"Being able to refine two uncommon quality pills in a single batch... Senior Martial Sister Leng truly lives up to your name of being blessed with both looks and skills, the complete package that is the pride of our Black Tortoise Sect!"
"Each of these pills have such extraordinary curvature, not lacking one bit as compared to the beautiful sun that illuminates the entire Purple Plum Mountain. I'm sure these are considered top tier even among uncommon Winterwarmth Pills!"
"All right, enough with the praises," Leng Huiqi shot a playful glare towards Zhao Yunxiao. "Don't think I don't know what you are thinking. Don't worry, I will be giving you all the inferior quality pills as always. In fact, since I'm in a good mood today, I will even add a common quallity pill on top of those!"
"Long live Senior Martial Sister Leng! Your generosity knows no bounds!" the overjoyed Zhao Yunxiao bowed towards Leng Huiqi in worship.
"I said enough with the praises!" Leng Huiqi might sound annoyed, but she was all smiles while passing him the pills. "Here, take this!"
"Thank you, Senior Martial Sister!" Zhao Yunxiao received the pills respectfully with both hands.
"Work hard and don't slack off. If you keep at it, you might actually be able to enter the inner sect one day," Leng Huiqi picked up the rest of the refined pills and placed them carefully into her spatial bag.
"I will definitely take your advice to heart, Senior Martial Sister Leng! Hope you have a bountiful hunt later!" Zhao Yunxiao saw off the departing Leng Huiqi with his eyes.
Leng Huiqi coolly left the room, and Zhao Yunxiao immediately turned his attention back to the pills in his hands. To be exact, among the pills in his hands, his attention was focused solely upon the single common quality Winterwarmth Pill.
While the term 'common quality' made it sound rather unimpressive, that was only the case in the eyes of inner disciples.
Every week, all inner disciples would be given a common quality cultivation pill that corresponded to their cultivation level. This meant that for those at the Essence Gathering realm, they would be given a common quality Winterwarmth Pill.
Having gotten used to the efficacy of common quality cultivation pills, inner disciples of the Black Tortoise Sect no longer had eyes for anything of lower quality. When they do run out of common quality pills, they would either choose to purchase some more or be like Leng Huiqi and refine their own.
But unlike inner disciples, outer disciples like Zhao Yunxiao were only given an inferior quality cultivation pill every week.
Moreover, they generally had less resources at their disposal, which meant that it was not as easy to either purchase pills or obtain the ingredients to refine their own.
Not to mention common quality cultivation pills, even inferior quality cultivation pills were considered precious to them!
This was also one of the reasons why Zhao Yunxiao had chosen to work at the Alchemy Chamber. Certain inner disciples would get rid of any unwanted inferior pills that they refined by selling the pills to him for cheap, while the generous ones might even give the pills to him for free!
On top of that, this job also gave Zhao Yunxiao the opportunity to observe and learn from the way other disciples performed alchemy. That way, should he ever obtain sufficient pill ingredients in the future, he would at least know how to properly refine them into pills.
After admiring the beautiful common quality Winterwarmth Pill for a good few minutes, Zhao Yunxiao carefully packed it away in his backpack before proceeding to clean the room as he was supposed to.
The alchemy process was arduous, and the mess left behind as a result of that was rather significant as well.
In order to prevent any impurities from being left behind, Zhao Yunxiao had to thoroughly scrub and wash the inside of the cauldron. Apart from that, he had to clean up the rest of the mess that had resulted from the preparation of ingredients.
Just like how he would prefer to see the cauldron room in a neat and tidy state whenever he took over, he would always make it a point to leave it in a clean state after his shifts.
More than an hour had passed by the time he was done, but Zhao Yunxiao did not feel the least bit tired.
Even as he worked, the only thing that filled Zhao Yunxiao's mind was the common quality Winterwarmth Pill that was now in his possession.
His work there was done before he knew it, and Zhao Yunxiao left the cauldron room with light steps.
"Disciple Zhao Yunxiao reporting to Senior Wu. There are no more appointments for the third cauldron room, requesting to knock off."
"Mm, go ahead," Wu Chifeng answered nonchalantly without even looking up from the papers that filled his desk.
Taking a quick glance at cauldron rooms four and five, Zhao Yunxiao could see that Su Jiemin had already left, but the door to Bo Fei's cauldron room five was still tightly closed.
Su Jiemin got lucky once again – at least in terms of time spent on work.
But today, Zhao Yunxiao was confident that he had to be the luckiest of the three!
Now that he was done at the Alchemy Chamber, Zhao Yunxiao headed back to the Outer Disciples' Quarters where the residence of all outer disciples was located, including that of his own.
Was the weather this good earlier in the morning?
Has the sky always been this pretty?
Zhao Yunxiao felt like the world had become a better place as he relished in the warm embrace of the afternoon sun.
He stopped in the middle of the road, closing his eyes to take a deep breath.
Even the coldness of the winter breeze felt especially refreshing as it rustled his long black hair and thick robes.
In his head, Zhao Yunxiao was already thinking about when he should take this common quality Winterwarmth Pill, imagining the wondrous effects of its efficacy.
"What the hell are you doing?"
A familiarly rude voice snapped him straight back to reality.
"Are your eyes for show? Can't you see that I'm enjoying the nice weather?" Zhao Yunxiao turned around to find Gu Qiansi looking at him with raised eyebrows.
