章 30: Begin Concocting!

"Master Senior Zhang Wu Chou arrived!" a loud and clear shout came into a courtyard with a tall three floored building right in the middle. Running along by the side of the building was a trench of water with fishes feeding on the fish meal scattered by the disciples walking around to enjoy its beautiful sight.

Following from that call, a carriage pulled by four well-breed horses stops right before the entrance. Two servants walked over to the carriage and opened the door, allowing the people seated within to come out. One by one, the people seated inside came out from the carriage, followed lastly by a young master in his seventeenth years old. His appearance carried a slight resemblance to Zhang Qing Feng, especially on the part of his eyes and eyebrow.

This male is Zhang Wu Chou, Zhang Wu Ji's second brother, which was older by him for two years. Carrying himself in a haughty attitude, Zhang Wu Chou entered the courtyard with four subordinates following from behind. His strength was among the top three strongest youth within the pavilion, with the cultivation in his 13th Stage of an Inner Qi Warrior.

The four subordinates each carried a sword, six meters in length, and weight varies from the material they were used to make the four swords. Each of them contains a special meaning because Zhang Wu Chou was the one and only disciple within the whole Heavenly Sword Sect that managed to cultivate the most profound sword art in the sect, known as;

Supreme Sword of Four Seasons.

The Spring Sword that carries profound style to overcome enemies in a cheerful manner, the Summer Sword that carries deadly ferocity to destroy the enemies with pure raw strength, the Autumn Sword that retaliates all form with their complexity, and the Winter Sword, a style that kills without smearing the pureness of a white snow.

This was also the reason he went everywhere with his four subordinates, namely Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The four of them weren't weak, as each of them come with the cultivation of the 9th Stage of Inner Qi Fighter.

Zhang Wu Chou is a scholar, as well a Martial Art Cultivator. He was a master not only in Politics but also in Music and Arts. Today, the meeting in this pavilion is arranged by none other than himself, because within of the Heavenly Sword Sect, Zhang Wu Chou wasn't only the direct disciple of the headmaster, he was also their appointed Director of Sect External Affairs, in duty with handling those affairs related to outside of their sect.

The South Heavenly County was the fifth strongest county among the ten in the Upper South State. Inside, there were 4 cities, 21 Towns, and 50 Villages. By only controlling the number of their tributes monthly, it was a great deal for a single person to handle. This is the reason why, inside of this building, there were a total of 98 people waiting for his instructions.

"Greetings to Director Zhang!" the crowd inside of this meeting hall greets him altogether, bringing his importance even further right before the meeting starts. Zhang Wu Chou did not answer them, but with both hand opened wide, he signaled the crowd to be seated as he walks toward his own seat right in the middle of his own seat. If Zhang Wu Ji saw the chair his second brother laid his buttock on, he will immediately realize that this was how the world first chair with wheels is created.

Of course, the ancient version is much sophisticated, where to move his facing towards the desired direction, he will need to turn the control wheel on both of his left and right. It was a weird experience at first, but after leading the monthly meeting for so long, he already gets used to operating it.

"Villages," he mentioned a word, which brings up the 50 Village Representatives stand up from their seats. Proceeding one by one, they reported the number of tributes that were delivered by their village, before another one followed. The Spring and Summer will inspect the delivered materials before it was directed to Autumn and Winter for storage. This goes along until he mentioned another word.

"Towns."

Forty-two representatives stand up, divided into twenty-one pairs. The pair were in control of their towns production, mainly in medicinal herbs and also other more previous products, such as wine, hunted animals, and pills. Similar to the Village Crowds, the material was inspected before it was stored.

"Tian Ling City!" his order came in, where it was responded by a pair of male and female representatives.

"Director, Tian-Ling City this month are proud to present the Heavenly Sword Sect with a total of 30,000 Qi Sensing Pills, 2 tonnes of Purple Essence Jade, 200 Advance-Quality Pure Iron Ingots and Sentient Iron Ingots, and 100 boxes of Camelia Flower Essence Tea Leaves." the two representatives reported everything written in their list.

The Thirty thousand Qi Sensing Pills were worth 30 Million in total, added with the precious Purple Essence Jade worth 20 Million, the 400 Ingots worth 30 Million, and another 10 Million for the 100 boxes of tea leaves, their tributes on a month alone worth 90 Million Gold Coins. This amount was over nine-fold compared to Zhang Wu Ji's income.

