Chapter 3820 — The Transformation of the Seeds

What Wei Zhao had not expected, however, was that Li Zhengming would actually deliver the ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill to his door of his own accord. That was an unexpected delight.

"That will do. Go back and make your preparations, Zhengming. Tomorrow I will give you the Foundation Establishment Pill," Wei Zhao said, consoling Li Zhengming. For a man who now possessed the Shennong Cauldron, refining even the Foundation Establishment Golden Pill and the Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill was already within his power, so a mere Foundation Establishment Pill was naturally no trouble at all.

"Leader Wei Zhao, then I shall take my leave." Li Zhengming nodded gratefully, but he did not waste words on flattery either, and promptly took his leave.

He knew that this leader of his, Wei Zhao, was nothing like Meng Jueming and the others. Flattery and empty praise had no effect on him. To earn his genuine trust, one had to offer solid action. And given Wei Zhao's consistent style, so long as one served him in earnest, he would never treat one shabbily.

Watching Li Zhengming depart, Wei Zhao immediately set about his work. Refining the Foundation Establishment Pill posed no particular challenge, but it would still consume no small amount of time, so before that he had at least to tend to the eighty-five spirit-herb seeds and make sure they received their fixed, measured infusions of true qi.

According to what that effeminate chief steward of the spirit-herb garden had said, by his count nearly twenty days had now passed, and by rights the time should be about up. Even if not all eighty-five spirit-herb seeds had sprouted, at least some of them should have begun to develop first.

Yet what left Wei Zhao speechless was that all eighty-five spirit-herb seeds seemed to have been collectively silenced. Nearly twenty days had passed, and not the slightest stir had come from them. Wei Zhao could not help but begin to wonder whether the spiritual qi concentration in his jade pendant space was too rich, and had instead made these spirit-herb seeds uncomfortable?

Even people had times when their bodies were too weak to absorb rich nourishment, and other ordinary crops, if given too much fertilizer, would likewise show signs of being burned at the seedling stage.

True, ordinary crops could not be mentioned in the same breath as spirit-herb seeds, those wondrous things that gathered the essence of heaven and earth, and the spiritual qi of heaven and earth was no ordinary fertilizer. By rights, a case of being too weak to absorb nourishment should not arise. But in the present circumstances, such a possibility could not be ruled out.

Fortunately, although these eighty-five spirit-herb seeds showed no sign of developing at all, their seed coats were round, full, and in quite good condition, not at all like something about to wither and die.

What Wei Zhao felt was that although these spirit-herb seeds had not truly begun to develop, after this period of nurturing in the jade pendant space, their vitality was already much better than the malnourished look they had had when he first received them.

This was only Wei Zhao's own conjecture, but it had some reason to it.

That effeminate steward had said that these spirit-herb seeds, being mass-cultivated by the spirit-herb garden, were of a batch inherently deficient even if they could develop and survive. Not only could they not be kept for seed cultivation, but even the spirit-herb plants grown from them could not compare in quality with spirit herbs that grew naturally in the wild.

All things have spirit, and spirit-herb seeds are even more so. Now that they had been placed in a place as favored by nature as the jade pendant space, it was entirely possible that they were holding off on developing in order to store up strength and make up for the vitality they had lacked from birth.

If that were truly the case, it would instead be a rare piece of good fortune for Wei Zhao. After all, he had only two Heart-Devouring Exquisite Grass seeds in his possession. If the plants finally cultivated turned out to be of too poor a quality, there might well not be enough for two Foundation Establishment Golden Pills, or even enough for one. That would be a real swindle.

Still, no matter how he speculated, so long as these spirit-herb seeds did not rot or wither, Wei Zhao could for the time being only keep waiting like this. He could not even go ask others for advice, for this involved the jade pendant space, a secret of the utmost importance. Unless it were someone completely trustworthy, it must never be allowed to become known.

After infusing the eighty-five spirit-herb seeds with true qi as usual, Wei Zhao made some slight preparations, then set to work refining the Foundation Establishment Pill with the spirit-herb ingredients Li Zhengming had provided.

Of the process there is no need to say more. Having previously refined the Foundation Establishment Golden Pill and the Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill, Wei Zhao was already well versed in the routine, and refining a mere Foundation Establishment Pill was no trouble to him at all.

The night passed without a word. The next day, before the sky had even brightened, the restriction on Li Zhengming's second cave dwelling at the foot of the mountain was gently touched.

Li Zhengming was slightly startled, thinking that Meng Jueming and the others must have some matter to seek him out about again. After all, although he had spoken to Wei Zhao the night before about refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, and Wei Zhao had agreed on the spot without a second word, even an layman like Li Zhengming knew that pill refining was no simple matter.

Even though the Foundation Establishment Pill was not of a particularly high grade, the refining process still consumed a great deal of mental energy, and to ensure the success rate, every preparation had to be made in advance.

These preparations referred not only to the pill-refining ingredients, but more crucially to the alchemist himself, who also had to spend time adjusting his state and restoring his spirit. This time varied from person to person, long or short, but from what Li Zhengming knew, even the most formidable alchemist, from the moment of accepting a commission, needed at least a full day of preparation.

As for those who took the ingredients and started refining on the spot without a second word, they were simply bumpkins who could not guarantee any success rate at all.

One had to understand that even with meticulous, thorough preparation, the success rate of the great majority of alchemists was only around twenty to thirty percent. And if the preparations were not made adequately in advance, then one could not even hope for those twenty or thirty percent; likely it would be only ten percent, or even less.

In that case, the three portions of Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients Li Zhengming had gotten from Meng Jueming would not even be enough to be thrown away for nothing. But from his observation, this leader of his, Wei Zhao, always conducted himself with steadiness and measure, and in a matter like pill refining, where no amount of caution was excessive, he surely would not be so reckless.

So at the moment the cave dwelling's restriction was touched, Li Zhengming did not think of Wei Zhao and the Foundation Establishment Pill at all. Instead, he mused that Meng Jueming and the others had come to call on him so early, and that they might well be up to some new trick, preparing to carry out some shady business in secret.

But when he opened the door of the cave dwelling, Li Zhengming could not help but be startled again. Before him was empty air; there was no trace of the Meng Jueming and the others he had expected.