Chapter 2056 — The Cauldron Exploded
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Brother Lin? What made you call me all of a sudden?" Bai Weituo was rather surprised to receive Wei Zhao's call. It was Sunday, and this early in the morning Bai Weituo was still lazing in bed in his dormitory, not yet up, when Wei Zhao's call came through.
"Weituo, there's something I'd like to ask you about," Wei Zhao said.
"Brother Lin, just say the word—why stand on ceremony with 'ask' and all that? Little brother will tell you everything he knows and hold nothing back!" Bai Weituo was deeply grateful to Wei Zhao for yesterday's trip to the tiger park; He Meiyue's impression of him had improved quite a bit as well. At the very least, he had successfully gotten her QQ number and could chat with her online.
"It's about pill refinement," Wei Zhao said.
"Pill refinement? That I really don't know much about. If it's knowledge in that area, you'd best consult my grandfather..." Bai Weituo said hastily the moment he heard Wei Zhao's question. "Brother Lin, it's not that I don't want to answer—it's just that I really don't know that much."
"No matter. It's only a simple question," Wei Zhao said. "For the pill cauldrons used in refinement—can an ordinary fake antique bought on the antique street do?"
"What?" Bai Weituo was stunned by the question, then said, half laughing, half exasperated, "How could that possibly work? Never mind a fake antique—even a genuine antique, if it wasn't designed to a pill refiner's requirements and specifications, can't be used for pill refinement! Those things are just handicrafts. Try to refine a pill in one and the furnace will blow straight up!"
"The furnace can blow up?" Wei Zhao broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed Han Jingyi's explosion was no injustice—even genuine antiques not made specifically for pill refinement could blow up, let alone a fake cauldron like that! Without a master's guidance, you were bound to stumble into every pit!
Wei Zhao was rather speechless. He and Han Jingyi really had been letting their imaginations run wild. In Zhang Lifeng's notes on a pill refiner's experience, Wei Zhao had read that the cauldrons for refining first- and second-grade Yellow Rank pills did not need to be anything special—ordinary copper or cast-iron cauldrons would do.
But Wei Zhao had overlooked one point: pill refiners used cauldrons made specifically for the purpose, and while such cauldrons could indeed be of copper or cast iron, the cheap stall goods sold on the street outside were garbage of the lowest order—utterly unfit for refining pills!
And yet Zhang Lifeng had never made that clear!
In truth, had Zhang Lifeng's notes fallen into the hands of a hidden scion of some great family—or a disciple of an ancient sect—with even a little knowledge of pill refinement, they would surely have understood that the cauldrons referred to were purpose-made ones, and would never have assumed, as Wei Zhao did, that any old thing sold on the street would do...
This was also why You Panhu had found it so strange when he heard that Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi had gone to Antique Street and bought two battered old cauldrons! Even the lowliest pill refiner would not touch such things, and yet Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi had gone and bought them? Did he think that thing could refine pills? He wouldn't even know whether it was usable for practice!
"That's right—an ordinary cauldron will certainly blow up. To refine pills you must use a cauldron made specifically for pill refiners, and the grade has to match as well! A first-grade pill, for instance, requires a first-grade cauldron... Of course, a second-grade cauldron can refine not only second-grade pills but first-grade pills as well!" Bai Weituo at least knew this much. "What's this, Boss? You can't have already learned to refine pills this quickly, have you? That would really be fast!"