Chapter 3646 — A Plea for Alchemy

Though Wei Zhao was somewhat taken aback by the visit from his long-suffering senior brother, he was still rather delighted. The reason was simple: his senior brother had brought over those three or four hundred waste jades he had mentioned before—a full bag of them.

Gazing at that bulging sack of waste jade, Wei Zhao was naturally overjoyed. A rough estimate put the contents at three hundred and fifty pieces at least; add the eighty-odd he already had on hand, and that made over four hundred and thirty spirit jades in total. Faced with such a haul, it would have been strange if Wei Zhao had not been overjoyed.

Seeing Wei Zhao so pleased, his senior brother was happy for him too, but after a moment's hesitation he could not help voicing the doubt in his heart. "Junior Brother Lin, there is a rumor going around outside—even the new disciples of the other two pavilions have heard it—that you were cheated out of a full fifteen pieces of top-grade spirit jade in exchange for waste jade. What on earth is going on?"

His senior brother had already known about Meng Jueming trading waste jade for Wei Zhao's good jade, and had assumed it was simply Wei Zhao being careless and getting duped. Never had he expected that within a few short days such a thing would follow—and the rumor was told with such vivid detail, so convincingly that it might as well have been true.

This left him rather puzzled. Even if Wei Zhao really was as "stupid" as the rumor made him out to be, the question remained: where had those fifteen pieces of top-grade spirit jade come from?

Everyone assumed those good jades were the fifteen Meng Jueming had lost in a wager, but his senior brother knew better—those jades were all in the hands of Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai. Wei Zhao had not taken a single one of them.

And if one counted the spirit jade Meng Jueming had cheated him out of earlier, then as a new disciple, Wei Zhao ought by now to have not a single good jade left! Yet the rumor sounded so plausible, so far from false. If it were merely a case of rumors spreading and distorting, such a thing might happen among common folk, but these were all Heaven-rank cultivators—surely they could not lack even this most basic faculty of discernment.

"This... is actually a little secret of mine. Senior Brother Ku, after you hear it, you must keep it for me." Wei Zhao had known his senior brother would ask such a question, and so had long since prepared an explanation. Naturally, he would not mention anything about the jade pendant's space.

"Rest assured, Junior Brother Lin, I will keep it secret. But if it is inconvenient, you need not tell me at all." His senior brother spoke with understanding; his only motive was concern for Wei Zhao's circumstances, not any desire to pry into his secrets.

Wei Zhao shook his head with a smile. "It is nothing much, really. Senior Brother Ku, you already know I am an alchemist. I recently discovered something: when refining pills, if I use these waste jades as auxiliary materials, the success rate improves. So I privately refined a batch of pills and sold them in the marketplace—and that is where the good jade they traded away came from."

"So that is how it is." His senior brother finally understood, though he asked again right after: "But Junior Brother Lin, since you used pills to trade for all that good jade, why not keep it for your own use? Could it be that trading it for waste jade to aid your alchemy actually earns you more?"

"Exactly so. That is why I am happy to play the fool they take me for, quietly raking in the profits without a word." Wei Zhao chuckled.

At this, even his senior brother had to laugh. "I said to myself, with Junior Brother Lin's intelligence, how could he suffer such a silent, crushing loss? So this was the truth of it all along—and I had been worrying myself sick over you for the longest time!"

His senior brother's words were no lie; before coming here he truly had been anxious on Wei Zhao's behalf. Touched, Wei Zhao's eyes suddenly lit up. Turning to avoid the other's gaze, he drew out thirty spirit jades, packed them into a bag, and handed it to his senior brother.

His senior brother was instantly stunned, waving his hands again and again. "Junior Brother Lin, what is the meaning of this? Do you think I am like the others, coming to you to trade waste jade for good jade?"

Seeing that his senior brother was genuinely somewhat offended, Wei Zhao hurried to explain: "Senior Brother Ku, you are overthinking it. If this really were the three-to-one exchange ratio the others use, these thirty good jades of mine could never buy that much waste jade from you. This is merely because I have put you to the trouble of worrying about me, and I felt uneasy about it—so it is just a small token of my regard."

"This... but Junior Brother Lin, you need these good jades more than I do!" Though somewhat moved, his senior brother still insisted on refusing. Truth be told, in his years as a steward senior brother, he had never once seen so many good jades at one time; thirty pieces of good jade could sustain his cultivation needs for a very long while.

"Haha, Senior Brother Ku, you need not worry about the spirit jade on my account. Have you forgotten that I can refine pills to earn it back? Especially since you have provided me with so much waste jade—enough for me to refine no small number of pills! So take these spirit jades and be at ease about it. Between senior and junior brothers like us, is there any need to be so scrupulous? That would truly wound me!" Wei Zhao urged with a smile. "Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai both accepted theirs. If you refuse, Senior Brother Ku, does that mean you do not count me as one of your own?"

With Wei Zhao having put it that way, his senior brother could refuse no longer, and could only say with a shamefaced air: "Well... all right then. I shall shamelessly take advantage of Junior Brother Lin this once, and I will keep this kindness close to my heart."

Had this been before, he might still have insisted on refusing, but now, entrusted by Lu Bianren with a task, and needing to stand against Meng Jueming in days to come, he was in urgent need of strengthening his cultivation—and spirit jade was the sort of thing of which one could never have too much.

"Senior Brother Ku, you make it sound far too serious. Is helping you not helping myself?" Wei Zhao waved it off carelessly.

In truth, if he had not been saving up spirit jade to buy the Star Ink Stone, he could have given more. As it was, after parting with thirty pieces, he had less than five hundred left on hand; give any more, and it might not be enough when the time came.

His senior brother nodded gratefully and carefully put away the thirty spirit jades. After thinking it over, he offered Wei Zhao one more word of warning: "Junior Brother Lin, you have surely heard the saying that an innocent man is guilty by virtue of his treasure. Others may know you are an alchemist, and it does no harm for that to spread—but if your alchemy success rate is very high, it will bring you trouble in the end. So best be cautious and careful from now on."

"Rest assured, Senior Brother Ku, I know what I am doing," Wei Zhao replied.

His senior brother made to leave at once, yet at the door he hesitated for a long while, and finally turned to Wei Zhao and said: "Junior Brother Lin, since you are an alchemist and your success rate is not low, I wonder—could you refine a pill for me called the Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill?"