BXBX NOVEL Chapter 73: Refining
And the same applied to pills, but the consequences were even harsher since there was a chance of them exploding.
"Hmm…" Lu Zhen took one last look at the book to check if it was in line with his ingredients, confirming that it was.
Lu Zhen placed the book on the table and exited the room. As he stepped outside, he encountered Lily walking towards him.
"Lily, do not allow anyone to enter this room for now," Lu Zhen instructed with a firm tone.
"Yes, young master," Little Lily replied, bowing in acknowledgment.
"And Old Bai should send meat over, cook it up for me," Lu Zhen added before shutting the door.
Little Lily left to inform the guards to secure Lu Zhen's room.
"Yawn! What are we eating for lunch today?" one of the guards inquired, showing signs of boredom from the monotonous duty of standing guard with a spear. He stood there with drooping eyelids, appearing almost half-asleep.
"I think it was sweet and sour pork," the other guard mentioned, also standing lazily without proper posture.
At the mention of sweet and sour pork, the first guard's sleepy eyes widened, and he seemed to visibly drool in anticipation of the meal.
"Today's going to be a feast!" he exclaimed excitedly in a loud voice, eliciting sighs from the other guards.
"You two, go to the room and guard it diligently. Don't let anyone in until the young master comes out," a cold voice suddenly cut through the guard's excitement, causing them to shiver and snap out of their drowsiness.
When the two guards saw that it was Little Lily, they immediately started sweating in cold sweat as they said in unison, "Yes," and hurriedly went to guard.
The other guards seeing little lily were also in cold sweat as thye became more active in their duty.
Little Lily made her way to the kitchen to prepare the meat, her cold expression transforming into a happy smile.
La! La!
She sang as she was ready to prepare the best meal for her young master to enjoy with the meat of the Third-stage martial beast.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhen carefully extracted the essence of the herbs while forming numerous hand signs to allow qi to extract the medicinal properties of the herbs.
A green light flashed past as Lu Zhen fully concentrated to extract the essence of the herbs.
His mind was filled with the information about these herbs, almost as natural as the back of his hand, as he extracted their essence. He calculated the temperature of the ingredients, their height, length, and breadth, and carefully smelled all the ingredients.
Slowly, all the herbs floated in the air as Lu Zhen's wood qi started to crush the herbs and turn them into a greenish liquid, which fell into a big bowl that Lu Zhen had placed underneath.
However, Lu Zhen's qi wasn't strong enough, and the process was too slow.
"Hmm, my qi isn't strong enough," Lu Zhen thought, but he was distracted for a split second, causing all the herbs to fall.
A frown appeared on his face as he saw all his work go to waste.
"Let's try again," Lu Zhen thought as he went through the whole process once more.
Finally, after the fifth attempt, Lu Zhen succeeded.
Lu Zhen looked at the big bowl filled with the green liquid with a proud expression.
"Well, I finally succeeded!" Lu Zhen exclaimed with joy.
He summoned his system with a thought.
[Log]
"Oh, Alchemy must have levelled up…" Lu Zhen thought with even more excitement.
[You have practised with the saber.]
[Your saber mastery has levelled up from level 5 to level 6]
"Eh, hasn't my alchemy levelled up?" Lu Zhen was stunned.
"This should be from my previous training," his face morphed into a frown.
Lu Zhen had always felt that his skills levelled up as easily as taking a walk, although the speed had slowed down significantly as he reached higher level, it was still fast enough.
"It's going to be hard to level up the skill…" Lu Zhen thought to himself.
"Hmm… it has a bit of a sweet smell to it," Lu Zhen thought as he held the bowl and poured the greenish liquid into the furnace.
After pouring the greenish liquid, he closed the lid of the furnace.
"Let's start," Lu Zhen thought to himself as he began the fire.
"Hmm…" he just let the cauldron heat to the right temperature before he slowly started to control the liquid inside the container with his hands, just enough to prevent it from burning.
To Lu Zhen's surprise, unlike the extraction process which took too long, he completed the refining process without fail as the process took a short time.
"Let's see now," Lu Zhen thought excitedly to himself as he took out the lid of the piping hot furnace.
The moment he took out the lid, a burnt smell wafted into the air, which made Lu Zhen frown.
A gooey greenish liquid was stuck to the cauldron.
"Oh well, as long as it works…" Lu Zhen thought to himself as he took out the gooey liquid from the bowl.
"Here goes nothing," Lu Zhen thought as he closed his nose and drank the liquid in one go.
The moment he did, the gooey liquid instantly melted when it reached his stomach, and warm, mysterious energy spread throughout his body.
However, unlike previously, the mysterious energy was quite meager, and it acted differently. The energy dispersed to all parts of Lu Zhen's body, and the wood qi within him became strangely active.
Lu Zhen could feel the strengthening process of his wood qi powering his body increase, although it was still quite modest.
"Better than nothing," he thought with a bitter expression.