Half an incense stick's time later, that alchemy servant spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube. Jiang Chen obtained all the answers he had wanted.
Bam!
Jiang Chen knocked the man unconscious with a single blow and tossed him aside.
"Old Gold, he's all yours."
The Gold-Munching King Mouse let out a dark chuckle and pounced on the body without a shred of restraint.
But Jiang Chen said, "Not yet, not yet. I need to disguise myself first. From now on, his identity belongs to me. Yao Seven, Yao Seven — pitiful thing, serving as an alchemy servant and not even having a name of his own. Stuck with nothing but a code like 'Yao Seven.' How sad, how pitiful…"
Jiang Chen worked with swift efficiency, completing the disguise in short order and donning Yao Seven's robes. In an instant, he had transformed into a perfect likeness of the man.
After confirming that nothing would arouse suspicion, Jiang Chen emerged from the ground at an unhurried pace, dusted the mud off his clothes, and strolled back inside as though he had all the time in the world.
The moment he walked in, one of the white-bearded old men started berating him: "Yao Seven! I sent you off to dispose of some medicine residue, and you took this long to come back?"
Jiang Chen hurriedly mimicked Yao Seven's accent and manner of speech: "This lowly servant went to dispose of the residue, but on the way, I was also mulling over the results of the Pine Crane Pill decomposition. Suddenly some thoughts crossed my mind, and I got so absorbed I forgot to come in."
The explanation was perfectly reasonable.
The white-bearded old man waved his hand impatiently: "The Pine Crane Pill — even we Pill Emperors are at our wits' end with it. What could a mere alchemy servant possibly figure out? You could rack your brains until they cracked and still come up with nothing! Stop dawdling and get to work!"
"Yes, yes." Jiang Chen bowed his head meekly and hurried forward to begin the tedious routine of menial assistance.
As an alchemy servant, the only tasks he could perform were the lowly chores of a gofer. But given Jiang Chen's profound understanding of the Dao of Alchemy, this kind of work was trivially easy.
"I never imagined that I, the young master of the Glazed King City, would be here taking orders from a bunch of idiots." Jiang Chen sometimes found the thought rather depressing.
But when he caught a sidelong glimpse of Young Master Tianlin, who also wore a deeply furrowed brow, his bit of gloom vanished.
"My target is Young Master Tianlin. A little hardship and a little indignity — none of that matters!"
Jiang Chen silently admonished himself again and again: stay calm, stay calm.
He methodically endured the three old Pill Emperors shouting him around. As for the menial work itself, it was a piece of cake for him.
"Tsk tsk, Yao Seven, it seems you've had a breakthrough of some kind." Jiang Chen's nimbleness caught one of the Pill Emperors slightly off guard. Under normal circumstances, Yao Seven's work was never this efficient.
Jiang Chen let out a sheepish chuckle: "The thought that our Pill Fire City cannot develop this Pine Crane Pill keeps me up at night. We absolutely must crack the Pine Crane Pill."
This declaration actually exceeded the speaking privileges of an ordinary alchemy servant. However, everyone was still in high spirits at the moment, and no one paid much attention to his words.
But Young Master Tianlin happened to overhear Jiang Chen's passionate remark, and he too was mildly surprised. Evidently, up until now, Young Master Tianlin's thoughts had been consumed entirely by the Pine Crane Pill research, leaving no attention to spare for servants and drug-boys.
Yet this slightly "over-the-top" declaration caused Young Master Tianlin to look at him in a new light. After all, Young Master Tianlin had been immersed here for days — three Pill Emperor elders and six alchemy servants and medicine attendants. Practically all the research was carried out by those three Pill Emperors, with the servants providing only marginal assistance.
This was the first time he had ever seen "Yao Seven" speak up so proactively.
Young Master Tianlin smiled faintly: "Your name is Yao Seven? Very good, very good. If the alchemy servants of the Pure Flame Palace were all as eager and driven as you, why would we ever worry about the Palace not prospering? Why would we worry about Pill Fire City not thriving?"
Jiang Chen scratched his head in feigned embarrassment and stammered: "Thank you for your kind words, Young Master. This lowly servant hopes that one day he can contribute more to Pill Fire City."
He knew the original Yao Seven would never have dared speak so boldly, so he deliberately delivered the lines with a touch of a stammer.
Young Master Tianlin naturally would not waste much of his time on a mere alchemy servant, so he only asked with a light smile: "You mentioned earlier that when you went out, you were lost in thought. So absorbed that you forgot to come in. Is that right?"
Jiang Chen scratched his head and grinned: "Yes, that's exactly what happened."
"And what did you think of? Is it related to the Pine Crane Pill?"
"Very much so. While this lowly servant was handling the medicine residue, I compared the various scents and colors of the decomposed Pine Crane Pill… I daresay the Pine Crane Pill definitely contains Hundred Refinements Grass as an auxiliary ingredient. There should also be Green Mist Jade Emerald, and…"
Jiang Chen rattled off four auxiliary ingredients in a single breath. Three of them were real. One was fabricated.
Such half-true statements were the hardest to refute.
But the fact that three out of four auxiliary ingredients he named were genuine lent his words an immediate air of credibility.