"Good! Your city's profit is increased once again... Now, Tian Shi City!" he praised the performance of the representative's report and called another city. But their report was lackluster in comparison against the Tian Ling City's performance.

In this meeting, the Tian Ling City was the one with the highest amount of tributes, worth 90 Million, followed by the Tian Shi City, Tian Huo City, and Tian Lin City with 70 Million respectively. The Town group's figure was even smaller, capped at between 1 million to 5 million Gold Coins. As for the Village Groups, their contribution was all raw materials, which was the best they can provide due to the limitation of their power.

"Great work everyone. Your rewards from the Heavenly Sword Sect will come soon." Zhang Wu Chou praised all of them before he left the meeting hall without waiting for anyone to reply his words. While the people inside of the building is ongoing, the outside of the pavilion was already crowded with many humongous carriages that were specialized with carrying heavy weights. The carriage is pulled by a kind of Peak Wild Beast known as Iron Scale Bull.

These Iron Scale Bulls were domesticated Wild Beast in their Peak cultivation of a 9th Stage Inner Qi Fighter and were one of the few kinds of Wild Beast that can easily accept their condition as long they were fed with good quality foods. As for the good quality preferences, it was Qi Sensing Pill.

Pulling the tribute goods worth over a few hundred thousand millions with them, the crowd led by Zhang Wu Chou returned to the Heavenly Sword Sect. As for the promised rewards, they were actually water from the Sword Mountain's Natural Waterfall, where it was nourished for generations by the members of the Heavenly Sword Sect using their own Strands of Inner Qi.

The Bottled Water from the Sword Mountain in Heavenly Sword Sect were precious natural commodities that were distributed in a controlled manner for years and was one of the most sought-after tributes even the Lord of Upper South State covets.

"Reporting to Master Senior, we received a letter from your father." his subordinate, Summer, hand an enclosed letter to Zhang Wu Chou with both hands. He received the letter and open to read its content, only to give out a sour smile. Although his relationship with his brothers and father weren't bad, towards his youngest brother, Zhang Wu Ji, he has a different opinion.

The important content's of the letter was;

First, his youngest brother has grown up and was accepted into the Seven Star Sect. It did not further express the detail of him being accepted as a Master Senior because this letter was sent not too long after the news of his acceptance was received.

The second is that because of the two parent's wishes, The Zhang and Guans had agreed to become the matchmaker to pull the youngest Zhang Wu Ji together with Guan Qing Han. Their marriage will be discussed further when the two return from the Seven Star Sect after a year.

As for the third, it was related to the family business. At this moment, the Zhang Family already take the initiative to purchase the unused land near to the Qing Spirit Forest and completely immersed themselves into the business in Pills and Botanist. Their family standing was twice better than before, and it was all thanks to their youngest brother that started the planting and collecting materials from the Qing Spirit Woods.

"I wonder how eldest brother will react when he read the same letter addressed to him." Zhang Wu Chou smirks and destroys the letter, letting the wind blow them away.

"Master, do you need this three disciples to do anything for you?" without noticing the time has passed, another five days have passed. His strands of Fighter Qi were worth 25 strands, and up to date, he spent a total of six ingots to mass produce the Iron Thrusting Dirks just for the sake of his upgrading research. The effort of his promotes the awe of his three disciples, but when they noticed that their master had missed his breakfast for six continuous days, it becomes worries.

This is why at this morning, the three of them remain in the courtyard until their master came out from the room. Kneeling right before him, their appearance is more like disciples kneeling because of their mistake and not like disciples that trying to get rid of their master's worries.

"What are you three doing again? Do you like kneeling so much?" Zhang Wu Ji questioned them. It wasn't an issue for him as that weren't his knee, to begin with, but for a person that wasn't originated from this world, it was unusual for him, especially when each time he saw this three, they will perform such an action.

"Stand up!" he shouted at them, which they finally understand the meaning behind his questions. But still, they maintain their attitude towards their master and awaits his next order. From the six pieces of ingots, he crafted a total of 270 of the Iron Thrusting Dirks, but only 3 were left in his hand, while all the others turned into ashes of Failure because of his failing attempts.

Holding the Dirk nicely in his palm, Zhang Wu Ji strikes at the decoration stone ball that was standing at his side. The sharpness of the Dirk cuts the stone in a perfectly smooth line, as it slid down and cracked when it reaches the ground. It gave the trio a shock because, in their mind, it was a ridiculous opinion for them to consider that a dagger that small can actually be this sharp.

