Chapter 230: Shortcut

The two old men discussed something softly for a while. Nobody knew what they were saying, but, in any case, Balbo was beaming after the discussion. Whoever saw it knew that he was in a rather good mood.

After the potion’s recipe was disseminated, the guild hall was bustling. The pharmacists that were familiar with each other were now gathered together in groups, discussing what they had learned about this recipe. Some of them were filled with confidence. They requested a pharmaceutical lab from Balbo. They took out herbs, set up a crucible, and started wrestling with the Void Energy Potion.

These few fellas have got quite the nerve… Lin Li looked at them and could not help but shake his head. Nine out of ten people, when they first encountered the Void Potion, would be driven mad by it. At least half of these fellas that walked in confidently would come out in a neurotic manner.

Lin Li had experienced such a feeling before.

Of all the recipes that Lin Li knew, the Void Energy Potion was the most likely one to drive people mad. All sorts of issues appeared in an endless stream—even a strong mind would not be able tolerate it. It was always looking at the fruit of a day’s of hard work, a bottle of Void Potion, turning into poison due to a breeze or the flames flickering a few times. Once or twice would be a coincidence, but a person would not be able to tolerate it happen tens of times.

Therefore, Lin Li was not anxious. After walking around the guild hall once, he sat down in a deserted corner. He eavesdropped on the discussion that a few nearby pharmacists were having while chatting with Shaun.

Honestly, even though the gathering had gathered the best pharmacists in Felan, from what Lin Li heard, their level was sub-par. Lin Li was very clear that they had started off from the wrong foot.

When Old Grimm wrote out this recipe, the group of pharmacists had all simultaneously believed that this was an impossible task. To control the balance of ten herbs and deal with all sorts of random situations was already out of a human’s reach. Even with the most precise machinery, it would not be possible to do something like that.

Hence, almost everyone thought of manipulation.

Almost of all the discussions were based around manipulation.

Some suggested categorizing the ten herbs and processing them according to the recipe’s requirements, only to mix them together once the processing was completed. Some even suggested adding Leaf of the Origin Tree to allow the composition of the herbs to be more balanced and fuse better. Some also suggested opening a portal to another dimension and beginning the concoction in an almost perfect environment, thereby reducing the possible accidents that might arise during the process…

There were all sorts of suggestions, but Lin Li, who was listening at the side, frowned.

The existence of the Void Energy Potion originally was to test a pharmacist’s skill standard. In Endless World, if a pharmaceutics master wanted to be promoted to a pharmaceutics guru, he would have to concoct a bottle of Void Energy Potion. This also meant that even though the requirements for the Void Energy Potion were not high, the skill requirement was at a pharmaceutics guru level. Before attaining the pharmaceutics guru level, it would not be possible to manipulate.

Of the hundred or more pharmacists present, only a few people had reached the master level. As for guru and above, there was only Lin Li. Only Lin Li had the competency to manipulate the Void Energy Potion.

All of the discussions were the same. Lin Li was tired of listening. He barely tolerated it till lunch time before he finally freed himself from the guild hall.

After lunch, Balbo passionately invited everyone to tour the guild pharmaceutical lab.

During this afternoon, everyone seemed to be almost done with what they needed to discuss. Just when everyone was feeling restless, Balbo’s invitation came, and received everyone’s response. More than a hundred pharmacists went up to the second floor. Even the spacious guild pharmaceutical lab started to feel cramped.

During the afternoon, the lab had already been cleaned up. It did not look like an explosion had occurred there. The potion table was filled with all sorts of herbs. Lin Li casually took a look and found silverleaf, peacebloom, and Dragon Tongue Orchid. There were all sorts of herbs required for the Void Energy Potion. Naturally, no words were required to understand what Balbo meant by taking everyone for a tour.

“All of you pharmacists had discussed all morning. I think all of you have some ideas. The guild has prepared all sorts of herbs. Use them as you wish.”

“Let me try!” The person that stood out from the crowd was the fatty, Hoffman.

Once Hoffman stepped forth, there was a roaring laughter coming from the crowd immediately. A few mean people were even louder.

“Haha, Hoffman. Can you do it?”

“Hoffman, please listen to my advice. You’re so fat. You’re not suitable to be a pharmacist!”

“Yes, yes, yes, Hoffman. Don’t be mistaken, this recipe can’t use the Tricolored Flower.”

