Everything was settled, and Ye Qingcheng was hungry. After lunch, she had been busy going to the ruined temple and buying things, so it was normal to be hungry.
"Alright! Get up! Hurry up and go make food, I'm hungry!" she said, standing up first and walking outside.
"Miss, we'll do it! You rest!" Luoluo and Qingluo, the two maids, quickly stood up and followed her out with smiles.
"You two cook! I'm going to feed the sheep! I'm counting on them to feed my little tiger babies!" Ye Qingcheng waved her hand without looking back and walked out of the courtyard.
As for Mo Li, who was left behind to protect Ye Qingcheng, he and the Mo Team members had been secretly following her all day, which was truly exasperating.
This little girl, going to the beggar's den and buying goats, was quite busy, and she even brought back two little beggars.
Just as he was thinking this, the little girl he was complaining about walked out, said something while looking back, and the two little beggars she brought back headed toward the kitchen, while she herself walked outside.
He didn't know what she was planning to do next, so he could only reluctantly follow secretly.
Ye Qingcheng walked toward the mountain behind them, humming a song as she went. This was because she had ordered the two maids to kill and stew the big rooster so that she could eat meat as soon as she returned with the herbs.
Mo Li didn't understand her joy and followed her up the mountain doubtfully. This girl was skipping along toward the mountain again; he wondered what she would pick up this time.
However, he worried for nothing. Ye Qingcheng honestly just picked herbs and walked back, not looking around at all.
The main reason was that she was hungry and didn't have the energy to mess around. Otherwise, having finally reached the mountain—even if it was just the foot of the mountain—she would have looked for little rabbits or something.
When she returned, the two maids hadn't finished making the meal yet. After feeding the sheep, she went back to her room, locked the door, and entered the Medicine Garden Space.
She hadn't had a chance to properly examine the new changes in the Medicine Garden Space. Today had been so busy, and she finally found an opportunity.
That peculiar tree was still growing there, only taller than before, with no other changes.
Ye Qingcheng walked toward the small bamboo house; she needed to properly study that Alchemy Furnace.
She had bought all the medicinal materials today—over eight hundred taels of silver! She didn't know if she could refine them into pills. If she couldn't, she would cry to death.
Over eight hundred taels of silver! That was enough for her to eat at Taoran Residence for several meals.
As soon as she entered the Bamboo House, she noticed something was off. She looked left and right but couldn't pinpoint what was wrong, so she just walked in.
After circling the Alchemy Furnace several times, she still didn't know how to open it. But after a few laps, she discovered a clue: this Alchemy Furnace was clearly smart, with a Smart Screen on the side that had many buttons with text on them, as well as a stopwatch.
"Is this thing this advanced? Anyone can operate it, right?" Ye Qingcheng muttered to herself. "The medicinal materials are so expensive. What if I refine the pills but can't sell them for such a high price? Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"
Ye Qingcheng kept feeling the pinch of the eight hundred taels of silver spent on medicinal materials, fearing the pills wouldn't fetch a good price...
But then she remembered that the cold-faced Master had two subordinates who were missing limbs. If she couldn't sell the refined pills, she could just sell them to them; that would at least recoup some of the cost.
At that moment, she didn't think at all about how she would find the big suckers she was muttering about.
Lost in thought, she saw the words "Open Furnace" and pressed it.
"Hello, Master! Please select the name of the pill you wish to refine!"
"Oh my goodness, what is that?" Ye Qingcheng was startled by the intelligent voice. She jumped back two meters, looking around to find the source of the sound, but couldn't. She walked back to the Alchemy Furnace, and only when she saw the text on the Smart Screen did she snap back to reality—it was the voice from the Alchemy Furnace's intelligent System.
She saw that the Muscle Regeneration Pill was indeed a beginner-level pill. After she selected the Muscle Regeneration Pill, the pill recipe appeared on the screen, and the intelligent System spoke again.
Intelligent System: "Hello, Master, please confirm if the medicinal materials are prepared! Click confirm after confirming!"
Ye Qingcheng glanced at the pill recipe on the Smart Screen; she had indeed prepared everything, so she clicked confirm.
"Please begin pill refining! Step one, please place the Ice Muscle Fruit inside!"
Ye Qingcheng had no choice but to operate according to the System's instructions.
She found the Ice Muscle Fruit among the medicinal materials she had bought. As the Ice Muscle Fruit was thrown into the Alchemy Furnace, the furnace lid closed.
Then the Smart Screen displayed a countdown of two hours.
Ye Qingcheng looked at the time and felt speechless. Just one medicinal material required two hours; how long would it take to fuse all the materials and refine the pill?
Moreover, she had seen on the pill recipe that one needed to master the heat control and precisely manage the time—not a single second could be off, or the furnace might explode.
She suddenly wondered if other Alchemists also had such intelligent Alchemy Furnaces? One that could precisely control time and heat—she basically wouldn't have to do anything except add the medicinal materials according to the instructions.
However, although two hours passed in the Space, less than a minute passed outside.
Ye Qingcheng was bored waiting for the time to pass, but she was afraid to leave and not return in time. So, she took a stroll around the Space. She saw the small Spring Water in front of the Bamboo House bubbling away and couldn't resist walking over to drink a few mouthfuls.
She suddenly realized that before drinking the water, she had been extremely hungry, but now she couldn't feel the hunger anymore.
She was amazed to discover that drinking this Spring Water in the Space made one no longer hungry and unaffected by the flow of time.
After drinking the water, she went to tour the Medicinal Field again. Her precious medicinal materials were full of vitality, seeming even greener and lusher than in her previous life.
She ran over to look at the newly grown colorful trees; they were already taller than her, and the leaves with beautiful colors looked like colored crystals.
She studied them for a while but couldn't figure anything out. When the time was almost up, she ran back toward the Bamboo House.
She arrived just in time; there were still two minutes left until the time was up.
The Smart Screen already displayed what medicinal material to put in next, allowing her to prepare in advance.
Not long after she dug out the medicinal materials for the second step from the pile, there was a ding, and the Alchemy Furnace opened.
She quickly threw the materials in, and the furnace lid closed automatically again.
The Smart Screen displayed that this time required even longer: five hours.
It must be that the fusion of the medicinal materials required time. The main ingredient for the Muscle Regeneration Pill was the Ice Muscle Fruit, so it was placed in first, followed by gradual fusion and reorganization with other medicinal materials, and only after all materials were fused could the pill be refined.
Ye Qingcheng thought that she didn't know how many minutes five hours translated to outside. Staying here to pass the time was too boring, so she flashed to her room but didn't dare stay long, returning to the Space after pausing for less than two minutes.
Seeing that there was still over an hour left on the Smart Screen, she had somewhat grasped the rules of this Space.
It should be that one hour equals half a minute, meaning one Shichen equals one minute. Calculating this way, a full day of twenty-four hours would only be twelve minutes outside. A day passing in the Space meant only twelve minutes had passed outside. Therefore, a year in the Space would only be a little over three days outside, about seventy-three hours.