"We meet again, knowledgeable Senior Martial Brother Zhao!" Lu Zhiying waved happily from beside Gu Qiansi.
"...Knowledgeable?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.
"That's right! We are just about to look for you, knowledgeable Senior Martial Brother Zhao!" Lu Zhiying continued to smile.
"Yes, knowledgeable Senior Martial Brother Zhao, your cute Junior Martial Sister Lu here has some questions for you," Gu Qiansi added.
Zhao Yunxiao rolled his eyes at Gu Qiansi's words.
"Can't you just answer her yourself?" Zhao Yunxiao looked towards Gu Qiansi.
"We just came back from the Outer Disciples Hall, and Junior Martial Sister Lu wanted to learn more about the different jobs available, so I told her that you are the best person to ask," Gu Qiansi shrugged. "Aren't I nice? I've been telling her about your vast knowledge, so please live up to those expectations."
"Is it all right for Senior Martial Brother Zhao to tell me more about the different jobs?" Lu Zhiying asked with a smile.
Zhao Yunxiao glanced at those clear eyes hanging on that pretty face, then let out a helpless sigh.
"It's not that I want to brag, but if I claim to be second in terms of knowledge about the jobs in the sect, no other disciples would dare to claim first place," Zhao Yunxiao flicked back his long fringe as he spoke.
"That's great!" Lu Zhiying put her hands together in joy. "Then may I ask what job will Senior Martial Brother Zhao advise me to take?"
Zhao Yunxiao shook his head disapprovingly. "When it comes to sect jobs, you should not be asking another person to choose it for you. Instead, you should always pick the one that interests you the most, only then will you be able to do it well and not end u- Ouch! What are you doing, Gu Qiansi?"
"Do we need you to tell us all that?" Gu Qiansi complained after having punched Zhao Yunxiao in the arm. "I recommended Junior Martial Sister Lu to you, so don't throw my face by saying such superficial stuff that everyone knows!"
"But it's the truth!" Zhao Yunxiao rubbed his arm before turning to see the bitter look on Lu Zhiying's face. "Ahem! Fine, if you want to know more about each job, it's going to take some time for me to go through them one by one. Let's continue the conversation over dinner at the canteen."
"Dinner this early?" Gu Qiansi asked. "Zhao Yunxiao, the sun has yet to set and you already want to eat? When did the picky eater you become a hungry ghost?"
"Shut up, I have night duty at the Forge later," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "If you find it too early, then we can talk about this tomorrow instead. In any case, I would have to settle my dinner now or I won't have time for it later on."
"Do you want to wait till tomorrow, Junior Martial Sister Lu?" Gu Qiansi looked over at the young lady beside her. "There's no hurry anyway."
"I'd like to learn more as soon as possible, so I prefer to hear about it today if possible!" Lu Zhiying answered with a bright smile. "I'll be counting on you then, Senior Martial Brother Zhao!"
"Don't worry about it, let's go then."
Zhao Yunxiao nodded before leading the way to the canteen.
Not all sect members knew how to prepare meals in the Black Tortoise Sect, especially considering the fact that many disciples were still young.
To prevent them from starving, there were dedicated canteens specially to serve food to the sect members.
Unfortunately, as outer disciples, they were only allowed to go to the canteen in the Outer Grounds.
This was the canteen with the lowest food quality among the various canteens, and the taste was similarly not as fantastic. That was why many disciples who knew how to cook actually chose to prepare their own meals instead.
"That is such a waste of resources," Zhao Yunxiao shook his head in disapproval as they touched upon this topic over dinner. "Not only is the food here nutritious, it is free as well. If you cook your own meals, you even have to spend your precious sect points to procure the necessary ingredients. How wasteful!"
"Sect points?" Lu Zhiying asked while munching on her food.
"Sect points are basically the currency that is used within the sect," Gu Qiansi explained. "There are many ways in which you can earn sect points, but the most common one is through sect jobs. After earning sect points, you can then use them to purchase the things you need. Some people like to live from paycheck to paycheck, while others like your Senior Martial Brother Zhao are very stingy with their spendings, even willing to sacrifice his picky tongue to eat at the canteen instead of spending a bit more to get better food."
"Or perhaps this shows that I'm not picky at all about food," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged.
"This just shows that you are more stingy than you are picky," Gu Qiansi shot him down immediately.
"Can you stop saying all that in front of others? They might actually believe you."
"Don't worry. Even if not through me, everyone will find out sooner or later."
Zhao Yunxiao frowned before turning back to Lu Zhiying. "Anyway, as your Senior Martial Sister Gu was saying, you will earn sect points by completing jobs here in the sect. The more you do, the more you get. You can choose to only focus on a single job and do it well, or to spread out your efforts across different jobs. Either way could be a way to earn more sect points."
"For reference, I only signed up for a single job at the Herb Gardens," Gu Qiansi added. "On the other hand, your amazing Senior Martial Brother Zhao here signed up for six different jobs, making him the outer disciple with the highest number of jobs. No, wait, he should still be the one with the highest number of jobs even if you count the inner disciples!"
"Six different jobs?" Lu Zhiying widened her eyes in surprise.
She might not know exactly how much effort is required for a single job, but from the fact that Gu Qiansi only took on one, six times of that definitely sounded like a lot.
On hindsight, that must be the reason why Gu Qiansi had mentioned that Zhao Yunxiao was the best person to go to for advice on picking a sect job!