I Just Won't Play By The Book
chapter-108

“Sister Zijin, Sister Zijin ~”

“This way, this way.”

“It looks very lively inside!”

In mystic square, the Yu Sisters flew around like three little birds that had just come out of their cages. It was the first time they had visited such a lively place since they entered the Sect of Returning Hearts. They were extremely happy. Liu Zijin patted Fang Qiuyao, who was standing in front of a stall trying to figure out which material Jiang Beiran liked better, and asked, “If there’s nothing here, let’s go there and take a look.”

Fang Qiuyao let out a breath, raised her head, and nodded.

Although Jiang Beiran had many hobbies, she believed that one of his them was his most favorite one. She had been figuring out his most favorite hobby for all night.

When they arrived at the guild area and saw that there were crowds of people surrounding each guild, the three sisters immediately looked around excitedly.

Fang Qiuyao was more purposeful. With one glance, she saw the alchemist guild that was closest to her.

She knew that alchemy was definitely one of Jiang Beiran’s hobbies. Moreover, the pills that he gave were very powerful. It was highly likely that alchemy was his senior brother’s favorite hobby!

After confirming her guess, Fang Qiuyao immediately said to Liu Zijin, “Sister Zijin, Let’s go to the alchemist guild to take a look. Maybe there are some good cauldrons that we can buy.”

Liu Zijin nodded after listening to her. She shouted to the three Yu Sisters in the distance, “Don’t run around. Come over quickly!”

“Yes!”

Their loud noises attracted the attention of a few passersby nearby. They could not help but look at Liu Zijin and the others. For a moment, everyone’s eyes stopped in the same direction. Although the five female cultivators were wearing masks, their temperament and figure couldn’t be hidden. Everyone began to imagine what kind of peerless faces were hidden under the five masks.

Seeing that many people were ready to strike up a conversation, Fang Qiuyao adjusted the masks again and said to the other four, “I really miss the straw hats that Brother Jiang gave us.”

“Yes.” the three Yu Sisters nodded at the same time.

Before Jiang Beiran gave them the straw hats, they had already gotten used to being stared by the others. After wearing the straw hats, they really enjoyed the feeling of not being noticed. Hence, they felt a little uncomfortable now as the others kept looking at them.

“Let’s go in first.” After saying that, Liu Zijin turned around and walked into the alchemist

guild.

The five of them looked around and soon found that almost all the disciples in the guild were gathered in the innermost area. Out of curiosity, the five of them also went forward. Yu Guimiao stood outside the crowd and jumped a few times. She saw that there was a fire under a cauldron inside.

So, she immediately reported to the others, “It seems that someone is refining medicine.”

“Refining medicine?” Fang Qiuyao sniffed twice after hearing it. For a moment, a surprised expression appeared on her face. This special fragrance was exactly the same as the heat-clearing pill that Jiang Beiran gave her. It couldn’t be wrong! She smelled it every day. It couldn’t be wrong!

Therefore, she immediately said to Liu Zijin and the others, “This is Brother Jiang’s smell!”

“Ah?” The other four were stunned, not understanding what Fang Qiuyao meant. “You’ll know when you come with me.” After saying that, Fang Qiuyao squeezed into the crowd and said, “I’m sorry, can you make way?”

The people who were squeezed were originally a little unhappy, but after they looked at Fang Qiuyao, Liu Zijin and the others, the unhappiness in their hearts instantly disappeared, and they took a step back.

“Thank you.”

The same scene repeated three times, and Fang Qiuyao and the others easily squeezed to the front.

“Yes…”

Fang Qiuyao was about to excitedly shout “Yes, it’s Brother Jiang”, but thinking that if she shouted at this time, Jiang Beiran would definitely hear her. So, she pointed at the person behind the cauldron and used her eyes to express her excitement to Liu Zijin and the others.

Liu Zijin nodded. The familiar straw hat and straw shoes, together with Fang Qiuyao’s signal, the person behind the cauldron was definitely their senior brother.

“But why is Brother Jiang refining medicine here?”

Just as this thought popped up in Fang Qiuyao’s mind, she heard Yu Guimiao looking for someone to ask, “Hello, May I ask what that brother is doing?”

The surrounding disciples were thinking about how to talk to the five female cultivators later, but when they heard Yu Guimiao asking them, they immediately replied, “It’s an activity organized by the alchemist guild. As long as you pass the five challenges they set, you will be able to take a Mystic Sun Immortal Herb. There, it’s the one hanging on the top.”

Following the direction that person pointed to, Liu Zijin and the rest saw the Mystic Sun Immortal Herb hanging on the beam at the same time and nodded together.

