by Feng Yise
However, nobody in the Divine Realm dared to take the father-son pair lightly, because their attainments in Alchemy Dao was not inferior to the president of the Alchemist Association, Ou Yezi.
But right now, Ye Yuan did not have the time to reminisce his past life. Song Qian's words made his eyes light up!
Just as Feng Ruoqing was about to speak, Ye Yuan interrupted, "That's right! That's right! Teacher Feng, I'm not even an Alchemy Apprentice. How can I possibly help you? Teacher Song is a fine gentleman who is also an Alchemy Master. With his help, what medicinal pills can't be refined? Since that's the case, then I have no more business here. I will be making a move first."
While Ye Yuan was talking, Song Qian looked at him approvingly. He thought to himself that this punk really knew what to do. He could give him guidance in the future.
"Teacher Feng, you see . . ."
Feng Ruoqing did not even look at Song Qian. She suddenly clawed at Ye Yuan, and an indistinct essence energy thread immediately coiled around Ye Yuan's ankle.
If the students who watched Ye Yuan's deathmatch were here, they would see that Feng Ruoqing's move was precisely the Lesser Capturing Hand that Fei Qingping used before!
Except that the power of the exact same move, when displayed by Feng Ruoqing could not be mentioned in the same breath.
Ye Yuan was about to sneak away after he finished talking when he felt as if his legs were suddenly filled with lead, and he face-planted the ground from the inertia.
"Aiyo!"
Ye Yuan wailed in pain on the ground. The difference between the two was too great. Feng Ruoqing did not even move, and she could knock him down.
After knocking him down, Feng Ruoqing took two steps forward. As she walked by Song Qian, she did not even bother to look at him.
Walking in front of Ye Yuan, Feng Ruoqing frowned as she said, "Are you a man? How can you go back on your word? I don't need other people to be my assistant. I only want you! If you run again, I don't mind reporting you to the dean to get you expelled from the academy. I believe my words will have some standing."
After she said that, Ye Yuan could not muster up any temper.
In the cultivation world, it was an undeniable fact that disciples from sects were stronger that loose cultivators.
As the outer sect of the Tranquil Cloud Sect, the Dan Wu Academy gathered virtually every single top geniuses. There was no better place than here to temper himself.
Ye Yuan did not have any interest in the Dan Wu Academy's resources, but he had some interest in the geniuses here.
Seeing Ye Yuan finally yielded, Feng Ruoqing felt delighted from subjugating him. She finally caught this punk.
Turning to Song Qian, she said, "Many thanks for Teacher Song's good intentions, but it's enough for Ye Yuan to be my assistant. Teacher Song definitely has many things to do as the Dan Wu Academy's rising star. I won't delay your time."
"Ye Yuan, let's go."
Ye Yuan sighed and obediently followed behind Feng Ruoqing.
Although he did not turn his head back, Ye Yuan clearly sensed that there was a pair of eyes filled with ill intent staring at him.
Chapter 49 - Refining Medicinal Essence
At the Dan Wu Academy, alchemy instructors had their own personal pill refinement chamber. Of course, Feng Ruoqing was not an exception.
Feng Ruoqing's pill refinement chamber had a very well-planned layout. All sorts of medicinal herbs were categorized and stored neatly.
In the center of the chamber was a red-colored pill cauldron. With Ye Yuan's judgment, he could obviously tell with a glance that this pill cauldron was a superior-grade Tier 2 pill cauldron. Most likely, there was no better one than this among the alchemy instructors in the Dan Wu Academy. However, a pill cauldron like this was worthless to Ye Yuan.
Ye Yuan pursed his lips and found a place to sit down.
That scene happened to have caught Feng Ruoqing's eyes, suddenly making her feel irritated.
"It seems like you despise my Red Lotus Cauldron?"
"Ah? This cauldron? Not bad, not bad. Haha." Ye Yuan laughed it off.
With just one look, she could tell that it was completely insincere.
