Chapter 145

Chapter 145: The True Value of the Fourth-grade Pill Recipe
When Zhao Liang heard this voice, joy flashed in his eyes.

The Herb Hall disciples who had been pretending to be busy all stopped what they were doing and bowed respectfully.

“Elder Wang.”

“Mm.”

A middle-aged man wearing an elder’s robe, whose face looked half like Wang Qian’s, walked into the Herb Storehouse with his head held high.

When Mu Ye saw who had arrived, she greeted him unwillingly: “Elder Wang.”

Elder Wang did not even spare Mu Ye a glance. He looked straight at Zhao Liang and said: “I heard the Herb Storehouse making a racket from outside. What is going on?”

The arrogant Zhao Liang who had been lording it over Mu Ye instantly changed his face. “Elder Wang, I did not manage the Herb Storehouse well and let Junior Sister Mu from the Alchemy Hall suffer a grievance. I am willing to accept punishment.”

“Good. Since you already know your mistake, go down and accept your punishment later. Make sure you do not repeat it.”

“Yes.”

Elder Wang and Zhao Liang echoed each other, clearly planning to brush the whole thing aside.

Mu Ye said angrily: “Elder Wang, the Herb Hall disciples changed the spirit herbs I reserved without permission, and you plan to handle it like this?”

Elder Wang’s brows furrowed. “Zhao Liang, explain.”

“Elder Wang, this is what happened. Junior Sister Mu did indeed reserve a batch of spirit herbs with the Herb Hall ahead of time. But it just so happened that a few days ago, Elder He from the Alchemy Hall also needed those same spirit herbs for alchemy, so he came and took them first. Even the cleverest cook cannot make a meal without rice, so the Herb Hall could only replace them with another batch for Junior Sister Mu. To show our apology, we even specially gave her extra in quantity.

“It is just that Junior Sister Mu is not satisfied with how we handled it. She not only guessed at our intentions in a bad way, she even brought up the Head Elder of the Alchemy Hall to try to scare the disciples.

“This disciple really had no choice, so I could only ask Elder Wang to stand up for me.”

With just a few sentences, Zhao Liang had neatly pushed all responsibility away from himself. It was clear he had already planned this excuse in his mind.

At this point, Elder Wang finally looked straight at Mu Ye. With a proud air, he said: “This matter is indeed the fault of our Herb Hall, but since we have already compensated you, do not go too far.”

“I…”

Mu Ye was about to argue back when she felt Yu Zhao’s hand press firmly against her waist.

The words circled on her tongue, but she forced them back down.

“Let’s go first.” Yu Zhao sent a voice transmission to Mu Ye.

Yu Zhao, standing on the sidelines, could see things more clearly than Mu Ye.

Elder Wang was obviously on the same side as Zhao Liang. He had appeared now only to smooth things over for Zhao Liang.

If Mu Ye continued to make a fuss, not only would she not get anything out of it, she might even get labeled as someone who made trouble without reason and did not respect her elders. That would be very bad for her when she was about to compete for the Young Sect Master Position. It was better to leave Herb Peak first and make plans later.

Mu Ye was not a brainless person. After calming down, she also realized that the current situation was not in her favor.

She took a deep breath and said: “Elder Wang is right to scold me. It is I, Mu Ye, who did not know what was good for me. When I go back, I will definitely reflect on myself very, very carefully.”

She bit down hard on the last few words, as if squeezing them out through her teeth.

When she finished, she did not wait for anyone to react. She grabbed Yu Zhao and headed out.

Before leaving, she did not forget to pick up the pouch on the desk.

It was hers. She was not about to let the people of the Herb Hall have it for free.

Elder Wang narrowed his eyes. “Who is the young woman next to Mu Ye?”

Zhao Liang quickly took a few steps forward to stand behind Elder Wang and whispered: “I do not know. She does not look like a disciple of Greenwood Sect.”

Elder Wang also felt that the young woman did not seem like a disciple of Greenwood Sect. Her sudden appearance in Greenwood Sect might bring some change.

