Chapter 2624 — You're an Alchemist Too?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao nodded, not especially disappointed. After all, what the White Leader had just described already counted as an unexpected delight for him. Previously, Wei Zhao had assumed that alchemy was utterly beyond him; now it appeared that he could practice it—it was only that the attributes in his body had not fused to form a small circulation, and so they checked one another.
"It's fine. So long as there is hope, that is enough!" Wei Zhao said. "The specifics can be studied and explored slowly."
"Mm. Come by my study after the meal, and I will show you that book," the White Leader said.
"Gladly!" Wei Zhao nodded without hesitation.
Guan Xin listened in a fog. This talk of attributes checking one another and small circulations—she had never encountered any of it, and only half understood. But one thing she had grasped clearly: Wei Zhao could not practice alchemy, yet there was hope that he might!
"Senior Fellow Disciple Wei Zhao, you had better work hard, then! Xinxin is already a first-rank alchemist, and is striving for second rank!" Guan Xin said with a touch of pride. At last she had something in which she surpassed Wei Zhao; at last she could be his capable assistant. Today Guan Xin was happy!
To begin with, she had taken no interest in learning alchemy—she had wanted only to study pharmacology and go back to help Wei Zhao's company. It was the White Leader's earnest hope that had obliged her to learn alchemy, and now it seemed Wei Zhao too had set foot in the craft. So Guan Xin felt that her study of alchemy had been most wise; at last there was a field in which she surpassed Wei Zhao.
"Heh heh, good!" Wei Zhao said with a smile. "By the way, Xinxin, you are already striving for second-rank alchemist? Have you run into any difficulties?"
"Difficulties... none for now. This sort of thing just comes with practice..." Guan Xin shook her head. "I have not yet refined a single properly formed second-rank pill!"
"That is not quite it, either." The White Leader spoke up suddenly. "The reason Xinxin's success rate at refining second-rank pills is so low is that the second-rank cauldron I have here is rather too worn—there is a crack in it, and during refinement it leaks dan qi, so naturally the success rate is far lower than usual. Given such conditions, it is only reasonable that Xinxin's rate is low."
"A crack?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. "Teacher Bai, why not use a cauldron that has no crack?"
"This cauldron is the one I used when I first learned alchemy. I kept it by me all these years merely as a memento. I cannot practice alchemy myself any longer—what use would a fine cauldron be to me?" The White Leader smiled bitterly. "Who could have guessed that decades later I would take on a disciple and teach her alchemy!"
The White Leader's purpose in teaching out here in the world was, on one hand, to distance himself from the strife of that place, and on the other, to seek, in accordance with his ancestral teachings, an heir of the wood lineage—a girl born with an exceedingly keen instinct for herbs. Yet when the White Leader saw Guan Xin, he discovered that she not only had the makings of an heir but also the makings of an alchemist, and so he had taught her alchemy along the way!
As for that matter, there was really no way the White Leader could ask Xuan Chen for a second-rank cauldron. Xuan Chen, after all, was inclined only toward the White Leader finding a simple heir—not toward raising up an alchemist!