In the spacious side hall.
A petite figure sat cross-legged on the floor, concentrating intently, carefully sensing the Spirit Power in the air. After just a moment, a warm current seemed to flow through her body, and a cluster of orange-red flames leaped into her fair, tender palm.
Song Liuhua widened her eyes in astonishment, reaching out to grab at it—it wasn’t hot.
This was spiritual fire.
“Wasn’t it said that summoning spiritual fire is difficult? This seems pretty easy,” Song Liuhua muttered to herself.
“Next is ignition. Place the Spirit Jade Coins beneath the Refining Cauldron and light them…”
“Hiss—”
The moment the spiritual fire met the Spirit Jade Coins, it was like gasoline meeting a lighter, blazing up fiercely in an instant.
Song Liuhua’s heart ached with every flicker of the flames. No wonder they said pharmacists and Artifact Refiners burned through money—turns out they weren’t joking. This was real cash going up in flames.
Every moment of delay meant more money burned. Song Liuhua hurriedly took out the pill formula and spiritual medicine she had just bought, tossing them into the cauldron one by one in order.
“Blood-Restoring Grass, Meridian-Returning Grass, Spirit-Expanding Grass…”
With all the medicinal ingredients placed into the Refining Cauldron, she controlled the intensity of the flames and began the tedious waiting period.
Half an hour later.
With a loud “Bang!”
The lid of the Refining Cauldron shot into the air, “biu”—piercing through the roof—before clattering down into the courtyard, spinning a few times before coming to a stop.
After a long moment.
Song Liuhua regained her senses, slowly exhaling a puff of black smoke.
“Pfft… pfft… cough, cough…”
Inside the Refining Cauldron, aside from a pile of black ashes, nothing remained.
The roof now had a hole blown in it. Song Liuhua twitched the corner of her mouth.
She went out into the courtyard to retrieve the cauldron lid. Surprisingly, it was still intact. “Well, I’ll be,” she exclaimed, “this cauldron’s quality is surprisingly good.”
Learning from the failure of the first batch, Song Liuhua decided to start with high heat before reducing it to low.
Ignite the fire, add the ingredients, control the flame…
Half an hour later, the second batch—failed. One set of materials for a first-grade Blood and Qi Pill, plus twenty Spirit Jade Coins, gone.
Learning from her mistakes, she began the third batch.
An hour later, with another “bang!”—the third batch, failed…
The fourth batch, failed…
…
Throughout the afternoon, the explosive sounds from the Song family’s courtyard reverberated throughout Qinghua Lane.
Neighbors poked their heads out, shaking their heads as they looked toward the Song residence. “The Song family’s daughter must have gone mad after being jilted by the Xie family.”
“What’s she trying to craft, being an unawakened good-for-nothing?”
“All that money—she’d be better off buying a few pounds of Exotic Beast Meat to eat rather than wasting it like this.”
“That boy Song Yuan, stuck with a sister like her—truly pitiful… Now that he’s been rejected by the Xie family, probably no one will dare marry him… Song Yuan… what a shame.” One auntie shook her head regretfully. She had once considered marrying her own daughter to Song Yuan, but now he was ruined, and with a useless sister like Song Liuhua dragging him down, who would dare marry their daughter into that family?
…
Unbeknownst to Song Liuhua, the news of her broken engagement with the Xie family had already spread throughout Qinghua Lane by afternoon, tarnishing her reputation completely.
Frustrated, she stared at the room full of black ashes. Nine consecutive batches—all failures.
She scratched her head. Logically, it shouldn’t be like this.
She had mustered the same determination she had for her postgraduate exams and academic pursuits in her previous life, diligently taking notes, summarizing, and making adjustments. Every step had been executed perfectly, yet not a single pill had been successfully refined.
After much pondering, she still couldn’t figure out where she had gone wrong.
Song Liuhua deflated like a punctured balloon, stretching her limbs into a starfish shape and flopping onto the floor.
Staring at the gaping hole in the ceiling directly above, Song Liuhua muttered with utter despair, “Is there something wrong with me, or is it the world that’s messed up?”
Soon, she reached a conclusion. “What could I possibly have done wrong? It’s the entire world that’s at fault.”
“Tenth batch of elixir crafting—whatever happens, happens.”
Song Liuhua emptied her storage bag, haphazardly scattering all sorts of spiritual medicines across the floor without even bothering to sort them.
