Gu Zuo silently peered into his own Tianfu Acupoint.
There was an extremely large psychic core quietly floating in the center of his Tianfu Acupoint. Compared to the entire acupoint, if it only occupied one percent of the space in the past, then it was already ten times bigger now.
According to Pill King Han’s words, when the psychic core occupied ten percent of the acupoint, one could attempt to break through. However, Pill King Han also mentioned that his psychic core split open when it occupied twenty percent of his Tianfu Acupoint. The spirit body that emerged was even more powerful, too.
In other words, each pharmacist’s talent had an upper limit. When the psychic core was about to reach that upper limit, there would be signs of a breakthrough. For the majority of pharmacists, this was ten percent. However, if they were extraordinarily talented, then twenty or thirty percent wasn’t far-fetched.
Pill King Han belonged to the more outstanding group.
Gu Zuo could sense that, although his psychic core had already been nurtured to one tenth the size of his Tianfu Acupoint, it was still far from reaching its limit. There was also a feeling of spiritual pulsations within that psychic core, but he could already tell that this kind of pulsation was nowhere close to the most intense time.
After that, Gu Zuo circulated his psychic power to experience this for a moment before withdrawing it. During this period, half of his attention was focused on Pill King Han’s explanation.
Then, Pill King Han talked about the signs when he broke through, the sensations during the breakthrough, and what counted as a successful breakthrough. He also explained the series of efforts he made to determine his inner self, and so on.
It could be said that this explanation was very detailed.
While listening, Gu Zuo absorbed all of the points that Pill King Han mentioned. Later on, he felt that he had comprehended a lot. It was just that he knew what he needed to do now was to continue accumulating. His time spent going from the Qi Psyche Realm to the Nurturing Psyche Realm had been too short. As a result, not only did he need to stabilize his own realm even more, he also had to further squeeze out his own potential while at the checkpoint of the Nurturing Psyche Realm. This way, he could develop a stronger inner self and spirit body!
After making up his mind, Gu Zuo listened more attentively.
It wasn’t until six to eight hours later that Pill King Han stopped.
Numerous pharmacists were startled.
This was the end?
Pill King Han smiled: “Everything that needs to be mentioned has already been covered. This Han’s intention is just to give all of you a little bit of advice. If this Han says too much, I’m afraid it will guide you down the wrong path or conceal it under this Han’s own path.”
Gu Zuo understood clearly.
Personally, he felt that there was nothing wrong with listening to it. Some other profound-level pharmacists probably wouldn’t have had any problems either. However, it was hard to say for those with lower realms. Maybe they would be wrenched from their intended path of medicine refinement. Or perhaps, they might directly follow Pill King Han’s way of thinking, be unable to pull themselves free, and change their own path of medicine refinement into a poor imitation of that of Pill King Han.
As for profound-level pharmacists, what they learned so far was enough to experience for a long time to come. Until they broke through, they would greatly benefit from it.
The other pharmacists also returned to their senses, stood up one after another, and paid their respects to Pill King Han out of gratitude.
Pill King Han smiled at everyone: “Following that, this Han will be choosing a legacy disciple. If there’s anyone interested, you can stay behind. For the rest, please leave first.”
Numerous pharmacists couldn’t help looking at each other.
At this moment, there were quite a few people who were leaving in large strides. All of them either had their own inheritances or a teacher’s guidance. It was only natural that they wouldn’t stay here. After Gu Zuo glanced at his Senior Sect Brother Xu, he cast an encouraging look, turned around, and left.
— He only hoped that when Senior Sect Brother Xu came out later, he brought good news.
After going out, Gu Zuo went straight to Gongyi Tianheng’s side.
Tianheng smiled and said: “Ah Zuo, did you get anything out of it?”
Gu Zuo responded with a great, big smile of his own: “It was very rewarding!”
Tianheng nodded his head: “That’s good.”
He Zizhang poured a cup of tea for Gu Zuo, and pushed it over: “Pharmacist Gu, congratulations.”
Gu Zuo showed him a smiling expression: “Many thanks, Senior Sect Brother He.”
Once the three sat down, they originally wanted to talk about what Gu Zuo had learned during the lecture. However, Prince Zhou, who had been drinking by himself on the side, suddenly opened his mouth to ask: “Pharmacist Gu, how is Lingxiu’er?”
Gu Zuo was momentarily stunned — Ah, it was rare for this fellow to still ask him.
But Gu Zuo wouldn’t embarrass Prince Zhou in this regard, so he replied: “After listening to the lecture, all of the pharmacists who wanted to apprentice themselves had to stay behind with Pill King Han. I would assume that there’s another test. Senior Sect Brother Xu performed quite well today, so he should have a pretty good chance. His Highness doesn’t have to worry.”
Prince Zhou nodded. He didn’t ask any more questions, and continued to drink alone.
Gu Zuo felt that Prince Zhou’s temperament was incompatible with his own, so he didn’t keep chatting with him.
Gu Zuo turned his head, and went to talk to He Zizhang who had called out to him twice: “Senior Sect Brother He?”
He Zizhang said: “It’s nothing serious. I just have a presumptuous request.”
