After calmly attending the last class, Song Shuhang put away his textbook and stretched.
Beside him, the shapely female classmate once again left his side reluctantly. At the same time, the thought of confessing to Shuhang rose in her heart again—at least during this scorching summer, she wanted to become Song Shuhang's girlfriend and enjoy having a human-shaped air conditioner.
Shuhang felt creeped out under the girl's reluctant gaze and grew somewhat awkward.
Fortunately, Tubo and their two other roommates came over just then.
"Damn, I nearly sweated off a layer of skin!" Tubo waved his notebook like a fan, while beads of sweat the size of beans continued sliding down his forehead. "Right, Shuhang, wanna go out for a stroll this afternoon?"
"It's so hot, and you still feel like going out?" Shuhang laughed. The sun was especially vicious today—this definitely wasn't good weather for shopping.
"Heh heh, that brat Yangde recently developed a program and sold it for a decent sum. So he's planning to rent a two-bedroom apartment outside the school and hole up there without anyone disturbing him. We're preparing to help him look around and find a good place. Maybe it can become our second base—while we're at it, we'll fleece him for dinner tonight." Tubo chuckled.
Shuhang gave his somewhat dark and skinny roommate a vigorous thumbs-up. "Yangde, you've got a future! We're both tinkerers, but you're way better than Tubo. You know how to make money, while Tubo only knows how to spend it!"
Tubo: "..."
Yangde chuckled, revealing two rows of pearly white teeth. Despite his young age, he already had the air of a veteran programmer. He wasn't good with words, because people like them spent more time speaking with their keyboards than with their mouths.
"However, I still have something to deal with at noon—those two big boxes that were just mailed over. Once you've found the apartment, just call me and I'll head over!" Song Shuhang replied quickly. It was great that his roommates were going out. He could try refining medicine alone without worry.
"You want to freeload off our meal without lifting a finger?" Tubo raised his head and gave a cold snort. "I'm telling you, not a chance! Though there is a window—introduce me to that pretty older sister of yours!"
"Get lost," Song Shuhang said. "No door, but there is a window. Treat me to a late-night snack tonight!"
Song Shuhang had nothing else, but he did have several pretty older sisters. As for the girl Tubo wanted—Soft Feather—he was sorry, but she wasn't his sister.
Tubo immediately acted as if hugging his thigh. "Deal!"
Aren't we acquainted with Shuhang's pretty older sister? Yangde asked in confusion from the side. That older sister called Zhao Yaya—we all saw her when she took Shuhang to Jiangnan University Town at the start of last semester. Could it be that Tubo wants to court Shuhang's cousin?
That seemed a little difficult.
Sister Zhao's Heir-Breaking Kick was truly something special.
Thinking back to the start of the semester, when Sister Zhao had taken Shuhang to school, they had run into several blind, delinquent youths.
Afterward, Tubo, Yangde, and the others witnessed Sister Zhao's prowess. Those long legs kicked up casually, each strike hitting bull's-eye—Sister Zhao had definitely trained before, and she must have used the Heir-Breaking Kick skill plenty of times in daily life. The few delinquents soon fell to the ground, clutching their crotches and screaming. As bystanders, even watching made them feel as if their balls were aching.
......
After lunch, the three roommates wandered out of the dormitory, leaving Song Shuhang alone.
"Phew." He took a deep breath. The Ice Pearl hanging around his neck kept his mind cool and clear at all times, which was a pretty good state to be in.
Opening a small box containing medicinal ingredients, Song Shuhang compared them against Medicine Master's Body Tempering Liquid formula.
The small box had four layers, with around ten medicinal ingredients on each layer.
"Ginseng, Goji Berry, Yang-Rising Stone, Daughter's Fragrance..." Shuhang quickly checked off the more than thirty ingredients that could be found online.
Morning Dew Mystic Herb, the fresh Overlord Branch farther down, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, and the like couldn't be found online. Even if they could, they would only be equipment or items in certain games.
Fortunately, Soft Feather was a very meticulous woman. While checking the medicinal ingredients, Shuhang discovered that the ingredients in the small box had already been arranged according to the order on the formula—from left to right, and from top to bottom.
Even the portions of each ingredient had already been divided.
"Meticulous and gentle girls are the best." Shuhang breathed a sigh of relief. "This way, I won't need to ask the Nine Provinces No. 1 Group."
When refining Body Tempering Liquid, the ingredients had to be added to the medicine furnace one by one according to the order in the formula. If the order was wrong, it would fail. If the materials Soft Feather had mailed over had been piled together in a mess, Song Shuhang would have had a splitting headache.
[Add the ingredients to the medicine furnace one at a time according to the proportions in the formula. Simmer for approximately five minutes, add the next ingredient, and continue simmering for approximately five minutes. Pay attention to the heat! Repeat this cycle until the medicinal liquid becomes a paste. The finished Body Tempering Liquid will be black, transparent, and pungent.] Those were Medicine Master's exact words.
It sounded quite simple. It seemed that as long as one was careful, anyone could refine liquid medicine?
Indeed, Body Tempering Liquid was merely the lowest-grade "medicinal liquid." It didn't even count as a pill or medicinal dregs. Refining it didn't require the consumption of one's own spiritual power or true qi. Nor did it require special earthfire, Heavenfire, or Pillfire.
Even an ordinary mortal could refine it as long as they focused!
But successfully refining it wasn't that easy.
The heat, as well as the "approximately" before "five minutes," meant that the time wasn't fixed at five minutes. The alchemist had to adjust it according to their own experience and the quality of the medicinal ingredients.
Moreover, the entire Body Tempering Liquid formula contained as many as forty-five ingredients and took nearly four hours in total. One had to concentrate and couldn't relax for even a moment. If a mortal wanted to refine this Body Tempering Liquid, they needed tremendous perseverance and experience.
Song Shuhang opened the hot pot and placed the sliced Ginseng inside.
"Speaking of which, the formula doesn't say whether I should add water." Song Shuhang scratched his head.
I should add some, right? If I don't, forget the sliced Ginseng—even the bottom of the pot will be burned black in five minutes, won't it?
But how much water should he add?
"Should I ask in the group?" Song Shuhang took out his phone, thought about it, and calmly put it down.
This was his first time refining Body Tempering Liquid, so there would definitely be many problems along the way. He couldn't very well boil the medicinal ingredients here while immediately asking the group every time he ran into a problem, could he?
The people in the group weren't online every moment. If he asked the group about every problem that arose, more than five minutes might pass, and the refinement would fail. At this rate, even thirty-two sets of medicinal ingredients wouldn't be enough for him to waste.
So he'd best approach this with the mindset that failure was certain, follow Medicine Master's formula, and try it once. Then he could record every problem he encountered during the refinement and ask about everything in the group in one go.
"I'll pour in a ladle of water first." He added a ladle of water to the pot and pressed the button on the induction cooker.
The induction cooker... was also a choice born of necessity.
There was no source of fire in the school dormitory. To prevent fires, all flames were forbidden. Having an induction cooker was already pretty good.
They were both just heating and simmering, so electric heating and fire heating should work equally well, right?
Then he selected the "Stew Soup" option. The induction cooker provided by the dormitory had four options: "Stir-Fry," "Boil," "Stew," and "Fry." It also had a function for freely raising and lowering the temperature.
If "Cultivation" really exists, then I'm absolutely the first person throughout history to refine medicine with an induction cooker and a hot pot. Song Shuhang thought self-mockingly.
Before you continue