Chapter 34

This attitude is too much, Lu Yaoxiang realized as she looked at her. If Lu Xiaodeng could say such things, it meant she had been on the Zhi Zhen List before, and perhaps she didn't get along with the ninth place. If she knew the name of her ding, she could find out who owned it.

Anyone who possesses such a treasure, no matter how deeply they hide it, will eventually be discovered. I should find an opportunity to investigate what's on the Zhi Zhen List, especially the owners of the top ten, who are all strange people.

This ding was auctioned by the sect leader from outside, but here in Lu Xiaodeng's hands, it has become a piece of junk, which made Yu Xiudan's mood drop significantly. He shook his sleeves and urged, "Xiaodeng, refine the Tianhe Dan."

Lu Xiaodeng silently looked up at the Ruyi Tian Dan Ding, with its dark golden body and countless cloud patterns, indeed very luxurious and ostentatious. Unfortunately, such an item is just an end-of-the-line product in the world of dings. If I had been there, I definitely wouldn't have bought such a thing.

"Stop daydreaming and start refining the dan." Seeing her standing there for a long time, Yu Xiudan, who was waiting to use the furnace, urged again.

Lu Yaoxiang had great confidence in Lu Xiaodeng. The dan she refined were all so good, even though she didn't use a ding. She probably wouldn't do too badly.

"Refining dan... " Lu Xiaodeng touched the Ruyi Tian Dan Ding and started to work. She threw the processed spiritual herbs into the ding in order, then released the earth fire, watching the flames engulf the ding. The other three frowned, thinking the fire was too strong.

Sure enough, as soon as the fire flared up, Lu Xiaodeng panicked and shouted, "Oh no, the fire is too strong!"

After she fumbled to reduce the fire, it became insufficient, so she had to make it stronger again. In the speechless silence of Yu Xiudan and the others, half an hour passed without Xiaodeng being able to adjust the fire.

Finally, she got angry, spat at the earth fire, and angrily threw her hands up, "I won't refine it anymore, this earth fire is bullying me!"

"You are just wasting things. After adjusting the fire for so long, the spiritual herbs inside are already ruined!" Yu Xiudan couldn't bear it anymore and shouted. Each spiritual herb was like a person he liked, and seeing them destroyed like this made him almost heartbroken.

Lu Xiaodeng stood with her hands behind her back, looking at him sideways, not knowing what to say. She felt very wronged. She wasn't using the cultivation method to refine dan, and she didn't have any divine sense or spiritual power to check the refining process. The fire didn't listen to her, so wasn't it normal for this to happen?

So she said unhappily, "Master, I didn't ask to refine dan, didn't you tell me to do it?"

"Where did your foundation-building dan come from!" Yu Xiudan asked angrily, unable to tolerate her backtalk.

Lu Xiaodeng subconsciously glanced at her senior sister. She had said not to tell anyone about her ability to refine dan, not even her master. What should she do now? Should she lie?

Yu Xiudan noticed her staring at Lu Yaoxiang and scolded, "What are you looking at your senior sister for? I'm asking you a question!"

At this moment, Lu Yaoxiang spoke up to help her, "Master, I refined the foundation-building dan. I can refine it for you to see, but the success rate is low. If you don't mind wasting, I can try."

"You refined it?" Yu Xiudan was stunned. Does Yaoxiang have a talent for refining? To verify that they weren't lying, he generously took out the spiritual herbs for Tianhe Dan and asked Lu Yaoxiang to refine it.

Lu Xiaodeng had never seen her senior sister refine dan. With the dan provided by herself, she hadn't put much effort into this. In recent years, her senior sister had ignored the refining room, even skipping the collection of dan, and spent her days secretly cultivating, pretending to be idle. Now, asking her to refine dan seemed like forcing a duck to climb a tree.

"Master, I think refining dan isn't just about talent, but about perseverance. Most people only use their divine sense to check the dan during the condensation and division stages, but that creates a problem. The state of the medicine before that is unknown, so one must use their divine sense from the moment the spiritual herbs are put into the furnace, to truly be a dan master." Lu Yaoxiang confidently walked to the Ruyi Tian Dan furnace, removed the medicine residue that Xiaodeng had ruined, and then threw the spiritual herbs in.

After closing the furnace lid, she sat down beside it, entering a meditative state. Her divine sense intertwined with the furnace, achieving the realm of mind-furnace unity, which made her completely forget where she was.

Yu Xiudan was somewhat surprised. This level of focus made him feel ashamed, as he hadn't been this focused during his usual refining. Only when refining particularly important dan would he fully immerse himself, achieving the realm of mind-furnace unity. Moreover, this method was very effective, allowing one to better grasp the timing and control the medicine by feeling its changes with mind and body.

