My Master Knows It All

60: Chapter 56 Are you teaching me how to do things?_1 60: Chapter 56 Are you teaching me how to do things?_1 Seven colors?

The best quality?

Gai Su’e shot upright from the reclining chair, staring blankly at one best-quality Energy-refining Pill after another.

Gai Su’e was no stranger to best-quality Energy-refining Pills, and had even seen and personally produced higher-end best-quality pills.

However, the sight of one after another all being best-quality Energy-refining Pills was something Gai Su’e had never even dreamed of.

One best outweighs ten superior!

As an Alchemy Master, Gai Su’e was well aware that although there was a gap between superior and mid-grade, the gap was not particularly large.

It was only the best quality!

The gap between it and superior quality was simply too great!

Ten, fifteen…

twenty…

thirty…

thirty-two…

Gai Su’e felt like he was on the verge of madness; thirty-two of them were all best quality.

When the thirty-third best-quality Energy-refining Pill was pulled out of the Pill Furnace by Cao Zhen, Gai Su’e completely lost his composure.

How could thirty-three pills be made out of materials only enough to concoct thirty-two?

And how could it still be best quality?

Thirty-four…

thirty-five…

thirty-six…

Before Gai Su’e could recover, the Pill Furnace in front of Cao Zhen continued to spew out best-quality Energy-refining Pills without stopping…

“Has this old man really gone mad?” Gai Su’e suddenly slapped himself.

The intense pain told him he hadn’t gone mad!

He hadn’t lost his mind!

Could it be an illusion technique?

Gai Su’e immediately thought of a possibility.

Was Cao Zhen a master of illusion techniques?

Rumor had it that when he fought with the Starshine Peak Master, he conjured ten Dragon and Tiger Dao Platforms and five Dragon and Tiger Immortal Bridges.

Could it be a clever illusion technique that had deceived everyone?

The more Gai Su’e thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

How easy could it be to cultivate such unusual Dao Platforms and Immortal Bridges, let alone perfect ones?

If it were an illusion technique, then that explained everything!

The Four Treasures Peak Master must have used an illusion technique to deceive everyone and was now trying to dupe him!

But it’s a pity!

Gai Su’e sneered inwardly.

As deceptive as this illusion might seem, it was overly ambitious!

Materials that can at most concoct thirty-two pills, you’ve made almost sixty, and furthermore, each and every one is best quality?

You think I’m some country bumpkin who hasn’t seen the world?

Gai Su’e calmed himself and leisurely watched Cao Zhen continue the pill concoction, wondering just how many pills the Four Treasures Peak Master intended to pretend to produce with his illusion technique before calling it quits.

Ninety…

ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three, ninety-four, ninety-five…

ninety-six…

Wow!

Gai Su’e slightly raised his eyebrows, thinking that this illusion technique was indeed getting more realistic.

The ninety-sixth pill turned out to be superior quality instead of the best?

A pity!

If it had been the thirty-second pill and had come out like this, I might have been fooled in shock.

But now?

Seeing that no more pills were coming from the Pill Furnace, Gai Su’e then slowly stood up, leaning on the arms of his recliner, and walked toward Cao Zhen.

Could there actually be one that’s superior quality?

Cao Zhen looked at the last pill and was stunned for a moment, then he realized that although he had synchronized with Zhang Daoling’s alchemy knowledge, his own hands-on experience in alchemy was too limited, leading to a flaw during the process.

“Ninety-six pills?” Gai Su’e approached Cao Zhen with his hands behind his back, then picked up a seven-colored best-quality Energy-refining Pill from the pill box with his right hand and examined it closely, inwardly admiring that the illusion technique was truly indistinguishable from reality!

Gai Su’e then placed a best-quality Energy-refining Pill in his mouth, intending to use his taste buds and body to determine what this illusion-made Energy-refining Pill really was.

A matchless fragrance burst in his mouth, and the next moment, the medicinal energy of the Energy-refining Pill rapidly spread throughout his body!

It was less of a spread of medicinal energy, and more like every organ in his body was frantically seizing the pill’s energy.

