Recuperation

During two days of peaceful recuperation at his uncle's house, Chen Jue's Five Elements true qi reached an astonishing twenty-five strands.

Fortunately, two-thirds of that true qi came from the conversion of the Diligence Reward Talent.

Otherwise, no matter how abundant Chen Jue's qi and blood were, he could not have endured the violent extraction when the Dantian Furnace fused spiritual qi. He would have been drained into a desiccated husk.

After two days of relentlessly popping pills, Chen Jue's qi and blood value had climbed back to a high of 119.4%, two percentage points higher than before he drank the Blood-Burning Potion.

Chen Jue, born with divine strength, was back!

And this time, he was the enhanced-strength version.

Besides that, Chen Jue made dozens of attempts to figure out how to ignite his qi and blood with the furnace.

Heaven rewarded diligence. When the consumption from burning his qi and blood reached 0.1% in a single attempt, this secret art Chen Jue had created finally gained recognition from the Diligence Rewards Log and officially reached beginner level.

Chen Jue named it "Setting Sun Blood Reversal."

As for why he did not call it "Furnace Blood Reversal," it was simply because Chen Jue felt that this secret art's threshold was not particularly high.

He feared that future opponents might take its name literally and reproduce it one-for-one.

Wouldn't that be like lifting a rock only to smash his own foot?

In the blink of an eye, it was nearly noon.

With nothing else to do, Chen Jue finally remembered the prescription Doctor Jiao had written for him.

Following the steps on the prescription, Chen Jue poured the packet of mixed herbs into the rice cooker, added two liters of water, and set it to simmer for three hours.

By the time it was done, a pool of thick black paste had formed at the bottom.

Chen Jue scooped out the dregs with a slotted spoon, then sprinkled in fifty grams of high-gluten flour as directed. He kneaded the solids into thumb-sized pills, baked them in the oven for thirty minutes until each pellet was distinct, then packed them into two porcelain bottles.

Chen Jue popped one of the "homemade" pills into his mouth. Once the medicinal effect spread, the increase in qi and blood value was actually stronger than that of high-grade Qi-Nourishing Capsules.

"So this is alchemy? It doesn't seem difficult at all?!"

Chen Jue was somewhat shocked.

According to his uncle, who had only given Doctor Jiao twenty thousand cash notes,

the thirty qi-and-blood pills in these two "homemade" bottles had cost at most fifteen thousand cash notes.

Could anyone believe it? He had previously spent thirty thousand cash notes to buy thirty high-grade Qi-Nourishing Capsules, yet their medicinal efficacy was not even as good as this bottle of homemade pills!

"Damn it, those aristocratic families monopolizing the pill market really deserve to die!"

As Chen Jue complained, he poured the medicinal dregs into the clay pot beside him and casually stewed an old hen in it.

When there was something good, of course he had to learn to share. That chicken would be dinner for him and his uncle today.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just as Chen Jue was admiring his genius idea of making full use of everything, three polite knocks suddenly sounded at the front door.

He carefully peered outside through the peephole.

There, an adorably blank-faced girl with an oval face had widened her moist almond eyes and risen slightly onto her toes, seemingly trying to see the situation inside through the peephole.

It was Tangtang's best friend—Pei Qingying.

For some reason, the young girl was dressed especially beautifully today.

She wore a light mint-green Song-style gauze jacket, its edges printed with elegant red flower-and-bird patterns, over a creamy yellow patterned chest wrap. Her long black hair was arranged into twin looped hanging buns, adorned with a gilded butterfly hairpin and tiny white floral ornaments.

Two dark-green silk ribbons hung beside her cheeks, while the pearl teardrop necklace at her neck swayed gently with her movements. A warm gold bracelet on her left wrist occasionally peeked from beneath her sleeve, and her slender, fair hands held a goose-yellow thermos.

"Miss Pei? What brought you here?" Chen Jue opened the door, surprise flickering in his eyes.

"Tangtang said Big Brother Chen was injured, so I specially stewed a spirit chicken and came to visit you." Pei Qingying curved her lips into a faint smile, her voice soft and gentle as she lightly offered the goose-yellow thermos to Chen Jue.

The young girl was slender, and her smile was like peach blossoms in spring, bringing joy to anyone who saw it.

"Eh? Is Big Brother Chen decocting medicine? The house smells of herbs."

The young girl sniffed and said, "Astragalus, angelica, codonopsis, prepared rehmannia, white peony... Mm, the doctor who prescribed these herbs is quite skilled. They're all excellent medicines for replenishing qi and blood."

"I'm not decocting medicine. I just used the dregs to make some soup. Have a seat first—I'll get you a glass of water..."

