The alchemy furnace in the system shop was far too expensive, but Xie Zhiyu already had her own plan for refining the Body-Tempering Pills.
By the time she ended the livestream, it was already evening. Wang Yurong and Xie Zhiyu’s father had just finished dinner and returned to their room. There was no one in the living room, only the food her parents had left for her on the dining table.
The two of them already knew what she had been doing lately, so they didn’t stop her from livestreaming. They simply showed her an appropriate amount of concern.
Xie Zhiyu had no time to eat, though. She grabbed the medicinal ingredients she had grown and headed straight into the kitchen. At a glance, she saw the wok that had already been washed and placed on the gas stove.
Without giving much thought to whether her family would still be able to use the wok to cook tomorrow, she turned on the flame. After only a moment’s hesitation, she dumped all the ingredients needed for the Body-Tempering Pill into the wok.
The ingredients didn’t take up much space, and she had reduced all the quantities by half, so everything fit into a single wok.
The difficult part was figuring out what to do next.
She had never refined medicine before, so she could only rely on her limited experience cooking. Holding a wooden spoon, she stirred the ingredients clockwise in the wok, slowly simmering them.
Some of the softer ingredients quickly dissolved into liquid after being boiled over high heat for a while, but some ingredients that were as hard as stone remained completely unchanged.
Xie Zhiyu came up with another idea.
She directly used her strength to crush those iron-hard ingredients into pieces, then sprinkled the powder into the wok.
After struggling with it for an entire hour, she successfully produced a black, sticky medicinal paste.
Xie Zhiyu: “…”
She silently stared at the filthy substance stuck to the bottom of the wok, feeling unusually guilty.
“Strange. I clearly put everything in.” She thought over the medicinal formula, her eyes landing on the half of a Venus Flytrap leaf that remained on the table.
She now had only enough ingredients left for one more attempt. If it failed again, she would have to wait until the Venus Flytrap shed another leaf before she could try refining it again.
That would take far too long, and she wasn’t willing to accept that.
Xie Zhiyu frowned and finally remembered the system in her mind.
She hurriedly called out, “System, do you know the specific steps for refining medicine?”
The system, which had been browsing a certain green website and observing popular romance novels featuring domineering CEOs, immediately looked up.
But after seeing the black, unidentifiable substance in front of Xie Zhiyu, it fell silent again.
Xie Zhiyu, keenly aware of its silence, coughed.
She pretended nothing had happened, turned around casually, and secretly poured away the black mess.
She thought she had done it without anyone noticing, but the system had seen everything clearly and was rendered utterly speechless.
For the first time, it experienced what helplessness felt like.
It sighed. “Host, I remember that during your livestream, you received a book called Complete Collection of Basic Medicine Formulas after your popularity surpassed a certain threshold, didn’t you? Perhaps you should take a look at that reward.”
With its reminder, Xie Zhiyu indeed remembered.
She immediately opened her interface and tapped around for a while before finally finding the so-called Complete Collection of Basic Medicine Formulas.
Without hesitation, she clicked to use it.
A warm current instantly surged into her mind, while scene after scene of unfamiliar images flashed before her eyes.
In the images, a faceless woman raised her hand and lightly touched an alchemy furnace. Flames suddenly ignited beneath it without any apparent reason. She calmly placed various medicinal ingredients inside. After only a moment, several perfectly rounded pills leaped out of the furnace.
The pills emitted a faint, lustrous glow. Even though Xie Zhiyu didn’t know what kind of pills they were, she could sense that their quality was flawless.
The woman in the images didn’t stop there. After resting for a while, she continued repeating the same process.
Realizing that she was witnessing an expert personally refining pills, Xie Zhiyu held her breath and watched intently, unwilling to miss a single movement.
Then she noticed something.
The woman’s movements appeared ordinary, but in reality, every gesture she made infused spiritual energy into the alchemy furnace.
Was this the reason her first attempt at refining medicine had failed?
She seemed to understand something, but instead of immediately trying again, she patiently continued watching.
For some reason, the longer she watched, the more familiar the woman seemed.
Yet she went through everyone she knew in her mind and still couldn’t figure out who the woman was.
Who exactly was she?
The thought flashed through her mind, but remembering the purpose of what she was doing, she suppressed her doubts and continued watching attentively.
Besides containing numerous basic medicinal formulas, the Complete Collection of Basic Medicine Formulas also included a segment of an expert alchemist’s memories of refining pills.
If the system hadn’t reminded her, she might have wasted the remaining half portion of ingredients as well.
Feeling fortunate, Xie Zhiyu’s fingers moved slightly, and her body instinctively followed the movements of the woman in the images.
Perhaps because the woman looked somewhat familiar, Xie Zhiyu imitated her movements. On her very first attempt, she immediately felt the fluctuations caused by the spiritual energy she had drawn upon.
At the same time, her proficiency in pill refining rapidly increased.
An hour later, Xie Zhiyu once again stood in front of the gas stove.
She took a deep breath and put the remaining half portion of ingredients into the wok.
Although she didn’t have an alchemy furnace, a wok was basically the same thing as an alchemy furnace. One simply had a larger capacity and the other a smaller one. There was nothing to be afraid of.
With that thought in mind, she followed the movements from her memories, using spiritual energy to guide the medicinal ingredients into fusion.
During the process, she seemed to see different colored lights emanating from the ingredients through her spiritual energy.
There was green, red, purple, and so on…
Xie Zhiyu hesitated for a moment before finally attempting to bring the different colors together.
She then saw the light surrounding some of the ingredients flicker, instantly dimming by half.
