Yang Wei breezed through fifteen medicinal manuals in just ten minutes, giving Huo Zirou the impression that he hadn't absorbed anything. But she wasn't ready to underestimate him yet.
"I'm done," Yang Wei announced casually.
Huo Zirou clarified, "Just so we're clear, to impress me, an Apothecary Grandmaster, you'll need to either refine complex fourth-grade pills or any fifth-grade pills. Anything less is a tragic waste of my time."
"Could you please be quiet?" Yang Wei calmly told her. Then, he turned away, staring at the ceiling in deep contemplation.
Everyone was shocked by how easily those words left his mouth. However, they were all too scared to speak.
Who would dare tell Huo Zirou, a Nascent Soul cultivator, to shut her mouth? Apparently, this death-courting young man.
Huo Zirou's patience wore thin, her eyebrows slowly tightening and teeth grinding. She found everything about his personality absolutely disgusting.
Then, Wu Fengtian spoke up, catching her attention. "Um, Pill Master?"
Annoyed, Huo Zirou snapped, "What?" Truthfully, she'd almost forgotten that he was even here.
He nervously pleaded, "Could you please let me go? I-I... I didn't do anything wro—"
She'd had enough of this weasel of a student.
"I..."
Huo Zirou's hand shot out.
"Told..."
Her fingers curled as if she was grasping an invisible object.
"You to be..."
Instantly, Wu Fengtian felt as if all the air had been sucked out of his lungs, choking him.
"Quiet!"
Huo Zirou's eyes flared as she used the Throat-Crushing Grasp that could only be used by mid-stage Core Formation cultivators. It was basically then exerting the strength of their cultivation base upon someone of a lower realm.
Gasping for breath, Wu Fengtian begged, "Master, please! You're—"
Huo Zirou tightened her grip, cutting off his words.
"Wu Fengtian?"
Struggling to speak, Wu Fengtian managed, "Yes, Master?"
Huo Zirou's voice was cold as ice. "Do you seek death?"
From nowhere, Yang Wei intervened, glaring at Huo Zirou. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mistreat my junior brother."
Relenting, Huo Zirou released her grip, clasping her arms behind her back. "My apologies."
Wu Fengtian collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
She wasn't the sort of woman to lose her composure, so even Yang Wei's disrespectful words wouldn't make her instantly want to kill him. And, she felt there would be no fun if she chose that alternative. Inside, she was burning up, however, she had to store her rage until Yang Wei failed to impress her.
"Firstly," he continued, undeterred, "I'll brew the Blood Strengthening Pill in less than three minutes. And secondly, I'll correct the recipe's long-standing error."
His audacious declaration sent shockwaves through the assembly.
"He must be crazy!"
"That's a perfect recipe! What's he saying?!"
It even caught Huo Zirou off guard. "Are you out of your mind?" she exclaimed incredulously. "As a Grandmaster, I can barely refine it in under two days. What makes you, a novice in pill refinement, think you can do it in mere minutes after a cursory glance?"
Unfurling from a lazy stretch, Yang Wei faced her squarely. "Remember when I mentioned an error in the manual?" he countered. "Try to keep up."
Huo Zirou's skepticism hardened. "That recipe's been unchanged for 3,000 years," she retorted. "Are you suggesting you've spotted a flaw overlooked for millennia?"
With a confident hand resting on the pill furnace, Yang Wei sighed exasperatedly. "Does the title of Star Disciple mean nothing to you people?" he calmly said.
His words forced silence.
No one spoke.
They were all skeptical, however, it was clear he was dead serious about the alleged discrepancy, even if others deemed it plain dumbassery.
...
The disciples brought all the ingredients Yang Wei asked for.
He gathered the herbs and purified them with his water spiritual Qi, then drew a complex alchemy circle on the pill furnace with precise symbols and runes. This circle boosts the spiritual energy during refining.
Next, he layered the ingredients in the furnace just right, following the recipe to a tee for maximum fusion and power.
Sitting in a lotus position, he performed several double-handed mudras, then zapped the furnace with his fingers, igniting it with spiritual fire.
"Now, we wait..."
No one's eyes left the golden pill furnace.
In no time, a pillar of red fire shot out, and boom!
A Blood Strengthening Pill popped out.
Every disciple there was either holding their head in their hands or floored in shock.
"HE...!"
"HE...!!"
"HE CREATED A BLOOD STRENGTHENING PILL IN THREE MINUTES?!"
Yang Wei turned to take a good look at Huo Zirou...
"You look surprised... Pill Master."
"H... How did you...?" Huo Zirou's legs vibrated.
Yang Wei then pointed to her crotch, "Later, but I believe we... had an agreement, yes?"