"Everyone, senior brothers, I succeeded." Yan Ruyu shouted upwards.
Her voice was hoarse with excitement.
After shouting, she seemed to recall something and quickly circulated her true qi throughout her body.
The old woman covered in ash disappeared, and Yan Ruyu returned to her original appearance as a young female cultivator.
Since she didn't usually fight, it was necessary to expend some true qi to maintain her appearance!
Soon, a group of old men ran down from upstairs.
Each of them had soot-black faces and bodies covered in furnace ash...
The group stared excitedly at the pills, studying them for a long time. Finally, they concluded that, at least from the outside, there should be no problem!
As for the actual effect...
Not long after, a prisoner was brought up.
This prisoner had once been a cultivator, but he wasn't very bright and had done something foolish that angered Liang Dekuai...
Liang Dekuai had no intention of actually killing him.
The prisoner was restless, so Liang Dekuai locked him in a dark room and forbade anyone from speaking to him.
Mental torture!
When he was brought over, the prisoner clearly had a beaten-down expression.
But upon seeing this group of smiling old men, his unfocused gaze trembled!
Honestly, he would have preferred to remain locked in the dark room than to see these old perverts!
Recalling his unbearable reactions after being fed all sorts of strange pills by them in the past, he felt completely awful...
"Here, eat this obediently." Old Man Wang picked up a Qi-Boosting Pill and approached the prisoner with a smile.
The prisoner shook his head frantically, his feet instinctively shuffling backward...
No!
I won't eat it!
Don't come near me!
Old Man Wang flickered forward, pried open the prisoner's mouth, and stuffed the pill in...
Then, a few old men crossed their arms, carefully sensing the changes in the prisoner's true qi.
Although the prisoner wore special shackles that suppressed his true qi, those things only prevented him from using his true qi to attack.
The true qi within his body could still circulate normally.
Soon, the true qi in the prisoner's body began to churn wildly.
The fiercely circulating true qi, suppressed by the shackles and unable to be released, caused the prisoner to swell up like a cooked shrimp, even increasing his body size by two times...
Just as the prisoner was about to explode from being stifled, Old Man Wang helped him vent some of the true qi.
Fifteen minutes later.
The half-dead prisoner was carried away.
Old Man Wang and the others were completely ecstatic!
The effect was absolutely fine!
Not only that, but even the side effects were so minor as to be negligible!
They had finally succeeded!
Afterward, they returned to the pill tower and listened attentively as Yan Ruyu explained her insights and experiences.
In the evening, Liang Rujing arrived at the pill tower.
"Greetings, grandpas. Greetings, Grandma Yan." Liang Rujing greeted them politely.
"Little Rujing, we really owe you this time!" Yan Ruyu, too excited to care about the address, said happily, "You've helped us solve a huge problem!"
"That's right, that's right," Old Man Wang agreed. "Come visit often if you have time. If you see any medicinal ingredients that catch your eye, just mix them together."
They were so excited for a reason.
The current cultivation world was experiencing a terrifying gap in technology, particularly in pills, artifact forging, and formations. Six-grade pills were almost at the ceiling of what was possible.
Now, with the Great Liang Kingdom mastering one more six-grade pill, the nation's strength had increased by several folds.
Such a contribution was no small matter!
Even if it was only due to a moment of mischief, the result was the same.
In their eyes, Liang Rujing had become a lucky charm.
After all, there was no harm in trying.
"Oh, right... When I went upstairs to steal pills earlier, Ye Fan was there..." Liang Rujing muttered softly. "He also said that the pills you refined couldn't be eaten... Could he have done something?"
"You mean, the young man who came with you this afternoon did it?" Although Liang Rujing's voice was not loud, Old Man Wang and the others heard it.
Moreover, they grasped a very important point.
That young man said that the pills they refined couldn't be eaten?
Could it be that the young man also understood alchemy?
It had to be said, they were a group of people who genuinely loved the art of alchemy.
When they heard someone say their refined pills couldn't be eaten, their first reaction was to wonder if that person knew alchemy.
Casually swapping an ingredient and succeeding with the Qi-Boosting Pill, if it was a coincidence, it was too much of a coincidence.
Especially when combined with the young man's words, it made them overthink.
