Trash Techniques Are Actually Pretty Efficient - Volume 1 Chapter 50

With a wave of his hand, the furnace filled up with water, swirling around.

“A water element cultivator?” “The Xie family are water element cultivators, right?” “Yeah, and they’re also pill refiners.” “Is this vendor from the Xie family?”

Even though the name ‘Xiang Lan’ was taped onto the furnace, who would believe that that was the vendor’s real name, what with all the cloak hiding the face and the fancy furnace in use.

Ye Qingle chuckled slightly. His fiancée is from the Xie family. If he himself were from the Xie family too, wouldn’t that be i.n.c.e.s.tuous?

Lan Xiang gulped. This was his first time refining pills with actual ingredients, and his second time refining any type of pill overall. He could think of it as practice before, but now that there were so many people watching, he needed to do it flawlessly.

He grabbed one of the ingredients and threw it into the whirlpool inside the furnace. The herb almost immediately dissipated, the water turning uniform again. The furnace expelled the scent, entering the noses of those watching.

The scent was pleasing, reminiscent to that of wet grass.

Lan Xiang continued to follow the recipe as he frenziedly grabbed the ingredients one by one and threw them into the furnace.

“According to this recipe and the Pill Refinement Notes, it seems that it would be better to use more elements other than water… but Jian’er said that it was impossible for anyone to actually control more than one element, so would I be hunted down if I did this?”

In the end, he decided to do it.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, I’m wearing a cloak anyway…”

For precaution, Lan Xiang blocked the transparent lid of the furnace with some steam to prevent the people from seeing the inside.

As Lan Xiang went further into the recipe, the furnace started to tremble.

Ye Qingle widened her eyes. She retreated a few steps, prompting everyone else to do the same. They weren’t stupid, they could see the furnace was going to explode!

Lan Xiang didn’t mind it, however. He thought of the shaking as part of the process, as it was when he first made the Clear Mind Pill.

Now that all of the ingredients were inside the furnace, Lan Xiang closed his eyes. Strands of qi came out of his body and pierced through the furnace. He controlled the earth element inside the furnace to surround the ingredients inside and used a bit of the fire element to heat the water up a little further.

This time, the fragrance of the pill reminded Ye Qingle of the wet soil beneath the grass. It didn’t smell pleasant, yet it was soothing.

At this point, she squinted her eyes. Xiang isn’t following the recipe!

She could only think of the inevitable embarrassment he would have to endure once the pill was done refining. Well, if a pill was made in the first place.

Looking at the tumultuous state of the furnace, Ye Qingle didn’t think the chances were high. The ingredients inside were probably all just a lump of mush by now and not actually a pill.

Her thoughts aligned with many others as they doubted this vendor’s ability. The place was crowded with scammers anyway, they wouldn’t be surprised by the addition of another one.

Finally, Lan Xiang opened his eyes. With an exhale, the furnace stopped shaking, much to Ye Qingle’s surprise. It didn’t explode?

He pulled off the lid, all of the water having turned into steam. With a wave of his hand, a gust of wind flew by the rising smoke.

Everyone was curious to see what the result was, even though they all had conclusions in their minds already.

Lan Xiang looked into the furnace and sighed in relief.

It’s just like the Clear Mind Pill, as transparent as a water droplet. He grabbed the pill with his hand and raised it up.

“Qingle, hold out your hand.”

Lan Xiang put the Elementary Pill in her open palm. Although he didn’t know what the pills effects should be, he did know that he succeeded due to the pill taking shape like a marble.

The pull dropped on Ye Qingle’s hand, which surprised her. It felt round, solid, and smooth, unlike what she predicted it to be: soft and mushy.

When Lan Xiang lifted his hand—which was slightly smaller than usual—off, the sight of the pill shocked Ye Qingle.

“T, transparent pill?”

The pill, fresh out of the furnace, still emitted some smoke. A whiff of its scent made Ye Qingle go into a daze of pleasure. Even a field of flowers wouldn’t be able to compete with such a fragrance.

