章節 25: Medicine and Metallurgy (1)

"Master Senior Ninth!" Tang Yuan was the first one to notice his return after he went out for so many days outside in the Wen Wu City. Following from behind were another three new subordinates of his, one skillful in Blacksmithing, while another two was knowledgeable in herbalist profession. With the four of them by his side, he can confidently say that most of his preparatory works are completed, leaving him with only some final touch.

And being a person that already capable to concoct tier 1 pill in people's eyes, Zhang Wu Ji selected to stop himself from dwelling too long in the learning and practices in concocting the untiered medicinal pills, such as the Wound Mending Pill, Meridian Soothing Pill, Violet Calming Pill, and few other basic pills. When he thought of this matter, Zhang Wu Ji noticed that even for a sect like Seven Star Sect, their usage of pill still delves with the Untiered to Tier 1 Pills.

Although the Qi Sensing Pill were calculated as a Tier 1 Pill, their usage is very stable, and it was still usable even for a cultivator over 60th Stage, 70th Stage or until 99th Stage. They call the Qi Sensing Pill one of the Universal Medicine, a type of medicinal pills that can be used no matter how weak or strong is a cultivator. Unlike Wound Mending Pill, if this medicine were to be taken by an Inner Qi Fighter, they still carry a slight effect, but after they entered the cultivation of an Inner Qi Warrior, the Wound Mending Pill will no longer able to support the cultivator's life source, which is why a stronger version of a medicinal pill is required.

For this reason alone, the scholars and cultivators both contribute to the prosperity of the humanity, and were hell-bent on looking and researching new recipes, which can be used until today. Their contribution greatly allows all of them to be the pioneer of the humanity, and they were the lifeline of all the cultivators even until now.

The only unfortunate is that all this were happened over a few millennia ago, and none of the pioneers remain known to the people within this Ping An Continent. The only thing they left was the recipes, their whole life worth of notes and the medicinal treasures that were what now known as the Predecessor's Inheritance. Instead of being used to further their understanding, the Predecessor Inheritance is being worshipped instead, completely wasting their initial usage.

After not coming back for so long, Zhang Wu Ji first gave his farm a visit. Looking at the plantations that were beginning to grow, especially the Yin Ling Fruit Tree, and the Taixia Condensing Plant, their harvest can be expected to come from the end of next month. As for this month, his expected harvest is nothing else except another batch of the Kind Heart Grass, and also a Sun Facing Fruit. This fruit will mark the beginning of his concoction of Qi Sensing Pill.

"Master Senior Ninth, please take a look on this list. We have check with most of the disciples and also some of the explorers or merchants that came to our sect once a while, and compile this list of Medicinal Pills that were distributed and available in our area." the four of them presents a piece of paper with plenty of names on the list, stating most of their name and usage. Since their Seven Star Sect was the tyrant of this area, this location is also known as the Seven Star County, with a total of 3 cities, 15 towns, and 30 villages.

In total, the population of the Seven Star County reaches 4.8 million, but the Seven Star Sect only have 50,000 members in their sect. Their location in the Ping An Continent was located at the Upper South State, under the jurisdiction of the Southern Imperial Kingdom. In total, the Southern Imperial Kingdom is divided into thirteen different states, with three states in the North, South, East, and West. The final State belonged privately to the Imperial Family, where their location is situated in the middle of the Southern Imperial Kingdom.

As for the South three states, they were respectively the Upper South State, closest to the Imperial Capital, followed by Middle South State and Lower South State. Their status did not differ from each another, but inside of each South State, were a total of ten different County, and each of them was controlled by a different powerhouse, like the Seven Star Sect as an example.

Similar to their differentiation of county and states, even the medicinal pills that were imported and exported from one part of the kingdom to another varies from each another. The Lower Southern State is always well known for their ability to produce many Battle Pills, and the Middle Southern State are well known for their Cultivation Pills. As for the Upper Southern State, they are well known not for their Pill abilities, but their richness in flora and fauna, which gave them an unaccountable amount of plants to be exported to the other two states yearly.

It was said that without the Upper Southern State, the two other Southern State will immediately encounter a drought of pills, where not even a single pill can be made because of the lack of resources in their own state. And among the ten-county in the Upper Southern State, the Seven Star Sect was placed at the seventh spot, but initially fighting against the eighth, ninth, and tenth spot counties for the yearly gift that comes from the Imperial Kingdom's Capital State.

Ten-Layer Recovery Pill, Inner Qi Replenishing Pill, and Blood Form Pill, this three were amongst the most well known medicinal pill that replaced the position of the Wound Mending Pill, Meridian Soothing Pill, and Yin Ling Fruit. The three of this pill were rated at Tier 1 Medicinal Pills.

Qi Accumulating Pill, Yantai Pill, and Scarlet Dissection Pill, this three is the next on the list, where each of them was replacing the Qi Sensing Pill in the term of increasing cultivation speed, and the Violet Calming Pill that helps in reducing the anxiety of a cultivator when breaking through the stage. Each of this pill in this second list cost extremely expensive, where unless one willing to pay over 100 Qi Sensing Pills in exchange, they will be impossible to obtain any of this three pills.

