dmims 188. Energy Tonic Wine
188. Energy Tonic Wine
Looking at the furnace full of medicinal dregs, Xiao Yan let out a long sigh, trying his best to maintain his composure. He opened his door and welcomed Huo Zhi into the room.
Huo Zhi entered the room and, seeing Xiao Yan's gloomy face, asked, "Are you in a bad mood?"
Xiao Yan was speechless. It would be strange if he could be in a good mood after losing a batch of medicinal herbs. Normally, someone should guard the alchemy process, but Xiao Yan thought that since the herbs were on the Azure Feather Three-Tailed Sparrow, Zi Yan was asleep, and Yan Di and Huo Zhi had no reason to find him, he didn't take any extra precautions. But he didn't expect that he would actually be disturbed.
Xiao Yan let out a long sigh of relief and, maintaining his composure, asked Huo Zhi, "Miss Huo Zhi, what brings you here?"
"Are you a sixth-grade alchemist?" Huo Zhi asked Xiao Yan tentatively.
Xiao Yan nodded. He and Gu He were openly competing in alchemy, which couldn't be hidden, and there was nothing to hide about his identity as an alchemist.
Seeing Xiao Yan confirm, Huo Zhi's face also showed a satisfied expression.
"Could you help me craft something?"
Huo Zhi took out what looked like a pill formula from her storage ring. Xiao Yan glanced at it and found that it was actually a method for brewing a medicinal wine.
Xiao Yan glanced through the process and discovered that it required quite a few medicinal herbs to brew this kind of wine, most of which were fire-attribute and hot. There were many steps involved, and based on his initial assessment and Huo Zhi's questions, Xiao Yan determined that the difficulty was roughly equivalent to that of brewing a sixth-grade pill. It wasn't that Xiao Yan couldn't refine it now, but it would require a considerable amount of effort.
"Is it alright?" Huo Zhi asked with some concern, looking at Xiao Yan who was deep in thought, her expression slightly tense.
Xiao Yan only glanced at Huo Zhi and immediately sensed that the wine was extremely important to her, so the usually aloof Huo Zhi appeared unusually nervous.
"Making it is not a problem, but this wine requires a lot of medicinal herbs, and I am still short of quite a few."
As soon as Xiao Yan finished speaking, a storage ring landed in his palm. The ring was engraved with flame patterns and even felt warm to the touch.
"You can use any of the herbs here; I understand the rules for alchemists."
Xiao Yan hesitated for a moment while holding the storage ring, then said to Huo Zhi, "The ingredients are fine, but the fire-attribute energy contained in this wine is truly terrifying. Are you sure you want to do it?"
Huo Zhi nodded and said, "Don't worry, just follow the recipe!"
Xiao Yan nodded and began to carefully study the method of brewing medicinal wine.
After looking at it carefully for a while, Xiao Yan suddenly realized that Huo Zhi was still waiting for him in the room. He said, "My first attempt at burning it has a pretty high failure rate. Go and wait for me. I'll give it to you when it's done!"
Huo Zhi nodded, then asked in a low voice, "Aren't you going to mention any price?"
Xiao Yan thought he had misheard. "What?"
Huo Zhi blinked her pure, large eyes and looked at Xiao Yan, asking, "Don't you alchemists usually ask for payment when you refine medicine for others?"
Realizing that Huo Zhi hadn't left because he was waiting for him to mention his reward, Xiao Yan couldn't help but smile. He hadn't expected Huo Zhi to be so clueless about other things besides her exceptional combat power. Initially, Xiao Yan hadn't really planned to ask Huo Zhi for any reward, since he was still being forcibly controlled by Yan Di. Even if Huo Zhi wanted him to work for free, Xiao Yan wouldn't have much of a way to resist.
"This wine is quite troublesome to make," Huo Zhi added.
Xiao Yan thought for a moment and said, "How about this, I'll brew this wine for you, and you find someone to help my friend control the Calamity Poison Body."
With a powerful figure like Yan Di protecting him all the way, Xiao Yan believed that Huo Zhi's status within the Yan Clan wouldn't be low. Of course, Yan Di had already indicated that he couldn't do anything about Xiao Yi Xian's Calamity Poison Body, and Xiao Yan didn't have high expectations for the others in the Yan Clan.
Huo Zhi considered it seriously for a while and finally nodded, saying, "I can't guarantee success, but I will definitely find someone to help her."
"Deal. I'll teach you once I've mastered it."
After Huo Zhi left, Xiao Yan smiled slightly as he looked at the storage ring on his hand. Although he didn't know what Huo Zhi intended to do with the wine, the brewing method was still very useful to him. The person who researched this medicinal wine must be of a high level. Xiao Yan sensed that the fusion of these fire-attribute medicinal herbs had a subtle energy-enhancing effect. The person who developed this method had an extraordinary understanding of pharmacology; even Yao Lao might be inferior in this regard.
This wine might not be very effective for others, given its incredibly high energy content. However, Xiao Yan has a big eater named Zi Yan by his side. If Zi Yan can consume it, it will definitely be more effective than the energy pills that Xiao Yan has researched.
"The Yan Clan is truly extraordinary!" Xiao Yan thought to himself.
Xiao Yan took out the medicinal herbs given to him by Huo Zhi one by one and put them into the Black Demon Cauldron, beginning the complicated and tedious refining process.
Time passed by as Xiao Yan focused intently on his work. The following night, Xiao Yan knocked on Huo Zhi's door.
Xiao Yan took out twelve small jade bottles from his storage ring. Generally speaking, wine should be stored in a wine pot, but Xiao Yan did not have such a thing, so he could only use the jade bottles used for storing pills.
"This stuff is a bit troublesome to burn; I only managed to succeed once in two days."
Huo Zhi's eyes lit up when she saw the twelve jade bottles Xiao Yan handed her. She took them and carefully held them in her arms, saying to Xiao Yan, "Okay, thank you."
Then, with a hint of apology in her eyes, Huo Zhi said, "Could you please continue brewing this wine? I'll provide all the ingredients!"
Xiao Yan frowned upon hearing this. He hadn't been lying; the ingredients needed for this wine were all extremely hot, fire-attribute herbs, making the refining process very difficult to control. Even if he could guarantee refining it once a day in the future, all of Xiao Yan's time would be taken up.
Seeing Xiao Yan's hesitation, Huo Zhi added, "You can tell me your conditions, and I will try my best to meet them."
Xiao Yan held up three fingers and said, "Give me three bottles of this wine as payment, and I'll give you the rest."
Considering Xiao Yan's speed, he felt that the reward was nothing. The main thing was that he still needed to go to the Yan Clan, so Xiao Yan didn't dare to ask for an exorbitant price.
"Okay." Huo Zhi reluctantly took out three bottles from the twelve bottles. Looking at Huo Zhi's expression, Xiao Yan suddenly had a strange feeling that he was bullying someone.