"Yes, Master. Thank you, Master, for giving me the crystal and protecting me while I cultivated. I will repay you by earning lots and lots of spiritual stones for you!"
"Just having that intention makes your master very happy," Jiang Wenji said with a faint smile. "The fact that you can absorb Starlight Power, as well as your all-attribute spirit root, are matters of tremendous gravity. You must not speak of them to outsiders until you have sufficient strength."
"This disciple understands. I will take my leave now."
You Yu was covered in sweat, and her clothes stuck uncomfortably to her skin. Returning from her master's peak to her own, the first thing she did was take a refreshing bath.
After bathing, she sat cross-legged to restore her energy.
During previous cultivation sessions, only white, green, and red points of light would burrow into her body, but this time blue points of light had joined them.
Looking at the other points of light floating in the air that did not enter her body, she decided that if she had the opportunity in the future, she would awaken the remaining spirit roots as well.
Once her energy was restored, she stopped cultivating—she still had things to do today.
She made herself a simple breakfast and then went to her vegetable plot, ready to harvest the vegetables from the two mu of land.
Arriving at the plot and realizing that harvesting two mu of land all by herself would take some time, she decided to try controlling the vegetables to pull themselves out of the ground. This way, she would harvest the crops and practice her control over Wood Spiritual Energy at the same time.
Within half a day, the vegetables from the two mu of land were all gathered inside her spatial ring. Before she even had time to scatter the remaining seeds, her Wood Spiritual Energy leveled up.
She was now a little rookie at the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation!
Sensing her level-up, Ji Qing and Rong Xuan both came over.
Liao Xing and He Fan had gone out on a training journey last month. After seeing her, their master had said a word to Ji Qing and then left as well, while Elder Qing hadn't shown up for a long time. Now, only the three of them remained in the sect.
Come to think of it, it was a bit desolate.
"Junior Sister, did you level up?" Ji Qing asked happily.
"Yes, my Wood spirit root reached the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation," You Yu said.
"It's only been a little over four months, right? And you're already at the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation—your talent is truly high!" Ji Qing said.
You Yu smiled. If it hadn't been for the two months delayed by the incident with Jin Haochen, she probably could have leveled up a month earlier.
With spiritual Qi this dense here, if she couldn't level up in a month, she would be doing a disservice to her heavenly spirit root!
Mind you, You Xueer had re-cultivated this mental cultivation method and reached Foundation Establishment in just one year.
Now it had been over four months, and she was only at the 3rd layer; her speed wasn't considered fast.
However, what she hadn't expected was that You Xueer had previously cultivated all the way to the Foundation Establishment Great Circle before scattering her spiritual energy to re-cultivate. She had no mental barriers, so as long as there was sufficient spiritual Qi, she would progress very quickly.
Besides, You Xueer had the female protagonist halo and had absorbed her flesh and blood to improve her physique; otherwise, how could she have been that fast?
Still, she didn't care to compare herself with others—she could just move along at her own rhythm.
"Oh right, Junior Sister, before Master left, he asked me to give you this token." Ji Qing took out a token of unknown material. "With this token, you can go read books in the Scripture Pavilion."
You Yu took the token. "Did Master say where he was going?"
"No. But Master is often away, so we're all used to it," Ji Qing said. "Right, Master also said the medicinal garden is entrusted to your care. And he specifically said you should tend to it alone."
You Yu didn't know how large the Taiyi Sect's medicinal garden was, assuming it was just that small patch she had seen earlier. Later on, when she saw the medicinal gardens covering entire mountains and fields, she was stunned by the Taiyi Sect's extravagance.
As far as she knew, the medicinal gardens of other sects were nowhere near as massive as Taiyi Sect's!
This was a hidden tycoon!
She went to find Ji Qing. "Eldest Senior Sister, I want to learn alchemy."
Chapter 20: As an honor student, succeeding on the first try didn't surprise her at all.
