Free Web NovelChapter 125: Chapter 125: Quiet Room
The shopfront wasn’t open yet.
According to the men who came by carrying several large buckets—their faces masked and hands gloved—it still needed a coat of wood lacquer.
To prevent pests and mold.
The Alchemy Room didn’t need lacquering, so Bai Mo put Wei An in there.
"An attendant at a Pill Shop can’t be someone completely clueless."
Bai Mo casually tossed out several Pill Books.
"These are some simple Pill Books I read in the past. I don’t expect you to understand everything; just get a general idea."
"Hmm..." Bai Mo thought for a moment more.
"If you get stuck on a passage, you can come and ask me."
When he had first read these Pill Books, he’d felt that some parts weren’t quite right.
However, the content wasn’t very deep, so it couldn’t be considered outright wrong.
Expecting Wei An to spot the issues would be hoping for an unexpected windfall.
Wei An was a bit dazed. His father was a traveling merchant who had scraped together some savings after many years of hard work.
The teacher at the village’s private school had told him to study hard.
That’s what led to his later experiences of seeking education everywhere, which was also when he met the teacher who had swindled him.
The advice from all these people—that studying hard would help him become a court official one day—wasn’t wrong in itself.
Unfortunately, the imperial dynasty didn’t last that long.
Wei An never expected that after a chance encounter with an immortal elder today, he would be tasked with memorizing a two-inch-thick stack of books just to be a shop attendant.
Seeing no look of difficulty on his face, Bai Mo was even more pleased.
He casually tossed out a few more volumes on medicinal herbs.
"You need to at least recognize the herbs in here."
"Don’t let the Cultivators who come in to sell herbs laugh at you!"
THUD! THUD!
The thick, ancient tomes piled up.
’This is much harder than taking the novice scholar exam.’
A breeze blew through the window, making the pages rustle and revealing a corner of one.
The text recorded within wasn’t some simple introduction to the Dao; it was enough to make Wei An’s head spin.
He was utterly bewildered as a thought flashed through his mind.
Seeing that Bai Mo had finished giving instructions and was about to turn and leave, Wei An hurriedly asked:
"Immortal Elder, where are you going?"
Bai Mo waved his hand dismissively.
"Calling me ’Immortal Elder’ in this city will just make people laugh."
"From now on, just call me Shopkeeper."
He then added, "I plan to lay low for the next few days. If something truly urgent comes up, you can knock on the door of the quiet room to get me."
...
"Since Brother Bai came asking, of course I have no reason not to help."
Guo Lingjun paced with his hands behind his back.
"As it happens, I still have an Array in the storeroom left behind by the people of the Miaofa Sect. I dismantled it but haven’t used it since."
"Brother Bai, just take it!"
Bai Mo was overjoyed.
"Thank you, Brother! I wonder, what is the price of this item?"
Guo Lingjun was displeased to hear this.
"We are fellow sect members. Why is it always about Spirit Stones with you?"
"This Array was easy to come by; it was a cost-free acquisition!"
He said impatiently, "Besides, I might need your help in the future, Brother. When that time comes, I expect you won’t refuse."
Before long, a disciple brought over several rather heavy Array Plates.
Along with them, he handed Bai Mo a diagram showing obscure array positions.
That disciple pointed at the patterns on the diagram and said:
"This looks complicated, but it’s really just the Array Master who made it trying to intimidate people. Don’t mind it, Brother."
"That’s just how they are!"
He pointed out a few positions.
"Listen to me, Brother. Just arrange the positions like this. The effect is excellent..."
Bai Mo committed his words to memory and then took his leave of Guo Lingjun.
Just before he left, Guo Lingjun suddenly asked:
"I heard you recently took in a young man, Brother Bai?"
"Are you planning to take him as a disciple?"
Bai Mo shook his head.
"You’re overthinking it, Brother. How could it be so easy to find a good disciple?"
"The path of the Alchemy Dao places too much importance on talent. If you force it, spouting platitudes about diligence making up for a lack of skill, you could cause someone to waste half their life."
"And if it comes to that, it would be against both our intentions."
Guo Lingjun nodded at his words and offered a reminder:
"It’s not that I’m being paranoid, but as a Sect Disciple, you must report it to the sect if you wish to take on a disciple."
"You can’t just do as you please and follow your own whims."
Bai Mo nodded.