Last on the list is the Taixia Pill, Yin Essence Pill, Qi Bursting Pill, Purple Majestic Pill, Fire Pill, Water Pill, and Poison Lotus Antidote. The few items in this final list are either rare or normal medicinal pills in their Tier 1 strength. They weren't extremely precious, but a few of them were difficult to obtain in any mean of way, especially the Taixia Pill, the Purple Majestic Pill, and the Qi Bursting Pill.

And up to date, Zhang Wu Ji's farm is steadily planting and cultivating the Yin Ling Fruit Tree, Taixia Condensing Plant, Yantai County's Mandrake Plant, Golden Dandelion Flower, Water Hawthorn Root, and Poison Eating Lotus Root. This means, among the 13 pills mentioned in the list, he accumulates the raw material to produce six of them, with only the exception of Ten petal Lotus Plant for the Ten-Layer Recovery Pill, the Qi Essence Silkworm for the Qi Replenishing Pill, the Blood Juicy Fruit for the Blood Pill.

Additionally, he was also lack of the Sun Root, an essential ingredient to concoct the Qi Accumulating Pill, and the Scarlet Flower and Scarlet Grass that can be used to concoct the Scarlet Dissection Pill. As for the Qi Bursting Pill and Purple Majestic Pill, it was a dream to concoct them for now, because not only the pill is a rare commodity, even their ingredient is a rare treasure that hardly found. But of course, the effect brought by them is exceptionally well, especially from the Violet Majestic Pill.

"Do we have the way to look for the ingredient for..." Zhang Wu Ji intends to speak, but his subordinates interrupted. Three of them were fighting, while the one excels in blacksmithing is smiling awkwardly because of their manners.

"Guys... One by one..."

"Master Senior, I got an idea where to get the Ten Petal Lotus Seeds."

"I have the way to catch the Qi Essence Silkworm!"

"I know where to harvest the Blood Juicy Fruit!"

The three of them came out with their sentence, and without considering too much, Zhang Wu Ji assigned them to look for the plants and the silkworm to start producing their own supply. The three left immediately, leaving only Zhang Wu Ji with one more guy remaining.

Following his lead, Zhang Wu Ji entered their now more well-equipped Blacksmithing room, with the Fire Stones is placed nicely at one side. The Ingot Shelf was completely stacked with many Iron Ingots in different Quality, and they were nicely arranged according to their type. The only lacking is the Crystal Iron, where unless one has the ability like Zhang Wu Ji's upgrade, it will be almost impossible for them to remove the mixture of Crystal Iron inside of the ingots.

After he selected a few and begin to purify the ingots again, Zhang Wu Ji conducted each step twice to let the subordinate to learn how to properly extract the Crystal Iron hidden deep inside of the ingots. Although it wasn't too much, a mere 7% of Crystal Iron in an Iron Ingot is enough to leave the produced weapon crack easily, because, at the end of the day, the metal wasn't formed into a sturdier form like Alloy, but still maintaining the flexibility and usability of an iron.

With the void of Silica inside of the Metal, the impure form of the metal may easily break because their composition is yet to reach 100% Purity. In fact, the Iron weapon he encountered up to date still has the possibility of having their durability lowered until they were broken. He believes, unless it reaches a 100% purity in the metal, even a 99% quality Iron will still break.

"Oh yeah, I still haven't ask for your name properly." Zhang Wu Ji looked at the subordinates of his and inquired about his name. It was impolite for him to order around without knowing what is his name. Feeling honored and appreciated, the slave disciple quickly introduce himself once more.

"Master Senior Ninth, this subordinate's name is Bai Hei Tie. I come from the Bai Village which was located at the border of our Seven Star County. Everyone in my village is a professional miner, blacksmith, forger, and smelter. Each of us practically grows up by taking up one of this four main lesson in order to support the Bai Village, but I am lucky enough to have some aptitude to cultivates, thus I received the opportunity to enter the Seven Star Sect."

"It just because my cultivation were too low, and that is why I only managed to remain in the Slave Disciple Tier." Bai Hei Tie introduced his background and where he came from. It was normal for one to introduce himself, but seeing how his story goes, it seems that this subordinate from the Bai Village was unfortunate enough to land himself in the Slave Disciple Tier, and end up suffering for it.

Even without himself asking, by just seeing how this 16 years old subordinate only have 60 strands of Inner Qi in his body, he must be working hard to deliver the money home just for the sake of maintaining his family expenses. Based on his skill and technique in smelting and forging the metal, Zhang Wu Ji can easily guess that their Bai Village is indeed living a very hard life.

"Do you know what is your Bai Village's main produce there?" Since there was a mineral vein nearby their Bai Village, it would be foolish to not inquire about their production. Rather than spending so much to obtain the right to mine in the Mineral Vein near Wen Wu City, why don't he import them instead? Not only he can help the Bai Village in this way, but he can also easily bought the heart of this disciple so he would be loyal to him alone, and that means loyal to his headmaster's faction.

