Ning Xian, dressed in a green robe, sat cross-legged on a purple cushion before the pill furnace.
The pill furnace before him stood roughly five feet tall, perfectly round, and gleamed with the luster of black gold. It resembled the incense burners found in ordinary temples, except a dragon and a tiger coiled around its entire body. Flames swirled within the furnace, giving off wisps of cloud vapor that made the dragon and tiger seem to leap and soar amid the mist. Behind him stood an enormous medicine cabinet, like a city wall, several zhang high and around twenty zhang long. The cabinet was assembled from countless drawer-like boxes of different materials and sizes. Some drawers were wooden, some gleamed like gold and iron, and some were made of various kinds of jade.
Guided by Ning Xian's true essence, a drawer like white jade slid open. A red medicinal herb flew out from within and dropped into the pill furnace before him. Its roots, stem, and leaves were all intact; its leaves were serrated, while a bright, luscious cherry-like fruit grew at its tip.
Suddenly, with a boom, less than half an incense stick's time after the red herb had been tossed in, an explosion-like blast erupted from the pill furnace. As the muffled explosion rang out, the faint medicinal fragrance drifting from the furnace turned into a pungent, burnt stench.
The furnace fire went out. Several clumps of black residue spilled from the mouths of the dragon and tiger, giving off curling wisps of charred black smoke.
Clearly, this entire batch of pills had been ruined. Judging from the medicinal fragrance that had previously risen from the furnace and the strange herb Ning Xian had just added, this batch must have consumed quite a number of precious ingredients. Moreover,