Chapter 11

After looting the Danfeng, Ye Qiao returned almost fully loaded, much to the despair of the Danfeng’s master. He watched helplessly as the girl and her third senior brother took off with nearly a tenth of the valuable pills.

The worst part was, this little rascal even plucked a bunch of spiritual plants from his medicine fields while passing by.

The Danfeng master, heartbroken, wanted to kick these two direct disciples out but restrained himself.

He kept convincing himself: These are direct disciples, the future hope of Changming Sect, I can’t kick them out…

Xue Yu, after helping her mess around until late at night, even escorted the little little sister back to her courtyard. Strangely, the spiritual energy in her courtyard seemed excessively dense.

Xue Yu, inspecting the surroundings, couldn’t figure out why since he wasn’t a talisman cultivator. Fulfilling his senior brother duties, he advised, “Little sister, the spiritual energy here is denser than in other places.”

It wasn’t much different from the spiritual energy in forbidden areas.

Xue Yu attributed it to good luck, thinking perhaps she was assigned a courtyard with naturally dense spiritual energy. He earnestly advised, “With such a beneficial place, you should be more diligent in your cultivation. There’s only half a year left until the sect competition.”

Ye Qiao nodded thoughtfully, “You’re right.”

Xue Yu barely felt relieved for three seconds before seeing his dear little sister seriously say, “But a great philosopher once said, ‘Go to bed at ten o’clock sharp, or it’s bad for your health.'”

Then she lay down on her bed, hands folded, “Good night, third senior brother.”

Xue Yu’s mind was filled with questions. Who is this philosopher?

Wait, she’s going to sleep already?

Watching Ye Qiao, who looked peacefully asleep like she had passed away, Xue Yu smiled through gritted teeth, “Good night, little sister.”

*

The next morning, Ye Qiao was on her way to the cafeteria when she ran into a few junior brothers from Danfeng.

Two of them sat opposite her, chatting idly.

“I just finished refining two pills. How about we sneak down the mountain to sell them today?”

Another junior disciple eagerly agreed, “Sure! We should be able to earn two hundred mid-grade spirit stones from these two pills. Then we won’t have to eat steamed buns anymore.”

At Changming Sect, both the outer and inner disciples’ canteens only served steamed buns every meal. Anyone would find it unbearable.

Ye Qiao’s heart stirred slightly. “Is alchemy really that profitable?”

The rules of Changming Sect prohibited disciples from privately selling talismans and pills. But there were always loopholes, and no one would be watching all the time. The elders also turned a blind eye.

Ye Qiao thought about the spoils she had gathered yesterday. No wonder the Peak Master of the Pill pot was so heartbroken.

The two inner disciples didn’t recognize her. Seeing the black sword at her waist, they assumed she was an inner disciple sword cultivator.

“Yes, theoretically speaking, the only poor ones are you sword cultivators. We alchemists can sell a bottle of mid-grade spirit pills for three hundred high-grade spirit stones.”

The person spoke a bit shyly, “But our cultivation is low, so we can’t make spirit restoration pills yet. It seems only Senior Brother Xue can make them in our sect.”

Poor sword cultivator Ye Qiao felt as if she had been stabbed in the heart.

But she was no longer the same as when she started. Now she had plenty of pills, having collected many high-grade ones.

However, the pills from the Pill pot couldn’t be sold since they were rare items. If she wanted to sell pills, they had to be ones she made herself.

Ye Qiao remembered the ancient pill recipe she noted down yesterday and had a sudden idea to try it out.

Orthodox alchemists used pill furnaces, so Ye Qiao sincerely inquired about the price of a pill furnace from the two alchemists.

Upon learning that a decent pill furnace cost ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, she made a face like an old man on the subway looking at a phone.

Never mind.

After eating, Ye Qiao decided to be self-sufficient. She went to the canteen lady and asked for a large iron pot. After all, couldn’t any vessel be used for alchemy? A pot was still a pot!

No discrimination against different tools.

It’s not because she was poor.

…

Back in the courtyard, she prepared the large pot, eagerly drawing a fire talisman. Alchemists had fire spirit roots and could produce spiritual fire, but the original owner had a lightning spirit root, which was quite rare in the cultivation world. No one had figured out its specific use, so it was considered a waste spirit root.

Ye Qiao was a half-baked cultivator and didn’t understand it either. Her mind was filled with thoughts of making money.

The flames rose, and she threw the spiritual plants she had gathered from the Pill pot into the air.

Then, mimicking the actions in the ancient scroll, she changed her finger movements, using her divine sense to crush, refine, and finally perfectly combine the spiritual plants, forming the pill imprint.

Nine pill imprints rotated around. Ye Qiao collected her divine sense, merging and shaping the pill. At the final scenting stage, she pondered for a moment.

She chose her favorite snail noodle flavor.

However, when she lifted the pot, the nine expected pills had turned into one large yellow pill.

Ye Qiao had seen the pills made by her third senior brother, each one round and full, with a smooth, jade-like appearance.

Her own…

Looked overly nutritious.

Was it because she used a large pot, making it grow freely? She stared thoughtfully at the misshapen pill, worried whether it could be sold.

“One shouldn’t compare too much.” Ye Qiao muttered, consoling herself. “At least it can be eaten…right?”

In modern times, she was a kitchen disaster. Now, making a pill successfully on her first try, Ye Qiao couldn’t help but praise herself.

