Uncle-Master, Please Help Us - Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Su Yin’s Comment

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The two soon arrived in a spacious room.
“Today, Alchemist Ming Yu is refining Spirit Gathering Pills. You may ask me questions if you see things that you do not understand, but do not make a lot of noise! And do not open your mouth so casually, alchemists hate being disrupted the most!”
Chen Xiaoyue instructed in advance.
Su Yin nodded and looked inside. A massive tripod furnace was set right in the center of the room. A middle-aged man about 40 years of age was nearby, sorting medicinal herbs.
Seeing them walk in, the middle-aged man frowned with some displeasure.
Chen Xiaoyue went forward and explained a little.
“Teacher gave him his jade token?”
After listening to the explanation, this middle-aged man called Ming Yu looked at Su Yin in confusion, seemingly in disbelief.
He was Alchemist Shen Fei’s disciple and he knew the temperament and the disposition of that old man well. Even a genius like him didn’t manage to receive Shen Fei’s jade token, yet this fellow who looked so young and nary a trace of cultivation managed to receive it?
What was going on?
“Yes!” Chen Xiaoyue confirmed it.
“Let’s set that aside first!” Although he was puzzled, Alchemist Ming Yu still waved his hand.
“Since Teacher has recognized him, he must have sufficient capabilities. I shall refine the Spirit Gathering Pill for him to watch and see how much he can pick up…”
With that, he no longer paid attention to the duo. He continued to sort the medicinal herbs.
Every stalk was carefully distinguished and weighed.
Chen Xiaoyue walked closer to Su Yin and explained softly.
“This is the first part—prescription! They have to sort and match the stalk of each medicinal herb according to its properties and weight. This is considered to be the foundation of Alchemy. Not a single inconsistency is allowed!”
“Mm!” Su Yin nodded. After watching for some time, his brows furrowed.
He learned about Prescription at the Forbidden Grounds, so he knew about it. Screening the properties, age, and weight of the medicinal herbs. Then, sort them out before matching them with the appropriate supporting herbs.
The only problem was that this person… was too clumsy in doing it!
Setting everything aside, the properties of the Midnight Yellow and the Green Viola counteracted each other. If they were combined together, they would neutralize each other’s properties. Yet, this person matched both of them together…
As for the Horseweed and Ten Warmwood… Their properties might be similar, but when blended together. They would become something else that wouldn’t go well with the Spirit Gathering Elixir…
This is called prescription? You must be fooling around!
If I had done this, I would’ve been cursed to death by Li Shixiu. In fact, that soul remnant might even break my legs.
“That’s not right! He is an official alchemist, how could he be worse than me? A person who has never learned Alchemy before?”
Su Yin was confused. But he still kept his patience and continued to observe.
Witnessing the frown on his face, Chen Xiaoyue thought that he couldn’t understand what was happening. As a result, she enthusiastically commented with admiration.
“Alchemist Ming Yu had always been a researcher of prescription. Within a mere ten years, he has already formulated 17 brand new pill prescriptions…
“Even in the entire Dayan City, he is an extremely famous figure. It surely is your good fortune for you to be able to personally watch him prescribe medicine!”
Su Yin’s face twitched.
“Good fortune?”
Disregarding the fact that the other party seemed to have randomly matched and grabbed those medicinal herbs, his grasp of the medicinal herbs’ properties and the weight necessary for them to be in equilibrium was also inaccurate. His skill in prescription was clumsy at best.
In an instant, he had casually piled up the medicinal herbs without even considering whether their properties would neutralize.
I only glanced at what he was doing and here I am already close to puking… You’re telling me that watching him is my good fortune?
Are you sure you’re not pulling my leg?
“Could it be that the prescription of alchemists is different from what I’ve learned? Only by making a mess will they be able to refine pills?” An idea came to Su Yin’s mind.
Yes, this could be possible. Otherwise, why was it that Li Shixiu didn’t know how to refine pills?
“What comes after prescribing is kindling a flame for the tripod furnace. Do not underestimate this procedure. This is where people mostly fail, and this is their first bottleneck from becoming an official alchemist!”
Unaware of his inner thoughts, Chen Xiaoyue continued to explain.
“Kindle a flame?”
Su Yin looked over.
The present Alchemist Ming Yu had finished prescribing the medicinal herbs.
Walking over to the tripod furnace, he flicked his finger.
Hu!
A ball of fire flew out from his fingertips and immediately lit up the coal below the tripod furnace.
His true essence gushed out and landed on the charcoal fire. Its flame gradually turned from light yellow to light blue that was at an even higher temperature.
In less than a minute, the massive tripod furnace was heated till it was entirely red.
