“You… practice Elixir Crafting like this?!”
Feng Li and Feng Su fell into simultaneous silence.
Song Liuhua looked innocent. “Yes.”
“Is it possible that Elixir Crafting requires attention to the sequence of adding medicinal ingredients?” Feng Su said calmly. “And the spiritual fire—its intensity must be carefully controlled.”
Song Liuhua: “…”
“Maybe I’m just special?”
Feng Li and Feng Su were speechless.
Sure enough, half an hour later, Song Liuhua’s Elixir Crafting failed. With a loud “bang,” a plume of black smoke erupted from the cauldron.
Feng Li hesitated for a moment, her small face slightly furrowed, and said, “Madam, would you like me to teach you Elixir Crafting?”
Song Liuhua readily agreed. “Sure.”
Two hours later, Feng Li and Feng Su crouched before a pile of black ashes, utterly speechless.
At first, only Feng Li was teaching. The first batch failed quickly. Unable to stand by, Feng Su stepped in during the second batch, meticulously controlling every step. Yet, it still ended in failure. They were attempting the simplest Blood-Stopping Powder, which didn’t even require pill condensation. In total, they tried four batches, and all four failed.
Song Liuhua comfortingly patted their shoulders. “You taught very well; I’m just too incompetent.”
Feng Li and Feng Su smiled awkwardly.
The midday meal was similar to the previous day’s. Feng Yin, the master chef, had bought two bunches of greens from some children and prepared a balanced meal of meat and vegetables for the three of them. Feng Li took a bite of the fragrant and spicy spicy rabbit, her eyes narrowing into crescents.
She stole a glance at Song Liuhua and secretly lamented, “She’s so skilled at catching rabbits, so why can’t she succeed in Elixir Crafting?”
After lunch, Song Liuhua returned to the flying boat to rest for a while. By the time she arrived at the refining room, Feng Li and Feng Su had already completed two batches of spirit replenishing pills.
But Song Liuhua had no intention of continuing Elixir Crafting. She still had some Artifact Crafting materials that Feng Ci had given her a few days ago, and she planned to use them all.
Thus, Feng Li and Feng Su witnessed the following scene: the madam, who had been practicing Elixir Crafting with them that morning, now strode directly over to the Artifact Crafting area.
Feng Rou, Feng Liu, and Feng Xuan glanced over but paid little mind. The scene of her Elixir Crafting that morning was still fresh in their memories. Despite Feng Li and Feng Su’s prolonged teaching, she hadn’t even managed to craft the simplest Blood-Stopping Powder. Her aptitude was clearly exceptionally poor.
After a brief look, they returned to their own tasks. With so many Spirit Swords damaged daily, their workload of repairing them was heavy, leaving little time to concern themselves with others.
Song Liuhua pursed her lips and took out her Refining Cauldron.
She arranged the Spirit Jade Coins, rolled up her sleeves to reveal her snow-white wrists, and began tossing various Artifact Crafting materials into the Refining Cauldron. She controlled the fire—both high and low—with considerable casualness, occasionally throwing in some spiritual medicine along the way.
Before long, two soft thuds sounded nearby as Feng Rou and Feng Liu failed in their Artifact Crafting. Song Liuhua’s Refining Cauldron, however, remained undisturbed.
Feng Xuan lifted the lid of her cauldron to reveal dozens of second-grade Spirit Swords, all fully repaired. Their dark, ancient-looking hilts felt heavy and substantial, while the silver blades gleamed with a cold, icy light, reminiscent of the mystical ice weapons from martial arts novels.
Of course, the Spirit Swords in this world were far more powerful than those. A single second-grade Spirit Sword, wielded by a second-tier Martial Spirit Master, could instantly split a tree trunk as thick as a person. Only those thick-skinned Exotic Beasts could withstand such a sharp weapon.
Song Liuhua suddenly recalled a second-grade Spirit Sword her former fiancé had exchanged for her. Disgusted that it had been used by that scoundrel Xie Huai Sheng, she had tossed it into a corner and forgotten about it.
She retrieved it from her storage bracelet and directly tossed it into the Refining Cauldron. After a moment’s thought, she took a third-grade Gale Grass from the basket of spiritual medicine Feng Ci had given her that morning and threw it in as well.
