Ning Zhishui turned his head and looked when he heard that. The alchemist seemed to be from this alchemy hall. The alchemy robe he wore was the same as those alchemists he met on the road.

"Feng Ye is so pitiful. How could he have such a master? Sigh."

Ning Zhishui saw two female cultivators whispering nearby.

"This child is filial and willing to endure hardships, but unfortunately he chose the wrong master. His life is really in dire straits."

"Alas, it's all fate! Neither my biological father nor my stepmother loves me. I have nowhere to stay and I want to learn from a master, but I was chosen by the old butcher. I think it will be difficult for me to make a name for myself."

"The butcher chose him because he was easy to bully. He wasn't choosing an apprentice, he was just looking for a free servant!"

The two female cultivators had just finished refining the elixir. When they saw this scene, they shook their heads and complained, then left together.

After hearing this, Ning Zhishui had no other thoughts and walked towards his own alchemy room.

Other people's happiness or misfortune has nothing to do with her, and she can't control it all. It's impossible for her to take care of everyone.

Besides, whether what others say is true or not is still debatable and should not be believed easily.

"...I can't even make the most basic soul-restoring pill. I really embarrassed myself in front of other alchemists!" The "old butcher" was still scolding Feng Ye.

"Master, I've tried very hard to practice, but I always fail inexplicably and can't find the reason..."

"Isn't that because you're as dumb as a pig?! If you had practiced according to my instructions, how could you not succeed?"

"No, I did it exactly as you said. You said the fire should be steady and after each herb is refined, I should wait a moment before adding new ingredients. But I always do this..."

Ning Zhishui stopped in his tracks, a look of astonishment on his face.

She turned around and asked, "Wait a moment before adding new materials?"

She raised her voice and looked back, as if responding to Feng Ye's words, but she was clearly looking at his master, Lao Tu.

The old butcher was stunned and looked at her in confusion, but he didn't recognize who she was. He frowned and said, "Yes, what's the problem?"

“It’s a big problem.”

Ning Zhishui almost laughed, "Are you really an alchemist? You can't even make a yellow-grade pill if you say something like that!"

This is simply too outrageous. Ning Zhishui feels that any alchemist of some level would not say such a thing to make people laugh.

Ning Zhishui's words immediately angered the old butcher. He roared, "Where did you come from, you little girl? What's wrong with what I said? I think you don't understand alchemy, yet you're telling me what to do!"

"Oh, have you ever refined a yellow-level pill?" Ning Zhishui asked.

The old butcher rolled his eyes, then puffed out his chest, "Of course!"

Ning Zhishui saw the clue and said "oh" in a long voice, "It seems that you are not a yellow-level alchemist. You just made a yellow-level pill once or twice by chance. Let me guess what kind of pill you made... I think it's a pain-relieving pill. Am I right?"

There are several types of entry-level yellow-level pills, which are very suitable for newly promoted alchemists to refine. Some alchemists may never be promoted to the yellow level in their entire lives, but occasionally they can refine a yellow-level pill when they are lucky.

Among these yellow-level pills, the simplest one is actually not the pain-relieving pill.

But when Ning Zhishui thought of the old butcher's "One Breath Method", he felt that only this kind of pain-relieving pill would meet the requirements.

To put it bluntly, it was like a blind cat catching a dead mouse. Except for the pain-relieving pill, he would not succeed in trying any other pills.

Is it because of this success that Lao Tu feels that his method is correct?

Ning Zhishui couldn't help but look strange.

She went to see Lao Tu, and then found that not only Lao Tu, but also his apprentice were looking at her in shock.

"How did you know?" the old butcher shouted.

Ning Zhishui was amused by what he saw.

"With your level, don't mislead others by taking on apprentices. You don't even understand how alchemy works at your age."

Ning Zhishui put away his smile and said with a bad look:

"What you said about waiting a breath after refining before adding the next ingredient comes from Master Honghu's Pathological Pharmacology. His original words were, 'Some ingredients have uneven medicinal properties, and the refining process is intense. You need to wait a breath after refining before adding the next ingredient.' However, this statement has been extended and distorted by some later generations. They think this is a shortcut on the road to alchemy, and they regard it as gospel truth, applying it everywhere."

"But in reality, not all materials have such 'uneven' properties. There's no fixed rule for how to refine them. Everything depends on the alchemist's experience and intuition, and they must make the right judgment based on the conditions in the furnace. If you think you have a shortcut, it's not a shortcut; on the contrary, it's a dead end."

“Once you take that step, you’ll never make a breakthrough in your life.”

"Just like you, not only can you not reach the Yellow Level now, you will never reach it in your entire life."

After Ning Zhishui finished speaking, the whole hall fell silent. Even passersby stared at her blankly, as if they were unable to react for a while.

The old butcher was stunned by what he heard, while Feng Ye looked as if he had just been enlightened.

"So that's how it is... I was saying..."

He said what's wrong!

Feng Ye had been learning from the old butcher for two years, but he had learned nothing and was even labeled as a fool.

Even he himself felt that he might not be able to become an alchemist at all, so he should change his career as soon as possible.

It’s not that he didn’t doubt his master, but his master was the only person around Feng Ye he could ask for advice, so even if he had doubts, he had no choice but to continue learning.

But now, after listening to Ning Zhishui's words, Feng Ye felt that something he had been puzzled about suddenly became clear.

It turns out that some of the things others teach are not entirely correct, and that so-called masters and authorities can also be wrong.

He raised his head and looked at Ning Zhishui with sparkling eyes.

"Feng Ye, right? I want to make pills. Please follow me into the alchemy room." Ning Zhishui looked back and said.

After saying this, he walked towards the alchemy room without caring whether Feng Ye agreed or not.

"Hey! Yes!"

Feng Ye responded loudly and trotted to catch up.

"You bastard! How dare you! Come back now!"

When the old butcher came to his senses, he became furious and roared behind him.

For the first time, Feng Ye turned a deaf ear and decided to disobey.

"Aren't you afraid that he will scold you later?" Ning Zhishui asked after closing the door of the alchemy room.

"I'm not afraid." Feng Ye shook his head and clenched his fist. "I don't want to be his apprentice anymore."

"Oh?" Ning Zhishui raised his eyebrows.

"He's never had my apprenticeship tea, saying he wants to see how I perform. So, in reality, we're not officially master and apprentice," Feng Ye said, head lowered. "He knows I can't go anywhere else except here, so he wants to use this to control me, to make me obey him and work hard for him."

Ning Zhishui just heard the two female cultivators say that Feng Ye had a stepmother and his father was partial to him, so he had nowhere to go and couldn't return home even if he had one.