Chapter 2549 — The Reason He Cannot Refine Pills

"Wei Zhao, come with me to my office!" Bai Lingtou said to Wei Zhao after the morning classes ended.

"...All right." Wei Zhao hastily returned to reality from the jade-pendant space and nodded.

Under You Panhu's envious gaze, Wei Zhao left the classroom with Bai Lingtou and headed toward his office.

"That Wei Zhao fellow is really lucky—favored by a beauty and taught pill refinement by Bai Lingtou himself. It's infuriating!" You Panhu muttered resentfully. These past few days Wei Zhao had not gotten any new materials from Bai Lingtou, so You Panhu had not made a move either, but now he could no longer sit still.

After a moment's hesitation, You Panhu followed them out. Though he was rather afraid of Wei Zhao and still bore the psychological scars, this concerned materials that could raise the You family's pill-refining standards, so he had no choice but to take it seriously!

Others might not know, but You Panhu was perfectly clear: Bai Lingtou's pill-refining skill back in the day had been such that even all the experts of the entire Xuandan Sect combined could not hope to match it. So no matter how intimidated he felt, You Panhu had to follow and see.

Wei Zhao was now a peak mid-stage Earth-rank expert, so he could easily detect anyone following behind him. But when he saw it was You Panhu, he paid him no mind. On his previous visits to Bai Lingtou's office, You Panhu had followed every single time, and Wei Zhao had long since grown used to it.

"Little Yi, how has your pill refinement been lately? Any improvement?" Bai Lingtou asked as they walked.

"Same as always... I still can't change the pill fire's temperature or intensity..." Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. "Maybe I really have no talent for pill refinement!"

"Could it be that your body truly lacks the wood attribute?" Bai Lingtou frowned. Toward Wei Zhao, apart from gratitude, he also rather admired the young man's medical skill, and so he wanted Wei Zhao to learn more and go further along the path of medicine.

And how could he go further? Conventional medical techniques surely held little attraction for Wei Zhao anymore. Only the art of pill refinement, which was both a higher form of medical art and beneficial to a cultivator, would do.

But Wei Zhao had never managed to condense pill fire with proficiency, which Bai Lingtou greatly regretted.

"That's not it. I'm certain my body has the wood attribute!" Previously Wei Zhao had not dared to be sure whether his body truly possessed the wood attribute—after all, freely converting the attribute of pill fire seemed to him to carry uncertain factors. What if it was merely the universal conversion effect of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art?

But after cultivating the Wood-Forest Thousand Transformations, Wei Zhao could be certain of this point: his body did possess the wood attribute.

"Oh?" Bai Lingtou was slightly taken aback and turned to look at Wei Zhao. Then he shook his head. "That you can condense fire-attribute pill fire and wood-attribute pill fire is hardly surprising, but it doesn't mean your body has those attributes! Just as a pill refiner without a water-affinity constitution can still condense and catalyze water-attribute pill fire—that is merely a conversion of the mnemonic chant, not a true possession of that pill fire within the body!"

"No, Teacher Bai, what I mean is, I can unleash both wood-attribute and fire-attribute martial techniques." Wei Zhao shook his head, thinking that his guess had indeed been right: the ability to convert pill fire had nothing to do with one's constitution. Yet now he said with certainty, "So my body should possess both the wood and fire attributes."

"Ah... that..." Hearing this, Bai Lingtou's expression grew even grimmer. After a long while, he finally said, "Could it be the legendary good-for-nothing?"

"Pfft... cough cough cough..." Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears at Bai Lingtou's words. His cultivation speed was, after all, rather excellent; without a master, he was in no way inferior to the disciples of hidden clans or even ancient sects—how could that be called good-for-nothing?

Moreover, he could imitate and create martial techniques. Even if he was not a genius, he was hardly a good-for-nothing. Most importantly, once the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art reached the grand completion of the second layer, he would become something akin to an artificer—a peerless genius rarely seen in this world...

"Uh, Little Yi, that's not what I meant..." Seeing Wei Zhao's awkwardness, Bai Lingtou hurriedly explained, "Actually, what I mean is that some people's constitutions are simply unsuitable for pill refinement. For example, I once knew a person... hmm... how should I put it? This person's body possessed multiple attributes, even transcending the ordinary sense of fire and wood attributes. Nor was it three attributes, but more. This person's multiple attributes formed a state of mutual restraint... Though I can't be sure whether you are the same, your body is probably unsuited to becoming a pill refiner..."

"Oh? Isn't having more attributes better? Why couldn't one become a pill refiner then?" Wei Zhao asked, his heart stirring slightly.

"The thing is, a pill refiner must possess the two basic attributes of fire and wood. The fire attribute is the bodily attribute essential for condensing all kinds of pill fire, while the wood attribute is a wood-attribute spiritual perception of the changes in the herbs within the pill furnace. If, on top of these two basic attributes, one also possesses the water attribute, then it will check the fire attribute—water and fire restrain each other!" Bai Lingtou explained. "In that case, because of the water-affinity constitution, the fire attribute is held in check and can no longer change the pill fire's temperature and intensity."

"Ah? Is that so?" Wei Zhao's eyes went wide as understanding finally dawned on him! Yet at the same time, he felt somewhat dejected. "Teacher Bai, you're right—my body also has the water attribute, because I can unleash water-attribute martial techniques too..."

"Just as I thought!" Bai Lingtou patted Wei Zhao on the shoulder and looked at him with some distress. "Having many attributes is both a good thing and a bad thing—at the very least it's a bad thing for pill refiners! Because none of the current mnemonic chants for catalyzing and condensing pill fire can change this situation. In theory, if there were a new chant, this difficulty could be overcome, but for now there isn't any. Your kind of case is far too rare..." Wei Zhao shrugged; Bai Lingtou's words amounted to saying nothing at all.

"However, if your body also possessed the metal attribute, you could become an artificer. And among artificers, there is no such talk of mutual restraint." Bai Lingtou said, "This I can say for certain!"

"Oh?" Wei Zhao was slightly startled. Did his body possess the metal attribute or not? At present Wei Zhao was not sure either, because he had never tried unleashing metal-attribute martial techniques. But when the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art reached the grand completion of the second layer, it could certainly condense the jade-pendant space. RQ