Chapter 146: Yu Zhao, You Are My Dearest Sister
This novel is translated and hosted only on BCatranslation
Mu Ye’s spirits sank further after hearing the news.
Wang Qian had likely already mastered the pill recipe, which meant his alchemy skills would improve significantly. Their chances of winning had always been evenly matched, but now, with Wang Qian growing stronger and Mu Ye being disrupted by outside interference, Wang Qian’s odds of winning had greatly increased.
“Ugh,” she sighed deeply, as if trying to expel all the frustration from her heart. But she was Mu Ye—she wouldn’t give up so easily.
With a determined smile, she turned to Yu Zhao. “Enough thinking about unhappy things. Let me take you for another tour of the Pill Peak.”
Yu Zhao had traveled a long way to visit, and Mu Ye didn’t want her own troubles to ruin Yu Zhao’s mood.
“Can I take a look at your alchemy room?” Yu Zhao asked.
“Of course! I just rented one, so I can take you inside,” Mu Ye replied, her smile warm and inviting.
As they walked towards the Pill Peak, they chatted and laughed, with Mu Ye showing no sign of the distress she had felt earlier.
At the base of Pill Peak, a strong heat wave greeted them. Unlike Medicine Peak, where the climate was mild, Pill Peak was known for its scorching heat.
“There are 108 alchemy rooms on Pill Peak, arranged in order of fire intensity from bottom to top. I usually use Room 66, while Wang Qian uses Room 63. See that stone door? That’s one of the alchemy rooms,” Mu Ye explained, pointing to a sealed stone door.
Yu Zhao nodded, listening intently. She might soon need to use one of these rooms herself.
Room 66 was located midway up the mountain. The two continued their conversation as they climbed, and before long, they reached the entrance to the alchemy room.
Mu Ye took out a stone token and inserted it into a small indentation beside the stone door.
With a click, the stone door opened automatically, and the two women stepped inside.
The alchemy room was a stone chamber carved into the mountainside, with one unique feature: in the center of the room was a bottomless pit surrounded by intricate carvings on the stone floor.
Yu Zhao studied the carvings with curiosity. As she stared, she felt as if her very soul was being drawn into the mysterious patterns.
“The pit connects to the underground fire vein. With the array, you can control the fire source below,” Mu Ye explained, noticing Yu Zhao’s interest. She stepped forward to demonstrate.
Placing her hand on the array, Mu Ye channeled her spiritual energy, causing the carvings to light up in sequence. The temperature in the room rose, and a faint glow emerged from the pit.
Gradually, the glow intensified until a half-meter-high blue flame shot out from the pit, filling the chamber with searing heat.
After a few breaths, Mu Ye withdrew her hand, and the blue flame vanished. The array returned to its dim, dormant state.
Yu Zhao’s eyes sparkled with excitement. This was exactly what she had been hoping for—a way to control flames without needing a fire spirit root.
But before asking to borrow the alchemy room, she wanted to help Mu Ye with her current problem.
“Mu Ye, do you need a pill recipe?” Yu Zhao asked suddenly.
“Huh?” Mu Ye was caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic.
“If you ask, I’ll give you one,” Yu Zhao offered with a smile.
Mu Ye’s excitement was immediate. She threw her arms around Yu Zhao, practically shouting, “Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I’ll take anything you give!”
Even if the pill recipes Yu Zhao offered weren’t useful, Mu Ye was still grateful for the gesture.
Yu Zhao smiled and pulled out seventy or eighty pill recipes from her storage space, shoving them all into Mu Ye’s arms.
“Take a look and see if there’s anything you can use,” Yu Zhao suggested.
In the cultivation world, the quickest way to wealth was through killing and looting. Along her journey, Yu Zhao had encountered many assassins—three or four dozen, by her count. Not to mention the other cultivators who had tried to rob her, like Boss Wu and his gang. She had long since lost track of how many storage bags she had seized.
With so many items in her possession, she had sorted through them on her way to the Green Wood Sect, discarding anything useless and keeping the rest—enough to supply a small sect for hundreds of years.
Naturally, she had plenty of pill recipes, though most were for first or second-grade pills. The third-grade recipes had all been taken by Mu Ye.
“Five Poison Pill, Corpse Rot Powder, Forgetting Worry Pill…” Mu Ye read through the recipes, her expression growing more puzzled with each one.
“Yu Zhao, did you rob some poison cultivator’s treasure trove? These are all poison pills!” Mu Ye exclaimed.
Yu Zhao responded with a question of her own. “Can’t disciples use poison pills in their exams?”
“It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that most of the herbs cultivated by the disciples in the Medicine Hall are non-toxic. Gathering the ingredients for these recipes would be difficult—especially this Five Poison Pill. Finding three of the required poisons alone would be a challenge,” Mu Ye explained.
As the most favored disciple of the Pill Hall’s elder, Mu Ye’s talent in alchemy was undeniable. One glance at a recipe, and she could practically envision the entire alchemy process.
The Five Poison Pill was indeed better suited to her needs than the Spirit Consolidation Pill, but with so few of the necessary herbs available, even she couldn’t do much.
Yu Zhao smiled softly and pulled out a small bottle from her storage space, handing it to Mu Ye.
Mu Ye took it, reading the label engraved on the jade bottle: Twin-Tailed Black-Headed Snake—one of the five poisons.
Before she could even express her surprise, Yu Zhao handed her a second bottle.
Thunder Face Toad—another of the five poisons.
And then a third, a fourth, and finally, a fifth.
In an instant, Mu Ye had all five poisons that had seemed so impossible to gather.
Just as Mu Ye thought the surprises were over, Yu Zhao began pulling out a variety of alchemical materials—creatures from the sea, beasts from the mountains, and many things that Mu Ye had never even heard of, let alone seen.
When Mu Ye’s arms could no longer hold anything else, the remaining items were piled on the floor, filling nearly every inch of space.
“Yu Zhao…Sister Yu Zhao… My dearest sister, from this day on, you’re like a parent to me—I love you to death!” Mu Ye cried out in joy, hugging Yu Zhao and jumping up and down, barely resisting the urge to kiss her.
No wonder Yu Zhao had smiled so mysteriously back on Medicine Peak—she hadn’t been mocking Mu Ye; she had been confident all along.
“Hehe, Sister Yu Zhao, next time you go on an adventure, make sure to bring me along! I’ll handle all your alchemy needs,” Mu Ye said with a grin.
This novel is translated and hosted only on BCatranslation
She still remembered how, the last time they met, Yu Zhao hadn’t even had a decent weapon—her only powerful treasure had been used to save someone. Yet here she was, not even two years later, practically swimming in wealth. Mu Ye’s envy nearly turned to drool.
“Those are for your alchemy. These are for fun,” Yu Zhao said, handing Mu Ye a box of beautiful accessories she had bought from the Siren Pavilion.
For the first time, as Mu Ye held the heavy jewelry box, she felt what it was like to have a friend who truly cared. Her eyes welled up with tears.
“Sister Yu Zhao~” she began, her voice trembling with emotion.
“Stop.” Yu Zhao shivered and cut her off before things could get too sentimental. “You’ve got all the ingredients for the Five Poison Pill now. You can start making it right away.”
There was only a month left.
She hoped it would be enough time.
“Right!” Mu Ye nodded, determination filling her eyes.