The Greatest Village Doctor In The World

Joanna was eating with gusto when she heard him and raised her head, "Alchemy? Is that the thing where ancient Taoists used cauldrons to make elixirs?"

"Pretty much, looks like you don’t know either, never mind," Ling Feng said with a wry smile.

"Who said I don’t know?"

Joanna gave him a glance, "I’m just making sure, why do you ask?"

Ling Feng didn’t answer but countered with, "Do you really understand?"

"Of course, don’t believe me? Ask away and see if I can’t answer you!" Joanna pouted.

"Then what does this method of alchemy require?" Ling Feng asked.

"The materials go without saying, alchemy needs a cauldron, which come made from different metals, and you also need fuel, which is even more important; different fuels produce different temperatures and naturally different effects!" Joanna counted off on her fingers.

"Wow, I really didn’t see that coming, you do know quite a bit!" Ling Feng was astonished; he hadn’t expected her to say so much!

Joanna wore a proud expression, "Of course, this is a family secret!"

"Oh?"

Hearing her say this, Ling Feng immediately got interested and quickly asked, "Who in the Qiao Family knows this stuff? Can I visit them sometime?"

"Visiting is out of the question, my grandfather passed away ten years ago!" Joanna said.

"Uh..."

Ling Feng hadn’t expected that and instantly felt awkward.

But seeing Joanna acting like nothing was wrong and mentioning her grandfather’s death without a hint of sadness, he couldn’t help but ask curiously, "If the old gentleman has passed away, did he teach you all that he knew?"

Joanna glanced at him, "Can you stop beating around the bush? Just say what you want to know!"

"Heh heh."

Ling Feng chuckled awkwardly, then came clean, "I want to learn alchemy, what else could it be."

"That’s odd, why would you want to learn that? No one studies that these days," Joanna asked, confused.

"I’m not going to explain why, I just want to learn. Are you going to teach me or not?" Ling Feng asked.

Joanna smiled, "It’s not that I can’t teach you, but I have a condition!"

"Speak!"

Ling Feng knew it wouldn’t be that easy and said with a wry smile, "As long as I can do it!"

"It’s really simple, you definitely can do it. My condition is that when you go to one of the three great families, you visit our Qiao Family first, or if you’re free, just come over to my place!" Joanna said with a smile.

Ling Feng was taken aback, "Is that it?"

"Yep, that’s all, what else did you think it would be?" Joanna tilted her head and asked.

"Nothing, that is indeed easy, I promise you that!" Ling Feng said, nodding with a smile.

"Good, then it’s a deal!"

Joanna extended her pale palm, signaling Ling Feng to seal the promise with a high-five.

"Making it quite formal, huh? So it’s a deal!"

Ling Feng slapped her hand and then asked, "When are you going to teach me how to make elixirs?"

"We can start now, just wait!"

Joanna grinned slyly and got up to run out of the house.

Ling Feng was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Li Shiyun and the others, "Why do I feel like I’ve been had?"

"How could you? Anna wouldn’t deceive you!" Chen Yuhe said.

"But I’ve got a bad feeling about this!"

Ling Feng scratched his head, smiling wryly.

A moment later, Joanna came running back, throwing a thin booklet to Ling Feng, "Here you go! Mission completed!"

"I..."

Ling Feng was speechless as he flipped through the booklet, noting that it contained diagrams and text and did indeed record quite a lot of information. He looked up at Joanna, "What do you mean by this?"

"It is explained in detail here. Everything you want to know is inside. I learned from it as well! Now, I have handed it over to you," she said with a giggle, putting extra emphasis on the word "handed."

"Damn it, I said ’teach,’ not ’hand over.’ Anyone can search for information, there’s a ton of it online!" Ling Feng said irritably.

"Then go search for it yourself, see if you can find what’s recorded here!"

Joanna pouted and glanced sideways at Ling Feng, then asked, "You’re not planning on backing out, are you? You could completely teach yourself; why do you need me at all?"

...

Ling Feng was at a loss for words again but decided to take her words at face value, so he pocketed the booklet. "Fine, I’ll learn on my own then!"

"That’s more like it!" Joanna said, looking smug.

After breakfast, Ling Feng locked himself away in the back room, taking out the small booklet and started studying it seriously.

He hadn’t realized until now that alchemy was truly no simple matter!

Joanna had only given a rough overview before, but when he delved into the details, they were as numerous as the hairs on an ox, and each was extremely important.

Just the material for the cauldron alone varied from iron to copper to gold, and there were even alloy-made ones.

Different metals have different heat absorption capacities, so the effects of alchemy would vary accordingly, with alloy cauldrons naturally being the best.

As for fuel, ordinary firewood was out of the question—it wasn’t even considered. The most basic was to use charcoal, but even charcoal had its specifics, divided into fine and coarse types.

The harder the wood used to make the charcoal, the better the burning effect.

But charcoal was not the only fuel; other heating methods could be used, and the booklet listed two kinds: lava and "true fire."

Lava was easy to understand; it was the molten rock flowing inside volcanoes.

This "true fire," however, was not explicitly defined; Ling Feng thought it over and speculated it might be something like the Samadhi True Fire, a legendary entity.

The materials were already meticulously detailed, but when he got to the consumables needed for alchemy, Ling Feng felt even more overwhelmed!

Elixirs didn’t just result from throwing stuff into the cauldron and heating it for a while. Each material had a unique preparation process, some needing to be ground into a powder, some preheated, and the dosages were all highly complex.

Ling Feng had always considered himself clever, but after looking through the booklet for a while, he started to feel dizzy and his memory markedly declined!

"This is a profound science indeed!"

Scratching his head, Ling Feng stretched his arms and took a deep breath!

Despite the challenge, he steadied his mind and focused even more intently on the booklet, trying hard to remember every detail.

After all, with three types of alchemy materials already in hand, and as he continued to explore the Third Layer, alchemy was something he definitely had to proceed with.

Time flew by, and just as Ling Feng was immersed in the booklet, there was a knock at the door, followed by Li Fei’er’s voice, "Uncle, it’s time to eat. You didn’t fall asleep, did you?"

"Who says I did? I’m wide awake!"

Ling Feng got up and opened the door, looking at her, "Is it noon already?"

"And you say you haven’t been sleeping, not even aware of the time!"

Li Fei’er pouted her lips and looked at him with disdain.

"That’s called being so engrossed that one forgets about eating and sleeping, what do you know!"

Ling Feng glared at her, then stepped forward, playfully wrapping his arm around the girl’s neck, "Come on, let’s go eat!"