She was a genius.

Ye Qiao’s pill-making was based on the teachings of the ancient patriarch of Changming Sect from the remnants she had learned. The pill, called the Purifying Spirit Pill, supposedly purified spiritual energy. Pure spiritual energy was beneficial for breaking through cultivation levels, but maintaining absolute purity required repeated cultivation and refinement. This pill could save a lot of time, a boon for those who didn’t want to put in the effort.

Ye Qiao couldn’t wait to find someone to test it on.

Her first target was Xue Yu.

Among her four senior brothers, Xue Yu had the best temper. Hearing he was teaching alchemy in class, she rushed to find him.

At that moment, Xue Yu was teaching a few inner disciples how to better refine pills and avoid failures.

He said, “The most important thing during alchemy is to stay calm.”

“In competitions, people may deliberately disturb your mindset. At that time, we should ignore them.”

“Just like this.” Xue Yu demonstrated, his movements smooth and orderly.

The disciples admired him with adoration, “Third Senior Brother is amazing.”

“No wonder he’s a direct disciple!”

When Ye Qiao rushed in, Xue Yu was in the middle of alchemy. She smiled sweetly at her senior brother, “Senior Brother! I brought you something good.”

She reached out and took out her large pill from her storage pouch.

The rich snail noodle smell quickly spread. Xue Yu’s hand paused slightly but he continued his alchemy, ignoring her, focusing intently.

Seeing this, Ye Qiao didn’t disturb him. Holding her large pill, she watched him refine.

She noticed his techniques were different from hers.

And he only made three pill imprints.

Before she could wonder why their pill imprint numbers differed, she heard retching.

“Ugh…” Xue Yu covered his mouth, no longer able to maintain his calm demeanor. He trembled, “Master… yue…”

“Take that pill of yours, and move it away.”

He rarely used “that pill” to describe spiritual pills, unless it truly looked like one.

As soon as he finished speaking, the pill furnace boiled over, and the next moment, with a “bang,” it exploded.

In all his years of alchemy, this was the first time Xue Yu had been choked into causing an explosion. He slowly exhaled a mouthful of black smoke, “Little sister…”

You are ruthless…

Ye Qiao sympathized with his plight for three seconds, then lovingly patted his messy hair and continued to offer her large pill, babbling, “Senior Brother, would you like to try it? If it’s not too bad, I think it should taste pretty good.”

Xue Yu slowly raised a finger, indicating his praise for her.

Then he continued to spit out black smoke, chuckling hollowly, “I won’t eat it.” He silently wept, “You eat it, Little sister.”

Thanks for asking. Mentally, I’m fine. It’s just that here at Changming Sect, I’ve been driven crazy by my little sister.

“Bold Ye Qiao!” Elder Zhao rushed in after hearing the commotion, smelled the overwhelming stench, and his pupils shrank. Covering his nose, he sternly exclaimed, “How dare you cook filth in the classroom!”

He had never really liked disciples like Ye Qiao who were not serious about their studies. Now, he finally had the chance to catch her in the act!

Ye Qiao: “…”

“Elder, you don’t have to love it, but please don’t insult it.” She silently hugged her pill. After all, it was her first successful creation. How could such uncivilized words be used to describe it?

Elder Zhao, overwhelmed by the stench of the snail noodles, briefly said, “Get out.”

Before leaving, Ye Qiao broke her large pill in half and gave one part to Xue Yu. “Third Senior Brother, make sure to finish it and give me feedback later.”

“Goodbye.”

She ran off without looking back.

Xue Yu looked at the pill in his hand, wearing an expression of pained resignation.

Pinching his nose, he reluctantly tore off a small piece, ate it, and immediately gagged, “Yuck!”

“Junior Brother, come here.” Xue Yu took a deep breath, waved at Mu Chongxi, who had just entered the classroom, and smiled kindly, “Here, Little sister made some pills, I’ll share some with you.”

As the saying goes, shared suffering is better than suffering alone.

Mu Chongxi: “Really?”

“Little sister can make pills?” He thought the senior brother was joking. Wasn’t Little sister a dual cultivator of talismans and swords?

She can do alchemy too?

Mu Chongxi didn’t believe she could make pills and thought she was just playing around, so he took a bite of the pill Xue Yu handed over without any suspicion.

A minute later.

He bent over silently, “Yuck.” What is this taste!

*

On the other side, Ye Qiao hurried to find Ming Xuan, “Second Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, delivering warmth to the community!”

Ming Xuan was studying the drawing method of explosive talismans when a yellow object suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, startling him. “What’s this?”

Ye Qiao: “A pill.”

Hearing it was a pill and smelling the odor, his first reaction was, “Does Xue Yu hate me so much? Did he make this biochemical weapon to poison me?”

Alright, he knew that bastard Xue Yu had bad intentions!

Ye Qiao was silent for a few seconds, “I made it.”

Ming Xuan was momentarily embarrassed but tried to recover, “Oh. I see… Haha, I knew that useless Xue Yu couldn’t make such a large pill.” Not just Xue Yu, no alchemist could make such a large pill.

Is she planning to use this thing to crush someone to death?

After trying to recover, Ming Xuan, under his little sister’s expectant gaze, had no choice but to eat it.

A moment later, the three of them collectively: “Yuck.”