Chapter 41

"Could I really look that bad? To the point where you think my spirit-gathering liquid is black." Qi Qi, who had a fierce and terrifying look, reined it in, lifted his chin, and said with a不服 (unwilling) tone.

Lu Xiaodeng smiled and said, "Because your true form is black, and your conscience is also quite black. The spirit-gathering liquid is the essence of the spirit, so if it's not black, would it be red?"

When he said his conscience was black, Qi Qi snorted and a hint of a smug smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He stretched out his hand in front of her. A faint crystalline light appeared in his palm, directly condensing into spirit-gathering liquid. The pale golden crystalline light grew more and more, and finally, it condensed into a drop of golden spirit-gathering liquid in his palm.

"Take it, don't underestimate me." He proudly flicked his finger, and the golden spirit-gathering liquid flew toward Lu Xiaodeng, who quickly caught it with a jade bottle.

Unexpectedly, Qi Qi's spirit-gathering liquid was actually golden, which surprised Lu Xiaodeng. However, to prove that his spirit-gathering liquid wasn't black, he actually condensed it right in front of her, which seemed quite childish.

She couldn't help but quickly glance at Qi Qi. She really couldn't tell; were all spirit cores this simple and foolish? If so, that would be great. Someone as smart as herself would have no trouble with these sword spirits.

Feeling a sudden sense of intellectual superiority, Lu Xiaodeng forgot one thing: in the entire Yunjian Sect, the biggest fool was herself. Now, she was secretly pleased with herself for being smarter than Qi Qi.

Seeing her strange smile, Qi Qi disdainfully said, "Why are you smiling so disgustingly? Hurry up and start refining what you said you would. It's already been a while."

"What's the rush? I need to think about how to start." Her good mood was ruined by him. Lu Xiaodeng gave him a dissatisfied look. Why was he rushing her? Without a pill formula, it wasn't easy to refine.

Although Qi Qi had never refined pills, he had seen it done many times. Even without a formula, one had to start refining. He tapped the table with his finger and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Quickly throw out the trash in your tripod and start refining the spirit-gathering liquid."

Lu Xiaodeng blinked and said, "What does my tripod have to do with it? There's no place to put the things inside. Since you're so eager, I'll try refining today, using this drop of yours."

"Without any confidence, can't you use something cheaper? My spirit-gathering liquid is at the Formless stage, which is much better than the Spirit Entry stage." Seeing that she wanted to use his to practice, Qi Qi immediately felt belittled and quickly tried to stop her. His spirit-gathering liquid should be used for the most important moments. Did she understand this at all?

"How can you be so stingy? You're too petty!" Lu Xiaodeng looked at him speechlessly. This guy was so strange; he was unhappy unless he was treated specially.

Thinking that the Formless stage spirit-gathering liquid was indeed much better, she put the bottle away and grabbed another one. This should stop him from complaining. She opened the bottle and saw a drop of light blue spirit-gathering liquid inside, and without a word, she tilted her head back and drank it.

Qi Qi paused for a moment and immediately frowned, "What are you doing?"

"Refining pills. Now that I have a physical body, I don't need to put it in the tripod. I can refine it directly in my stomach." After swallowing the spirit-gathering liquid, Lu Xiaodeng found his reaction exaggerated. For such a powerful sword spirit, couldn't he be a bit more composed?

At this moment, Qi Qi had only one thought: having a physical body was really great. But then he thought of something and asked, looking at Lu Xiaodeng's stomach, "If you succeed, how will you get the pill out? You won't be defecating it out, will you?"

"You're so dirty. Even though I have a physical body, I don't need to eat. After refining, I'll spit it out. What dirty things are you thinking about?" Lu Xiaodeng glared at him. This sword spirit was really annoying.

Hearing this, Qi Qi thoughtfully said, "Then there's something wrong with your physical body. It's different from humans. Even if they reach the stage of abstaining from food, they still drink tea or wine and eat some things that increase their spiritual power. Not eating or drinking for years would damage the body, even with spiritual protection. If you don't need to eat at all, isn't it just a physical form, essentially still a tripod?"

How would Lu Xiaodeng know about such things? At least, in her view, she was no different from ordinary people except for not feeling hungry. She said without thinking, "I do eat. I drink a lot of spirit grass soup every day, sometimes three meals a day. And I sleep. Why are you so fixated on eating? Even my senior sister didn't eat much before she reached the Foundation Establishment stage. Now, I guess she just drinks some spirit tea every day."

