Better Than Mine
In Zheng-Fu’s room…
Once Zheng-Fu entered his room, he took out his spatial ring and examined the items to check if everything was still in there…
“Now I have only 2,400 monster crystal coins left, but it’s still a lot. The good thing is I don’t have to buy the spatial ring myself and get to have my own medicine mixing bowl at the same time.” Zheng-Fu checked his new belongings and smiled feeling delighted. Before this, he wondered about the cost of a spatial ring. He also had to speculate how much he was going to get from selling his medicines. The experiences in In-See City and at the auction house helped him understand pricing better…
The first thing that Zheng-Fu thought about doing after coming back to his clan was to come up with a medicine formula that boosts the effect of the Body-Strengthening Ginseng. He thought that if his weakened body had not been fixed yet, he would have to suffer the same physical problem. The best way to deal with this is to find the right formula to turn the Body-Strengthening Ginseng into medicine…
Thud!
Zheng-Fu took out the medicine mixing bowl that he got from the Association of the Alchemists. He could tell that this bowl must be something special because there was an aura radiating around it…
“This mixing bowl is not like the one that Master Sue-Wu has. It’s not like the one in the test room. I think it must be something better judging from the aura around it.” After Zheng-Fu finished speaking, he took out the ingredients that he needed in order to produce a first-rank medicine. He wanted to practice so he became more skillful in medicine production. The first-rank medicine that he was going to make took a few ingredients and had a short process to make. He just did not know yet what kind of pill and quality or which rank he was going to make from these ingredients. This was because he just came up with this new formula…
Kank!
Klink!
Whoosh!
Vroom!
And the production of the first formula that Zheng-Fu solely came up with had begun. The boy put an ingredient after an ingredient and started the whole heat flame process slowly with utmost care. Not long after everything was being thrown in, the ingredients started to integrate quickly. Then an explosive smoke occurred and a grey pill floated over presenting itself on the surface of the mixing bowl…
Boom!
Grab!
“Yay! Finally, my first pill. Even though it’s a first-rank pill, the aura that came out of it makes it look different.” Zheng-Fu said while looking at the grey pill in his hand with extreme joy. This first-rank pill could be as great as a second-rank pill because it shared the great smell of a second-rank pill…
“But how am I going to know the effect of this pill? I can guess the effect of it by looking at the ingredients that I used, but… Ahh! I know who I am going to try this pill on!” Zheng-Fu looked at the pill and gave a cunning smile because he knew who he was going to give this pill to. When he realized that, he started to mix more pills from that very same formula. He gave it another 20 tries and he succeeded every single time. This made him more skillful at some certain level…
“I guess that should be enough. I think I’d better move on to the second formula.” After he became skillful on the first formula, he moved on to the second formula right away. The more he put his hands on the medicine mixing process, the better he became at medicine production. His control of the heat flame had become better too…
But little did Zheng-Fu know that the more he gave the medicine mixing a try, the more intense the herbal smell came out. Right now, his room was filled with that smell and it was sent outside through each window and hole from his room…
“Wait… Dear wife! Do you smell something?” Kong-Shi asked Tang-Ling whether she could smell something herbal amid their conversation…
“Smell!?”
Sniff! Sniff!
“That’s right. It smells like herbal medicine, dear!”
“Yes!”
After the husband and wife agreed to smell the same thing, they stood up and started to walk towards the source of the smell. They finally stopped in front of Zheng-Fu’s room…
Tang-Ling: “The smells come from here!”
Kong-Shi: “But this is Zheng-Fu’s room. Why do the smells come from his room?”
Tang-Ling: “Well, dear husband! Don’t you remember that our son has been hanging out with Elder Sue-Wu lately? They are now master and student too. Master Sue-Wu probably gave him some herbal medicines to help him ease some muscle pain…”
Kong-Shi: “Do you think so?”
Squeak!
“Oh…! Father! Mother! What are you doing in front of my room?” Zheng-Fu rushed to put everything away because he was aware of his parents’ presence in front of his room before he came out to greet them. He asked his parents the question while making an innocent face…
Tang-Ling: “Your father smelled something herbal and it was from your room, so he took me here…”
Kong-Shi: “Yeah! I smelled an herbal medicine from your room, so I thought…”
“Oh, that! Master Sue-Wu gave me an herbal medicine for me to boil, so I guess that was where the smells came from.” Zheng-Fu started to make an excuse…
Tang-Ling: “See? I told you. You’re being too paranoid, dear husband. Well, just go back to your rest, Zheng-Fu. We’re not going to bug you anymore…”
“Yes, mother!”
Kong-Shi and Tang-Ling walked away right after the conversation with Zheng-Fu. Zheng-Fu then rushed to close his door immediately and gave a long exhale out of relief. He was not ready to let anyone know about his medicine production business…
*How come Zheng-Fu looked suspicious? It’s like he was hiding something. He’s been stranger and stranger day after day. It’s like he’s not himself anymore. Or is it because he is in love?* A lot of crazy thoughts happened in Kong-Shi’s mind about his son. He felt that Zheng-Fu had been behaving differently. Sometimes he hardly acted like a small boy but looked like one at another. The whole thing made Kong-Shi feel the difference…
“Phew! That was close. I have to be more careful next time. Now I have 20 pills from the first formula. I’ve got another 12 from the second one. I’ll give it a try again tomorrow.” Zheng-Fu went to the Medicine Tower early the next day. He had an appointment with Master Sue-Wu about medicine production…
Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!
