“At the farthest end from me, we have a mortal-tier pill cauldron. For many of you, this is what you will work with for the majority of your first few years.” Liu Tsong tapped the cauldron. “Listen.” Again, she tapped the cauldron with her metal-tipped finger. She moved around the cauldron, tapping it at different locations, the noise changing subtly as she hit different areas. “This is how you tell the quality and the weaknesses of your cauldron. For masters, this will be all they need to do, for they can hear the subtleties and differences in a cauldron.
“You are not masters.”
Liu Tsong glared at the students, many shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.
Having forcefully headed off future foolishness, Liu Tsong continued. “This cauldron, and four others of similar quality, are available for rental from the apothecary guild. Each rental is available for a maximum of one week. It is recommended many of you begin renting and attempting the most basic of pill recipes we have passed to you with each of the five cauldrons. Inspecting and working with different cauldrons will gift you the experience you need to begin understanding their differences.
“As a mortal-tier pill recipe, the Twilight Ashen Blood pill can be created with minimal instruction and training. For those of you who do not have any experience with pill refining, for your first couple of attempts, we recommend you request an instructor from the apothecary hall. This will ensure you learn the basics of refining and waste the minimum number of resources.”
When Liu Tsong saw there were no questions, she walked around the cauldron once more, tapping on it for everyone to hear.
When she had done this circuit three times, she said, “Keeping in mind what you have heard, here are the flaws and how to spot them.”
Liu Tsong shifted her position to point at a small discoloration on the outside of the pot. She raised her voice as she traced the extent of the discoloration, explaining details of the cauldron’s flaw as well as its specific characteristics.
Hours later, Wu Ying sighed at the pile of notes he had scribbled during the lesson. Even having received Liu Tsong’s advice to purchase and read a manual on pill cauldrons beforehand, he’d still found himself making copious notes. Maybe half of those notes were on things that were covered in the manual which Wu Ying had forgotten. The other half were things not mentioned or mentioned in passing but not clearly explained.
This time around, Wu Ying had seen a large number of students desperately scribbling notes. Those other students had been caught out by the sudden shift in topics and were desperately attempting to catch up. It was no surprise, as the class had spent the last few months going over herbs in exhaustive detail. Wu Ying almost regretted that they were no longer discussing plants, since his newfound employment with Elder Li benefitted him greatly. The information Liu Tsong provided reinforced the information Wu Ying was learning while working the garden, and vice versa.
But Wu Ying had to admit he was somewhat excited to get his hands on a pill cauldron and begin refining. As Elder Li had pointed out, he had yet to even try his hand at the actual work of a pill refiner. It was about time for him to start, if for no other reason than to ensure that he was not a complete failure.
When Wu Ying finally returned to his house after class, he was not surprised to find Liu Tsong waiting for him, enjoying a cup of tea and some almond cookies in his reception room. While Liu Tsong’s post-lecture visits had decreased after the first few weeks, each time she introduced a new topic, the cultivator had sought out Wu Ying. In some ways, Wu Ying deeply admired Liu Tsong’s dedication to being a good teacher. Having experienced a number of other random seminars through the months, Wu Ying could confidently say it was a rare attribute. In a few cases, Wu Ying had walked out of the inner sect seminars more confused than he had been before he entered. Some Elders or their disciples were just not suited to teaching.
“How did I do?” Liu Tsong asked, looking at the vast array of notes in Wu Ying’s hands. Her lips pursed for a second, but Wu Ying found it impossible to read her visage. Was she happy or upset he took a lot of notes?
“Good. I understood most of what you spoke of. But it’d help if we had a chance to view the cauldrons up close,” Wu Ying said.
“Har! And let you all lay your grubby hands on my Master’s cauldron?” Liu Tsong said. “Not a chance. I had to beg her for a week before she’d let me showcase her cauldron. And that was her sixth-best one too!”
“Sixth?” Wu Ying said, remembering the gleaming golden cauldron at the end. It had been so large it was possible to get a full dozen pills from it, according to Liu Tsong. Of course, the reason why it was so large was due to the need to burn down, concentrate, and form the pills from a myriad number of herbs. At the level Liu Tsong’s Master worked, the ingredients lists were as long as Wu Ying’s arm.
“Yes, sixth. If I do well, she’s promised to let me use her fifth-best cauldron,” Liu Tsong said, her sudden smile nearly splitting her face.
“I did want to ask about the multiple cauldrons. You mentioned in passing how, sometimes, you would not want to use the best-grade cauldron possible?” Wu Ying said.
“Well, there’re a few reasons. Most dramatically, cauldron destruction,” Liu Tsong said. “If you’re working on a new pill formula, bad interactions between the yin, yang, and elemental energies of various herbs can result in the cauldron breaking.”
“Oh, that’d be expensive.”
“Dangerous too,” Liu Tsong added. “But that’s the most dramatic reason. More often, it’s because of less explosive elemental interactions. Think of each cauldron as having been seasoned by previous concoctions. While we do our best to clean the cauldron, there are always traces. You want those traces. An unseasoned cauldron is a pitiful object with no spiritual residue behind it. But the residue can also affect the final outcome of certain formulae.”
Wu Ying nodded and quickly jotted down her words. It made sense to him, the same way his mother had complained when her decades-old wok had cracked one evening. She had been forced to replace it with a new wok, and for the next six months, meals hadn’t tasted right. It was after the wok had been properly seasoned that food tasted better again. Since pill refining was an exacting process, it made even further sense how the previous formulations in a cauldron could affect the final outcome of the pills.
“Thank you,” Wu Ying said. “I have a few other questions…”
“Of course you do,” Liu Tsong said with a glint in her eyes. “As do I. But no questions till we get more almond cookies!”
Wu Ying coughed but signaled Ah Yee. Once the cookies had been deposited, he turned to Liu Tsong, only to be interrupted.
“I saw a lot of you frowning when I was explaining the difference between the second and eighth type of vents. Why was that?”
An hour and a half later, the pair finally concluded their discussion about Liu Tsong’s lecture. At that point, Wu Ying had a chance to ask his final question. “Will you be my teacher?”
“For your initial pill refining?” Liu Tsong watched as Wu Ying bobbed his head. She paused, obviously deeply considering her answer. “We can try.”
“Try?”
“Not all teachers and students are compatible. While you are a decent academic student, the practice of pill refinement is exacting,” Liu Tsong said. “I have some experience teaching others, but… well. I might not be the teacher for you.”
Wu Ying smiled at her answer. “I’d still be honored, Senior Li.”