Chương 25: Teacher Li
The scraps fell onto the table as Li Xiaomei carved a green fruit with white flesh. The green skin now only remained at the bottom which was fashioned into a circular base. She was fully immersed in carving. She had already gotten rid of the extra flesh, what remained looked like a bird. She was about to start carving in the details when she heard someone calling out to her and looked up.
"YOU!! HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE HERE AGAIN! YOU DARE TO GIVE ME A FAKE NAME! THERE'S NO WAY I'M GONNA HELP YOU ANYMORE, GET OUT! GET OUT!!" Her cheerful voice was replaced by a shrill scream.
Zhang Wuji hurriedly felt his ears. He genuinely thought they were bleeding. After confirming his ears were just fine, he let out a breath and put on the most apologetic and fawning smile he could manage.
"Teacher..."
"Don't call me that. My mother taught me to stay away from ungrateful people. Right, return me my books before you leave." She angrily snorted and turned her head away from him.
"Teacher Li, give me another chance. There is a good reason why I wasn't able to come earlier."
She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, her head still facing sideways.
"I was trying to get a job at the herb garden but it was proving to be difficult. They kept directing me to another and everyday I was just running from one place to another."
"They're always eager to have more disciples working."
"I wanted to work on specific herbs only."
"Are you lying to me? I could get someone to check and if..."
"Teacher Li, I was stupid and failed to realise the value of what you were offering. Now I finally see things right and wish to learn from you. Please forgive me and give me another chance. This foolishness will not be repeated, I promise." He looked all serious and pitiful and added a little shiver in his voice.
"Put more effort into it." She turned her head towards him.
"The world is a dark, dark place. All around you is an invisible web that pulls you into ignorance." He supported his hands on the table, with his eyes out of focus, said in a bleak voice.
"I was weak, struggled greatly to get out of the darkness but failed again and again." He punched the table in defeat.
Suddenly, he looked up, "Teacher Li, you are the only light in this dark world that could pull me out of ignorance into knowledge."
He kneeled, with his head touching the floor "Please accept me as your student."
"That's too much, but we can work on that." She smiled.
"YESS!! Thank you teache.." he threw his arms into the air in celebration and was about to continue.
"Alright that's enough."
"Yeah, alright. Could we start now?" He put his arms down and said normally.
"Not so fast. Why did you give me a fake name?" She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.
"What are you talking about? I gave you my real name Zhang Wuji. Look at my token." He took his token out for her to check.
She took it and saw his name. "But I couldn't find you.."
"Where'd you look? Did you check the records?"
"Ofcourse not, how will I get access to the records? I just asked all outer disciple apprentices to look for you." She covered her mouth right after saying that.
"Why?"
"Don't question your teacher."
"Were you gonna beat me up for failing to show up the next day?" He was now grateful to old Wuji's shutin-ness.
"We agreed that you would come the next day. I taught you, spent my time for you and you didn't even have the decency to come and say 'thank you but I'd rather read by myself.'"
"So what are you gonna teach me today?" He made himself small and asked with an ingratiating tone.
"Hmph. I'm busy." She turned to the fruit and went back to carving.
"Ok I'll come tomorrow." He was about to turn around and leave.
"Wait right there. After I'm done carving, I'll take you to meet the crew. Just stand still and wait." She said in a commanding voice without even looking at him.
"What crew?"
"Hmph. Theatre is such a sacred thing. You'd be foolish to think the two of us are the only ones that recognise that."
"Are you saying there's other disciples interested in this?" He ignored being labelled a theatre fan and asked a bit surprised.
"Ofcourse! Now shush. Don't disturb me."
He stood quietly to the side and watched her carve. After a while he couldn't take the bore and asked
"What bird are you carving?"
"Didn't I tell you to stay quiet?" She put her hands on her hips and looked at him angrily.
"Sigh, forget it, though you are disobedient, I am a good teacher. Listen closely. This is a Blue Tailed Wind Sparrow. An amazing creature. It feeds on small fruits found in places with rich wind element. It's excrement is used to make earth qi condensation pill. Unlike the qi condensation pill that helps all cultivators in qi condensation realm in converting spiritual energy of heaven and earth into unattributed qi, earth qi condensation pill helps convert into earth qi. This increases the cultivation speed of those cultivating in earth element cultivation techniques."
"Oka.."
"The bird is not that important. The pill has another ingredient. Do you see this red fruit, *points at the fruit on the table* it's leaf is a main ingredient in the pill. Now concentrate, for I'm about to tell you one of the legendary revolutionary AWEsome stories in the history of alchemy.
The Aigen plant the fruit and leaf belong to is a very rare plant. Although only tier one, it's price often reached tier two. It would've reached even greater prices but no one is stupid enough to spend so much on a tier one herb. It would've been more efficient to just buy an unattributed catalysis pill."
