Chapter 57

Zairen, Alivia, and Finns’ eyes widened exaggeratedly. Shifting their gaze back and forth between the roaring crowd and the easy-going woman they knew, they were completely stunned. She was dressed extremely dynamically, creating a comprehensively different aura - completely differently from when they had met her!

It was enough to take anyone’s breath away. Without even making a sound, she demanded attention and presence - one couldn’t help staring at her even if they tried. With the charisma demonstrated on stage, it was almost as if she was a different person! This was Captain Janor?

As they stared, they caught a glimpse of Jannie and Yinry to their side, who were both were screaming loudly along with everyone else in the laymen crowd. It seemed they were also big fans.

“Haha, thank you, thank you,” Captain Janor smiled and waved back with a sly smile that could move a person’s heart in an instant. With a charisma that overpowered the room, she gracefully strided over to the center of the stage, her dress effortlessly flowing behind her, and patted Sohar’s back. “Thanks so much, Sohar. I can take it from here.”

“Y-yes…!” Just as Captain Janor’s fingers touched Sohar’s back, he suddenly turned beet red, and stuttered out in assent. For the first time, it looked like he wasn’t so sure of himself - it looked he hadn’t been prepared for Captain Janor to make physical contact with him, and in his surprise, he was becoming flustered. Immediately, he bowed, and then immediately turned around and half-ran, half scurried off the stage.

Seeing this sight, many people laughed out loud. However, it was only in jest, as they understood that feeling. Many of them knew they would probably react the same way if they were put in that situation.

“Thank you very much, everyone,” Captain Janor laughed, the corners of her lips rising into little dimples on her face.

Some people cried out their love in response, some people jumping up and down and waving. Even master of wind Louron, who normally looked aloof, had his eyes fixated on her, completely enamored.

“Well, I guess I should now tell you all what makes these pills so special,” Captain Janor smiled and panned her entrancing gaze around the room, using her slender fingers to gesture toward the jade bottle in the box. “For many reasons, these are what Apothecary Shen called ‘miracle pills.’”

Buzzing loudly with excitement, the crowd gave an obligatory ‘ooh.’

Calmly raising her dainty hand, Captain Janor counted off with her fingers. “Firstly is potency.”

“Commonly, most good medicines have a potency of around %10. In our society, this is already considered very good, and is adequate to be effective in whatever purpose they are created for. In this example, these pills are healing pills, so in the case of a common wound, 10% potency healing pills might be able to ease pain, staunch bleeding, and facilitate recovery in the following days.”

“However, with higher potency, the effectiveness of the pill greatly increases. Yet, it’s notoriously difficult to increase the potency in medicine, and for a long time, even the best were stuck at around 25% potency.” She looked up, tapping the side of the glass box, and smiled.

“That is, until Apothecary Shen came along. After years of hard work and pure genius, she was able to greatly push the limits of what was thought to be possible. She is famous for being able to increase the potency of her pills to 40%. With a greater potency, the effectiveness exponentially increases, so Apothecary Shen’s healing pills might have more than 10 times the effectiveness of a common healing pill.”

A few impressed gasps came out of the crowd.

Captain Janor smiled and looked inquisitively around at the room. “Now, knowing this, can anyone guess what the potency of these mysterious pills are?”

Some people looked around, puzzled. Its potency? Could it really be even higher than Apothecary Shen’s 40%?

After waiting a few moments for the clamor to die down, Captain Janor casually let out the answer. “After extensive testing, its potency came out to 97%.”

“...!!!”

As soon as the words came out of Captain Janor’s lips, there was a fervor throughout the room as many people began to disbelievingly chatter.

“What?!” Jannie yelped out. He turned toward the other Black Cloud School students with a crazed expression on his face. “Did you hear that, guys? 97%! That’s unbelievable!”

“Yeah!” Everyone else agreed enthusiastically and amazedly. They couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at the jade bottle in the display box.

Despite everyone else’s reactions, Zairen didn’t look impressed, and even looked a bit uncomfortable.

Alivia and Finn stared in awe at Zairen, looking back and forth between him and Captain Janor.

“Yes, that’s right.” After letting the clamor die down, Captain Janor smiled and began speaking again. “Because of that, you can only imagine how potent the pills are. In fact, compared to an ordinary healing pill of 10% potency, it’s more than 100 times as effective!”

Another amazed gasp spread out throughout the crowd.