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“You b*tches, I will teach you a lesson one of these days.” Hoffman strutted over to the potion table. He looked at those mean people with an angry gaze while proficiently categorizing the different herbs.

“Aye, this fatty can’t be looked down on…” Lin Li stood within the crowd and saw everything clearly. When Hoffman was categorizing the different herbs, his technique could be described as unusually proficient. It could be seen that he was a person that had been stacking herbs for years. It was especially so for a detail that Lin Li noticed. When he reached the Dragon Tongue Orchid, this fatty actually had the awareness to place the Dragon Tongue Orchid and Silverleaf together.

This was a detail that couldn’t be missed. Even Lin Li himself only figured it out slowly after he’d broken through the guru level. When the Dragon Tongue Orchid was exposed, it’d automatically leak out some sap, which had a strong corrosive property. Pharmacists usually placed the Dragon Tongue Orchid in a goblet, but there was an exception. When a certain recipe required both Dragon Tongue Orchid and Silverleaf, the Dragon Tongue Orchid could be placed together with the Silverleaf because the sap would not corrode the Silverleaf. Instead, it helped to bring out the medicinal potential of the Silverleaf. It would save the pharmacist a lot of energy during the concoction process.

“Of course you can’t look down on this fatty.” Only heaven knew when Andoine stood up. These words that appeared out of nowhere almost scared the living daylight out of Lin Li.

“…” Lin Li wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead with an annoyed expression, and spoke to Andoine, “Mentor, do you know that a person can scare another to death? The next time when you want to appear, could you make a sound so that I can mentally prepare myself?”

“Is it? Then next time I’ll just make a squeak.” Andoine’s expression was like he took it for granted.

“Forget it…” Lin Li shook his head. He knew that talking about logic with this old man would not result in anything. He wisely changed the topic. “Mentor, are you familiar with Hoffman?”

“Yes, he can be considered an old friend.” Andoine nodded and retracted the joking expression. He started to grow serious slowly. “Let me tell you, you can’t look down on this fella. Don’t look at him being gentle at the Pharmacists Guild. Do you know what he does secretly?”

“What does he do…?”

“What this guy does is a highly dangerous profession.”

“Killer?”

“It’s much more formidable than a killer.” Andoine glanced at Hoffman and whispered into Lin Li’s ears, “Conjurer…”

“F*ck me!” Lin Li had a shock and immediately thought of the Saruman Family in Jarrosus.

“Anyhow, just don’t mess with him. When I look at him now, I’m somewhat fearful…”

Just when the two of them were whispering, Hoffman had already announced his failure.

There was no choice. He had started off from the wrong foot even though he was a senior pharmacist. Regardless of technique or detail, he had handled it well, but he went in the wrong direction. Everything else thereafter naturally failed. What Hoffman used was the method that had been discussed the most back in the guild hall. Categorizing all the herbs, processing them separately according to the recipe’s requirements and mixing them together once the processing was complete. To complete this complicated work, Hoffman even requested from Balbo some Leaf of the Origin Tree to allow these herbs to fuse together better after they had been mixed together.

But the result was still a failure…

Without a single doubt.

“F*ck, I didn’t make any mistakes. Why did I fail for no rhyme or reason…” After the fatty failed, he did not look disappointed. He only mumbled some words and went back into the crowd.

This time, nobody made fun of him. After all, they were all senior pharmacists. Everyone saw what Hoffman had done. Everyone knew that if it were themselves, their technique would not be better than Hoffman’s. They would have met with the same incomprehensible failure as Hoffman if it were them.

After that, there was another two pharmacists that came forward.

One was a Necromancer that was as thin as a stick, and the other was an assassin from the biggest assassin organization.

The Necromancer’s failure was almost identical to Hoffman’s. There was nothing wrong with his technique, but because he chose the wrong path, his Void Power Potion became poison mysteriously. It was just that the Necromancer’s mastery was obviously not as good as Hoffman’s. After retreating into the crowd, his pale face was livid. Even the priest that was his acquaintance did not dare to invite contempt onto himself.

There was no need to mention the Assassin…

It was just a farce. This fella’s pharmaceutical standard was about the same as that of Andoine’s. It was more befitting for him to concoct Arcane Magic Potion or Sobriety Potion. It was the same as courting death to concoct the Void Power Potion. He did not even process the herbs after walking to the potion table before he stepped down in a sorry manner.