Chapter 24

Watching the twin ginseng being torn in half by Lu Xiaoding, the pale yellow ginseng juice flowed out from the broken parts. Then she licked it up and even stuffed the twin ginseng directly into her mouth and ate it.

Seeing her chew with a smacking sound, Lu Yaoyang hesitated to speak, finally frowning and asking, "Xiaoding, do you really have to use such a method to process the herbs?"

"Senior Sister, the twin ginseng tastes a bit bitter. I thought it would be sweet from its color," Lu Xiaoding said seriously, picking up the ginseng roots that had fallen on the table and putting them in her mouth, sucking on them with some dissatisfaction.

"Who asked about the taste? I just feel uncomfortable seeing you spit out the pills all the time," Lu Yaoyin rolled her eyes. Lu Xiaoding's method of refining pills was very special; she always swallowed the herbs and then spat out the pills. The pills didn't have any saliva on them, as if they had been poured from a bottle, but it always made people think of unpleasant things. Although she knew Lu Xiaoding was a spirit, even without a physical body, she would still refine herbs inside the cauldron, but it was different from seeing someone swallow herbs and then spit them out.

This time, Lu Xiaoding shook her head, picked up the other herbs she was refining, and continued to eat while speaking, "This time, I can't refine them gently. The pills I'm going to refine for you are not low-grade marrow-washing pills, but fifth-grade heavenly marrow pills. My own power is too weak, and I don't have a primordial spirit fire in my body, so I can only use the earth fire. After I finish eating, I'll go into the cauldron, and you just need to place it over the earth fire."

"You didn't tell the Master that you would enter the cauldron when the pills were almost done, but you've been in it all along?" Lu Yaoyang was taken aback, not expecting her to lie.

"At the time, the Master was very angry, and Senior Sister was injured, so I didn't dare to say I was in it all along," Lu Xiaoding rubbed her face, embarrassed. At that time, she was afraid of being scolded, so she didn't tell the whole story. Now, thinking about it, if the Master knew how the pills were refined, he would definitely scold her for being reckless.

Lu Yaoyang thought for a moment and said, "Don't tell anyone, just say you used the pill furnace. Otherwise, you might be locked in a cage and fed herbs to refine pills every day."

This scared Lu Xiaoding, and she looked at her in shock, "Like the little partners in the pill refining room, who can't run around and have to refine pills when told to!"

"Little partners?" Lu Yaoyang was stunned, then realized what she meant. Her "little partners" were the pill furnaces. To prevent her from telling others, she said menacingly, "Yes, when refining high-grade pills, you'll be tied up and roasted over the fire to ensure even heat, and you'll be turned constantly."

Lu Xiaoding's eyes widened, and she remembered the frog her senior sister had roasted, which was skewered through the middle and turned constantly over the fire. She quickly covered her bottom and said in panic, "I don't want to, that way of refining pills is too scary!"

Successfully scaring her, Lu Yaoyang said earnestly, "So, don't tell anyone the truth, or you'll end up like that furnace."

"Okay!" Lu Xiaoding nodded vigorously, thinking that becoming like that would be too terrifying, and it was better to refine pills the usual way.

After eating all the herbs, she took off her clothes and crawled into the cauldron, tightly closing the lid and lying down to wait for the earth fire.

Lu Yaoyang picked up the large cauldron and walked to the newly built pill refining room. The pills were still being refined in the Wu Yao Hall, and this room was for the future disciples of Yu Xiu. Now, there was only one disciple, Lu Dan, and no one was using it.

The large pill refining room was empty, with two hundred furnace pits divided into furnace rooms about two zhang wide, making it convenient for disciples to refine pills without being disturbed.

Afraid of being discovered by Lu Dan, Lu Yaoyang carried the cauldron to the innermost furnace room. Since they could use formations to create barriers, the furnace room had no door. She didn't have formation flags and didn't think about setting up a barrier, as the refining wasn't done by her, and a barrier would only draw more attention.

She placed the large cauldron containing Lu Xiaoding on the earth fire pit in the center of the furnace room and pushed the lever at the edge of the pit. The stone slab in the pit suddenly split and retracted to the sides, and a flame shot out, scorching her face.

The earth fire immediately enveloped half of the cauldron, and Lu Yaoyang retreated to a corner of the furnace room, sitting cross-legged to guard the refining process.

"Wow, the earth fire here is stronger than in the Wu Yao Hall. It seems a lot of effort was put into building this pill refining room, unlike the previous one which was just a makeshift setup." Lu Xiaoding immediately felt the difference inside the cauldron, with waves of heat surging in, making it hot.

Refining pills takes a long time, and she only needed to be involved when the herbs formed the pills. She closed her eyes to rest and sleep, using her body to sense the changes in the herbs.

