Qin Deming shook his head.

As the clan leader, he was somewhat stubborn. “Ancestor is currently crucially refining the Jade Marrow. We can’t disturb her easily. Besides, if every little thing bothers Ancestor, what are we here for?”

Luo Xian rolled her eyes and muttered, “Prefers to suffer than lose face.”

Qin Deming pretended not to hear and turned to his daughter Qin Ruqing, who was sorting rice spirits. “Ruqing, do you have any ideas?”

Qin Ruqing put down her bowl and smirked, “Dad, do you think too highly of me? I’m not a deity. How can I have solutions for everything?”

With her alchemy talent, she could barely produce the most basic Qi-Refining pill. Dreaming of cracking alchemical secrets was beyond her. It was better to rely on her third sister, Qin Luwei, whose alchemy talent was much better.

Qin Deming understood.

His daughters’ cultivation talents were not to be questioned, but her alchemy talents…

He had once asked Ancestor with high hopes.

The unforgettable expression on her face made Qin Deming understand instantly.

Since then, he hadn’t inquired about his daughters’ alchemy skills.

Exposed the next day, Qin Ruqing went to school listlessly, unable to escape the alchemy question even there.

Because her third sister, Qin Luwei, had heard about the family’s business competition with the Zhang family somewhere, she was now dedicated to researching the Qi Revitalization pill, hoping to help the family.

In front of Qin Luwei was an alchemy furnace.

She was enthusiastically explaining a thick alchemical formula and occasionally jotting down notes.

Qin Ruqing rested her chin on her hand, boredly watching Qin Luwei’s movements.

She could understand some of it, having studied alchemy, but Qirong looked confused.

At that moment, Qirong was standing behind them with a large tripod, practicing while eavesdropping on their conversation

Qin Luwei had a small jade bottle by her side containing the Qi Revitalization pill she had recently refined.

Qin Ruqing, feeling bored, picked up the small bottle and played with it, occasionally uncorking it to sniff inside.

“Sister, are you also trying to crack the improved Qi Revitalization pill formula?” Qin Ruqing asked casually.

Qin Luwei didn’t even lift her head, simply replying, “No, I’m not cracking the formula. I’m improving the Qi Revitalization pill. If the alchemist from the Zhang family can find a way to improve it, there’s no reason why we can’t.”

Ah, her third sister was still ambitious!

While the Qin family was busy trying to crack the formula, she was thinking of improving the Qi Revitalization pill in her own way.

To outsiders, these two goals seemed similar, but one was about deciphering based on others’ work while the other was innovating from her own perspective.

Qin Luwei wasn’t intimidated by the difficulty of improving the Qi-returning pill, showing her talent and dedication in this area.

Qin Ru Qing nodded in support, “Do you have any insights now?”

Qin Lu Wei replied seriously, “The ingredients needed for a regular Qi-returning pill include Spirit Grass, Qiangwu, at least a thousand years old Codonopsis, and some other miscellaneous auxiliary medicines. Among these, Spirit Grass is the main ingredient that determines the pill’s nature and cannot be changed. To improve it, we could either replace the other two auxiliary medicines or adjust their proportions…”

Qin Ru Qing couldn’t offer much insight into this topic and could only nod along.

She casually poured out the pills from the bottle and played with them in her hand.

The normal recovery pills were earthy brown, plain without any patterns on the surface, looking simple and unadorned.

But as Qin Ruqing stared at them, she felt something was slightly off.

During the last lottery draw, she had surprisingly won three recovery pills from the mall, which left her frustrated for a while.

Since then, these three pills had been stored in her inventory bag without being used.

Today, as she compared one of these pills with the others, Qin Ruqing couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something different about the system-produced recovery pills.

She asked, “Sister, have you tried improving the recovery pills in here?”

Qin Luwei replied, “No, these are just regular recovery pills that I made for comparison and research.”

Next to them, Qin Qirong, who was lifting a cauldron, chimed in, “Yeah, those are regular recovery pills. I’ve had them before. They’re dusty brown and taste like medicinal herbs.”

This puzzled Qin Ruqing.

Could she be remembering wrong? Her memory was usually good.

She distinctly recalled that the system-produced recovery pills were pure black in color and didn’t have a herbal smell.

Qin Ruqing calmly squeezed the pill in her hand and said, “You can smell the herbal scent from that far away?”

Qin Qirong smiled and raised the cauldron a bit higher, saying nothing more.

Turning to Qin Luwei, who was still reading with her head down, Qin Ruqing asked, “Sister, could you give me one of the recovery pills from the jade bottle? I want to take it back to study.”

Qin Luwei nodded in agreement.

Later that evening, when Qin Quqing found a chance to be alone, she quickly took out the recovery pills from her inventory bag to examine them.

Comparing them side by side, the recovery pill she had obtained from Qin Luwei was brown, while the system-produced one was indeed black.

They were truly different!

When she smelled them again, Qin Luwei’s recovery pill had a faint bitter and herbal scent, just as Qirong had mentioned.

But the system-produced recovery pill had a refreshing fragrance.

Frowning, Qin Ruqing pondered whether the difference was just in color and scent, or if the effects were also different.

After thinking it over, Ruqing went into the courtyard and used several techniques in succession, depleting all the spiritual energy in her body.

To be honest, depleting her spiritual energy was quite challenging for Qin Ruqing—not because she couldn’t deplete it, but because she recovered so quickly that her consumption rate often couldn’t keep up with her recovery rate…

With the boost from her Qinglian Dao Physique and innate perfection, Qin Ruqing didn’t really need these recovery pills.

Just a bit of effort and her energy would be halfway restored.

Therefore, to test the medicinal differences between these two recovery pills, Qin Ruqing really had to put in a lot of effort.

Although the process was complicated, she finally got results.

Qin Ruqing’s expression turned serious.

She had just experimented, and the medicinal effects of the two recovery pills were indeed different!

Qin Luwei’s recovery pill, when consumed, honestly didn’t make Qin Ruqing feel much.

Her spiritual energy was rapidly recovering, but she couldn’t tell whether it was due to her Dao Physique or the pill itself.

But when she took the system-produced recovery pill, it was a different story.

The feeling was hard to describe…

It was as if her spiritual energy progress bar had surged forward significantly. One pill restored a quarter of her spiritual energy.

Don’t underestimate this quarter of spiritual energy recovery.

In battle, it could be the key to victory, allowing her to unleash one or two more spells or sword moves—potentially crucial in determining the outcome.

Qin Ruqing was in turmoil over the two pills.

Standing in her courtyard, she began to brainstorm.

“Qingqing, it’s late at night, what are you blowing up in the courtyard?” Qin Deming stood at the courtyard gate, staring dumbfoundedly at the several still smoking craters under Qin Ruqing’s feet.

Qin Ruqing was startled, snapped out of her thoughts, and subconsciously glanced down at her feet.

The bluestone floor was pockmarked with blackened traces from the explosions.

Two of the four Tai Ping vats in the courtyard were also shattered.

These vats weren’t just decorations but nodes in an array.

Qin Deming and his wife doted on their children.

After the family became wealthy, they each installed a Spirit Gathering Array in the courtyards of their two children, Qin Ruyu and Qin Ruqing.

With the vats broken, half of the spiritual array was destroyed and needed to be repaired.

Qin Ruqing awkwardly withdrew her feet from the pits, quickly shifting her thoughts, and explained, “Heh, Dad, I was practicing techniques. There’s been a Dao technique that’s been bothering me for a long time, and I suddenly got inspired just now, couldn’t resist experimenting in the courtyard… Dad, I’m sorry!”

In such a situation, it was better to apologize promptly.

After apologizing, Qin Ruqing quickly changed the subject.

She jogged up to Qin Deming, grabbed his sleeve, and shook it. “Dad, you’re scolding me, but you’re not asleep either.”

Qin Deming wasn’t really angry at all.

It was just a courtyard explosion, nothing serious.

But he kept a stern expression and glanced at Qin Ruqing, saying lightly, “With all the racket you’re making, I’d have woken up even if I were dead asleep.”

Qin Ruqing chuckled and didn’t hold back in exposing her father’s lie, “Dad, I can tell you haven’t slept at all… After all, with all the recent troubles in the Qin family, as the Clan Leader, you must be anxious and irritable?”

Qin Deming glared at Qin Ruqing with some irritation.

This girl dared to tease even her father.