Feng Xuan sheathed her Spirit Sword and placed dozens of broken Spirit Swords into the Refining Cauldron, a mocking smile curling at the corners of her lips.
What kind of taste did the Fourth Young Master have? How could he fancy such a woman? She was a failure at Elixir Crafting, and her Artifact Crafting was just reckless messing around. When the family head assigned him his own branch, all he got were hundreds of old, weak, sick, and disabled disciples—nothing else.
Given how this woman squandered resources, no amount would ever be enough to fill the bottomless pit.
As for herself, if not for wanting to seize this opportunity to gain more resources and advance further, she would never have followed a Fourth Young Master destined for obscurity.
She glanced sideways, her sneer deepening. No matter how this woman wasted things, it was none of her concern. She only needed to advance to a fourth-rank Artifact Refiner before turning eighteen to enjoy the privileges of a direct descendant of the Feng family. By then, her status would naturally soar, and she could obtain any resources she desired.
Feng Rou and Feng Liu didn’t overthink things. With their mediocre talent, and their fathers and brothers having always served the Fourth Young Master, it was only natural that they followed their elder brothers in supporting him after their father passed away and the Fourth Young Master was assigned his own branch.
Watching Song Liuhua carelessly toss materials into the Refining Cauldron without a second thought for the resources, the two of them stared with envious eyes.
The waiting period was too dull. Song Liuhua brought out a table, chairs, the Little Ant Stove, Spirit Fruit Tea, and Spirit Fruit Cake. She snacked on the cakes, sipped tea, and lost herself in a storybook, occasionally adjusting the fire.
It was all very leisurely.
This evoked envy from Feng Li, Feng Rou, and the other two.
Feng Xuan worked even harder. She wanted to advance to the fourth rank as soon as possible so she could marry well and live such a comfortable life in the future.
She wasn’t jealous. Really.
After an unknown length of time, the Spirit Power within the Refining Cauldron gradually stabilized.
When she opened the cauldron, a palm-sized little Spirit Sword lay quietly at the bottom.
Silence was her companion that evening.
The miniature Spirit Sword was chubby, like a child’s toy. No matter how she fiddled with it, it showed no reaction whatsoever. A second-grade Spirit Sword worth ten thousand Spirit Jade Coins had been turned into a plaything by her efforts.
Song Liuhua could only exclaim, “Incredible.”
She needed to go out for a walk to soothe her wounded heart.
Song Liuhua packed up her assortment of items and quietly turned to leave.
The moment she stepped out, Feng Rou winked at Feng Liu and said, “Our lady is truly one of a kind. I’ve only ever heard of people repairing Spirit Swords into scrap metal, but never heard of one shrinking. That little thing—even my five-year-old nephew wouldn’t want to play with it.”
Feng Liu wiped the sweat from her forehead and tapped Feng Rou’s head. “Enough of that. Instead of gossiping about our lady, you’d be better off repairing a few more Spirit Swords. We’ve had a good haul this time; we’re sure to get a decent share.”
“No matter how our lady is, she did catch thousands of jin of Rabbit-like Beasts. Even if she ruins ten batches of refining now, no one would dare criticize her. If you don’t work hard, just wait until we get back and your elder brother grabs you by the ear and calls you an idiot.”
Feng Rou thought of her brother, who often bullied her, muttered a few complaints under her breath, and then obediently returned to her spiritual medicine crafting. Other people’s brothers cherished their younger sisters, but hers seemed determined to make her life miserable—swindling her snacks, pinning his mistakes on her—it happened all the time.
Feng Rou felt exhausted.
Song Liuhua, carrying a small shovel and a little basket on her back, followed a group of children into the forest.
“There are mushrooms!”
Someone spotted a cluster of wild mushrooms and exclaimed in surprise. Dozens of children immediately swarmed over with their baskets.
The little ones chattered excitedly, their small hands moving swiftly. Soon the cluster of mushrooms was completely picked clean, and they scattered just as quickly as they had gathered.
Song Liuhua moved closer to take a look. The ground where the mushrooms had grown was scraped bare by those little rascals.
Not a single one left to pick.