A Major Sect Maiden's Appreciation; in the Medicine Lodge, Obtaining the 'Outer Pill Five Steps'; the Hall Stared in Astonishment and Bowed Their Heads!

Moonlight flowed like water, its ripples shimmering.

The young woman's features were exquisite. Her skirt swayed gently in the cool breeze, her eyes clear and bright as she stared fixedly at him.

Ji Xiu turned around.

Looking at that extraordinary face, he felt a sense of familiarity rise within him, as if they had met before.

After thinking carefully, he recalled the veiled woman he had brushed past when leaving the Lin Residence that day.

Then he thought of the recent rumors throughout Anning County, five hundred li around, concerning the Lin Residence.

So he spoke, with a hint of probing in his voice:

"Miss Lin Ruxue, the Lin family head's legitimate daughter?"

He stopped walking.

Lin Ruxue was not surprised. She merely nodded lightly.

"I have heard of you. You entered Blade Gate at sixteen. What a pity you started too late—otherwise..."

She had just begun to speak regretfully when her gaze suddenly sharpened. Looking at Ji Xiu's blood and qi, surging like dragons and tigers, steaming and boiling, she could not help but furrow her brow in uncertainty.

"Eh, no. When I caught that fleeting glimpse of you last time, you clearly..."

Ji Xiu neither confirmed nor denied it, making no mention of his cultivation. Instead, he turned to face the moon-skirted young woman, half a head shorter than himself, her black hair falling to her shoulders, and stopped.

"Since the eldest miss heard it, there is no harm in saying so."

"A month ago, I sold myself into your esteemed household. When the second miss, Lin Ruyue, had her horse startled, I protected her and gained her favor, which was how I became a carriage driver."

"I learned horsemanship from childhood and have some foundation. One glance is enough for me to understand the mysteries of why a horse was startled."

"That day, there were remnants of Saffron Pill inside that horse's belly. If consumed in excess, even the gentlest beast will become restless and agitated, like a wild animal."

"If the eldest miss is willing, since this concerns your legitimate younger sister, you may investigate it upon returning."

Having said that, Ji Xiu turned to leave without the slightest attachment.

Yet after hearing him, Lin Ruxue's eyes narrowed. Her small crescent boots flashed like a soaring swan, cracking the paving bricks beneath a single step. In the next instant, she had darted before Ji Xiu.

Moonlight spilled down, while nearby lantern lights dwindled into the distance.

Perhaps because she was in a hurry, Lin Ruxue crossed several steps at once. Beneath Ji Xiu's collar, she tilted her head up slightly, and the two were nearly pressed together.

Even though Ji Xiu retreated half a step.

Her temple hair, stirred by the cool breeze, still brushed against his neck, carrying a faint fragrance.

"So that was it."

Lin Ruxue murmured softly, as though she had figured something out. Then she looked at Ji Xiu again, their eyes meeting.

"But I do not understand."

"If you kept hold of this secret and let it rot in your belly, then drank and made merry in the private room just now, became sworn brothers with them, and spent a night of spring pleasure..."

Her expression was somewhat unnatural, yet she knitted her brows in confusion.

"Wouldn't that have brought you countless benefits?"

"As far as I know, the silver and pills my father gave you were worth only a few dozen taels. To a martial man, that is not much."

"And you only just shed your Slave Status, besides having a younger sister to support. Even if Lu Manor favors you, they cannot possibly give you much money."

"You have also trained martial arts to this extent. You must have consumed plenty of pills, so I imagine you have long since spent all your savings. Perhaps you even took out Gang Loans or martial hall loans, letting the interest roll upon interest."

"You..."

She poured out one thing after another, and the more she said, the darker Ji Xiu's face became.

Gang Loans? Martial hall loans?

What the hell were those?

How would he dare sign his name and press his fingerprint at the establishments of the Three Great Gangs and Four Great Halls to borrow silver?

If he could not repay it, Bone Tempering experts would personally come knocking, hand in hand with him, and send him off to dig coal in the Coal Mine or hunt in the mountains, sleeping rough and eating wherever the wind took him. Could life get any better?