“Secondly,” Captain Janor continued to explain, raising and tapping the second finger on her hand. “Let me tell you the most amazing part. Because the pill is so expertly created, with such a high potency, Apothecary Shen told me that it has developed other miraculous properties beyond just a simple healing pill.”

The entire crowd settled down and became focused again, seeming to want to listen intently to Captain Janor’s next words.

She reset her fingers and raised them once more in count. “One, it has the ability to speed up the healing of all subsequent wounds received in the next few days.”

The crowd gasped.

“Two, the pill is also simultaneously a hunger satiation pill, a thirst satiation pill, and body regulatory pill, allowing one to go a long time in extreme environments without food or water.”

The crowd gasped louder.

“Three, while ordinary healing pills are limited in the scope of what they can treat, these pills can almost instantly heal anything from stabs to burns to frostbite to even many poisons and illnesses! That’s right, this pill can treat many common illnesses and can heal a variety of almost a hundred different simple poisons.”

“What?!!!” This time, the crowd couldn’t help but scream out loud. Hearing Captain Janor’s words, they found themselves truly flabbergasted. Everyone who had still been sitting immediately stood up and stared forward in incredulity. It was possible for one pill to do so many things? Such an amazing medicine really existed?

“That’s right, you heard me correctly.” Captain Janor couldn’t help but chuckle at the reaction. “It can heal almost any wound, many illnesses, and even a large amount of poisons. This is the ultimate survival-in-a-pinch pill! With something like this, you’re almost invincible! Trust me, nothing else like it exists in the world.”

Everyone in the crowd was incited by Captain Janor’s words and began loudly buzzing in excitement.

“Alright, you’ve waited long enough,” Captain Janor laughed. She turned toward the side, directing a question at someone standing there. “Sofar, take it from here?”

“Yes, thank you Captain Janor!” Sofar stepped out from the side of the stage, his usual confident demeanor back. It seemed that he had recovered back to his normal self. He gave a deep bow to Captain Janor. “Thank you so much for giving us this introduction.” He turned back toward the audience quickly, as if trying to avoid looking at Captain Janor.

“Now, you’ve all heard of the amazing properties of this miracle, life-saving pill! I know all of you are amazed. Some of you may have trouble believing it. But you have the Golden Rooster’s guarantee, as well as Captain Janor and Apothecary Shen’s!” He spoke with great assurance, emphasizing the reputation and reliability of the auction house. “We have three of them in this jade bottle here” - he gestured toward the bottle in the display box - “that we would like to auction today. That’s right, not one, but three almost mystical second-chance opportunities to save your life in a pinch.”

He paused for dramatic effect, and then spread his arms in a “tada” gesture and smiled at the audience. “Alright, without further ado, we’ll start the bidding. The base price will be… just 100 high grade spirit stones! 100 high grade spirit stones for three miracle pills! Any takers?”

“100 high grade spirit stones!”

“200!”

“300!”

“350!”

“450!”

“500!"

Instantly, the entire front of the room exploded in a flurry of bidding, everyone bidding so fast that they were almost talking over each other. They bidded so ferociously that people in the lower sections couldn’t but be taken aback.

“650!”

“700!”

“850!”

“900!”

“1000!”

Jaw dropped, Zairen stared at this spectacle numbly. He was completely shocked, completely and utterly shocked.

Staring at the group of rich people in the front passionately bidding on the three pills, he found that he didn’t understand. What was going on?

He slightly shook his head. In his opinion, the pills weren’t really anything special - they had just been casually created in a large batch, refined within minutes. The materials used wouldn’t cost more than a few copper coins!

Was medicine on this continent really this behind?

“1100!”

“1200!”

“1250!”

“1300!”

“1400!”

“1500!”

At that moment, a deep booming deep voice called out, cutting through all of the other noise - “2500.”

“!!!”

This voice overpowered everyone else, causing the room instantly became silent. Everyone paused their bidding and turned toward the source of the voice, which seemed to originate from the front section of the room.

As people saw who it was, a murmur spread out throughout the auction house.

“...that’s the great high minister Jokoran!” Yinry spoke out in surprise. Her eyebrows raised in intrigue.

“High minister Jokoran?” Jannie asked in confirmation. He shielded his eyes using his hand and also spotted the same person. “Oh, so it is! Yes, the powerful man himself. And with his daughter… Willow here beside him as well.”

As he said the name “Willow,” his tone of voice changed to include an inexplicable sense of empathy.

