Chapter 16: The Danwang Pavilion
“I’ll take this, that, and everything else. What’s the price?”
“Thank you for your patronage. That will be ten medium-grade spirit stones.”
“Very well, carry on.”
“Farewell, fair lady. Do visit us often.”
With a satisfied smile, Xu Yi stepped out of the shop, followed by the aloof Lu Zaiye. She glanced around and pointed excitedly at a shop across the street.
“Come, let’s go to that one.”
Lu Zaiye silently followed, his gaze as calm as a stagnant pond.
As a cultivator with an impeccable memory, he found it strange that he couldn’t recall how many shops they had visited.
“Hurry up.”
Lu Zaiye let out a soft sigh and quickened his pace.
Upon returning to the inn, Lu Zaiye sat cross-legged, feeling an indescribable fatigue wash over him.
He couldn’t help but think that battling the Demon King for three days and nights hadn’t exhausted him as much as this.
Closing his eyes, he entered a state of meditation, as the intangible spiritual energy converged within his body.
Soon, his form became shrouded in a dense mist of spiritual energy.
The next day.
Lu Zaiye stepped heavily out of his room.
“Did you not rest well yesterday? You seem even more tired than usual,” Xu Yi remarked, concerned, as she noticed his downcast expression.
Lu Zaiye shook his head.
Xu Yi glanced at him once more, confirming that he didn’t wish to answer, and without further inquiry, she said, “Come with me somewhere later.”
Lu Zaiye paused in his steps.
“Yes.”
He followed Xu Yi as she led him through various turns until they arrived at a seven-story building.
The Danwang Pavilion.
A shop dedicated to serving alchemists on the Nine Provinces, primarily involved in buying and selling elixirs and renting out alchemy furnaces and earth fires.
Lu Zaiye, surprised, asked, “Are you planning to practice alchemy?”
Xu Yi smiled and nodded.
“Indeed, I acquired some good items yesterday, and today is a perfect opportunity to test my skills.”
“You know alchemy?”
Xu Yi proudly replied, “A little.”
Lu Zaiye: …
Once inside the Danwang Pavilion, Xu Yi rented a medium-sized alchemy room with the assistance of the shop attendant.
After paying the rent and obtaining the room number, they found their designated room on the fourth floor.
Then, Lu Zaiye witnessed firsthand the so-called “little” knowledge of alchemy.
In total, Xu Yi successfully refined ten batches of elixirs, with only one batch being a failure.
The failed batch was due to her unfamiliarity with the earth fire in the alchemy room.
However, a ninety percent success rate in alchemy left Lu Zaiye astonished.
Moreover, these elixirs were not of low grade but rather fourth-grade elixirs.
Even for a fourth-grade alchemist, achieving such results would be challenging.
Xu Yi’s alchemy skills were at least at the fifth-grade level.
Considering her impressive accomplishments in formation cultivation, Lu Zaiye realized for the first time that this long-lost ancestral master was even more exceptional than he had imagined.
No wonder that person had mentioned her before ascending.
Unaware of Lu Zaiye’s thoughts, Xu Yi was still lamenting over the failed batch of elixirs.
Perhaps due to being trapped in the secret realm for too long, she cherished every item she possessed and unknowingly developed a frugal and thrifty nature.
Seeing those failed pills, she felt it would be a waste to simply discard them.
She held the failed pills in her hands, contemplating if there was a way to extract the toxins and salvage the essence.
Lost in her thoughts, she inadvertently entered a trance-like state.
Lu Zaiye broke free from his recollections and noticed Xu Yi’s vacant gaze, realizing that something peculiar was happening.
What could this be…
Epiphany!
Lu Zaiye’s eyes narrowed.
His ancestral master had brought him too many surprises.
Even refining a pill could lead to an epiphany state.
The repercussions of such an achievement could attract envy and trepidation from many.
Fortunately, his ancestral master belonged to the Xuanji Sect.
Ripples appeared in Lu Zaiye’s eyes.
Time seemed to pass by unnoticed.
Suddenly, Xu Yi made a move.
She mobilized her spiritual power and conjured a flame in the palm of her hand, enveloping the discarded pill within.
Xu Yi possessed a singular fire spiritual root, and the flame in her palm surpassed the quality of the fire in the pill refining chamber.
However, due to the substantial consumption of spiritual power required to activate it, she rarely utilized it.
Under the tempering of the flame in her palm, the discarded pill soon emitted billowing black smoke.
As Xu Yi’s face grew paler from the rapid depletion of her spiritual power, her eyes reflected the flickering flames, appearing even brighter and more captivating.
Just as Lu Zaiye hesitated about whether to lend a helping hand, Xu Yi’s flame gradually extinguished, and a brownish liquid began to swirl in her hand.
Xu Yi took out a jade bottle and poured the liquid into it, then handed it to Lu Zaiye.
“I am a bit tired. Let me rest for a while.”
Before Lu Zaiye could respond, Xu Yi closed her eyes and slumped softly to the ground.
Startled, Lu Zaiye activated his spiritual power to catch her, carefully laying her flat on the ground.
Confirming that her unconsciousness was due to the depletion of her spiritual power, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He scanned the contents of the jade bottle with his divine sense, understanding the composition of the liquid, and sighed softly, “She actually managed to do it.”
One day later.
When Xu Yi opened her eyes, she was momentarily disoriented.
Then, she leaped up and exclaimed, “Lu Zaiye, my belongings…”
Before she could finish her sentence, a pair of well-defined hands entered her field of vision.
Those hands were truly fair.
A whimsical thought flashed through her mind so quickly that Xu Yi couldn’t grasp it.
She joyfully took the jade bottle from Lu Zaiye’s hand, opened the stopper, and sniffed it gently.
“Hmm, it still lacks a bit of refinement.”
Disappointed, Xu Yi put the jade bottle back into her storage ring.
Although most of the toxins from the discarded pill had been extracted, a small portion still remained.
It would take at least two or three more refinements to completely remove them.
Xu Yi felt somewhat dissatisfied with this result, but upon further reflection, at least the furnace of pills wouldn’t go to waste. This made her happy.
Lu Zaiye observed the change in Xu Yi’s expression and couldn’t help but sigh.
Fortunately, he was the only one who witnessed this scene.
If other alchemists found out, it would undoubtedly cause a huge commotion.
What others spent their entire lives trying to achieve, his ancestral master accomplished in just three days.
The contrast was too stark, making it difficult for people not to harbor ill intentions.
After contemplating for a moment, Xu Yi took out a voice transmission disc and sent her failed refining method to the Shangyuan Immortal of the Xuanji Sect, hoping to receive assistance.
After completing all of this, she took out half of the previously refined pills and handed them to Lu Zaiye.
Lu Zaiye didn’t refuse.
Firstly, through their time together, he knew that it was futile to reject what his ancestral master wanted to give him.
Secondly, the pills refined by his ancestral master happened to be exactly what they needed for their upcoming journey.
It was evident that she was preparing for the journey ahead.
When the Fairy Jinghong and the Demon King signed a contract, making the Divine province into the territory of the demon race, any trespassers from either side would be executed on the spot, without mercy.
However, despite this, countless members of both races, driven by intense curiosity, still ventured into unknown territories.
As the border between the Yang and Divine province, the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge naturally became a place where humans and demons coexisted, as well as a notorious killing ground in the Nine Provinces.
The next destination for Xu Yi and Lu Zaiye was the Ten Thousand Demon Ridge.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone