “Greetings to Fellow Daoist Ye.” Without waiting for Mo Tiange to return her greeting, she immediately turned towards Wei Haolan and said, “I’m busy now. What are you bringing someone here for?”
Mo Tiange’s words stopped in her throat. She had to listen to what Wei Haolan was going to say.
Wei Haolan said, “Didn’t you say you have no one to compare pill-concocting notes with? Fellow Daoist Ye’s proficient in the art of pill-concocting; I purposely invited her over so she could discuss pill-concocting techniques with you.”
“Oh?” Upon hearing that, Xia Qing’s attitude drastically changed in an instant. She pulled Mo Tiange’s hand affectionately and said, “Fellow Daoist Ye, you can concoct medicinal pills?”
Mo Tiange looked down to stare at Xia Qing’s hands, which turned gray from the countless materials she had been working with. As Mo Tiange mentally tried to resist pulling her hand back, she flatly answered, “I can, a little.”
“Only a little?” Xia Qing pressed, “Can you concoct Soul-Solidifying Pills? Can you concoct Heart-Protecting Powder? Look-Preserving Pills? Or maybe Dustless Pills?”
“I can concoct all of them, somewhat.” Mo Tiange discreetly pulled back her hand and shook her sleeve. “I can concoct them if I have the materials, but my success rate isn’t very high.”
“Wha… You can concoct all of them? Amazing!” Xia Qing continued to probe: “When you said your success rate wasn’t very high, how high is it exactly? 30%? 40%?”
“… Probably 50%. 60% if the situation’s favorable.” People with a 50-60% success rate in concocting pills could be considered great concoctions masters. When Mo Tiange first tried pill-concocting, she wasn’t at all skilled. However, because she had piles of spiritual plants to squander, her success rate gradually rose. As a result, she came to a conclusion—having talent didn’t matter; as long as one had countless spiritual plants they could use as they wished, they could likely become a great concoctions master.
“60%!” Xia Qing exclaimed, and Wei Haolan’s eyes brightened.
“Come, come!” Xia Qing immediately pulled Mo Tiange by the sleeve towards the pill furnace. “I have all the materials ready here; let me see you concoct Soul-Solidifying Pills.”
“Eh…” Mo Tiange drew her sleeve back from Xia Qing’s grasp then turned towards Wei Haolan. “Fellow Daoist Wei, this…”
When she heard that Mo Tiange’s success rate in pill-concocting was up to 60%, Wei Haolan was also extremely excited, so she said hastily, “Fellow Daoist Ye, you should try. If you succeed and pass on your knowledge to Junior Martial Sister Xia, I’ll lend you our Transporting Formation free of charge.”
Now that Wei Haolan made that offer, Mo Tiange nodded. “Alright.”
Concoctions masters very rarely passed on their pill-concocting tricks to others, but Mo Tiange didn’t rely on pill-concocting to obtain spirit stones, so she didn’t have any scruples about this. Besides, her so-called tricks were just knowledge accumulated after concocting for a long time; there was nothing special about her technique, so even if she taught it to Xia Qing, she was simply saving Xia Qing some time from groping her way blindly during her pill-concocting. In any case, she thought Xia Qing was still quite pleasing to the eye, so she didn’t think teaching her was hard to bear.
Once Mo Tiange agreed, Xia Qing immediate waved. “Bring the materials over.”
“Yes,” the numerous Aura Refining disciples present answered. One after another, they picked up the spiritual plants they were in charge of and brought them over.
Mo Tiange looked through them. The materials were all very commonplace. Among them, the main ingredients for Soul-Solidifying Pills, Purple Slough Grass and Snow Lingzhi Mushroom, they were only five hundred years old. The other ingredients were even worse; some were only a hundred years old.
In fact, this didn’t really matter. Soul-Solidifying Pills were originally basic medicinal pills for Core Formation cultivators; there were only two conditions for its materials—the Purple Slough Grass and Snow Lingzhi Mushroom used had to be five hundred years old at the minimum—while there were no specific conditions for the other ingredients. Nevertheless, the older the spiritual plants were, the more effective the medicinal pills would be. If she concocted Soul-Solidifying Pills using these materials, the efficacy of the created pills would be mediocre.
Truthfully, that was just what she thought. In this world, spiritual plants more than a thousand years old were no longer easy to find—even Core Formation cultivators typically only used spiritual plants that were around five hundred years old. Not everyone was like her, who had her own personal medicinal garden which consequently allowed her to concoct medicinal pills as many times as she wished, and furthermore, almost all the spiritual plants in her medicinal garden were at least a thousand years old.
Upon acutely noticing the slight wrinkle on Mo Tiange’s brows, Wei Haolan turned her attention towards the materials and asked, “Fellow Daoist Ye, is there something wrong with these materials?”
“It’s nothing.” Mo Tiange shook her head softly. After she examined the materials, she hinted at an Aura Refining disciple to bring over an empty salver padded with a clean cotton cloth then began taking the amount she needed.
She weighed the materials with her hands before putting them on the cotton cloth; she didn’t need to really weigh them using a scale. Shortly after, she finished taking and separating more than a dozen types of materials.
As she wiped her hands, she said to the Aura Refining disciple carrying the salver, “Put them over there. Be careful and don’t mix them up.”
The Aura Refining disciple gave an affirmative reply then cautiously took the salver away.
Xia Qing approached her, sighed and praised: “Fellow Daoist Ye, not to mention anything else, but you can even pick out the materials you need without measuring or weighing them! This is something I definitely can’t do. Amazing!”
Mo Tiange simply smiled. “After concocting many times, you’ll instinctively figure it out.” This was the truth; there was nothing special about it. Nevertheless, very few people were like her, who didn’t need to worry about materials, so there weren’t many people who could get to this step.
Of course, that didn’t mean there were none at all. Practically all great concoctions masters in Kunwu were able to do that, not to mention the grand master of concoctions—people who were either groomed by cultivation groups or supported by big cultivation clans. From this point of view, it could be said that pill-concocting skills were developed from heaps of spiritual plants and in other words, spirit stones. Unfortunately, Bixuan Court was situated in Linhai. Even though they had a Transporting Formation connecting them to Kunwu, they weren’t rich enough to buy piles of materials to be squandered as they wished.
Right now, Wei Haolan’s face was also full of admiration. She thought to herself: Xuanqing School isn’t a cultivation group that specializes in pill-concocting, and Fellow Daoist Ye also doesn’t seem to be very old, yet she unexpectedly has such excellent pill-concocting skills. Kunwu’s obviously full of talented people; it’s worthy of its name as the cultivators’ sacred land in the Celestial Pole.
After she finished preparing the materials, Mo Tiange looked at the already warmed up pill furnace. She muttered to herself for a while before reaching out to feel the temperature of the Earth Fire and she touched the pill furnace to measure its thickness. This pill furnace was far thicker than the Purple Wooden Furnace she used, and the Earth Fire was inferior to her fire, so she would have to open the furnace later than normal. This time, she would have to constantly pay attention to the process using her divine sense.
Once she finished examining everything, Mo Tiange cleaned her hands then commanded, “Open the furnace!”
Xia Qing, who had long lost patience, hastily waved her hand. “Open the furnace, open the furnace!”
With one great aunt urging them from behind, the Aura Refining disciples didn’t dare to be neglectful. They hurriedly arranged the materials, moved the water, then cooperated together to open the furnace lid.
In all honesty, this pill furnace was too far inferior compared to Mo Tiange’s Purple Wooden Furnace. The Purple Wooden Furnace was, after all, previously used by a Deification cultivator; even if it was just previously used, it was still no ordinary furnace. This pill furnace, on the other hand, was only a magic tool—it couldn’t even be even considered a magic weapon.
But this wasn’t out of the ordinary. Considering the scope of Bixuan Court, they only had three Core Formation cultivators in total, and they also weren’t good at pill-concocting so naturally, it was almost impossible for them to have a high-quality pill furnace. However, this pill furnace couldn’t be considered awful either; it must’ve cost a hundred spirit stones at least and it was much better than the common goods Mo Tiange used when she began learning pill-concocting.
