Chapter 13 - Refining Pills

Li Huowang stared at the furnace in front of him carefully. Beside it there were three incense sticks that were used to record the passage of time.

Without a clock, Li Huowang could only use such crude methods to calculate time.

When the final incense stick had burnt out, he immediately doused the flame and opened the furnace. A strange herbal smell wafted out from the inside.

Li Huowang was ecstatic! He did it! The pills were rolling around in a sieve. After using the sieve to separate out the waste product, he placed the irregularly-sized black pills into a box to inspect them.

These were the Blood Nourishing Pills that Dan Yangzi had taught him the recipe of. It was a simple pill used to coagulate blood.

One must not consume more than 50g of it or they risk having all of the blood within their body coagulating.

It sounded like a dangerous drug, in that it would do more harm than good, but due to how simple refining it was, Dan Yangzi chose this recipe to let Li Huowang practice refining pills.

After counting it, Li Huowang had refined 13 large pills and 26 smaller pills.

But this was not all he had obtained through this practice. He had also gained some basic knowledge about pill refinement by practicing how to refine the Blood Nourishing Pills.

Refining pills was much harder than he had expected. Not only did he have to take into account the age of the herbs, he also had to know the direction in which the herb had grown.

If a single mistake was made, the success rate of the refining process and the potency of the pills would plummet drastically. The pile of black waste beside the furnace was evidence of this.

After inspecting the pills, he took out a piece of bamboo and kept the pills inside. He took a deep breath, wore his robes, and walked out.

It’s almost going to be 11 pm soon.

When Li Huowang opened the door to the Preparation Room, everyone inside immediately stood up and stared at him fearfully.

In their eyes, Li Huowang was the embodiment of the grim reaper.

Li Huowang gazed at them with a complicated expression on his face. Under everyone’s gazes, he stood in front of Bai Lingmiao.

The girl trembled, her white hair shivering ever so slightly. She tried her best not to cry but in the end she couldn’t stop tears from pouring out of her eyes.

Li Huowang held her hand and slowly walked toward the Pill Room.

Walking in the damp cave, Bai Lingmiao entrusted her final words to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang merely listened and stayed quiet throughout their walk.

However, when they arrived at Li Huowang’s room instead of the Pill Room, he brought her in and whispered, “Take off your pants.”

Bai Lingmiao’s eyes were frozen. She was quite scared by his words and actions.

45 minutes before 11 pm.

Li Huowang escorted Bai Lingmiao into the Pill Room. Dan Yangzi had arrived at roughly the same time as him.

When he saw that Li Huowang had already brought the guiding drug ingredient here without his orders, a satisfied smile appeared on his face. He was growing happier and happier with Li Huowang.

“Hoho, good disciple. Come here.” With a single wave of his arm, Bai Lingmiao flew through the air and was caught by Dan Yangzi. He used a single hand to grab her neck and then threw her into the stone urn.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang’s heart was racing as he clenched his fist.

Dan Yangzi had just picked up the heavy pestle when he stopped. “Huh? Her period came now of all times? The composition of the drug has changed.” Dan Yangzi frowned as he saw the blood stain of Bai Lingmiao’s pants.

Li Huowang sighed in relief. His plan had worked!

Once he had understood a little bit more about refining pills, he had come up with this plan.

In this world, the composition of a drug varied wildly even for rocks and herbs based on how they grew. So he assumed that a guiding drug ingredient, especially a human, could naturally be altered.

With his limited knowledge, he somewhat remembered that a girl’s menstruation blood was considered impure in Taoism. That was why he came up with a plan to fake Bai Lingmiao’s period by smearing his own blood on her pants.

Also, he had to ensure that Dan Yangzi noticed this personally so that the suspicion wouldn’t be cast on him.

Thankfully everything went according to plan. It seemed that Bai Lingmiao was saved.

Dan Yangzi waved his arm and Bai Lingmiao flew out from the stone urn, landing heavily on the floor.

She hit the floor hard. She covered her bruised knees and could barely stand. Since Li Huowang couldn’t help her in front of Dan Yangzi, he stood still on the side.

“Xuan Yang, take this guiding drug ingredient back.”

Li Huowang silently sighed in relief upon hearing it. “Yes, Master.”

When Bai Lingmiao walked back to Li Huowang’s side, he saw that her head had split open and blood was flowing down her cheek.

However, despite her injuries, she was very grateful toward Li Huowang. Compared to death, such injuries were nothing.

Thankfully we were able to fool him this time around. It should take quite some time for Bai Lingmiao to get chosen again.

Li Huowang escorted her toward the exit.

“Xuan Yang, since she cannot be used, go and bring another. I remember that there is another one with albinism. Quickly go and return; we can’t miss the time.”

Li Huowang’s body shook slightly out of surprise but he immediately turned and bowed. “Yes, Master.”

Li Huowang didn’t remember anything about when he returned to the Preparation Room. He just approached a boy with albinism and dragged him out of the room.

The boy screamed and cried, even begging for mercy while kneeling down on the floor. But there was nothing that Li Huowang could do. He could only drag him back to the Pill Room.

After delivering the boy, Li Huowang was just about to leave when Dan Yangzi called for him. “Didn’t you want to learn the Dao of Pills? Come and take a look. It’s not everyday that you would have the chance to observe the refinement of such a complex and rare pill.”

Li Huowang stayed and observed the entire refinement process, adding in the secondary ingredients and fanning the flames as requested by Dan Yangzi.

When the flames finally went out, the furnace was opened. Seven black pills appeared in front of Dan Yangzi, organized neatly in a row.

“Not bad. Looks like you have some talent in pill refinement. The other disciples are not as inquisitive as you are. Come, this is your reward.” Dan Yangzi took one of the pills and handed it to Li Huowang.

“Thank you for the pill, Master!” Li Huowang bowed toward Dan Yangzi as he extended both his hands to receive the pill.