"This is the Iron Thrusting Dirk. It was a new design I come out with. As for their usage, it was more likely to be prepared for a female that wasn't a cultivator but needs to protect themselves from any attacks. Its blade was 6 inches long, which means it's scabbard will only need to be simple. It can also be treated as ceremonial weapons, especially when specially ordered by a father to their child, or from a master to his disciples."

"What do you think about this weapon?" he passes three of the +6 Iron Thrusting Dirks to his three disciples, and let them study the weapon back in their own place. This way, he can divert their attention, and reduce the frequency of their visits to where he is. With the research on successfully making his weapon +10 quality, aside disturbance is not needed.

Like this, Zhang Wu Ji let his three disciples left, and return to take a short rest before he continued with the upgrading works once more. Insisting that his first upgraded item should be a weapon he made, Zhang Wu Ji continued with his craft. One after another, the Iron Thrusting Dirk were created one after another, only to be turned into Ashes of Failure for an unaccountable number of times.

One day after another, the third month finally passed.

The first day of the month greets the courtyard with stacks of Yantai County's Mandrake Plant, which was finally harvested after they matured exactly in 90 days. But that was not all. The first batch of Yin Ling Fruit was ripe enough for harvest as well. A total of 100 fruits were harvested, each of them was kept in a nice basket that was specially woven for Yin Ling Fruit alone.

And at the side of the two plants were a beautiful fruit with the shape like a mango, but carrying the beautiful skin like a scorching sun. This is the precious commodities that although it wasn't rare, it was a fruit that likely nobody will waste them for the sake of eating, the Sun Facing Fruit.

That was not all. At the bottom side of the Sun, Facing Fruit placed three Bottle Gourd, filled with the Taixia Condensed Dews. With all the ingredients were ready, Zhang Wu Ji came out from the Blacksmith, inspect each of the items before he ordered them to be relocated into the Pill Making Room for him to follow up.

One needs to know that, for those Untiered Medicinal Pills, a combination is a must to further enhance the effectiveness of the end results, but for those tiered pills like those ingredients he possesses at this moment, it was better to concoct them in their purest condition, which was after they were recently harvested.

He took a short rest, and went to the Pill Making Room quickly, and begin with the process of concocting the Taixia Pill from the Condensed Dew first. Although they were all Tier 1 Medicine, none of their production recipes were difficult to follow. In fact, the Taixia Pill was one of the easiest pills to concoct, and easiest to fail as well due to their sensitivity to heat.

Since the dew that was collected already combined into one entity, Zhang Wu Ji poured all the liquid substance into the Cauldron, before he started with the firing of the Pill Cauldron. By controlling the heat in ten stages, he started the first process, stirring. This starting step was important in order to allow the concentration of the Taixia Dew to mix evenly, as they will start to get more viscous the longer they were heated.

When the fire reaches the third stages, the first bottle of the Taixia Condensed Dew begins to get as thick as a caramel, where separating them and molding them into sphere shape pill is made possible. When the fire reaches the fourth stage, he collected the now moldable Taixia Condensed Dew to shape them. The procedure was like making a fish ball in his previous life, where Shaping, Rolling, and separating is the three most important steps to distributes them into their own before they return to the Pill Cauldron for the last step.

The bottle gourd is able to carry a total of 1 liter of liquid in them, thus from this 1 liter of Taixia Condensed Dew, Zhang Wu Ji successfully mold nine pulls out of the concentrate and left with about three-quarter of a complete pill. But it wasn't usable because one batch of Taixia Condensed Dew can only be fired until completion and any firing after their completion will destroy the pill completely.

This is also the reason why the Taixia Pill success rate is too low, it was due to the failure rate is too high, and the success rate is too low. Over fired the concoction will result in failure, lack of heat will result in failure, and if the condensed dew weren't sufficient enough to be formed into a pill, it was a failure as well.

But towards Zhang Wu Ji, these failure common senses weren't applicable on him at all, because depending on the success percentage applied on the Pill Cauldron, he can easily concoct the pill without worrying about the end results. All he would need is a proper ingredient, and voila, it was successfully concocted.

With the form of a pill, the molds were fired to the final stage, it was beginning to turn from caramel color into beautiful pearl white before a hint of greenish color came into sight. With the fire is completely dimmed, the results were an excellent nine round bead-like pills.

