Chapter 4921 — You Really Can Refine Pills?

Good heavens! Wei Zhao was speechless and on the verge of losing his mind. Wang Xinyan and the others were doubled over with laughter, and Lu Xiaozhong kept pounding the ground flat on his belly, laughing until tears streamed from his eyes.

"There's no getting through to you. I'm leaving—are you coming or not!" Wei Zhao could not be bothered to keep talking with this silly little girl; drag this on any longer and he might well rupture something inside from sheer frustration.

"Coming, coming—take me out of here, heroine!" Ni Caiyue nodded like a chicken pecking at rice and hurried eagerly after him.

"Heroine?!" Wei Zhao stumbled and fell flat on the ground. He was a perfectly good grown man—since when had he become a heroine?

"You don't like being called a heroine?" Ni Caiyue gave him a strange look and muttered to herself, "Well, if you're a woman, then of course you're a heroine—that's what my master taught me. Oh, never mind. Since you don't like it, I'll just call you elder sister. Or younger sister works too!"

This time Wei Zhao went completely mad. Wang Xinyan and the others had laughed themselves out of strength and could only look at him helplessly, one after another. Now this was rich—from this day forth, the world had one fewer Young Hero Lin and one more Sister Lin!

"Listen carefully, little girl—I am a man, a real, honest-to-goodness man, not some heroine, and certainly not anybody's elder or younger sister!" Wei Zhao could only clarify in a voice drained of strength. Talking with this silly girl was truly a killing affair; he simply could not keep up with her bizarre twists of logic.

"Huh? Then why did you call yourself my little silly girl? You really are a strange one!" Ni Caiyue looked Wei Zhao up and down with the expression of someone observing a madman.

"I—" Wei Zhao pointed at her for quite a while, choked speechless, unable to get out a single complete sentence. In the end he abandoned all hope of self-clarification and said helplessly, "Are you coming or not? So much pointless chatter!"

"Coming, coming, of course I'm coming. I've been wanting to go back for ages." Ni Caiyue nodded eagerly.

"Then what's in it for me?" A thought suddenly stirred in Wei Zhao's heart. He halted and turned his head to look at her with deep meaning.

"In it for you?" Ni Caiyue blanked for a moment, then suddenly gave a startled cry and clapped both hands over her chest, staring at Wei Zhao warily and stammering, "Wh-what do you want in return? My master said that if it comes to that sort of thing, I must sooner die than submit!"

Wei Zhao's face went dark with exasperation. Rubbing his forehead, he said helplessly, "Where has your mind wandered to? As a little girl, could you keep your thoughts a little pure?"

"You're teasing me again!" Ni Caiyue glared at Wei Zhao, puffing with indignation.

Wei Zhao had always been good-natured, but dealing with this silly girl, he had lost count of how many times he had come close to losing his mind. He quickly took a deep breath to calm himself and came straight to the point: "Let's not drag this out. I'll ask you—once you take this Nurturing Mystery Grass out of here, who do you plan to have refine it into Nurturing Mystery Pills?"

"Why, I'll give it to my master, of course, and she'll go find the academy's pill refiner. No one else knows how to refine Nurturing Mystery Pills," Ni Caiyue said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And what price will you have to pay?" Wei Zhao asked again.

"Price?" Ni Caiyue instinctively clutched her chest again and said warily, "My master won't make me do that sort of thing. Not even if I die!"

Everyone burst out laughing once more—this silly girl was a rare treasure indeed. Wei Zhao said with a dark face, "Who said anything about that sort of thing! I mean, even the academy's pill refiner surely won't refine pills for you for nothing. There has to be a price, doesn't there?"

"Oh, so that's what you meant!" Only then did Ni Caiyue catch on. She thought for a moment and said, "I heard my master mention it before—it seems you give them half once the pills are formed, and if the refinement fails, then you get nothing at all."

"Then how many Nurturing Mystery Pills can this stalk of Nurturing Mystery Grass of yours be refined into?" Wei Zhao asked again.

"That..." Ni Caiyue tilted her head and thought for a long while, then carefully took out the Nurturing Mystery Grass from her bosom and measured it with her hands for a good while. Finally she raised her head and looked at Wei Zhao foolishly, saying with little certainty, "It seems like enough for four portions? If we're lucky, maybe we could refine four Nurturing Mystery Pills!"

"Four portions of materials and you expect to refine four Nurturing Mystery Pills? Is your academy's pill refiner so confident in refining seventh-grade pills? Could it be guaranteed success?" Wei Zhao asked doubtfully.

"What's guaranteed success?" Ni Caiyue tilted her head and thought for another long while, then roughly guessed what Wei Zhao meant and shook her head again and again. "That's definitely impossible. You'd need great luck to refine four. Ordinarily even one or two would be quite good."

"In that case, let me refine them for you. I guarantee you three Nurturing Mystery Pills—what do you say?" Wei Zhao proposed.

"Really? You're fooling me, aren't you?" Ni Caiyue was startled at once. She was not truly stupid; even the academy's chief pill refiner would not dare make such a boast, and no normal person would rashly believe a stranger they had met only once.

Could this fellow be trying to trick her out of her Nurturing Mystery Grass? Ni Caiyue hastily clutched her chest once more and stared at Wei Zhao warily.

"Why would I fool you?" Wei Zhao gave her a helpless glance and said mildly, "If I really had my eye on that stalk of Nurturing Mystery Grass, I'd just snatch it outright. Why go to all this trouble? Think about it yourself—a few measly weaklings chased you into such a sorry state. If I truly wanted to rob you, how much effort do you think it would take?"

"That..." Ni Caiyue thought earnestly for a moment and seemed to feel there was indeed some sense in it. Then her little face suddenly turned stern. "Even so, you can't snatch it!"

"I never even thought of snatching it!" Wei Zhao said with a dark face. If not for the need to get a few Nurturing Mystery Pills for himself and his companions, he swore he would never waste words on this silly girl—it would honestly worry a man to death.

"Oh, that's good then. But can you really refine Nurturing Mystery Pills? You don't even have a beard!" Ni Caiyue questioned again.

"What connection is there between whether I can refine Nurturing Mystery Pills and whether I have a beard?" Wei Zhao could not help but stare blankly at this.

"Of course there is! Seventh-grade pill refiners are all white-bearded old grandpas. You're not!" Ni Caiyue said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Good heavens! Wei Zhao nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood. Holding a conversation with this silly girl truly broke through the heavens—even facing that vengeful spirit's primordial spirit earlier had not given him such a headache!

To be honest, he now had the urge to simply turn and leave. To hell with Nurturing Mystery Pills, whatever they were!

In the end, however, Wei Zhao held his temper in check and forced out a smile that could just about pass for amiable. "I am a seventh-grade pill refiner. If you believe me, then give me the Nurturing Mystery Grass to refine, and when it's done I guarantee you three Nurturing Mystery Pills. If you don't believe me, that's fine too—we'll part ways here. You know the way out yourself anyway, so let's meet again someday."