The footprints on the snow were blurred by the night wind as Ye Fan followed Master Yun, wading step by step toward the camp, the four maidens surrounding him like four warm hearths. Su Qingxue's fox-fur collar brushed against the back of his hand, the silver bells on Lin Zhaoyue's sword tassel tinkled softly in the wind, Chǔ Hóngzhuāng's golden-spotted poison butterflies hovered around his hair, and Qín Wǎnshuāng's fingers rested constantly on his wrist, checking his pulse.
"We've arrived!" Master Yun kicked open the half-closed wooden door, and a wave of heat mixed with medicinal fragrance rushed toward them. Inside, strings of dried *lingzhi* mushrooms hung from the mud walls, and seven or eight pill cauldrons sat upon the earthen stove. The largest bronze cauldron was engraved all over with star maps—it was the very "Jiuxiao Cauldron" he had mentioned.
"My young friend," Master Yun rubbed his frost-reddened hands and fished a yellowed pill formula out of a wooden chest by the *kang* bed, "Millennial Scarlet Fruit paired with Star-fall Iron can make any number of pills, but to bring out their maximum potency..." He shook out the formula, and the dense, fly-head-sized regular script suddenly began to glow with golden light, "...you must first pass my test."
Chapter 263