The two of them stayed in the pill refining room, causing Lu Dan to be unable to find them, thinking they had run to the Shi'ai Peak. He couldn't understand why that man, Bai Zhen, was so attractive that even the cold Lu Yaoyang couldn't resist.

He had to find a chance to see what he looked like!

The refining of the heavenly marrow pills took a long time, and it was difficult to liquefy the twin ginseng with the earth fire. Lu Xiaoding stayed in the cauldron for seven days before feeling the herbs in her body completely dissolve. She opened her eyes, and a golden ball of herbal liquid flew out of her mouth, slowly rotating in front of her chest.

This was the most critical step in refining pills, forming the pill. Any mistake could ruin the herbs and the half-formed pill. She extended her hands on either side of the herbal liquid, controlling its formation.

The cauldron began to shake violently, making clanging sounds, alarming Lu Yaoyang who was guarding outside. She frowned and stared at the cauldron, knowing that the cauldron wouldn't move during the refining process, whether the pills were formed or not. This abnormality, as her Master had said, was a phenomenon during the formation of high-grade pills, known as "pill movement."

This was the moment that determined whether the pills could be refined, so she watched the cauldron nervously, fearing that Xiaoding would ruin the batch.

Suddenly, Lu Yaoyang noticed something was wrong. A bright line appeared at the mouth of the cauldron, becoming brighter and extending to other areas. She felt a sense of danger and stood up.

There was a loud bang, and a piece of the cauldron flew out, crashing into the stone wall of the furnace room. The shaking cauldron stopped, and a palm-wide gap appeared at the rim.

What happened!

Lu Yaoyang looked at the cauldron in shock, amazed that a cauldron with a spirit could break. Just refining a fifth-grade pill, the quality was too poor, it was a substandard tool!

Inside the cauldron, Lu Xiaoding spat out a mouthful of blood at the moment the cauldron broke. The herbal liquid, which was in the process of forming, became unstable and almost scattered. Her blood, however, stimulated the herbal liquid, causing it to spin rapidly. The herbal liquid turned into smoke as it spun, and the amount that could have refined three pills quickly disappeared, enveloped by white smoke.

After a moment, the white smoke dissipated, revealing a pale golden pill. Lu Xiaoding opened her mouth and sucked the pill into her stomach, then covered her stomach and looked up at the broken part.

Lu Yaoyang had already approached the cauldron but didn't dare to act rashly, trying to use her spiritual sense to check the inside. However, her cultivation was limited, and her spiritual sense couldn't penetrate the cauldron without touching it. She tried to look through the gap but couldn't see inside due to the earth fire burning around the cauldron. She bit her lip and suddenly thought of someone, calling out softly, "Senior, Senior, are you there?"

"What are you shouting for!" As soon as she called, she heard the familiar voice in her mind, but the tone was increasingly unpleasant.

This was his home, and a large hole in it couldn't be ignored. Lu Yaoyang said, "Senior, the cauldron is broken."

"Of course, I know it's broken. Who let you be so reckless? Using this black iron cauldron to refine a fifth-grade pill, it was luck that you managed to refine the Ascension Pill last time, almost destroying the cauldron. This time, you've broken it outright. Luckily, you're so poor that you only have earth fire; if you used a bit of primordial spirit fire, the cauldron would have exploded into pieces." The senior, though living in the cauldron, showed no intention of helping, his tone full of contempt and ridicule.

Lu Yaoyang had to ask humbly, "Senior, what should we do now? Will this affect Xiaoding?"

"Are you not concerned about the effect on me? The young people these days have no respect for the elderly, they are so selfish." The senior was clearly unhappy, showing his dissatisfaction with the lack of concern for him.

"Senior, you are so powerful, how could such a small matter be difficult for you? From the strength you've shown, you must have been a tyrannical demon lord in the past," Lu Yaoyang said flatteringly.

In response to this flattery, the senior said coldly, "What tyrannical demon lord? Are you sick? It sounds so shallow."

Lu Yaoyang closed her mouth, thinking that from the senior's usual speech, his depth of character wasn't very high.

Seemingly satisfied with teasing her enough, the senior said casually, "Although a spirit can refine pills on its own, the body is still the body. If the cauldron is destroyed, although she has a physical body and won't die, her soul might suffer more damage, possibly turning her into a complete idiot."

"A complete idiot!" Lu Yaoyang was shocked. This was already troublesome enough, and if she turned into an idiot, it would be even worse. She asked anxiously, "Senior, what should we do?"

"Repair and upgrade it. Get some Heavenly Profound Iron or Heavenly Spirit Stone to refine the cauldron, at least turning it from a magical tool into a spiritual treasure." The senior provided a solution, but it was a tall order.

Lu Yaoyang asked expressionlessly, "Senior, I've never heard of the things you mentioned. Can we not aim for a spiritual treasure first? Can we set our goal at a magical tool?"

The senior was speechless, saying impatiently, "Really, how can you be so poor!"

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