"You have seen better Tier 2 pill cauldrons?"
"Me? Haha. I'm just a student who isn't even an Alchemy Apprentice. Where would I see such a high-tier pill cauldron? It's called Red Lotus Cauldron right? Good name, good name!"
Ye Yuan did not expect that his subconscious contempt for the pill cauldron would actually result in a series of questioning from Feng Ruoqing, so he had to humor her a little.
But he really did look down on this sort of pill cauldrons. Back in his past life, he would not even bother to use this sort of pill cauldron to boil water with.
In the past, if someone were to say that her pill cauldron was not good, Feng Ruoqing will immediately flip out. But Ye Yuan gave her an exceptional feel.
The corner of the iceberg that Ye Yuan revealed during the medicinal theory class had already exceeded the boundaries of the Dan Wu Academy's students.
Even the first place on the Alchemy Roll of Honor could not possibly know how to refine the Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill using the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique.
It was possible to have coincidentally seen the pill formula before, but the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not something that the average person would know.
Even Feng Ruoqing only happened to have seen this refinement technique from an extremely obscure ancient record.
Back then, it was like she obtained a treasure. She spent a period of time practicing this refinement technique in a frenzied craze, but she had no choice but to give up in the end.
This refinement technique was too hard!
And because of that, Feng Ruoqing was very interested in Ye Yuan, making him her assistant.
To think that this fellow did not appreciate it and even repeatedly hid from her. This made the proud Feng Ruoqing go crazy. Hence, her actions today.
Feng Ruoqing did not know why, but even though Ye Yuan repeatedly brushed her off and also looked down on her, she felt that Ye Yuan's scorn came naturally from the heart. He was not pretending to be an expert.
Like just now, Feng Ruoqing had always been very confident with her Red Lotus Cauldron. Virtually every alchemist who came by her pill refinement chamber would be shocked by the cauldron. But Ye Yuan only pursed his mouth and had a scornful look.
Feng Ruoqing did not detect even a trace of amazement from Ye Yuan's eyes.
Could it be . . . that Ye Yuan really knew the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique?
Feng Ruoqing was frightened by her own thought. How was it possible?
Feng Ruoqing practiced the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique before and was well aware of the difficulty of this refinement technique. Ye Yuan was only fifteen. How could he know this refinement technique?
"I asked you to be my assistant, not be a lord. What are you sitting there for? Hurry up and come prepare the herbs," Feng Ruoqing said coldly.
"O-oh. Coming, coming."
Ye Yuan staggered up to the operating stage. There were all sorts of medicinal herbs placed on it. He took a look at the herbs and asked curiously, "Aren't you going to refine a Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill? Why all the ingredients you prepared are Tier 1?"
Feng Ruoqing flushed slightly and immediately replied angrily, "I asked you to prepare the medicines, so just do it. Why are you asking so many questions?!"
Looking at the situation, Ye Yuan instantly understood that this woman had yet to master the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique. She was using these Tier 1 medicines to practice.
However, this Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not something that could be mastered in one or two days. How long would he have to accompany her to train with these Tier 1 medicines for practice?
His time was highly precious, and he did not have the time to accompany this woman to refine pills!
Ye Yuan sighed and just turned around to pr
epare the medicines.
Feng Ruoqing turned around and entered the quiet chamber to meditate and trying to adjust her mental state.
Pill refinement was a highly complicated form of knowledge. One must not be distracted even in the slightest when refining pills. It must be finished in one go.
Even the smallest disturbance could affect the quality of the medicinal pill, possibly even resulting in a useless pill.
Hence, the majority of alchemists would choose to meditate before refining pills. They would only start refining after they adjusted their mental state to be unperturbed by anything.
But Feng Ruoqing had just adjusted herself and was yet to fully enter a meditative state when there was a knocking on the quiet chamber's door.
This time, Feng Ruoqing really got angry. Dropping the fact that Ye Yuan repeatedly hid from her despite that being her assistant was a wonderful task that every man in the academy would fight to do, now that he was helping out as her assistant, he was causing trouble instead of properly performing his tasks!