It emitted fiery heat waves.
“How formidable…” Su Yin gasped in admiration.
He was confident of doing better than this person in prescription, but his confidence didn’t include this. After all, he had yet to cultivate. He was unable to use true essence, much more, launch it at things.
Of course, he was able to replicate the heat of these flames by using firewood chopped into the thickness of hair. What’s more, he might even be able to bring the fire into higher temperatures than what this person had achieved!
Hu!
Alchemist Ming Yu placed the medicinal herbs stalk by stalk into the furnace. Meeting the fiery tripod furnace, the medicinal herbs instantly dissolved and a waft of fragrance immediately filled the room.
“This is the process of refining and purifying the herbs…” Chen Xiaoyue explained.
Su Yin frowned once more.
He had never learned refining and purifying, but he was knowledgeable in regards to the medicinal properties of medicinal herbs.
Yes, some medicinal herbs must be dissolved at high temperatures to draw out their properties, but some herbs didn’t require heat!
Just focusing on the Rosa Banksiae that he had just placed into the tripod furnace, it was moist in nature. When coming into contact with the burning tripod furnace, the moisture contained in it would immediately evaporate.
This action would indeed stimulate some of its medicinal properties, but 90% of that properties would be lost in vain.
And the Royal Incense… If it was soaked in water in advance for three minutes, its properties would definitely be even more effective!
This person appeared to be doing refinement…
But in fact, he had completely destroyed the efficacy of these medicinal herbs.
However, these were his views as a layman.
Perhaps, the techniques of official alchemists differed from what he knew.
After refining for more than ten minutes, Alchemist Ming Yu covered up the furnace.
True essence rose as he controlled the flames and caused them to constantly change.
“This process is called —converging the potency of the herbs to form the pill!” Chen Xiaoyue explained.
This went on for more than ten minutes. Just as alchemist Ming Yu’s countenance became paler and paler and he was close to giving out, the tripod furnace started to move restlessly.
Boom!
With a loud noise, the cover of the tripod furnace opened.
Ten pills flew out and landed in his palm.
They were Spirit Gathering Pills.
Looking at their grade, they were exactly like those he had bought at Dayan Market.
Each of them was already at Master-Grade!
“This explains it…”
After watching the entire process, Su Yin finally understood.
At first, he thought that the process was complicated.
But it turned out that the steps were just blending the properties of all the medicinal herbs, and converging them together to form the pills…
The other party’s method seemed to make sense but in reality. His method had wasted more than 90% of the medicinal herbs’ potency in vain.
It was no wonder that those pills were in a mess, the various ratios of the medicinal herbs used to form those pills all had these huge deviations due to using such a method.
What if… one was able to perfectly blend all of the medicinal properties?
This should work even without using the tripod furnace to form the pills!
“Friend, what thoughts do you have after watching me refine the pills? Why don’t you comment?”
Su Yin was in deep contemplation when a voice sounded by his ears. Lifting his head, he saw that the one who spoke was Alchemist Ming Yu. He had just finished refining the pills and he was now standing in front of Su Yin.
“Comment?”
Su Yin faltered and hurriedly waved his hand. “It’s my first time watching someone refine pills, so I am considered a layman. I don’t know anything, how would I dare to speak carelessly?”
“The fact that Teacher gave you his jade token shows that he thinks highly of your talent. I am just trying to ask for your comment, yet you’re unwilling to do so?”
Alchemist Ming Yu sneered.
Teacher gave his jade token to this person. Teacher wasn’t even willing to give that to him, so Ming Yu wanted to see whether Su Yin was truly a talented person, or if he was nothing but a sham.
Su Yin scratched his head, unsure of how to respond.
“Since you could get Teacher’s favor, it’s impossible that you haven’t perceived anything at all. If that’s really the case, I would really suspect whether Teacher has been deceived…” Sneering once more, Alchemist Ming Yu went on.
“I…” Just as he was about to explain, he was struck with an idea.
Su Yin was suddenly enlightened!
That’s right!
Why was I so stupid?!
No wonder…
Su Yin kept wondering earlier why a dignified, official alchemist would be so bad with Prescription. It seemed that he had intentionally done it to test his judgment!
Back at the Forbidden Grounds, didn’t those soul remnants often test him too?
It was ridiculous how he thought that an alchemist was actually able to make such low-leveled mistakes. It turned out that everything was just a pretense!
Once he figured out what was going on, Su Yin relaxed.
Since this is a test, then I naturally have to perform even better and mention all the mistakes that the other party had made when doing the prescription. I have to let him know that I still have some foundation!
This way, I wouldn’t be letting down his good intentions!