The next day, after finishing his guard duty, Chen Fei went to find the alchemist at the medical hall.
"You want the recipe for the Blood Qi Pill?" Zeng Defang looked at Chen Fei with some surprise.
"Is that possible?" Chen Fei asked with cupped hands.
After thinking about it all day yesterday, Chen Fei had ultimately decided to try alchemy. After all, this was one of the original reasons he had stayed at the medical hall. As for medicine, that was a complete system, and Chen Fei didn't know if the panel could simplify it.
Even if it could, it would probably cost an enormous sum of money, and Chen Fei was still short on money.
Thus, alchemy was the more suitable choice. As long as Chen Fei learned to refine a single kind of pill, he would have a relatively stable income, after which he could seek out higher-grade pills, forming a virtuous cycle.
"You're a guard of the medical hall, so giving you a recipe for the Blood Qi Pill is nothing much."
Zeng Defang nodded and said, "But it will only be the most common Blood Qi Pill recipe—it won't include the medical hall's proprietary techniques. And if you want to fire up the furnace and refine it, you must pay for the medicinal materials yourself. The medical hall will not provide them for free."
"I understand."
Chen Fei nodded. Before he could prove he had alchemy ability, the medical hall would never provide materials for nothing. And even if he proved he could refine pills, it would still depend on the quality of the finished pills. Anything too shoddy, and the medical hall wouldn't accept it.
"Mm, take it and return it to me in three days."
Zeng Defang rose and rummaged through the cabinet behind him, pulled out a small booklet, and handed it to Chen Fei.
"Thank you, Elder Zeng!" Chen Fei cupped his hands in gratitude.
"No trouble at all."
Zeng Defang waved his hand and paid Chen Fei no more attention. Chen Fei, knowing his place, quietly left the pharmacy.
Watching Chen Fei's retreating figure, Zeng Defang slightly shook his head. He had seen many people like Chen Fei who wanted to learn alchemy and gain a skill, but those who could actually get started and refine pills to a satisfactory standard were few and far between.
In Zeng Defang's view, Chen Fei would surely be one of the mediocre ones among them.
Chen Fei returned to his room and carefully studied the recipe in his hands.
An incense stick's worth of time later, Chen Fei set down the recipe and closed his eyes, recalling what he had just read.
The contents of the recipe were not complicated—it simply introduced the medicinal materials needed for refinement, their properties, and points to note during the refining process.
The recipe was only a few thin pages, so many things were explained very briefly. If one relied on such a recipe to completely refine the Blood Qi Pill, one would have to fail at least several dozen, even a hundred times, before there was any chance of success.
And that was only if your talent was decent.
If you weren't suited for this line of work, even failing hundreds of times probably wouldn't get you through the door. Because alchemy was really just like practicing martial arts—especially when it came to a person's talent.
Sometimes you either have it or you don't.
[Alchemy: Blood Qi Pill (Not Initiated)]
New text appeared on the panel, and new simplification information began flashing. Chen Fei couldn't help but show a hint of a smile, because simplifying the Blood Qi Pill required only one tael of silver.
Chen Fei had chosen the Blood Qi Pill as his first alchemy target precisely because this pill had such a solid foundation. The more fundamental something was, the less silver the simplification required—that was the experience Chen Fei had figured out recently.
Moreover, although the Blood Qi Pill was basic, its clientele was by no means small.
Whether it was martial artists who had just begun practicing techniques, or those at the Skin Refining Realm like Chen Fei, the Blood Qi Pill had considerable effect—it could invigorate one's qi and blood, allowing one to cultivate martial arts better and faster.
Even martial artists at the higher Muscle Refining Realm would buy Blood Qi Pills to consume when money was tight. The effect still existed, just somewhat weaker.
Thus, if Chen Fei could refine Blood Qi Pills, he wouldn't have to worry about selling them at all. After all, among the population of martial artists, there would always be more at the bottom.
"Panel, simplify the Blood Qi Pill!"
"Simplifying Blood Qi Pill... Simplification successful... Blood Qi Pill → Stir-Fried Pork Liver!"
"..."
Chen Fei blinked, almost thinking he had seen wrong. After simplification, the Blood Qi Pill had actually turned into cooking—and stir-fried pork liver, of all things?
Was there any inherent connection between the two?
They both nourished the blood, and they both required fire?
Chen Fei couldn't quite understand the logic behind the panel's simplifications, but going from refining pills to cooking a dish, his confidence suddenly soared. Cooking was something ordinary people could do; it was merely a matter of differences in taste.
Chen Fei was just planning to go to the market tomorrow to buy some pork liver, while in the medical hall, gossip about him began to circulate.
Nothing special—just the fact that Chen Fei had gotten a Blood Qi Pill recipe from Zeng Defang had spread, becoming gossip for many people over their meals.
Just two days ago, Chen Fei had clashed with Pu Liao and been treated as a hothead. Now, turning around, he went to get a pill recipe, deluding himself into becoming an alchemist—this made many people extremely amused.
It wasn't just the fellow guards who mocked Chen Fei; even the servants, upon hearing about both incidents, felt that Chen Fei didn't know the extent of heaven and earth.
Those servants had always been somewhat jealous and envious of Chen Fei—fellow servant who had become a guard. Now with this added affair, they naturally delighted in ridiculing him.
"Doesn't practice martial arts properly, yet deludes himself into becoming an alchemist. An alchemist—is that something a mud-legged peasant like him can dream of? Absolutely absurd."
At the drinking table, Pu Liao tossed a few peanuts into his mouth, his words full of disdain for Chen Fei.
"It's precisely because he was a mud-legged peasant before that now, having gotten an opportunity, he's desperately climbing upward. A pity—he doesn't know that a mud-legged peasant, sometimes, really can only be a mud-legged peasant for life," his companion said with a laugh.
"Originally I thought he might be sensible enough, and I wouldn't have minded guiding him a little. But then he actually demanded a secret manual from me directly. If we hadn't been inside the medical hall at the time, I would have slapped him across the face," Pu Liao said coldly.
"Brother Pu truly has admirable restraint. If it were any of us, we probably couldn't have held back long ago!"
"Forget about him. He's just a laughingstock."
Pu Liao waved his hand and said, "There will be plenty of ways to deal with him later. Does he really think a secret manual given by me, Pu Liao, is so easily accepted!"
The rumors in the medical hall had not yet reached Chen Fei's ears. At this moment, Chen Fei was in an abandoned courtyard, starting a fire to stir-fry pork liver.
The pork liver was fresh, just bought from the market. After stir-frying it, Chen Fei planned to eat it himself—it counted as meat, after all.
After becoming a guard of the medical hall, the meals provided by the hall had improved considerably—every meal had some minced meat, and every few days there was even some substantial meat.
But for a martial artist, especially one as hard-up as Chen Fei, not a single morsel of meat could be passed up.
In no time, the aroma of meat wafted from the pot. In his previous life, Chen Fei actually knew how to cook. Though he could only make simple home-style dishes, handling a stir-fried pork liver was naturally no problem.
Stir-fry, remove from heat, plate.
The steaming stir-fried pork liver was completed just like that. Chen Fei's gaze turned to the panel.
[Alchemy: Blood Qi Pill (Initiated 1/100)]