Early the next morning.
Bai Zhirou woke up early.
Following Senior Sister Gu’s instructions, she was to first head to the Medicine Pavilion today to retrieve those two Foundation Establishment Pills, and then go to Sword Peak to choose a new cave dwelling.
The Medicine Pavilion was located halfway up the main peak of Azure Mystic Peak.
It was a grand, magnificent palace enveloped in the scent of herbs year-round. A side hall was specifically dedicated to distributing and selling pills to disciples.
Behind the palace stretched a continuous complex of buildings, which were the cave dwellings where alchemists usually refined pills and lived.
When Bai Zhirou arrived at the Medicine Pavilion, she found a long line already snaking outside the side hall.
She dutifully walked to the back of the line and stood behind a young girl wearing a red dress.
The girl in red seemed very anxious, constantly poking her head forward to peek ahead while whispering complaints under her breath:
“What on earth? With so many people, why is only one distribution counter open? These Medicine Pavilion disciples are getting more and more arrogant!”
Bai Zhirou’s delicate brows furrowed slightly.
This was also her first time coming to the Medicine Pavilion; previously, Jiang Ye had asked Senior Sister to help buy things on her behalf.
Thinking that Senior Sister Gu Qingxue was still waiting for her at the cave dwelling, Bai Zhirou felt a bit anxious and couldn’t help but ask the girl in red ahead of her in a soft voice:
“Senior Sister, excuse me... how much longer do you think this line will take?”
Hearing the voice, the girl in red, Zhao Xi, turned around.
The moment her eyes fell upon Bai Zhirou’s face, she was momentarily stunned.
What a gorgeous Junior Sister!
“Senior Sister?” Bai Zhirou called out again.
“Oh, oh!” Zhao Xi snapped back to her senses and hastily said, “At this speed... we’ll have to wait at least another half-shichen.”
She muttered secretly to herself: I just came back from completing a sect quest. Since when did our sect get such a peerless beauty? How is she not on the Fairy Board? Could she be a newly joined Junior Sister?
Zhao Xi lowered her voice and kindly warned:
“Junior Sister, you’re new here so you might not know, but this bunch of alchemists from the Medicine Pavilion have always been haughty and arrogant. They look down on us outer sect disciples and throw tantrums at us at the drop of a hat.”
As soon as she finished speaking.
A furious roar suddenly came from the very front of the line:
“Fuck! There are clearly five distribution counters ahead! Why the hell is only one open today?! I’ve been queuing for over half a shichen!”
“Presumptuous!! Who dares make a scene here?!”
Before the man’s voice even faded, a team of Law Enforcement Hall disciples with stern, cold expressions charged over like ferocious wolves and tigers.
Without listening to any explanation, they directly tackled him to the ground with brute force and dragged him away.
“Senior Brother! I was wrong, I was wrong! Spare me!”
All that remained along the way was that disciple’s miserable cries for mercy.
The many disciples queuing up creased their brows tightly, their faces filled with anger, yet not a single person dared to speak up and stop them.
This was the consequence of offending the Medicine Pavilion.
...
At the Medicine Pavilion’s Counter Number One—the only one open.
A mean-looking young man in an alchemist robe, Huang Tiannan, was reclining lazily on an armchair.
He lazily raised his head and cast a glance at the unlucky fellow being dragged away by the Law Enforcement Hall.
Then, he disdainfully swept his eyes over the long queue outside.
He continued unhurriedly organizing the medicine bottles in his hands, turning his head from time to time to tease the female disciple busy at work beside him.
“Um... Junior Brother, could I trouble you to hurry up a bit?”
Standing in front of the counter was a burly man whose cultivation was at the peak of the Qi Condensation realm.
His entire right arm was wrapped in thick gauze, clearly having sustained a severe injury while out on a mission.
Right now, dark red blood was subtly seeping through the white gauze.
“I urgently need ten Blood-Coagulation Pills,” the burly man said in a deep voice, reining in his anger.
Huang Tiannan lifted his eyelids with extreme impatience and spat out abusively:
“Urgent, urgent, urgent! You’re the fucking most urgent! Can’t you see this young master is busy?!”
After cursing, he turned his head again and stared leeringly at the female disciple’s chest next to him:
“Little Luo, your outfit today looks really nice—it highlights your figure so well. Are you free tonight? Senior Brother can take you out to explore the mysteries of alchemy together.”
The female disciple named Little Luo shuddered all over in fear. She could only offer an awkward, apologetic smile and keep her head down working.
A lackey beside Huang Tiannan leaned in and chuckled wretchedly:
“Young Master Huang, you were truly ferocious at the Qingyi Brothel last night! Ordering two courtesans at once—when I saw those two broads this morning, their legs were still trembling as they walked!”
Huang Tiannan burst into a proud, boisterous laugh.
Outside the window, the burly man’s face had darkened to the extreme.
His fists cracked as he clenched them. He was just about to step forward to teach this arrogant, domineering alchemist—who was only at the fifth layer of Qi Condensation—a lesson.
The companion behind him hurriedly grabbed him tight and whispered in terror:
“Brother Zhou! Calm down! Don't let your emotions take over!”
