Master of Ten Thousand Foxes-Chapter 93 - 78: Just Follow Master’s Instructions and Things Won’t Be Complicated (Double-Length)
...
"Are you guys cold?"
Professor Zhang suddenly hugged his shoulders, shivering.
He suddenly felt very cold.
And very sleepy.
At this moment, yawning, squinting his eyes, his vision was completely blurred by tears, he couldn’t see anything clearly.
It’s not just him, Chairman Chen Shu equally felt suddenly cold and sleepy, hugging his shoulders, shivering, squinting his eyes, yawning. His vision was completely blurred by tears, he couldn’t see anything clearly.
Even Wu Qingyun couldn’t control it, yawning, vision blurred by tears.
None of them could see.
So naturally, no one noticed, behind Professor Zhang, stood a tall, thin Ancient Immortal with a youthful, fair face, wearing a bizarrely huge hat! It was Professor Zhang’s Ancient Immortal Master, the Qing Lu Ancient Immortal!
In this present world, he was like a shadow of reeds reflected on water in a fierce wind, hazy, vague, and shaky.
His eyes looked at the chair under Professor Zhang, looked at this strange ergonomic chair.
Looked at the table beside, looked at the smooth-edged solid wood table.
Looked at the computer on the table, looked at the glowing LCD screen, the software interface on the screen, and the simplistic hieroglyphs.
Looked out the window at the night view, looked at the towering skyscrapers, near and far, looked at the neon signs, large and small, in a myriad of colors.
He shed tears.
"Ah, the present world..."
Just like the wind getting fiercer, reeds bending, water rippling, the shadow of reeds reflected on the water becoming blurry and chaotic... the figure of the Ancient Immortal also began to blur, twist, and become chaotic in this present world.
He couldn’t stay longer in the present world.
A large white mist rose under the feet of his disciple, Professor Zhang. He stepped into it and entered a dream.
"Ugh... I’m dying of sleepiness, so sleepy and cold."
"Is it the air conditioner temperature too low?"
Professor Zhang snapped out of his daze, rubbed his eyes, wiped away the tears.
Chairman Chen Shu similarly snapped out of his daze.
"It’s late, let’s call it a day."
...
The sky over Fox Mountain was still shrouded in clouds.
In the Bronze Hall, Bai Mo sat behind the desk, recalling the strange machine of the Committee.
Thinking back and forth, thinking over and over, still felt something was amiss.
"Could that thing have been tampered with by the Ancient Immortal?"
"What exactly does the Ancient Immortal want to do?"
These bizarre Ancient Immortals, acting madly, leaving their true intentions unreadable.
A dozen fox disciples were without such worries, opening up the Small Bronze Medicine Box, their fluffy heads gathered to peer inside.
"Ow ow ow!"
"Ying ying ying!"
In the middle of the medicine box, in the plant machine, the Roadside Flower had already grown five leaves, and at the top of the stem, a tiny bud was budding!
"Ow ow ow!"
A few fox disciples were very excited, lifting the Bronze Medicine Box to show it to their master.
Bai Mo looked at the little white bud, also with a smile.
As for the Ancient Immortal, let him be, keeping a respectful distance was fine.
"The Roadside Flower already has buds, in two days, it will bloom and can be used in medicine."
"Let’s start preparing medicinal materials now, to get ready for alchemy!"
...
A whistling wind blew in the gloomy sky.
In the ruined remnants, the campfire crackled.
Beside the campfire, Qing Lu Ancient Immortal sat cross-legged, extending slender arms, fingers sprawling, warming by the fire. As if feeling very cold.
Beside him, his disciple Professor Zhang also sat cross-legged, staring at a stone slab in a daze.
When his mind got dizzy, he looked up again at Qing Lu Ancient Immortal.
"Master, this prescription... I just can’t seem to understand it."
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal continued warming his hands.
"Don’t bother looking, you’ve reached the end."
Professor Zhang frowned.
"What... what do you mean reached the end?"
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal warmed his hands while looking at his fingers, sighing.
"Your Immortal Path has reached its end."
"People’s aptitude and talent are different."
"In the path of Immortal Cultivation, everyone has their endpoint of future potential."
"Some people are destined never to advance to Sequence Nine."
"Some people’s aptitude ceiling is at Sequence Eight."