In an instant, all of Gai Su’e’s pores opened comfortably, and he stood there struck by lightning, motionless.

In that moment, he felt as if his soul itself was joyously dancing.

How delightful!

Never had Gai Su’e felt such comfort!

And just from taking a single Energy-refining Pill.

This pill, it was real!

Gai Su’e opened his eyes wide and quickly took another Energy-refining Pill from Cao Zhen’s pill box and swallowed it; then, that blissful feeling of all pores being expanded enveloped him once more.

This one was also real?

Gai Su’e picked up the third, fourth, fifth…

Gai Su’e, like a beggar who hadn’t eaten for days on the street, simply grabbed a handful of pills from the box and shoved them all into his mouth.

Fortunately, his cultivation base was profound; otherwise, such gluttonous consumption of Energy-refining Pills could have easily burst him.

Seeing Gai Su’e about to grab a second handful, Cao Zhen quickly extended his hand to block the pill box and said, “What are you doing?

If you eat them all, will you say I haven’t made enough pills?”

When Gai Su’e saw the hand blocking the pill box, he instinctively wanted to push it aside.

Initially, he had indeed been verifying the authenticity of the pills, but later on…

he had become addicted!

The pills were too delicious!

So, when he saw a hand obstructing him, he wanted to simply get rid of the person in his way.

However, as Cao Zhen spoke, Gai Su’e then realized that the voice belonged to the person who had concocted the pills!

And the person who had concocted the pills was an incredibly accomplished Alchemy Grandmaster, perhaps even a Great Grandmaster!

Had he really just spoken to a Great Grandmaster like that?

What a mess!

Gai Su’e recalled his dismissive attitude just moments ago…

Had he inexplicably offended an Alchemy Great Grandmaster?

Had he thrown away the chance to make a good connection or even learn from him?

“Don’t just stand there silently.” Cao Zhen waved his hand in front of Gai Su’e and said, “Does this mean I have passed the assessment?”

“Passed, passed, definitely passed.” Gai Su’e nodded like pounding garlic, speaking distractedly, “For sure you’ve passed!

Peak Master, this humble one failed to recognize the eminent Tongtian Mountain, please pay it no mind.”

Cao Zhen, hearing that he had passed, didn’t pursue the matter further and calculated the quantity of the Energy-refining Pills he had just created, taking two-thirds that were rightfully his.

Gai Su’e, seeing Cao Zhen taking the pills and ignoring him, felt very uneasy.

This wasn’t because he feared that such a formidable alchemist would make things difficult for him in the future, but because he had had the chance to learn from such a master of alchemy, yet he had destroyed that opportunity through his own actions.

Cao Zhen stepped forward and found that at the very center of the Five-Element Pill Ground, where the finest Five-Element Earth Fire converged, sat a Five-Element Pill Furnace with wisps of medicinal fragrance entwining around it.

Gai Su’e, seeing that Cao Zhen paid him no heed, felt deep regret, turning his guts green.

As an old hand, he understood all too well that the other party looked down on him.

He wondered whether slapping himself twice would still be of any use now?

How could such a person come to the Hidden Dragon Observatory to study?

Gai Su’e couldn’t understand.

Perhaps the combined talents of all the alchemists in the Hidden Dragon Observatory couldn’t match this person.

Even if this person was just a master at the singular skill of alchemy, only knowing how to make Energy-refining Pills, with this ability to produce so many Best Quality Energy-refining Pills with such little materials, he was qualified to act as the alchemy executive of the Hidden Dragon Observatory, teaching others the experience of making Energy-refining Pills.

“Dead Pill?” Cao Zhen was quite surprised that the best alchemy spot in the Five-Element Pill Ground of the Hidden Dragon Observatory actually housed a Dead Pill!

A Dead Pill is different from a Waste Pill; a Waste Pill means this batch of pills is completely ruined.

Whereas a Dead Pill indicates the pills in this batch have ‘died’.

As soon as the pill furnace is opened, the pills inside would immediately turn into Waste Pills.

However, as long as the furnace remains sealed, they are not completely ruined, only dead within.

This creates a vicious cycle.