Hence, the disciple continued, “No one was able to pass the first stage for the entire morning. But that brother passed two stages in one go. Now, he is doing the third stage.”

“Oh ~” Yu Guimiao nodded. “Thank you.”

At the same time, the five of them sighed in their hearts.

“As expected of Brother Jiang!”

At this moment, Jiang Beiran, who was purifying the ingredients, revealed a smile. He thought to himself, “This alchemist guild really knows how to play tricks. The medicinal ingredients they give me are really old.”

There were two best refining periods for medicinal ingredients. One was when they were first picked, the spiritual energy was the most abundant, and the second was when they were a hundred or even a thousand years old. However, the latter method was awfully hard. This was because not all medicinal herbs could grow for 100 or 1,000 years without losing their spiritual energy.

Now, that the spiritual energy of the decades-old wasted herbs in the cauldron right now had almost all been leaked out, leaving only the little bit that was the really difficult to squeeze out.

The other thing was that the attributes of these spiritual herbs were all different. The sun-slaying vine had the fire attribute, the purple sunflower had the water attribute, and the green feather grass had the metal attribute… These medicinal herbs with conflicting attributes made it even more difficult to purify. However, to Jiang Beiran, these didn’t pose any difficulty at all.

An hour later, Jiang Beiran extinguished the cauldron fire and turned to the steward, saying, “The purification has been completed.”

“So fast!?” The steward and the surrounding crowd exclaimed at the same time.

Only Liu Zijin and the others who didn’t know alchemy were dumbfounded, but it wasn’t important. They just needed to understand that their senior brother was very powerful.

Opening the cauldron, a strange fragrance drifted out. The steward took a closer look at the medicinal ingredients in the cauldron. They had all liquefied and were clearly separated. The liquid had not fused together at all.

“Gulp…” swallowing his saliva, the steward turned his head and said to Jiang Beiran, “Brother, you are very strong.”

“Thank you. May I ask if I have passed the challenge?”

“Of course, you have passed it perfectly.”

Hearing the steward announce Jiang Beiran’s passing, the surrounding disciples cried out in surprise again. As an alchemist, they had yet to test out the difficulty of the first two stages, but they were very clear about the difficulty of purifying multiple medicinal ingredients at the same time. Even their master who taught them alchemy might not be able to do it.

“Too amazing… just who is this expert?”

Hearing the male disciple muttering to himself, Yu Guimiao carefully asked, “May I ask what that brother has done?”

The male disciple was slightly stunned and asked, “You doesn’t know alchemy?”

Yu Guimiao made a hand gesture and said, “Just a little. I just started learning, so I can only watch the show. May I ask you to teach me?”

Hearing the word “ask”, the male disciple instantly became extremely happy. He cleared his throat and explained seriously, “Miss, listen carefully. In the process of refining medicinal herbs into pills, purification of ingredients is the most crucial step, and also the most difficult step. Only when you learn purification can you officially become a tier 1 pharmacist.” “Oh ~” Yu Guimiao nodded.

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“But the purification difficulty of each medicinal herb is completely different. For example, a tier 1 pharmacist can only purify some of the most common medicinal herbs, such as Angelica dahurica, autumn mulberry, and swamp orchid, which are the most basic medicinal herbs. But what that brother just refined are all hard bones like Bai Qing, Perrin, and winter sunflower. They are called hard bones because the essence in their bodies is especially difficult to extract. It’s a headache to us alchemy when we need to purify these hard bones.”

“So that’s how it is. So that brother is very powerful?”

“He’s more than powerful!”! He was simply a god. Refining one type of hard bone would give an alchemist a headache, not to mention mixing several of them together. It was way harder than refining one type of hard bone, but that brother took an hour to refine it. I suspect… He is very likely a tier 4 alchemist.”

At this time, a disciple who had been listening by the side finally found an opportunity and interrupted, “He’s not just a tier 4! I think he’s a tier 5 alchemist.”

“Impossible. There are only a few tier 5 alchemists in the entire Fengzhou, how can they come here? Tier 4 is already very impressive.”

“I think you don’t understand how difficult it is to refine that cauldron of medicine. My master is a tier 4 alchemist. If my master were to come, I’m afraid he wouldn’t be able to successfully refine it in an hour.”

After hearing this, that disciple immediately retorted, “That’s because your master can’t do it! Tier 4 alchemy masters are also divided into several levels. My master was at higher level and he can do it.”

“Are you bragging? Come, come, come. Tell me your master’s name. I want to hear which expert he is.”

