“Mm. I definitely will.”
She then smiled conspiratorarily and said: “But Grandfather, no one must come into this courtyard of mine. Will you go give the order to the servants when you go back? Do not even let my Father come in here.”
“Haha, alright. Not a problem with that. Your father brought Old White to circle a few rounds and is not in the manor now. If he was here, he would have already come charging right in.” The Old Patriarch said with a laugh. Glancing around at the messed up Alchemy Room, he then asked: “Do you want to have somebody come help you?”
“When Leng Shuang comes back, just ask her to come here.”
“Alright then! You be a bit more careful yourself. Just don’t get hurt.” The Old Patriarch reminded, still a little worried.
“Mm. I will.” Her heart filled with warmth as she saw her Grandfather out and went back into the Alchemy Room to tidy up, analysing once again the reason for her failure.
For a long while, she stood before the pill furnace and summoned up the spirit energy within to light the fire under the stove. As the natal flame roared to life under the pill furnace, she retracted back her hand and controlled the intensity of the flame as she watched the temperature in the furnace carefully.
In the beginning of the previous round, everything had been fine. It was only until the back where the pill was coagulating that the problem occured. It must have been because she had not controlled the flame and her spirit power well enough.
With the experience from her first failure, she carefully worked the furnace again another time, not daring to be careless in the slightest. But after about four hours, the pill furnace started to quake and she was startled when she saw that, immediately picking up her legs to run the very next moment.
‘Boom!’
Charred smoke spewed out from the courtyard once more, and this time, everyone in the manor merely paused a moment in startlement, before they continued on with their own tasks, because the Old Patriarch had given his orders that they need not bother with anything that happened in the Eldest Miss courtyard, and they did not need to go see as well.
But, they were all still rather curious. [What is the Eldest Miss doing in there? Why is there another loud explosion?]
Over at the Alchemy Room, Feng Jiu was determined to tackle the challenge. She paused a moment in the courtyard to recollect herself as she watched the charred smoke disperse before she walked herself inside once again. This time, even the pill furnace had toppled over.
Seeing that, a corner of her mouth twitched. Fortunately the things she had scammed off the Hell’s Lord were top quality items. Otherwise, it was thought that they would have been reduced to scrap under all this abuse.
Her next attempt already stretched all the way into evening, and almost an entire day had passed but she still had not been able to successfully cultivate a complete elixir. She had also wasted a great amount of spirit herbs which did not leave too much of a stock left in the space.
When Leng Shuang who had just come back into the manor heard that loud explosion, she paused in her steps. Seeing the guards and the servant girls looking calm and unaffected by it, she then turned to look towards the slightly more remote courtyard and thought to herself: [That couldn’t be her Mistress refining pills right?]
Coming to the outside of the courtyard, she saw her Mistress choking till she had her back bent forward and her hands resting on knees as she coughed. She then went out to call out: “Mistress, I have returned.” She had gone out to go to the black market today and as she had been held back with some matters, she had only come back now
“Leng Shuang? You came back just at the right time.”
Feng Jiu then walked up to come just outside the doors where she then pulled out a prescription and a crystal card to hand over to her. “Go to the black market and get twenty portions of each and every spirit herb on this prescription. Get thirty portions for the one right at the top of the list, the Scarlet Red Grass. There’s money in there, use that to go buy.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Leng Shuang did not question her but just speedily made her way back towards the black market.
What surprised everyone was her determination in challenging pill refining. After repeated and successive failures, she had tried again and again, never getting discouraged as she persisted, her heart only thinking that she did not believe she would not be able to succeed in cultivating a round of good grade pills!
Hence, she remained in the Alchemy Room for the entirety of three days and three nights…..