If there was no justified reason, she would definitely beat him up brutally, and then hang him for three days to warn the public.
The door creaked open, revealing the raging Feng Ruoqing.
"Haha. I didn't expect Teacher Feng to open the door so hastily. It made me jump." Ye Yuan gave a startled expression.
Ignoring Ye Yuan, Feng Ruoqing raised her right palm. Traces of essence energy flowed along the palm as if it would strike any moment.
"I asked you to prepare the herbs! What are you doing?! Don't you know that I'm meditating?! If your reason isn't justified, be ready to receive this palm!" Feng Ruoqing snarled.
"Don't! Teacher Feng, if you said you had violent tendencies, then I wouldn't have become your assistant even if I had to copy the 'Herbal Compendium' a hundred times back then! The herbs are all prepared already. I even finished refining two sets of medicinal essences before coming over to call you. I didn't think that you would take so long to meditate!" Ye Yuan jumped far away with a shout.
"What? The medicinal essences are all refined?"
Feng Ruoqing could not immediately process his words. It had only been about 15 minutes since she entered the quiet chamber. Not only did Ye Yuan finish preparing so many herbs, but he also managed to refine the medicinal essence?
How was that possible?
"That's right. This reason is passable, right? I don't want to be smacked to death," Ye Yuan said gloomily.
Putting down her hand, Feng Ruoqing gave a cold humph and said, "If I find out that you are talking nonsense, then it wouldn't be as simple as a single palm."
After saying this, Feng Ruoqing walked over to the operating stage and was immediately stunned.
Two sets of medicinal essences quietly sat in their jade containers. The color was extremely pure. It was clear that they were excellently refined with all the useless medicinal dregs purged away.
Feng Ruoqing looked at Ye Yuan and opened her mouth, but no words came out of it.
"Teacher Feng, do you want to say something? Aren't you going to smack me to death? At most, I will call you later next time. How long do you normally take to meditate?" Ye Yuan asked innocently.
". . . . . ."
Feng Ruoqing was speechless.
After a while, Feng Ruoqing finally s.u.c.k.e.d in a deep breath and asked Ye Yuan, "This is the medicinal essence you refined?"
Ye Yuan looked around and asked curiously, "Are there other people in here?"
"B-but how did you do it so quickly?"
An ordinary Alchemy Apprentice would spend an hour just to prepare the herbs. In addition to refining the medicine essence, it would take at least two hours!
Preparing the herbs was not merely just pairing it together. One needed to accurately weigh out the quantity. Even the tiniest bit of error would not be tolerated.
Hence, an alchemist's assistant would always be very cautious when preparing the herbs. As a result, a lot of time was spent on it.
Even Feng Ruoqing herself needed over an hour to refine a Tier 1 pill's medicinal essence.
But Ye Yuan only used 15 minutes. This was just unheard of!
"Isn't it just refining a Tier 1 pill's medicinal essence? Why do you need to spend so long on such a simple task?" Ye Yuan nonchalantly questioned her.
Chapter 50 - Drawing a Circle with Left Hand, Drawing a Square with Right Hand
If it was about martial arts, Ye Yuan might be more humble. But as for alchemy, Ye Yuan really did not know how to be modest.
It could be said that Ye Yuan spent his entire past life busying with alchemy. He was simply too familiar with medicinal herbs and pills.
This sort of familiarity was engraved into the soul. Even if he changed his body, that sort of familiar feeling which came from the soul would automatically make the body carry out the most appropriate actions.
Originally, Ye Yuan wanted to be low-key. But once he touched those medicinal herbs, he could not help but to complete the preparation of herbs and refine the medicinal essence.
Others might be filled with trepidation towards measuring the quantity of the medicinal herbs and did not dare to carelessly leave out anything. But Ye Yuan just had to casually grab them with his hands, and the quantity of the herbs would definitely be accurate.
