On the first day of the New Year, Zhou Wuji fired up the furnace to refine pills.
On the second day, after returning the elixir to the furnace for a second refining, he succeeded in refining the Second-Revolution Qiongyu Paste.
The Qiongyu Paste was pristine white like jade and viscous as an ointment, weighing a little over one jin.
Zhou Wuji had an ample supply of red blossom honey and was generous with his ingredients, which was why he produced such an abundant yield.
Gazing at the fragrant Qiongyu Paste, Zhou Wuji was thoroughly pleased.
Through this hands-on practice, his alchemy skills had improved once again.
One had to work the furnace in person to truly grasp how to control the temperature, extract the medicinal properties, and channel true qi to balance and harmonize the medicinal essences into a finished elixir.
Although Qiongyu Paste was an ointment rather than a pill, the process was virtually identical, except that the final step did not require true qi to coalesce it into spherical pellets.
"It’s done, just like that?!"
In contrast to Zhou Wuji’s calm demeanor, Wuzheng, who had assisted him throughout the refining, stared with wide eyes, shock written all over his usually placid face.
Wuzheng knew Zhou Wuji was a prodigy and gifted in alchemy.
The problem was that this was Zhou Wuji’s very first time refining pills on his own, yet he had managed to produce a two-revolution returned elixir of Qiongyu Paste. It was absurd—utterly preposterous.
Zhou Wuji smiled and cupped his hands to Wuzheng. "It is all thanks to Senior Brother’s excellent teaching."
"You... stop spending all your days fighting and killing. Focus on alchemy, and in the future you are bound to become an alchemy grandmaster."
Wuzheng spoke to him with solemn earnestness. "This is the true grand path to heaven. The way of slaughter may be imposing and formidable, but it carries too much danger. The faster your sword, the faster you will meet your own ruin."
"Thank you, Senior Brother."
Zhou Wuji knew Wuzheng meant well. For ordinary cultivators, a sword was merely a weapon for combat, not an instrument for cultivating the Dao.
The more one fought, the faster one died.
Zhou Wuji was only willing to risk his life in deadly combat because he possessed the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment. But that was something he could never reveal to Wuzheng.
Wuzheng sighed with a trace of regret. "It's a pity that our Tianshu lineage is mediocre in alchemy. If you could go to Tianxuan to study the pill-refining methods, it wouldn't even be impossible to verify the Dao through alchemy!"
Wuzheng felt there was little point in dwelling on this, so he switched the subject. "Junior Brother, how far are you from unblocking all seven apertures?"
"Only the Yaoguang aperture remains. I reckon I can break through it before the third month," Zhou Wuji replied.
He did not mean to deceive Wuzheng, but his progress was so shockingly fast that it defied explanation.
Wuzheng nodded. "Then you will head to the Lower Monastery in the third month, which will give you plenty of time to take part in the scripture debate against Golden Leaf Temple in the eighth month.
"If you can distinguish yourself at the Great Scripture Debate, the Lower Monastery will surely bestow handsome rewards, and might even recommend you to cultivate at the Upper Monastery."
"Senior Brother, how does this scripture debate actually work?" Zhou Wuji figured he had no trouble when it came to fighting, but debating doctrinal texts was a different story.
He had an extraordinary memory, but he had merely memorized the scriptures; in terms of profound understanding and application, he was far behind.
Monks were famously adept at sophistry, and Buddhist sects loved verbal disputation. He knew he was no match for them on that front.
Wuzheng shook his head. "Monks are crafty and eloquent; we're no match for them in verbal debates.
"The world is treacherous. Talk is useless. In the end, one can only stand firm through real capability.
"It simply means finding a place where both sides have a good, hard fight!"
Speaking of this, Wuzheng sighed with emotion. "In the past, when our sect's might shook the land, who would dare come debate scriptures with us?
"It's just that over the past few decades, our Main Monastery hasn't produced much talent, leaving only the Sect Master to hold up the sky alone. Our standing in the Celestial Master Mansion has declined by the day, and even the emperor looks down on us.
"Now, even the bald thieves from Golden Leaf Temple dare come to our doorstep to pick a fight. How infuriating!"
As a direct disciple of the Lower Monastery's Hall Master, Wuzheng harbored deep revulsion—even hatred—toward the Buddhist sects.
Zhou Wuji had never dealt with monks, so it was hard for him to empathize with Wuzheng's feelings.
Wuzheng understood this well and continued, "You don't know what those monks are like. Bullying men and tyrannizing women, hoarding wealth under all kinds of pretexts—even our Abbot can't hold a candle to them!"
He solemnly warned Zhou Wuji, "Junior Brother, you haven't seen much of the world and don't know how cunning those monks are. In the future, when you deal with those bald thieves, you must remain vigilant and never fall into their traps.
"By the way, Golden Leaf Temple has four formidable Rank 7 warrior monks known as the Four Great Vajras. Strong as your swordsmanship is, you still need to be wary of them."
Zhou Wuji asked, "Senior Brother, what masters reside in Yunyang Prefecture?"
