"You!"
The maidservant was a little irritated. "Miss Yuqing has good intentions. She doesn’t want internal friction in the pharmacy. You..."
"Cui."
Chen Yuqing stopped her softly, but her gaze never left Chen Yue’s face.
She watched Chen Yue for a moment before finally nodding, her tone returning to one of indifference. "Since Chen the Pill Master says it was a misunderstanding, then a misunderstanding it is. I only hope that from now on, we won’t hear such easily misunderstood words within the pharmacy. We must work together to get through these difficult times."
"Steward Chen is absolutely right," Chen Yue said, cupping his fist.
Chen Yuqing said no more and left with her maidservant.
Chen Yue then found Lin Quan. "Master Lin, Liu Jing and I have known each other since our humble beginnings. He’s a reliable person. Sending him to the herb farm... his fate is uncertain. Could I ask you to speak up and have him transferred to the Alchemy Room? With your reputation, Steward Chen and Miss Yuqing might be willing to make an exception."
Lin Quan looked at Chen Yue, fell silent for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "Alright. I’ll see what I can do tomorrow."
However, the next day, Liu Jing did not appear in the Alchemy Room.
Lin Quan looked unwell. He had gone to see Chen Yuqing personally, and when he returned, his white eyebrows were knitted tightly together.
"This new girl is unyielding. She said they’re truly short-staffed at the herb farm, and since Liu Jing has already been assigned, it’s not convenient to change it. It seems even this old face of mine doesn’t carry much weight anymore."
Chen Yue’s heart sank. Lin Quan was one of the pillars of the pharmacy, a senior Alchemy Master. In the past, whenever he asked for an apprentice to help, the steward always agreed.
The fact that Chen Yuqing wouldn’t even grant Lin Quan this small favor was rather thought-provoking.
In the end, Liu Jing was escorted by two grim-faced guards, along with a few other apprentices. Carrying their meager bundles, they disappeared through the back door of Huichun Hall, heading for the herb farm outside the city.
Chen Yue stood under the moon gate of the Alchemy Room’s small courtyard, watching their receding figures until they were completely out of sight before slowly looking away.
He turned to look at the silent Pill Furnace in the courtyard. The furnace fire burned quietly in the dim morning light, illuminating his expressionless face.
At that moment, Chen Yuqing’s words from the other day, calm yet carrying a warning, pierced his mind: ’In times like these, only knowing Alchemy is not as useful as a strong fist. It can’t protect us.’
At the time, he had thought she was just using the situation as a pretext to make a veiled threat. But now, watching Liu Jing’s helpless fate, a trace of agreement bloomed in Chen Yue’s heart.
Alchemy was a skill, a precious ability to acquire resources.
But in the face of true power, in a chaotic world ruled by unreasonable force, this ability was as fragile as paper.
It couldn’t protect the people he wanted to protect. If he wasn’t strong enough himself, this skill could even become a source of disaster, just like the Alchemy Masters from her family who were abducted by the rebel army, as Chen Yuqing had mentioned.
Power was the greatest support in chaotic times. It was the foundation that determined whether one could stand tall and have a voice.
This realization brought with it a stronger desire to increase his strength.
For the next ten days, Chen Yue’s life was simplified to the extreme: Alchemy, cultivation, absorbing Medicinal Power, and more cultivation.
He pushed his cultivation of the Mountain Shattering Technique to an unprecedented intensity. Every time his Qi Blood surged along that unique path, he could feel his muscles and bones screaming.
In ten days’ time, the experience bar for the Mountain Shattering Technique on his panel advanced rapidly, crossing a threshold from Minor Success to the Great Success (10/900) realm.
The changes brought by the Mountain Shattering Technique at this stage were significant.
The most direct manifestation was another increase in his pure physical strength. Now, when he threw a punch or a kick, the air itself seemed to hum with a deep power. When he stomped, the stone slabs beneath his feet felt as if they trembled slightly.
Compared to when he had only practiced the Iron Mountain Fist, Chen Yue felt his strength had increased by at least twenty percent. He even suspected that in terms of brute force alone, he might not be inferior to a Martial Artist who had just entered the Refining Flesh Realm.
