The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#440 - Drug testing

Chen Hanqing waved his hand, setting his daily wage at a hundred taels, which made Lu Jing feel a little embarrassed.

After all, no matter how Wen Xiaoqian tried to persuade Chen Hanqing, the fact that he was willing to lower himself and dig ginseng for Lu Jing, his "love rival," this time clearly indicated that he wasn't very well-off.

On the contrary, if Lu Jing's ginseng planting business could proceed smoothly, he wouldn't really be short of these few hundred taels of silver.

However, Lu Jing had dealt with Chen Hanqing a few times and knew that although the latter had soared in the academy, he was actually very sensitive inside because he had not been valued in his sect before.

Since he had said a hundred taels a day, if Lu Jing rashly increased the price, it might stimulate him and make him mistakenly think that Lu Jing was using money to humiliate him.

Thinking of this, Lu Jing felt a little sympathetic towards Chen Hanqing. However, since Chen Hanqing himself had already set the wage, Lu Jing could only think of other ways to compensate him.

He said to Chen Hanqing, "A hundred taels a day is no problem for me, but since we are both academy disciples, we should focus on our studies. Well, at the medicine field, you only need to help me for two hours a day."

"Is Grandmaster Lu looking down on me, Chen Hanqing?" Chen Hanqing said with displeasure upon hearing this, "Although you and I have become enemies because of Miss Wen, since I have accepted your money, I will definitely do my job well. What can you do in two hours a day? Don't worry, I will at least work for five hours."

"That's too much," Lu Jing sighed, "My ginseng is not easy to dig. It takes too much energy to work for five hours."

"What energy does digging ginseng take?" Chen Hanqing disagreed, "When I was a child, I practiced horse stance for more than five hours every day."

"I'm not talking about physical exertion, but mental exertion."

Lu Jing knew very well how maddening it was to find ginseng in a large area of dense weeds. People with impatient personalities would probably flip the table in anger after working for a short time.

And even people with good tempers would probably become mentally confused after playing a game of 'find the difference' for five hours straight.

However, Chen Hanqing obviously didn't know what challenges he was about to face. Seeing that Lu Jing was still dawdling, he decisively said, "There's even less need to worry about the mental aspect. Although I, Chen Hanqing, possess a Grade A Secret Cauldron, I am also a person with a firm will."

"There's no transitional relationship between these two things, okay?" Lu Jing rolled his eyes and couldn't help but complain, "I think you just want to show off that you have a Grade A Secret Cauldron… Ah, forget it, do as you please. You can work for as long as you want."

After several attempts, Lu Jing gave up trying to persuade Chen Hanqing. This guy was simply full of rebellious spirit, specializing in treating low blood pressure, and wouldn't listen to a word of advice.

Fortunately, although Chen Hanqing was stubborn, his reputation was not bad. He would not go back on his word once he had promised something.

Lu Jing stopped talking nonsense after that, directly took out a three-hundred-tael silver note for him, prepaid three days' salary in one go, and then pulled him to the edge of his medicine field.

Chen Hanqing's expression was obviously stunned after seeing Lu Jing's ginseng field. After a moment, he asked foolishly, "Where's the ginseng?"

"There, right in front of you," Lu Jing nodded in the direction of the medicine field.

"But isn't this weeds?"

"There's ginseng in the weeds."

"How much ginseng is there?"

"This… depends on how much you can dig out," Lu Jing patted Chen Hanqing on the shoulder, "Just do your best. You don't need to be too stressed."

Chen Hanqing rarely showed his usual stubbornness this time. He probably couldn't guarantee that he could dig out all the ginseng hidden under this patch of weeds.

However, Chen Hanqing didn't complain to Lu Jing. Even though his heart had already cooled down for the most part, he still jumped into the medicine field without saying a word and began to pull weeds and look for ginseng.

Lu Jing watched for a while, and seeing that Chen Hanqing was working very seriously, he was quite satisfied, so he found a clearing next to the medicine field and sat down.

He took out three packets of medicinal pills from his bosom.

Don't misunderstand, the poison pills that Lu Jing entrusted Han Shan Ke to refine had not yet been produced. What he was holding in his hand now were the three kinds of poisons that Dongmen Weilan had previously helped him refine, namely, Mire, Soul-melting, and Bone-corroding.

Among them, the effect of Mire was to reduce the speed of internal force circulation in the meridians. According to Dongmen Weilan, after being poisoned by Mire, the internal breath in the body would not flow smoothly, and one's strength could only exert 60-70% of its power.

The effects of Soul-melting and Bone-corroding were both used to dissolve and melt internal force, but the effect was far inferior to Falling into the Mortal World, especially for first-rate experts, the effect was even smaller.

These three kinds of poisons were the substitutes for Falling into the Mortal World that Lu Jing could find from Dongmen Weilan. Dongmen Weilan refined a hundred of each according to his requirements.

However, because he had been busy solving the troubles of secret force, he had thrown them under the bed after receiving them and let them gather dust, until now that he had freed up his hands to start experimenting.

Lu Jing sat down cross-legged, first swallowed a Soul-melting pill into his mouth, and then swallowed it down to his abdomen along his throat. After waiting for a while, the Shenque area began to react.

Lu Jing could feel that the internal force there was indeed decreasing, but the speed was not fast, about the same as when he used his martial arts with all his strength. Other people in there would probably be very panicked.

Because this meant that as long as you were poisoned, the consumption would be doubled when fighting with others, or even if you didn't fight, you couldn't recover your internal force. Instead, the internal force in your dantian would become less and less.

However, Lu Jing was not very satisfied with this consumption rate. His meridians had been transformed by the Rat Tail Soup, becoming particularly tough and wide, which also made his Qi recovery speed amazingly fast.

Therefore, although the internal force in Lu Jing's dantian was being dissolved by Soul-melting, the Ren and Du meridians automatically circulated, and the continuous internal force generated replenished this consumption by 70-80%. The final result was that after an hour, the internal force in Lu Jing's dantian had not lost even one-tenth of it.

This made Lu Jing quite disappointed. After inspecting his dantian, he shook his head and turned his attention to another package of Bone-corroding.

Although Bone-corroding had a similar effect to Soul-melting, the duration was much longer than Soul-melting. A full two hours had passed, and the internal force in Lu Jing's body was still decreasing. However, in contrast, the speed at which Bone-corroding consumed internal force was even slower, only half of Soul-melting.

And this little bit of internal force consumption was obviously not enough to meet Lu Jing's needs. His Ren and Du meridians circulated once, and automatically filled the gap.