From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 113 Conspiracy
Tao Shiyuan quickly refined several Qi and Blood Pills. He took out one of them and crushed it into several pieces: "Here, have a taste."

Xu Zhongche picked up one of the petals and tasted it carefully in his mouth.

A strong, earthy smell hit my nose and mouth, followed by the aroma of various medicinal herbs.

"Master, this is a Qi and Blood Pill, right? Why is it made with houttuynia cordata?"

He was puzzled because there were three pharmacies in the county town that sold Qi Xue Wan (a traditional Chinese medicine), and none of them contained Houttuynia cordata in their Qi Xue Wan.

"Ha ha…"

Tao Shiyuan laughed loudly: "Because we're guarding against people like you with such a keen sense of taste. A pharmacist spends countless hours and effort, and wastes countless medicinal herbs, to develop a prescription. How could you possibly be able to tell the difference just by tasting it?"

Highly skilled pharmacists will add one or even several herbs with extremely strong flavors when concocting pills, without affecting their medicinal properties, to prevent others from tasting the ingredients.

"Really? But I don't think it works for me; I can still taste the difference."

Xu Zhongche can taste the ingredients of medicinal herbs, but he cannot concoct pills based on those ingredients alone.

Besides the medicinal ingredients, the order in which the medicines are added and the temperature of the heat when making pills are also very important, which is the so-called "refining method". This is something that is more difficult to study than the prescription.

Tao Shiyuan knew his apprentice was telling the truth, but why did it sound so irritating?

"Besides houttuynia cordata, what else can you taste?"

"I also tasted a slightly burnt flavor in the dried leaves, which seems to be related to your hand shaking a little and the heat being too high when you were refining the medicine, Master."

"..."

Tao Shiyuan was getting old, and it was impossible for him to be perfect in such a delicate process as alchemy.

He thought to himself that with Xu Zhongche's talent, once his alchemy skills deepened, he would probably be able to figure out how other people made their pills.

“You’ve already looked at it once, now it’s your turn.”

He stepped aside to let Xu Zhongche refine the Qi and Blood Pill.

"Huh? Master, I..."

"What, no?"

"I try my best."

Xu Zhongche's first attempt, unsurprisingly, failed.

Tao Shiyuan finally found an opportunity to educate his apprentice: "Useless! You can't even refine such a simple Qi and Blood Pill. When I was your age, I mastered the methods for refining eight kinds of complex pills in my family."

After several more attempts, Xu Zhongche successfully refined a substandard Qi and Blood Pill.

With a few more practice sessions, I'm sure I'll be able to refine a perfect Qi and Blood Pill.

"Alright, next I'll teach you how to make another pregnancy-preserving pill. This is a potent pregnancy-preserving pill developed by my Tao family. It's in high demand and short supply, and even at twice the price of other pharmacies' pregnancy-preserving pills, people are scrambling to buy it."

……

After Tao Shiyuan finished teaching the method of refining the pregnancy-preserving pills, it was already late.

“Zhongche, go back and rest. By the way, you must remember the rules of our pharmacists. The pharmacist lineage is passed down only to the closest and most trusted juniors. No matter who tries to interrogate you, you must not say anything, even if it means death.”

"I understand, master."

Xu Zhongche was taught this by his master every now and then, and these words were repeated in his ears countless times.

After he took his leave, he kept replaying the day's alchemy techniques in his mind on his way home. His master had taught him an unusually large amount of material today.

Courtyard entrance.

Tao Shiyuan watched his departing figure and thought to himself, "My good disciple, I have passed on the accumulation of my family for generations to you. It is only right that your family pays a price. There are gains and losses. Do not blame me."

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A few more days passed like this.

Xu Zhongche practiced standing meditation every morning, and after breakfast, he would go to Tao Shiyuan's courtyard to learn medicine making, only returning home in the evening.

Leaving early and returning late, every day is the same.

The amount of knowledge that Tao Shiyuan taught him suddenly increased, making him dizzy from studying every day.

So much so that he completely forgot about Xu Xiaohou's request for him to go back to the village.

Another day.

Xu Zhongche arrived at Tao Shiyuan's courtyard early in the morning: "Master, what are we learning today?"

He's been learning something new every day lately, and sometimes there's even new information before he can even verify it.

He had a premonition that once he had digested the knowledge his master had taught him, he would be able to become a master alchemist.

"Today I'll teach you something special, and you'd better remember it. Come with me."

Tao Shiyuan turned around and led Xu Zhongche to the secret room.

"I will teach you a cultivation technique called the Nine Flames Spirit Fire Technique."

"Nine Flames Spirit Fire Technique?"

Xu Zhongche: Hearing this name, it sounds like a cultivation method for practicing immortality and refining qi.
Tao Shiyuan seemed to see through his thoughts and slowly said, "This is a fire-type Qi cultivation technique. My great-grandfather had spiritual roots and spent a great deal of money to obtain this fire-type Qi cultivation technique."

This is the foundation for advancing from a pharmacist to an alchemist, but unfortunately, refining spirit pills is a hundred times more difficult than refining medicinal pills.

My great-grandfather didn't refine any elixirs, but he cultivated spiritual fire through this Qi cultivation technique, which increased the efficiency of refining pills by three to five times.

You don't have spiritual roots, so you can't practice this technique. You just need to memorize it and pass it on.

This technique will be passed down through generations. When your family produces a pharmacist with spiritual roots, this skill will be incredibly useful.

"Master, I understand."

Xu Zhongche nodded. He understood. This cultivation technique belonged to the "reserve resources" of the pharmacist family. It might not be used for many generations, but it could play a very important role when needed.

"First comes the guiding posture, connecting heaven and earth, drawing qi into the body, and opening up the dantian and qi sea..."

