Chapter 4841 — Circumstances Are Stronger Than Men
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Once, he had been a peerless prodigy in pill refinement, bursting onto the scene from nowhere. In a mere few decades he had soared straight to the sixth rank, and before his hundredth year he had reached the seventh—a feat that in those days shook the four seas and stunned the entire world of pill refinement!
Yet just when everyone, himself included, assumed he would unquestionably become the next Mystic-Rank Alchemist, he stalled—and stalled for over two hundred years, right up to the present. Few in the pill-refining world even mentioned the name Qing Xuanzi anymore; those who did could only remark that he had faded into the common crowd.
Two hundred years had nearly worn Qing Xuanzi's spirit to nothing. He had thought his path in pill refinement would end there, that he would never advance another step—only to suddenly encounter Wei Zhao, a man who could refine ten superior Great Return Pills in a single day and who possessed the absolute secret of guaranteed success!
Hope blazed in Qing Xuanzi's heart once more. Compared with the Way of pill refinement, which he regarded as his very life, everything else was passing cloud; even dignity and pride could be cast aside entirely. To advance, he wanted nothing more than to take Wei Zhao as his master on the spot!
He knew, of course, that this would not be easy—his earlier conduct had thoroughly offended Wei Zhao. Unless the man had a hole in his head, there was no chance he would accept him so readily. But Qing Xuanzi did not mind. Whatever it took, he would try, for what if he succeeded?
After all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance; a legendary alchemist of guaranteed success was not someone one met every day. Besides, if he, the Academy's chief alchemist, cast aside his dignity and bowed to a master before all present, Wei Zhao might, out of consideration for the Hong Clan Trading Company's face, nod and agree.
Hearing this, Wei Zhao was dumbfounded. He had somehow been taken for a legendary Mystic-Rank first grade—the man's imagination was truly something else...
"There is nothing I can teach you," Wei Zhao said after a moment's hesitation. "In pill refinement, the master brings you through the door, but the cultivation is your own. You are a seventh-grade alchemist, after all—you should have felt the truth of that deeply enough yourself."
Taking on such a chief alchemist as a disciple for nothing was not a bad thing, but Wei Zhao had always relied on the Divine Farmer's Cauldron for his refining. What could he use to teach such a disciple? Surely he could not just lend the man the Divine Farmer's Cauldron?
"This disciple does not ask Master to impart any profound secrets," Qing Xuanzi said, gazing at Wei Zhao with pleading eyes. "I ask only that Master offer a pointer or two and share a little of your insights into pill refinement. This disciple would be wholly content and would not presume to ask for more."
He understood the principle Wei Zhao spoke of, of course. In truth he did not need systematic instruction from Wei Zhao—it was neither necessary nor useful, for at his level he had long since developed a style of his own, and being taught from the beginning again would avail him nothing. Yet often what blocked him was not a systemic problem, but some small, seemingly trivial one.
At such moments, all it usually took was a word of guidance from an expert, and everything changed at once!
Seeing the utter sincerity on the other's face, Wei Zhao was somewhat moved. He thought for a moment and said, "Very well, then. A pointer or two I can give, but..."
By the terms of their earlier wager, all pills Qing Xuanzi refined henceforth would be handled by the Hong Clan Trading Company. For that reason Wei Zhao did not mind offering some guidance. But he had not finished speaking—what he had meant to say was that taking him as a disciple was out of the question—when, with a thud, Qing Xuanzi dropped to his knees again.