"Some who try their best and strive hard might touch the threshold of Sequence Seven, but never step inside."
Professor Zhang lowered his brows, silent for a long time.
"Master, what you mean is... I am the kind who tries his best, but can only touch the threshold of Sequence Seven, never stepping inside?"
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal turned, looked at Professor Zhang, his expression curious.
"Your words have two mistakes."
"First, you haven’t tried your best. The one trying their best and striving hard to help you cultivate is me."
"Second, you haven’t touched the threshold of Sequence Seven. Crossing the threshold of Sequence Eight has already taken half my old life as your master, I have no ability to lift you any higher."
Professor Zhang looked embarrassed, neither standing nor sitting.
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal waved his hand.
"No need to blame yourself. It’s not your fault, it’s mine."
"I underestimated you. I underestimated your inefficiency."
"I also overestimated myself. Overestimated my teaching ability, indeed, thinking I could lift you up, I too was being unrealistic, bringing trouble upon myself..."
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal sighed, self-pitying.
"Why is it my misfortune to have only you as a disciple, coming into my dreams."
"The quantity is small, but quality is lacking."
"In your words, we can only count as defective goods."
Beside him, Professor Zhang blushed slightly. But being mocked by his master was not new. He roughly understood... what his master said might be true, therefore he held no grievances.
He lowered his head, continued to look at the stone slab, at the characters on the slab.
But suddenly his master asked.
"Before, in West State City, that mysterious genius alchemist, have you found him yet?"
Professor Zhang raised his head, seeing his master warming by the fire, relaxed in action, casually asking.
He pondered for a moment, felt there wasn’t much to conceal.
"No."
"That alchemist is too mysterious. Hardly makes a move."
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal sighed again.
"It would be great if he could be my disciple."
Professor Zhang vaguely felt curious... why were these Ancient Immortals so obsessed with disciples?
He was in a daze, and then lowered his head to look at the slab again.
Looking for a long time, he raised his head and asked again.
"Master, the prescription on the slab, with more than a hundred kinds of materials, over five hundred processes, not to mention I can hardly understand it... even if I understood, I’m just one person, with two hands, could this really be completed?"
Qing Lu Ancient Immortal explained.
"The prescription is not meant to be completed by one person."
"The more advanced the prescription, the more it requires team cooperation."
"For example, Sequence Nine’s Fire Moon Soup requires one Sequence Nine Medicine Person, plus ten slaves to assist, only then it can be completed."
"For example, Sequence Eight’s Nourishing Spirit Soup requires one Sequence Eight Soup Man, ten Sequence Nine Medicine People, plus a hundred slaves to assist, only then it can be completed."
"For example, some soups of Sequence Seven require ten Sequence Seven Firemen, a hundred Sequence Eight Soup Men, a thousand Sequence Nine Medicine People only then it can be completed."
Professor Zhang frowned.
What kind of data inflation is this?
At the same time, he thought of Mr. Mystery in West State City. If Mr. Mystery were truly Sequence Seven, then according to Qing Lu Ancient Immortal’s explanation... Mr. Mystery might not be able to refine Sequence Seven’s soup medicine.
After all, even considering all existing alchemists combined, whether there is a second Sequence Seven is unknown, certainly not enough to assemble ten.
...
Fox Mountain, in the warehouse.
Bai Mo walked in the front, leading a dense troop of fox disciples.
"This time our refining of Brain Reviving Soup is rather complex. It requires eleven hundred types of medicine, each type requiring four to five times processing on average."
"We’ll first arrange for preprocessing."
These numbers were quite intimidating.
But the fox disciples were not afraid.
Instead, they looked earnestly at their master, waiting for him to arrange.
Only to see the master enter the warehouse corridor, take out a dog-head melon from the cabinet beside.
"Big Nose, White Toe, Black Star, you three come over here."
"Your task is to process the dog-head melon."
"Separate the melon peel and pulp, mash the pulp, strain out the juice, dry the residue in shade."
"The melon peel should be dried in shade after being rubbed with plant ash..."
Three fox disciples widened their eyes, perked up their ears, listening earnestly.
Though alchemy was intricate, once divided among the foxes, it was not complicated.
They didn’t need to consider much, just need to remember the master’s arrangement carefully.