This was the result of her deep deliberation today.
She had told Jiang Wenji that she would make money to support him, which meant she needed to have the ability to make money. The situation with Jin Haochen was still unclear, so she had to have her own way of making earnings.
Alchemy, artifact crafting, and formations were all excellent paths, and they would also be skills for her to make a living in the future.
She picked one and decided to start with alchemy.
"You have Fire and Wood spirit roots, which makes you very well-suited for alchemy. Even if you hadn't brought it up, I would have asked you later," Ji Qing said with a smile, taking several books out of her spatial ring. "These are all foundational books on alchemy that I retrieved from the Scripture Pavilion for you, planning to give them to you later."
"Wow, this way I don't have to go searching in the Scripture Pavilion! Thank you, Eldest Senior Sister!"
Seeing You Yu's happy smile, Ji Qing reached out and rubbed her hair. "Read them on your own first, and come ask me if there's anything you don't understand. Also, this alchemy furnace is the one I used when I first started; it's no longer very suitable for me. I'm giving it to you, so you must practice well!"
Seeing the furnace, You Yu said, "Mhm, mhm, I will! Thank you, Eldest Senior Sister, I love you to death!" You Yu reached out and hugged Ji Qing, then stroked the alchemy furnace with fond attachment, smiling.
Rong Xuan watched from the side, also wanting to reach out and touch her hair—especially that little tuft of hair sticking up in front, which he desperately wanted to press down.
Noticing that the protective formation nearby had been withdrawn, he looked at the bare patch of earth and assumed she had failed at farming. He consoled her, "Junior Sister, it's normal for your first time farming not to sprout. Later, Senior Brother will find you a book on agriculture to read..."
"Sixth Senior Brother, I've already harvested! I used my Wood Spiritual Energy to harvest the vegetables today, and that's how I broke through," You Yu replied.
Rong Xuan was extremely surprised. "Harvested? It's only been a little over a month. I heard that spirit vegetables take at least three months to mature."
You Yu took out a pile of spirit vegetables. "My Wood Spiritual Energy can stimulate growth. I used my spiritual energy to stimulate them every day, so naturally they grew fast. But my cultivation level isn't high yet, so the growth-stimulating speed isn't fast enough."
Rong Xuan and Ji Qing were both dumbfounded, especially Ji Qing. Being a Fire and Wood spirit root herself, she had excellent mastery over Wood Spiritual Energy, yet she had never heard of anyone whose Wood spirit root could stimulate growth.
"Perhaps because of this ability, your spiritual energy was able to transform ordinary seeds into spirit seeds," Ji Qing said. "However, Junior Sister, this skill of yours is too unusual. You must never display it in front of outsiders in the future."
Rong Xuan echoed from the side, "Right, you mustn't let others find out, or they'll drag you back and imprison you, making you stimulate rare medicinal herbs every day."
You Yu was startled and nodded immediately. "I won't tell, I won't tell. I won't tell anyone in the future."
She wasn't actually foolish. If she hadn't known from reading the novel that the people of the Taiyi Sect had great character, she wouldn't have let them know.
As for outsiders, if she didn't want to hide things, she wouldn't have used a protective barrier to conceal this place, keeping it hidden from Jin Haochen and those cooks.
Feeling still uneasy, Rong Xuan said, "I'll prepare a couple of concealment formations for you later to hide your plot. Even if outsiders come by, they won't discover anything."
In a rush of urgency, he immediately hurried off to work on his research.
You Yu wanted to send him off with a basket of spirit vegetables, but he said somewhat bashfully, "Even if you give me spirit vegetables, I don't know how to cook them. Why don't you cook them into meals, Junior Sister, and treat me to a couple of times?"
With that, he hurried away.
Ji Qing didn't want her vegetables either, swapping them for two delicious meals as well, and after giving You Yu a few more admonitions, she headed back.
You Yu watched them leave, then looked at the empty patch of earth and smiled.
