This was the result of her careful deliberation throughout the day.
She had told Jiang Wenji that she would earn money for him, which meant she needed the skills to do so. She still didn’t know the situation with Jin Haochen, so she needed her own way of making money.
Alchemy, Lianqi, and Zhenfa were all excellent options, and they would also be skills she could rely on to establish herself in the future.
She chose one and decided to start with Alchemy.
“You have a Huomu Linggen, which makes you very suited for Alchemy. Even if you hadn’t brought it up, I would have asked you later.” Ji Qing smiled, taking several books out of her Kongjian Huanjie. “These are foundational Alchemy books. I checked them out from the Cangshu Pavilion for you and planned to give them to you later.”
“Wow, now I don’t have to go search the Cangshu Pavilion myself! Thank you, Senior Sister!”
Seeing her joyful smile, Ji Qing reached out and ruffled her hair. “Read through them on your own first, and come ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand. Also, this Alchemy Furnace was what I used when I first joined the sect. It’s no longer quite suitable for me now. I’m giving it to you—make sure you practice hard!”
You Yu nodded eagerly. “Mm-hmm, I will! Thank you, Senior Sister, I love you so much!” She reached out and gave Ji Qing a hug, then stroked the Alchemy Furnace with loving admiration, beaming.
Rong Xuan watched from the side and also wanted to reach out and ruffle her hair—especially that one tuft of hair sticking up in front. He really wanted to press it down.
He noticed that the Zhenfa beside them had been removed. Looking at the bare patch of earth, he assumed her vegetable planting had failed and tried to console her: “Little Junior Sister, it’s normal for seeds not to sprout on your first attempt at planting. I’ll find you a book on farming later…”
“Sixth Senior Brother, I already harvested them! I broke through today precisely because I used my Mulingli to gather the vegetables,” You Yu replied.
Rong Xuan was astonished. “Harvested? But it’s only been a little over a month. I’ve heard that even the fastest Lingcai takes at least three months to mature.”
You Yu pulled out a pile of Lingcai. “My Mulingli can accelerate growth. I’ve been channeling Lingli into them every day to speed things up, so naturally they grew faster. But my Xiuwei isn’t very high yet, so the acceleration isn’t as fast as it could be.”
Rong Xuan and Ji Qing were both stunned. Especially Ji Qing—she herself had a Huomu Linggen and had excellent command of Mulingli, yet she had never heard of anyone whose Mu Linggen could accelerate growth.
“Perhaps that’s exactly why your Lingli was able to transform ordinary seeds into Lingzhong,” Ji Qing said. “However, Little Junior Sister, this ability of yours is far too special. You must never display it in front of outsiders from now on.”
Rong Xuan chimed in from the side: “That’s right. You can’t let others find out, or they might capture you and lock you up, forcing you to accelerate the growth of rare medicinal herbs every day.”
You Yu was startled and immediately nodded. “I won’t tell, I won’t tell. I won’t tell anyone from now on.”
She wasn’t stupid, after all. If she hadn’t known from reading novels that the people of Taiyi Zong were all of good character, she wouldn’t have revealed it to them either.
As for outsiders—if she hadn’t wanted to keep it hidden, she wouldn’t have used a protective barrier to conceal the area, keeping it from Jin Haochen and the chefs.
Rong Xuan still felt uneasy and said, “I’ll prepare two more concealment Zhenfa for you later to hide your plot of land. Even if outsiders come, they won’t discover anything.”
He was so anxious that he immediately wanted to go back and start working on it.
You Yu wanted to give him a basket of Lingcai to take with him, but he said somewhat sheepishly, “I wouldn’t know what to do with raw Lingcai. Why don’t you cook them for me, Little Junior Sister, and treat me to a couple of meals instead?”
With that, he hurried off.
Ji Qing also declined the vegetables, exchanging them for two meals of delicious food instead. She then gave You Yu a few more words of caution before heading back.
You Yu watched them leave, then looked at the now-empty plot of land and smiled.
When they discovered she had a Yin Linggen and was a Quan Linggen, her master had given her that priceless crystal to consume.
When they learned her Lingli could accelerate growth, her senior brothers and sisters had immediately thought of her safety first.
With such a good master and such good senior brothers and sisters, she was growing more and more fond of Taiyi Zong.
She hoped the other senior brothers would be just as easy to get along with.
If so, she would be willing to treat Taiyi Zong as her home and everyone there as her family, doing her best to break through their damned fates!
She scattered some Lingzhong in the soil, watered it, and returned to the courtyard.
Before, without a Shuilinggen, she hadn’t felt tired from watering. Now that she had a Shuilinggen, she felt that watering scoop by scoop was too time-consuming.
Once her Shuilinggen advanced, she could use it to water the plants.
How convenient!
She needed to cultivate, learn Alchemy, and tend to the medicinal field—she would have to plan her time carefully.
For the days ahead, she would cultivate all night. When the sun rose in the morning, she would first stroll through the medicinal garden, using her Mu Linggen to pull weeds and channel energy into the herbs. Then from noon to the afternoon, she would read.
She read very quickly and had a photographic memory, so in just four or five days, she had finished all the books and was eager to try her hand at Alchemy.
Brimming with anticipation, she went to the medicinal garden the next morning and couldn’t resist harvesting some of the herbs there.
She chose the simplest one—the Yipin Zhixuedan, Bixuedan.
The Bixuedan required only seven types of medicinal herbs, not many at all. The time needed was also short—generally, it could be refined within half an hour.
It was an entry-level pill for Liandan Masters, and for many, it was the very first pill they ever refined.
The alchemy book Ji Qing had given her described the refining process in great detail. Before starting, You Yu silently walked through the entire process in her mind, then began.
She lit the fire to preheat the furnace, then tossed in the herbs one by one to extract their essence. She wrapped the extracted essence in Mulingli, then, following the book’s instructions, began infusing Lingli to merge the essences and condense them into pills.
She followed every step exactly as the book described, and encountered no major problems along the way. The Zhalu incidents often mentioned in novels—she didn’t experience anything like that at all.
After a little over half an hour, You Yu caught a faint scent of medicinal fragrance.
Was it done?
She didn’t open the furnace immediately. After waiting a bit longer, once she felt the aroma matched what the book described, she withdrew the fire beneath the furnace.
She used her Lingli to lift the furnace lid, and a richer fragrance rushed to meet her face. Peering inside, she saw—well, well—five round, plump pills lying neatly within.
As a top student, succeeding on her first try didn’t surprise her in the least.
Every step in this Elixir Recipe was written out clearly; she had merely followed it step by step. Still, because she wasn’t yet skilled, she had made a few small mistakes along the way.
The only question was: what grade were these pills?
As a complete novice, she couldn’t tell.
She’d go ask the senior sister.
She put away the Alchemy Furnace and headed to Ji Qing’s mountain.
Ji Qing had been busy handling sect affairs lately.
With their master and Elder Qing away, she was the one managing the sect.
Arriving before Ji Qing’s courtyard, she didn’t barge in but called out softly from outside the gate: “Senior Sister.”
The courtyard’s Defense Array dissolved, and Ji Qing’s voice followed: “Little junior sister, come in.”
You Yu entered and saw Ji Qing sorting medicinal herbs in the courtyard.