Lonely Immortal

Therefore, it is basically difficult for linen apprentices to be promoted to alchemists, but the Chamber of Commerce will not let linen apprentices be demoted to do odd jobs, because linen apprentices have already learned the martial arts and medicine classics of the Chamber of Commerce. If they are demoted to do odd jobs, on the one hand, the Chamber of Commerce will lose face, and on the other hand, it is inevitable that some things of the Chamber of Commerce will be leaked.

It is not to say that linen apprentices have no possibility of promotion, but in recent years, there are only a handful of linen apprentices who can be promoted.

Yan Ling is the earliest apprentice here. As far as he knows, he knows that a senior brother has been promoted, and that was not long after he came in. In the following years, no one has been promoted.

Without promotion and not staying here, the ending can be imagined.

However, Yan Ling does have some hope of promotion, but he may need to continue to work hard for a few years, because he has not yet been able to refine pills that can be promoted to alchemists.

Generally speaking, pills are divided into grades. The lowest grade is the common ordinary pills commonly seen on the market. The medicinal materials used in these pills are very common medicinal materials, and there are not many years. This kind of pill is called low-grade pill.

Being able to refine low-grade pills basically means being a qualified apprentice for alchemy, which is also the focus of the Chamber of Commerce's monthly assessment.

Going up is the middle-grade pill, which requires more than ten years of medicinal materials to refine. Just like the task Zhang Zhiwen saw before, it is necessary to collect more than ten years of medicinal materials, and the pills made with more than ten years of medicinal materials are middle-grade pills, which have some special functions, such as increasing internal strength, replenishing internal strength, etc.

Then, the apprentice who can refine middle-grade pills can be promoted to alchemist.

But this matter is not so simple. First of all, there is the problem of medicinal materials. More than ten years of medicinal materials are not so easy to obtain. They are valuable in themselves, and the task given by the Chamber of Commerce is only to reward a silver leaf, not this kind of medicinal material.

Under the pressure of membership fees every month, it is difficult for ordinary linen apprentices to have money to buy such medicinal materials, and they dare not hide them privately, otherwise once they are discovered, they will naturally be executed.

So even if an apprentice like Yan Ling has been in the pharmacy for several years, he has only collected the medicinal materials needed for two sets of medium-grade pills.

But this amount is not enough. The failure rate of refining medium-grade pills is very high, unlike ordinary low-grade pills, which basically have a 50-50 failure rate. If you are lucky, you may succeed once, but if you are unlucky, you may fail again and again.

But the Chamber of Commerce assessment will not let you take your chances. You must succeed twice to be considered promoted.

So at least two sets of pill materials must be prepared for each assessment.

In fact, Yan Ling has prepared enough medicinal materials in the past few years, but he failed the assessment last year. If he failed, he had to prepare the medicinal materials again. This year, he can only collect the materials for one set of medium-grade pills at most, which means that he has to spend two years preparing again. This is only if he is lucky enough and very skilled in refining pills before he has a chance to advance.

In addition, the apprentices of sackcloth have no money, no background, and start late. They usually waste a lot of time to complete tasks, which is not as good as the apprentices of white clothes, that is, the sons of gentry and rich families.

Therefore, for so many years, almost no sackcloth apprentices have been promoted to alchemists.

But once they are promoted to alchemists, the treatment is very different.

Alchemists are already quite prestigious in the Chamber of Commerce. In addition to the monthly fixed silver from the Chamber of Commerce, there is also income from accepting apprentices. In addition, the pills refined can be commissioned from the Chamber of Commerce, and there is no need to pay any membership fees.

However, they still have to complete the tasks of the Chamber of Commerce every month. The Chamber of Commerce calls it reputation. If the reputation value is too low, it is likely to be excluded, such as Lin the Alchemist who has just been promoted to Alchemist, that is, Zhang Zhiwen’s master. He has just been promoted to Alchemist and has insufficient reputation, so he can only accept apprentices like Zhang Zhiwen.

If Zhang Zhiwen died, or was unable to pay the dues, etc., the reputation of Lin the pharmacist would be damaged, and he would also be punished by the Chamber of Commerce.

Of course, no matter what, the pharmacist is no longer comparable to the pharmacist apprentice. The pharmacist can also buy the Chamber of Commerce's top secrets to practice.

Later, it is natural to be promoted to pharmacist.

This, Yan Ling and others are not sure about the situation. It is probably necessary to refine top-grade pills. At the same time, the pharmacist himself may be the deputy hall master, and he can also practice the Chamber of Commerce's peerless secrets and become the top masters in the world.

As for these sackcloth apprentices, even if they save some money to buy secrets, they can only buy high-level secrets at most.

Compared with these sackcloth apprentices, the white-clothed apprentices are naturally incomparable. They have money and don't have to complete any tasks. They just need to concentrate on refining medicine and practicing martial arts every day.

Most of them were easily promoted to alchemists, and some even became alchemists, and then were sent to various branches in Wuping Prefecture to hold important positions.