If you keep on refining, it will not ruin, but once you stop the Earth Fire and open it, they would immediately become Waste Pills.

A Dead Pill represents an alchemist knowing full well of the cycle, yet still not giving up hope.

“You’re in luck running into me.

If I hadn’t urgently needed this pill furnace, your materials, expensive as the heavens, would have truly gone to waste,” Cao Zhen said to himself, shaking his head as he turned to search for suitable medicinal ingredients in a medicine chest, then he returned to the front of the pill furnace.

Gai Su’e began to doubt his own ears.

The implication seemed to be that this Dead Pill could also be resurrected.

If that were true, then it categorically couldn’t be just some one-trick mastery.

Cao Zhen cast a Nirvana Pill Technique into the pill furnace to stabilize the state of the Dead Pill; the Dragon and Tiger Dao Formation arose behind him, lifting the lid of the pill furnace just a crack.

A three-hundred-year-old Hades’ Grass was thrown into the furnace.

Nirvana Pill Technique?

Gai Su’e blinked hard, recalling he had once had the fortune to witness an incomplete Nirvana Pill Technique performed by Pill King Fan Xue, which was said to be an Alchemy Immortal Technique capable of resurrecting Dead Pills!

The technique just now, seemed to be even more complete than Pill King Fan Xue’s?

Or was it that this was not the Nirvana Pill Technique at all?

“Is that…

the Nirvana Pill Technique?” Gai Su’e thickened his skin to whisper the question.

“Yeah.” Cao Zhen, who was busy attempting to revive the Dead Pill, replied casually.

It really was!

Gai Su’e was stunned.

The Nirvana Pill Technique was almost lost because it was exceedingly rare, and even having the Secret Technique did not guarantee one could learn it.

Strictly speaking, out of a hundred, maybe only one person could master it.

The rumor was that Pill King Fan Xue had obtained a complete Nirvana Pill Technique manual but, due to talent limitations, had not managed to perfect it!

Is this person truly the master of Four Treasures Peak?

Gai Su’e’s eyes were filled with doubt.

How could such a person allow his peak to rank at the hundredth position?

Oh!

Right, he hasn’t been the Peak Master for many years.

Before it was his master who held the position!

No wonder the previous master of Four Treasures Peak had been so desperate to find spiritual medicine in the fatal Secret Realm…

ending up perishing therein.

So the new Peak Master is a Pill Master with extraordinary talent!

If the former master of Four Treasures Peak had found divine herbs and spiritual medicine and brought them back from the Secret Realm…

“Hold your hand, junior!

Do not ruin my Yin Yang Ghost God Pill!”

A fat old man with white beard cried out urgently, moving swiftly as lightning.

His voice had not yet arrived when he was already beside Cao Zhen, placing his hand on Cao Zhen’s arm and also interrupting Gai Su’e’s stream of thought.

In that time, Cao Zhen also recognized the fat old man who suddenly appeared, recorded in the manual of the Hidden Dragon Observatory as the Elder in charge of the Five-Element Pill Ground – Gu Chengyu, known as a true giant among the top ten alchemists of the Hundred Peaks Sect.

“This is a batch of Dead Pills…”

Just as Cao Zhen was about to explain, he was interrupted by Gu Chengyu’s wrathful bellow.

“You know nothing!” Gu Chengyu roared, his saliva spraying like scattered stars in the night sky across Cao Zhen’s face, “This batch only needs another three hundred years of refining with the Five-Element Earth Fire, then with the help of Sky Frost Grass it could be brought back to life!

Never mind!

You wouldn’t understand…”

Cao Zhen raised his sleeve to wipe off the spittle from his face and began to doubt the level of alchemy in the entire Hundred Peaks Sect.

This is the top ten in alchemy skills?

Theoretically, there was indeed a one in ten chance of reviving the pills.

But those who could end up with Dead Pills weren’t that high in alchemy skills to begin with, so that one in ten chance was as good as none.

Dared to spray my face with saliva?

It seems today I will not only teach you alchemy, but also how to behave.

“Are you teaching me how to do things?” Cao Zhen looked at the old man before him and retorted.