Chapter 25: The Temptation of Becoming a Registered Disciple?

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

He had the satiety status and rarely ate nowadays. He did not expect to encounter such an awkward situation one day.

[Consumed Experimental Hard Skin Pill. Added Status: Diarrhea]

[Diarrhea: Gastrointestinal movement speed up by 100%, digestive absorption efficiency decreased by 70%, stamina decreased by 100 points temporarily. Duration: 3 days] (? +)

Jiang Li decisively removed these two negative statuses. His face suddenly turned pale, and only then did it slowly recover.

“How is it, Junior Brother Jiang Li? Your expression has become extremely unsightly.”

Senior Sister Little Four came up to show concern, while Jiang Li waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.

“I feel weak and dizzy. It’s very similar to the feeling I had when I was injured and lost a lot of blood.”

“Also, my stomach feels really uncomfortable. It feels like it’s going to explode…”

Jiang Li explained the effects and side effects of the Hard Skin Pill to her personally.

After hearing those words, Elder Red Hair started to frown. After pondering for a long time, he slapped his forehead.

“Ah! I should have known! I should have known! Yellow earth root and water soft thorn grass can produce toxins when used together!”

“I can’t use these two materials. No, I have to change the other materials to mediate the effect.”

Jiang Li was speechless. It looked like the difficulty of developing a pill formula was extremely high.

The characteristics of spiritual materials were not unique to begin with. When they interacted, some would produce positive reactions, while others would produce negative effects. It was simply a very normal thing.

Even if an alchemist knew the medicinal properties of all spiritual materials like the back of their hand, it would still be extremely difficult for them to complement each other into a mature and perfect spirit pill. It would require an extremely terrifying amount of calculations.

Furthermore, how many alchemists could say that they understood all of the different types of herbs and medicines in this world?

“Elder, I feel that there are still some flaws in this pill. It’s just that it’s slightly more subtle and doesn’t show externally very well.”

“I’m afraid that if we don’t find a problem now, the next time you modify the pill formula, it will fail again because of this reason.”

Jiang Li put on a hesitant expression like he did not know whether he should speak or not, so he spoke to the elder who was muttering to himself while evaluating the pill formula.

The red-haired elder was stunned.

“Are there any hidden flaws? If I don’t resolve them now, will they definitely appear later on?”

“What should I do? What should I do? If… if…”

The red-haired elder’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as he turned to stare at Jiang Li.

“Jiang Li, you have a medium-grade spiritual root, right? And you have Yin and Wood attributes as well.” He suddenly talked about this.

“Yes, Elder.” Jiang Li made an expression of confusion. In truth, he knew that this was Elder Red Hair’s attempt to start a new ‘overbearing’ proposition.

“I’m saying that with your talent, you’re not inferior to ordinary high-grade spiritual roots.”

“I mean to say, I’m willing to give you a chance, Jiang Li.”

Elder Red Hair guided him patiently and kindly, as if this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Elder, what do you mean?” Jiang Li’s eyes were filled with anticipation as he fully displayed the image of a youth that was unable to restrain himself from being tempted by the ‘huge promise’.

“If you’re willing to help me complete the Hard Skin Pill formula, I’ll take you in as my registered disciple!”

“Think about it, Jiang Li. Although registered disciples are still outer sect disciples, you can accept my teachings and obtain my resources. No one will look down on you anymore.”

“Think about it, Jiang Li. This is an opportunity that countless people dream of.”

Elder Red Hair felt that he had completely fooled Jiang Li, so how could an outer sect disciple resist the temptation of becoming his registered disciple?

Especially when he was an elder of the Alchemy Hall. Just think about those fragrant medicinal pills.

How many people would be willing to sacrifice their lives for those little things?

Jiang Li rolled his eyes in his heart.

What kind of registered disciple would he be? He should be a lab rat testing medicinal pills for a long time.

To think that he could say something like “I’m doing this for your own good”. It was really disgusting.

When Jiang Li and Yan Hong faced their subordinates, even though they also used some language skills, they had long signed a contract. It was a clear exchange of benefits, so it was definitely good for both sides.

This red-haired elder’s hair was red, but his heart was really a little dark. He was using this title to tempt him to test a large amount of pills… This was really impressive.

However… Jiang Li wanted this to happen.

Otherwise, why would he deliberately hint at the other party with his words? Wasn’t it so that he could openly and passively take a few more pills to consume?

Jiang Li deliberately quickened his breathing, making himself look agitated, “Elder! What should I do!”

“It’s very simple. Jiang Li, when you consume a single medicinal pill, some side effects might not be obvious. So long as you eat a few more, then wouldn’t it be obvious?”

“If we discover these problems in advance, we will definitely be able to improve the pill formula faster!”

The red-haired elder finally showed his true colors.

“No! Master! Junior Brother Jiang Li is only at the initial-stage Qi Refinement realm. He won’t be able to withstand it…”

This inner sect senior sister, Little Four, was a warm-hearted person. She directly took Jiang Li’s body into consideration and voiced her objection.

