Chapter 111: Give Him a Big Slap in the Face

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“All right, have it your way. But before you go home, you must refine plenty more Turtle Essence Pills for me to keep as provisions.”

Qing Hu thought to herself, I’m counting on you for the energy I need for my next bodily transformation.

Eating meat every day was certainly good, but wasn’t this other, steady method of improvement even better?

“Oh, I know. Are you really planning to fight this battle with Turtle Essence Pills to the bitter end?” Ruan Qingwu asked helplessly.

“I plan to eat at least ten thousand.”

Qing Hu stated her intentions plainly.

Ruan Qingwu was instantly alarmed. “I can’t possibly refine that many. At most, I can make you five hundred.”

“That’s far too few. I can give you plenty of turtle corpses.”

“Even then, I can’t refine that many! Those five hundred pills would require at least fifty batches, because I can’t guarantee that every batch will produce twelve pills. Refining fifty batches would take me more than ten days. I’ll make one batch first, then go challenge the tower, and afterward refine another batch. Once I’ve reached the required number, I plan to go home,” Ruan Qingwu said, looking troubled.

Qing Hu grew worried. “How can five hundred possibly be enough?”

“Are you treating them like rice? Who eats pills as their regular meals? Five hundred is an enormous number. The foreign-race tribes in the Eastern Wastes only order five hundred in an entire year.”

“That probably means they’re poor. Besides, I’m not a member of one of those tribes. How can you compare me to them?” Qing Hu said, pouting in dissatisfaction.

“Ahem, ahem. I truly can’t do anything more.” Ruan Qingwu spread her little hands and gave up completely.

“Then why don’t you teach us how to refine pills? You don’t have to teach us anything else—just teach me how to make Turtle Essence Pills.”

“What? That doesn’t seem appropriate. The pill-refining method for Turtle Essence Pills is my family’s inheritance. How could I casually teach it to someone else?”

“I’m not someone else. Aren’t we good friends? Besides, I’ve given you so many turtles for free, letting you use them to practice. I’ve been so good to you—what’s the harm in teaching me how to make Turtle Essence Pills?” Qing Hu said, displeased.

Ruan Qingwu looked at her helplessly.

I never took your turtles for free, she thought. Didn’t I refine Turtle Essence Pills for you in return?

“It won’t work. Even if I were willing to teach you, you wouldn’t be able to learn it. Pill refinement isn’t something that can be mastered so easily. I was already over ten years old before my grandfather said I had merely reached the threshold of pill refinement. Do you really have the time to study it for that long?” Ruan Qingwu asked in return.

“You haven’t taught me yet. How do you know I can’t learn it?” Qing Hu immediately argued back. She was now determined to learn pill refinement.

“I definitely can’t teach you my family’s inherited art. My grandfather made me swear never to pass it on. But I do know another way to obtain Turtle Essence Pills. Would you like to try it?”

“Tell me, tell me!” Qing Hu brightened at once.

Ruan Qingwu then told Qing Hu about a method she knew. After explaining the entire process, she said, “This method is called spirit-medicine extraction, or the Spirit-Medicine Extraction Technique. It’s somewhat crude, and the pills it produces contain more impurities, but the quality of the Turtle Essence Pills themselves isn’t reduced at all.

“Moreover, this method only works on pills refined from a single material, such as Turtle Essence Pills.

“Even if I teach it to you, it has nothing to do with my family’s inherited pill-refining art.

“That way, I haven’t violated the rules of the dojo, and I’ve still taught you how to refine pills. What do you think?”

“All right, I’ll do whatever you say. …Oh! So that’s how it works. It can actually be done this way!” Qing Hu looked as if a veil had suddenly been lifted from her mind.

She then tossed out a live turtle. Ignoring its frantic attempts to struggle free and escape, she immediately used the method Ruan Qingwu had taught her.

The turtle’s flesh, blood, and vital essence were continuously drawn out and transformed into streams of black-red energy. Qing Hu extracted them from the turtle’s body and condensed them into a sphere in her palm. In the blink of an eye, the large, lively turtle became a shriveled, dried corpse.

In Qing Hu’s hand, however, there was now a transparent, bright-red essence sphere the size of an egg—or, more precisely, a pill.

Dense blood energy and soul energy intertwined and merged within it. From time to time, wisps of smoke in the shape of a tiny turtle appeared above the essence sphere.

“A supreme-grade Turtle Essence Pill!”

Ruan Qingwu was nearly struck dumb. And it was so large!

Qing Hu casually reduced the turtle corpse to powder and scattered it over the soil near the flowers. Then she swallowed the essence sphere in one bite.

As soon as it entered her stomach, a powerful current of heat spread throughout her body.

Qing Hu’s face immediately took on a faint flush. She felt as comfortable as if she had just soaked in a medicinal hot spring.

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This Turtle Essence Pill had been extracted and refined from a large turtle that was fifteen years old. For the two of them, once they knew the method, they could extract essence from large turtles of any age.

The extraction method was truly astonishingly effective. Qing Hu had made quite a profit this time.

“If you’d told me about this method sooner, it would have saved us so much trouble. It really works! It’s far more effective than those tiny Turtle Essence Pills you refined before. One of these is equivalent to twenty or thirty of the old ones,” Qing Hu said with a delighted smile.

“You… You actually used the extraction method to produce a supreme-grade Turtle Essence Pill! How did you manage that? I’ve used the extraction method myself, but all I ever got were black Turtle Essence Pills filled with impurities!” Ruan Qingwu demanded, her face flushed and her neck strained as she spoke rapidly.

