Guga-brand Elixir

"Doro, is everything ready?"

Jiang Lan looked at Doro in front of her and asked.

Doro saluted Jiang Lan and said, "Reporting Little Guga, everything is ready."

Jiang Lan nodded slightly in satisfaction, then looked at the alchemy furnace beside her.

Jiang Lan is going to refine pills today!

After refining the Pill, everyone's strength will improve by leaps and bounds.

Jiang Lan stood in front of the alchemy furnace, which was taller than him. He had to stand on a specially made small wooden stool to reach the furnace opening. Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan, and Ye Lingling stood not far away, watching him with curiosity. Doro squatted on the stone platform next to the furnace, holding a crooked "Alchemy Process Chart" in his two short hands, ready to hand over materials at any time.

"Doro, the first batch of materials!" Jiang Lan stretched out his hand to the side, his tone as serious as an old pharmacist.

"Here you go!" Doro flipped his short arms and handed Jiang Lan a fluorescent Jade Phosphor Grass. Jiang Lan took it without even looking at it, tossed it into the furnace, and then activated his Soul Power, a ball of orange-red flame rising from his palm and accurately striking the bottom of the furnace. The flame licked the furnace wall, and soon a faint medicinal fragrance wafted out from inside.

"The second one!"

"The third one!"

"The fourth one!"

The two worked together seamlessly, with Jiang Lan reporting whatever Doro delivered, their rhythm so smooth it was as if they had rehearsed it countless times.

Dugu Yan's eyes lit up as she watched, and she whispered to Ye Lingling, "Don't you think Little Guga looks like an old man when he's refining pills? His face is so chubby, but his expression is exactly the same as when Grandpa is brewing medicine."

Ye Lingling's face was covered by a veil, so her expression couldn't be seen, but her emerald eyes curved into two shallow crescent moons.

Dugu Bo stood to the side with his arms crossed, appearing calm and collected on the surface, but inwardly he was rapidly calculating what kind of pill this kid could refine.

Given the way he casually pulled out the "Five Poisons Secret Manual" before, the things he refines will probably require us to redefine the limits of our understanding.

Just as everyone's expectations were at their peak, a very ominous "whoosh" suddenly came from the stove. Immediately afterwards, a plume of black smoke billowed out from the crack in the stove lid. The smoke was as black as ink and as thick as syrup, carrying the smell of burnt medicine residue and an indescribable sour stench, which quickly filled the entire courtyard.

Dugu Yan's smile froze on her face. Ye Lingling silently took a step back. Dugu Bo's lips twitched, thinking to himself, "Just as I thought, even this kid has his off days."

Doro was closest to the stove and was hit head-on by the black smoke, turning the whole dumpling from white to gray.

Like a roasted potato just pulled from the stove, only its big purple eyes were still blinking, its gaze filled with questions like "Who am I? Where am I? Where is my Ju Zi?"

"Cough cough cough--Oops, oops!" Jiang Lan emerged from the black smoke, her face streaked with black and white smoke, and wisps of smoke still rising from the hood of her Penguin Suit.

Jiang Lan hurriedly extinguished the fire in the furnace, and when she opened the "Alchemy Process Table," she realized that she had misread the amount of Dragon Tongue Grass.

It was supposed to be two qian, but he read it as two liang, a full ten times more. It's already a good sign that he controlled the heat well enough that it didn't explode.

Jiang Lan scratched his head awkwardly. "That doesn't count, let's try again."

Dugu Bo and the other two looked at each other in bewilderment.

Dugu Yan was the first to laugh out loud. She squatted down and used her sleeve to wipe the soot off Jiang Lan's face, while the other two looked at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.

The first batch was a failure.

The second batch, the heat wasn't controlled properly, Pill cracked in two.

The third batch of Pill did take shape, but they were a dull gray color and had no luster whatsoever.

Doro leaned in for a sniff, then sneezed, implying that this stuff would probably give him diarrhea.

"Third time's the charm! The fourth batch will definitely be successful!" Jiang Lan rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, revealing his two chubby arms that looked like lotus roots.

A red cloth strip, which he had found somewhere, was tied around his forehead. The words "Victory is certain" were written crookedly on it.

His Penguin Suit was covered in patches of gray, and there were several black marks on his cheeks, but his eyes burned with an indomitable light.

When the fourth batch was opened, two dark-colored Pill were found inside.

"Done!" Jiang Lan looked at the Pill with great satisfaction.

Then Jiang Lan took out the Pill and ran to Dugu Yan and Dugu Bo, saying, "Sister Yanyan, Teacher, you should quickly take these Pill."

Dugu Yan: "..."

Dugu Bo: "..."

The two of them stared at the Pill in Jiang Lan's hand, unsure of what to say.

I have a feeling that there's a big problem with this Pill.

Dugu Yan hesitated for a moment before asking, "Little Guga, are you sure there's no problem?"

Jiang Lan patted his chest and said, "It's alright."

Dugu Yan and Dugu Bo exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of resignation in each other's eyes.

Dugu Bo took the Pill. It was as black as coal ash just pulled from a stove, with a pitted and uneven surface. When he got close, it had an indescribable burnt smell, unlike any poison he had ever smelled in his life.

Poison, at least, doesn't make people want to run away just by looking at it.

Having lived to such an old age, he had tasted all sorts of poisons, but this Pill did make him hesitate for a full three seconds.

"Master, Sister Yanyan, eat it while it's hot! The medicine will be half as effective if it gets cold!" Jiang Lan looked up at them, the hood of her Penguin Suit askew.

His face was covered in streaks of black and white ash, but his eyes shone so brightly that it was impossible to refuse him.

Dugu Bo took a deep breath and tossed the Pill into his mouth.

The moment the pill entered his mouth, a terrifying taste that defied the human culinary sensibility exploded within it.

It's like extracting the essence from all the unpalatable things, concentrated a hundredfold.

Dugu Bo felt as if he wasn't taking medicine, but rather being betrayed by his own sense of taste.

He forced himself to swallow the Pill, suppressing the urge to vomit. Before he could even speak, everything went black, and he fell straight backward.

"Thump--"

He fell to the ground with a thud, his face still frozen with the complex expression of someone who had eaten something they shouldn't have.

Dugu Yan turned pale when she saw her grandfather's miserable state.

She looked down at the dark Pill in her palm, then looked up at Jiang Lan's eyes, which were filled with unspoken trust. She gritted her teeth, steeled herself, closed her eyes, and put the Pill into her mouth.

She regretted it the moment the pill entered her mouth; the taste was torture for her tongue.

Immediately afterwards, her consciousness was pulled into darkness by an invisible force, and her body slumped down next to Dugu Bo, one hand still resting on her grandfather's arm.

The courtyard was silent for a full three seconds.

Ye Lingling stood on the veranda, her emerald eyes wide open. She looked at the grandfather and grandson lying on the ground, then at Jiang Lan, who remained calm. Her voice cracked as she cried out, "Jiang Lan —are you sure they're alright?!"