Chapter 44: A Slight Display of Her Skills

After listening to Lou Mu Yan’s words, Yun Cang’s expression was incomprehensible. He believed the expert that Lou Mu Yan spoke of existed, after all, the Lou Clan didn’t have an Alchemist, so it was impossible for them to refine the Marrow Cleansing Pill.

It was just that they didn’t know whether the expert was in the Imperial Capital or not, nor whether Lou Mu Yan had more Marrow Cleansing Pills on her or not. He had doubts in his heart, but he couldn’t express it directly, so he cast a surreptitious glance to Ruan Li.

Ruan Li pondered for a moment, then smiled softly and said: “So, according to what you said, Lou girl can concoct pills? I heard that you even won a cauldron at the auction. Could it be for your own use?”

“When I was in the cave, Master personally guided me for a few days. I can now refine Grade 1 pills.” When one should be humble, then they should keep a low profile, but when it was suitable to shine, then one needn’t conceal.

Only by exposing one’s own advantages could they be qualified to negotiate the terms.

“What?” Ruan Li couldn’t help but stand with disbelief written on his face.

Yun Tian Chen and Yun Cang both displayed shock and doubt. Lou Mu Yan was now a Grade 1 Alchemist? How could that be possible. Alchemists weren’t like cabbages. She only cultivated for how long and she could already refine a Grade 1 pill? They doubted deeply.

“Don’t believe me?” Lou Mu Yan raised her eyebrow, took out the cyan1 cauldron from her interspatial ring and asked: “Would you like me to show it to you?”

“Believe!” Ruan Li suppressed the suspicion in his eyes and put on an amicable smile, “But of course, it would be even better if Lou girl could refine a batch of Grade 1 pills in front of us.”

Alchemists on Tian’ling Continent were simply too scarce, and the Alchemists of Yan’zhou Country were even scarcer, with not more than ten. If Lou Mu Yan truly was a Grade 1 Alchemist, then it was definitely worth their efforts to raise her.

“Little girl, if you really have this ability, then go ahead and show it. It would be of great benefit to you and even your Lou Clan.” Yun Tian Chen concealed his excitement. If Lou Mu Yan was really an Alchemist, then it would be great for Yan’zhou Country.

Lou Mu Yan nodded, walked to a table, and placed the cauldron atop of it. Then she took out the Spiritual Herbs required for the pill she planned to refine one by one.

Without a Pill Flame, she could only use charcoal fire to light up and control it to the temperature required for refining pills. Then she threw a dark green Spiritual Herb into the cauldron.

She used her Mental Energy to refine the Spiritual Herb into a dark green liquid, purified it, poured the purified powder into a white porcelain bowl, then threw in the second Spiritual Herb to continue.

The reason why Lou Mu Yan took out the purified powders one by one, then throw them into the cauldron to mix when it was time to condense the pills was so that she wouldn’t expose her Mental Energy.

Time passed bit by bit, and the people watched as her slender, white hands threw, took, and placed, with a serious and confident attitude. Every movement was like a painting, pleasing to the eye.

[WENG!]

Hearing a light buzzing sound from the cauldron, Lou Mu Yan smacked the cauldron with her palm, then a pill fragrance wafted out from within. A few pills flew out and landed in her hands.

“This is a Grade 1 Energy Nourishing Pill, and it has the miraculous effects of treating internal and external injuries.” Lou Mu Yan filled a white porcelain bottle with the pills and handed it to Ruan Li.

Ruan Li’s eyes revealed a sliver of sharpness. He took the pill, poured one out and smelled it, only to be stunned and couldn’t help but exclaim: “This is a Top-Quality pill, not to mention you could refine five in one batch. Even a Grade 2 Alchemist couldn’t necessarily produce such a high-quality pill, not to mention such a high pill rate.”

“Excellent! Lou girl is truly exceptionally talented in Alchemy.” Yun Cang also didn’t expect this result, so he patted the armrest of the chair excitedly.

Just then, he was already stunned at just how fluid her movements were, like flowing water, yet who knew that the quality of the pills and the pill rate would be so high as well.

With such talents in Alchemy, it was definitely possible for her to advance to a Grade 3 Alchemist. No wonder that mysterious expert Alchemist would value her at a glance—he was truly wise to be able to recognise a pearl2.

There was a faint smile in Lou Mu Bai’s indifferent eyes. His younger sister did a good job. She used her actions to convince the others to believe the existence of the mysterious high-level Alchemist, and she also put herself, along with the Lou Clan, in the most advantageous position.