At Sue-Wu’s medicine mixing room…
“Are you here?”
“Good morning, Master.”
“Hi.”
Tong-Lang: “My genius student! What are you doing here? And who did you just call ‘Master’?”
“Greeting Master Tong-Lang. I’m here to see Master Sue-Wu, sir!”
“Master Sue-Wu!?” Tong-Lang gave a quick look at Sue-Wu with a little suspicion and then laughed…
“Hahaha!”
Tong-Lang: “Are you also his Master?”
“Yeah! I saw that he was interested in alchemy, so I took him in as my student. Are you also his Master?”
“That’s right! My brother, Tong-Tieng, and I are his Masters, teaching him martial arts.” Tong-Lang said while giving a dry smile because he could not say confidently that he taught the boy martial arts because he had not taught him that much so far…
Sue-Wu: “I see. It’s good that you are here, Zheng-Fu. I’ll give you a first medicine lesson today. I know that you have read the Fundamental Book of Herbal Plants for a while now, so I’ll give you some tests today about herbal plants…”
“Some tests?”
Zheng-Fu was kind of disappointed because he had remembered everything in the book. However, he did not want Sue-Wu to know that, so he turned his disappointed face into a curious face and then said, “Yes, Master. I’ve read it and get to remember some of the information in there, sir!”
“Great! The first test is for you to prepare the ingredients for these three medicine formulas.” Sue-Wu said and gave Zheng-Fu three pieces of paper that had three medicine formulas in them. These formulas were physical healing medicine, muscle relaxant medicine, and muscle extension medicine. They were all first-rank medicines. Zheng-Fu sent out the widest smile when he saw the three formulas because they were the easiest formulas for him…
“Yes, Master!” Zheng-Fu rushed to get the ingredients right after he registered Sue-Wu’s order…
Tong-Lang: “When did he get into alchemy, Elder Sue-Wu?”
Sue-Wu: “About last month, I supposed.”
About last month!?
Tong-Lang: “Is that so? I don’t know that the boy is into alchemy too. Is he going to get into everything? Zhuangyuan study, martial arts, and now alchemy? There are still ironsmith and wizardry left for him though…”
“Yeah!”
As Sue-Wu spent his whole time in the Medicine Tower, he did not know much about what had been going on around the clan. He was busy mixing medicines and thought of new medicine formulas to better his arts. That was why he did not know about Zheng-Fu being the winner of this year’s youth martial arts test and his study to become a Zhuangyuan. It did not take long for Zheng-Fu to get back to Sue-Wu with the ingredients for all three medicine formulas…
“I’ve got everything, Master. Here they are!”
Sue-Wu felt a little startled when he saw Zheng-Fu back so soon because he thought that the boy would take much more time gathering everything that he asked him to…
Sue-Wu: “Great! You were pretty quick there. So, let’s begin making some medicines then. But first, let’s give you a lesson about building a heat flame…”
“Is it done this way, sir?”
Roar!
*Whoa! How did he…!? This boy learned too fast!*
Sue-Wu gasped when he saw Zheng-Fu produce his first heat flame. Zheng-Fu intended to produce a red regular heat flame, so he would not startle Sue-Wu further. He did not want Sue-Wu to suspect him for far too much. Tong-Lang did not react much when he saw Zheng-Fu perform because he did not know anything about alchemy…
“Ahem! Gr…gr…great! You’re very quick, boy. Since you can produce a heat flame, we can now begin with the medicine mixing process.” Sue-Wu tried to deliver a sentence while wanting to bang his head against the wall because it took him about five years to create a first heat flame. He had to understand it first before producing it successfully…
Sue-Wu led Zheng-Fu to the medicine mixing bowl instantly. He told Zheng-Fu to do things step by step. Tong-Lang got to see Zheng-Fu and Sue-Wu interact in the medicine production with interest, then he said, “Is this the arts of alchemy? It’s not easy at all!” Tong-Lang even tried to produce a heat flame while he was speaking, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not make it happen. That was why he said that it was not easy to do alchemy…
“Just remember that every step of it is very crucial. If you miss just one, then you’ll fail.” Sue-Wu explained while Zheng-Fu started to mix the medicine. However, since Zheng-Fu tried to practice about 30 times last night, he became more familiar with the medicine mixing process. When he had to mix these easy formulas today, he felt at peace doing it…
Vroom!
All of a sudden, a cloud of smoke came out of the mixing bowl, followed by a mild nice smell, filling the room…
“Is it done!?” Tong-Lang asked loudly…
*Did he just produce a pill successfully? I can’t believe that this is his first time. He’s a real pro. The boy’s very talented.* Sue-Wu thought while smiling…
Grab!
“Here it is, Master! My first pill. A first-rank physical healing pill!” Zheng-Fu grabbed the pill that was floating on the mixing bowl and handed it to Sue-Wu. Sue-Wu took the pill and examined it. And all of a sudden, he turned into a shock…
Sue-Wu: “This pill is much better than all the pills that I have ever produced!”
Tong-Lang: “Better than Elder Sue-Wu!?”
“Are you being too kind, Master? All I did was just everything that you suggested to me, exactly what you told me!”
Sue-Wu took out another first-rank pill that he produced himself and compared it with Zheng-Fu’s. He found that the smell and energy that came out of them were slightly different
than he expected. Then he said…
“It is better than mine!”