Chapter 4922 — Seven Nourishing Mystery Pills

"No." Wei Zhao's answer was crisp and clean. There was no use talking too much with this silly girl, or he would easily lose his temper.

"Th-then... all right..." Ni Caiyue did not really believe Wei Zhao could actually refine pills, but compared to that, she was more afraid of going out on her own. Nourishing Mystery Grass was precious, but using it as traveling fare should not be a problem, right?

If anyone had known what Ni Caiyue was thinking at that moment, they would have been so grieved and indignant they would have rammed their heads to death. A treasure that a whole host of Mystic Ascension stage experts would fight tooth and nail for, and she was actually treating it as traveling fare? There had to be a limit even to squandering heaven's gifts!

But no matter what, this stalk of Nourishing Mystery Grass ultimately ended up in Wei Zhao's hands. Wei Zhao could not help glancing at her in some surprise. The silly girl might be apt to choke a person to death with her words, but she was not entirely without her merits—at least, if she had been an ordinary person, she would not have handed over the Nourishing Mystery Grass so easily.

"You few wait here, and keep watch for me while you're at it." With that, Wei Zhao took the Nourishing Mystery Grass and found a relatively secluded spot. He concentrated his mind and steadied his breath, then opened the furnace to refine pills.

All the auxiliary materials required for refining Nourishing Mystery Pills were already fully stocked in the spirit herb reserve of his jade pendant space. That was precisely why this proposal had suddenly come to him; otherwise, he would never have set his sights on Miss Ni.

"Is that how he refines pills?" Ni Caiyue stole a glance at Wei Zhao from afar, her expression peculiar. "He's not really trying to swindle me out of this stalk of Nourishing Mystery Grass, is he? He doesn't even have a pill furnace—how is he supposed to refine pills? Liar!"

"Heh, he really isn't lying. He carries his pill furnace with him." Wang Xinyan curved her lips into a smile.

"Really? But he's clearly empty-handed!" Before Ni Caiyue could finish, she saw that no one knew when a pill furnace had suddenly appeared before Wei Zhao after he sat down. She was instantly dumbstruck, rubbing her eyes for dear life. "Am I seeing things? Where did that furnace come from?"

Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a smile. It was one thing for her to see such a thing, but saying anything about it was absolutely out of the question.

Lu Xiaozhong actually did not understand it either, and with a face full of awe for what he could not fathom, he said, "Master Lin is Master Lin all right. He can even carry a pill furnace on his person, and with such consummate skill—worthy indeed of being the master of Master Qingdanzi!"

"He has a disciple?" Ni Caiyue was even more astonished. "He's so young and already taking disciples—isn't he afraid of misleading the younger generation?"

"Misleading the younger generation?" Lu Xiaozhong shot her a disdainful glance. "Master Qingdanzi is the chief alchemist of our Morning Star Academy, a bona fide seventh-rank alchemist. Even he is willing to take Master Lin as his master—and you call that misleading the younger generation?"

"Ah?" Ni Caiyue's mouth promptly stretched into an incredulous "O" shape. She was stunned for quite a while before she said weakly, "I don't get out much—you mustn't fool me..."

"Whether we're fooling you, you'll know soon enough. Come, let's find a place to sit and chat while we wait." Wang Xinyan smiled gently.

"Oh." Ni Caiyue nodded obediently. Perhaps because Wang Xinyan was naturally warm and approachable, she did not have the slightest wariness toward Wang Xinyan at all; she felt close to her by instinct, nothing like the way she second-guessed everything when facing Wei Zhao.

The group sat at a distance to wait. Three hours later, Ni Caiyue had already become thoroughly familiar with Wang Xinyan and the others, and they were addressing one another as sisters. Both Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao were very close to her—after all, her adorably foolish nature was quite endearing. Of course, these people certainly did not include the repeatedly exasperated Wei Zhao.

"Oh, you're already eating. Give me some!" Wei Zhao suddenly squeezed in and plopped himself down among them.

Lu Xiaozhong hastily and most obsequiously handed over the roast meat in his hand. It was from a small spirit beast he had just caught nearby; the meat was fresh and tender, with an excellent texture. He had assumed Wei Zhao's pill refinement would take a long time, so he had simply set up an open-air barbecue. He had not expected Wei Zhao to finish before they had even started eating.

"You're done refining already? You're fooling me, aren't you?" Ni Caiyue jumped to her feet at once, wearing the expression of someone whose intelligence had been gravely insulted. "Even if you're going to fool me, at least put some effort into it! How could refining Nourishing Mystery Pills be this fast? The alchemists at our academy all take several days!"

Wei Zhao paid her no attention at all. While eating his roast meat, he freed one hand and extended it toward Ni Caiyue.

"What are you doing?" Ni Caiyue was startled and hurriedly assumed a self-protective posture with her arms wrapped around her chest, pitifully begging for mercy. "So you fooled me, fine, but could you please not hit me?"

Wei Zhao choked on hearing this and nearly choked to death on the spot. He struggled for quite a while before he recovered and, in exasperation, opened his palm. "Who's hitting you? Look for yourself!"

"Oh." Ni Caiyue gave a weak response. Then, once she had clearly seen what was in Wei Zhao's hand, she was instantly struck dumb, stammering, "Th-this... this is Nourishing Mystery Pill? Three Nourishing Mystery Pills?"

"At least you're not hopelessly stupid. Here, put them away yourself. If you lose them, I won't take responsibility." Wei Zhao casually tossed the three Nourishing Mystery Pills to Ni Caiyue, which flustered the silly girl quite badly; after a frantic scramble she finally caught them, then looked them over again and again in surprise and delight before carefully putting them away.

There had clearly been only one stalk of Nourishing Mystery Grass, enough at most for four portions of materials, yet in a mere three hours he had refined three Nourishing Mystery Pills. This result truly stunned Ni Caiyue. But what left her even more shocked and speechless was that Wei Zhao then gave one to Wang Xinyan and one to Huang Xiaotao.

That was not all—Wei Zhao still plainly had two left in his own hand. In other words, he had actually refined a full seven Nourishing Mystery Pills in one go!

Ni Caiyue was practically going mad. However unworldly she might be, she knew what that meant. Four portions of materials refined into seven Nourishing Mystery Pills—what kind of person was this?!

By now she was looking at Wei Zhao entirely as though he were a monster. It was true that she had not seen Wei Zhao's actual pill-refining process, since she had been rather far away and talking with Wang Xinyan and the others the whole time, but that did not matter—because the result of the refinement alone was enough to shock the world and overawe the vulgar!

"Young hero, who exactly is your master? How are you so formidable?" Ni Caiyue could not resist asking.

Although Wei Zhao had earlier dealt with Chang Laiting and the old owl and Lao Li and the rest with a mere raise of his hand, and she too had found that extraordinarily formidable—after all, these were no ordinary early-stage Mystic Ascension experts, but powerful figures capable of challenging above their level, and for Wei Zhao to dispatch them so lightly and effortlessly was by no means easy—all of it had only made her think him formidable; she had never been so profoundly shocked as this.