Chapter 512 - Nitpicking
Just as Lin Li was about to enter the pharmaceutical room, he heard the sounds of an argument coming from inside. After listening carefully, he discovered that the pharmacists seemed to be having a heated argument about the concoction of a potion. He pushed the door and entered. However, they were all still crowding around each other and debating about the problem in two separate groups. None of them noticed Lin Li’s presence at all.
Lin Li stood by the side to listen to their argument carefully for a while. He finally realized the reason for their argument. It turned out that they were discussing modifying advanced potions to weaken them after witnessing the effects of the modified Bone Erosion Powder.
Actually, the concoction of advanced potions was not a fresh topic, and was easy to understand too. Right from the beginning of the concoction process of an advanced potion, one would have to collect and prepare all of the necessary materials, which were hard to find, for they ranged from extinct plants to menacing beasts. In order to acquire them, one would have to pay a hefty price.
Those who couldn’t find the required medicinal materials, but wanted to obtain the effects of a specific potion, could replace the missing medicinal materials with other common ones. In fact, examples of successful weakening of advanced pharmaceuticals did occur amongst thousands of pharmaceutical formulations, but the number was pathetically small—the medicinal properties of various medicinal materials changed infinitely, and were subject to the effects of varying temperature and differences in different medicinal properties during the preparation of pharmaceuticals.
If one did not grasp the changes in the medicinal properties of various medicinal materials when formulating potions, there would be no way to find any alternatives. Perhaps one might think at first that a common medicinal material was weaker than the precious medicinal material. However, when one added the common medicinal material during the preparation, it was likely that it’d change in appearance, resulting in unexpected changes.
Throughout the history of pharmaceutics, there had been plenty of pharmacists who had lost their lives while concocting and researching advanced potions. At some point, some even thought that modifications could never be made to advanced potions to weaken them, because the changes of advanced potions were far too unpredictable, just like lottery. No one would know the winning numbers.
Of course, the pharmacists here were just low-level and intermediate ones, who wouldn’t actually discuss the concoction of an advanced potion. They were just discussing a low-level one. It was not that they were bored, but rather that they felt that the discussion process would help them gain a better understanding of pharmaceutics.
“I know this request may be a little too much. Forget it if it’s going to disturb your teacher.” Wilkinson thought that Lin Li spaced out because he was put on the spot, and thus began to feel embarrassed.
“Ah, nothing, it’s nothing much. Do you mind sharing with me the questions that you’d like to ask?” Lin Li asked.
“Well… the thing is… ” Wilkinson could not reject it; hence, he whipped out a piece of paper. “I’ve written them down on this piece of paper. When your teacher is free, please help me ask those questions.”
Lin Li grabbed the piece of paper on which the questions were written, glanced at the contents, and nodded secretly. He could tell from the questions that Wilkinson was indeed very talented in pharmaceutics, and it would be difficult for normal people to grasp the key points of the questions. Once the questions were answered, Wilkinson’s knowledge would be taken to greater heights.