But no matter what, the Young Sect Master of Greenwood Sect could only be his Qian’er.

No one was going to take that position away.

“This is too much. This is just too much!”

On the way down the mountain, Mu Ye was grinding her teeth. She was so angry that her cheeks puffed up, making Yu Zhao suddenly think of a kind of fish she had once seen in the Nanming Sea.

Those fish were short and chubby. Whenever they met danger, their bodies would puff up all at once to defend themselves.

Mu Ye looked so cute that the corners of Yu Zhao’s lips could not help but curve up.

Her small motion did not escape Mu Ye’s eyes.

Mu Ye stared in disbelief: “Yu Zhao, are you still my friend or not? I got bullied, and instead of helping me vent my anger, you are laughing at me!”

“Sorry, sorry, I did not mean to.” Yu Zhao quickly pressed her lips down. “What are you planning to do now?”

Mu Ye lowered her head in defeat. “What can I do? They already prepared their excuse. Even if I ask my master to step in, it will most likely just be them making a big show and then letting it go lightly in the end. It will not affect them at all.”

“Is Greenwood Sect about to hold the Young Sect Master assessment?” Yu Zhao suddenly asked.

“How do you know that?”

Mu Ye was shocked.

The Alchemy Hall disciples had an assessment every year, but only this year’s assessment was merged with the selection for the Young Sect Master of Greenwood Sect.

This was a secret of Greenwood Sect. Many disciples of the Martial Hall did not even know.

Yu Zhao naturally could not tell Mu Ye that she had guessed it from information she remembered from her previous life, so she lied and said that the elder who had received her at Greenwood Sect had mentioned it.

Mu Ye suddenly understood and thought to herself: [Yu Zhao really gets along with people. Even Elder Luo was willing to tell her about changing the Young Sect Master.]

“Yes. There is less than a month left before the Disciple Assessment. The pill I was planning to refine is the third-grade Essence Stabilizing Pill. They must have guessed from the spirit herbs I reserved that I wanted to refine the Essence Stabilizing Pill and deliberately found an excuse to change my herbs.”

Yu Zhao asked again: “You only prepared one pill recipe?”

“Of course not. I also prepared several other third-grade pill recipes. But when I compared them all together, none of them was as good as the Essence Stabilizing Pill.”

The Alchemy Hall disciples’ assessment did not only compare the grade of the pills they refined. It also judged completion, control of the flame, and a whole series of other things. The hardest pill to make did not automatically win.

“Then do you know that Wang Qian has a fourth-grade pill recipe in his hands?”

“A fourth-grade pill recipe?”

Mu Ye froze, surprised both at where Yu Zhao had learned this and at what use a fourth-grade pill recipe would be in Wang Qian’s hands.

With Wang Qian’s current strength, his success rate for refining a fourth-grade pill was less than ten percent. He should not dare to take that kind of risk in the Disciple Assessment.

Seeing that Mu Ye was half in doubt, Yu Zhao told her what had happened when Wang Qian bought a fourth-grade pill recipe at a high price at the Auction Gathering.

At first, when Mu Ye heard how Yu Zhao had helped drive up the price on Wang Qian, she could not help grinning. But by the time she heard the rest, she could no longer smile at all.

For Wang Qian to buy the fourth-grade pill recipe at a price higher than the market rate, he must have had some secret purpose.

A thought flashed through Mu Ye’s mind: [Could it be that this fourth-grade pill recipe contains a special alchemy method, and that is why Wang Qian was willing to pay any price to get it?]

Normally, a pill recipe only recorded the spirit herbs needed for alchemy, along with the order and amount in which they were added.

But a very small number of pill recipes also recorded the alchemist’s secret alchemy methods, which could raise the success rate of alchemy.

The price of that kind of pill recipe was naturally much higher than that of an ordinary one.

Mu Ye suspected that Wang Qian had learned about this ahead of time and had traveled all the way to Blackwater City just to bid on that one recipe.

If she had been in Wang Qian’s place, she would have made the same choice.

The precious thing was never the recipe itself, but the alchemy method recorded on it.