"What's a catalysis pill?"
"Unfilial!! How could you interrupt a legendary revolutionary AWEsome story. You can't even wait quietly! It is out of the goodness of my heart that I'm ignoring your disruption and answering your questions. And you..." She acted as though she was angered speechless from the gross disrespect.
'Who're you kidding? You were clearly waiting for me to ask the question so you could tell me your legendary revolutionary AWEsome story. If that's how it is..'
"Teacher Li, I'm deeply sorry about my behavior. I'll keep quiet. Please continue with your carving." He put on the most regretful expression he could manage.
"It's good that you understand. Now where was I, right so the Aigen leaf.."
"Teacher Li, it's fine. You don't have to continue. You don't have to stop your work to entertain my disrespectful interruption. I guarantee that I won't speak another word and wait patiently for you to finish carving."
"No no no no, this is good. You did nothing wrong. A student has to be curious. I guess I was a bit too harsh. Now let's go back to the story. The Aige.." She panicked and changed her stance and pacified him before trying to continue with the story. It was one of her favorite stories. She had been waiting for someone to ask her about the carving. But most of the traffic near her desk already knew the story either from their own studies or from when she did the act last time.
"No teacher Li.."
"I'll carve later. Teaching you is also my duty. You asked about catalysis pills right, they are pills that aid you in your daily cultivation by speeding the process up. For example for body refinement realm cultivators, qi recovery pills act as catalysts by providing easily absorbable qi. Qi condensation pills help those in qi condensation realm and there are similar pills for higher realms. One thing, a catalysis pill shortens the time a process takes by assisting a step or several steps in the process. Qi recovery pill on the other hand assists by providing resource and is therefore not a catalysis pill. I used it as an example just for you to understand. Now let's, huff.. huff.. give me a moment." She had said the whole thing in a single breath in a hurry to convince him to stay on the track she wanted but by the time she wanted to continue with the story, she was out of breath.
"Teacher Li it fills my heart with gratitude that you are so dedicated in teaching me but.."
He wanted to continue with the 'I'll wait' thing but swallowed his words back when she looked at him with an almost crying face.
"...what fruit are you carving?" This was the only thing he could come up with after but.
Li Xiaomei's face lit up and she went back to her cheerful self. "Aigen fruit is worthless. It's only it's leaves that are of value. This green fruit that I'm carving is an earth guava fruit. Very tasty. It's leaves have similar attributes to the aigen leaves. It is a very common tier one herb. So for a long time alchemists tried to substitute aigen leaves with earth guava leaves. But there was always something missing. Finally one alchemist thought the rough texture on the aigen leaf might be the key.
So the alchemist tried different methods to finally change the texture on the guava leaf to make it similar to the aigen, and finally made a much cheaper version of the earth qi condensation pill.
Although the availability of a cheaper pill was a great thing, but it was only useful for a small percentage. That alchemist's real contribution was the surface alteration method they came up with.
The roughness of the surface determines the surface area that would come in contact with the water or any other solvent used. That would determine the reaction speed. Once you know this, you could intentionally make changes to the texture to get varying results. Surface alteration is therefore very important if you want to be a complete alchemist.
The method and therefore the herbs that led to the method and also the bird whose poo.. *cough* excrement is used in the pill and the pill itself have revolutionized alchemy. With this method there have been many pill recipes invented, improved and most importantly the alchemist now has more control. To honor this legend, I'm carving that very legendary bird on those two legendary fruits using the legendary method itself.
Although, the method isn't for carving which makes it very difficult and time taking, but it's good practice. You should try it when you learn the method."
"Who's the alchemist?" He was curious about this alchemist that contributed so much to alchemy. He must've been a great immortal.
"He is a great great alchemist. He reached the legendary grade nine in alchemy at the young age of 32 and broke through the sky to the immortal realm using Alchemy Dao. He is worshipped to this day as one of the Gods of Alchemy. You can find his idols in Alchemy Guilds. Everytime one seeks to get their badge from them, they are made to kowtow infront of the great ancestors of alchemy."
"Really?" He asked skeptically. Not because he found it unbelievable. He was knowledgeable. Most MCs in novels are heaven-defying like that. You think such people only exist in novels? Well he thought cultivation only existed in novels too. The reason why he was skeptical had more to do with her exaggerated gestures.
Her arms moved like crazy. The awe in her face was so exaggerated that her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, no longer visible.
"Who knows." She went back to normal and shrugged. "It's a very old story. Must've happened when alchemy was in its infancy. His original method is long lost. We use much better techniques now. We also no longer use this recipe for earth qi condensation pills. We use much better ones."
'That.. was underwhelming.'
"Alright I'll carve later, let's go meet fourth brother. He must be done with refining by now." She put the fruits under the desk, grabbed him by his arm and led him further into the building.
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