The Nine Godheads Chapter 43

“Then, how much can I make with the materials here?” Hong Xiaobao had his eyes wide opened. Given that Hou Tian Can had made it seem so easy, he would naturally make as many he he could!

“Hmmm,” Tian Can gave the medicines a look and said, “These should be enough for 3 to 4 bottles. It really isn’t hard to make it. It’s just that it requires quite a bit of materials.”

3 to 4 was more than enough! What were they waiting for?

“Then, let’s begin,” said Hong Xiaobao as he hurriedly made his preparations. “What would I need? I’ll go get them now.”

“Get me a cauldron. Yes, it’s that one you used to cook that other time using the methane-gathering pit. It really is a good cauldron and its stable heat distribution is ideal for medicine refining! This Qi-concentrating elixir really doesn’t have any high requirements. Just bring another large stirring spoon with you and we’ll be set.”

It was that easy?! Hong Xiaobao never could’ve expected the methane-gathering pit to be that helpful to medicine refining.

His snot almost fell right out from his nose. “Um… How does the process of refining Qi-concentrating elixir go? Why is it so expensive?”

“Foolish child, don’t you understand why Divine Craftsmen are so far and few?” said Meng Xianji. “That is because refining medicines consumes tons of money! Let me make you an example. Say you just started refining medicines and bought enough ingredients for 10. But, only 1 succeeded. How much do you think it would sell for?”

“At least twenty times the original price of the materials!” Hong Xiaobao understood at that moment. “The price used for the materials that have failed must be added to the cost as well as the profit margin, right?”

“Haha, you’re quite the smart one. That’s correct.” Seeing Hong Xiaobao figure it out that easily, Tianji said with satisfaction, “Medicine refiners price their goods so high because there is often a high chance for failure. However, that only applies to the more inexperienced medicine refiners! I will be able to make many medicines with those materials!”

Hong Xiaobao’s expression turned to this at that moment: *@_@*

Being able to create many medicines just with a small amount of materials, that was the difference between Divine Craftsmen and normal refiners!

Suddenly, Hong Xiaobao suddenly got inspired — He definitely had to learn medicine refining!

“Then, shall we start now?” Xiaobao said impatiently. “The people are all waiting! I’m entrusting it to you, Old Brother Tian Can!”

“That’s simple. Remember to make a few extra later and give everyone a little bit of it aside from Ye Feihong. Since he has so much backing, I’m sure he doesn’t need something like that from us.” Tian Can laughed out loud. He was quite different from Meng Xianji: Meng Xianji loved to eat and devour anything while Tian Can gained innate satisfaction from humiliating people!

“No problem!” replied Hong Xiaobao. “Then, what materials do we need for this Qi-concentrating elixir?”

“Prepare two jins of Bluefall Grass, half a jin of Bodhi Dew, two jins of Mohe Ginseng, and one jin of Freeze Flower. Remember to get the exact amount, nothing more or less. This is the most important part of refining Qi-concentrating elixir. The first is the amount of materials. The other is the timing.”

“Oh, I see. I understand.” Hong Xiaobao gave it some thought and said, “What you mean is we have to get the ratio right, correct?”

“Ratio? Yes, that’s about it.” Tian Can nodded and explained to Xiaobao, “Half a jin of Bodhi Dew is enough for 5 bottles of Qi-concentrating elixir, which is to say that 1 liang of Bodhi Dew is the amount required for 1 bottle. Given that a liang is too hard to grasp as it is too light, especially for liquids like the Bodhi Dew, medicines often get ruined easily even if a slightly more amount is used. That’s why Qi-concentrating elixir is so expensive and normally only has a 10% chance of success in refining.”
(TL: 1 jin = 10 liang)

Hong Xiaobao finally understood why that powder was so expensive. It was pretty simple: the units of measurement of this world was not quite accurate enough. For example, slightly different amounts of ingredients is often negligible. But for Bodhi Dew, the exact amount of 1 liang, or 50 grams, was required and it could not be more or less. To the residents of this world, it was quite hard to grasp an amount of one liang. If a refiner accidentally used 51 grams of Bodhi Dew, the final product would end up useless. The sensitivity of the units of this world was a big problem. However, this didn’t post too much of a problem to Hong Xiaobao.

“Well, it doesn’t seem that hard, actually,” said Hong Xiaobao. “We just need more sensitive units of measurements, right? I have just the thing for it!”

Having said that, he took the four ingredients and took the elevator to the third floor to go to his room. He took out a tool and placed it on a table. It was a weighing scale with two plates at each side. Hong Xiaobao introduced the ite, “This tool is called a scale.”

For normal people, it was quite impossible to get the amount for medicine ingredients perfectly. But with the scale, it became much easier.

“Scale? What’s a scale?” Tian Can had never seen anything like it and asked curiously, “Can this be used to measure the amount of ingredients needed?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t dare to say that it is 100% accurate, but it certainly works well when ratios comes into play.” Hong Xiaobao placed the ingredients on the table. According to Tian Can, of these four ingredients, Bodhi Dew and Mohe Ginseng were required in the most amounts, 2 jin of each. Hong Xiaobao decided to use that amount as a reference weight and took out 2 jin of the ingredients and placed it on the scale.

Hmm, it is a little slanted. The Bodhi Dew is too much. Let’s remove some of it… Great. It doesn’t matter if it was exactly 2 jins, as long as the ratio is correct.

“Oh? I really am speechless.” Tian Can nodded his head with satisfaction. “This method really is much better than simply weighing the mass.”

The scale really was useful for scenarios that involved ratios. As long as both sides of the scale were level, it represented that both ingredients had equal mass.

He quickly finished measuring the amount for Bluefall Grass and Mohe Ginseng and continued on to measure the Freeze Flower. First, he placed 2 jins of Mohe Ginseng and Freeze Flower on each side and made sure they were the same weight. He then removed the Mohe Ginseng and split the Freeze Flower to both sides of the scale until it became level, effectively splitting 2 jins into 1 jin! He then used the same method to get the right amount of Bodhi Dew.

However, this time it was a little harder, as Bodhi Dew was a kind of liquid. Hong Xiaobao placed two small cups on both sides of the scale, made sure it was level and placed 1 jin of Freeze Flower into the first cup. He then poured the Bodhi Dew into the other cup until the scale was level. After that, he repeated the process and divided each each cup to 0.5 jins of Bodhi Dew.

“Done!” Hong Xiaobao nodded happily. “Have I succeeded halfway already?”

“That’s right,” praised Tian Can. He was quite impressed with Xiaobao’s performance. “Haha, your method really is quite good. This will save us lots of trouble. With the scale, medicine refining will be much easier in the future, well, at least for the elementary levels that is.”

It’s no wonder Tian Can was in a good mood. It was exceedingly rare for teachers to have students like Hong Xiaobao who not only grasped the concepts taught easily but even managed to come out with a new method to approach a problem! Teaching him was a very relaxing and rewarding experience.

Chapter end