However, a disciple was still a disciple in the end. After being glared at by the red-haired elder, her voice quickly became softer as she shrunk to the side and no longer dared to speak.

“Jiang Li, do you know that the Qi Nourishing Pills and Qi Recovery Pills that you Qi Refinement realm disciples consume the most are not low-grade Yellow-rank when they were first developed?”

Being interrupted by Little Four, the red-haired elder seemed to have seen a hesitant expression appear on Jiang Li’s face, and so he changed the topic, starting from another angle.

“Not low-grade Yellow-rank?” Jiang Li did not know what he wanted to say, but he was still intrigued by this type of secret of the cultivation world.

“Yes. At the beginning of the creation of the pill formula, the effects of these two pills actually reached high-grade Yellow-rank. The effects are more than ten times that of the current medicinal pills.”

“Gasp! More than ten times! Then why did their effects become so much worse in the end, and was set as low-grade Yellow-rank medicinal pills?”

Jiang Li was indeed shocked. He really did not expect that such a basic medicinal pill had such a history.

“It’s because of the side effects. When the pill formula was created, the alchemists encountered the same predicament as us. The side effects were too great and could not be eliminated no matter what.”

“Therefore, in the end, the alchemists had no choice but to continuously reduce the effects, thus controlling the side effects within an acceptable range. In the end, they decided on the pill formulas for these two pills.”

“In fact, most of the pills in the cultivation world now have similar experiences. They all have all kinds of hidden side effects, but because they are too subtle, no one has discovered them.”

“But if you consume a large number of the same pills in a short period of time, the side effects will burst out again.”

As he listened, Jiang Li came to a realization and roughly understood what this red-haired elder was trying to say.

“Jiang Li, if I want to, I can reduce the effects of the Hard Skin Pill a little. It won’t be long before I can produce a low-grade Yellow-rank Hard Skin Pill formula.”

“But if that’s the case, you won’t have the chance to become my disciple anymore.”

The red-haired elder sighed, as if feeling pity for Jiang Li.

Jiang Li:?…Alright… After going around in circles, it turns out that your true objective lies here. Aren’t you just threatening me?

“The choice is in your hands, Jiang Li.”

Jiang Li hesitated for a moment before making up his mind as if he was betting his life, “I’m willing to do it, Elder!”

Jiang Li thought to himself:?Even if you didn’t say so much, I would have agreed long ago.

However, the secret between alchemists in the cultivation world was indeed valuable news to him.

He was even more certain that he would continue to be this pill testing disciple, no, this registered disciple.

Because according to what he said, while the side effects of a semi-finished product were great, the positive effects were even more extreme. The help it provided to Jiang Li was undoubtedly much greater than the finished product.

“Alright, alright, alright. Continue then. As long as you help me complete this pill formula, I’ll take you in as my registered disciple. In the future, you can continue to improve my pill formulas.”

The red-haired elder was overjoyed. Jiang Li, on the other hand, began to grab the medicinal pills from the jade tray and continued to send them into his mouth.

One, two, three, four, five…

Jiang Li’s decisiveness stunned the red-haired elder and Little Four.

Was this outer sect disciple so brave?

Since he knew that the side effects were huge, why did he not eat them one by one? He was really playing with his life!

[Overdose of Hard Skin Pills. Added Status: Sturdy Skin. After the effect ends, a large amount of subcutaneous bleeding will occur.]

[Sturdy Skin: Skin strengthened by 230%, spiritual qi damage resistance increased by 50 points. Duration: 45 minutes] (? +)

The increase of 230% meant that his skin’s defense increased by more than three times. In addition, there was also an increase in his resistance to spiritual qi damage.

This was a satisfactory number.

Before Jiang Li could smile in satisfaction, the hidden side effects that he had fabricated actually appeared.

The world in front of him became blurry, and soon, even his palm became blurry.

[Overdose of Hard Skin Pills. Added Status: Blindness]

[Blindness: Vision decreased by 90%. Duration: 3 days] (? +)

If this had happened during a battle, the enemy would have died laughing.

The statuses of diarrhea and anemia appeared again, and they were even more severe now. Fortunately, Jiang Li was quick to react, and his personal interface did not vanish because of his blindness.

After pressing a few buttons, the discomfort lasted for a total of fifteen seconds before all the abnormal statuses disappeared.

Of course, he could not show this.

He shouted, “I need the latrine!”

Then, he was hurriedly escorted over by Little Four.

Through the wooden door of the latrine, Little Four made a detailed record for him.

Hearing the issue of having severe loss of vision, the red-haired elder started to frown. It was as if he had not expected this at all.

He sat in front of the table and repeatedly studied every medicinal ingredient in the pill formula, striving to find the problem.

As for Jiang Li, due to ‘physical discomfort’ and ‘eyesight loss’, he was personally sent back to the dormitory in the outer sect area by Little Four.

Before she left, he was handed the reward for testing the pills today—30 spirit stones and two bottles of medicinal pills!

After Little Four left, Jiang Li immediately jumped out of bed energetically!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep