Chapter 196: Position

Hua Changxi didn’t like to meddle too much in other people’s affairs, but thinking of Physician Xu’s long friendship with her, she still asked about Xu Ling: “Uncle Xu, is Ling Ling still helping you run the medicine shop?”

Physician Xu’s eyes flickered slightly, then he smiled and nodded, saying nothing else.

Seeing this, Hua Changxi probed, “I haven’t seen Ling Ling in a long time. Let me find some time to go to your shop and talk with her.”

Physician Xu let out an “Ah,” then gave an awkward laugh and said, “Ling Ling usually goes out to train in the wilds. I’m afraid she won’t be there when you come.”

After hearing this, Hua Changxi looked surprised: “Training in the wilds?! Where does Ling Ling go for training? I myself can never find places to train when I want to go out.”

Nowadays, the matter of qi revival had only entered the public view for two years. The ancient ruins, secret realms, and mountains rich in qi that had been exposed before that were all held tightly by the imperial house, nobles, and great clans; ordinary people couldn’t get close.

Since she had stepped onto the path of cultivation, her training had been severely lacking. Aside from not liking to go out and working behind closed doors, she simply didn’t know where to go for training.

Physician Xu hemmed and hawed for a while before saying, “Most of the time she goes to Five Finger Mountain in Qingzhou. Do you know Five Finger Mountain? That place is open to cultivators, and even ordinary people can go in search of opportunities. Ling Ling loves going there.”

Hua Changxi: “Five Finger Mountain, I’ve heard of it. It really is a good place for training. If Ling Ling goes to Five Finger Mountain again in the future, I can go with her.”

Physician Xu chuckled but didn’t pick up the thread; instead, he changed the subject: “Oh, right, Ninth Lady, aside from bringing you tea this time, I also wanted to talk to you about the Qihuang Hall.”

Seeing that Physician Xu had once again steered away from the topic of Xu Ling, Hua Changxi didn’t feel like asking any more questions: “What about the Qihuang Hall?”

Physician Xu: “Every hall has to hand over thirty first-grade spirit pills each month. You weren’t around in November, and the hall couldn’t produce the pills, so I took the spirit herbs and plants allocated to our hall to a Pill Master Zhou I used to know and exchanged them for thirty first-grade spirit pills to hand in first.”

Hua Changxi nodded: “You did well.”

Physician Xu: “Ninth Lady, the spirit herbs and plants allocated to each hall from the higher-ups are only enough for sixty batches of first-grade pills.” In other words, the higher-ups required that every Qihuang Hall’s pill refinement success rate be above fifty percent. If the failure rate exceeded half, they would have to supply their own spirit herbs.

“According to the Medical Office’s rules, hiring a pill master to refine pills requires additional payment. Usually, for three portions of spirit herbs, you get one batch of pills refined. So now our hall owes Pill Master Zhou thirty portions of spirit herbs.”

After hearing this, Hua Changxi asked curiously, “Did all the other Qihuang Halls manage to hand in their spirit pills?”

Physician Xu nodded: “They all handed them in.”

Hua Changxi fell silent. After taking over the Number Thirteen Qihuang Hall, she had only met the apothecary apprentices assigned to her; she knew nothing else. So she asked, “Do you know the hall masters of all eighteen Qihuang Halls, and how many pill masters each hall has?”

Physician Xu smiled and said, “You trust me enough to put Number Thirteen Qihuang Hall in my care, so of course I had to find out all these things.”

“The master of Number One Qihuang Hall is Director Gu’s disciple, Mu Qingying. All eight of her apothecary apprentices are pharmacists from the Medical Office. Two of them are said to have already started refining pills, though they haven’t successfully produced any spirit pills yet.”

“The master of Number Two Qihuang Hall is Director Gu’s senior disciple, Xie An. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Three Qihuang Hall is Huo Yunxiao, sent by the Heavenly Department head. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Four Qihuang Hall is Zhang Heavenly Master’s disciple from the Celestial Master Residence, Wen Lanzhou. All eight apothecary apprentices can also refine pills.”

“The master of Number Five Qihuang Hall is the third young master of Dong’an Manor, Yan Qianying. Among the eight apothecary apprentices, four can refine pills and four are pharmacists.”

“The master of Number Six Qihuang Hall is Director Gu’s disciple, Yuan Tianchou. All eight apothecary apprentices are pharmacists. I hear four of them have already started refining pills.”

“The master of Number Seven Qihuang Hall is Master Zhishen from Xiangguo Temple. Among the eight apothecary apprentices, three can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Eight Qihuang Hall is the senior disciple of the Sanqing Palace sect leader, Lin Ruohong. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Nine Qihuang Hall is the eldest legitimate grandson of the foremost clan in the capital, the Tang family, Tang Yufeng. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Ten Qihuang Hall is the seventh young lady of Xingguo Duke Manor, Gu Jinfan. Among the eight apothecary apprentices, four can refine pills and four are pharmacists.”

“The master of Number Eleven Qihuang Hall is Shen Qianfan from the Disciple Hall. Among the eight apothecary apprentices, six are from the Disciple Hall and two are pharmacists.”

“The master of Number Twelve Qihuang Hall is Zhu Qinghuan from the Apprentice Hall. All eight apothecary apprentices are from the Disciple Hall.”

“The master of Number Fourteen Qihuang Hall is the Seventh Prince, Chu Junhao. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Fifteen Qihuang Hall is Duan Yuyan. Among the eight apothecary apprentices, three can refine pills and five are pharmacists.”

“The master of Number Sixteen Qihuang Hall is the fifth son of Xiping Manor. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Seventeen Qihuang Hall is the second son of Beizhen Manor. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

“The master of Number Eighteen Qihuang Hall is the ninth son of Nanding Manor. All eight apothecary apprentices can refine pills.”

After hearing Physician Xu’s introduction, Hua Changxi took a deep breath. Of the eighteen Qihuang Halls, aside from the nine people who had received wooden plaques, the other nine Qihuang Halls had all been carved up by noble families and great clans.

The hall masters were undoubtedly the most powerful, and the apothecary apprentices also had their own backgrounds. This was a redistribution of power and resources.

She, a handyman of the Handyman Hall, along with Shen Qianfan of the Disciple Hall and Zhu Qinghuan of the Apprentice Hall, stood out conspicuously among this uniform sea of noble and eminent scions.

Looking from the small to the large, from the personnel arrangements of the Medical Office’s eighteen Qihuang Halls, one could glimpse just how severe the monopoly of resources by the nobles and great families was.

Hua Changxi thought of the Artifact Saint Palace—they would rather stay hidden and develop slowly than appear openly to recruit and absorb talented individuals. Previously, she hadn't fully agreed with this approach, but now she understood it a bit.

The Medicine Department had been infiltrated far too severely by various factions!

Although the Medicine Department wasn't the Alchemy Saint Hall, the Alchemy Saint Hall, in order to develop and spread alchemy techniques, ultimately had to rely on alchemists, and currently the most formidable group of alchemists was gathered in the Medicine Department.

In the future, when the Alchemy Saint Hall appeared in the world, could it really expel all these alchemists?

To avoid being controlled by the Medicine Department, they would have to rapidly train a large number of highly skilled alchemists—but that was extremely difficult.

The moment she thought about how the various factions within the future Alchemy Saint Hall would check and balance each other, and how the Alchemy Saint Hall also bore the responsibility of guarding the town's eye, Hua Changxi's faint desire to become the master of the Alchemy Saint Hall vanished completely.

For a split second, she didn't even want to get involved in Qihuang Hall's affairs anymore.

However, she currently needed the social identity of the Medicine Department's Qihuang Hall master.

In the future, she would inevitably have to interact with other cultivators, and having such an identity would make it easier to showcase her value and build connections.

Earlier, Gu Xing had asked her whether she had found her place within the Medicine Department.

Now she had an answer: in the Medicine Department, she was Hall Master No. 13.