Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Cultivation Through Copulation.

Episode 20: Personal Medicine Attendant.

It’s been several days since Yuk-gyeong borrowed a book from Elder Bu’s study.

Now, even the disciples guarding the Elder Hall didn’t find Yuk-gyeong’s frequent visits unusual.

At first, there were resentful glances at the presence of a novice disciple daring to enter the Elder Hall, but even that wore off eventually.

What is special on the first or second day becomes peculiar by the third or fourth, and by the fifth day or a week, it becomes a matter of course.

As it was nearing a week since Yuk-gyeong began borrowing books and taking tests, much of the jealousy had faded.

The disciple guarding the Elder Hall was one of the valued disciples in the Medicine Hall, always appearing calm with long hair, looking to be in his twenties or thirties.

“The Elder is probably in the alchemy room.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother.”

Yuk-gyeong bowed to him and went to the front of the alchemy room, intending to prepare for the test while waiting for Elder Bu to come out.

Originally, the alchemy room was strictly protected.

Normally, Yuk-gyeong wouldn’t have been able to enter the alchemy room. It was designed so that only Elder Bu could open and close it.

Thus, under normal circumstances, the alchemy room would have been tightly closed, not allowing Yuk-gyeong to enter. It would have opened only after Elder Bu finished his pill-making.

However, today, Elder Bu was too busy and was suddenly called by the Sect Master, so he couldn’t properly secure the lock.

Therefore, it was unfortunate that Yuk-gyeong entered the alchemy room while pills were being made.

Seeing the door to the alchemy room slightly ajar, Yuk-gyeong peeked in. Why is it open today?

“Elder, Elder Bu?”

There was no one inside the alchemy room.

Only one cauldron was placed over the center of the furnace, trembling as it was heated.

Bubbling and rattling!

The closed lid of the cauldron was shaking with heat, as if the contents were about to boil over at any moment.

However, even if it boiled over, the lid was shut tight, so it seemed it would need to shoot the lid sky-high or explode the cauldron to overflow.

Oh no, is that going to blow up?

I don’t want to touch anything when the elder isn’t here…

At that moment!

Yuk-gyeong’s Fire Control skill shone through. Yuk-gyeong’s eyes pierced through the flame under the cauldron with sharp insight.

It seems like the fire being too strong is what is causing this.

That could really explode. Just a bit more heat and it will blow. Yuk-gyeong could sense it.

Should I lower the fire? I need to. That thing will explode soon.

No, if I mess with it, I might get blamed.

But if I don’t and it explodes, I might get blamed for not reducing the fire when I saw it.

Yuk-gyeong was conflicted.

What should I do?

Yes, I’ll do it secretly.

If I secretly lower the fire to prevent an explosion and then return it to its original state, how would Elder Bu know?

With that decision, Yuk-gyeong carefully approached the furnace and blocked the air intake to reduce the fire’s intensity.

When the fire had sufficiently diminished, Yuk-gyeong returned the air intake to its original state.

Then, as Yuk-gyeong quickly turned to leave the alchemy room,

Elder Bu was standing right in front of him.

“What exactly are you doing here!”

Elder Bu’s reprimand burst forth right in front of him.

Yuk-gyeong flinched, facing the furious Elder Bu. His already sharp eyes seemed to spark with even more anger, as if they might shoot out fire. Is he losing it a bit?

“I’m sorry, Elder. This disciple made a mistake.”

Ugh, I should have just left it alone, whether it exploded or not. This is all because my Fire Control ability urged me to reduce the flames, and now look at this mess.

Elder Bu stammered as he expressed his current rage. It seemed like his anger had reached its peak. If you placed a cauldron on his head, it would probably boil over in an instant.

“How dare you, how dare you touch my cauldron? You, you won’t get away with this. My medicine! My pill! How important is fire control! Fire Control is the essence of pill making! Especially for this pill!”

Elder Bu approached the cauldron like a madman, inspecting it as if caressing a lover, confirming there was no damage, and then glared back at Yuk-gyeong.

He is a lunatic, a pill-crazed man.

Avoiding a lunatic is wise, but when the lunatic is an elder, there’s no way to escape.

Elder Bu stared at Yuk-gyeong for a long time, then abruptly turned his gaze back to the cauldron to check it again.

“If this is ruined when I open it, know that you’ll be beaten to the brink of death and expelled. I’ll make sure you can never enter the Medicine Hall again!”