Complete Taixia Qi Pill

-Usage: Immediately form a strand of Fighter Qi in the Cultivator body after consumptions. Effect reduced by 10% each time a pill is consumed. Reduction effect capped at 5% minimum, an equivalent of a 5% incomplete Strand of Fighter Qi is created.

-Durability: 7/7

-Special: If the user only consumes Complete Version of Taixia Qi Pill, the weakening effect will lose 1% each month.

"Damn! This pill is such an amazing treasure! That's an increase of 100 strands of Inner Qi after consumption! This means by taking in 20 Complete Taixia Qi Pills, I can increase my amount of Fighter Qi by 6 strands! And if I am that unlucky to maintain in my Inner Qi Fighter strength, the removal of 95% of the reduction can be removed in 95 months, which means it was a 9 years before I can consume them effectively again."

"Great! Great! What an amazing Pill I concocted. Can I try to upgrade them as well? Let's do it!"

"Upgrade!"

Make it +5!"

Complete Taixia Qi Pill +5

-Usage: Immediately form a strand of Fighter Qi in the Cultivator body after consumptions. Effect reduced by 10% each time a pill is consumed. Reduction effect capped at 10% minimum, an equivalent of a 10% incomplete Strand of Fighter Qi is created.

-Durability: 12/12

-Special: If the user only consumes Complete Version of Taixia Qi Pill, the weakening effect will lose 1% each month.

"Hey! What's wrong? Why didn't a new special ability came into the pill? It must be a malfunction, I should try another pill!" he attempts on trying again, and because of the high amount of Inner Qi in him, he did not notice that the Complete Taixia Qi Pill's upgrade cost 10 Strands of Inner Qi each time.

Complete Taixia Qi Pill 5

-Durability: 12/12

-Special: If the user only consumes Complete Version of Taixia Qi Pill, the weakening effect will lose 1.5% each month.

"Still the same... The only additional compared to previous is that the weakening effect is removed slightly faster..." it was not a disappointment, but it wasn't an improvement either. Left with no choice, he upgrades the nine Complete Taixia Qi Pills to their +5 status but did not go through the limit because these pills are too much for him to lose.

"I should complete the remaining two bottles before I start with the Yantai County's Mandrake Plant." Zhang Wu Ji returned to his serious matter once more. As for the remaining two bottles, they were only worthy for seven pills and eight pills, making his total of Complete Taixia Qi Pill goes up to 24 pills. With the Taixia Condensed Dew is finished, he can begin with the Yantai County's Mandrake Plant now.

Each of the Mandrake Plant carries a resemblance with ginseng, but their size is at least ten times bigger than the normal hundred year ginseng. Similar to a human, the Mandrake Plant does have their own sexual differentiation. The Male Mandrake comes with a more evenly distributed body, four limbs, and a tail at the front, while the Female Mandrake has a chestier upper part and very thin limbs. Of course, the female mandrake does not possess a tail.

The creation of the Yantai Pill first required the Pill Master to start by skinning the Mandrake's skin, leaving only their inner flesh which looks like a Chinese Yam, and they even have some sticky transparent substance coming out from their body, which is also the Mandrake Plant final defensive measure. The substance is not deadly, but 10% of the unknowledgeable Pill Masters always forced to retire because of this skin burning substance.

And to counter this substance, their only way was to combine the Male and the Female Mandrake Plant together and bring them to boil. This will allows the two sexually different Mandrake Plant to counter each other's substance, leaving only the boiling fresh skinned root out from the water, void of any dangerous substance.

And with this preparation steps was over, the Pill Master can then starts to concoct the essence. The two roots will then be cooked inside of the Pill Cauldron, and their burnt fiber is to be removed before the complete essence of the harmonized concoction is extracted. Once the unwanted remain was removed, it was the time for the final step, firing the cauldron into the maximum temperature.

This process can be considered done the moment the firestone exhausted their flames, leaving the Pill Cauldron cooldown to release the medicinal fragrance enclosed within. A successful pill carries a hint of bitterness in their fragrance, and a low-quality pill carried the hint of burnt in their fragrance.

The process were all followed accordingly, and the moment of truth is finally here.

When he opened the cauldron, a blast of medicinal fragrance spreads out to the whole room, covering its air with thick bitterness flavor, but void of any hint of burnt. It was another success at the first try once again, with the beautiful White Pill as large as an eyeball is removed from the Pill Cauldron.

Low-Quality Mutual Destruction Pill

"WHAT?!"