“Forget about adding this first, then that, or starting with low heat before high heat—just toss everything in!”
She dumped all the spiritual medicines into the Refining Cauldron in one go, abandoning any control over the fire. Whether it was high or low heat depended entirely on her mood. At crucial moments, she lifted the lid and randomly threw in miscellaneous spiritual medicines—many of which had been collected by the original owner, some even unfamiliar to Song Liuhua.
Eventually, finding the mixture too dry, she poured half a bucket of water into the cauldron.
“No more pretending—let fate take its course…”
Half an hour later, instead of the expected cauldron explosion, an indescribably pungent odor wafted from the cauldron.
Lifting the lid, she found a deep green liquid bubbling with steam. The acrid smell that hit her was nauseating.
“Ugh…” Song Liuhua covered her nose and mouth, nearly vomiting.
After a moment of hesitation, she shrugged. “Who cares? The cauldron didn’t explode, so it’s a success.”
As for what this concoction actually was, Song Liuhua had already stopped caring.
Gritting her teeth against the disgust, she packed her first successful elixir crafting product into a wooden bucket and stepped out of the room.
Dusk was approaching.
Song Yuan and her cheap husband would likely return soon.
Song Liuhua briskly lit the fire and steamed a pot of rice.
After a moment’s thought, she grabbed a handful of spirit rice and cooked a pot of spirit rice congee.
In this world, spirit masters relied on the Spirit Power in food to temper their bodies and advance, so their dietary requirements were high.
There were still two jin of Level 1 Exotic Beast Meat in the storage room, which Song Liuhua prepared in its entirety.
She sliced the meat, sprinkled it with seasoning, grilled it on her homemade barbecue rack, and plated it.
The Level 1 Glimmerfish she had bought earlier at the Mercenary Market, combined with wild spirit peppers, became a large platter of grilled fish.
A meal of just meat would be too monotonous, so Song Liuhua went to the small vegetable garden in the yard, picked some greens, and stir-fried a large plate.
Three days ago, she had brewed fruit wine. Estimating it was about ready, she dug it up from under the spirit fruit tree in the corner of the yard.
Brushing off the mud from the wine jar, she unsealed it, releasing a crisp, refreshing aroma.
Song Liuhua took a deep breath and nodded in satisfaction.
It was worth adding those few Level 1 Spirit Fruits.
Outside the city, the tangerine sunset gradually sank.
A massive flying boat swept over the city, docking outside the walls. Those returning from outside carried baskets of supplies, disembarking from the flying boat one after another.
The once quiet and peaceful city instantly buzzed with activity.
Holding a spatula, Song Liuhua stood in the yard, listening to her neighbors chattering about their gains over the past few days. Their joyful laughter floated through the air, and a slow smile spread across her lips.
Compared to her previous life, where she had been worn down by the relentless grind for survival, this kind of life seemed rather nice.
Song Yuan, carrying a large backpack basket and wiping sweat from his forehead, squeezed off the flying boat with the crowd.
The mercenary captain patted his shoulder and said with a laugh, “You’ve worked hard these past few days. Once I gather some pills and weapons, let’s hunt together again next time.”
Their mercenary team was just a beginner squad. Although Song Yuan had dropped in rank, he had experience battling Level 4 and even Level 5 Exotic Beasts. Just a few pointers from him in the team could prevent a lot of trouble.
Thanks to him this time, the harvest was quite decent. Even though he had injured his Spirit Abode and couldn’t frequently use Spirit Power, the mercenary captain was still willing to team up again next time.
After bidding farewell to the mercenary captain, Song Yuan headed back carrying a large backpack on his shoulders.
Several small flying boats skimmed overhead.
Envious murmurs reached his ears from time to time.
“If only our family had a flying magical artifact, we wouldn’t have to walk in and out of the city every day.”
“A flying magical artifact on the market costs at least several hundred thousand Spirit Jade Coins. Only the direct descendants of major clans can afford one. Us? We can only dream.”
“……”
Naturally, Song Yuan felt envious too.
However, with his injured Spirit Abode and humble background, such dreams would remain forever beyond his reach.
Thinking of his younger sister whom he hadn’t seen for some time, Song Yuan unconsciously quickened his pace.
Under the setting sun, the burly man’s shadow gradually lengthened.