Pill Recipe

"Brother Shaoping, I brought back the beggar's chicken!"

Zhou Xinxiang's shout rang out from outside.

With worries weighing on his mind, Fu Shaoping hastily ate only a few mouthfuls. He remembered Zhou Xinxiang saying that Sister Pan'er would only be away for three days. Counting the days, she should have returned today.

He sat by the courtyard gate until the moon rose above the treetops, but there was still no sign of Zhou Pan'er.

He could not sleep anyway.

Fu Shaoping immediately began practicing the Ethereal Steps in the courtyard.

At first.

He could not settle his mind and managed only a few of the thirty-six steps correctly. As he practiced, his mind gradually quieted, and his steps began to flow together.

Two hours later.

As Fu Shaoping moved through the wondrous steps, a breeze stirred in the courtyard, and his figure slowly became an afterimage.

A line of text flashed across the Mystic Mandate Codex in his sea of consciousness:

Ethereal Steps: First glimpse of the path (50/100)

He had taken another great stride toward reaching the beginner stage in the second-grade martial art, Ethereal Steps.

After practicing for several hours.

Fu Shaoping slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

Suddenly.

He seemed to hear someone calling him.

At first, he thought he was hearing things. But when he looked up, there stood Zhou Pan'er, who had been away for days. Delighted that she had not left for good, Fu Shaoping said:

"Sister Pan'er, are you hungry? Shall I cook you some noodles?"

"I'm not hungry."

Zhou Pan'er smiled gently. Fu Shaoping's cooking was merely good enough not to kill anyone. How would she dare eat his noodles?

After only a few days apart, Zhou Pan'er was startled to discover that the baby fat had faded from Fu Shaoping's face, and his bearing had grown steadier. Especially now that he had broken through to the Body Tempering Realm Second Level, his frame was more powerfully built than that of most ordinary men, and he exuded a budding masculinity from head to toe.

She hurriedly shifted her gaze away from the bare-chested Fu Shaoping and said:

"Shaoping/Sister Pan'er, I have something to tell you."

They spoke almost in unison.

Fu Shaoping naturally wanted to tell her about renting the courtyard on East Street.

That was not urgent.

He quickly said:

"Sister Pan'er, you first."

"Let's talk inside."

Zhou Pan'er led the way to Fu Shaoping's room. Once they were inside and the door was shut, she formed a hand seal, and specks of essence energy from their surroundings immediately flowed into her body.

Fu Shaoping froze for a moment:

"Sister Pan'er, have you broken through to the Body Tempering Realm?"

Zhou Pan'er nodded slightly. She did not elaborate on how she had become a martial artist, instead saying, "Shaoping, see if you can find a way to buy a few sets of ingredients for Blood Qi Powder. I have another use for them."

Buying medicinal ingredients naturally meant refining medicine.

Fu Shaoping was no fool.

His eyes widened:

"Sister Pan'er, do you have a pill recipe for Qi Refining Powder?"

Generally speaking.

Pill recipes were held by the imperial court and the aristocratic clans.

People of humble origins like them could only buy what others had already refined. Compared with the raw ingredients, the finished products naturally cost far more.

With this pill recipe.

He could use the points generated by the Mystic Mandate Codex on martial arts instead. The first three levels of the Body Tempering Realm were simply about replenishing blood qi and tempering the body. Blood Qi Powder would suffice.

In his excitement, Fu Shaoping grabbed Zhou Pan'er's small hand.

Zhou Pan'er glanced down. After a moment's hesitation, she did not pull away:

"Yes, I have a pill recipe for Blood Qi Powder."

"Sister Pan'er, if you don't mind, could I take a look?"

"Here."

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Pan'er took a yellowed sheet of paper from her sleeve and handed it to Fu Shaoping.

By the light of the night, Fu Shaoping skimmed through it ten lines at a glance, his eyes shining. After a moment of silence, he said:

"Sister Pan'er, it says here that refining Qi Refining Powder requires first-tier spirit wood as fuel. I'm afraid we'll have to make a trip to Seven-Mile Mountain."

There was a grove of first-tier clearwood on Seven-Mile Mountain.

However, a first-tier low-grade demonic beast, a Granary Bear, guarded the grove. Its strength was equivalent to the third level of the Body Tempering Realm. If they worked together and were careful, they could just about manage to fell a few trees.

As for the medicinal ingredients needed to refine Blood Qi Powder.

He could buy them at the Black Market.

The Hall of Myriad Treasures at the Hundred Households Office sold them too, of course, but its raw ingredients were usually more expensive than those at the Black Market. Only members of the Alchemy Hall received a discount.

However.

A single set of Blood Qi Powder ingredients cost at least half an origin stone elsewhere.

He only had one Low-Grade Essence Stone left. Even at the Black Market, he could buy just two sets. Since this would be the first attempt at refining medicine for both of them, failure was almost certain.

Fu Shaoping said:

"Sister Pan'er, tomorrow I'll go to the rear prison at the Hundred Households Office and let Uncle Zhan know. If there are no punishments to carry out over the next few days, I won't go in. That will free up time for me to go to Seven-Mile Mountain with you to cut clearwood. I'll also borrow a few origin stones from Uncle Zhan so we can put together ten sets of Blood Qi Powder ingredients to practice with and see if we can succeed!"

"All right."

Seeing how neatly Fu Shaoping had arranged everything, Zhou Pan'er naturally agreed.

Outside, the sky was beginning to brighten.

Fu Shaoping said:

"Sister Pan'er, let me take you somewhere nice."