Banned from the Medicine Hall!

This was practically a death sentence for my cultivation.

How am I supposed to cultivate quickly without pills? That’s like telling me to die.

For now, pills aren’t necessary, but as I advance, their necessity will grow.

Yuk-gyeong’s face turned pale.

I’ve done well until now, and all of this goes to waste in one blow? After all the flattery I’ve done! If I knew this would happen, I would never have touched it, no matter what!

Damn elder. Are you really going to punish me so harshly just because I adjusted the flame for a moment? I’ve been managing herbs for so long! It’s just one pill that might fail, why blame it on me?

However, Elder Bu’s attitude was firm. It seemed as if he would expel Yuk-gyeong at any moment.

“Do you know what kind of pill this is? Do you know how precious the Spiritual Herbs that went into it are? Even if you worked in the Medicine Hall your whole life….”

Elder Bu ranted furiously.

As they say, he had put tremendous effort into this pill. It was a pill made with a long-lost ancient formula, using very rare Spiritual Herbs, essentially costing an astronomical amount of money.

After several failed attempts, he believed he had found the optimal formula and was determined to succeed this time.

In alchemy, controlling the fire is such a crucial part!

While the Sect had called him away, he had set the perfect temperature before leaving!

If the fire is slightly mishandled, the medicine can turn into a watery mess or burn to a crisp. Then the medicinal properties vanish and it could even become poisonous.

Since that disciple lowered the fire, the medicine probably turned into a mush!

But there might still be some herbs worth salvaging. Or perhaps the medicinal properties weren’t entirely lost!

He carefully opened the lid of the pill furnace.

Whoosh!

White steam burst out vigorously, filling the pill room with the scent of the medicine.

A fragrant, slightly bitter, and nutty aroma spread throughout.

The smell was neither from a mushy failed medicine nor from charred remnants.

It was the perfect scent that only comes from a well-concentrated medicine.

Elder Bu looked inside the pill furnace with a dumbfounded expression. He was literally stunned.

“Oh, oh? This turned out well? It’s a pill that always failed, so how?”

Elder Bu took out five well-cooked pills from the furnace and gently touched them with his hands, filled with curiosity.

“How, how did you do it! What on earth did you do to succeed with a pill that always fails!”

The pill-crazed man rushed to Yuk-gyeong, grabbed his shoulders, and asked.

What is this, a pill that always fails, and you were going to blame me if it failed? Yuk-gyeong fumed inside. It’s not like I can scold an old man with sex, seriously.

And how would I know! I just did what my Fire Control ability told me to do! I just knew by looking!

“Well, well?”

“What! Well? Are you mocking this elder!”

“No, not at all! I really don’t know! I just lowered the fire because it seemed like it was going to explode!”

Yuk-gyeong confessed honestly. He just expressed what he felt.

Elder Bu widened his eyes and asked again.

“What? It seemed like it was going to explode? How did you know the furnace was going to explode?”

“I just knew. It felt like it would explode if left as it was.”

“Oh, really? So you knew instinctively.”

Elder Bu’s eyes shone strangely. It was as if he was looking at a treasure, not a person named Yuk-gyeong.

Isn’t that so?

Just by looking, you can tell how the fire is! As mentioned, controlling the fire in pill-making is a very important part.

Elder Bu knew better than anyone how delicately you had to control the fire during pill-making.

He was one of the few elders who rose to the position solely based on his pill-making skills!

Elder Bu recognized that Yuk-gyeong had a natural talent for alchemy.

The instinctive sight of fire and the ability to control it was a talent for pill-making bestowed by the heavens!

Of course, Elder Bu was unaware that Yuk-gyeong’s Fire Control ability originally belonged to someone else, and he would likely never find out.

However, if the Fire Control ability had been with So-hyang and she had been brought in as a medicine attendant, could such results have been achieved?

That was unknown, but since So-hyang was an ordinary person without Spiritual Qi, she wouldn’t have been able to properly measure the fire brimming with Spiritual Qi.

A case where a special ability met a special person and shone brightly.

Though Yuk-gyeong had encountered a troublesome situation.

Elder Bu looked at Yuk-gyeong with blazing eyes and spoke. It was a gaze filled with an obsession that he couldn’t let go.

The arrangements of the Elder Hall? Backing? Right now, that doesn’t matter,

“You are now this Elder Bu’s personal medicine attendant. It doesn’t matter what others say.”