Seeing this, he already believed that the dan on Lu Xiaodeng were refined by Lu Yaoxiang, and that she was just using Xiaodeng as a cover.

"Let's go out, don't disturb her refining." Seeing her enter a self-forgetful state, Yu Xiudan quietly called Lu Dan and Xiaodeng to follow him out.

Lu Xiaodeng thought for a moment and then followed her master out, watching the door of the refining room close.

After everyone left, Lu Yaoxiang slowly opened her eyes and thanked the empty refining room, "Thank you, senior, for your guidance."

Just now, to help Xiaodeng out of trouble, she had taken the blame for refining the dan. Seeing her master ask her to refine Tianhe Dan, she hesitated. As a long-time medicine child, she knew what she should do, but that was just on the surface.

Lu Yaoxiang's spiritual veins were not suitable for refining dan. In recent years, she had been cultivating techniques, leaving the refining tasks to the medicine children. To refine high-quality dan, relying on luck and prayer was not enough.

But unexpectedly, the senior who hadn't spoken for years suddenly spoke. The words just now were his, and Lu Yaoxiang was just repeating them, which also fooled Yu Xiudan. Now that Xiaodeng had taken the ding out, she couldn't continue talking to the senior.

"Truly strange, why does that senior always help me, while Xiaodeng, who is his host, never talks to him?" She couldn't understand this. Logically, if he wanted to take care of someone, he should choose Xiaodeng first. With his abilities, making Xiaodeng able to cultivate would not be difficult for him.

Moreover, there was one more important thing: Xiaodeng used to be his spirit, and they already knew each other. Given their different statuses, controlling Xiaodeng would be easy. Just look at the loyalty of sword spirits, who follow their masters' orders completely. If he said something, Xiaodeng would definitely listen.

But strangely, Xiaodeng never mentioned her former master, and the senior never talked to her, as if he didn't want her to know he was still alive.

Lu Yaoxiang couldn't help but suspect that these two had some secret. But thinking about Xiaodeng's initial foolishness, she couldn't be a woman entangled in love and hate. She couldn't figure out the reason.

Perhaps using divine sense to monitor refining was too boring. She took out the foundation-building dan and examined it carefully. The more she looked, the more she wanted to immediately break through to the foundation-building stage. Glancing at the furnace still slowly refining the spiritual herbs, Lu Yaoxiang, after a moment of silence, suddenly swallowed the foundation-building dan and began the breakthrough.

Refining Tianhe Dan usually takes sixteen hours. It's just a third-grade dan, so no one would wait outside for her. They all left.

Lu Xiaodeng went to the mountain forest of Tian Dan Peak again. Walking on the stone steps, she saw no one around and slipped into the bushes. She skillfully moved through the bushes, away from the medicinal fields, to a place where no one went.

To prevent people from stealing the spiritual herbs planted randomly in the mountains, those that could be transplanted were moved to the medicinal garden, while those that couldn't be moved were left in place, with restrictions set by the yuan ying stage masters. This allowed the herbs to grow without being picked.

There were spiritual herbs surrounded by array flags everywhere in the forest, a chaotic mix of everything. Just searching for and protecting them required the mobilization of almost all the yuan ying cultivators in the sect. It was unknown if anyone had stolen a few, but one could see a herb every few steps. When they grew to be hundreds of years old, Tian Dan Peak would be a treasure mountain.

Lu Xiaodeng circled around the forest and came to a stone crevice. The crevice was only as wide as a fist and slanted, looking like it could only fit insects.

She confirmed again that no one was around, then rummaged in the ding, found a small bottle, and pressed her face to the crevice, extending her hand into it.

Deep in the crevice, there was a strangely twisted spiritual herb, its branches growing along the slanted crevice, making it hard to recognize. But it was completely transparent, like crystal, with a severely bent body, emitting a faint light, clearly not an ordinary herb.

Lu Xiaodeng tilted the bottle in her hand, and three drops of dark green liquid fell onto the herb.

The herb, touched by such unclean things, trembled slightly, quickly absorbing the dark green drops. After eating, it swayed without wind, clearly expressing something.

"You can't eat too much, or you'll explode," Lu Xiaodeng ignored it, quickly pulling her hand out, capping the bottle, and putting it away.

Unexpectedly, the herb, noticing the bottle was gone, got angry. It shook more violently, even hitting the stone wall, causing some small stones to fall and hit itself.

Lu Xiaodeng giggled, sticking her face to the crevice and mocking, "What a fool, you're just hitting yourself with the stones. I'll come back tomorrow, but you really can't eat too much Lingju Liquid. Besides, you're not far from transforming, so stay hidden. Otherwise, if someone finds you, you'll end up being refined into dan."

Hearing her warning, the herb calmed down, knowing it wouldn't get Lingju Liquid tomorrow if it didn't.