An Bing Qing was agape. She never thought this would happen. She reached to hold the book and shook it several times but her pill wasn't given back.
"This is my only pill with a white pattern and I wanted to make some research with it. Though I get that this book needs a white-patterned pill to be accepted or something, but what if I can't make another pill like this? I didn't even know why it has such a colour. All my refinements in the past had the corresponding pattern colour… Ah!"
Her berate was cut off as the black leather book trembled, falling from her hands. A cold air diffused open and something like white mist arose, covering the book's surroundings. An Bing Qing stepped back; she stopped when she saw the mist congregating only within a three meters radius from the book.
Minutes later, the dense white cumulous glittered. She observed it with great interest and all of a sudden it was retrieved back, encompassing only the book.
She walked forward and the book now seemed to be covered by a thin layer of crystalline ice; it was beautiful. She unconsciously stretched her arm but it melted into the book before she was able to touch it.
"Eh!" She exclaimed a little disappointed. Still, her thoughts shifted to survey the book, 'It doesn't look that different at all. The herbs carved on the cover are the same but…' She bent her body to pick it up and caressed its surface, 'Oh, its smother now and the colour changed a little; from deep black to light black', she blinked as she thought.
After looking here and there, she finally opened the book but she just flipped the pages to have an overview of the contents.
'Hmh, let's see… there is anatomy, diseases, treatments, mysterious beasts and herbs descriptions and some recipes. So the topics and arrangements are the same with the content being of a higher level. I'm going to pass a great time with this. Heh heh…'
She closed the book and hugged it; what she loved the most was to learn new things. After a while, she came back to earth and the first thing that entered her sight was the pill cauldron, "Huh? Right! I suddenly forgot".
As she neared to it, she saw a little rectangular-shaped prominence beside the pill cauldron, born from the white pedestal. In the middle, there was a circular cavity on its surface; it looked as meant to fit a pill. Her heart sank, 'Oh oh… this is bad, isn't it?' she thought before looking at the book, she shook it again and then turned her head back to see the ground. She said, "I was hoping for the pill to be dropped at some point but it seems I was being delusional with this situation".
She heaved a sigh and pondered for a bit.
'Well, I still have eight more sets of herbs. If I do the refinement as I previously did, the probability to have another pill with a white pattern would be high, right?' She nodded to herself and first kept the book inside her qiankun bag to not be tempted to read its contents before taking the herbs out along a jade bottle.
She took the bottle and two yellowish pills rolled from it; they were one-earth Energy Restoration Pills and both had a red-coloured pill pattern. If she was to be in the first three gates of Mundane stage, she would have only needed to take one; but once you stepped on the three following gates, the effectiveness dropped to fifty per cent while with the seventh gate, it would only recover a third of your energy.
She saw the pills in ponder, 'What if the pattern turns out to be red. If this place is as picky as the book, I can't even think what would happen'. She sighed and swallowed both pills at once.
As her energy recovered, she relaxed her tired body, twisting it a bit.
At long last, she clapped her hands and lit her flame to once again warm the pill cauldron.
This time it took her less time; in just twenty minutes or so, the cauldron was ready for her to start refining a green-coloured herb.
She refined all the five herbs in a couple of hours and the merging was taking part now. She was happy about it; it was as though the cauldron was easier to heat and to keep the different temperatures needed. She didn't know why it was so and didn't bother to think about it; but sadly, her elation took part in the pill's forming stage and it was more than she could manage.
"Puff", a puffing sound was quickly heard, followed by a scorching odour.
"Ugh… No, no, no… dammit", she slammed her hands against the white jade pedestal.
She held her head with her hands and after calming her disappointed heart, she heaved a profound sigh.
"I can only try again", she said while sniggering.
She cleaned the cauldron, wiping out the black dregs. After it, she was about to begin when she heard a knocking sound, 'It must be from outside but if I go out now, will I be able to enter to this place again?' she wondered with furrowed brows.
The knocks became calls and she decided to go out. If this place was as smart as she thought it to be, it will bring her back to this place.
Outside An Bing Qing's room, two young men were whispering between them as the oldest of them called out from time to time.
"Big brother Xiao Ning, why did you suddenly drag me to bring the young miss' meal? The guards were the ones delivering it before", a thin youth clad in black asked confused to the young man holding a tray with food next to him.
"I just feel like it", a handsome young man in his mid-twenties answered with a stern face. He was clad in dark yellow robes with brown suns embroidered on it; he was slim but his complexion was strong, making he look very valiant.
The youth who seemed to be in his early twenties blinked, and a weird thought took form in his mind, he asked, "Then, why didn't you feel like it before when the eldest young master was eating breakfast with the little miss?"
An Xiao Ning who was just calling again, lowered his eyes to look at the youth. He knew what he was thinking and said plainly, "An Xi Ming, you don't overthink things".
The youth grinned, "Big brother, I…"
"What?" An Xi Ming words were cut by An Bing Qing voice, there was an angry tone hidden in it.
The face of An Xiao Ning didn't change as he answered, "We were sent to bring the young miss' meal".
"Oh". She reached for the tray and added, "There won't be need for you to bring food anymore. I'm going to meditate and don't want to be distracted until we arrive. Thank you". She turned around and went back to her room; the door made a loud noise when it closed.
An Xi Ming asked at this sight, "Did we wake her up too early?" He was a little taken aback, though he hadn't had interacted with their young miss before, but he knew she normally addressed herself as –Bing Qing and her tone was milder. He also knew she didn't like to wake up early and that's why her breakfast was at noon; therefore, he couldn't help but ask such a question.
An Xiao Ning didn't reply and only gave to the closed door a second glance before leaving.
"Hey! Big brother Xiao Ning…." An Xi Ming called as he chased after him.