Knowing she possessed the all-attribute hidden spirit root, her master had given her an incomparably precious crystal to consume.
Knowing her spiritual energy could stimulate growth, her senior brother and senior sister had put her safety first above all else.
With such a wonderful master, and several wonderful senior sisters and brothers, she was growing fonder and fonder of this Taiyi Sect.
She hoped her other senior brothers would also be this easy to get along with.
If so, she would gladly treat the Taiyi Sect as her home, treat everyone as her family, and do her utmost to break their damned fates!
She scattered some spirit seeds in the dirt, watered them, and then returned to her courtyard.
Previously, lacking a Water spirit root, she hadn't found watering tiring. Now that she possessed a Water spirit root, she felt that watering with a ladle took up far too much time.
Once her Water spirit root leveled up, she would be able to use her Water spiritual energy to water the plants directly.
So convenient!
With cultivation, learning alchemy, and tending to the medicinal garden, she needed to properly plan out her time.
In the days that followed, she spent her nights cultivating. When the sun rose in the morning, she would first stroll through the medicinal garden, using her Wood spiritual energy to weed and channel energy into the herbs. Then, from noon until afternoon, she would read books.
She read at a blistering pace and possessed an eidetic memory; in just four or five days, she finished all those books and wanted to try her hand at alchemy.
Brimming with eagerness, the next morning when she went to the medicinal garden, she couldn't help but target the herbs growing inside.
She chose the simplest grade-one hemostatic pill: the Bixue Pill.
This Bixue Pill didn't require many medicinal ingredients—only seven types. Nor did it take a long time; it could generally be refined in half an hour.
It was an introductory-grade pill for alchemists, and the very first pill refined by many alchemists.
The alchemy book Ji Qing gave her detailed the refining process thoroughly. You Yu mentally rehearsed the entire process in her mind before starting the refinement.
She lit the fire to preheat the furnace, then tossed the ingredients in one by one to extract their essence. She wrapped the extracted essence in Wood Spiritual Energy, and then, following the book's instructions, began channeling spiritual energy to fuse the essence and form the pills.
Every step she took followed the book precisely. She didn't encounter any major problems along the way, and catastrophic furnace explosions—frequently mentioned in novels—never happened at all.
Less than half an hour later, You Yu smelled a faint medicinal fragrance.
Was it done?
She didn't open the alchemy furnace immediately. After waiting a little longer until she smelled the exact scent described in the book, she withdrew the fire beneath the furnace.
Using her spiritual energy, she lifted the lid of the furnace, and an even richer aroma rushed out. Peering inside, good heavens, five round, plump pills were lying there obediently.
As an honor student, succeeding on the first try didn't surprise her at all.
Every step on the pill recipe was written clearly; she had simply followed the recipe step by step. However, due to her lack of familiarity, she still made a few small mistakes in the middle.
She just wondered what grade these pills were.
As a rookie, she couldn't tell.
Time to ask Eldest Senior Sister.
She put away her alchemy furnace and headed over to Ji Qing's peak.
Ji Qing had been busy handling sect affairs lately.
With their master and Elder Qing away, she was the administrator of the sect.
Arriving outside Ji Qing's courtyard, she didn't rush in, but instead called out gently from the doorway, "Eldest Senior Sister."
The courtyard's defensive array dissipated, and Ji Qing's voice followed closely: "Junior Sister, come in."
You Yu walked in and saw Ji Qing organizing medicinal herbs in the courtyard.
Chapter 21: Where on earth did this freak come from?!
Seeing her, Ji Qing asked, "Junior Sister, is there something you need?"
"I do have a few things I'd like to consult Eldest Senior Sister about," You Yu said. "It's about alchemy."
"Is there something in the books you don't understand, Junior Sister?" Ji Qing asked.
"I've finished reading all the books," You Yu said.
"Finished? So fast?"
"Ah, it's already been so many days!" You Yu didn't feel like she had read fast at all. "I wanted to ask: refining five Bixue Pills in a single batch—is that considered a lot or a little?"
Thinking she was simply curious, Ji Qing replied, "The Bixue Pill is a grade-one pill with a fairly good hemostatic effect, but its pill yield isn't very high. If refined by a beginner, a single furnace might yield one or two pills. If refined by a higher-grade alchemist, five to seven pills is normal."
"Oh." You Yu thought it didn't seem that difficult after all; why was the success rate so low?
"Does Junior Sister want to try refining Bixue Pills?" Ji Qing smiled. "You can't refine them just yet. Once your Wood attribute spiritual energy reaches the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation, you can give it a try."
"I need to reach the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation to refine them?"
"That's right. Refining pills requires Wood spiritual energy for assistance. Below the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation, a person's internal Wood spiritual energy isn't enough to condense the pills. Moreover, the mental power at the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation is also insufficient," Ji Qing answered. "I gave you the alchemy book so you could study it in your spare time. Once you reach the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation, you can try making them."
"Ah, but I've already refined them!" You Yu took out the Bixue Pills she had crafted. "Eldest Senior Sister, look."
Ji Qing was extremely surprised. She took the jade bottle, inspected it, and poured out all five Bixue Pills.
"Did you refine these?"
"Yes." You Yu nodded. "Eldest Senior Sister, I don't know how to tell the grade of medicinal pills. Could you take a look for me and see if these have entered the gradings?"
Pills, much like spiritual stones, were divided into Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade, and Top-grade.
Top-grade pills were exceedingly rare nowadays. Below Low-grade, there was actually an even worse tier called unranked; such pills had poor medicinal efficacy and high medicinal toxicity, and no one would buy them even if put up for sale.
"They've entered," Ji Qing said. "There are three Mid-grade and two Low-grade."
"Huh? There are Mid-grade ones?" You Yu was shocked herself. "Eldest Senior Sister, did you read it wrong?"
"I couldn't be wrong." Ji Qing wouldn't fail to recognize pill grades, and she separated three pills. "These three are Mid-grade. Look, they're different from these two."
Ji Qing pointed out several traits, and You Yu soon spotted the differences.
"Actually, the simplest way is to smell the medicinal fragrance. Mid-grade pills are much more fragrant than Low-grade ones. You lack experience now, but once you refine more, you'll be able to tell them apart just by the scent."
"Mhm, mhm!" You Yu nodded. She was quite satisfied that she could produce Mid-grade pills on her very first attempt.
"How many batches did you successfully refine?"
"Just once! This was my first batch of pills!" You Yu said. "Because it was my first time and I wasn't familiar with it, I made a few small mistakes in the middle. Otherwise, getting all five to be Mid-grade shouldn't have been a problem."
Ji Qing: "!!!"
She found it somewhat unbelievable.
When she was praised by Elder Qing and the others for having great talent—able to refine grade-four pills by her forties—that showed just how high her talent was. Other people at her age might only just be starting to refine grade-three pills!
Even so, when she first started, she had already ruined three batches of ingredients and blown up her furnace twice before successfully refining three Low-grade Bixue Pills.
Her Junior Sister had succeeded on her very first try, and had even produced three Mid-grade ones. Where on earth did this freak come from?!
"Can you refine another batch for me to see?" she said.
"Sure!"
You Yu had just reviewed the process in her mind. Thinking of those little mistakes she made during her first attempt, she also wanted to refine a fresh batch. So the moment Ji Qing brought it up, she agreed.
During this second refinement, her movements were much smoother than before. However, Ji Qing could still tell at a glance that she was a novice—even her initial warming of the furnace differed from ordinary alchemists.
Everyone else started with a small fire, slowly raising the temperature of the furnace; but she came right out of the gate with a roaring blaze enveloping the furnace, only turning down the flame once the furnace was warm.
Seeing how earnest You Yu was, though, she didn't voice any corrections, planning to speak after the refinement was finished.
