Chapter 4074 — Friends from the Secular World
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"That's right—" Wei Zhao nodded and admitted it frankly. There was no need to hide such a thing from the two of them.
"To think you can refine even top-grade pills so effortlessly—I never imagined you were such a formidable alchemist, Wei Zhao!" Ning Xuefei gazed at him with open admiration in her eyes, then suddenly said, "Oh, right—I've heard of a pill that can directly raise one's cultivation, called the Foundation-Building Golden Pill. You just swallow it and you advance, unlike the Foundation-Building Barrier-Breaking Pill, which is only good for breaking through a bottleneck. I wonder, do you know how to refine it?"
"You know about the Foundation-Building Golden Pill too?" Wei Zhao was mildly surprised. On Cloud Terrace Island, the Foundation-Building Golden Pill was an exceedingly rare and precious elixir—even in a great trading house like the Hong Clan Merchants' Guild, one would be hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of it.
"Of course I do!" Ning Xuefei tilted her chin up smugly. "A very good friend of mine told me about it!"
"I can give it a try, though I can't promise it will succeed," Wei Zhao said, careful not to overstate his chances.
"That would be wonderful!" Ning Xuefei was instantly elated. "I've collected loads of ingredients for refining the Foundation-Building Golden Pill—let's refine it together! And when it's done, the three of us will split it. But I'll be taking two shares—I have to bring one back for my good friend!"
"Fine, no problem at all." Wei Zhao nodded in agreement. Ever since Hong Zhong had gone off to Middle Island, he had lost a reliable channel for purchasing Heart-Eating Linglong Grass; if he ever wanted to refine more Foundation-Building Golden Pills in the future, he could only wait for word from Chen Heihu's side. He had been fretting over this very problem lately—and then, out of nowhere, Ning Xuefei had shown up offering him coal in the dead of winter.
Still, by Wei Zhao's estimate, even with Ning Xuefei's lofty status as the daughter of West Island's Island Master, the ingredients she had gathered privately for the Foundation-Building Golden Pill could not possibly amount to much. After all, the extreme rarity of Heart-Eating Linglong Grass was a fact of nature—it wasn't something one could simply gather at will.
Yet a few days later, the enormous, brimming basket of ingredients that Ning Xuefei had sent over truly left Wei Zhao thunderstruck. By a rough estimate, there was enough in it for at least ten batches!
Even a man of Wei Zhao's composure was left staring for a long while before he came back to his senses. Truly, comparison with others was enough to make a man want to die—Wei Zhao could not help but marvel: just how had Ning Xuefei managed to collect all this?
At that, Wei Zhao could not help but feel his blood stir with excitement. After making his preparations, he immediately set about lighting the furnace to refine pills.
Yet just then, those two young misses, Ning Xuefei and Shangguan Lan'er, came knocking at his door, declaring in perfect unison, "We want to watch you refine the pills—we'll stand guard for you!"
This sudden and utterly bizarre demand left Wei Zhao torn between laughter and tears. He knew perfectly well that they meant no harm—they were sincerely fond of him and had no thought of doing him ill. They simply wanted to watch him refine pills out of pure curiosity, for the fun of it. But if he let them, the secret of his Shennong Cauldron would be exposed!
After brooding over it for a long while, Wei Zhao at last decided to agree, and warned them, "Very well—but you must not tell anyone else about my pill refining. Can you promise me that?"
"Of course, of course—this will be our little secret, just the three of us!" Ning Xuefei and Shangguan Lan'er clapped their palms together in celebration, overjoyed.