CHAPTER 971: CHAPTER 968: HOW A GENIUS IS MADE

"Elder Jiang, Sis, why are you looking at me like that?" Lin Tian asked, puzzled.

Zi Yan looked at him as if he were a monster, incredulously saying, "Junior Brother, do you know how long you’ve been sitting just now?"

"How long? It seems like a few minutes," Lin Tian replied, perplexed.

"A few minutes? You’ve been sitting for over an hour already. You left us in the living room, and you were meditating for over an hour. I almost thought you were a high monk about to enter a trance," Zi Yan said exaggeratedly.

"No way, over an hour?" Lin Tian couldn’t believe it. He glanced at the wall clock and indeed, more than an hour had passed; it was now five o’clock in the afternoon.

"Lin Tian must be contemplating potion-making, which is a good thing. Nowadays, not to mention meditating for an hour, most people can’t even close their eyes and mediate quietly for ten minutes; people’s hearts are too restless, and it’s rare for anyone to settle down and do scholarship," Jiang Xiu Ying said somewhat wistfully, with a touch of admiration.

The sentiment was naturally about the restlessness of modern people, and the admiration was naturally for Lin Tian.

Lin Tian didn’t pay attention to Jiang Xiu Ying’s praise; he was entirely absorbed in the scenes of potion-making and so began to make potions again. Now genuinely engaging in potion-making, Lin Tian realized that Zi Yan and her mentor were right; the path of a pharmacist is too challenging.

Even purifying a single herb is so painstaking, let alone purifying all the herbs and the more complex integration. The "Shaoyang Pill" consists of only ten types of herbs, but if there are elixir recipes with hundreds of herbs, just refining the herbs is a huge undertaking.

"The tenth time already, Brother Lin, why don’t you take a break and continue after dinner?" Yun Xiaotian reminded him, feeling very guilty that Lin Tian was wearing himself out for his grandfather.

"Yes, Junior Brother, potion-making can’t be rushed. Many beginners have tried hundreds or thousands of times, even tens of thousands of times before extracting their first potion. You’ve only tried ten times; there’s no need to be this anxious," Zi Yan also urged.

She hadn’t expected that Lin Tian, usually so carefree and unrestrained, could be so focused and engrossed. Nonetheless, Zi Yan had to admit that his handsome face, furrowed in serious thought, had a certain charm.

"You all go ahead and eat; don’t wait for me," Lin Tian said, without lifting his head, still engrossed in manipulating the potion cauldron.

Zi Yan shook her head helplessly and had to say to Jiang Xiu Ying, "Master, you and Xiao Tian, Xiao Ru go ahead and eat. I’ll watch him; who knows how long he’ll continue, it’s almost dark."

"Alright, I’ll come by and check on him later." Jiang Xiu Ying pondered for a moment and replied; after all, her age made it hard to match the young people’s stamina, and missing meals and rest made it difficult to keep energy levels up.

"I want to stay with Brother Lin too. If he doesn’t eat, I won’t eat either," Yun Xiaotian said adamantly, then told An Xiaoru, "Xiao Ru, go with Elder Jiang."

"You young ones, I can’t keep up, but still, take care of your health," Jiang Xiu Ying sighed, and with An Xiaoru’s company, prepared to leave Yunxiang Inn.

But just as they stepped out the door, Lin Tian suddenly shouted, "I did it, I did it! Sis, look!"

He pulled Zi Yan excitedly like a child to see the potion cauldron’s contents. His hand on Zi Yan’s caused her heart to skip a beat, but she didn’t resist, following Lin Tian to the cauldron.

Jiang Xiu Ying, who had just left, returned, and the group gathered around the cauldron.

At this moment, the cauldron still emitted heat, but the lid was already open, and a tender green hue appeared in the light.

The potion inside the cauldron was tender green, like the color of spring buds, and the liquid was thick and cohesive, like a piece of green amber or a fine jade.

"Perfect, absolutely perfect! It’s exactly as described in the Ghost Valley Inheritor’s depiction of the ideal potion. Even he couldn’t extract such purity in the potion! Lin Tian, how did you achieve this?" Jiang Xiu Ying exclaimed in excitement, her gaze fixed on Lin Tian as if she wanted to uncover his secrets.

Zi Yan was also dumbfounded; she had said that without hundreds or thousands of extractions, a pharmacy apprentice couldn’t extract the potion, yet Lin Tian did it, and it was the most perfect extraction!

She too wanted to ask, how did you do it; even an exceptional talent in potion-making couldn’t achieve this? But Lin Tian did it; is he more exceptional than a genius?

Previously, when learning the Nine Needle Technique, Zi Yan already thought Lin Tian was a genius, but now in pharmacology, he’s also a genius—no, a genius among geniuses.

Lin Tian looked at their astonished expressions, shrugged, and said easily, "Actually, it’s not that complicated. The pharmacist’s notes and the Shennong Emperor’s Medical Scripture mention that the key to potion-making lies in fire control, and the key to fire control lies in perception."

"The stronger the perception, the clearer the sense of changes in the fire inside the cauldron and the potion, allowing precise control in every step. I just went step by step," Lin Tian smiled.

Zi Yan’s mentor and her were stupefied; could it be this simple? To extract the potion so perfectly, what kind of extreme perception is needed? It’s surely perception that senses even the slightest changes.

What they didn’t know was that Lin Tian’s super clairvoyance had a level of perception that could hardly be described as extreme—he could see the microscopic states inside the human body, and any slight change couldn’t escape his observation.

Similarly, under clairvoyance, any slight changes in the flames and potion were visible to Lin Tian. After ten practice attempts, he finally mastered integrating clairvoyance into potion-making, thus on the eleventh attempt, he extracted the "Shaoyang Grass."

This was what amazed Zi Yan and her mentor; only eleven attempts made, while other pharmacy apprentices might not succeed even after one hundred or one thousand tries, and even high-level pharmacists couldn’t guarantee success each time, let alone perfect extraction.

While others were immersed in awe, Lin Tian recalled the process of potion-making just now. As he focused his clairvoyance on observing the flames, his brow unexpectedly reacted, indicating that the force of fire within his brow had reappeared.

Last time, when Lin Tian performed acupuncture for Song Yanan using the fire attribute needle technique, the force of fire emerged; recently, during his practice, the force of fire had appeared intermittently, surprising Lin Tian immensely—mastering the force of fire seemed not too far off.

More peculiarly, at the fleeting moment the force of fire flashed, Lin Tian felt as though he could control the flames inside the cauldron; this feeling vanished quickly, and once the force of fire hid, the sensation was lost, leaving Lin Tian quite frustrated.

Maybe it was indeed an illusion; a zombie not fearing fire was already beyond imagination, yet wanting to control fire was simply an absurd fantasy, Lin Tian chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Still, today’s gains were substantial, having learned to utilize clairvoyance in potion-making and creating the first perfect half-finished product. Lin Tian felt as if being a pharmacist was as though it were meant for him.