Chapter 109: Slender Arms, Thin Legs, and a Petite Frame

As Ruan Qingwu finished drawing in the pill’s energy and suppressing the flames, the batch finally took complete shape. She let out a soft breath of relief.

Done.

“Is it ready?” Qinghu asked, leaning over.

“It is.”

Ruan Qingwu lifted the great lid of the pill furnace. Inside lay twelve plump, vermilion-red pills, each about the size of a fingernail.

“Want to try one?” she asked.

Qinghu nodded at once.

Ruan Qingwu drew one pill over and handed it to her. Qinghu popped it straight into her mouth without hesitation. A warm current flowed down into her stomach and intestines, then spread through her organs and onward into every corner of her body. Her entire body seemed to moan in comfort as it greedily absorbed the warmth.

This was far more potent than the turtle essence pill she had eaten before. The only problem was that its medicinal strength was still too weak.

“Can you refine an older turtle next time?” Qinghu asked, looking at her expectantly.

Ruan Qingwu immediately shook her head vigorously. “This is the best I can do for now. I’ve reached my limit. If you want turtle essence pills refined from older turtles, you’ll have to wait until my alchemy improves.”

“Then can you refine more of these for me?” Qinghu asked.

“That’s possible. But if I refine turtle essence pills for you, can you give me a few Azure Beauty clams?”

“Of course.” Qinghu agreed immediately. “You refine the pills for me, and I’ll give you extra Azure Beauty clams.”

“Deal.”

“Then wait here after the qualification examination is over. We’ll return to my house together. Once you’ve finished refining the pills, I’ll hand the clams over to you directly. Whether you eat them as they are or refine them into pills is entirely up to you,” Qinghu said.

Ruan Qingwu thought for a moment. “You’re not planning to set some kind of trap at your house and capture me, are you? Let me tell you, I’m extremely precious at home. If you dare lay a hand on me, my grandfather won’t let you off.”

“Why would I capture you? Your alchemy is so poor that you can’t even handle a turtle with a little age to it. I’m counting on you to go home, study alchemy properly, and come back to refine better turtle essence pills for me.” Qinghu rolled her eyes.

Little girl, you’re overthinking this. If it were your grandfather instead, I might consider capturing him and making him refine pills for me year-round.

“All right, then I accept,” Ruan Qingwu said, relieved to hear that Qinghu had no intention of capturing her.

Qingjin was speechless. Were these two girls both idiots? They were far too trusting.

“What about the remaining eleven turtle essence pills?” Qinghu asked, pointing at them. “Can I have them?”

“I’ll give you ten. I’ll keep one for myself so I can test the results of my refining,” Ruan Qingwu replied.

Qinghu nodded and quickly swept away all ten pills.

She gave two to her eldest brother, two to her fourth brother, and tucked the rest into her little bag.

“What about me? What about me?” Ning Qi asked with a grin.

Qinghu blinked several times, then reluctantly handed him one pill.

Ning Qi accepted his fate. Fine. One was better than none.

Qinghu chewed one pill, then another, then another…

Before long, she had swallowed several turtle essence pills.

Qingzhen did the same, eating them one after another. Qingjin watched in amusement before taking his own pill as well.

He had to admit, after swallowing it, Qingjin felt his blood begin to boil faintly. This medicine truly was a great tonic for the physical body.

Not long after taking the pill, Qingjin felt as though he had endless energy. His spirits rose, and he became faintly exhilarated.

“Does this medicine really have no side effects?” Qingjin asked, turning to Ruan Qingwu.

“Not to my knowledge. These pills are meant to replenish the body’s vital essence, improve one’s constitution, and strengthen the spirit. My grandfather even sells them to other races, and I’ve never heard of anything abnormal happening,” Ruan Qingwu explained.

Qingjin felt somewhat reassured.

Ning Qi also swallowed one. It had barely settled before he praised it. “The effect of this turtle essence pill is astonishingly obvious. If I had a few more, my cultivation might even advance another level.”

Simply strengthening the physical body could already drive a considerable increase in cultivation.

“Hm? Why do all of you look as though you’re eating candy beans? Don’t you feel anything special?” Ning Qi asked.

“There was a warm current in my body,” Qingzhen said after thinking.

“And then?” Ning Qi waited.

“And then what? The warmth flowed away, and that was it.” Qingzhen looked at him in confusion.

“Didn’t you feel your body being transformed?” Ning Qi asked again.

“Not really. What about you, Little Hu?” Qingzhen turned to ask his sister. She had eaten the most, so perhaps she would feel some great improvement to her constitution.

“Give me ten or twenty thousand of them, and I think my constitution should improve,” Qinghu said, nodding as though confirming a serious conclusion.

Ning Qi stared at her.

Qingjin chuckled.

“Qingjin, look at your sister,” Ning Qi complained directly.