The punk also sneaked a peek at her hand, and he was left equally shocked. “That scammer actually knows how to make pills! And it’s a transparent Elementary Pill too! That means…”

“You’re a 5-star Master Pill Refiner?” Incredulity filled Ye Qingle’s voice.

Hm? What’s that mean? Lan Xiang scratched his head. I should have probably asked Jian’er things I needed to know about pill refining before I went here. I don’t understand what Qingle means, after all. Probably an honorable title?

Depending on the situation, 5-star could be the level of a beginner, of a middling expert, or of the highest position one could get when it came to the Pill Refining World. In any of the cases, it meant that she had acknowledged him as a proper pill refiner, satisfying Lan Xiang.

Um, whatever 5-star pill refiner means, “Yes, I am one.”

Ye Qingle didn’t doubt his statement whatsoever. This was a transparent Elementary Pill in her hands, one that only existed in legends. Even with her status as the daughter of the head of the Ye family, she had never seen an Elementary Pill like this.

Beside her, the punk fell silent and into contemplation. The arrogance in his face completely vanished, and all that was left now was pure, unbridled shock.

The spectators also shut their mouths. From that day forward, they vowed never to speak ill of others again, lest they get their comeuppance like this time. They still felt their cheeks burning, after all.

“So now, you know better than to mess with my friend, uh, Xiang Lan here.” Ye Qingle faced the punk again, this time with a higher level of confidence.

The punk looked at both of his friends and they nodded to each other. He got onto his knees and placed his head on the floor, groveling.

“Master Xiang Lan, we apologize for our doubts against you…”

Lan Xiang was fl.u.s.tered. He didn’t expect the punk to concede this easily. “Ahem, please stand up, I don’t need you to do this. It’s reasonable to be skeptical, especially in a place like this.”

“Actually…” The punk felt embarrassed as he placed his hand on his nape. He grabbed a piece of paper from his pocket, and his friends brought the briefcases in front of Lan Xiang. “Master Xiang Lan, please refine a pill for us!”

Lan Xiang laughed ever so slightly. “You don’t need to beg for it, it’s my reason for being here, to refine pills for free.” And steal the recipes while I’m at it.

The punk let out a sigh of relief. His father was bedridden at home, and the pill recipe in his hand was the only way to cure the sickness.

He only stumbled upon it coincidentally while he was out drinking with his bros, when he choked on a piece of paper that was inside the beer bottle. Having no idea where it came from, he read the contents of the paper to realize that it was a precious pill recipe!

He had scrimped just enough money to buy the ingredients, but the actual refining of the pill was a problem.

The pill he needed was a high tier pill, the Panacea Pill. It was complicated, and therefore, time-consuming and expensive.

Not only did he not have enough money to commission this pill from a reputable pill refiner, even if he did, it would take days until the pill was finished. His father only had a few days left to live.

He decided to try his luck at the marketplace, maybe he could find a legitimate pill refiner there that could refine the pill for a low price. Even if the pills refined by this bunch were slightly inferior, he would still take it.

Alas, all of the supposed pill refiners in Wuji Street declined him, saying that his price was too low or that they weren’t skilled enough to make them. One even bluntly said that he wasn’t an actual pill refiner and that he was selling foam balls.

Bringing his desperation with him, he stumbled along The Mysterious Xiang Lan’s stall. Free, as long as the customer provided the recipe and the ingredients? It felt like the gods were playing a joke on him, and so he couldn’t help but vent his frustrations onto ‘Xiang Lan’, the innocent lady wearing a black cloak.

Now that he had sufficiently calmed down and Xiang Lan had revealed her entire prowess, the punk was full of hope once more.

Lan Xiang didn’t know any of this, nor did he feel the need to. He saw an overly-winded backstory in the punk’s eyes and raised his hand to stop him before he spoke of it. “Whatever you were going to say, keep it in and just give me the recipe and ingredients.”

The punk felt dissatisfied failing to share his backstory, but he gave the slightly worn piece of paper as well as the two briefcases full of ingredients.