Linglong

He Pingsheng opened every window around the Alchemy Hall, letting the outside air flow in.

After about half an incense stick's worth of time, the smoke inside had all blown away.

Next came scrubbing the pot by hand.

Yes, he had to scrub the Alchemy Furnace manually, clearing out all the waste inside.

He Pingsheng took a look. Forget finished pills-there wasn't even a single ruined pill inside the Alchemy Furnace. Everything had exploded into ash.

A whole pot of ash!

Cleaning this up was going to take some work.

It took He Pingsheng a full two hours to clean the room thoroughly. Then he piled all the alchemy waste into the rubbish basket by the door.

By then, Hao Yun had washed his face clean. He looked at He Pingsheng and said, "Go out through the Alchemy Hall's back door and head uphill. Turn left at the end of the steps, and you'll find the rubbish dump!"

"Take all this black pill ash and furnace ash over there!"

Without a word of complaint, He Pingsheng nodded. "You got it!"

He mixed the pill ash and furnace ash together in the rubbish basket, hoisted it onto his back, and walked through the entire Alchemy Hall. Leaving through the little gate in the rear courtyard, he followed the directions Senior Brother Hao Yun had given him.

It wasn't far.

Before long, he reached the end of the path, where a cliff dropped roughly thirty feet.

Below the cliff lay a gray expanse of rubbish, accumulated from years upon years of dumped furnace ash.

Without bothering about the whys and wherefores, He Pingsheng tipped the furnace ash and pill ash straight over the cliff.

As he passed the Mountain Spring, he gave the rubbish basket a quick rinse, then returned to the Alchemy Hall.

"You can take a break now!" Hao Yun waved a hand.

He Pingsheng wiped away his sweat and sat at the foot of the steps. Looking at Hao Yun, he asked, "Senior Brother... you're an Outer Disciple, so you must know spells and divine abilities, right?"

"Tch..." Hao Yun sat two steps away from He Pingsheng, his face full of disdain. "Divine abilities? Spells?"

He Pingsheng thought he was about to make some earth-shattering declaration. Instead, the fellow's disdain instantly turned to dejection. "I don't!"

Well, uh...

"Little He..." Hao Yun said. "You're humiliating me!"

"No, no, no..." He Pingsheng sprang to his feet and hurriedly explained, "I... I really don't understand how any of this works. If I've offended you, please punish me, Senior Brother!"

"Forget the punishment!" Hao Yun produced a teacup from somewhere, took a couple of noisy sips, and said, "Years ago, I got lucky and obtained a cultivation manual. I followed it and cultivated for twenty-odd years, and all I managed was the second level of the Qi Refining stage. How would I know any spells or divine abilities?"

He Pingsheng looked envious. "The second level? That's still impressive!"

"Impressive, my ass!" Hao Yun said. "Aside from being healthier than ordinary people, not usually getting sick, having a bit more strength, and jumping a little higher, there really isn't anything else!"

"I'm exactly the same as a mortal!"

"Understand?"

He Pingsheng nodded, then asked quietly, "Senior Brother, where can I get a cultivation method?"

It was a foolish question.

After asking it, even He Pingsheng's own face reddened.

But he didn't regret it.

Cultivation, cultivation... the first step was having a method to cultivate with.

Without even a method, what the hell was he supposed to cultivate?

"Heh heh heh..." Hao Yun chuckled. "You? A five-element spiritual root, no father, no mother, no backing-and you still want to cultivate?"

"Enough!" He stood and shook out his Daoist robe. "Stop daydreaming here. You could dream your way into the heavens, and it still wouldn't help!"

"Even if someone gave you a cultivation manual, you wouldn't get anywhere with it!"

"Get lost, get lost, get lost..."

"Why not go back and sleep? You can have anything in your dreams!"

Hao Yun flicked his sleeves and turned to walk into the Alchemy Hall.

He Pingsheng wasn't oblivious to social cues. He knew that if he went over and asked now, Hao Yun certainly wouldn't be pleasant about it. He might even give him an angry tongue-lashing.

It's all right!

I'll plant a seed today. There's bound to be another chance later.

He Pingsheng returned to his room to sleep and rest.

For the next few days, there wasn't much to do.

He caught a plump squirrel in the mountains and secretly brought it into his room, then locked the door from the inside.

"Squirrel, oh squirrel... I don't know whether this will bring you fortune or disaster!"

"I'm sorry!"

He Pingsheng pried the squirrel's mouth open with both hands, then pressed the little squirrel down into the pitch-black Treasure-Gathering Basin.

The Treasure-Gathering Basin was filled to the brim with green water.

This water had condensed the previous night.

He Pingsheng was doing this to find out whether the water was poisonous or beneficial.

Gulp...

The squirrel swallowed a mouthful.

Then He Pingsheng fetched a rope and tied the squirrel directly to a bed leg.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The squirrel stayed tied to the bed leg for two days without showing any unusual changes.

"It seems..." He Pingsheng muttered to himself, "the improvement in the water's quality is limited. It's probably just clear, cool, and sweet, with no other effects!"

After some thought, he let the squirrel go.

He had only just released it when he saw Hao Yun rushing over in a panic. "This is bad... He Pingsheng, come with me, quickly!"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry..."

Seeing how frantic and frightened he looked, He Pingsheng asked, "Senior Brother, what happened?"

Hao Yun said, "Fairy Linglong, the youngest disciple under Senior Uncle Jade Virtue, is coming here. She says she wants to refine [Qi-Gathering Pills]!"

"Senior Sister Linglong is notorious for her fiery temper, and she's ruthless too!"

"This is her first time refining pills at our Alchemy Hall. If the refinement fails and she loses her temper, the two of us will be in for it!"

He Pingsheng shuddered and asked in a trembling voice, "She won't beat us to death, will she?"

"Hard to say!" Hao Yun replied.

As they spoke, the two arrived in front of the Alchemy Hall to wait.

Before long, they saw a woman in a purple dress approaching.

Behind her followed two male disciples in blue-green Daoist robes, each cradling a sword. They flanked the purple-clad woman like a pair of bodyguards.

"You?" The purple-clad woman frowned slightly when she saw He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng hurriedly lowered his head. "Greetings, esteemed lady..."

He was bitter inside.

This woman was none other than the junior sister who had recently made a fuss about the Mountain Spring's water tasting different and threatened to chop He Pingsheng into eight pieces.

What rotten luck!

He Pingsheng nearly coughed up blood.

"Weren't you hauling water for the Servant Class?"

"What are you doing here at the Alchemy Hall?"

Linglong looked at He Pingsheng with disdain.

He Pingsheng took a deep breath. "Boss Zhang, our class leader, arranged it. He was afraid I'd spoil the Mountain Spring's water!"

"Hmph..." Linglong was clever enough. She snorted coldly. "I bet you offered Boss Zhang the two pills my sister gave you, and then he arranged an easy job for you?"

"Isn't that right?"

Linglong barked the question.

He Pingsheng hurriedly nodded. "Your insight reaches across ten thousand miles, esteemed lady! I wouldn't dare hide anything from you. That's exactly what happened!"

"If I hadn't handed them over, my life would have been hanging by a thread!"