Chapter 2551 — Taking Her as a Disciple

Yet here was Han Jingyi, a girl from who knew where, who in the space of a few short months—under the guidance and help of Wei Zhao, a half-baked alchemist—could actually achieve a ninety percent success rate in refining second-grade pills? What sort of notion was that?

Of course, this was still Wei Zhao holding back. After all, to claim that Han Jingyi could refine second-grade pills with perfect, ten-out-of-ten certainty—and in batch production, no less—would be simply too shocking to the world.

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao merely smiled.

"Could you let her take me as her master?" White Collar Leader was somewhat tempted.

"This... I'm afraid..." Wei Zhao hesitated, unsure how to explain. It was not that he was unwilling to let Han Jingyi take a master, but that taking a master was of little use to a scientific alchemist like Han Jingyi.

"What? You mean to keep her hidden away for yourself?" Seeing Wei Zhao's expression, White Collar Leader thought he was reluctant to part with her, and laughed. "I only mean to help you raise a capable assistant. I already have my own closed-door disciple—I would never compete with you for her."

"That's not it." Wei Zhao shook his head and decided to speak honestly. "Teacher Bai, Jingjing's situation is rather special. She has a fire attribute in her body, but no wood attribute. So your practical techniques would be of little use to her..."

"Oh?" This time White Collar Leader was truly shaken. An alchemist lacking the wood attribute? How could that be? How could such a person ever become an alchemist? Never mind refining pills—it would be a wonder if she did not blow up the furnace! So White Collar Leader blurted out, "How is that possible?"

"Jingjing arrives at her alchemy data through a complex process of exploration and calculation. Only she herself can master such a method—one might say it is utterly unique. No one could teach it to her, and no one could realistically learn it..." Wei Zhao did not go into detail, only sketching the broad outline.

"So that's how it is..." White Collar Leader sank into thought after hearing this. Though what Wei Zhao described was theoretically feasible, in practice it would be extraordinarily difficult—hardly realistic. But Wei Zhao would certainly not lie, which meant it was all true.

There was only one possibility: Han Jingyi was a genius of mathematics, physics, and chemistry—possessed, at the very least, of an intellect no lower than a scientist's—and only thus could she calculate the complex chemical and physical transformations within the pill furnace, along with the timing, temperature, and intensity of the flame...

White Collar Leader had once been a successful alchemist, so the moment Wei Zhao explained, he understood the principle behind it. It was simply that to him it seemed almost inconceivable. Not that it was impossible to achieve—only that the difficulty was far too great!

"It seems I really cannot take this disciple after all!" White Collar Leader shook his head and smiled bitterly. "This method of alchemy is theoretically feasible, but... in practice, this is the first I've ever heard of it."

"I was utterly stunned myself at the time," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"But Xiaoyi, let these words stop with me—do not tell anyone else." White Collar Leader's face suddenly turned grave once more. "Especially not the Hidden Right Family or the Mystic Pill Sect! Otherwise it could bring unimaginable disaster upon Han Jingyi! At the very least, until you are strong enough to look down upon all the ancient sects, you must not let this news leak out."

"Teacher Bai, I understand. I have spoken of it only to you," Wei Zhao said with a nod, knowing the stakes. "I felt that since you have treated me thus, I should not keep secrets from you. But as for others—heh heh..."

"Indeed, I was overthinking it. You brat, you're sharper than a little fox—you've got Right Panhu spinning in circles, coaxing all the finest treasures out of the Hidden Right Family in exchange!" White Collar Leader laughed, reassured.

"Exactly. So I plan to use this data to trade Right Panhu for some materials for refining third-grade pills," Wei Zhao said.

"That will do." This time White Collar Leader nodded firmly. "This data is of no use to me anyway—this is all the support I can give you. I don't have materials for third-grade pills, but I can find you some for second-grade pills..."

"Oh? Teacher Bai, you have materials for refining second-grade pills?" Wei Zhao suddenly felt as though he had worn out iron shoes searching, only to find it without any effort at all. Why had it never occurred to him before that White Collar Leader might have materials for refining second-grade pills?

Had he known earlier, Wei Zhao would have gotten some materials from White Collar Leader—why go to the trouble of trading with Right Panhu?

"I do have some... but you know these materials are far from cheap. It's not that I, White Collar Leader, am stingy—it's simply that I'm not well off. I still have a disciple at home, so I must economize..." White Collar Leader looked at Wei Zhao with a trace of apology.

"These materials can be bought?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback.

"Naturally they can be bought." White Collar Leader nodded. "The Mystic Pill Sect sells these common materials, and I grow some myself, though not in great quantity. And teaching a disciple is a wasteful business where materials are concerned..."

"Hmm, then how about I pay you money for them?" Wei Zhao asked. The cultivators' guild had still not given Wei Zhao any definite word, so he and Han Jingyi had essentially been at a standstill these days, with no materials to refine pills.

"That can be done, but not for now. It will have to wait until the next cultivators' trade fair is held—that is when the Mystic Pill Sect sells its medicinal ingredients," White Collar Leader said.

"The cultivators' trade fair?" Hearing this somewhat familiar name, Wei Zhao thought of something. "Could it be held by the cultivators' guild?"

"Precisely, held by the cultivators' guild." White Collar Leader nodded. "The cultivators' guild also sells these herbs, but their herbs are of better quality and higher price, so generally the Mystic Pill Sect's herbs are more popular."

"Other families have no alchemists—what do they buy these materials for?" Wei Zhao found it strange. If White Collar Leader bought materials from the Mystic Pill Sect rather than the cultivators' guild, that was easy enough to understand—they were only for his disciple to practice on, so quality hardly mattered, and the price gap between fine-quality and ordinary-quality refined pills was not great. But what did everyone else buy these materials for?

"Heh heh, these materials are not in fact used solely for refining pills—they can also be compounded into medicine!" White Collar Leader said. "Xiaoyi, you're too close to the matter to see it clearly. In truth, even without refining them into pills, these herbs mixed together and made into ordinary remedies will for the most part produce the corresponding effects, only much weakened. Take the Divine Healer Kang's wound medicine on the market—think carefully, and see how very similar its ingredients are to the Lesser Restoration Pill! At least seven or eight of its ingredients are components of the Lesser Restoration Pill, wouldn't you say?"