Disgrace! Utter disgrace!
I, the dignified last Saintess of the Jiuli Immortal Sect, a former Great Ability of the Emergence Stage. How dare a mere, broken alchemy furnace look down on me? An outrageous insult to my very spirit!
After many consecutive days of alchemy, Jiang Yourong’s spirit power was already overdrawn. Now, being scorned by an alchemy furnace made her very spirit fade even further from the rage.
"I... I cannot bear this grievance!" Enraged to the brink of explosion, Jiang Yourong turned and gazed at Jiang Ling’er with a ghostly look. "Ling’er, what did you just see?"
What did I see? I saw Auntie, your alchemy... HISS...
The naive girl was about to answer when her eyes met Jiang Yourong’s, sending a shiver down her spine. "I didn’t see anything! I... I saw nothing at all."
Auntie... Auntie... Auntie... She’s so terrifying right now! Senior Brother, save me!
Just then, there was a knock on the courtyard door, and Wang Xiu’s voice was heard. "Senior Jiang, Ling’er, are you both okay?"
Jiang Yourong was startled, but before she could react, the young girl next to her had already dashed toward the door as if flying, her face bright with joy as she opened it. "Senior Brother! Where have you been? Ling’er missed you so much!"
I really did miss him. With Senior Brother away these past few days, I had to accompany Auntie in her alchemy. The constant explosions and moments of terror... my poor heart nearly shattered from fright. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NovᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet
"Well, well..." Wang Xiu patted Jiang Ling’er’s little head and smiled. "You’ve already reached the second layer of the Foundation Establishment Stage so quickly. It seems Ling’er has been cultivating hard these days!"
Beaming after being praised by Wang Xiu, Jiang Ling’er’s eyes crinkled into a smile. "Of course! It’s all thanks to the two white rabbits Senior Brother gave me. They’ve been a great help."
With that, Jiang Ling’er performed a hand seal, summoning two snow-white rabbit spirits. One was captured by Wang Xiu using the Soul Arresting Curse; the other was caught by Jiang Yourong herself, who then had Wang Xiu refine it.
The white rabbits, initially only the size of a palm, had now grown to over two feet long, truly deserving the name ’great white rabbits’. Moreover, the aura emanating from them was not weak; each one was above the Foundation Establishment Stage. Under Jiang Ling’er’s control, their combat power should be considerable.
To have raised two Soul Pets so well in such a short time, not to mention her high affinity with them, proved that Jiang Ling’er’s talent in the Soul Dao was incredibly strong.
She’s truly the hope of the Jiuli Immortal Sect!
Wang Xiu caressed one of Jiang Ling’er’s big white rabbits. It was soft and felt very nice to the touch. "Junior Sister, I just saw a divine light flying out from your courtyard."
Jiang Ling’er began, "Oh, that divine light was—"
"It was a meteor!!!" Jiang Yourong interrupted, speaking with righteous conviction. "That was a meteor! Yes, a meteor!"
"A meteor?" Wang Xiu asked with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. "Are you sure it was a meteor, and not an alchemy furnace?"
An alchemy furnace? The corner of Jiang Yourong’s mouth twitched. If this boy finds out I’ve blown up the furnace seven or eight times in a row—that even the alchemy furnace itself disdained my incompetence and ran away from home—wouldn’t he tell his master? That girl Luo Binglan would be laughing in her grave for the next seven or eight hundred years!
Thinking this, Jiang Yourong huffed, "What alchemy furnace? It was just an ordinary meteor."
Wang Xiu pressed, "Then that thunderous crack from the ground wasn’t the sound of a furnace exploding?"
Jiang Yourong puffed out her chest and retorted, "Of course not! That... that was the earth-shaking sound of my cultivation level breaking through!"
[Detected someone bragging. Congratulations to the Host for gaining Mana +66.]
Wang Xiu’s lips curled up slightly. "But that divine light looked an awful lot like the Yunhua Furnace that Ling’er found, the one belonging to Alchemy Master Yunhua!"
Jiang Yourong’s old face flushed, and she snapped in angry embarrassment, "You must have seen wrong! Alchemy Master Yunhua’s Alchemy Furnace has always been right here with me. How could it possibly fly out? Impossible, simply impossible!"