This was the ability developed through million and million times of practice. Nobody could imitate that.
Feng Ruoqing stared blankly at Ye Yuan and did not know what to say.
Refining a Tier 1 medicinal pill was . . . simple?
"D-do as you like. I-I'm going to the quiet chamber to meditate!"
After saying that, Feng Ruoqing turned around, and entered the quiet chamber once more.
This round of meditation was four hours; it was much longer than initially planned.
Feng Ruoqing's mental state was a mess and was not able to enter a meditative state for a long time. She only managed to purge her distracting thoughts after two hours, and then she entered the empty state.
After exiting the quiet chamber, Feng Ruoqing recovered her haughty and cold attitude once again. Walking in front of the Red Lotus Cauldron, she instructed emotionlessly, "Bring the medicinal essence over. Fire up the cauldron. Refine!"
Ye Yuan did not waste these four hours either. He was training while meditating the whole time.
In comparison with his past life, the current Ye Yuan was much more diligent.
The Ye Yuan who managed to become an Alchemy Emperor before understood that there were no shortcuts to cultivation. No matter how talented one was, there was only hard work and more hard work.
Hearing Feng Ruoqing's instructions, Ye Yuan passed the two jade containers with the medicinal essences in them over to her and prepared to fire up the cauldron.
Feng Ruoqing looked over at Ye Yuan in surprise. Initially, she was prepared to open her mouth to instruct Ye Yuan on what to do. But who would have thought that Ye Yuan would perform what an assistant should do with such familiarity.
The Dan Wu Academy's pill refinement chambers were established on top of an Earth Vein. Earth fire was guided over to refine pills.
This sort of pill refinement style was only suitable for low tiers. High tier pills must use heaven and earth flame sources. But Ye Yuan was not a stranger to this style of refinement.
Opening the fire valve, the scorching earth fire burst out from the ground, instantly raising the temperature in the pill refinement chamber.
Although earth fire could not be compared to heaven and earth flame sources, it was extraordinary among the mortal fires. It was more than sufficient to refine a Tier 1 medicinal pill.
Ye Yuan rapidly formed seals with both hands and slowly moved towards the fire. The fire immediately became like an obedient baby while still being incomparably docile. 1
Following which, Ye Yuan spread his hands apart and cried out, "Stabilize!"
The earth fire automatically separated into two and scorched the two sides of the Red L
otus Cauldron uniformly.
Looking at this scene, a trace of surprise flashed across Feng Ruoqing's eyes once again.
She had never heard of this kind of fire controlling skill!
Earth fire was abnormally wild. It could only be used after layers upon layers of array formations were placed on top of the academy.
Even so, this fire was not something that an average Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm could easily control.
But this fire was just like a house pet in front of Ye Yuan. If he asked it to lay down, it would not dare to stand.
However, the refinement procedure had already begun. Feng Ruoqing could not afford to be surprised and hastily recollected herself.
Feng Ruoqing formed hand seals with one hand and pointed a finger towards the Red Lotus Cauldron. The cauldron lid flew up by itself.
Following that, she gestured with her other hand, and the two medicinal essences flew through the air into the pill furnace.
"Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique! Activate!"
With a low cry, Feng Ruoqing's two jade-like hands moved like phantom images.
Right now, it was no longer Ye Yuan's business. He took it easy as he watched Feng Ruoqing repeatedly change seals continuously to temper the medicinal essence. Watching this, he could not refrain from nodding his head.
This woman more or less had some standards. It looked like she spent no little effort on the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique.
But she had yet to fully master the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique, so it appears executing it was a little forced. It seems like this furnace of medicinal pills was going to be wasted.
The Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not so easy to master. During the refining process, the alchemist had to do two things at once. One hand had to perform Yang-attribute seals, while the other hand had to execute Yin-attribute seals. Furthermore, it had to be carried out simultaneously with no room for any error.
Any mistake during the process would result in the furnace of medicinal pills to be wasted.