Chen Jue thought that the girl must have been born in the Year of the Dog; her nose was so sharp. If she got married in the future, how would her husband dare to fool around outside?

He accepted the thermos, turned around, sliced three pieces of lemon in the kitchen, and brought her a cup of warm water.

Pei Qingying leaned forward as she sat on the sofa, lightly pinching the rim of the cup with her fingertips before taking a small sip with her pink lips.

Her damp almond eyes narrowed slightly as she asked curiously, "How did Big Brother Chen know I like water with three slices of lemon?"

"The last time you visited, that was the ratio you drank. I happened to remember it."

The speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart.

"..." Holding her cup, a faint blush quietly spread across Pei Qingying's cheeks. She lowered her lashes, concealing the surging affection in her eyes as tiny fragments of joy gradually spread through her heart.

Chen Jue did not notice the change in the girl's expression. He reached out and opened the thermos on the table.

In an instant, a refreshing fragrance wafted out from within.

Just from the scent alone, Chen Jue felt his lower abdomen grow slightly hot. It was clear that it was a great tonic.

He glanced into the thermos.

Inside the snow-white ceramic liner, apart from several ginseng-like roots resting at the bottom, there was only a pool of lightly colored broth. Not a trace of chicken meat could be seen.

He was somewhat dazed, unsure whether the chicken had been removed in advance or if there was some other reason.

What a pity. He had never eaten spirit chicken in all his life. He wondered whether the legendary White-Feather Spirit Chicken truly had eight pairs of wings, as the streets claimed!

"Big Brother Chen, I used a pill cauldron and superior spirit spring water to boil this chicken soup. The alchemical fire beneath the cauldron burned for two days and two nights. The spirit chicken and Foundation-Nourishing Ginseng have both dissolved into the water."

Seeing Chen Jue deep in thought, Pei Qingying parted her rosy lips and explained.

"Foundation-Nourishing Ginseng! This is spirit cuisine?!"

Hearing Pei Qingying's description, Chen Jue immediately understood. The chicken soup before him was not simply a tonic, but spirit cuisine prepared according to medicinal principles!

"Miss Pei, this is far too valuable. Foundation-Nourishing Ginseng isn't cheap."

One spirit chicken cost twelve thousand cash notes, while one ten-year Foundation-Nourishing Ginseng cost thirteen thousand.

And those were merely black-market prices. If purchased through official channels, the price would be another twenty percent higher.

"It's very cheap. Two thirty-year Foundation-Nourishing Ginseng roots only cost one hundred and twenty thousand cash notes altogether."

Pei Qingying was not sensitive to prices, nor did she know what one hundred and twenty thousand cash notes meant to an ordinary family.

One should not accept rewards without merit.

But Chen Jue believed that his killing in the dark alley several days ago had earned him the merit of protecting Qingtian!

Therefore, he said no more. Lifting the thermos, he drained it in one gulp.

"Ah??"

Pei Qingying was startled by Chen Jue's bold action. What decent person drank an entire liter of spirit cuisine soup in one breath?

As the spirit cuisine entered his stomach, Chen Jue no longer had the leisure to care why Pei Qingying was surprised. He only felt a ball of warm fire suddenly spread through his abdomen, transforming into a torrent of life that rushed through his meridians and blood vessels, washing over his limbs and bones.

His qi and blood began to surge wildly without restraint.

No matter how strenuously Chen Jue circulated it, his abdomen seemed to contain a tiny sun that would never go out, continuously supplying him with abundant qi and blood, along with an exceptionally scorching heat.

Beyond that, a stream of pure life essence mixed into the surging qi and blood.

It silently nourished Chen Jue's limbs, bones, and countless meridians, strengthening his body and increasing his potential for life.

That sensation of swelling meridians, which had not appeared for a long time, descended upon Chen Jue once more.

Guiding the tsunami-like qi and blood throughout his body, he charged toward the Dantian Furnace.

Second by second, time passed.

As an enormous amount of qi and blood flowed ceaselessly into the Dantian Furnace and continuously collapsed inward,

roughly half an hour later, a blood-colored speck of light slowly condensed at the center of the vortex, shining in harmony with the sun in Chen Jue's abdomen formed by the medicinal effects of the spirit cuisine.

"Good soup! It packs a punch!"

A little while later, Chen Jue opened his mouth and expelled a white arrow of air, shooting it far into the distance.

This thermos of spirit cuisine gave him an improvement comparable to an immortal pill.

Though he had never eaten an immortal pill either.

"..."

Pei Qingying emerged from the kitchen holding a soup ladle. When she saw that Chen Jue had already awakened from meditation, her mouth fell open in shock.

Seriously?

There had been an entire spirit chicken raised on spiritual medicines in that soup!

Big Brother Chen had digested all of it in just one hour?