Such thoughts were constantly churning in Gan You Jiâs mind.
He did not even notice that Zhantai Xinyan, drenched in sweat, had returned with a furnace full of spiritual medicine.
"Whatâs wrong with Sister Qingqing?"
Zhantai Xinyan set down the pill furnace she was holding, helped by Chen Changâan who gently placed it on the ground, and casually asked.
"Probably contemplating something important."
Chen Changâan replied casually, but the actions of his hands never stalled. He sorted out the various kinds of spirit medicines that Zhantai Xinyan had brought over and laid them all out in front of him.
Looking at the various kinds of spiritual medicines, Chen Changâan asked with slight surprise, "Why are there so many?"
Hearing this, Zhantai Xinyan inspected them more closely then scratched her head, "Is it a lot? But the recipe calls for these medicines."
"Also, I only prepared enough for two furnacesâ worth. In our sect... our sect... we donât have many spiritual medicines for the Clear Heart Pill anymore."
No wonder Zhantai Xinyan was awkward. The usual pill master crafted elixirs with multiple, usually over ten portions of spiritual medicine as base.
Being able to concoct two furnaces of elixirs with ten portions of spiritual medicine showed that the pill masterâs understanding and familiarity with the pill furnace and recipes were top-notch.
In Zhantai Xinyanâs point of view, asking this self-proclaimed second-grade thief to concoct a batch of Clear Heart Pills with just two portions of spiritual medicine in an emergency pill furnace found in the treasury was already causing lots of trouble.
"No problem." Chen Changâan didnât bother to guess Zhantai Xinyanâs thoughts; he had to seize this opportunity to extract a handful of Elixir Fire from the spiritual energy that hadnât dissipated from his body yet.
Yes, thatâs right, extract some Elixir Fire.
He had just suffered the chaos of a spatial turbulence, which resulted in his Daoist Foundation barely retaining any spiritual energy.
Using so much fire was already a luxury, but it was enough.
Hum hum hum~!
Then, the alchemy began.
A pale-blue flame gently fell beneath the pill furnace, lighting up the dust-covered pill furnace and made it float before Chen Changâan.
This simple act was sweat-inducing hard work for Chen Changâan at the moment, unlike how easy it used to be for him.
Zhantai Xinyan was lowering her head, wrestling with her own thoughts.
Chen Changâan couldnât rely on her; so he bent down, picked two types of spirit medicine from the pile, and threw them into the pill furnace.
Without any unnecessary actions, Chen Changâan simply stared rigidly at the pill furnace before him, feeling the medicinal spiritual energy stimulated by the Elixir Fire inside.
Compared to the careful procedure of other pill masters when concocting elixirs, Chen Changâanâs actions were considerably odd.
What Zhantai Xinyan didnât know was that Chen Changâanâs enthusiasm in the Dao of Alchemy was no less than his enthusiasm in the Dao of Cultivation.
Alchemy is about understanding various Daos, then skilfully kneading an elixir into a form that imitates the Heavenly Dao. The more principles a pill master understands, the more profound their alchemy skills are.
For Chen Changâan, the simplest of things in the world happen to be these various Daos. Even though his understanding isnât refined, his broad knowledge compensates for the lack of depth.
Simply refining a medium-grade elixir; all he had to do was manage the spiritual energy in the pill furnace, and the elixir would easily form.
"Elixir formation! Shout!"
Following after, Chen Changâan shouted loudly, casually extracting a strand of Elixir Qi from inside the furnace.
The originally abundant Clear Heart Pill suddenly became faint; the Elixir Fire under the pill furnace emitted a sound similar to that of a firecracker, before suddenly disappearing.
Chen Changâanâs eyes were focused and his face was serious as he exhaled deeply.
"Done, Mother Goddess, you should take a look at this, can it work?"
Chen Changâan casually opened the pill furnace; a puff of smog was exhaled from the furnace before the scent of the elixir filled the hall.
Smelling this fragrance, Chen Changâan was secretly pleased; the medium-grade elixir, Clear Heart Pill, had been made!
A middle-grade elixir, refining spiritual medicine, gathering energy into a pill; the scent of the elixir was overflowing.
A superior-quality elixir, the scent was contained, and Elixir Qi was bright.
"Take this."
Chen Changâan gave the elixir a simple once-over, nodded in satisfaction, then casually tossed it over to Zhantai Xinyan.
Although this Clear Heart Pill was not the highest quality elixir he had ever concocted, it was the first one where he was in control of the downgrade from superior to medium quality.
Chen Changâan knew that this illustrated his control over medicinal properties was refining, more remarkable than before!
"Why are you giving me the failed elixir? Just discard it directly."
Zhantai Xinyan clumsily caught the elixir thrown by Chen Changâan, not minding much at first. But the clear scent that emerged from it startled her senses.
Then she let out a shriek.
This high pitched shriek managed to drag Gan You Ji, who was standing motionless in the hall like a statue, back to reality.
"What happened? Whatâs wrong? Has the Great Dao Sect sent people to pressure us?"
"Itâs the Clear Heart Pill! Itâs the Clear Heart Pill!" Zhantai Xinyan held the elixir in her hand carefully, after a detailed observation, she became even more excited: "Sister Qingqing, see, I wasnât lying to you, this little thief is really a Sixth Grade Pill Master! He really made the Clear Heart Pill!"
"You little girl, you must not be so impatient in front of an honored guest." The older woman tapped Zhantai Xinyan on the head, then went in front of Chen Changâan, and said:
"My dear friend, I apologize for letting you witness such uncouth behavior."
"No problem, no problem." Chen Changâan waved his hand, although he couldnât understand why this elderly woman bore him no ill will, he accepted this act of kindness.
It would be great if he could reside here temporarily, after all, this world was too strange to him; he would at least have to recover from his injuries first.
Chen Changâan, however, was unaware that be it the elderly woman or Zhantai Xinyan, both were spirits of this world. The older woman was a deity of the Sacred Tree, while Zhantai Xinyan was a Flower Fairy.
And whether they were deities of Sacred Trees or Flower Fairies, they shared one common characteristic; they could discern the virtues and vices of a person.
Although Chen Changâan was distraught and stole the precious Spirit Grass of the mountain, both felt that his remorse was genuine.
They were spirits of this world and naturally wouldnât mind doing good deeds with a kind-hearted person.