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Inside the room, as the flames scorched the furnace, the spirit patterns upon the pill furnace began to emerge one by one, glowing a crimson red.

Before long, they covered the entire pill furnace.

With that, Ye Jingcheng let out a long breath. The furnace warming was complete, and it had gone exceptionally smoothly!

He raised a hand, and the Crimson Flame Fox withdrew its flames as well.

The incense burning beside them had only burned through a little over half. Wisps of green smoke drifted toward the ceiling before vanishing without a trace.

"That's a third faster than the earthfire chamber!" Ye Jingcheng calculated the time and could not help but feel excited.

Unlike the temperature of an earthfire chamber, which required a cultivator to control with hand seals, with the Crimson Flame Fox, he only needed to convey a thought through their soul contract.

The Crimson Flame Fox's perception of flames was far sharper than his own.

Ye Jingcheng placed a hand on the spirit pattern atop the Crimson Flame Fox's head, feeling a warm current pass into his palm.

The Crimson Flame Fox could not help narrowing its eyes as it let out a soft cry.

Meanwhile, Ye Jingcheng began channeling the spiritual radiance from the treasure tome.

That was right. Over the past year, he had discovered that the treasure tome's spiritual radiance could also restore a spirit beast's spiritual power.

Sensing the treasure light Ye Jingcheng sent over, the Crimson Flame Fox could not help lying down. Its eyelids drooped, its entire body red as blazing fire. At that moment, the spirit pattern on its forehead became increasingly distinct.

After around five breaths, Ye Jingcheng stopped sending it treasure light.

Such a minor furnace warming naturally did not warrant too great a reward.

The Crimson Flame Fox gave two cries, clearly still wanting more!

Ye Jingcheng patted its head, then took out the spirit herbs for the Qi-Blood Pill.

But after hesitating for a while, he swapped the herbs for those of the Spirit Feeding Pill before beginning the refinement.

As though it sensed that the Spirit Feeding Pill was also its food, the Crimson Flame Fox's flame-breathing became increasingly adept and stable!

Before long, a wave of pill fragrance drifted out, revealing another full batch of ten Spirit Feeding Pills within the furnace!

Every one of them shimmered with spiritual light, round and plump.

Ye Jingcheng directly took out two of the ten pills and placed them into the Crimson Flame Fox's mouth as a reward.

Before eating the spirit pills, the Crimson Flame Fox licked Ye Jingcheng's hand with its tongue. Only after seeing Ye Jingcheng smile faintly did it begin crunching the Spirit Feeding Pills in satisfaction.

Ye Jingcheng, meanwhile, began reviewing the Crimson Flame Fox's pill refinement.

He discovered that when the Crimson Flame Fox refined spirit pills, the success rate was higher, and the pill quality was better as well.

"No wonder Foundation Establishment cultivators learn pill refinement so much faster than Qi Refinement cultivators!" Ye Jingcheng could not help recalling the records in certain books regarding the fire of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spirit dais.

His minds were linked with the Crimson Flame Fox's, making it somewhat similar to the fire of the spirit dais.

The only thing to watch out for was that even refining a first-tier low-grade Spirit Feeding Pill consumed nearly half of the Crimson Flame Fox's spiritual power.

Fortunately, the treasure tome could restore it, and the Crimson Flame Fox could recover spiritual power on its own as well.

Ye Jingcheng began wiping down the pill furnace again and warming it. This time, he solemnly took out the medicinal ingredients for the Qi-Blood Pill.

Warm the furnace, melt the herbs!

The crimson flames roasted the room until it seemed to glow red. If not for the spirit-isolating formation's sealing effect, the entire room would likely have caught fire.

As the furnace spun at high speed, the Crimson Flame Fox's eyes began to droop, and its fur no longer shone as vibrantly as before.

"Little Flame, hold on a little longer!"

Ye Jingcheng encouraged it.

At last, as spiritual light spilled out inside the pill furnace, Ye Jingcheng formed a hand seal. The pill furnace flew out and landed before him.

The Crimson Flame Fox hurriedly withdrew its flames as well, crying out twice. Its voice now sounded somewhat hoarse as it paced back and forth beside Ye Jingcheng, staring at him with eager anticipation.

Yet Ye Jingcheng did not look at the Crimson Flame Fox just then. Instead, he gazed expectantly at the Qi-Blood Pills.

Two red pill pellets lay quietly within.

"Success!"

He had succeeded on the first try!