"Oh, why bring her up?" Qi Qi didn't care about his sword master's situation at all. Before he could suppress him, he wouldn't genuinely recognize her as his master. She was just a woman being used. Once he ate Lu Xiaodeng or found a way to refine the spirit-gathering liquid, he would get rid of that woman.

As a spirit core, he was completely disloyal. Lu Xiaodeng hated his attitude toward her senior sister and said fiercely, "You've seen me refine pills. Now you can leave my room. I'm going to take a bath and sleep. Don't stay here."

"Who wants to see you? You're so full of yourself." Even if Qi Qi had emotions, he would only be interested in female sword spirits. A tripod was completely different from a sword in shape, and he wouldn't do such an embarrassing thing.

So he turned to leave, but suddenly remembered something and extended his right hand, shaking it. "Now that we're not enemies, can you give me my finger back?"

Lu Xiaodeng looked at him carefully, paused for a few breaths, and then suddenly clutched her stomach, her brows furrowed in pain. "Oh no, my stomach hurts. It must be from eating some unknown grass. You go back first, I need to go to the toilet!" She bent over and ran to a nearby shelf, grabbed a book without looking at it, tore off two pages, and then rushed out the door.

Seeing her rush out, Qi Qi clenched his teeth and cursed, "Damn, you just said you don't have that need. You get diarrhea just because I ask for my finger back. Can't you come up with a different excuse?"

Unfortunately, Lu Xiaodeng pretended not to hear, clutched her stomach, and ran out of sight, clearly using the cycle escape technique to avoid returning his finger.

When she was far enough away and saw that Qi Qi wasn't chasing her, she stopped and looked at the paper in her hand. "Oh no, this is the travelogue I borrowed from Lu Dan. I'll stick it back together and return it to him. Qi Qi is so stingy. That finger only had a bit of divine soul, which was already absorbed. How can it be returned?"

She didn't want to talk to Qi Qi about this. That guy would probably say that if she couldn't spit it out, he could just eat a finger himself. For a sword spirit, losing a finger was no big deal. Even without consuming anything, Qi Qi could regrow a finger if he wanted to, since he had no physical form.

But Lu Xiaodeng was different. She had a physical body, and a missing finger wouldn't grow back.

To refine a pill that could enhance a spirit core, she would need to ask how cultivators transfer divine souls and other spiritual substances to spirit cores. This had nothing to do with refining pills and was more like the techniques of a treasure refiner.

She decided to ask a cultivator first. Lu Xiaodeng would go to her master, and if she couldn't get an answer there, she would seek out the elders or peak masters at the Yunjian Sect. The simplest way to meet them was to bring Lu Dan, who had learned many spells from various places like a beggar eating from many households. The Yunjian Sect would let him in just to see his face.

So she ran to find her master to ask him first.

Qi Qi, not getting any advantage from Lu Xiaodeng, turned his attention to Lu Yaohang. He found her meditating with her eyes closed and sat down beside her, huffing loudly.

Fortunately, Lu Yaohang was afraid of being disturbed by disciples, so she wasn't in deep meditation. She opened her eyes immediately when Qi Qi huffed and looked at him silently.

"Let's go out of the mountain," he said abruptly.

Lu Yaohang looked at him in confusion and asked, "Why go out? I'm not buying anything."

"What else? Lu Xiaodeng ate one of my fingers, so I need to make up for it. We'll go out and kill a few cultivators. Even if we don't get any treasures, I can absorb a bit of soul when they die. Although the effect isn't great, killing a hundred or so should make up for it." Qi Qi extended his right hand and gestured in front of her.

"No way." This guy must have the wrong sect. He was a completely evil sword spirit. How could he be in the Yunjian Sect? Lu Yaohang was speechless and firmly said, "This is Yunjian Sect territory, and we are a prestigious sect. We can't just kill people. Killing a hundred people? Do you think I'm stupid? Even without others, the Yunjian Sect would expel me."

Qi Qi said indifferently, "No problem. You can cover your face. There are spells that can change your appearance so no one recognizes you. Actually, if you just shrink your chest, no one will recognize you even if your face doesn't change."

Lu Yaohang immediately cursed coldly, "Get lost!"

"You're such a useless woman, you can't even do this! The Yunjian Sect is really degenerating, all of you have become tame animals." Qi Qi was furious that she refused.

"Listening to you is the real degeneration. Don't come here to bother me. If you don't want to listen to me, go play somewhere else." Lu Yaohang didn't give him a good face. Just because he was an ominous sword, he thought he was something special.

Women are women, so hard to talk to. Qi Qi didn't want to use his divine soul to regrow his finger. What was eaten should be replenished, that's what a sword master should do. If she didn't want to go out and kill, he would find a way to make her go out.

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