“She’s probably speaking from the heart. These turtle essence pills likely don’t help her all that much,” Qingjin said.

Qinghu nodded even more vigorously, like a pecking chick.

“But they do save me quite a bit of time spent eating meat,” Qinghu added naturally.

“Time spent eating meat?” Ning Qi asked, baffled.

“Yes. I have to eat meat to make my body stronger. I’m weak, you know. Ruan Qingwu’s pills are pretty good. At least they save me a lot of time spent eating meat.”

Ning Qi was completely unable to make sense of it. What on earth was wrong with Little Qinghu?

“Qinghu wasn’t nourished properly in the womb, so she was born small and frail. After she grew up, her family didn’t have anything particularly good to nourish her with, so she never grew tall and remained thin. She eats meat because she wants to make up for what she lacks. She needs to put on more flesh so her body can become completely healthy,” Qingjin explained.

After hearing this, Ning Qi carefully examined Little Qinghu. Sure enough, she had a large head, a thin neck, slender arms and legs, and a short stature. She looked like an oversized bean sprout.

“She really does need proper nourishment.”

“What about Qingzhen?”

“Qingzhen has been weak and sickly since birth. Part of that was because he was poisoned, and part of it was because Mother herself wasn’t properly nourished at the time. So he, too, wasn’t nourished well in the womb,” Qingjin said.

“And you? You weren’t properly nourished either?” Ning Qi asked without thinking.

“I was. But when Mother was eight months pregnant with me, someone shoved her to the ground, so I was born prematurely,” Qingjin replied.

“Wasn’t all of this done by your eldest aunt?” Ning Qi asked in astonishment.

“She said she was the one who plotted against us. But who knows whether my eldest uncle was involved?” Qingjin did not want to hide his suspicions. “We may all be blood relatives, but sometimes people will fight to the death for the sake of profit.

“I’ve never thought it wrong for bloodline cultivators to unite and develop together. But if a family has descended into infighting so vicious that its members harm their own relatives and children over a little resource, then perhaps that family should simply disband. Everyone would be better off living in peace.”

Ning Qi was shocked. “Where did you get the idea that it would be so easy? There’s infighting within the Ancient Saint Church too—far more brutal and terrifying than you can imagine. Yet the leaders of the Ancient Saint Church have never suggested splitting apart and having everyone go their separate ways.

“The Dao Court is filled with internal struggles as well. But look at them. They’ve been fighting for over ten thousand years, and they still fight year after year without falling apart.

“If you don’t believe me, ask Ruan Qingwu. She should know what a mess the Dao Court is internally.”

Ruan Qingwu gave Ning Qi a look that clearly said, Don’t ask me. Even if you do, I’m not saying anything.

Why should she expose the Dao Court’s internal scheming? Wasn’t that humiliating?

Ning Qi’s face darkened, and he ignored her.

“Actually, I think that if you believe there’s a problem within your family, you should find a way to solve the problem—or eliminate the person causing it. For a cultivator like you, if your family truly falls apart, it will bring you nothing but harm and no benefit,” Ning Qi said fairly.

His earnest words made Qingjin knit his brows and fall into thought.

Qinghu and Qingzhen, however, had never considered developing or changing their family. They were far more interested in doing other things.

For example, they brought out a cooking pot, dragged out a Spiral Turtle nearly as large as a washbasin, chopped it into chunks, then cut up some Crimson Origin Fruit and Azure Beauty clam meat and threw everything into the pot.

The aroma of meat had barely begun to rise before it spread throughout the entire hall.

Not long afterward, the middle-aged man in the rear came out again.

He moved his nose as he walked, then his face darkened when he saw Qinghu and Qingzhen adding seasonings to the pot and stewing meat soup.

“What are you doing?” he demanded angrily. “This is the place where you’re being tested for qualification to enter the Profound Heaven Tower, not a place for cooking.”

“I’m hungry…” Qinghu said pitifully.

The middle-aged man was speechless.

“Can’t you eat some dry rations or something?”

“I didn’t bring any,” Qinghu replied.

The girl was small and thin, with little more than a large head. She looked so pitiful that even the middle-aged man found it difficult to scold her too harshly.

“Then how about I give you some dry rations?”

“That works too. Thank you, Uncle. In return, since this soup is almost ready, would you like me to give you a basinful?”

The middle-aged man was just about to refuse when Qinghu added, “There’s Spiral Turtle meat in the soup.”

The middle-aged man paused.

“And Azure Beauty clams and Crimson Origin Fruit.”

“Then perhaps you could give me a little as well?”

Qingjin and the others saw the middle-aged man stride toward them, looking as though he had come to demand an explanation. They nervously gathered around, only to hear this exchange and stare at him in stunned disbelief.

Their eyes all seemed to say: So this is what you’re really like.

