Ruan Se was organizing the medicine cabinet in the alchemy room, recording each medicinal herb she had used during the alchemy session.
She heard footsteps and said without turning around:
“Senior, if you’ve come to ask about the Alchemy Grand Assembly, just ask directly.”
Lai Li’an leaned against the doorframe, not beating around the bush:
“At the Alchemy Grand Assembly, who should I be wary of?”
Ruan Se placed a dried spirit herb in a drawer, turned around, and slowly said:
“Two people.”
“The first is Meng Qiuran of the Dan Sect Branch. He is the most talented disciple of the Dan Sect Branch in this generation. Three years ago, he was already able to independently refine fifth-grade elixir pills. In the last Alchemy Grand Assembly, he took second place.”
“His style is stable; he never takes risks, striving for perfection in every furnace. With his strength, if he chooses to play it safe and refine fourth-grade pills, his success rate is nearly one hundred percent, and the quality will not be poor.”
Lai Li’an nodded. Although he had never seen Meng Qiuran’s skills with his own eyes, from the fact that the man casually took out five thousand spirit stones to pay off his debt, his status in the Dan Sect Branch was definitely not low.
“And the second?”
“Shao Jiao of the Wuyue Sect.”
Ruan Se’s tone subtly shifted when she said this name.
“The Wuyue Sect is a small sect that barely ranks in the Cangwu Realm, but this Shao Jiao is different.”
Her gaze darkened slightly, as if recalling an unpleasant scene.
“I saw him in action at an Alchemy Exchange Meeting three years ago. At that time, he was refining a peak fourth-grade elixir pill, with extremely tricky techniques and precise heat control that was terrifying. What impressed me most was his alchemy arts—he used the most ordinary elixir furnace, and even the auxiliary materials were picked from the public materials at the exchange. It was as if the quality of tools and materials didn’t matter to him at all.”
“He didn’t win that competition because he voluntarily gave up at the last moment.”
Ruan Se paused and added,
“He said he wasn’t interested in the prize—just wanted to test his hand.”
Lai Li’an raised an eyebrow, gaining more interest in this Shao Jiao.
“You seem somewhat wary of him,”
Lai Li’an asked with interest.
Ruan Se was silent for a moment.
“I asked him back then how he trained his heat control. He looked at me and said, ‘You don’t understand fire.’ Then he left.”
Ruan Se repeated the words verbatim, her fingers tightening slightly.
“‘You don’t understand fire’ said by him—does it have to do with your spirit root?”
Lai Li’an keenly caught the detail.
Ruan Se raised her eyes and slowly said:
“I have a Wood Spiritual Root.”
Wood Spiritual Root means she cannot control spiritual flames with fire elemental spiritual power like ordinary alchemists; she could even be said to fear fire. When alchemy, she could only use external force to ignite the fire and then assist with wood elemental spiritual power.
This is like a painter without a right hand having to paint with their left hand at the same level as everyone else. She had achieved it, but the hardships could not be told to outsiders.
Lai Li’an did not press further. He just nodded and asked a more practical question:
“What about you? What level can you currently achieve?”
Ruan Se took out a small jade box from her sleeve, opened the lid, and inside lay a dark red elixir pill.
The elixir’s surface had fine alchemy lines—five in total—but several lines were clearly not smooth, and the color was slightly dull.
“A fifth-grade Blood-Melting Pill, which temporarily stimulates physical potential, doubling the user’s strength within half an hour. The side effect is weakness for three hours after the effect ends. This is the highest grade I can refine, but the success rate is less than ten percent, and I can’t control the quality. This pill is the only one I made after twenty furnaces.”
She closed the jade box, looked up at Lai Li’an, and said:
“The final competition is free refining without grade restrictions. If I use fourth-grade elixir pills to compete, my confidence is over ninety percent. If I can reliably produce fifth-grade, I have a chance to win. But with my current success rate, forcing a fifth-grade pill is nothing but gambling.”
“A fifth-grade pill can win?”
