Chapter 3648 — Preparing to Refine Pills!

"Oh? So if I join the Pill Hall, I'd be able to go to the Pill Pavilion and meet Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng?" Wei Zhao's heart stirred slightly.

"How could that be? Though on paper it's managed by the Pill Hall, the alchemists are all native to North Island. Only someone at the level of the Pill Hall's hall master gets to make the trip to Middle Island to hand in the harvest and collect materials—and even then it's only a matter of days before they must hurry back. Meet Grandmaster Zhang Lifeng? You think it's that easy to get an audience with him?" Senior Brother Kubi shook his head.

"I see... Well, we'll deal with that when the time comes." Wei Zhao shook his head noncommittally.

Though he could refine pills, he relied chiefly on the Shennong Cauldron that Han Jingyi had modified—he was no true alchemist. What was more, his primary task now was to get to Middle Island and find Zhang Lifeng. If he joined the Pill Hall, then unless he rose to become a pavilion master, he'd likely have a hard time being assigned any mission that took him to Middle Island.

Even a pavilion master had to return quickly once he went, which made the whole affair rather pointless. Besides, Wei Zhao had no wish for the secret of his pill refining to be discovered—if anyone learned of this cauldron, it would bring him endless trouble.

Dismissing the thought, Wei Zhao turned and asked, "Senior Brother Ku, you said earlier that having the Pill Hall refine pills costs a great deal?"

"Of course it does—getting those people at the Pill Hall to refine a batch is no easy matter!" Senior Brother Kubi said, still shaken by the memory. "By the Pill Hall's rules, to refine any pill at all we must supply two portions of ingredients and pay a not-inconsiderable sum of spirit jade. If it's an uncommon pill, we also have to provide the pill formula ourselves. The Barrier-Breaking Foundation Pill I need now isn't an uncommon one, but besides supplying two portions of ingredients, I'd have to pay an extra two hundred spirit jade. Tell me, Junior Brother Lin, is that a steep price or not?"

"Two hundred spirit jade on top of that? That really is a bit outrageous!" Wei Zhao had long known that alchemists reaped enormous profits, but to this degree still made him click his tongue.

The two portions of ingredients together were worth no more than a dozen or so spirit jade—a bit of effort and one could gather them, and that much stayed within what an ordinary cultivator could bear. But the extra two hundred spirit jade was simply too much. For a low-level steward like Senior Brother Kubi, it would take ten years just to save up that many spirit jade.

"Paying such a price would be worth it if they guaranteed success—after all, the Barrier-Breaking Foundation Pill sells for four hundred spirit jade in the market stalls. If this price could buy me one pill, that would still count as a gain."

Senior Brother Kubi gave a bitter smile and went on: "But the trouble is, the Pill Hall doesn't guarantee success at all! If those two portions of ingredients yield two pills, you only get one of them. If only one pill comes out, consider your ancestors' graves smoking green—you still get that one. But if every attempt fails, then well, the ingredients you gathered and the two hundred spirit jade you paid are all gone down the drain; not a single cent comes back to you!"

"Then isn't this just a reckless gamble? The Pill Hall really is ruthless!" Wei Zhao could not help but draw a sharp breath.

For four hundred spirit jade one could simply buy a Barrier-Breaking Foundation Pill in the market; going to the Pill Hall meant supplying two portions of ingredients plus two hundred spirit jade, for a mere chance at obtaining one—and of course, a chance of losing everything.

For an ordinary cultivator like Senior Brother Kubi, this was nothing short of a gamble staking his entire fortune and livelihood.

And from what Wei Zhao knew, for the vast majority of alchemists the higher a pill's grade, the lower the success rate—meaning that for a fourth-grade pill like the Barrier-Breaking Foundation Pill, the odds of failure far outweighed the odds of success.

If Senior Brother Kubi truly gritted his teeth, saved up two hundred spirit jade, and went to the Pill Hall, there was at least a sixty percent chance he would lose it all.

Of course, with two portions of ingredients the odds were somewhat better—but it was still a considerable risk.

That was exactly what had made him so excited and impatient earlier. After all, if he had Wei Zhao refine the pill for him, even if the success rate was lower than that of the Pill Hall's alchemists, it didn't matter—he only had to supply the ingredients, and compared with the steep price of two hundred spirit jade, such a loss was negligible.

The spirit jade Wei Zhao had just given him was enough to buy five more portions of ingredients—so what was there to worry about?

"Junior Brother Lin, I'll leave the pill refining to you. But don't put yourself under any pressure—if the pill succeeds, it's better than I could wish for, and if it fails, that's all right too. Gathering these ingredients really doesn't take much effort," Senior Brother Kubi said earnestly.

Wei Zhao nodded. "Rest easy, Senior Brother Ku. I'm confident."

Seeing that look on Wei Zhao's face, Senior Brother Kubi still felt his Junior Brother Lin was a bit blindly self-assured, but he dared not dampen his confidence. He could only say, "Then when do you plan to start refining? I'll figure out a way to get you a few days' leave from the Spirit Jade Hall."

Even an outsider like Senior Brother Kubi knew that pill refining always drained enormous mental and physical energy, especially when refining high-grade pills—a single session could well last several days. If Wei Zhao kept going to the mines every day to dig ore instead of properly conserving his strength before refining, something could easily go wrong along the way.

A failed refinement would be the least of it; Wei Zhao himself might well be injured. After all, more than one alchemist had died when a cauldron exploded—the risks involved were only too easy to imagine.

"I'll get ready and start tonight, then see how things look by tomorrow morning. If you don't see me come out, Senior Brother Ku, please request a day's leave for me." Wei Zhao smiled. In truth, he expected results within a single night, but he had never refined a Barrier-Breaking Foundation Pill before and did not know exactly how it would go, so he did not dare make any promises.