The middle-aged man accepted the small basin Qinghu filled to the brim with meat and soup. In return, he gave Qinghu a sack of dry rations made from premium spirit grain he had purchased.

Then he carried the soup away toward the rear hall with great dignity.

They now had both staple food and meat soup. The meal was complete.

Qinghu happily invited Ning Qi and Ruan Qingwu to eat with them.

As they drank the soup and ate the meat, the aroma nearly made the remaining youngsters in the hall cry with hunger.

It smelled so good.

No—it made them ravenous.

How infuriating!

They were eating right in front of everyone, yet refused to share even a bite!

Before they had finished the soup, the second group entered the examination.

Qingjin and the others were scheduled as the third group.

After finishing the soup, they packed everything away. Qinghu then took out various kinds of dried fish made for her by Little White and ate them bite after bite with great relish. Qingzhen simply walked over and joined his sister.

But after eating for a while, he could not manage another bite.

The important thing was that he really had to control his weight lately. He had visibly grown a great deal fatter.

The Wind-Chasing Youth had become the Wind-Chasing Fat Penguin. At this rate, he probably would not be able to catch the wind at all.

Little Qinghu’s stomach, however, was like a bottomless pit. No matter how much dried meat went in, she never seemed full.

“Qingjin, I think raising Little Qinghu must be incredibly difficult. No matter how much she eats, she never gets full,” Ning Qi complained to his friend.

“She isn’t eating your family’s rice. Why are you meddling?” Qingjin retorted irritably.

“Exactly. Little Qinghu is eating her own family’s food,” Ruan Qingwu added from the side.

“Ruan Qingwu, what are you trying to do? Want to fight?” Ning Qi gave her a sidelong look, rolling up his sleeves as though he were ready to step into the ring.

“A gentleman shouldn’t bully a woman. You’re a grown man picking on a soft, adorable young girl, and you think that makes you impressive?” Ruan Qingwu attacked him sarcastically.

Ning Qi was furious.

Ruan Qingwu ignored him and turned directly to Qinghu. “Qinghu, may I try some of your dried fish?”

Qinghu simply pulled a handful from her little bag and handed them over.

“Oh, these dried fish are excellent. The flavor suits me perfectly. Could you write down the recipe for me? When I get home, I’ll have my cook make them too.” Ruan Qingwu finished the dried fish in a few bites and looked at Qinghu with eager anticipation.

“Having the recipe won’t help you. Your family probably can’t obtain fish suitable for making them,” Qingzhen said while eating. “These dried fish are made from deep-sea giant-eyed blue-backed sturgeon. If you want to eat them, you’ll first have to go into the deep sea and catch one.

“I’m not underestimating you, but those things swim incredibly fast and have terrifying strength. If you use a fishing line, one careless mistake is enough for it to drag you into the water. They’re also vicious fighters. You fish for one, it drags you under, then turns around and bites you. It won’t be satisfied until it has chewed you into minced meat.”

Qingzhen himself had nearly been bitten several times while fishing for sturgeon. Once, he had almost lost a chunk of flesh from his backside. That particular sturgeon had bitten straight through his trousers underwater.

“Deep-sea giant-eyed blue-backed sturgeon? You people are impressive. You’ve even eaten things from the deep sea,” Ruan Qingwu exclaimed.

She did not think obtaining such a sturgeon would be difficult for her. Her grandfather had friends everywhere; getting hold of a fish or two should be easy enough.

Seeing that she refused to take him seriously, Qingzhen said nothing more.

“Qinghu, give her the recipe and let her catch the fish herself.”

“I don’t know the recipe. Once she comes home with us, she can ask Little White for it herself.”

Her Majesty only cared about eating. Who cared how the food was made?

“Who is Little White?” Ruan Qingwu asked, puzzled.

“Little White is my maid. She’s an excellent cook,” Qinghu replied.

In truth, after Little White had begun serving her, it had not taken long for her to awaken a talent for cooking. Her skills had continued to improve, advancing steadily toward the level of a master chef.

Even Qinghu’s parents praised Little White’s cooking endlessly. Little White, however, rarely cooked herself.

Most of the time, she only made snacks and small pastries or experimented with new recipes.

The family’s regular meals were prepared by the cooks and kitchen maids whom Little White had trained.

The dried fish Qinghu was eating now had been invented by Little White, who had then taught a whole group of cooks to make it.

“Then I must study under her properly. When I was little, I once swore I would become an excellent chef,” Ruan Qingwu said.

“Alchemy is, in a sense, also just cooking,” Qingzhen added.

“Alchemy is alchemy, and cooking is cooking. My grandfather says I have no talent for preparing food, though my talent for alchemy is decent,” Ruan Qingwu said gloomily.

“My goodness, then you’d better not study cooking from Little White. What if your lack of talent causes you to burn down my family’s kitchen?” Qingzhen immediately said, looking deeply alarmed.