Tao Shiyuan relayed the contents to Xu Zhongche verbatim.

Because Xu Zhongche practiced the Five Elements Stance Technique and was at the Innate Realm, he was very familiar with the meridians and acupoints in cultivation techniques and could remember them quickly.

Afterwards, Tao Shiyuan also told Xu Zhongche all his great-grandfather's insights and experiences in refining pills using this technique. ————

Another day.

"Jungcheol, you've remembered everything I taught you yesterday, right?"

"Ah."

Xu Zhongche nodded. He had recited it several times yesterday without missing a single word, and then reviewed it in his mind many times after returning home.

This "Nine Flames Spirit Fire Technique" is a secret that cannot be revealed. His master told him that if others found out, it would bring disaster to his family.

Therefore, Xu Zhongche memorized everything and dared not write it down.

"Come on, let's go out and gather inspiration today. I'll teach you how to identify the growing environment of medicinal herbs."

Going out to collect folk art?

Xu Zhongche was puzzled. When did this step in his alchemy training come about?
Trusting his master, he had no doubts.

The two boarded Tao Shiyuan's carriage and headed out of the county town.

After leaving Tonggu County, the carriage traveled north until it was almost at the border of the two counties, at the junction of Tonggu County and Qingping County.

Qingping County is the county that borders Tonggu County to the north.

“The scenery of Yangjiao Mountain is really beautiful, with clear waters and lush mountains. We’ve been master and apprentice for many years, but we haven’t traveled together yet.”

Tao Shiyuan gazed at the wild mountain in the distance called "Yangjiao Mountain," where two towering peaks resembled the horns of a goat.

"..."

Xu Zhongche was baffled. Yangjiao Mountain was just an ordinary wild mountain, and its scenery was not as good as Baihe Mountain next to his village, Baihe Village.

He was at the Innate Realm, and his master was also at the Innate Realm, so even though he was in the wilderness, he wasn't worried about anything.

The two of them wandered around aimlessly in Giethoorn.

Tao Shiyuan would occasionally introduce Xu Zhongche to the medicinal herbs that grew in the desolate mountains and wilderness.

This left Xu Zhongche even more bewildered. There were no precious medicinal herbs in this place, only common and inexpensive herbs that were not very old. If they were precious herbs, they would have been dug up by herb gatherers long ago.

The sky was getting dark.

"Master, it's getting late, let's go back."

"No hurry, wait a little longer..."

Tao Shiyuan looked towards Qingping County, calculating the time; those people should be arriving soon.

"Master, what are you doing?"

Xu Zhongche finally realized something was wrong; his master's behavior today had been very strange.

As it grew darker, he took his leave: "Master, I'm afraid my family will worry, so I can't stay any longer. If you're in the mood, I'll accompany you on a more enjoyable stroll another day."

"No hurry, no rush..."

Tao Shiyuan suddenly waved his hand, and a cloud of dust enveloped Xu Zhongche like a mist.

Xu Zhongche quickly held his breath and retreated.

However, Tao Shiyuan caught up with him and struck him in the abdomen with a palm strike, causing his internal energy to scatter.

Although Tao Shiyuan was older, he was already at the third level of the Innate Realm. Xu Zhongche, on the other hand, had just entered the Innate Realm and had never practiced martial arts.

"hiss--"

Xu Zhongche gasped, inhaling a large amount of dust.

That's a common medicine: Soft Bone Powder.

For an ordinary person, it would make their whole body feel weak and sore in an instant.

Xu Zhongche, being a Xiantian (innate) cultivator, immediately used his internal energy to dispel the medicinal effects within his body. He didn't have much internal energy to begin with, and with Tao Shiyuan restraining him nearby, he couldn't easily break free.

"Master, why?!"

He still doesn't understand his master's purpose.

“My son was about your age when he died.”

Tao Shiyuan looked at Xu Zhongche with sadness and pain in his eyes, pity and reluctance, hatred and pain, and shame and a plea for forgiveness.

"Don't blame your master, I had no choice but to borrow the power of your Xu family."

The conditions he proposed to Xu Xiaogou back then were not agreed to by Xu Xiaogou.

He still accepted Xu Zhongche as his apprentice because he had planned all of this from the beginning.

Xu Zhongche was indeed talented, and he liked this good apprentice very much, but one thing was one thing: the revenge for killing his son had to be taken.

"There is a Wanfu Pharmacy in Qingping County, which is one of the top pharmacies in the county. The owner's surname is Cai, and they have a lot of influence."

Our Tao family is quite skilled at alchemy, but we're short-lived. I'm an only child, and so is my son. I don't know how the Cai family found out we have a fire-based qi cultivation technique; perhaps they already knew, but they just didn't have a use for it.

It wasn't until his family also produced a cultivator with spiritual roots that he set his sights on my family's cultivation techniques.

That night, the Cai family, along with many innate martial artists, launched a sneak attack on my home, killing my wife and kidnapping my son. Fortunately, my house had a secret passage, which allowed me to escape with my life…

Tao Shiyuan fled Qingping County and went into hiding in Tonggu County.

Actually, he wanted to escape to a faraway place. With his abilities, as long as he was careful and didn't show off, he could live a very comfortable life.

But he was unwilling to let his son's killer live a carefree life, so he went into seclusion in Tonggu County, occasionally inquiring about the Cai family in Qingping County. After more than ten years in seclusion, he met Xu Zhongche and finally had the opportunity to take revenge.

The Cai family has prospered over the years and has not been affected by that incident at all. With the Cai family's wealth and connections, the murder case has been swept under the rug and no one has pursued it.

"It's time to come."

According to Tao Shiyuan's plan, the Cai family should arrive first, followed by the Xu family.

(End of this chapter)