"Masters? There are plenty."
Wuzheng ticked them off on his fingers. "The foremost expert is undoubtedly Zhang Shiheng, Battalion Commander of the Pacification Office. A Rank 5 martial artist, he is also a member of the Zhang family. He is known as the Sky Hawk, boasting exceptionally sharp eyes.
"Next is our Abbot, a Rank 5 Scripture Master of exquisite Daoist arts. After him is Golden Leaf Temple's abbot, the Rank 5 warrior monk Master Xinjue.
"Below Rank 5 is Zhang Banshan of the Flying Tiger Martial Arts School. His martial arts are overpowering, and he is a true transmission disciple of the Eight Extremes Sect. He has disciples and followers in droves, and he, too, belongs to the Zhang family."
Having spent many years in Yunyang Prefecture, Wuzheng was quite familiar with the prefectural capital and knew something of these experts.
"Apart from them, there is Chen Dalu, head of the Five Dragons Gang. He is also a Rank 6 martial artist with formidable skills, and he is said to be proficient in curses as well.
"As for the demonic masters of the Yin-Yang Dao, the Corpse God Cult, and such, those are less clear..."
Wuzheng remarked with feeling, "The prefectural capital is a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Mighty as your swordsmanship may be, Junior Brother, do not make a scene once you arrive..."
Zhou Wuji nodded repeatedly, taking the advice to heart. He would be heading to the Lower Monastery this year, and everything Wuzheng told him was vital information that he needed to remember.
"By the way, receiving the Rank 7 register requires approval from the Upper Monastery, and it must also be submitted to the Celestial Master Mansion for endorsement."
Wuzheng reminded him, "The Upper Monastery won't make things difficult for us, but the Celestial Master Mansion will dispatch inspectors. Usually, they require you to complete an assessment—like slaying a specific monster or something."
"Oh?" Zhou Wuji truly hadn't known this. Daoist Yiyuan had never mentioned such matters to him.
Perhaps his master had felt he was too far from Rank 7 to bother telling him...
"Is the assessment assigned by the Celestial Master Mansion difficult?"
"A registered Daoist of Rank 7 receives a court stipend, so the imperial court naturally keeps a strict watch over it."
Wuzheng said, "With your skills, Junior Brother, nothing will trouble you."
He paused and lowered his voice. "However, worldly ways and personal connections play a big part here. You have to give the inspectors from the Celestial Master Mansion some grease for their palms."
"Oh, I understand, I understand." Zhou Wuji grasped the idea immediately.
"Worldly ways" was simply a polite term for sharing the spoils.
When someone traveled from afar to inspect you, if you didn't give them a cut, they would certainly make your life miserable. That was just human nature...
Returning to his bedchamber, Zhou Wuji took stock of his wealth: thirty ten-tael gold ingots, dozens of taels of silver, and a scattering of copper coins.
Two True Yang Beads, together worth at least three hundred taels of gold.
One Northern Culmen Heavenly Dipper Divine Talisman, worth fifty taels of gold.
One Three-Revolution Origin-Returning Pill, worth dozens of taels of gold. Ten Three-Revolution Purple-Gold Pills, worth a combined hundred taels of gold.
Three Golden Yang Pills, worth one hundred and fifty taels of silver. And an assortment of inedia pills.
These were, of course, the market prices for external sales; the Lower Monastery's cost to craft the talismans and refine the pills was probably only a tenth of that value, or even less.
What truly made them expensive was the Lower Monastery's monopoly on the craft; they would rather let their talismans and pills sit unsold than lower their prices.
With pill prices so steep, selling them off wasn't easy either.
To Zhou Wuji, what was truly valuable was still the more than two hundred jin of red blossom honey.
Calculated at five taels of gold per jin, that amounted to over a thousand taels of gold.
However, with such a massive quantity, offloading all of it at top dollar was impossible.
Then there was the Tiger Wing Saber, which he estimated to be worth at least two thousand taels of gold.
Selling the Yin-Yang banner and the ring to the Lower Monastery should fetch a bit more money, but that was negligible by comparison.
Between the Tiger Wing Saber and the red blossom honey alone, he possessed a vast fortune, more than enough to cover his various expenses.
No matter how greedy the inspectors from the Celestial Master Mansion might be, a thousand taels of gold should easily suffice.
Having cataloged his assets, Zhou Wuji felt at ease; he had more than enough money.
It was just a pity about the tiger demon's pelt and flesh, as well as the golden toad and the great serpent—the flesh and blood of such demonic beasts were quite valuable.
Zhou Wuji resolved that whenever he killed beasts in the future, he would bring them back to sell for coin rather than waste them so extravagantly.
Around noon the following day, as Zhou Wuji was chatting with Wuzheng, a villager from Baizhu Village rushed in frantically to plead for help.
The rough-hewn villager recognized Zhou Wuji. The moment he entered, he fell to his knees at Zhou Wuji's feet, wailing loudly, "Immortal Master, another terrifying monster has come to our village! Please save us..."
Chapter 66