In addition, Zhang Zhiwen also learned from them that everyone had a different master. For example, Yan Ling's master was a man named Bai, Zhou Wan's master was named Zhang, and Li Xiaoqing's master was named Zheng.

But there was one thing in common, these so-called masters hardly cared about them, just like Lin the alchemist, except for a routine visit once a month, there was almost no contact at ordinary times.

This was completely different from those white-clothed apprentices, whose masters personally trained them and paid attention to the development of their disciples almost every day.

But this is normal. It is almost impossible for a linen apprentice to be promoted to an alchemist, while a white-clothed apprentice can be promoted with a high probability.

As long as the apprentice is promoted to an alchemist, the master's reputation will also rise, and reputation is one of the important tests that determine whether they can become deputy hall masters.

After a conversation, Zhang Zhiwen finally got a better understanding of the medicine hall and even the chamber of commerce.

In addition, the four people also exchanged their situations.

Yan Ling is the oldest, fifteen years old this year, almost sixteen. He practices the external martial arts Iron Lock Gong.

This Iron Lock Gong is to practice with both hands and feet as strong as an iron lock. When practiced to the extreme, it can tear tigers and leopards alive and has infinite strength.

However, although external martial arts can be quickly mastered, the disadvantages are also obvious, that is, there is no internal force to support it, and it depends entirely on brute force.

But Yan Ling has no choice. As a linen apprentice, he has nothing. He can't spend too much money to practice internal martial arts. Which of those internal martial arts doesn't require a lot of enhancement drugs to improve quickly?

If there are no conditions, then naturally one can only choose external martial arts, which at least works quickly. Otherwise, when will one be able to improve internal strength? Without sufficient internal strength, how can one go out and take risks to complete the mission?

So he chose external martial arts, and when he was promoted to a pharmacist, he could also switch to internal martial arts, and then the conditions would be much better.

Of course, his Iron Lock Kung Fu was only a low-level external martial arts technique, but even so, this technique cost him thirty silver leaves, and he spent more than half a year saving money to get it.

Then there was Zhou Wan.

Zhou Wan looked much thinner. He practiced Qinggong, which was actually considered an internal martial arts technique, but not a very formal internal martial arts technique, and could even be considered a branch of internal martial arts. He did not have any powerful moves, but his body movements were light, which was a good life-saving technique in the wild.

Qinggong did not require too much internal strength, and it was generally acceptable to practice.

However, Zhou Wan was luckier than Yan Ling. He had found this secret book of Qinggong in the warehouse.

Hearing this, Zhang Zhiwen was speechless. It seemed that his luck was not good. Others could find Qinggong, but he found a book of health preservation. Although the Changsheng Heart Sutra seemed to have produced internal force, it had no killing power at all.

It had neither the Qinggong effect of Zhou Wan nor the killing power of Yan Ling's external family horizontal training. It was just like a chicken rib.

Then there was Li Xiaoqing. She was the only female disciple among the four people. She practiced a hidden weapon kung fu. This kung fu was almost not a serious martial arts, and it did not use any internal force. It was purely a martial arts move. Which of the real Jianghu masters was not picking leaves into knives? Do they need to practice any hidden weapon methods specifically?

But compared with Li Xiaoqing, Zhang Zhiwen seemed to be even worse. When he said that he was practicing the Changsheng Sutra, Yan Ling and others were also very surprised.

"Alas, but that's true. What else can we sackcloth apprentices do?"

Yan Ling patted Zhang Zhiwen's shoulder with regret and said, "But it's okay, junior brother, although your skills are not very useful, but after practicing for a long time, at least you are not prone to illness, and your body should be much stronger. It would be good to help us in the future."

"Yes, junior brother Zhang, don't be discouraged. When I, Zhou, become rich, I will buy you a peerless secret book!"

Zhou Wan's personality is more carefree and he speaks in an old-fashioned way.

"Yes, since we are all sackcloth apprentices, we will take care of each other and complete the task together in the future. Humph, I don't believe we will lose to those white clothes."

Li Xiaoqing seems to have a strong personality, but that's true. If she wasn't so strong, she, a girl, and a sackcloth apprentice, how could she live to this day.

"Then I'll trouble you, senior brothers and sisters!"

Zhang Zhiwen did not refuse their kindness. He also thought it was a good suggestion for everyone to complete the task together.

What can he do if he goes out alone now? If he met a stronger bandit, he might have lost his life.

Besides, he had no experience in doing missions. With Yan Ling and others leading him, it would definitely be much better than him doing it alone. What's wrong with helping them? Compared with his life, it was almost negligible.

"Haha, good! I said that Junior Brother Zhang and I have a destiny. Come on, let's go into the house and talk. It just so happens that we are going out for a few days, so Junior Brother should come with us..."

Yan Ling led Zhang Zhiwen to the yard, and Zhou Wan and Li Xiaoqing followed. For a while, the atmosphere among them was quite harmonious, as if they had known each other for a long time.