‘Hm?’ Zairen also looked over to the person who had bidded so highly on the pills. There was a large, black-haired man sitting imposingly at a table in the front of the room, at a table across from master of wind Louron’s. Sitting next to him, there was also a small graceful-looking black-haired girl in a blue silk robe, maybe 11-12 years old.

As soon as his eyes had landed on the girl, however, he paused his gaze. A moment later, he raised an eyebrow, as if intrigued by something.

“They want these healing pills…” Yinry mused, rubbing her chin. She gave a rueful smile. “It must be for Willow. Poor family… they must be desperate.”

“Yeah… it’s understandable. All the famed doctors and apothecaries, even apothecary Shen, were unable to solve her the mysterious stagnance of her spirit energy.” Jannie nodded in agreement. “They must be hoping that this mysterious miracle healing pill will be able to solve their problem.”

“Hm?” Zairen, who had been eavesdropping, suddenly turned toward in curiosity. “Mysterious stagnance of her spirit energy?”

“Yeah,” Yinry nodded sadly. “Everyone knows the story. Willow had been a genius, hailed as even the next coming of Captain Janor. Because of this potential, she was famed all across Rain Province.”

“She had everything: a powerful father, extremely pure spirit affinity, and god-like talent. At only the age of 9, her water-affinity spirit energy had already awakened. At the age of 10, she could already compete with most youths much older than her. At her prestigious Sunrise Academy, the state school of Sunrise City, she was given all of the resources and was considered to have the greatest potential. Yet…”

She paused, and the tone of her voice turned somber. “It seems that the highest-flying birds fall the hardest. For some unknown reason, last year, at only the age of 11, her spirit energy completely stopped growing, and even began to recede!”

Jannie nodded, confirming her story, and adding on: “It just seemed seemed to start to stagnate. No one knew why. 11 is the age when one is supposed to have the fastest-growing spirit energy! For her spirit energy to start stagnating at this age - there must be some big problem! There was no injury or anything. One day, it just stopped growing, and started shrinking. Even after many attempts from the best doctors to cure her, and a huge potential monetary award for someone who could figure it out, no one could discover what was wrong.”

“Monetary award?” Zairen’s ears suddenly perked up.

“Yes,” Jannie confirmed. “It’s a huge sum that many doctors have tried to take up, but to no avail. It seemed that nothing could be done, and it was incurable.”

He gave a deep sigh. “After that, her status fell, and many took advantage of her situation to disparage her. It’s a tragic story that I can relate to.” He paused to rub his cheek.

Seeing Jannie’s empathetic reaction, Horace hurriedly walked over and patted Jannie on the back. “Yes, but now you’re over that stage! Everyone has disparaged you, but now that your spirit energy is back, you can show them all!” He suddenly turned toward Zairen and also patted him on the back with his other hand, his face full of smiles. “All thanks to our miracle worker Zairen here!”

Zairen smiled humbly back.

In the previous week, after Jannie’s spirit energy had first restored, everyone had become in awe of Zairen after finding out he had helped Jannie restore his spirit energy. After having a celebration to congratulate Jannie, they had all given Zairen their thanks and now respected him on a whole another level. By now, they knew that he was something rare and special, despite his mundane appearance.

If they knew that he had been the one who had refined those miracle meridian-healing pills, not some mysterious elder, it was unknown what they would think.

Jannie shot Zairen a grateful look, but then stood up straighter and glanced back toward Willow. “Yes, that’s true. I just hope Willow can also find a solution to her problem. I know exactly how she must feel right now, to have previously been on the top of the world and suddenly have it all crashing down on you…” As he spoke, his voice developed a more and more turmoiled tone.

“Yes,” Yinry agreed quietly, patting Jannie on the back.

Zairen turned and looked back outward toward Willow. She was sitting in an uptight, almost uncomfortable pose, leaning against her father. She seemed to be anxious.

At that moment, Sohar suddenly came to his senses. “...2500 high grade spirit stones!” He exclaimed out, and glanced down at minister Jokoran with a expression of surprise. Then, he looked up and scanned around the rest of the room. “2500 high grade spirit stones! Does anyone have a higher bid?” He paused for a moment, and then immediately started the countdown. “Going once! Going twice! Going three times!”

The echoing remnants of Sohar’s voice ringing out, no one came forward.

After looking around for a few moments and making sure that nobody else was bidding, Sohar looked back toward minister Jokoran and smiled. “Alright, sold-”

“2550!” A juvenile voice suddenly shouted out.