Ye Jingcheng was tremendously excited. Although the Qi-Blood Pill was similar to the Body Tempering Pill and roughly comparable in difficulty, it was still worth celebrating.

Ye Jingcheng once more sent treasure light into the Crimson Flame Fox, but it only continued giving hoarse cries.

Not until Ye Jingcheng offered it three bowls of spring water did it become utterly satisfied. Clearly, after breathing so much fire, its throat had grown rather dry and hoarse.

After reviewing everything once more, Ye Jingcheng began meditating to cultivate and restore his spiritual energy, while the Crimson Flame Fox lay beside him.

Inside the room, both man and beast glowed faintly red, looking incomparably harmonious.

The days of pill refinement passed quickly. Ten days later, Ye Jingcheng raised a hand and opened the furnace again. Inside lay no fewer than seven Qi-Blood Pills.

He had refined an average of two batches a day. Excluding the Spirit Feeding Pills from the first day, he had refined nineteen batches in total, with four still ending in failure.

Ye Xinghe once again gathered the four of them around a table.

Unlike his previous urgency, this time Ye Xinghe's gaze kept drifting toward Ye Jingcheng, seeming to look at him yet not quite.

It seemed he held even greater expectations for him. Moreover, Ye Jingcheng felt that Ye Xinghe might already have found another way to deal with the situation.

Otherwise, he could never have been so composed.

"There are still twenty days until the full-moon deadline. Tell me about your progress," Ye Xinghe suggested.

"Over these ten days, I only fired up eight batches. I refined twenty Qi-Blood Pills!" Ye Jingyun was the first to speak.

Qi-Blood Pills were mid-grade first-tier spirit pills. He could feel that he had improved greatly by now, yet he was still worried about meeting the one-month deadline.

Thus, he hoped Ye Xinghe could make preparations on two fronts.

Ye Xinghe nodded, as though this came as no surprise.

"I made eight attempts and forged eight low-grade first-tier magic artifacts!" Ye Jingli slowly said.

Ye Xinghe continued nodding, then looked toward Ye Jingcheng. At this moment, Ye Jingli and Ye Jingyun also turned to look at Ye Jingcheng. They wanted to know whether beast fire could truly refine spirit pills!

"Reporting to Eldest Uncle, I refined eighty Qi-Blood Pills!" Ye Jingcheng replied. He had not underreported.

For one, Qi-Blood Pills meant contribution points and spirit stones. For another, the family was in crisis. If he hid his abilities and delayed a matter of great importance to the family, his future would not end well either.

Having grown up in the Ye Family since childhood, he felt a strong sense of belonging toward it.

"Good!" Ye Xinghe exclaimed excitedly.

After examining the pills Ye Jingcheng handed over three times and confirming that there were no inferior products mixed in to make up the numbers, he gave Ye Jingcheng a thumbs-up in praise.

"Also, I'll send word to the family about your method and have them look into beast fire. Perhaps the family will gain more alchemists who don't need to rely on earth fire!"

"If it can be widely adopted, the family will reward you with even more contribution points!" Ye Xinghe added.

After that, Ye Xingyu beside them also reported that he had forged a total of nine mid-grade first-tier magic artifacts over the past ten days!

This satisfied Ye Xinghe immensely. As expected of someone who had a whole earth-fire room to himself, along with a supply of Qi Recovery Pills and the Ye Family's other resources.

At this pace, together with what he had secretly obtained elsewhere, he no longer feared the failure of that contract.

Next, Ye Xinghe once again assigned tasks and distributed materials to the four of them.

Ye Jingcheng was also delighted to discover that the ancient books, pill formulas, and spirit herbs he had asked the family to find were among them.

Once the workload eased in a few days, he could look for more. Of course, the four primary ingredients posed a problem for him.

The family did not have them, so he could only find an opportunity to try his luck at other shops in the marketplace.

According to what his Thirteenth Aunt had said, he might have to wait for Taihang Marketplace's annual auction.

"You needn't keep yourselves wound so tight. Jingyun, Jingcheng, Jingli especially—you can go stroll around the marketplace and relax!" As they were leaving, Ye Xinghe seemed to notice the three men's exhaustion and offered this suggestion.

After all, since arriving at the marketplace ten days ago, the four of them had spent all ten days refining.

"But only for half a day, and don't let others think we're too idle. It'd be best if you looked a little anxious. While you're at it, purchase some Qi-Blood Pills or first-tier magic artifacts. The family will reimburse the spirit stones afterward!" Ye Xinghe added.