Chapter 4943 — The Dinner Invitation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
But if the two refining methods turned out to be fundamentally different, then there would be no point even in trying. Even if he set his disciple Qing Xuanzi to attempt the refinement, the odds of success would likely be far greater than his own, his so-called master's—for in terms of pure alchemical skill, Qing Xuanzi was in truth far stronger than Wei Zhao, lacking only a divine alchemical cauldron like the Shennong Cauldron.
Zhuang Yifan waited at his side, not daring to disturb him. After a moment Wei Zhao suddenly furrowed his brow and gave a low cry of surprise: "Hm? Metal, wood, and earth—three elemental attributes?"
"What is it? Has Master Lin discovered some problem?" Zhuang Yifan's heart skipped a beat and he asked at once.
"It is no great problem, not really…" Wei Zhao shook his head thoughtfully, but did not continue.
Zhuang Yifan assumed that Wei Zhao was not confident of refining the Earth-Solidifying Pill, and at once put on a placating smile to console him. "A pill like the Earth-Solidifying Pill is far too obscure a specialty. It is only natural that even Master Lin might fail in refining it, and if even Master Lin cannot manage it, then anyone else would fare little better."
He was terrified that Wei Zhao might judge the difficulty too great and change his mind on the spot, refusing to refine it for him. That the Earth-Solidifying Pill was exceedingly rare was simple fact; even the Xuan-rank first-grade alchemists of the Xuan-rank sea regions might not be certain of success, for demand for the Earth-Solidifying Pill was so slight that the vast majority of alchemists had never refined one at all, and so no one could guarantee a success rate.
For Zhuang Yifan, success or failure was in truth a secondary matter; what mattered was whether some Xuan-rank first-grade alchemist was willing to help at all. After all, once the furnace was lit and the work begun, even one who had never refined such a pill before had some chance of success—but if no one would lend a hand, then there was not even half a chance.
"Ha ha, with those words from Chairman Zhuang, I am reassured." Wei Zhao gave a noncommittal smile at this. In truth, that earlier cry of surprise had not meant he was unable to refine it; rather, he had discovered in the pill formula a fundamental difference between Xuan-rank pills and Yellow-rank pills.
As everyone knew, Yellow-rank pills imposed no particular requirement on an alchemist's spiritual-root attributes—any alchemist of the corresponding grade could refine them. But Xuan-rank pills were utterly different: not only did they demand greater alchemical skill, but each Xuan-rank pill had its own distinct attribute requirements.
Take this Earth-Solidifying Pill: what its refinement required was not merely the most basic alchemical fire, but also the complementary harmonizing of true qi of the attributes matching its ingredients—metal, wood, and earth, not one of which could be dispensed with. Otherwise, no matter how profound one's alchemical attainment, the final step could never yield a pill.
Wei Zhao nodded inwardly. Compared with Yellow-rank pills, the refining of Xuan-rank pills was plainly far more intricate and abstruse, and because each pill's requirements for spiritual-root attributes differed so greatly, an entirely new and formidable threshold had appeared out of nowhere. He surmised that many Xuan-rank first-grade alchemists could likely refine only a few certain kinds of pills, and were helpless before any whose attributes did not match their own.
In truth, Wei Zhao knew only one side of the matter and not the other. It was true that Xuan-rank pills carried attribute requirements, but this threshold was not absolutely rigid. To become a Xuan-rank alchemist, one had to master a certain advanced technique unique to alchemists—namely, simulating true qi of all the basic elemental attributes at once during the refining process.