“This Huang Tiannan—his brother is the Medicine Pavilion’s new generation alchemy genius! His grandfather is an elder of the Medicine Pavilion! We can’t afford to cross him at all!”
“I heard before that a Senior Brother in the Foundation Establishment realm offended him, and after that, whenever he came to buy pills, he was subjected to all sorts of deliberate difficulties...”
Upon hearing this, the burly man’s brows knitted tightly together. In the end, he could only swallow his grievance with a deep breath, forcibly repressing his anger, and continue to wait helplessly.
Another full half-ke passed.
In the long queue, anxious hushed discussions grew louder and louder.
Huang Tiannan, who was in the middle of chatting with his lackey about filthy brothel affairs, frowned impatiently.
He casually picked up a pill bottle passed over by the female disciple beside him and threw it at the burly man like he was feeding a dog.
The burly man scrambled to catch the pill bottle, his face pale with rage.
“Thirty low-grade spirit stones total,” Huang Tiannan said lazily.
“What?!” The burly man snapped his head up. “Aren’t Blood-Coagulation Pills two low-grade spirit stones apiece?! How do ten cost thirty?!”
Huang Tiannan sneered arrogantly:
“What? This young master says the price went up today, got a problem with that?”
“If you don’t have the money, return the pills and get the fuck out! Next!”
The burly man choked back his rage, his entire face flushing red.
Gritting his teeth, he counted out ten more low-grade spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them over.
His heart bled.
He and his companion had risked their lives fighting outside for five or six days to complete a bandit-eradication mission, earning a grand total of fifty low-grade spirit stones! Now more than half of it was scammed away by this dog!
Pulled away by his companion, the burly man departed with his teeth grinding in hatred.
Huang Tiannan let out a disdainful snort.
In the line, many waiting disciples frowned deeply as they saw Huang Tiannan’s arrogant display.
Some disciples who weren't in a rush for pills weighed the pros and cons and simply turned around to leave.
After all, earning a few spirit stones wasn't easy for anyone, and no one wanted to stay behind to be taken for a sucker.
Just like that, the queue that was originally long shortened rapidly.
Soon, it was the turn of Zhao Xi, the girl in red standing in front of Bai Zhirou.
She had wanted to leave too, but she was currently at a crucial stage of breaking through to the late stage of the Qi Condensation realm and urgently needed Qi Condensation Pills to assist her.
She could only bite the bullet and step forward, saying politely:
“Senior Brother, please give me ten Tier One Four-Patterned Qi Condensation Pills.”
Huang Tiannan raised his head and glanced behind her.
A flash of cunning glinted in his eyes.
Surprisingly, Huang Tiannan didn't make things difficult for her this time; instead, he swiftly handed a pill bottle over to her.
Zhao Xi was completely dumbfounded.
She was originally prepared for this bastard to stall time and rip her off.
She hastily handed over twenty low-grade spirit stones.
After getting the pills, she didn't leave immediately, but stepped to the side.
She wanted to wait a moment for Junior Sister Bai behind her to see if she could get acquainted with her.
After all, their brief conversation earlier made her feel that this Junior Sister was gentle and polite, worthy of becoming friends with.
“Next,” Huang Tiannan called lazily.
Bai Zhirou stepped forward.
When Huang Tiannan saw Bai Zhirou’s exquisitely fair and flawless face clearly, his narrow eyes instantly erupted with a burst of lecherous light.
Although he had seen Bai Zhirou’s appearance in a recording stone beforehand, seeing her with his own eyes now—such peerless beauty was three points more captivating than in the recording stone!
“Hello, I’m here to collect Foundation Establishment Pills.”
Bai Zhirou’s voice was crisp and clear as she handed her identity token over.
“Collect Foundation Establishment Pills?!”
Hearing this from the side, Zhao Xi couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
One had to know that Tier Three Foundation Establishment Pills were extremely precious and made of scarce materials, remaining in a state of supply shortage within the sect.
Ordinary disciples had to cultivate to the ninth layer great perfection of the Qi Condensation realm to even be eligible to "apply to join the queue" to purchase them.
Word was that current orders were already queued two years out!
Yet this Junior Sister Bai was actually here to "collect" them!
Combined with her unfamiliar face, Zhao Xi instantly realized that she must be a top prodigy who placed in the top ten of this year's outer sect tournament!
Because only the top ten were directly given Foundation Establishment Pills for free by the sect!
Huang Tiannan frivolously picked up Bai Zhirou’s identity token.
He pretended to inspect it back and forth.
Then, unexpectedly, he wretchedly brought the token right under his nose and took a deep sniff!
“Tsk-tsk, smells so good.”
Seeing this scene.
Bai Zhirou’s delicate brows knitted tightly, her voice instantly turning cold:
“Since there’s nothing wrong with the token, please give me the Foundation Establishment Pills. I’m in a hurry.”
Huang Tiannan toyed with the token in his hand, a playful smile curling up his lips:
“As for the token, there’s indeed nothing wrong with it.”
“However...”
“How do you prove that you are Bai Zhirou?”
Rate on N.U.
