"This, this, and that, I want them all. Name your price."
"Thank you for your patronage. That will be ten mid-grade spirit stones in total."
"Alright, here you go."
"Certainly, fairy. Walk slowly and visit again when you have time."
Xu Yi walked out of the shop with a beaming smile, followed by a stoic Lu Zaiye.
She looked around, pointed at a shop across the street, and excitedly said, "Come on, let's go browse that one."
Lu Zaiye followed in silence, his gaze as calm as a stagnant pool.
As a cultivator with photographic memory, he could barely recall how many shops they had entered.
"Hurry up."
Lu Zaiye sighed softly and quickened his pace.
Upon returning to the inn, Lu Zaiye sat down cross-legged, and an indescribable fatigue silently swept over his body.
He felt as if he had fought a demon king for three days and three nights and had not been this tired.
He closed his eyes and sat still to regulate his breathing. The intangible spiritual energy, as if guided, converged towards his body.
Soon, his body was hidden within a dense mist of spiritual energy.
The next day.
Lu Zaiye stepped out of his room with heavy footsteps.
"Did you not rest well yesterday? Why do you seem so listless?"
Seeing Lu Zaiye looking even more dispressed than usual, Xu Yi blurted out with concern.
Lu Zaiye shook his head.
Xu Yi glanced at him again, and seeing that he did not wish to answer, she did not press further. As she walked outside, she said to him, "Accompany me somewhere later."
Lu Zaiye's steps faltered.
"Yes."
Then he followed Xu Yi, turning left and right, eventually stopping outside a seven-story pavilion.
Pill King Pavilion.
A shop on the Nine Provinces Continent specifically serving alchemists, its main business was buying and selling pills, as well as renting out alchemy furnaces and earthly fires.
Seeing this, Lu Zaiye exclaimed, "You're going to refine pills?"
Xu Yi smiled and nodded, "Yes, I collected many good things yesterday. Today is a good time to practice."
"You can refine pills?"
Xu Yi said with a hint of pride, "I know a little."
Lu Zaiye: ...
Upon entering the Pill King Pavilion, Xu Yi, guided by a shop assistant, rented a medium-sized alchemy room.
After paying the rental fee and receiving the room number plate, they found their rented alchemy room on the fourth floor.
Then, Lu Zaiye personally witnessed the level of skill behind Xu Yi's "know a little."
Xu Yi refined a total of ten batches of pills, with one batch being dregs.
That dreg batch was due to Xu Yi's unfamiliarity with the earthly fire in the alchemy room on her first use, leading to the failed refinement.
However, a nine-tenths success rate in pill formation was enough to astonish Lu Zaiye.
What's more, these were not low-grade pills, but fourth-grade pills.
Even a fourth-grade alchemist would find it difficult to achieve this.
Xu Yi's alchemical skill was at least at the fifth level.
Recalling Xu Yi's equally impressive attainments in formations, Lu Zaiye realized for the first time that this long-absent Junior Ancestor was even more exceptional than he had imagined.
No wonder that person, before ascending, still remembered to mention the Junior Ancestor's existence.
Xu Yi was unaware of Lu Zaiye's thoughts; she was still regretting the first batch of failed pills.
Perhaps it was due to being trapped in the secret realm for too long, but she cherished every item she possessed, unconsciously developing a thrifty and frugal disposition.
Seeing these dreg pills, she felt it was a waste to simply discard them.
Holding the dreg pills in her hand, she pondered if there was a way to extract the toxins, leaving only the essence.
Lost in thought, she inadvertently entered a trance.
After breaking free from his memories, Lu Zaiye found Xu Yi's eyes vacant, caught in a peculiar state.
This is...
Enlightenment!
Lu Zaiye's gaze sharpened.
Junior Ancestor truly brought him too many surprises.
Just refining pills could lead to a state of enlightenment; if this were to get out, it would undoubtedly incite envy and apprehension in many.
Fortunately, Junior Ancestor belonged to the Xuanji Sect.
A faint ripple appeared in Lu Zaiye's eyes.
After an unknown amount of time.
Xu Yi suddenly moved.
She channeled her spiritual energy to activate her palm spirit fire, enveloping the dreg pills within.
Xu Yi possessed a single fire spirit root. Her palm spirit fire was of higher quality than the earthly fire in the alchemy room, but because activating her palm spirit fire consumed a large amount of spiritual energy, she rarely used it.
Under the tempering of the palm spirit fire, the dreg pills quickly emitted wisps of black smoke.
Xu Yi's complexion gradually turned pale due to the rapid depletion of her spiritual energy, yet her eyes, reflecting the firelight, appeared even brighter and more captivating.
Just as Lu Zaiye hesitated whether to offer assistance, Xu Yi's palm spirit fire gradually extinguished, and a brownish-red liquid slowly swirled in her hand.
Xu Yi took out a jade bottle, poured the liquid into it, and casually handed it to Lu Zaiye.
"I'm a bit tired. I need to rest."
Without waiting for Lu Zaiye's reply, Xu Yi closed her eyes and collapsed softly onto the ground.
Lu Zaiye was startled. He channeled his spiritual energy to catch her, carefully laid her flat on the ground, and only then breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming that her unconsciousness was due to complete spiritual energy depletion.
He swept his divine sense into the jade bottle and understood the liquid's composition, then sighed softly, "She actually managed to do it."
A day later.
When Xu Yi opened her eyes, she was momentarily disoriented before jumping up, "Lu Zaiye, my things..."
Before she could finish, a pair of well-defined hands entered her vision.
These hands were so fair.
An absurd thought flashed through her mind, so quickly that Xu Yi couldn't grasp it.
She excitedly took the jade bottle from Lu Zaiye, opened the stopper, and took a gentle sniff.
"Hmm, it still needs a bit more work."
Xu Yi disappointedly returned the jade bottle to her storage ring.
A large portion of the toxins in the dreg pills had been extracted, but a small part still remained attached. It would require at least two or three more refinements to completely remove them.
Xu Yi was somewhat dissatisfied with the result, but then she thought that at least that batch of pills would not be wasted, and her mood brightened.
Lu Zaiye observed the change in Xu Yi's expression and couldn't help but sigh.
Fortunately, only he witnessed this scene. If other alchemists found out, it would likely cause enormous trouble.
What other cultivators could not achieve in their entire lives, Junior Ancestor had resolved in three days. The comparison was too stark and could easily breed ill intentions.
Xu Yi thought for a moment, then took out a transmission disk and sent her flawed refining method to True Person Shangyuan, who guided her in alchemy at the Xuanji Sect, hoping to receive his assistance.
After doing all this, she took out half of the pills she had refined earlier and offered them to Lu Zaiye.
Lu Zaiye did not refuse.
Firstly, through their interactions during this period, he knew that his refusal would be futile if Junior Ancestor intended to give him something.
Secondly, the pills refined by Junior Ancestor were precisely what they needed for their journey to the Ten Thousand Monster Ridge, clearly indicating that Junior Ancestor was preparing for their upcoming trip.
Back then, the Stunning Phoenix Fairy had signed a contract with the Demon King, designating the Divine Continent as demon territory.
If humans and demons trespassed into each other's territory, they could be killed on the spot without mercy.
Despite this, countless demons and humans, driven by intense curiosity, desired to venture into unknown territories.
As the border between Yang Province and the Divine Continent, the Ten Thousand Monster Ridge naturally became a mixed dwelling place for humans and demons, as well as a notorious killing ground on the Nine Provinces Continent.
Xu Yi and Lu Zaiye's next destination was the Ten Thousand Monster Ridge.