Immortal Mortal

Following those words, a lady in a light green dress walked over.

”Pill Master Mu!”

”Senior apprentice sister Mu…”

…

As this woman walked over, the crowd of pill refiners dispersed to form a clear path. They all greeted her with a tone of admiration and reverence.

Even Zhang Ding clasped his fists and greeted her.

Mo Wuji hurried to stand by the side, his heart pounded heavily. This Pill Master Mu must have been the Mu Ying who Zhang Ding mentioned. What excited Mo Wuji was that this Pill Master Mu came from the Heaven Seeking Palace. Moreover, she was even from the Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda.

If he could get acquainted with her, then it would be much easier to approach Granny Linglong. As he thought of this, Mo Wuji deeply yearned to simply pounce forward and grab Mu Ying’s hand and plead her to be his friend. Thereafter, she would help him arrange a date.

However, these were mere thoughts. If he really did that, he might not even get to meet Mu Ying ever again. Even worse, his rights to participate in the pill competition might even be revoked.

”Senior apprentice sister Mu, even though your master isn’t Granny Linglong, you are able to concoct the Channel Restoring Pill. Not only are you the role model for all pill refiners of a generation, you have also brought fortune to many cultivators with damages to their spirit channels. Of course, I’m referring to the younger generation.” Even though Zhang Ding did not directly rebut Mu Ying’s words, his words carried some retorts.

Mu Ying said lightly, ”The various pill refiners in the Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda each have their own merits. Granny Linglong is an exceptional pill refiner from the Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda. At the same time, my master is also an exceptional pill refiner from the Pill Pagoda...”

As he heard this conversation, Mo Wuji’s heart sank. From Mu Ying’s tone, he could hear that she had some animosity towards Granny Linglong. If not, as a fellow member of the Pill Pagoda, she wouldn’t utter such words.

Zhang Ding said in an awkward tone, ”Of course that’s the case. Anyone of the senior pill refiners of the Pill Pagoda is a true source of admiration. My goal is to be like senior apprentice sister and enter the Heaven Seeking Palace Pill Pagoda. In the entire younger generation, of course it’s Mu...”

Without waiting for Zhang Ding to finish speaking, Mu Ying interrupted Zhang Ding’s words, ”Pill Master Zhang, you’re wrong again. In the younger generation, the alchemist [1] with the greatest contributions isn’t you nor me. It’s not even any of the pill refiner’s here...”

At this point, many of the pill refiners were astonished by Mu Ying’s words. It could be said that the most outstanding young pill refiners have been gathered here. Unless it’s some young pill refiner they didn’t know? If this young pill refiner was even more impressive than Mu Ying and Zhang Ding, wouldn’t he be too overpowered?

”May I ask who this pill refiner is?” Zhang Ding could not help but ask.

Mu Ying’s eyes swept across the crowd before silently saying, ”The person of interest is a simple drug refiner from the mortal world. After his family fell, he was left without a proper place to live and food to eat. But, it’s exactly this person who created a healing drug known as the Nine Lives Healing Ointment, which was later called penicillin. This healing drug can prevent the infection of wounds, and said the lives of thousands of millions of ordinary citizens, and billions of injured soldiers. For these rescued soldiers and citizens to remember this drug refiner, they renamed it to Mo’s Drug. If we’re talking about the title of the alchemist with the greatest contributions, I believe that it belongs to Mo.”

Zhang was speechless, if the other party wasn’t Mu Ying, he would have left a long time ago. Even so, he argued, ”Senior apprentice sister Mu, that is a mere drug by a drug refiner. Even a Tier 1 Mortal Pill Refiner would be able to concoct something better than that, right? How dare he deserve the title as the alchemist with the greatest contributions? He’s just a mere drug refiner.”

Many people agreed with Zhang Ding’s words. Like Zhang Ding, they would have ridiculed the person if she was not Mu Ying.

Mu Ying shook her head and said solemnly, ”This Alchemist Mo’s Mo’s Drug only requires a few copper coins for each bottle. Can everyone here tell me, which pill can be purchased using copper coins? Let’s not talk about copper coins, which pill can be bought using a few gold coins? Let’s assume that pills can in fact be bought with copper coins, then can everyone tell me now, how many pill refiners are needed to concoct enough pills to save thousands of millions of our injured?”

As she got to this point, Mu Ying became overly excited. She took a deep breath before continuing, ”After this drug refiner innovated this Mo’s Drug, he did not monopolize it to earn money. Instead, he gave the formula out for free. If not for him, how many innocent lives would perish every single day? How many of us have his generosity and open-mindedness? How many of us have his spirit of contribution?

Perhaps it’s because everyone here is a cultivator, so we view ordinary mortal’s lives as air. But then I would like to ask everyone, how many of you weren’t mortals before you started cultivating? Or did everyone magically appeared out from a rock, and immediately became cultivators. [2] Aren’t your parents and siblings also mortals? If not for the foundations of mortals, where would cultivators come from?

Moreover, we’re just cultivators, and our lives are simply longer than mortals. But ultimately, we’ll still be like mortals and return to the earth. In other words, we’re just mortals with a longer lifespan. Since that’s the case, who are we to look down on mortals?”