His whole life would be over!

Disciples of great sects really did have minds that scattered in every direction.

At that, Ji Xiu lowered his eyelids.

"Miss Ruyue begged for five taels of silver on my behalf, helping me knock open the gates of martial cultivation."

"Before this, I was lowly and insignificant. Even if I had spoken, it likely would have done no good. I fear I would have vanished from the Lin Residence within a day."

"Now that I have gone to Lu Manor, I have nothing to fear."

"As for what the eldest miss said..."

His hand rested on the blade at his waist. He shifted his steps, walking from the brightly lit, bustling streets into dark and damp alleys. Step by step, he passed through them toward Lu Manor, never once looking back.

At the same time, his voice grew increasingly distant.

"Money is but an external possession; trust and righteousness are the foundation."

"If, for the trifling gains before my eyes, I were to lose the utmost sincerity of remaining true to my principles..."

"Then in the years to come, even if I achieved Bone Tempering, or even Skin Refinement, I suppose... I would amount to no more than that."

"In this lifetime..."

"I would never see through or comprehend what it meant to be a Qi Refining Expert!"

By the end, he had walked far away. His voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet Lin Ruxue heard every word clearly.

And every sentence struck straight into her heart.

She looked toward that upright, pine-straight figure, walking beneath the moon into the dark alley.

After a long while, emotion stirred in her eyes, making them glimmer faintly.

"Apparently, he is not merely someone of note. He is a gentleman, too."

"He counts as..."

"One of our kind."

At last, her eyes turned sharp.

"Saffron Pill..."

"Hmph!"

She turned back and glanced at Flying Swallow House, disgust flashing through her eyes. With a contemptuous snort, she too departed.

The moon set and the sun rose; the golden rooster announced dawn.

Ji Xiu rose early and watched his younger sister happily head to the manor's schoolroom to learn characters.

After applying the Tiger Blood Powder sent from the Lin Residence yesterday, he stood in stance training in high spirits. A full hour later, he exhaled a stream of white vapor.

"What sect-bred noble maiden, what Bone Tempering master, what female hero!"

"Before the wisdom of two lifetimes and the heroic spirit I have cultivated over decades, wasn't she still bluffed by me?"

"This way, I have repaid the favor and avoided future trouble. Feels great!"

He heartily devoured the white porridge his younger sister had cooked, along with preserved meat.

Ji Xiu boarded a carriage and headed all the way to the Medicine Lodge.

Once he arrived.

He skillfully changed into an apprentice's green robes and, calm and composed, followed behind Zheng Jun. He did work no different from that of the other Medicine Boys, leaving Zheng Jun helpless.

"Lord Ji, you still haven't given up?"

"The path of an alchemist cannot be entered without years—ten years, even—of accumulation. You look and stare all day long, gathering together all those Nine-Rank Alchemy Essentials Yellow Medicine Master collected, but haven't you still..."

He was rambling on endlessly when, all of a sudden, green smoke curled up inside the pill chamber. Yellow Medicine Master, disheveled and with a face black as the bottom of a pot, reluctantly called out and shouted at the Medicine Boys around him to light the fire, add the ingredients, and prepare to refine pills.

Seeing this, Zheng Jun's heart tightened, and he did not dare say more.

"This must be another large external order."

"Whenever he refines ordinary nine-rank pills for Nourishing Blood or Forging Tendons, the Medicine Master feels it is a waste of time and wears that unwilling expression. You and I should be careful later, or we might get cursed at too..."

As he spoke, Yellow Medicine Master skillfully prepared fierce blood-activating ingredients such as leopard bone powder, salvia root, and red peony. Yawning, he began to perform the Outer Pill Five Steps and refine pills.

However, just as he reached the stage of "boiling the heavy decoction to extract the medicinal properties."

Ji Xiu, who had been assisting him, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

"Medicine Master, isn't your fire a little too strong?"

The Medicine Boys and servants of the Medicine Lodge all understood one rule.

That was:

Once Yellow Medicine Master began refining pills, the greatest taboo was being disturbed.

