After the banquet, Yu Lie put the matters of the dining hall behind him and returned to the quiet room in the Poison Hall.
Settling down, he immediately began practicing the guiding techniques of his poison cultivation, tempering his muscles and bones.
Today, he had hosted a feast, inviting the heads of the other small divisions within the Preparation Hall.
It had cost him a fortune—he had already spent at least three months' worth of his yet-to-be-received new salary.
The spiritual fish and meat he had consumed couldn’t go to waste.
Fortunately, the banquet had also brought him significant gains.
He had managed to get acquainted with the other division heads.
The only regret was that the head of the Preparation Hall seemed to still be in seclusion, cultivating, and hadn’t come out to meet Yu Lie or invited him to visit his residence.
Luckily, Yu Lie had successfully delivered the grain he had seized during the raid to the hall master, who had accepted it.
This likely meant that the hall master considered Yu Lie sensible and wouldn’t give him too much trouble.
Otherwise, Yu Lie wouldn’t have been able to gather the division heads for the banquet that night.
After a session of cultivation in the quiet room, Yu Lie’s blood and qi surged, but when he opened his eyes, instead of the usual satisfaction, he frowned.
He touched his stomach, certain that he had fully digested the food and drink from the banquet.
The amount he had consumed was far more than what he usually ate in a day.
However, upon careful reflection, Yu Lie realized that the increase in his blood and qi was minimal, and the progress in tempering his copper tendons and iron bones was even less noticeable.
After some thought, he understood: “It seems that ordinary black snake fish soup can no longer help me progress quickly!”
In the past, Yu Lie had managed to rise from a lower-level Daoist apprentice to a mid-level one in just a few months, largely thanks to the black snake fish.
But now that he was a mid-level apprentice, the black snake fish, which was a rare treat for lower-level apprentices, was no longer as effective for him.
For other mid-level apprentices, occasionally eating a black snake fish might still be beneficial.
But for Yu Lie, who had been consuming it daily during his lower-level days, the effect was now underwhelming.
Yu Lie pondered, “If I want to maintain the same rapid progress by eating fish alone, I’ll probably need to hunt something like a black snake fish king—a powerful eighth-grade beast!”
However, the black snake fish king was cunning and ferocious.
Even with his tempered copper tendons and iron bones, Yu Lie wasn’t confident he could subdue it alone.
He would need companions to ensure safety.
“Finding companions wouldn’t be hard—Old Hu, Radish Head, and the other two would do. But after catching the fish king, handling it would be tricky,” Yu Lie thought.
Although Old Hu and the others had become his subordinates and were somewhat trustworthy, Yu Lie wasn’t sure how far that trust extended, and he didn’t dare test it.
Especially since he had only been a mid-level apprentice for less than a month, and his hair hadn’t even fully grown back.
If he were to catch a rare black snake fish king and cause a stir, even as a mid-level apprentice, keeping it would be troublesome.
The black snake fish king wasn’t just valuable for its meat—its eyes could be used for alchemy, its bones for crafting, and its skin for armor.
Such a catch was rare in the town, and Yu Lie needed to be cautious.
Setting aside the idea of hunting the black snake fish king for now, Yu Lie pondered how to obtain higher-quality spiritual food.
After some thought, he suddenly pulled out a silver mirror from his blood toad pouch.
It was the mirror that contained the Flesh and Blood Alchemy Method.
Since hunting the black snake fish king was temporarily out of the question, and ordinary black snake fish were no longer sufficient, Yu Lie’s best option was to use the fish meat as material to attempt alchemy.
He could refine it into a true medicinal elixir, rather than just a simple fish soup, to aid his cultivation.
One of the great advantages of alchemy was its ability to make the most of materials, turning waste into treasure, and refining inferior ingredients into higher-grade medicinal food through careful combination and processing.
With the Flesh and Blood Alchemy Primer as his guide, Yu Lie had a much lower barrier to entry into alchemy compared to other apprentices.
Although this primer was available to mid-level apprentices in the Alchemy Hall, seven out of ten would choose to exchange it for a better cultivation technique.
Another two would opt for powerful martial arts to enhance their combat skills.
Many believed that since someone in the Alchemy Hall already knew the basics of alchemy, they could always seek guidance later.
After all, they were now mid-level apprentices, not lower-level ones.
But having studied the primer, Yu Lie believed its value was on par with his poison cultivation.
The person demonstrating the alchemy techniques in the mirror was likely an alchemy disciple or even a higher-level Daoist, far beyond the skills of ordinary apprentices who only knew a few tricks.
With his mind made up, Yu Lie decided to start practicing alchemy the next day.
His eyes gleamed as he looked toward the door of the quiet room, his gaze seemingly piercing through the stone and landing on the Poison Hall’s work area.
Since becoming the head of the Poison Hall, Yu Lie’s gains weren’t limited to just a quiet room, a higher salary, or access to the dining hall’s second floor.
The greatest benefit was the work itself.
As the head of the Poison Hall, Yu Lie was responsible for returning purified medicinal materials to the Alchemy Hall.
However, he was also entitled to a significant portion of the materials that couldn’t be purified and were deemed waste.
This was the biggest perk of being the Poison Hall’s head.
Even waste materials had value and could be sold for money.
Du Liang, the previous head, had made a fortune this way, and it was one of the reasons Yu Lie had chosen to join the Poison Hall in the first place.
Back when he was just a small division head, the Poison Hall’s strict management had left him no room to exploit this opportunity.
But now, as the head, the chance had finally come.
Yu Lie couldn’t help but sigh, “Finally, I can line my pockets and live a different life!”
With the bronze wine cup in hand, he could turn poison into spiritual energy, using the waste materials for alchemy or directly absorbing their energy to nourish himself.
From now on, Yu Lie no longer needed to rise early and stay late as a fisherman or fish seller.
With just a little effort, the materials processed daily in the Poison Hall would be enough to meet his alchemical needs.
………………
The next day, Yu Lie, filled with excitement, left the quiet room.
After arranging the daily tasks of the Poison Hall, he strode toward the Medicine Hall.
To practice alchemy, one naturally needed alchemical recipes.
And within the Medicine Hall, there were various medicinal formulas, ingredient ratios, and records of other Daoists’ alchemical experiments.
As a newly appointed division head, Yu Lie had the right to select three recipes from the hall.
If he could successfully refine a pill or provide valuable alchemical insights, he could exchange for more recipes.
Such rare alchemical recipes were surprisingly easy to obtain in the Blackwater Town’s Alchemy Hall, something outsiders would envy and find hard to believe.
Not to mention the other unfortunate apprentices in Blackwater Town, even in the city where Yu Lie’s family resided, nine out of ten small and medium-sized families couldn’t offer such benefits.
(End of Chapter)