“Just say it… tsk, why should I tell you? Why don’t you say your master’s name first?” “I think you just afraid to do so!”

Seeing that the two of them suddenly started to quarrel, Yu Guimiao quickly tried to dissuade them, “Stop arguing, let’s talk about that brother.”

“No!” the two disciples shouted at Yu Guimiao at the same time.

After saying that, the two of them continued to quarrel about whether their master could do it or not.

After being yelled at, Yu Guimiao saw that she couldn’t dissuade them, so she didn’t bother with the two of them. She turned around and exchanged a hand gesture with the others. The meaning was very clear, that was, “Brother Jiang is indeed very powerful!”

Beside the cauldron, Jiang Beiran saw that the steward didn’t speak for a long time, so he asked, “May I ask what the fourth stage is?”

The steward was stunned. Actually, there was no fourth stage. They had never thought that someone would be able to pass the third stage. The last two stages were actually prepared in case an expert came to tease them out of boredom. At this moment, it seemed like they had to proceed to the forth stage.

“Could it be that this person is really an elder of some sect?” the steward pondered.

“Brother, please wait a moment. We need to make some preparations for the fourth stage.”

Jiang Beiran nodded. “Alright, I’ll wait.”

Thus, the steward immediately ran back to the inner hall.

As soon as he opened the door, he realized that the vice president was behind the door. He was stunned for a moment before saying, “Vice president, that… that person passed the third stage.” “Yes, I saw it.” the vice president nodded.

“I saw that he was very polite and didn’t seem like he was going to challenge us. Could it be that some sect’s elder is really here to make fun of us?”

“It doesn’t seem like it. For him to be able to pass the third stage, it means that he is at least a tier 4 alchemist. Moreover, he isn’t far from breaking through to tier 5. In Fengzhou, I basically know all the alchemy masters of this level. They wouldn’t be so disrespectful to me.”

The steward was stunned when he heard this. “Then who is that person? He is too amazing.”

After hearing this, the vice-president took out a small box and handed it to the manager. He said, “This is the Green Jade Pill. The content of the fourth stage is to get him to remove 50% of the poison in this Green Jade Pill.” “Ah!? Remove poison!?”

As the saying goes, medicine made up of 30% of poison. The stronger the effect of the pill, the stronger the poison. There were even some pills that could directly kill the user after a brief period of significant improvement.

Therefore, an alchemist who could refine a low-level alchemy poison was very popular.

Compared to an alchemist who could refine a low-level alchemy poison, an alchemist who could dispel the inner poison of a pill was even more powerful. At the very least, only a tier e five alchemist could do it.

“Yes, go.” the vice president nodded.

“Yes…” the steward nodded. Just as he was about to turn around, he heard the vice president say, “If he can pass this fourth stage, bring him in to see me.” “Yes.”

The steward answered once again and walked out with the small box in his hands.

Jiang Beiran cupped his hands toward the steward and asked, “Is this the fourth stage?”

The steward nodded and opened the box. He showed the jade-like pill inside and said, “The content of the fourth stage is to remove 50% of the poison in the Green Jade Pill.”

“What!?”

The surrounding disciples cried out in surprise. Even the two disciples who were fighting over who had the best master stopped fighting and stared at the small box in the steward’s hand. As alchemists, they knew too well what it meant to be able to remove the poison within the formed pill.

The moment Jiang Beiran finished listening, two options popped up in front of his eyes.

[ Option 1: Accept the challenge and continue to pass the fourth stage. Reward for completion: Peach Blossom Pill Formation (black grade middle tier)]

[ Option 2: Reject the other party. Reward for completion: Random basic skill points + 1]

When he saw the system option pop up, Jiang Beiran suddenly felt a sense of security. It was warm and thoughtful notification from the system.

Actually, he was already feeling a little uneasy when he was clearing the third stage. In the past, whenever he wanted to show his extraordinary strength in front of others, the system would immediately give the options to stop him.

However, the system was acting weird today. At first, Jiang Beiran thought that it might be because of the suit of blending in. After all, no one could recognize him. It was fine to be a little high-profile.

He had revealed too much of his abilities in front of others today, but the options didn’t pop out. He might even think that it was because he had triggered too many options when he went out yesterday, which caused the system to go on strike today.

Therefore, when he saw the option, Jiang Beiran’s worried heart finally settled down.

After choosing option two, Jiang Beiran closed the box containing the Green Jade Pill and said, “It seems that you didn’t intend to give out this Mystic Sun Immortal Herb from the beginning. I won’t disturb you then.” [ Chosen quest completed. Reward: Go playing + 1]