"This... I don't know either. I seem to have heard Father mention it, or perhaps he was sighing about it!" Xiao Xianrui shook her head. "I remember when I was little, Father failed at refining pills. I happened to be beside him and heard him muttering as he cleaned up: 'Refining pills is already so difficult; how could pills that take heaven and earth as the furnace and the Dao Heart as the fire possibly be refined?' I was curious then too and asked what it meant to take heaven and earth as the furnace. Father only said it meant not using a pill furnace, and said nothing else!"
Seeing the disappointment on Gong Mingwei and the others' faces, Xiao Xianrui smiled sweetly. "But I asked again afterward and learned that even Father himself did not understand it very well. He had only found a few scattered words in the sect's ancient texts and learned that such marvelous pill-refining arts existed in this world. He knew nothing else!"
Xiao Hua and the other two were even more disappointed. Wasn't that the same as saying nothing at all?
"All right, everything has been prepared. We'll wait for Master to open the furnace and refine pills in the next day or two!" Gong Mingwei clapped his hands, then looked at the ground again. "There's enough saltpeter for starting the fire. Xiao Hua, remember to buy more at the next market!"
"Yes, Eldest Brother. Remind me when the time comes!" Xiao Hua said with a grin.
"All right~" Gong Mingwei nodded quite naturally.
Zhang Qingxiao froze for a moment beside them, then could not help covering his mouth as he struggled to suppress his laughter.
Gong Mingwei looked at Zhang Qingxiao strangely, then lifted his leg and walked out of the pill-refining chamber.