Of course, a true Martial Artist in the Refining Flesh Realm had muscles and bones far tougher than someone in Skin Refining. Their Qi Blood was more condensed, and their power-generation techniques and endurance were on a completely different level. But in terms of pure strength, he had just about reached the threshold.
His progress in Alchemy Skill was equally astonishing.
This was thanks to Lin Quan holding nothing back in his teachings and Chen Yue’s own frantic practice. As if sensing the urgency of the times, Lin Quan had also passed on the complete Pill Formulas for the Body Tempering Pill and the Solid Essence Pill, as well as a few of his most treasured knacks for Fire Control and Pill Formation.
Chen Yue began to try refining these two more advanced Elixirs in his own small Alchemy Room.
Personally handling every medicinal herb, personally controlling every subtle change in the fire’s temperature, personally experiencing the fusion of medicinal powers and the thrill of the moment of Pill Formation... The depth of understanding gained from this hands-on practice was completely different from just observing Lin Quan.
The Experience Points tallied on his panel gushed forth. The Body Tempering Pill steadily entered Minor Success (100/600), while the Solid Essence Pill advanced with unstoppable momentum, reaching the Great Success (30/900) realm.
Outwardly, Chen Yue cautiously concealed the fact that he could consistently refine the Solid Essence Pill.
This Elixir was quite valuable. It was a superior product for Martial Artists at the Refining Flesh Realm and above to consolidate their foundation and nourish their Primordial Qi. It was far too conspicuous.
He simply used the excuse of studying the Pill Formula to buy a set of ingredients for the Solid Essence Pill from the pharmacy every two days, paying with his share of silver. With his status as a Pill Master, he enjoyed a fifty percent discount, making the cost bearable.
In his small Alchemy Room, thanks to the insights and control gained from the Great Success Realm of the Solid Essence Pill, Chen Yue could consistently produce two pills per batch. After refining them, he didn’t sell them; instead, he consumed one every day.
Compared to the Blood Circulation Pill, the Solid Essence Pill’s effects were more than a notch stronger.
When the Elixir entered his stomach, it transformed into a warm, mellow stream of heat. Unlike the Blood Circulation Pill, which directly agitated his Qi Blood, this energy slowly permeated his limbs and bones, nourishing the depths of his muscles, bones, and skin, solidifying his foundation and strengthening his Origin.
With every dose, it was as if he could hear a humming sound coming from deep within his body.
With one Solid Essence Pill per day combined with the Great Success Mountain Shattering Technique, the two effects stacked. Chen Yue’s daily Cultivation experience suddenly soared from the previous 9 points to 15 points!
His cultivation speed had nearly doubled!
Under this luxurious piling of resources and his own unceasing, arduous cultivation, Chen Yue’s Martial Dao realm advanced at a dumbfounding pace.
On his panel, the experience bar for the Skin Refining Realm was nearing its end, having reached (261/300). At this rate, in three days at most, he could attempt to break through to the Refining Flesh Realm!
To think that just over a month ago, Chen Yue was still an apprentice in the backyard who could be ordered around at will. Now, he was quietly standing at the threshold of the Refining Flesh Realm.
Once he broke through, he would be considered a skilled practitioner in all of Youlin County, qualified enough to serve as a guard captain like Li Lie. He would truly possess some power to secure his own place in the world.
The world is like a game of chess, its twists and turns unknowable.
Just as Chen Yue was focused on this critical final push, ripples from the outside world once again disturbed the small world of the pharmacy.
On this day, a few backyard apprentices who had been sent to distribute congee outside the city returned and gathered in a corner, whispering among themselves.
"Hey, did you guys see? On that open ground east of the city, they’ve set up a new congee distribution tent. It’s a huge setup! And that congee... it smelled so thick!"
"It’s more than just thick! I heard you can even get eggs there!"
"Eggs?! For real? They’re giving out eggs with congee in times like these?"
"It’s absolutely true! My cousin told me. Those people are really friendly. They said they felt sorry for the disaster victims and are providing relief on their own to accumulate good karma..."