"Attend to?"
Lu Li looked strangely at the maid Chun Tao, thinking what does she mean by attend? It's not mealtime yet? He shook his head, "Not needed now, just bring me some food later."
Hearing Lu Li say this, the maid couldn't help but glance at the sky, wondering what he meant. Her pretty face flushed red to the tips of her ears, and then she softly whispered, "Yes," before covering her face and running away.
"What does that mean?"
Lu Li didn't understand. He shook his head, turned around, and walked along the corridor toward a small building to the east.
Entering the room, Lu Li closed the door behind him, sat down by the round table, and began taking stock of his materials for refining the Meridian-Nourishing Pill.
The herb garden had forty stone nandina plants and ninety usable Soul-Calming Flowers.
The Space Palace held thirty-three Buddha-Heart Fruits.
Earth milk essence was not a concern; there were still a full one hundred and twenty-five bottles.
Looking at it this way, the Buddha-Heart Fruit was the short-board for this batch of pill refining. But... he still had to refine pills for that mysterious organization. Presumably, they would have Buddha-Heart Fruit as well, and when the time came, he could embezzle some from their stock without likely being discovered.
After counting the materials for the Meridian-Nourishing Pill,
Lu Li cast his Divine Sense into the herb garden. At this point, the Scarlet Flame Fruits were already showing signs of turning red, marked by a dozen spiritual patterns. It looked like they would ripen again after a little more time.
When that happened, he could refine another batch of Piercing Acupoint Pills and continue breaking through.
Having finished all this, Lu Li went to the bed and entered the Time Palace to cultivate. The Spiritual Qi here wasn't particularly dense, but the absorption and refinement speed of his Great Profound Scripture was already sufficient, so he didn't need the assistance of True Essence Pills.
In the evening, a crisp knock sounded from outside.
Guessing that the maid had brought him food, Lu Li hurriedly stepped out of his cultivation state, opened the door, and immediately felt his heart leap into his throat.
The maid was indeed Chun Tao.
Only, besides holding several plates of food, she had also changed into thin gauze clothing. Her exquisite, jade-like figure was faintly discernible, making Lu Li's blood run hot. In a panic, he snatched the tray from her hands and slammed the door shut behind him.
Leaning against the back of the door, he panted heavily and said, "Chun Tao, don't dress like this next time."
Outside the door, Chun Tao looked down at her attire, her face as red as a ripe apple. Feeling somewhat disappointed yet seemingly relieved, she bowed through the wooden panel and said in a clear, crisp voice, "Yes, Master."
Hearing Chun Tao's departing footsteps, Lu Li finally took a deep breath to calm his surging emotions, picked up the food trays, and sat down at the table.
Yet, try as he might, while he ate, her graceful figure kept flashing through his mind. Annoyed beyond measure, he took two or three long strides to the bed, pulled the covers over his head, and tried to force himself to sleep.
"Ah, cultivating the Dao requires cultivating the mind as well!"
It was Lu Li's first time encountering such a situation. He tossed and turning in bed, unable to find sleep, realizing that the more he forced himself not to think about it, the more chaotic his mind became, letting his imagination run wild.
Even the shadows of other people began to surface in his mind, from carrying Ling Xiaoyun through an escape to sharing a mount with Lei Xiaoman...
It wasn't until he went outside to use the latrine and washed his face with cold water that he finally calmed down completely.
Returning to the room with a wry smile, he felt much more relaxed. He re-entered the Time Palace and cultivated until the early hours of morning.
Early the next morning, Chun Tao came knocking again.
By this time, she had changed back into her original pink long dress, though an awkward air still lingered between them. Seeing this, Lu Li had her leave the breakfast on the table and dismissed her.
After a hasty breakfast, Lu Li eagerly hurried toward the Pill Tower.
On the way, he ran into a gray-robed elder. He had already learned from Wan Hong'an yesterday that this person was Li Xiuyun, one of the two resident pill masters. By the look of it, the elder was also heading to the Pill Tower.
Lu Li stepped aside to offer a polite greeting.
However, Li Xiuyun merely glanced at him coldly before striding past him.
Lu Li awkwardly rubbed his nose and fell in a few steps behind.
Up ahead, Li Xiuyun used his jade token to open the Pill Tower's heavy door. Once inside, he unceremoniously triggered the mechanism to slam the door shut again, an attitude that left Lu Li rather displeased.
Thinking to himself, Didn't you see I needed to get in too?
He shook his head, took out his own token to reopen the door, and stepped inside. Upon entering, he found that Li Xiuyun had already vanished, presumably having hurried straight into a pill-refining room.
He felt rather puzzled. Had he offended the old man in some way? Why did Li Xiuyun act as though Lu Li owed him a debt?
Pausing briefly, Lu Li walked toward the front row of pill rooms. The status buttons for rooms one and two were recessed, indicating they were occupied. He walked straight to pill room number three and pressed the activation mechanism.
With a low rumble, the stone door slowly lifted.
The layout of the third pill room was identical to the first one he had used yesterday. After closing the stone door securely, he retrieved his pill furnace and the ingredients for the Meridian-Nourishing Pill, piling them neatly on a jade tray before beginning his first attempt.
Before starting, Lu Li carefully tested the earth fire valve. This was a habit he had formed; earth fires in different locations-even along the same fire vein-varied in the temperature they produced.
Once he had adjusted to the nuances of the valve's range, Lu Li set the pill furnace to preheat. As the cauldron warmed, he stabilized the flame and picked up a grayish, half-foot-tall spiritual herb that resembled bitter wormwood but lacked roots from the jade tray, tossing it inside.
This was the stone nandina grass; its roots had been left behind in the herb garden.
As soon as the stone nandina grass entered the furnace, it began to emit a sizzling white smoke. Lu Li's eyelids twitched at the sight, thinking that something was wrong-was this merely the preheating temperature, yet the herb couldn't even withstand that?
Full of suspicion, he shut off the earth fire and fished the herb out. Inspecting it in his palm, he realized only the leaves had been scorched and withered, while the white smoke was likely just the herb's normal reaction to heat.
After a moment's thought, he tossed the stone nandina grass back in. Just as before, white smoke billowed up upon contact, though slightly less than the first time.
Deciding to write off this particular stalk if necessary, Lu Li slowly increased the flame.
To his surprise, however, the outcome defied his expectations.
The white smoke billowing from the stone nandina grass vanished instantly, replaced by a pale gray liquid oozing from the leaves and stems.
A flicker of joy crossed Lu Li's heart. He was glad he hadn't thrown it away; otherwise, he would have wasted a precious spiritual herb for nothing.
Maintaining a steady flame, he refined it for a short quarter of an hour. The spiritual liquid within the stone nandina grass was finally fully extracted, turning into a tiny, little-finger-sized drop of pale gray liquid that rested quietly at the bottom of the furnace.
The remaining stems and leaves had already been reduced to ash and expelled from the exhaust vents.
"It seems pill refining isn't as difficult as people say after all," Lu Li muttered with a trace of pride after succeeding on his first try. Without pausing, he tossed in the second major ingredient: the Buddha-Heart Fruit.
He had already refined the Buddha-Heart Fruit twice before, so he had a fair grasp of the required heat. Even so, he couldn't blindly apply the exact same fire control across different pills; if he accidentally ruined the stone nandina grass liquid he had just extracted, the consequences would be severe.
Thus, following his usual caution, Lu Li slightly lowered the flame before gradually increasing it, searching for the delicate balance between the two spiritual herbs.
And so, holding his breath and treading on thin ice, Lu Li carefully proceeded with the refinement of his long-awaited Meridian-Nourishing Pill.