Chapter 442: The Wrong Flower
Chapter 442: The Wrong Flower
"Hand me a handful of Dried Tiger Pellets. It’s the one that..."
Elder Ru Qi stated the first ingredient and was about to point in its direction while explaining the description not only to Yi Chen but also to the rest of the disciples who were present.
However, before she could even begin explaining the ingredient’s features properly, she saw Yi Chen’s hand instantly reaching for a brown pellet the size of a nail that was neatly arranged inside an open wooden box.
’Oh? So, he knows it.’
Slightly impressed, she took the pellets from Yi Chen’s hand and raised them to allow the disciples to see the ingredient, starting to explain its properties to everyone.
"Dried Tiger Pellets are known to possess extreme yang properties, and thus they’re useful ingredients for the pill which we are..."
As Elder Ru Qi explained the details carefully, those unfamiliar or only slightly familiar with the ingredient subtly leaned forward in interest.
Naturally, Yi Chen also should have done the same, but instead, at the moment, he was trying his best to prevent his face from contorting from revulsion.
As for the reason? It was naturally the system panel he had only managed to fully read after handing out the ingredient to Elder Ru Qi.
===== STATUS PANEL =====
Name: Dried Tiger Pellet
Type: Medicinal Ingredient
Remark: Contains 5% water and 95% Tiger Excreta. [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]
=======================
’I-It was Tiger’s shit...’
Yi Chen thought while glancing at his palm, which still had a few brown traces evident on it. The first instinct was naturally to wipe it on his robes, but not wanting to spoil it, he resisted the urge and started looking for water.
But alas, there was no trace of water next to him at the moment.
’Goddammit!’ he cursed in anger as a desire to rush to the washroom welled up in his heart.
However, just then Elder Ru Qi’s words rang in his ears.
"Yi Chen, pass me the Mosaic Spaded Leaf; it’s on your right..." Elder Ru Qi asked a second time with a frown, seeing Yi Chen’s unresponsive state.
Seeing him take this long, her opinion of Yi Chen changed the very next moment.
’Looks like the first time was just a fluke...’
With those words, she took the leaves and, after explaining their properties to the disciples, started boiling them in a beaker full of water. As the colour of the water turned green, she added the mashed Tiger Pellet powder into the boiling solution.
’...Forget it, I’ll just bear with it!’ Yi Chen exclaimed the very next moment after glancing at the leaves that were boiling in the solution that had turned greenish brown by now.
Although it looked disgusting, his disgust was soon overtaken by his curiosity to understand the entire process following which this pill would be successfully refined.
Taking a deep breath, he readjusted his mind, ready to provide whatever ingredients Elder Ru Qi would be requiring while making sure to pay as much attention to the processing and refinement process as possible.
After every three to four minutes, Elder Ru Qi kept asking Yi Chen for ingredients, and using his status panel, Yi Chen instantly provided them, which didn’t just recover his previous image in her eyes but elevated it to a great degree.
With a subtle smile on her face, she took the ingredients from him and started processing and mixing them with the already prepared concoctions.
Meanwhile, wanting to learn as much as possible and not knowing when he would get the opportunity to personally see these ingredients again, he made sure to closely observe each of them while he handed them to Elder Ru Qi and didn’t forget to read the free remark provided by the system to learn a little extra about the ingredients, which at times were even points that Elder Ru Qi missed in her explanation.
"Grey Everweather Lilies..."
[Remark: Found inside the Feather Bark Tree’s trunk cavity. (Regenerate: 10,000 EXP)]
"Purple Jaded Wine..."
[Remark: Largely used to create a medicinal extract in Pill Refining (Regenerate: 10,000 EXP)]
"Orange Rhino Beetles’ carcasses..."
[Remark: These beetles only come out when the sun is at its peak (Regenerate: 10,000 EXP)]
.
.
.
One after another, Elder Ru Qi kept asking for ingredients, and Yi Chen kept providing her with the required ones without any mistakes, much to her satisfaction.
However, that wasn’t the case for the other two assistants, who, under the scrutiny of everyone’s gazes, were making mistakes every few minutes because of nervousness.
’Isn’t that disciple named Yi Chen attending this class for the first time and not you two...’ Elder Ru Qi thought while letting out a sigh and quickly correcting their errors, then prepared the thirty-fourth concoction of ingredients.
With that, she only needed to process one final concoction, and she would be ready to place the concoctions in the cauldron one after the other.
"Spring Blue Bark’s branches..."
"Here."
"Yellow Stone’s Moss..."