Gu Zuo somewhat understood: “Senior Sect Brother He, there’s no harm in asking.”
He Zizhang responded: “Just a while ago, Pharmacist Gu refined those Golden Flame Pills…” He gave a slight pause, “Their effects are quite good. I wonder if collecting the medicinal ingredients is difficult, and if Pharmacist Gu has any plans to sell the pills?”
Gu Zuo inwardly thought: As expected.
Immediately following which, he smiled: “The Golden Flame Pill was an epiphany I had when I refined some Realm Breaking Pills earlier. It’s obtained by refining a stalk of spirit medicine with forty percent spirituality as the main ingredient. The other auxiliary ingredients are easy to deal with, but it’s somewhat challenging to acquire that spirit medicine. Therefore, it would be normal to keep it for one’s own use, but it would be too wasteful to sell it.”
Speaking up to here, he remained calm and composed: “Right now, big brother and I are living together, and we’re both members of the Blood Transformation Palace Hall. If my fellow senior brothers and sisters are interested, I naturally won’t refuse them. It’s just that they have to prepare the necessary spirit medicine.”
In this day and age, if someone wanted to refine any specific medicinal pills, they had to prepare the ingredients and go to the pharmacist. The request that Gu Zuo raised really wasn’t considered a request at all.
He Zizhang was overjoyed: “What’s the price of this medicinal pill?”
Gu Zuo smiled and said: “This is the first refining, so you only need to prepare the medicinal ingredients. For any similar requests in the future, you’ll have to use thirty percent of the produced pills as the fee.”
He Zizhang understood clearly. It was free the first time because of his youngest junior brother, Gongyi Tianheng. For all future transactions, thirty percent of the pills would be taken. Compared to the average alchemist, who usually took at least fifty percent, it was much cheaper — Not to mention that some pharmacists would only give the employer a single pill, and everything else was regarded as remuneration. This was also for the sake of his youngest junior brother’s face.
Since the price was so cheap, what else did he have to say? Of course, he was incredibly happy.
He Zizhang revealed a cheerful expression: “Many thanks for this arrangement.”
He didn’t say anything that emphasized owing favors. It was obvious that this was to let him remember the benefits of his youngest junior brother. He really wanted to have a good relationship with both his youngest junior brother and Pharmacist Gu, so why would he refuse?
Gu Zuo saw that He Zizhang understood what he meant, and the smile on his face became even more sincere: “I won’t hide this from Senior Brother He. I came up with the Golden Flame Pill in a hurry. The main ingredient is a fire-type spirit medicine, which is effective for martial artists who have a fire affinity. If the main ingredient is changed to a water-type spirit medicine, it will take several more days of research to match it with other auxiliary ingredients. Although the pill obtained will no longer be called the Golden Flame Pill, it can be used by martial artists of other attributes.”
With a delighted heart, He Zizhang asked: “Is Pharmacist Gu already close to finalizing the pill prescription?”
Gu Zuo said: “That’s correct. There are only one or two medicinal ingredients whose quantities I haven’t determined yet. The other ingredients have already been confirmed. Once we go back, it’ll probably take a few days of tries to completely settle it.”
He Zizhang breathed a sigh of relief: “So it’s like this. At that time, this He will send several kinds of spirit medicines with different attributes, and ask Pharmacist Gu for help.”
Gu Zuo smiled and said: “It’s no problem. I’ll do my best when the time comes.”
After the agreement, He Zizhang was in a good mood, so he joked with Tianheng: “Youngest junior brother is really lucky to have a personage like Pharmacist Gu, who always does his best for you.”
Tianheng revealed a meaningful smile: “Having Ah Zuo by my side is truly the luckiest thing to have ever happened to me.”
After hearing this, Gu Zuo didn’t know if he understood the meaning within these words or if he was just overthinking it. But for some reason, he suddenly felt a little bashful.
He Zizhang examined the two of them, and didn’t notice anything. However, he still felt that, whenever he looked at them, the closeness and trust between his youngest junior brother and Pharmacist Gu was really admirable.
Not much time had passed when many pharmacists walked out of a side passage.
The ranks of these pharmacists varied, but there was no doubt that they were the ones who wanted to become apprentices and had stayed behind. Now that they showed up, was it because the results were already out or because they had been eliminated?
Everyone looked over.
Gu Zuo searched the crowd, but didn’t see any trace of his dear Senior Sect Brother Xu. Looking at the others, he discovered that there were some of Xu Lingxiu’s formidable opponents among them — In other words, Senior Sect Brother Xu’s chances had increased again?
Meanwhile, many martial artists and pharmacists outside asked these new arrivals one after another:
“What was Pill King Han’s decision?”
“Has Pill King Han already accepted his apprentice?”
“Did all of you come out?”
“May I ask how Pill King Han selects his disciples?”
Hearing these questions, the pharmacists who came out couldn’t help showing wry smiles on their faces: “After listening to the lecture, Pill King Han put forward another topic. He asked us to figure out a new type of medicinal pill based on the available ingredients. However, we were only given two hours to think of something. All of us came out because we couldn’t figure it out or our prescriptions didn’t work…”
T/N: The next two chapters are double-length.
Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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