Chapter 108: Sima Clan’s dilemma
Translator: Misty Cloud Translations Editor: Misty Cloud Translations
Like this, Sima You Yue began her days madly cultivating her pill refining skills. In the day, she was inside the Spirit Pearl refining pills, while in the night she came out to recover her mental energy while helping the Golden Snake Fruit tree to replenish some strength while she was at it.
In order to help her Sima Clan, Sima You Yue spent a huge amount of time refining pills that they would use often. Ranging from those pills that stopped the bleeding, to those that recovered dispersed aura; all these pills that were commonly used by Mercenaries and Spirit Masters. The reason why the Nalan Clan was able to get the favor of the Mercenaries was because their prices were slightly lower than the ones from the Sima Clan.
Speaking up to this point, the Sima Clan were also helpless. Because of their lack of an Alchemist, their shop never sold pills to begin with. However, this was the reason why other achievements got affected.There was no choice, they had to go to other shops in order to buy pills wholesale, pushing the prices slightly lower, then setting their prices according to the usual market rate in order to sell them to the public.
This was also the reason why the pills they sold could not be priced that cheaply. Looking at the Nalan Clan, who was using this to pressure them, they could only glare at them till their eyes turned dry.
The Sima Clan did not have an alchemist, this was the main crux of the problem. Sima Lie had once thought of recruiting alchemists as well, but those guys had their noses so high in the sky that he really could not do it in the end.
Sima You Yue understood that when refining pills, they would spend most of the time refining commonly used pills. Furthermore, these pills were the easiest to refine. There was a complete set of pill ingredients in the Spirit Pearl, so after one month, she had a few hundred bottles of pills in her hands.
Today, when she pulled the pills out of the furnace, Mo Sha appeared in front of her once again.
“You can now try to refine a Second Ranked pill.” Mo Sha Said.
“I can?”
Sima You Yue looked at Mo Sha. He said before that if he didn’t say it, she had to continue refining first ranked Spirit Pills.
She had listened to his instructions all along. Even though she had felt as if she was able to refine second ranked pills a few days back, she had continued refining first ranked pills..
Mo Sha nodded, saying, “Even though you perfected refining first ranked spirit pills earlier, but according to what I said before, practice makes perfect. Continuing to refine first ranked pills would allow you to increase the possibility of you entering the ranks of a second ranked alchemist.
“I understand.” Sima You Yue said.
Mo Sha gave a thought and a piece of paper appeared in front of them.
“This is the second ranked pill method I found inside the study room. You should go and recover your mental strength first, after that, memories this pill method. You should first take a look yourself, what the important points of this method are. After that, I will tell them to you again when we are in the midst of refining.”
“Mm.” Sima You Yue took the pill method and sat on the ground and began studying it.
Mo Sha saw her single-mindedly sit down to study the pill method and his eyes lit up.
During this period of time, he could say that he had spent the entire day with her. Seeing her rise in ranks from a first ranked alchemist with his own eyes, from a success rate of 60 percent to a rate of 90 plus percent, from three pills appearing in the furnace to ten over pills!
He had never seen someone who was talented and so hardworking, where her tenacious willpower moved him.
He thought back to the time where a genius like him appeared, but before his life changed, he hadn’t worked as hard as she did.
In order to avoid disturbing Sima You Yue’s study, he left the Pill Refinement Room.
Sima You Yue had always had a photographic memory, so she managed to memorise everything in the book at a glance. However, she did not immediately go and refine things, but continually tried to digest and understand the information. It was only after she mulled it over completely that she stood up once again to leave.
When she stood up, she realised that the table had, at some unknown time, had already been prepared with pill ingredients necessary to refine the White Lotus Pill. She secretly smiled in her heart and closed her eyes to recall the pill method for awhile before taking to action to refine them.
Sima You Yue was extremely familiar with regards to this step of refinement, so there was no large problem than occurred. When she took a final whiff of the completely purified pill ingredients, Mo Sha appeared behind her.
“The White Lotus Pill is relatively the easiest pill out of the second ranked pills, its process is also easier than the others. However, it’s still a bit more complex when you compare it to a first ranked pill. However, it is this point that requires one level more of your mental strength.”
Thinking about what he had said before, mental strength was the most important part of pill refinement. No matter what, whether or not she would be able to progress further was dependent on this.
“Begin, I will go over to that side to watch you.”
Sima You Yue nodded, as she began to take the purified pill ingredients and followed the sequence from the pill method to place them inside.
On her first try, as expected, it resulted in failure. However, she was not discouraged as the difference between a second ranked pill and a first ranked pill was not different by only a small bit. It was normal for her to not be able to grasp a hold of it.
She let out a long breath and summarised the reason why she failed just now, then took the pill ingredients again to start refining them all over again.
Mo Sha looked at Sima You Yue satisfactorily. If this was something that took place in the past, he would possibly have recruited her into his troop. He believed that she would one day stand at the top of the world.
The first time she failed was during the fusion process. The second time she failed was during the binding process. The third time, she managed to successfully refine a single White Lotus Pill. Although this was as ugly as the pill that she has made when she had just learnt alchemy, it was a sign that she had already entered the ranks of a second ranked alchemist.
“Not bad, you managed to grasp the requirements of a second ranked alchemist on your third try.” Mo Sha said, “When you feel the difference between a second ranked alchemist and a first ranked alchemist, your future days in refining second ranked pills will be easier.”
“Mm.” Sima You Yue looked at the pill in her hands as she smiled happily.
“Take this moment to recover your mental strength then continue…”
It was when Sima You Yue closed her eyes to cultivate that the Sima Clan encountered danger once again.
Inside the General’s study room, Sima Lie,Sima You Ming, Sima You Qi and the steward all had on worried expressions.
“Grandfather, these shops are not willing to supply us with pills anymore.” SIma You Ming said worriedly, “When we finish selling our pills, those mercenaries and Spirit Masters will no longer patronise our shop, causing our other areas of business to suffer an impact as well.”
Sima You Qi slapped the table beside him, saying angrily, “They even said before that they would always supply us with pills, but they actually went back on their word now. It is definitely the Nalan Clan who gave those shops some kind of bribe!”
“This is not the time to chase after the reason why.” Sima Lie said with furrowed eyebrows, “How long will our current stock of pills last?”
“It should last another half a month.” Sima You Ming said, “Because the price of the Nalan Clan’s pills are lower than ours, so recently those who came to our shop has lessened by quite a bit. So the turnover for the decrease in stock should be around one third to a half.”
“Only half a month?”
“Grandfather, we have to find a new shop within this half a month and get them to supply us with the pills.” Sima You Qi said.
“It is truly troublesome without our own Alchemist.” Sima Lie said, “Steward, send mend to go and recruit an alchemist. No matter what the other party asks for, as long as it is within the capabilities of the General’s residence, accept it all.”
“Yes, General.” The steward gave a bow as he retreated outside.
According to the relationship between the General’s residence and the Alchemists, wanting to find an alchemist quickly was something that was definitely not easy!
“It looks like I can only go outside to find an Alchemist who doesn’t hold a grudge with us.” The Stewards sighed as he left to make the arrangements.