"Here."
"Redfox Ginseng..."
"Here."
One after the other, Yi Chen handed out the last set of ingredients that were required to process the final concoction while closely observing Elder Ru Qi’s movements.
Looking at the bubbling liquid in the beaker in front of her, Elder Ru Qi nodded to herself.
"Good."
Looking towards Yi Chen, the next moment she pointed towards the only ingredient that was left on the table next to Yi Chen and said, "For the final item, pass me that Hundred Spots Yang Flower."
However, to her surprise, instead of quickly passing the flower to her, Yi Chen just stood there with a furrowed expression.
’Is he not feeling well?’ Elder Ru Qi thought, seeing Yi Chen’s sudden unusual behaviour.
Concerned, she was about to ask Yi Chen what the issue was, but just at that instant, Yi Chen muttered a few words in a confused manner.
"Spotted Spirit Yang Flower..."
’Didn’t Elder Ru Qi call it differently...’
Yi Chen thought with furrowed brows as his eyes went through the flower’s status panel.
===== STATUS PANEL =====
Name: Spotted Spirit Yang Flower
Type: Tier 2 Spirit Herb
Remark: A faint black dot on the underside of each petal differentiates it from Hundred Spots Yang Flower [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]
=======================
"This..."
Yi Chen’s eyes widened when he realised that the simple thing that was lying on the table in front of him was, in fact, a Tier 2 Spirit Herb.
However, before he could state what he had just read, Elder Ru Qi’s surprised voice shook him awake.
"What...? What did you say just now?" she asked with a frown the very next moment as the herb’s name which Yi Chen had just mentioned stirred her memory, making her knit her brows in deep thought.
’Spotted Spirit Yang Flower...Spotted Spirit Yang Flower...’ she kept repeating the name in her mind again and again, for it was a name she hadn’t heard or read in a long time and was finding it difficult to recall.
"Ah..."
Seeing Elder Ru Qi’s reaction, Yi Chen became sure that Elder Ru Qi had no idea that the flower on the table was a Tier 2 Spirit Herb. Otherwise, there’s no way she would knowingly use a Tier 2 Spirit Herb to refine a High-Grade Mortal Pill.
’Then...’
Yi Chen’s eyes glimmered in realisation the very next moment as Yi Chen couldn’t help but smile inwardly, ’This... Time to win some brownie points then!’
Instantly acting on his idea, he deliberately created a difficult expression on his face and answered Elder Ru Qi’s question in a hesitant tone.
"E-Elder Ru Qi... Are you sure that this flower’s not called the Spotted Spirit Yang Flower instead?"
"!!!"
The moment Elder Ru Qi once again heard that familiar name out of Yi Chen’s lips, her memory was jolted awake as she instantly remembered where she had read about that flower and in what book.
"Spotted Spirit Yang Flower, you say?" An amused expression instantly formed on Elder Ru Qi’s face as she asked him the very next moment, "Young man, have you even seen a Spotted Spirit Yang Flower before to make such a statement? Not only is it a Tier 2 Spirit Herb, but it’s amongst the rarest of them.
Each flower blooms only once every three hundred years, and even if it blooms, it’s extremely difficult to distinguish it just by look alone, as not only does it look almost identical to the Hundred Spots Yang Flower, but it’s also grown in the same spot as them."
If it were anyone else, Elder Ru Qi would have scolded them, but knowing that Yi Chen was someone who was genuinely knowledgeable about a lot of herbs and the fact that the two herbs looked almost identical in features, she decided to let it go.
"Anyways..." Shaking her head, the next moment she let out a sigh and said, "It seems you’ve only recently come across this herb in a book and ended up making this mistake because of the two herbs’ similarities.
Remember this as a lesson and make sure to be more careful while identifying the herbs from now on."
With that said, Elder Ru Qi recovered her bearing and knowing that Yi Chen might not be in a good state after publicly being proven wrong by her, she made her way towards the table and reached for the orange flower that was lying on it.
Her hand was just about to grab hold of the flower’s stem when Yi Chen’s words rang in her ears.
"Black dots... Unlike the Hundred Spots Yang Flower, the Spotted Spirit Yang Flower has faint black spots on the underside of each petal... that’s what was mentioned in the book I read, and it matches that flower on the table..."
Seeing Yi Chen trying to argue with her instead of just accepting her teachings, Elder Ru Qi finally lost her cool and was about to reprimand him, but just then one of the flower’s petals swayed under a gentle breeze, causing its underside to become visible.
’...a black spot!’