Seeing this, she nearly forgot to breathe.
However, after thinking for a few seconds, she gritted her teeth and continued the fusion.
Perhaps because she had just absorbed the alchemist’s knowledge, she now understood the most important secret to pill refining.
—Using spiritual energy to fuse different types of medicinal ingredients.
This required the alchemist to have excellent control over spiritual energy. The process also required patience and a certain amount of boldness.
She was only refining the most basic Body-Tempering Pill. Even if she failed to make it, she could always try again later.
She tried to relax as much as possible, then focused completely, putting all her attention into fusing the medicinal ingredients.
Fortunately, her luck was good.
The first batch of ingredients fused successfully.
“Whoosh—”
She exhaled a breath of stale air and finally had time to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead.
Then came the second batch, followed by the third…
Only after all the ingredients had successfully fused did Xie Zhiyu notice the soreness throughout her body.
She felt as though she had been run over by a car. Supporting her lower back with one hand, she lit up her phone screen.
Good grief.
It was already almost eleven at night.
She had entered the kitchen sometime after seven. Counting the time, she had actually been standing there for more than three hours.
No wonder she was so exhausted.
She rested for a while with both hands against the marble countertop before finally looking at the ingredients in the wok.
Perhaps the simmering time had finally been reached.
Under her gaze, the medicinal liquid that had originally been in a watery state slowly contracted until it finally condensed into three pills.
“Success!”
Xie Zhiyu excitedly turned off the flame. She used the cooking spoon to scoop the pills into a bowl and carefully examined them.
The three pills weren’t as perfectly round as the ones shown in the images. Their surfaces had some tiny pits and uneven spots, but they nevertheless emitted the same faint, lustrous glow.
To succeed after only two attempts, Xie Zhiyu was already extremely satisfied, even if the grade wasn’t particularly perfect.
She called out to the system again and asked what grade these pills were.
The system took one look at them and, like a parent encouraging a child, immediately began praising her.
“Mm… Host, you’re really amazing. You actually managed to make pills on your first try. But as for the grade… well, it seems they’re not even First Grade.”
Pill grades ranged from First Grade to Ninth Grade.
Xie Zhiyu had worked hard for three whole hours, only to discover that she hadn’t even reached the most basic grade.
Her originally delighted expression instantly returned to normal.
Xie Zhiyu let out an “Oh,” silently regretting why she had bothered asking the system and ruining her own happiness.
However, despite saying that, she was still very satisfied with her performance.
She carefully put away two of the pills, planning to give them to Xie’s father and Wang Yurong tomorrow. As for the last pill in her hand, she intended to take it herself later.
There was one thing she only had time to ask the system about now.
“System, why doesn’t the Complete Collection of Basic Medicine Recipes include the recipes for the Body Tempering Pill and the Spirit Tempering Pill?”
The first thing she had done after finishing the pills was search through the memories in her mind. She had hoped to get the Spirit Tempering Pill recipe for free, but after searching several times, she discovered that what she wanted simply wasn’t there.
This left her rather disappointed.
The system, however, explained, “Although the Body Tempering Pill and Spirit Tempering Pill are both very basic, they involve many powerful recipes that come later. Naturally, they wouldn’t be included in the Complete Collection of Basic Medicine Recipes.”
The medicinal recipes in the system shop and the rewards provided by the system did not conflict with each other. The recipes for the Body Tempering Pill and Spirit Tempering Pill could only be obtained from the shop. Aside from these two recipes, some higher-level recipes in the future would receive the same treatment.
Xie Zhiyu nodded in understanding and returned to her room, where she absorbed her Body Tempering Pill.
The pill melted as soon as it entered her mouth, replaced by an invisible warmth that spread throughout her entire body.
Unlike the sensation of absorbing spiritual energy, it felt more like her body was being gently nourished. Her previous exhaustion vanished completely, and she felt so comfortable that she rolled around on the bed several times like a cat.
“Meow~”
The cry of a real cat came from the room.
Little Black, who had apparently sneaked outside at some point and then returned, raised its head. Its originally fierce golden eyes softened when it saw Xie Zhiyu.
It changed positions and continued sleeping.
But Xie Zhiyu refused to let it off so easily. She hugged it and gave it a vigorous rub.
Little Black wasn’t angry. It even indulgently rolled over, making it easier for her to rub it.
It meowed again, its voice unbearably coquettish.
“You’re the only one who knows how to act spoiled.”
Xie Zhiyu gave a soft snort. Perhaps because she had finally relaxed, although her body was no longer sore and weak, the mental exhaustion was very real.
With the kitten in her arms, she simply cuddled Little Black and sank into the warm blankets.
Within seconds, she had fallen sound asleep.
It was past three in the morning, and everything was completely silent.
Little Black, however, suddenly opened its eyes in the midst of sleep.
The black cat deftly freed itself from her embrace and gracefully leaped onto the windowsill. With a wave of its paw, the tightly shut window opened a narrow crack.
It glanced back at Xie Zhiyu, who was still sound asleep, then darted outside.
Had Xie Zhiyu been awake, she would have noticed that the path it took led directly to the rooftop where she had spent the day.
In the quiet residential complex, only the rooftop of this particular building seemed to have the faintest sounds coming from it.
Two men dressed in rock-climbing gear were secretly making their way up to the rooftop.
The man in the lead moved nimbly, while the thin man following behind him was clearly less experienced. The chain clinked against the wall, producing a crisp sound.
“Keep it down.” The man in front immediately turned around, lowering his voice as he gave the man behind him a warning look.
“Got it, bro,” Zhu Song replied in a low voice.