This deal could basically be seen as buying Hua Jian’s life in the Secret Realm with a pill— if you converted it to Spirit Stones, it’d be about a hundred Spirit Stones, right?
To be honest, that price was a little on the cheap side.
After all, it was a pill made with Mirage Incense as the main ingredient, personally refined by the Saintess of the Saint Sect.
Aside from the Mirage Incense, all the other materials were provided by the Saintess herself.
If this were outside the Secret Realm, you’d probably need more than a thousand Spirit Stones for such a good deal.
“If there really is a True Dragon Scale in that Spirit Beast’s lair, then I’ve made a profit. You can think of it as a gamble— I’m betting that your value is worth what I’m investing in you.”
After returning to Hua Jian’s hiding spot, Linglong explained to the still-hesitant Hua Jian.
As she spoke, she took out a portable pill furnace from her own Storage Pouch and infused it with spiritual energy, heating it up first.
“Besides… I might not even succeed in refining the pill. If I fail, your Mirage Incense will just turn into ashes.”
These words made Hua Jian a bit tempted.
What Linglong said seemed reasonable— if the pill failed, she’d lose everything, so it wasn’t a big deal for Linglong to ask for less payment, was it?
“So, what do you think? Want to take a gamble with me?” Linglong took out each of the necessary materials from her Storage Pouch one by one.
Seeing that Linglong was already prepared, Hua Jian nodded vigorously and handed over the Storage Pouch containing the Mirage Incense.
“You Saintess, your silver tongue is something else.” As she handed it over, Hua Jian muttered under her breath.
At first, she’d thought Linglong was just a clueless Saintess from a big sect— a sheltered noble lady who never set foot outside.
But after spending a day together, Hua Jian realized she was wrong. Linglong was simple, but she wasn’t foolish at all.
She was a clever person who understood people well. It was just that her usually cold, expressionless face made it hard for others to notice.
At first glance, Hua Jian had thought Linglong was a “three-no” girl, but it turned out that was fake— Linglong just didn’t have a very expressive face.
“It’s just the necessary ways of the world, that’s all.”
Linglong began preparing the materials for pill refining, bit by bit.
Various spiritual herbs and items were mixed together by her hands, forming a rather strange-looking substance.
Her pill-refining technique seemed a bit different from what Hua Jian had learned. Hua Jian watched Linglong’s movements closely, carefully memorizing each step.
Her own skills only amounted to making a few low-grade pills worth a handful of Spirit Stones— like Blood-Stopping Pills or Revitalizing Powder.
Those things couldn’t even be considered proper pills.
But Linglong—this was real, proper pill refinement.
As the auxiliary ingredients were prepared, the most crucial step finally arrived. Linglong opened the Storage Pouch containing the Mirage Incense and released it.
At this point, there was no turning back.
Once Mirage Incense left the Storage Pouch, it would immediately volatilize, pulling the surrounding space into a mysterious Mirage Huanjing within moments.
Even a Mirage Huanjing made from scraps was enough to control a Spirit King-level Spirit Beast.
That was also the reason the Black-Clad Man had the confidence to venture into the tiger’s den.
At the same time, that was why he hadn’t transferred the Mirage Incense into his own Storage Pouch— because he simply couldn’t do it.
But the pill taking shape in Linglong’s hands was like a gluttonous beast, absorbing every wisp of Mirage Incense.
In no time, all the Mirage Incense from the Storage Pouch had been completely absorbed into the nascent pill.
“Next… what are you doing?!” Hua Jian had thought the next step would be to put the pill into the furnace for the final refinement, but Linglong’s actions left her utterly shocked.
The Saintess actually stuffed the pill straight into her mouth and started chewing.
What was Hua Jian’s first thought?
She didn’t have a first thought— she was truly stunned.
Even when Linglong spat out the now wet, chewed mass and kneaded it back into a ball, Hua Jian was still left with a look of utter disbelief.
Opening the now blazing hot pill furnace, Linglong placed the nascent pill inside, then turned to look at the dumbfounded Hua Jian, tilting her head in confusion.
“You… it… isn’t it…” Hua Jian felt her language abilities had been pushed to their limits. Who could explain what was going on?
No one had ever told her there was such a step in pill refining. Did other alchemists chew the nascent pill in their mouths, too?
Wasn’t it dangerous? Wasn’t it dirty?
“Why did you chew it in your mouth?”
Linglong’s golden eyes blinked twice as she gave a perfectly reasonable answer.
“Longxian can enhance a pill’s effects and raise its quality.”
Longxian, as the name implied, was dragon’s saliva.
Linglong was a Half-Dragon Saintess. She even had Dragon Scales, so naturally, her saliva could be called Longxian.
Though all of this made perfect sense and fit the world’s logic, the thought that she’d soon have to eat a pill that contained the Saintess’s saliva made Hua Jian feel like her head might explode.
You didn’t tell me you were going to add your saliva to the pill before refining it!
But it was too late now. Her Mirage Incense had already been mixed with Linglong’s saliva and tossed into the pill furnace. There was no going back.
All Hua Jian could do was comfort herself: the furnace was so hot, surely that little bit of saliva would evaporate, right?
It had to be like that!
If not, there was no way she could put it in her mouth!
At this moment, the drawbacks of having memories from two lifetimes became obvious— Hua Jian’s past life made her particularly conservative in some ways.
For example, she’d never eat anything weird, held more reserved views than most girls in this world, and saw certain common ingredients here in a very different light.
For her to eat a pill mixed with someone else’s saliva— it was basically like killing her.
Hua Jian stared at the pill furnace with wide, vacant eyes, making Linglong think she was just eagerly waiting for the pill to be done.
“Don’t be impatient. Pill refining isn’t something you can rush. It’ll take at least five or six hours for the pill to be completely finished.” She reminded Hua Jian not to stare at the furnace so eagerly, and suggested she take this time to rest.
“If it takes five or six hours, will the Longxian be baked dry?” Hua Jian asked, her gaze lifeless.
This question actually made a strange expression appear on Linglong’s ever-icy face— a look that wanted to laugh but didn’t quite know how. Hua Jian’s question really amused her.
“Of course not! Longxian is a very high-grade ingredient. I even added materials to lock in the Longxian just now, to ensure none of its energy is lost!”
She thought Hua Jian was worried about the Longxian losing its effect, completely unaware of what Hua Jian was really hoping for.
As soon as those words left her mouth, the light in Hua Jian’s eyes died out completely.
Maybe… she should just hope the pill explodes in the furnace…