The last person who had spoken up had disrupted Yellow Medicine Master's train of thought and been thoroughly cursed out, then dragged away and expelled from the Medicine Lodge.

Therefore, upon hearing Ji Xiu speak so clearly, Zheng Jun nearly fainted. My ancestor, how many days have you been here? How many days has Yellow Medicine Master been refining pills?

Wouldn't he know himself whether his fire was right or not?!

"You brat!"

Yellow Medicine Master, who had been dozing off, suddenly jolted awake. He flew into a rage and was just about to say something, but after glancing at the pill furnace's condition, he narrowed his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them.

At that moment.

Ji Xiu's voice slowly rang out again.

"Not only that."

"Now that the furnace has been opened and the heavy decoction brought to a boil, the medicinal properties are being extracted. Since the fire has already run high, we cannot follow the rules rigidly."

"In my view, you should add another two liang of leopard bone powder, one leaf of red peony, and a little salvia root, then increase the fire for three breaths!"

"Only then can the medicinal properties be balanced."

Zheng Jun fiercely tugged at Ji Xiu's sleeve.

But this lord not only did not stop, he continued speaking eloquently, leaving Zheng Jun utterly dumbfounded.

No, brother.

I may call myself a nine-rank alchemist, but I have never personally refined a pill. How many years have I studied? How many days have you been here?

And now you are actually lecturing away!

Just when he thought Yellow Medicine Master was about to explode in fury—

This disheveled old man instead did something entirely out of character. He pursed his lips and, without a word, adjusted the fire and added the ingredients according to Ji Xiu's instructions!

In an instant, Zheng Jun's eyes nearly popped out of his head!

And just when he thought that was the end of it.

The next moment, a sentence as earthshaking as splitting stone slowly emerged.

"Mm..."

"What you said makes some sense. You have some talent for alchemy."

"I can see that these past few days, you truly have organized this old man's scattered Nine-Rank Alchemy Essentials and entered the path."

"But reading a book a thousand times is not as good as trying it with your own hands."

"Since you already know the Outer Pill Five Steps—heavy decoction, pouring, preserving properties, expelling toxins, pill formation—you, come refine!"

"If you succeed, half the pills from this furnace will be yours!"

!

No, Medicine Master.

He had gone mad, and now you were going mad with him?

However.

What they had not expected even more was—

Ji Xiu, clad in green, actually smiled faintly. Rather than showing any timidity, he performed a salute and calmly sat cross-legged beside the earth-fire pill furnace!

At this, it was not only Zheng Jun who was stunned. Every Medicine Boy raised their heads in unison, staring at one another with faces full of shock, feeling as though the sun had risen in the west.

But how could they know where Ji Xiu's confidence came from?

A total of seventeen pages of Nine-Rank Alchemy Essentials collected. Mortal: Nine-Rank Alchemy Technique may be advanced in exchange!

After advancement, repayment condition: refine thirty furnaces of pills successfully before the technique can be completed.

Primordial Dao Talisman, advance it for me!

Half an hour later.

Yellow Medicine Master lay prone on the ground, staring fixedly at Ji Xiu, who handled everything with effortless ease and a calm expression. He watched as Ji Xiu boiled the auxiliary ingredients, poured them over the main ingredients, preserved and condensed the medicinal properties, expelled pill toxins, and refined the furnace into pills!

He followed precisely the steps Yellow Medicine Master had recorded—heavy decoction, pouring, preserving properties, expelling toxins, pill formation—as if he had refined pills many times before!

Inconceivable. Truly inconceivable!

A little while later.

The youth reached out and gave a gentle slap!

With a bang!

The fire went out.

The pill furnace opened.

Fragrance filled the entire lodge.

There lay—

Six full Mortal-tier, nine-rank Leopard Fetus Pills, each round and plump within the furnace. Each was worth thirty taels, for a market value of one hundred and eighty taels!

By Yellow Medicine Master's calculation, Ji Xiu had earned a net ninety taels from opening this one furnace.

That was equivalent to three months of a retainer's salary!

This was the outrageous profit of an alchemist!

Mortal: Nine-Rank Alchemy Technique: (1/30)

Refine thirty furnaces to reach the peak!