After commanding them to open the furnace, Mo Tiange didn’t begin concocting straightaway and instead, she closed her eyes and sat in meditation. Although she had long measured everything out properly, she still had to continuously make adjustments during the concocting process—whether it was increasing or decreasing the temperature—according to changes to the fire, so she had to focus and mustn’t be distracted in the slightest.
In addition to the two Foundation Building cultivators currently present, the several dozen other Aura Refining cultivators didn’t dare to make any noise at all. They were accustomed to watching Xia Qing concocting. With Xia Qing’s temperament, people who made even the tiniest bit of noise when she was concocting would definitely be driven away from the concocting room immediately and demoted to a part-time disciple. Therefore, the remaining disciples there were all well-tested; they were well-behaved and orderly.
Once her mind became tranquil and the pill furnace was hot enough, Mo Tiange first took the Heavenly Sunflower Powder and the Purple Slough Grass then threw them into the pill furnace. She commanded, “Close the furnace!”
Several Aura Refining disciples immediately followed her instructions rapidly.
Mo Tiange closed her eyes, separated a thread of her divine sense and placed it inside the furnace. She could feel the Purple Slough Grass gradually melting and transforming into a puddle of purple liquid and the Heavenly Sunflower Powder dissolving into the Purple Slough Grass’s liquid.
Along with the rise in temperature, those two kinds of materials were mixing into one and gradually, they could no longer be distinguished from each other as they became a new type of substance.
The temperature inside the furnace had reached boiling point. The Purple Slough Grass’s liquid suddenly became volatile and then, it gradually turned into pieces of some wheel-shaped thing.
Mo Tiange opened her eyes. “Open the furnace.”
Without needing urging from Xia Qing, the Aura Refining disciples moved very quickly, promptly opening the furnace lid.
This time, Mo Tiange only left a few kinds of materials behind and threw the rest into the furnace before once again commanding them to close it. Right afterward, she sat motionless as if she had entered a meditative state.
At first, Xia Qing could still watch the pill furnace closely, but she didn’t dare to examine the inside with her divine sense. When concoctions masters were in the middle of concocting, they had to use their divine sense to constantly monitor the progress inside the furnace. If they were disturbed by other people’s divine sense, they might make errors in their judgment. Xia Qing thought that since the two of them were both in the Foundation Building realm, even though one of them had a stronger divine sense than the other, the difference wouldn’t be too large, so Mo Tiange would definitely be disturbed if Xia Qing used her divine sense. Nevertheless, Xia Qing didn’t know Mo Tiange’s divine sense simply couldn’t be affected like the divine sense of cultivators in the same realm as her. Because Mo Tiange was practicing the Soul-Refining Art, her divine sense was much tougher than those of cultivators in the same realm, so it wouldn’t be affected by others easily.
Later on, maybe because it was time for Xia Qing to concoct pills, she found it somewhat hard to continue sitting and waiting. However, she didn’t dare to disturb Mo Tiange, so she just stood up and started to walk back and forth. From time to time, she would make hand signs towards Wei Haolan.
Wei Haolan couldn’t understand what Xia Qing’s signs meant, so she could only nod absent-mindedly.
Eventually, by the time Xia Qing lost almost all her patience, Mo Tiange opened her eyes and commanded for the third time: “Open the furnace.”
After the Aura Refining disciples opened the furnace, Mo Tiange first poured in some clear spring water then put in the remaining several kinds of spiritual plants. “Close it. You guys can get some rest now.”
The Aura Refining cultivators waiting upon her nearby all heaved relieved sighs, but they still didn’t dare to make a ruckus. They simply retreated and waited calmly.
This time, they had to wait longer than before. They waited until Xia Qing finally couldn’t hold herself back from saying: “Fellow Daoist Ye, isn’t this taking too long?”
Mo Tiange wasn’t meditating this time, but upon hearing that question, she simply shook her head. “Rest assured.”
She no longer said anything after that. Behind her, Xia Qing proceeded to walk back and forth anxiously.
Mo Tiange was neither hurried nor slow. She just calmly fixated her attention on the pill furnace.