"Of course, Master Senior Ninth! Back in the Bai Village, my family members are the head of the smelter, and my eldest brother is the assistant for the head of the forger, so I am very familiar with the metal produced by our Bai Village. The mineral vein that expanded not far from our Bai Village does contain a good amount of Silica, Copper, Jade, and Mined Bone." Bai Hei Tie answered.

"Great, deliver my message to your Bai Village, tell them to provide me with Mineral Ores that were rich with Copper and Jade. I want you to personally go there to collect the sample ore for me. This is important. So go and get it done quickly." Zhang Wu Ji did not hesitate and gave him a thousand Qi Sensing Pills to Bai Hei Tie.

"Master Senior Ninth, this amount is too much, even if we charge a delivery fee for this." Bai Hei Tie was a fellow blacksmith. Although he was limited in the area of smelting and forging, for now, it does not means that he was lack with common sense and also the sensitivity on material prices. In fact, a part of Zhang Wu Ji was doing this on purpose because he wishes to see how can this subordinate perform under stress.

"I already mentioned before. I want the sample ore. Make sure the results are complete because I have a reason to make such a big order." Zhang Wu Ji ordered. In his mind, he was attracted to the fact the Mineral Vein contain some components of Jade and Mined Bone, which was one of the toughest minerals in the world he knows.

"Understood! I will depart now and return to the Bai Village to handle this matter!" Bai Hei Tie nodded and with the thousand Qi Sensing Pills in hand. He left immediately after he withdraws one of the horses from the stable. Estimated from the strength of the horse, he can reach the Bai Village about nine days later.

Although the distance was covered by the speed of his stead, the distance from their village is about nine hundred kilometers away from the Seven Star Sect. With the limitation of between 100 km to 110 km distance covered, it can be considered quick in the normal standard.

Added with the delivery of the materials will take some time, he estimates that he will have to wait for a month, give and take, to wait for the arrival of the material to his courtyard. and of course, he will need to answer the Blacksmithing Department on why he went pass their jurisdiction and went straight to orders the mineral ores from outside without going through them.

Plus, if the Blacksmithing Department knows that Zhang Wu Ji purposely transports the mineral ores from a mineral vein 900 kilometers away, they will go crazy with their curse! In the vicinity of Seven Star County, the records of their available mineral veins were in total, nothing more nothing less, 22! And in the 22 Mineral Veins, 1 of them was closest to the Seven Star Sect, located at the outskirt of Wen Wu City!

the nine hundred kilometers away from the sect transportation were completely ridiculous, especially when the delivery has to go through the Wen Wu City to reach the Seven Star Sect.

As the instigator of this soon to happen incident, Zhang Wu Ji is still void of the knowledge about the severity of this action and continued with the process of smelting the Iron metal in his Blacksmithing Room. It wasn't too much of a disturbance, but for him, it was an eyesore due to the description appeared in his sight,

Pure Iron Ingot

Composition: 12% Silica / 77% Pure Iron / 7% Sentient Iron / 4% Crystal Iron

Reading the description, he shook his head in disappointment. The skill is barely there, but his subordinate Bai Hei Tie cannot be blamed. Such ingot is still usable, and in fact, most of the Seven Leaves Sword distributed to the disciples are made from such lower quality Pure Iron Ingots.

It was durable enough, as long as their composition of Pure Iron reach the minimum amount of 77%, and were above 10% in their purity. Because of his skill and ability to use the Art of Pulverized Iron, he can easily form a 40% purity iron ingots. Added with his ability to discern the information of the ingot he touches, he can easily deduce how good is his handiwork, when it was to compare with others.

With over 1600 strands of Inner Qi at his disposal, the great number of smelted Iron Ingots weren't a threat for him, who need to spend few days just for the sake of refining few ingots for himself to use. looking at the over a hundred Pure Iron Ingots, he has a thought to just throw them away.

The reason for such a thought is because their quality was extremely low! No wonder the Bai Village still maintained poor and difficult. With their ability to only manage to process and smelt the metal into this quality, it wasn't wrong for him to assume that not only they were forced to conduct more processing to provide more varieties of product for the outside world.

This was why each villager in the Bai Village are either a Miner, Blacksmith, Forger, or Smelter. it was because each of them excels in one kind of products. The miner produces Raw Mineral Ores, the Blacksmith produces tempered metal products, such as arrowheads, metal rods, and some Copper Scales.

As for the Forger, the item they produced were Shaped metals. the demand for metal wasn't only on Ingots alone, but some does request them to come in coins, plates, and smaller Refined Bars. Lastly, the Smelter was only producing one kind of products. Smelted ingots, that comes with many impurities. This position was the easiest, and also the cheapest because no matter what they do, their only responsibility was to smelt the ore to produce ingots, which will be handled to others to refine them properly.

"I should improve my skills too, in case I can't even be compared with the others like them. Guess it was time for me to visit the Blacksmith Department to copy a few books from their vault." Zhang Wu Ji speaks in his mind, as he rearranged the Pure Iron Ingots, Sentient Iron Ingots, and Crystal Ingots back on the shelf, all in their 40% Purity, qualified to be labeled as High-Quality Ingots!