Chapter 2171 — The Walls Have Ears

With that, Wei Zhao strode straight to the door of Chief Bai's office and sent a flying kick at it. This kick was different from the last one, for it carried a measure of true qi behind it...

When Right-Pan Hu heard Wei Zhao say "the walls have ears" and that he was going to deal with it, he knew at once that Wei Zhao was coming to kick the door. He hastily peeled his ear from the door and retreated a good distance, sneering inwardly: Who do you take me for, a fool? The same trick won't work on me, Right-Pan Hu!

What Right-Pan Hu had not counted on was this: though Wei Zhao's kick looked like no great effort, the true qi behind it made the iron door boom with a tremendous crash, and the accompanying resonant shockwave rattled Right-Pan Hu's eardrums and sent him reeling, dizzy and disoriented, to the floor...

"My God..." Once he was down, Right-Pan Hu's eardrums throbbed with pain and his mood was foul beyond words. He had thought that putting some distance between himself and the door would keep him safe—who could have known it would be this ungodly loud?

After kicking the door, Wei Zhao returned to the desk and said, "There. All taken care of."

"My door—a few more kicks like that and it'll be finished for good!" Chief Bai laughed. "Actually, these notes on an alchemist's insights weren't compiled by me. They're a set of notes handed down within the Xuan Dan Sect. I wouldn't call them street-stall goods, but they're hardly top secret either—at least, as far as Right-Pan Hu is concerned, given the ties between the hidden Right-Pan family and the Xuan Dan Sect, he should have a copy in his collection too. So there's no need to keep it from him!"

"Heh, better to keep a little something hidden anyway." Wei Zhao blinked, a thought stirring in his mind. This time, he wondered, would that fool Right-Pan Hu fall for it?

"You cheated him out of two medicine cauldrons before—and now you want to cheat him again?" Chief Bai asked with a faint smile.

"Uh... Elder Bai, you knew about that?" Wei Zhao smiled wryly. He hadn't expected Chief Bai to be so thoroughly informed about such matters.

"I know a thing or two. But that's fine—this time, see if you can't cheat him out of a bit more," Chief Bai said. "I'll play along when the time comes."

"What?" Wei Zhao's eyes went wide, and he stared at Chief Bai in astonishment. He had never expected Chief Bai to say such a thing. He was going to help Wei Zhao cheat Right-Pan Hu?

"I can't say I have any fondness for the hidden Right-Pan family, but you and I get along famously. If I don't help you, who will?" Chief Bai chuckled. "Don't picture me as such a stick-in-the-mud!"

"You're certainly no stick-in-the-mud..." Wei Zhao thought back to Chief Bai's style of running the class these past days, and indeed, he was no stickler—just a bit heavy-handed in his methods.

"Take these notes on an alchemist's insights back and study them carefully. This material is different from that introductory mental cultivation method from before—it's a precious thing, so don't go showing it to anyone else!" Chief Bai suddenly raised his voice. "See what you can grasp from it, and whether you can find the root of your problem!"

Right-Pan Hu, who had just then scrambled up from the floor, pressed his ear to the door and caught this whole speech from Chief Bai. His heart gave a leap! So it really was a treasure—no wonder Wei Zhao was so guarded about it, coming over to kick the door and all. He had nearly missed it!

And from Chief Bai's words, Right-Pan Hu also became certain of something: Wei Zhao hadn't cheated him after all—Chief Bai really had given him an ordinary introductory alchemist's mental cultivation method. With Right-Pan Hu so eager to demand it, it would have been strange if Wei Zhao hadn't deceived him!

Inside the office, Wei Zhao was rather surprised. He glanced at Chief Bai in puzzlement. Wei Zhao could sense the faint disturbance at the office door and knew Right-Pan Hu was eavesdropping, but how had Chief Bai noticed?

After all, the man was a cripple with every meridian in his body severed!

Seeing Wei Zhao's confusion, Chief Bai casually swiveled the computer monitor on the desk around to face Wei Zhao, pointed at the screen, and smiled without a word.

Wei Zhao looked at the computer screen and suddenly understood. On the screen was the surveillance feed from the corridor outside the office, and Right-Pan Hu was clearly visible on it, eavesdropping.

"All right, this time I won't go showing it to just anyone!" Wei Zhao nodded and said.

Still, Wei Zhao planned to let Han Jingyi take a look at this material first when he got back. The Xuan Dan Sect, as an ancient sect devoted specifically to the study of alchemy, naturally had its own unique points, and Han Jingyi might learn something from it. As for Wei Zhao, his own enthusiasm for studying alchemy had faded considerably by now.

In the past, Wei Zhao might have been anxious, tried every means to figure out why he couldn't refine pills; but now, with a genius like Han Jingyi at his side, he was not so worried. As long as Wei Zhao improved his own strength and then helped Han Jingyi improve hers, it should be no great problem for Han Jingyi to refine third-grade pills!

"All right, nothing more to discuss. Go back and eat. I've arranged to meet Right-Pan Hu—he's probably already here. That business of you kicking the door earlier was because of him too, wasn't it?" Chief Bai began to say a few things for propriety's sake: "If you two have a private grudge, that's none of my concern, but in this school, in my class, you'll both settle down and behave. Don't let me catch you at anything, or I'll have you expelled!"

"Yes, sir!" Wei Zhao looked at Chief Bai's smiling face delivering such stern words and found it thoroughly amusing, though he still put on a serious expression and said, "Rest assured, Elder Bai, I won't lay a hand on Right-Pan Hu."

"Good." Chief Bai nodded. His words had actually been a warning to Right-Pan Hu—take your lumps and don't go making trouble—not a warning to Wei Zhao.

"By the way, Elder Bai, I have another question." Wei Zhao had meant to turn and leave, but he suddenly recalled what had happened that morning when Han Jingyi was refining pills, and so he asked, "Have you ever heard of refining pills with several sets of ingredients together in one batch?"

"Oh? Why do you ask that all of a sudden?" Chief Bai was slightly taken aback by the question.

"I read about it in a book of strange tales—it seems such a thing exists?" Wei Zhao did not mention Han Jingyi.

"That's right. In ancient times, it truly could be done—several sets of ingredients refined simultaneously in a single furnace. Not only could they all be refined successfully at once, but with luck, one or two extra pills—or even more—might come out of it." Chief Bai said, "But this can only happen when one's mastery of the fire attribute and the wood attribute has reached an utterly terrifying level!"

"After all, the time, temperature, and fire force required to refine a single pill are completely different from those needed to refine several at once!"