Lai Li’an seized a key piece of information.
Ruan Se nodded:
“Meng Qiuran plays it safe. He will most likely choose fourth-grade pills to ensure nothing goes wrong. He has no pressure to enter the top three, but winning requires risk. I don’t know Shao Jiao well, but as far as I know, he hasn’t publicly refined any pill above fifth-grade in the past two years. If they both choose fourth-grade, then whoever can refine a fifth-grade pill will undoubtedly be the champion.”
“In other words, as long as I can reliably produce a fifth-grade pill, the probability of winning is extremely high.”
Lai Li’an’s eyes flickered, and his consciousness sank into the “Eternal Alchemy Divine Scripture” in his mind, rapidly searching through the vast array of pill formulas.
Ruan Se was about to say something, but saw Lai Li’an’s mouth suddenly curl up. Her words stuck in her throat, and she instinctively felt a sense of unease.
“Senior?”
Lai Li’an did not answer. His consciousness was stopped on a page of the “Eternal Alchemy Divine Scripture,” which recorded a not very conspicuous but very special pill formula.
It was a sixth-rank pill, but the required materials were far fewer than ordinary sixth-rank pills because its core was not “fire refining” but “wood transformation.”
In other words, this was the sixth-rank pill best suited for cultivation by a Wood Spiritual Root cultivator in the entire pill formula system.
“Fellow Daoist Ruan,”
Lai Li’an opened his eyes, the smile on his face not yet completely faded, looking somewhat unfathomable.
“Your Venerable Self has a pill formula here, sixth rank, suitable for a Wood Spiritual Root cultivator. Perhaps it can be of use to you.”
Lai Li’an’s smiling eyes turned to her, staring straight at her:
“However, to refine this pill, I’ll need you to prepare a few things for me.”
Ruan Se was slightly stunned. Fifth-grade was already enough; why refine sixth-grade? What was this Senior up to again?
She thought the Senior was going to instruct her in some profound alchemy arts, but when Lai Li’an slowly announced the first medicinal herb, her brows slightly furrowed.
“One Hehuan grass, at least a century old, leaves purplish-red for best quality.”
Hehuan grass? Ruan Se’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. She recognized this herb—it was mostly used to make medicinal baths for aiding dual cultivation techniques. It was hardly a proper main ingredient for alchemy.
But since the Senior specifically requested it, she just slightly nodded, without speaking.
“Three inches of Longyang vine, peeled and cored.”
“Hmm…?”
“Half a qian of Xuan Musk Incense.”
“Hmm… Hmm?”
“One Jade Vase Spring Flower, preferably one soaked in morning dew.”
“Hmm?…”
With each ingredient Lai Li’an announced, Ruan Se’s brow furrowed further. As an alchemist, she was more than familiar with the properties of these herbs.
Hehuan grass activates qi and blood circulation, Longyang vine tonifies kidneys and strengthens yang, Xuan Musk incense arouses passion and opens orifices, and Jade Vase Spring Flower is a common catalyst used by the Hehuan Sect in refining dual cultivation secret medicines.
A pill formula that could combine these four herbs—she had never seen anything like it in any proper alchemy book in her life.
But she still took out these herbs one by one from the medicine cabinet, moving quickly and without a word, until Lai Li’an announced the last herb.
“One Green Wood Spirit Fruit, age unrestricted—the better the quality, the more effective.”
Ruan Se’s hand holding the Green Wood Spirit Fruit stopped in mid-air. She looked at the neatly arranged herbs on the table and was silent for a moment.
Then she raised her head, her ears tinged with a light red.
“Senior.”
She gently placed the Green Wood Spirit Fruit back on the table.
“The pill formula you mentioned—this junior has never seen it in any alchemy book. These herbs… Hehuan grass paired with Longyang vine, supplemented with Xuan Musk Incense and Jade Vase Spring Flower…”
She clenched her fingers inside her sleeve, finally forcing out those words:
“This… the thing refined from this… this junior… this junior doesn’t know how to refine it.”