“You just said that the Energy Nourishing Pill has the miraculous effect of treating internal and external injuries?” Yun Tian Chen fell silent for a moment before staring at Lou Mu Yan, unable to conceal the delight and burning desire in his eyes.

“Yes!” Lou Mu Yan had to admit that maybe Yun Tian Chen wasn’t a good husband, but he was a good Emperor. What he now thought of was definitely using the Energy Nourishing Pill in the army.

The Tian’ling Continent not only lacked Alchemists, but pill recipes were also scarce. Even a Grade 1 recipe would be vied for by numerous entities. The Energy Nourishing Pill had never appeared on this land, so it was even more precious.

“Lou girl, can you sell these pills to us?” Yun Tian Chen wanted to test the Energy Nourishing Pills for its effects.

Lou Mu Yan played with the porcelain bottle she had taken back from Ruan Li, pondered for a bit, before raising her head and said: “Sure! But I don’t want money. I want Spiritual Herbs in exchange.”

“That’s not a problem. You can write down the Spiritual Herbs you want. As long as the Imperial Treasury has it, we can give it to you.” Yun Tian Chen agreed with a smile. Being so generous naturally also meant he wanted to win her over.

Lou Mu Yan also wasn’t humble. She took out a piece of paper and brush from her interspatial ring and began to write the list on the table. Then she handed an entire page full of Spiritual Herbs to Yun Tian Chen, and amongst them were also the Spiritual Herbs required to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Yun Tian Chen took the paper and glanced over it casually, then his face changed. The corners of his lips couldn’t help but twitch. Not only did she want so many kinds of Spiritual Herbs, but there were even some high-level Spiritual Herbs scattered within that even the Imperial Treasury didn’t have. Was she trying to rip off some foolish spendthrift3?

He couldn’t help but hand the paper over to the Imperial Teacher. Whether or not to give Lou Mu Yan these Spiritual Herbs also required the Imperial Teacher’s input.

Seeing the Emperor’s helpless look, Yun Cang took a look, and his expression also changed in an instant, then handed the paper to Ruan Li with a frown.

Ruan Li took a look at the paper curiously and couldn’t help but smile. This girl was a master who wouldn’t suffer. In what way was this a deal, this was simply an extortion.

But what could he do when Lou Mu Yan was a student of his Imperial Academy? He, Ruan Li, was very protective, so his heart must lean towards his students.

“This is only a little bit of Spiritual Herbs. Your Imperial Family’s large and prosperous, this little bit of Spiritual Herbs is just a single fur from nine oxen2. Based on my opinion, you aren’t at a disadvantage in this transaction.”

Yun Cang was originally a very rigorous and strict person, but right now he couldn’t help but glare at Ruan Li. This old thing had nothing to do with this, that’s the only reason he could speak so casually. 

Lou Mu Yan didn’t expect that Ruan Li would stand on her side, but understood when she thought of Ruan Li’s identity. A smile rose on her lips—this old man wasn’t that bad.

If one wasn’t prepared to risk their child, they would never catch the wolf4. So after a short moment, Yun Cang nodded to Yun Tian Chen.

“Lou girl, we have two-thirds of the Spiritual Herbs on this list in the Imperial Treasury, but the rest might not even be found in the hands of a Sword Monarch in the Empire, let along the Imperial Treasury.

“Which ones?” Lou Mu Yan already had a guess in her heart.

“Deep Orchid, Seven-Leaf Ginseng, Holly Grass…” Yun Tian Chen read out the nine types of Spiritual Herbs that they really didn’t have in the Treasury.

Although Lou Mu Yan was a little disappointed, but it was already a huge profit to exchange more than thirty precious Spiritual Herbs.

She threw the bottle in her hand to Yun Tian Chen and said straightforwardly, “Forget it. I’ll suffer the loss. Other than these nine kinds of Spiritual Herbs, give me two of everything else.” 

Yun Tian Chen and Yun Cang almost couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood5—did she suffer a loss? And two of each? Did she even want any face…

1I had trouble translating the colour 青 (qing) for a while. I translated it as blue, then I edited it to green… but why did I never think of cyan? I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out how to translate it when it was that simple – it’s a mix between blue and green so it’s cyan, duh!

2recognise an amazing person

3a colloquial saying often used between friends, usually to describe a person, or rhetorically describe themselves. Means that the person was so foolish to do something that was obviously at the disadvantage, usually to do with money.

4if one is unable to take risks, they cannot achieve great things. 

5they almost couldn’t control their anger/dismay.