As for the large yellow dog with a fierce look in its eyes, Xia Liu was unmoved.
With just a glance, he almost scared the dog to wet itself.
In the end, it descended from the chair with its tail down.
Avoiding eye contact with Xia Liu, for fear that its soul would be shaken again.
Xia Liu showed no interest in that chair.
He was contemplating how to deal with the failed pills Du Yan had entrusted to him today.
After Xiao Ling left last night, Xia Liu extracted the three poison pills he had swallowed into his stomach.
While Xia Liu was daydreaming, the door suddenly opened.
It was Xiao Ling, walking out holding a porcelain plate.
On it were five pills.
They were all normal pills with a yellowish hue.
And there was some fragrance to be found on them.
"Try these, apprentice, and tell me the changes in your body."
As she spoke, a hint of reluctance flashed across Xiao Ling's eyes.
Medicine is three parts poison.
Especially when the pills haven't been tested by any authority or even proven successful.
Xia Liu, a mere mortal, consuming these pills.
It's imaginable that he would have only three outcomes in the future.
Either be poisoned to death.
Or his body would mutate, becoming something unusual.
Or he would decay, becoming a mindless being.
Every day, he must try different pills, experiencing different effects.
Even a cultivator at Qi Cultivation stage six wouldn't dare as he did.
However, Du Yan, inside the room, was watching. If there was a hint of concern for Xia Liu in his words,
he feared he would become a test subject like Xia Liu. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
Xia Liu nodded and began to pick up and swallow the pills on the porcelain plate.
Once the effects manifested, he would explain what changes and effects there were.
These five pills were all the same—first-grade pills that helped cultivators stabilize their inner breath.
As for their name, Xia Liu did not know.
Half an hour later, Xiao Ling returned to the pill room with the porcelain plate.
And so, the entire day, Xia Liu was in a cycle of swallowing pills and explaining their effects.
As for the failed poison pills, he also swallowed them.
Since Du Yan wasn't constantly using her divine sense to monitor, Xia Liu easily controlled the poison pills.
He would extract them once he got home.
He didn't have the courage to try the poison pills.
Who knew what side effects they might have.
That day, Xia Liu hadn't a clue what Du Yan took; she was refining pills from morning until afternoon.
Xia Liu counted, and he had eaten a total of twenty complete pills.
And ten poison pills.
Imagine the workload.
Upon returning, Xiao Ling finally told him.
It turns out Du Yan had taken a Qi-returning pill.
It's a pill that can recover spiritual energy.
More convenient to carry than spirit stones.
A single Qi-returning pill would restore some spiritual energy within.
More effective than spirit stones.
However, such pills are not cheap.
They are nearly equivalent to spirit stones.
Five spirit stones for one Qi-returning pill.
The spiritual energy restored by a single Qi-returning pill could require three to five spirit stones to match.
The price is high because they are easy to carry.
The Kunwu Realm and Huaxia are the same; not everyone can own a storage ring.
Even a storage bag is the same.
Ordinary families haven't even seen such high-level items.
In the era of the Last Law, these magical artifacts and spiritual artifacts were no longer produced.
The existing storage bags and rings were preserved from the Cultivator Era.
One could say, if one is lost, the world has one less.
However, these items almost never break.
If they are missing, it's only because they are hidden, undiscovered.
He was also very expectant.
If he could have a thousand Qi-returning pills, with his current cultivation, he could even contend in the Beast Taming Sect.
Once possessing an endless supply of spiritual energy, even Foundation Establishment Stage wouldn't be a challenge.
Unfortunately, the price of Qi-returning pills made Xia Liu hesitant to proceed.
Five supreme-grade spirit stones for a single Qi-returning pill.
The spirit stones in his storage only allowed for at most sixty pills.
Sixty pills might only be enough for a single recovery of cultivation.
Far from enough, far from enough.
Xia Liu planned and calculated, determined that one day, he would become an alchemist and refine his own Qi-returning pills with confidence.
Xia Liu had been with Du Yan for ten days.
In those ten days, his daily work was almost identical.
Swallow pills, explain, play with the dog, go home and sleep.
From thirty pills a day, he eventually tasted forty.
Among these forty pills, at least thirty-eight were poison pills.
That day, Xia Liu was truly frightened.
If those thirty-eight poison pills exploded inside him, even Qi Cultivation stage thirteen wouldn't be enough to handle.
He couldn't even imagine the damage those poison pills would cause to a cultivator's body.
As for the reason behind the thirty-eight poison pills, Xia Liu learned from Xiao Ling.
Du Yan was attempting to break through to a second-grade alchemist.
Thus, those poison pills were the result of failed second-grade pill refinements.
The damage caused by failed second-grade pills is far greater than that of first-grade pills to a cultivator.
So, after understanding the situation, Xia Liu was even more determined not to let the poison pills dissolve inside him.
This kind of day continued for half a month until a turning point arrived.
That day, just as usual, Xia Liu went to the door of the pill room.
Only to encounter Great Elder Du En at the door.
Du En's eyes were half-closed, looking as if he was asleep.
No one knew how long he had been standing there.
Perhaps he had arrived the previous night.
Du En did not speak, and Xia Liu dared not make any indication.
So he stood nearby, waiting.
"Haha! It's finally done! It's finally done!"
Suddenly, an excited laughter echoed from within the pill room.
Xia Liu recognized it as Du Yan's voice.
If he guessed correctly, she was in a good mood, likely due to an achievement in alchemy.
She must have broken through to the second-grade alchemist realm.
Great Elder Du En murmured softly, then sat on a nearby chair.
Seeing this, Xia Liu couldn't help but find it amusing.
Yesterday, that large yellow dog had left a mess on the chair, which he later flicked away with a branch.
Du En was effectively sitting on... well, you know.
Du En didn't notice the change in Xia Liu's expression.
Because he never paid attention to Xia Liu.
A mere mortal wasn't worth his focus.
That day Xia Liu didn't try any pills.
But the atmosphere made him feel anxious.
The old man was sitting there.
If Du Yan brought out poison pills, he would have to swallow them in front of the elder.
This old man had a cultivation of Qi Cultivation stage fourteen.
If he dared to move any spiritual energy, the elder would definitely notice.
If his identity was exposed, that would indeed be a disaster...
While Xia Liu was anxious.
The doors of the pill room swung wide open.
A beaming Du Yan walked out.
Behind her, Xiao Ling carried a tray with ten scarlet pills on it.
Seeing those ten pills of a different hue than before, Xia Liu shivered involuntarily...