Chapter 4861 — Alchemy Divine Artifact Peripheral
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
As it happened, this was the first time Wei Zhao had ever observed a seventh-rank alchemist refine pills from start to finish at close range. Before he could find Qing Xuanzi's problems for him, the real beneficiary was this master who had come by his disciple so cheaply: this kind of close observation would do him a great deal of good. Even with an alchemy divine artifact like the Shennong Cauldron, honing his own alchemy skills could only help.
Before Qing Xuanzi formally began, Wei Zhao stepped forward and mounted the probes onto his alchemy furnace. Qing Xuanzi was utterly baffled—as the academy's chief alchemist, he had never seen anything like it.
But since Wei Zhao said nothing, he did not dare ask. Every high-grade alchemist had his own secret techniques, after all, and to his eyes Wei Zhao's move was profoundly unfathomable; he took it for some special method of a Mystic Rank alchemist—the classic case of not understanding a thing, yet being awed all the same.
Everything was ready, when Qing Xuanzi suddenly froze. After a long pause he scratched his head and said meekly, "Master, er… what pill are we refining?"
"Any pill will do, so long as it is seventh-rank—anything you think might go wrong." Wei Zhao said indifferently.
"Oh. Then your disciple will refine a seventh-rank Great Return Pill." Qing Xuanzi promptly fetched the corresponding ingredients from the adjacent spirit herb store and began refining before Wei Zhao's eyes.
The whole process was uneventful, steady from beginning to end, and gave the impression of complete ease—proof that the academy's chief alchemist did not hold the title for nothing. Qing Xuanzi truly had the skill and the confidence to back it up.
Yet at the very last moment, just as the furnace was about to be opened, a low, muffled thud sounded from within. Qing Xuanzi's expression changed at once, and when he opened it, the inside of the furnace was a charred black—this batch was a complete failure.
"Has it always been like this?" Wei Zhao asked with a frown.
"Not always. Three or four times out of ten it turns out like this; the rest of the time it goes perfectly normally. Your disciple has racked his brains and still cannot fathom why. Did Master notice anything?" Qing Xuanzi said with a bitter face.
If it failed every time, that would be one thing—with enough trial and error he would eventually figure something out. But this on-again, off-again business left a man helpless.
Six or seven successes out of ten meant the alchemy techniques he had mastered were themselves sound; otherwise such a success rate would be impossible. But then what was to be made of the remaining three or four failures?
If everyone had this problem, that would be one thing too—at least it could be put down to an unavoidable, natural failing in alchemy. But with Wei Zhao's absolute certainty of success right before his eyes, thinking that way was pure self-deception.
"I need to think this over carefully. I will tell you when I have," Wei Zhao said, putting away the wireless probes. Escorted out with all reverence by Qing Xuanzi, he did not head for the Hong Chamber of Commerce but instead went nearby to the East Sea Pavilion.
Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao were still at their morning lessons, so Wei Zhao went straight back to his own room and opened the tablet computer on the Shennong Cauldron. The alchemy curves and various real-time parameters from Qing Xuanzi's session soon appeared before his eyes.
Intuitive as the display was, alchemy was after all an exceedingly complex process, and for the moment Wei Zhao could make nothing of it. He had only a vague sense that the curves seemed slightly flawed—but where exactly the flaw lay, he could not yet pin down.