You Yu repeated the process she had just used to refine another batch. This time, she corrected all the small mistakes from before, and when the batch ended, five more pills lay inside the furnace.
"Senior Sister, look, it's five pills again," You Yu said happily. "Are these... all five Mid-grade?"
It took Ji Qing only a single glance to see that all the pills in the furnace were grade five, and she nodded, "That's right, all Mid-grade."
After a brief pause, she praised, "Junior Sister is truly amazing! You succeed right when you start practicing, and your pill yield is this high!"
You Yu felt a bit bashful. "I just strictly followed what was written on the pill recipe. As long as you don't make a single mistake, anyone can succeed, right?"
Ji Qing: "..."
Junior Sister not only had high talent, she was also humble-bragging!
Seeing the finished pills, You Yu's interest in alchemy grew even stronger, and she wanted to keep going. Unfortunately, her mental power wasn't up to par yet; refining two batches left her somewhat exhausted.
Seeing this, Ji Qing said, "Your cultivation level is still low; being able to refine two batches at once is already very good. Generally, the mental power at the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation isn't even enough to support a single batch. You mustn't rush ahead blindly. As your cultivation increases in the future, your mental power will naturally grow as well."
"Yes, Eldest Senior Sister, I understand," You Yu replied obediently. "Then I'll head back to cultivate and recover my Wood spiritual energy and mental power."
"Alright. Go ahead." Seeing that You Yu showed no signs of becoming arrogant, Ji Qing inwardly marveled at how grounded her junior sister's mindset was, followed quickly by a wave of heartache.
If she hadn't endured so many trials in the past, maturing her mind beyond that of other children, how could she have become like this?
You Yu was happy inside as well, but after all, she used to be a PhD holder; achieving success in academics only made her happy, falling far short of making her arrogant.
She wasn't a little child, after all.
Returning to her peak, she sat in meditation to rest. Once her mental power and spiritual energy were fully recovered, she ran back to the medicinal garden to harvest ten portions of ingredients, and upon returning, she started refining again.
The third batch was average: still five Mid-grade pills.
By the fourth batch, she was surprised to find that one of them had actually reached High-grade!
She was overjoyed yet somewhat puzzled. She had followed the pill recipe for all of them, and the steps were mostly identical; why was each attempt better than the last?
Summarizing her experience, she concluded that she was simply becoming more familiar with refining this particular pill, making her control much more effortless.
"A hundred percent pill yield. I wonder if it's because this is too simple. Perhaps I've refined it too few times for the probability to be accurate."
For the next two days, she didn't leave her courtyard, staying home to refine the remaining portions.
Chapter 22: Eldest Senior Sister, if someone bullies me in the future...
When she finished her final batch, every single one of them had turned into High-grade pills.
Looking at the pile of pills in front of her, she scratched her head. "It must be that this kind of pill is just very easy to refine."
She didn't think she was particularly formidable, simply attributing it to the pill being too simple.
She planned to go pluck some other herbs tomorrow and try refining different pills.
Events proved that her alchemy talent was indeed extraordinarily high. Even for somewhat more complex pills, as long as they were grade-one, she could achieve a hundred-percent success rate. It was just that when she first started refining a new type, the majority would be Low-grade, but once she grew familiar with them, the final results would all be High-grade.
Alchemy didn't seem as difficult as the author had described?
...
A month flashed by, and she was already proficient at refining Hemostatic Pills, Spirit-Enhancing Pills, and Qi-Restoring Pills. Fearing her mindset might become unstable, Ji Qing told her to spend more time reading in the Scripture Pavilion to steady her state of mind.
You Yu had originally wanted to keep practicing, but a single sentence from Ji Qing changed her mind.
"You will inevitably have to go out on training journeys in the future. But if you encounter rare medicinal herbs and miss out on them simply because you don't recognize them, wouldn't that be a terrible pity?"