Wan Hong'an nodded, pondered for a moment, and then said, "I won't hide it from Master Qin, actually my condition and request are related. I'd like to ask Master Qin to first try refining this."
Wan Hong'an addressed him as 'Master' in every breath, appearing to hold great respect for Lu Li, or perhaps for the profession of Pill Master.
As he spoke, he took out a pill formula from his bosom and handed it to Lu Li.
Lu Li took it and looked. This pill formula was quite simple. The pill formula only listed the refining sequence of three ingredients: Buddha-Heart Fruit, Cold Jade Stone Marrow, and Five Spirit Leaf. Other than this, it didn't even have a name for the finished pill.
He asked suspiciously, "May I ask, Market Owner, what exactly is this pill? Why doesn't it even have a name?"
Wan Hong'an smiled and said, "Actually, I also don't know what pill this is. If Master can successfully refine it, then it will count as fulfilling my condition. As for the request... we can discuss it after you succeed in refining."
"Is this pill difficult to refine?" Lu Li frowned and asked.
Wan Hong'an shook his head. "It shouldn't be difficult. Two masters have already successfully refined it."
Lu Li heard that people had already successfully refined it, which was enough to show this pill formula had no problems. After pondering slightly, he agreed. "In that case, I'll give it a try. But what about the materials listed here?"
Refining pills was fine, but having him provide the materials was absolutely impossible. Not only did he currently only have one of the Buddha-Heart Fruits, even if he had them all, he couldn't easily give them away.
Hearing this, Wan Hong'an laughed heartily, then took out three jade boxes and placed them on the tea table. "Master, rest assured, I'll provide the materials. Here are five sets of materials in total. As long as Master successfully refines one pill, it counts as passing."
Five sets of materials meant enough to refine five pills.
Hearing this, Lu Li's eyes couldn't help but light up. That meant there were five Buddha-Heart Fruits here? If he succeeded on his first try, wouldn't he earn four for free?
He was currently worried about having only thirty Buddha-Heart Fruits on him. He didn't expect to encounter such good fortune. He immediately collected the three jade boxes, smiled and said, "Since that's the case, then let's begin."
"Good!" Wan Hong'an felt some admiration for Lu Li's decisiveness. From this, it seemed the other party wasn't the kind to deceive people. Excitedly rubbing his hands, he stood up. "Master, come with me. I'll take you to the Pill Tower."
The Pill Tower was located to the right of the meeting hall, a single-story building. Opening the main door revealed a long passageway inside, with many stone chambers on both sides of the passageway being places for pill refining.
Following Wan Hong'an all the way to the first stone chamber entrance on the right side of the passageway, Wan Hong'an stopped, pressed a switch by the door, and the thick stone door rumbled and rose up.
Then he smiled and said to Lu Li, "Master Qin, how about refining here?"
The interior layout was simple. Besides a pill platform, there was only a stone long table and a meditation cushion. Of course... beside the pill platform was a specially designed large jade tray for holding spiritual herbs, considered the most basic configuration.
At the Qi Refining stage, with low cultivation level, one couldn't use pill fire. If one reached the Golden Core level, it wouldn't be so troublesome, as one could use pill fire directly to refine pills.
Lu Li gave a light hm to indicate agreement, then walked in, lowering the stone door in front of Wan Hong'an.
Wan Hong'an wasn't dissatisfied with this. He deeply understood that pill masters had their own secrets and couldn't let him watch the pill refining. Moreover, besides those two old pill masters, no outsiders knew about his pill formula.
And the whereabouts of those two old pill masters were under his control, and they hadn't leaked his pill formula, so he wasn't worried about Lu Li cheating with pre-refined pills.
Inside Pill Refining Chamber Number One.
Lu Li first released his Divine Sense to inspect the surroundings, discovering they were all thick stone walls, seemingly with restrictions that isolated Divine Sense probing. Only then did he feel at ease, sitting cross-legged in front of the foot-high pill platform.
He took out his own pill furnace and placed it on the pill platform.
Then he gently twisted the earth fire switch, testing the earth fire intensity. He discovered the earth fire here was even fiercer than at Cool Mountain. He tested repeatedly many times, until he could completely control the flame intensity corresponding to the knob's rotation, then he stopped.
Besides the pill formula's own success rate, flame intensity was the biggest factor affecting pill formation, not something he could afford to be careless about.
The pill formula's success rate mentioned here mainly referred to: during the formation process of some pill formulas, because testing wasn't sufficient, although the pill formula's creator had fortunately succeeded in refining, it couldn't guarantee the spiritual herbs recorded on the pill formula were the optimal combination.
Therefore, pill formulas also had grade distinctions.
Tested over a thousand times, with a success rate of ten percent, could be called a Primary Pill Formula.
Tested over a thousand times, with a success rate of thirty percent, could be called an Intermediate Pill Formula.
..., with a success rate of sixty percent, could be called an Advanced Pill Formula.
..., with a success rate of ninety percent, could be called a Top-Grade Pill Formula.
Pill formulas that could be graded were all verified by the Pill Refining Guild and stamped with a spirit seal.
Of course, this was the Pill Refining Guild's standard. Some Rogue Cultivators or Sect pill masters hadn't joined the Pill Refining Guild and didn't want their hard-tested pill formulas collected by the Pill Refining Guild, so many pill formulas weren't stamped with spirit seals.
Lu Li also didn't know this pill formula's grade, but in his view, as long as it had succeeded in pill formation, there was hope. As long as he was careful during refining, the probability of pill formation was still quite large.
The first to be refined was Buddha-Heart Fruit. Considering he would need to refine it for Meridian-Nourishing Pill later, he was extra careful during refining, trying as much as possible to test Buddha-Heart Fruit's optimal refining temperature.
About half a quarter-hour.
The entirely orange-yellow Buddha-Heart Fruit's surface finally began to exude faint yellow spiritual liquid, gathering toward the pill furnace's bottom.
Outside the pill chamber.
Wan Hong'an paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, looking even more nervous than Lu Li who was refining pills.
"Market Owner, you... what's this?"
Suddenly, a somewhat aged and surprised voice sounded at the passageway's outer entrance. A green-robed old man walked in slowly. It was Jia Tong, one of the two major pill masters who had left earlier.
Jia Tong, like the other pill master Li Xiuyun, had both passed by the Jinyang Cultivator Market by chance. Hearing the Market Owner's residence was seeking pill masters with generous rewards, they came here to try their luck.
Most pill masters didn't go out seeking spiritual herbs themselves, only relying on pills they refined to exchange. If a pill master had high success rates, naturally they earned plenty, but like him, if not careful, they might even lose money.
So hearing there were vast amounts of True Essence Pills to earn, he came without hesitation.
But only upon arriving did he learn that this Wan Hong'an actually needed five pill masters before taking them to that mysterious place for pill refining, which had already given him thoughts of leaving.
He came to this Pill Tower now intending to refine all the herbs on him here, then bid farewell and leave.
After all, traveling outside, finding a place with earth fire wasn't easy.
Seeing Jia Tong approach, Wan Hong'an collected the anxious expression on his face, smiling and cupping his hands. "So it's Master Jia. Just now, a master came and is refining pills inside. I have nothing to do, so I'm waiting here..."
"Oh?" Hearing this, Jia Tong also looked pleasantly surprised. "Another person actually came? Then I must truly congratulate Market Owner."
"Haha, congratulations to you too."
Seeing this, Jia Tong wasn't in a hurry to refine pills anymore. He chatted idly with Wan Hong'an at the entrance, also wanting to see the master Wan Hong'an spoke of.
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