As she finished, Mo Wuji really felt like applauding for her. This Mu Ying had an honest and genuine nature, which he appreciated. However, he was not as noble as Mu Ying had described him to be. The reason why he gave penicillin away was to protect his own life. However, he did not expect that after he left, the people who benefited from penicillin would actually rename it as Mo’s Drug. This really made Mo Wuji’s face turn red.

At the same, he was celebrating that he created penicillin here. Many people who remembered kindness were actually these ordinary mortals.

Mu Ying’s words induced silence in the crowd. Everyone here were all high and lofty cultivators, and their positions were even higher as pill refiners. However, Mu Ying’s words were not wrong; before they cultivated, they were also mortals, and after they cultivated, they still have some family members who were mortals.

Mu Ying’s eyes swept across the pill refiners before she suddenly clasped her fists towards the sky, ”I would like to thank Drug Refiner Mo on behalf of all those billion mortal lives.”

”Senior apprentice sister Mu is right. We were all once mortals. Now, how about we welcome senior apprentice sister Mu to share with us how she created the Channel Restoring Pill,” Zhang Ding was very soon able to recover his usual state and he was the first to applaud for Mu Ying.

Seeing this, Mo Wuji felt that this Zhang Ding was rather pretentious. Clearly, Zhang Ding felt differently from Mu Ying, but he did not disagree just because Mu Ying was in a higher position than him.

Mu Ying waved her hands, ”On the path of pills, I’ve just merely started taking a few steps. I’m not much further than everyone. But since it’s an interaction session, let’s all discuss our theories. Also, another reason why I’m here is to exchange for spiritual herbs.”

A middle-aged pill refiner immediately said, ”Senior apprentice Mu is right; exchanging spiritual herbs is a main reason for this session. How about we start now? I have the following Tier 3 spiritual herbs: Earthcloud silk, Floating Star...”

With this middle-aged man taking the lead, many pill refiners started taking out their spiritual herbs. At the same time, many started erecting signs with the herbs they wanted. In a short time, this interaction session became a herb exchange session.

Mo Wuji stood by Zhang Ding’s side, and he coincidentally saw a trace of unwillingness flash across his eyes. However, this was just a fleeting flash, as he soon recovered a smile-filled expression and took out the herbs he wanted to exchange away.

This person might be very talented, he was also very jealous. Seeing that his limelight was taken away the moment Mu Ying arrived, his heart should have been filled with unhappiness.

Mo Wuji decided to keep an eye on Mu Ying; the moment she left, he would follow her.

However, he would also not give up on this opportunity to exchange spiritual herbs. It was only in these large conventions when he could obtain the exceptional and rare spiritual herbs.

He needed a lot of these exceptional spiritual herbs, such as a 100,000 year old pine tree vein, Fire Essence Stones of higher purity, 10,000 year old Lingzhi and Dark Yellow Ginseng, and 1000 year old Longyan Grass... [3]

In reality, Mo Wuji knew that were limits to what he could obtain. For spiritual herbs exceeding 10,000 years in age, many of them would be approaching Tier 4. Luckily, the Dark Yellow Ginseng and Lingzhi were rather common things. Even though they were 10,000 years old, they should still be Tier 3 spiritual herbs. On the other hand, for the 100,000 year old pine tree vein, even though it was considered a Tier 4 spiritual herb, it should not be overly expensive.

The reason why he wanted these spiritual herbs was due to this premonition he felt: his new channel opening solution might not be able to help him open all 99 meridians. If such a day were to suddenly happen, he would need to upgrade the ingredients of his solution. By then, he might not have as good an opportunity to obtain these spiritual herbs.

Just as Mo Wuji was writing down the herbs he wanted, and was about to write Treasured Blood Lotus, he caught a glimpse of the herbs Mu Ying wanted. Among her list, was also the 100,000 year old pine tree vein and the Treasured Blood Lotus. The only difference was that she also wanted the 100,000 year old pine pulse.

”Senior apprentice sister Mu, I have a 100,000 year old pine pulse here. Please take a look.” A young pill refiner brought and jade box in front of Mu Ying and presented it to her.

Mo Wuji sighed in his heart. A person’s reputation is truly a treasure. Whatever Mu Ying wants is delivered to her. He didn’t even negotiate with her for the price.

”Many thanks,” Mu Ying smiled and casually opened the jade box.

Mo Wuji hurried to take a few steps forward to take a closer look. Within the jade box, there were some pale yellow rhizomes, which even emanated a gentle and clear fragrance. Mo Wuji just needed a single look to know that it was far more valuable than the pine tree vein he wanted.

At this moment, an idea sprouted in Mo Wuji’s mind. This pine pulse grossly surpassed the pine tree vein he wanted, it was definitely more suitable for his channel opening solution.

He had to get his hands on that.

”This is a well maintained pine pulse. Even among Tier 4 spiritual herbs, it’s rare. It’s extremely suitable for me. Come, state your price,” Mu Ying’s eyes also flashed a hint of pleasant surprise, and she immediately closed the jade box.

[1] Alchemist is used to broadly describe drug refiners and pill refiners

[2] The illustrious Sun Wukong is one such creature born from rock.

[3] These are the ingredients for his channel opening solution, just older.