"I know. There are several rules in the sect regulations that state this clearly."
"Sect regulations?" Guo Lingjun paused, then it dawned on him.
"It seems there really is such a rule?"
Seeing the confusion in Bai Mo’s eyes, Guo Lingjun quickly said:
"Never mind, as long as you’re clear on it, Brother Bai!"
"Right, do you have any experience training disciples or juniors?"
"Why not send him to one of the city’s Daoist Halls for some foundational training? Then it’ll be easier for you to make use of him, Brother Bai!"
There were Daoist Halls in the city, similar to mortal private schools, that specialized in providing foundational training for the descendants of prominent families, laying the groundwork for their cultivation.
Their fees were quite high, and their enrollment was very limited.
Families would often throw around Spirit Stones and even come to blows just to secure a spot.
Guo Lingjun, however, didn’t care about that.
Since the Xuandao Sect entered the city, the heads of at least five Daoist Halls had come to visit him.
Openly and covertly, they were all trying to gauge the future prospects of their Daoist Halls...
And that wasn’t even counting the riffraff he had turned away at the door.
Bai Mo shook his head.
"The foundational training at a Daoist Hall takes too long. I just need someone to run errands and do odd jobs."
"If he wants a great opportunity in the future, he’ll have to earn it himself."
Besides, the proficiency of the Cultivators at the Daoist Halls in the Alchemy Dao was not as high as his own.
Bai Mo’s personal guidance was already enough to help a newcomer like Wei An avoid many detours.
After chatting a bit more with Guo Lingjun, Bai Mo left the City Lord’s Mansion.
Back at his residence, there was a quiet room right next to Bai Mo’s bedroom.
Thanks to the original plot of land from Li Hu, the two properties were combined, giving Bai Mo the capital to forcefully create a dwelling that had all the essentials.
The quiet room wasn’t large. Inside, besides a bookshelf, a desk, and a chair, there was only a meditation cushion.
The meditation cushion was a gift from the old shopkeeper at the bookshop.
It was considered a belated congratulatory gift for Bai Mo becoming a Pill Master.
Bai Mo set up the Array Plate and placed the special Spirit Stone he had obtained from Celestial Barrier Mountain on top of it.
Back then, he had contributed greatly to the matter of diverting the life force and had been awarded a hundred and twenty Spirit Stones.
Once the Spirit Stone was in place, the several Array Plates instantly linked up and activated. A faint, unusual energy filled the space around him.
His robes fluttered wildly.
Bai Mo’s heart skipped a beat, and then he heard a series of cracks. KRAK KRAK.
The surface of the Spirit Stone cracked open, and a mixture of life force and Spiritual Qi gushed out, rushing straight toward Bai Mo’s face.
Bai Mo’s spirits lifted. He took a deep breath and felt refreshed and clear-headed.
Taking advantage of this invigorating feeling, he calmed his mind and focused on guiding the Spiritual Qi into his body.
Following what Brother Shui had taught him, Bai Mo mobilized this Spiritual Qi, using it all to strengthen a meridian that led directly to his cranium.
The Miaofa Sect’s Array was not very sophisticated; its extraction of Spiritual Qi was rather crude.
Bai Mo had to suppress the frantic, chaotic flow of Spiritual Qi before he could absorb it like a whale devouring water.
In the Alchemy Room, Wei An would occasionally feel a sense of panic. This was caused by the tearing and colliding of Spiritual Qi in the quiet room, unleashing its power.
’What is the Immortal Elder doing?’
Wei An’s attention drifted from the book in his hands, but he forced himself to suppress his thoughts and focus his gaze back on the text.
’It’s not something I should be prying into.’
Suddenly finding himself in a completely new environment and not seeing Bai Mo for a while, he also began to feel uneasy.
He immersed himself in the books before him, distracting himself so he had no time for other concerns.
This was his way of coping.
The medicinal herbs were numerous and varied, with some plants being so similar they differed only by a hair’s breadth.
According to the Immortal Elder, this part was of the utmost importance.
If the wrong herb was used, forget about the Cultivators taking the Pills—even they themselves could be in mortal danger.
He had to give it one hundred and twenty percent of his focus.
’And after this, there’s the art of Alchemy...’
A hint of melancholy washed over Wei An.
’This kind of work is enough to skin a man alive.’
’If studying for the novice scholar exam was this hard, I never would have started!’
