Time passed by.
In the blink of an eye, it was already two months since they had entered the valley.
During this period, two major things happened in the valley.
First, the news about the spirit liquid disseminated outside the mountain range. Be it the young ones who wanted to quickly advance or the old-timers who were stuck in the early phases for a long time, both saw this as heaven given opportunity. For a time being, the valley became a kind of pilgrimage.
This caused the economy of that place to suddenly boom. People were coming here from all places to strike reach or cultivate to a higher level.
However, the influx of so many cultivators caused the weak spirit liquid to further weaken. Now it could barely support someone to the fourth level of Qi condensation.
Most likely, the spirit water would lose all its effectiveness in a few more months.
This caused the number of people coming here to drastically dwindle.
If not for the fact that the place had practically become a hub for cultivators inside the forest, there would be even lesser people.
However, none of these had anything to do with Tianlong and Qingxue.
Sitting inside the room of their inn, the latter was completely absorbed in her work.
There was a workbench in front of her with multiple vials, glasses, jade bottles and test tubes. A few low-grade formations were inscribed in its body that helped in sealing and isolating the containers from external factors.
On its extreme left corner, there was a small spiritual burner that used spirit stones to produce a blue spiritual flame. There was a cauldron kept on top of it which was emitting light buzzing noises.
Qingxue slightly opened the lid and checked the material inside with her spiritual strength.
"It's time" she softly mumbled.
There was a test tube filled with a blue solution which was kept on boiling water. Upon closer inspection, one could see a scarlet insect that looked akin to a wasp inside of it.
Taking out the tube from the water, she opened its cap and took out the insect. It was about four centimetres long.
Swish!
With a swift slice, she cut open the creature and took out its small poison sac. Needless to say, all of the instruments were covered with a layer of spiritual sense while working with them.
'If it was a peak late-stage rank one flame wasp, I would've needed to dilute the poison by verdant wood sap. Fortunately, it isn't.' she inwardly thought.
She opened the lid to the cauldron and carefully added the poison to the bubbling mixture inside of it.
Immediately closing the lid, she focused her entire spiritual sense on it. Instantly, the blue flames danced with increased vigour and covered the entirety of the cauldron.
The pill she was refining was called the "Spirit soothing pill". It was a peak first revolution pill. If she succeeded in refining the pill, she would immediately join the ranks of peak first revolution alchemist. A first revolution alchemist could basically refine all kinds of pills that a Qi Condensation realm cultivator could ever need.
She had the necessary skills and materials to try, the only thing she lacked was spiritual strength.
In fact, it was not just her that struggled with spiritual sense, but all alchemists in existence. A strong spiritual strength was what every alchemist desired.
It was said that there were four major factors behind every successful alchemist: Strong spiritual strength that can refine myriads of heavenly materials and natural treasures, a memory that can hold information about thousands or even millions of spiritual herbs and their properties, resources for practice, and lastly a good master.
Lack of even one of these factors would limit the growth of the alchemist. But as things stood out, all of these factors were very difficult to affect.
However, Tianlong considered that there was one more factor that was just as important as the other four: "Curiosity".
He had once said to her that, "Only an inquisitive mind that desires knowledge can ever progress on the grand path of alchemy. Without curiosity, they are destined to never create something and can only follow the path dictated by others."
She smiled as she remembered it. "Sometimes he sounds like an old man."
As minutes passed by, beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
Even with her improved cultivation at the fifth level of the Qi condensation that she acquired in the last two months, she wasn't able to able to keep her spiritual sense active for so long.
If this went on for too long, this batch of materials will be wasted.
'Tsk! I was too overconfident in my thinking! If I had even a week more to stabilize my foundation…' Gritting her teeth, she tried to keep the flow of spiritual energy constant.
Just when she felt she couldn't endure anymore, she felt a cold palm on her back. Her body trembled and just she was about to turn back, a deep voice sounded behind her.
"Let me help you."
In the next moment, she felt a sudden surge of spiritual energy entering her body. Without the slightest hesitation, she let the energy channel inside her meridian pathways.
This showed the immense trust she had in him. For if the latter desired, he could very easily injure her or even destroy her cultivation base.
Now that she was getting help from him, she was able to maintain her spiritual sense.
Buzz!
The cauldron emitted a buzzing sound and trembled a little.
Qingxue didn't panic but rather injected even more spiritual energy inside the cauldron and started to channel it in specific ways.
Soon, the rumbling sound of the cauldron came to a stop. It signalled the end of the concoction process.
Finally, after waiting ten minutes for the cauldron to cool down, she removed the lid with an expectant gaze.
Six smooth round pills lay neatly in the middle of the cauldron. There was a faint greyish smoke coming from them.
"Success!" He exclaimed.
"But it has only about thirty per cent purity. If it was you who created these, you would have thrown them away as trash. Tell me your honest opinion.
Although she sounded unsatisfied, the smile on her face said otherwise.
Raising his eyebrows, he funnily looked at her.
"Your alchemy skills have already reached the level of peak first revolution. The only thing which you are lacking is spiritual strength.
"I know that you wanted to refine the pill long ago, but your lack of spiritual strength came in your way. So after reaching the fifth level of Qi condensation, you couldn't stop yourself. As if trying to get fat with a single bite…
"If only you waited for a week or even waited for me to finish my seclusion, none of this would've happened-
"Geez! I get it, ok! I was too impatient. From next time I won't make the same mistake." Still looking at the pills with glittering eyes, she didn't let him continue.
As of now, she was the most talented alchemist among the junior generation of Long Clan.
Even if one disregarded her alchemy, her cultivation base itself was among the top. The Luminescent spirit water had done wonder to her cultivation.
Next, she took out the pills from the furnace and injected some qi inside of them. This way, she was sealing the medicinal property while also leaving a mark that signified that it was her creation.
Taking the pills from her hand, he lightly touched them. Immediately a sense of numbness came in his fingers.
"I appreciate your help, but the way you suddenly touched my back and inserted your spiritual energy was too sudden. I almost stopped midways due to it." Not willing to take a loss, she complained about him.
As Tianlong continued to check the pills, he didn't even look at her while replying in a nonchalant voice, "You were already on the verge of stopping the process, so I had no time to warn you beforehand."
"As for the suddenness of the situation, I have inserted much more than just spiritual energy inside your body over the months. So your body should have already adapted itself to me."
Qingxue furiously blushed as she heard that. "Bah! Ivory cannot come out of a dog's mouth!"
Tianlong had a huge grin on his face.
After checking the pills in "Any way, now that the pills are done, it's time for me to go."
Walking up to Qingxue, he wrapped an arm around her waist and deeply kissed her.
"Wait for my message."
With that, he put a mask on his face and strode out of the room.
Standing outside, she continued to look at his figure with a loving gaze until it mixed with the crowd.
"Stay safe." She said softly.
After a long time, she sighed and went back inside the room.
Her eyes immediately fell upon the beast skin parchment on the bed.
"Looks like he forgot to take it with him."
She picked it up from the ground and observed the lofty handwriting in it. The strokes were all as sharp as swords and had a scholarly vibe to them. However, besides the exquisite handwriting, there didn't seem to be any special to the words.
"No, it's not right! I've seen him getting near bedevilled while writing these!"
She looked through all the new parchments on the bed but all of them gave her the same feeling. She couldn't detect a shred of spiritual energy inside any of them. As a last resort, she tried to scan them with her spiritual sense.
"Pū"
A mouthful of blood sprayed from her mouth the instant her sense touched the letters.
"What kind of killing intent is this?"