"Ye Fan said he had seen others refine pills before, and he said that the pills you refined would harm people." Liang Rujing nodded. "Of course, maybe he was just saying it casually, you don't need to take it to heart."
After Liang Rujing finished speaking, she walked into the house.
Old Man Wang and the others' faces immediately turned dark.
With you saying that, do you think we can just ignore it?
As expected, it wasn't without reason that Little Rujing was called the "Little Demoness"...
Speaking words that tormented people with a straight face, she was simply a devil...
"Didn't you say that the pills we refined would harm people?" Old Man Wang grumbled from behind. "Then why did you go and take the pills?"
"Oh, I wasn't eating them myself, they were for my little bears to eat." Liang Rujing replied without turning back.
After returning to the imperial city with Ye Fan, she had ordered people to capture a large number of bear demons to raise.
No matter what their breed, she took a few of each.
She was waiting for them to grow a bit before asking Ye Fan to do his thing.
Furthermore, Liang Rujing felt that beast demons, in general, would grow faster if they ate pills, which would allow them to be served sooner.
As for the matter of the pills harming people?
When all the little bears died, the toxicity would naturally be gone.
At least, in her mind, that was how it worked...
In a sense, Liang Rujing shared some common ground with the two elders by Ye Fan's side...
After Liang Rujing left, Old Man Wang and the others fell into deep thought.
The situation was more complicated than they had imagined!
They had initially thought it was just a coincidence caused by the mischief of Liang Rujing or that young man named Ye Fan.
But after considering the young man's words, everything seemed less like a coincidence...
The pills would harm people, was he hinting at the Qi-Boosting Pills they had refined before?
He pointed out the problem with the pills and casually replaced it with the correct auxiliary ingredient...
If it was a coincidence...
I, for one, don't believe it!
Damn!
This young man might actually be quite capable!
Perhaps this young man himself was an alchemist no less skilled than them.
Or, perhaps, there was a powerful alchemist behind this young man!
It's also possible that this young man had truly seen others refine Qi-Boosting Pills before!
Although they were likely the most skilled alchemists in the entire Great Liang Kingdom, it was not impossible for there to be some hidden alchemical masters among the common folk!
This matter must be clarified!
They didn't dare to hope to obtain many high-level pill formulas or alchemical knowledge from Ye Fan, but even getting one or two items would be worthwhile!
At this moment, Ye Fan had transformed in their minds into an existence who possessed advanced pill formulas and alchemical knowledge.
Such an existence, for a group of people devoted to the art of alchemy, was an immensely fatal temptation!
They desperately wished they could learn a thing or two from Ye Fan...
Soon, Liang Rujing came out.
"Little Rujing, it's like this," Old Man Wang said, rubbing his hands. "Since your friend Ye Fan has helped us so much, we want to express our sincere gratitude."
"Of course," Liang Rujing said, very welcoming.
"How about you find some time and bring him to the palace again?" Old Man Wang asked hopefully.
"How about this," Liang Rujing mused. "I was planning to go to Ye Fan's place to freeload... I mean, to play. I'll take you all with me."
Liang Rujing's idea was simple.
Ye Fan was her best friend, and she always wanted to do something for him.
Whether the pills refined by these grandpas and Grandma Yan were problematic or not was another matter, but at least their status was significant.
If anything were to happen, these elders' influence would be far greater than her own, or even her father's.
Having Ye Fan get to know such individuals would also be beneficial for Ye Fan.
At least, Ye Fan would be safe in the imperial city from now on.
"It's about time, let's go." Liang Rujing waved her little hand and led the group out.
"Little Rujing," Yan Ruyu said, sitting in the carriage. "Does Ye Fan have any particular hobbies?"
Since they were going under the guise of expressing gratitude, they certainly needed to prepare a suitable gift.
But she was not familiar with Ye Fan, so she could only seek help from Liang Rujing.
"Hobbies?" Liang Rujing pondered. "It seems he doesn't have any particular hobbies..."
From her observation, Ye Fan seemed to enjoy lying around and daydreaming, apart from cooking delicious food.
"Perhaps Grandma Yan could give Ye Fan a recliner," Liang Rujing concluded.
Yan Ruyu helplessly covered her chest.
Forget it, I shouldn't have asked...