Wang Xiu put on a troubled expression. "Could I ask Senior to please check again?"
Jiang Yourong waved her hand grandly. "No need to check! What’s there to check? The Yunhua Furnace is with me, and not even a Great Luo Immortal could take it away!"
[Detected someone bragging. Congratulations to the Host for gaining Mana +66.]
"Oh..." Wang Xiu nodded slightly and sighed. "Then the pill furnace I picked up at the gate must not be the one Senior Jiang lost. It probably just looks similar, that’s all!"
Indeed. Wang Xiu had just been in his secret chamber, absorbing the experience card for the Supreme Soul-Nourishing Elixir. His body naturally began to radiate the divine charm of the Alchemy Dao, and he entered a state of near-oneness with heaven and earth. It was then that he detected a certain consciousness. The form of this consciousness was hazy and its intelligence was low, but Wang Xiu could roughly understand the meaning it was trying to convey.
Save me! Save me! Save me!
After Wang Xiu finished absorbing the experience card and stepped out of his small courtyard, the Orchid Courtyard next door exploded. The Yunhua Furnace shot out, spun a full 3,600 degrees in the sky, and pounced right in front of him.
It looked utterly pitiful.
After all, what kind of alchemy furnace could withstand exploding with every single concoction? Its insides were about to get blasted into ulcers!
Looking at Wang Xiu holding the shrunken Yunhua Alchemy Furnace with a smile on his face, Jiang Yourong was overwhelmed with an endless tide of shame. If she weren’t a spirit floating in the air, she would have cringed so hard her toes could have carved a three-bedroom apartment out of the floor.
"Master, be careful!" The Immortal Slaying Sword on his back trembled lightly, and Nie Linglan’s voice rang in Wang Xiu’s ear. "I sense resentment! A very, very thick resentment! This spirit is extremely fierce; you must be on your guard!"
Finally, Jiang Yourong could take no more.
"You rotten brat! I’ll fight you!" she roared, lunging at Wang Xiu with her hands like claws.
Unfortunately, the Wang Xiu of today was no longer the third-layer Foundation Establishment weakling he once was. He was now a mighty cultivator at the second layer of the Core Formation Stage. A mere Great Power Remnant Soul could be suppressed and teased with a flick of his finger!
With one hand, he easily suppressed the flailing Jiang Yourong beneath his palm. He smiled. "So, while I was gone, Senior Jiang has been refining elixirs this whole time?"
Jiang Ling’er nodded honestly. "Yes. The furnace exploded nine times."
Wang Xiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Nine explosions in four or five days—no wonder the alchemy furnace ran away from home. Spiritual Artifacts have their dignity too. Who could stand having their stomach churn like that every day?
So be it. If he let Senior Jiang continue on , she would just be wasting the Yunhua Alchemy Furnace and so many spirit herbs. I should help her out.
"Senior Jiang is only a remnant soul, so your spirit power is greatly diminished," Wang Xiu said with a smile. "If you were at your peak, I believe that with your skill, Senior, refining the Jiuli Soul Nourishing Pill would have been an effortless task."
"Of course!" Jiang Yourong sniffed, turning her head away.
"But for now," Wang Xiu said, "allow me to handle it for you!"
He smiled as he placed the Yunhua Alchemy Furnace on the ground and looked at Jiang Ling’er. "Ling’er, do you have these eighteen spirit herbs? Buyao Flower, Eternal Parting Grass, Age-burning Vine, Pill-mark Frost..."
Jiang Ling’er nodded. "Refining the Jiuli Nourishing Soul Pill requires twenty-seven types of spirit herbs. Of the eighteen you mentioned, eleven are among them. As for the other seven, I saw plenty in Alchemy Master Yunhua’s herb garden and picked quite a few."
Wang Xiu nodded slightly. "Give me a few portions of each."
Give you a few portions?
Jiang Ling’er stared for a moment, then dutifully took out the herbs one by one. "Senior Brother, you know alchemy too?"
Wang Xiu smiled modestly. "I don’t know much about other elixirs. But as for the Supreme Soul-Nourishing Elixir... you could say I know a little."