Why had this crude technique, normally used only by low-level pill refiners and apprentices, become a grand alchemical art in Qing Hu’s hands? She had actually produced such a high-quality supreme-grade Turtle Essence Pill!

Even her grandfather could refine only one or two batches of supreme-grade Turtle Essence Pills each year.

“I just followed the method you taught me. I did exactly what you told me to do.” Qing Hu looked at her in confusion.

“That’s impossible! How could this happen? Extract another one and let me see!” Ruan Qingwu said anxiously. This time, she had to watch carefully and figure out what was going on.

Qing Hu extracted another Turtle Essence Pill right in front of her.

Once again, a crystal-clear, dazzling red pill emerged. It was the size of an egg. This time, Qing Hu’s extraction was even more successful; the little pill radiated an astonishingly rich aura.

There was no doubt that it was a supreme-grade Turtle Essence Pill.

Ruan Qingwu fell silent.

She had no idea what to say. This was simply too shocking.

Qing Hu looked at her as well, unable to understand why Ruan Qingwu was reacting so strangely. It was only an extracted Turtle Essence Pill, and she had merely used the method the girl had taught her. Why was Ruan Qingwu the one who kept growing astonished and stunned?

“Wait. Watch how I extract one.” Unwilling to lose, Ruan Qingwu took out a turtle corpse and began the extraction herself.

Before long, she finished extracting a glossy black pill.

Both Ruan Qingwu and Qing Hu stared at it in silence.

Qing Hu thought, Can something this black and shiny really be safe to eat?

Still, after watching Ruan Qingwu’s movements, Qing Hu roughly understood why the Turtle Essence Pills she extracted contained so many impurities.

“Your soul power is too weak. When your soul threads were extracting the turtle’s flesh, blood, and soul, they pulled out too many impurities as well.” Qing Hu immediately discovered the truth and stated it with absolute certainty.

“My soul power is weak? My soul threads pulled out too many impurities?” Ruan Qingwu stared at her as if asking whether she was serious. “I’m a pill refiner! My grandfather said I have the strongest soul-power talent among all newly risen pill refiners in the human territories in the past century!”

“Don’t refuse to believe it. Xiao Bai, go call my Fourth Brother.”

Qing Hu decided to prove her discovery.

“What do you need your Fourth Brother for?” Ruan Qingwu asked, baffled.

“You’ll find out in a moment.” Qing Hu spoke with complete confidence.

Before long, Qing Zhen was brought over.

Qing Hu immediately explained how to extract Turtle Essence Pills. Qing Zhen found the process quite interesting and began wrestling with the large live turtle Qing Hu casually tossed out. He succeeded on his very first attempt as well.

To keep the turtle from escaping, Qing Zhen directly bound it with wind.

During the first half of the extraction, Qing Zhen’s movements were still unskilled, and the large turtle cried out miserably for quite some time. Once he became familiar with the technique, however, he quickly absorbed the turtle dry.

After the turtle died, it seemed to wear an expression of relief, as though it had finally been freed from suffering.

Qing Zhen felt extremely embarrassed. “That was a mistake, a mistake. I’ll do better next time.”

Qing Hu tossed him another large turtle.

This time, Qing Zhen worked cleanly and efficiently. A completely transparent, pure, bright-red essence pill emerged.

“How is it? Is this pill up to standard? Little Hu, take a look. Is it the same as the one you made?”

Qing Zhen’s performance once again left Ruan Qingwu staring in stunned disbelief.

“That’s impossible. Although this extraction method is easier to master than pill refinement, ordinary people need to practice for a year or two, study medicinal theory, and become familiar with the properties of various medicines before they can do this.” Ruan Qingwu shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

She simply couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Hearing this, Qing Zhen immediately retorted, “Why would you need to study medicinal theory for this? You just start absorbing it.”

“But… but…” Ruan Qingwu had already torn out a handful of her own hair, yet she still couldn’t understand. “But why?”

“Because Qing Zhen’s soul power is naturally stronger than yours, and his control over it is also a level above yours. His control over his soul threads is better as well. Naturally, he’ll be more skilled than you at extracting this sort of thing.”

Qing Jin and Ning Qi had been watching from the doorway for quite some time. They had naturally seen the entire process clearly.

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“His soul power is stronger than mine… How is that possible?” Ruan Qingwu felt deeply unwilling to accept it. She worked so hard, refining pills through the bitter cold of winter and the sweltering heat of summer. How could her soul power be weaker than that of someone who spent all day fooling around?

“More importantly, his control over his soul power—in other words, his control over his soul threads—is far stronger than yours,” Qing Jin said.

Ning Qi remained silent. He could sense that Qing Zhen’s soul power was of a higher quality than Ruan Qingwu’s and that his control over his soul threads was stronger, but he couldn’t tell exactly how much stronger.

Qing Jin, however, was clearly one of those people blessed with powerful soul energy.

The talents of this entire family were simply too good. It was almost as though the heavens had made a mistake when creating them.

Thus, Qing Jin should have been able to compare the gap between Qing Zhen’s and Ruan Qingwu’s soul power with perfect clarity.

“It’s unbelievable. My grandfather is always saying that I have the greatest talent for alchemy among the younger generation. He really ought to see you brothers and sister.” After hearing Qing Jin’s firm assessment, Ruan Qingwu spoke dejectedly. “This is such a blow. I used to be so confident. But now… Sigh. I’d better go refine pills. The sooner I finish, the sooner this is over.

“Oh, right. I’ll still only refine five hundred pills. Qing Hu, once I’m finished, can you give me a Blue Beauty Clam?”

“I’ll give you ten.”

At those words, Ruan Qingwu immediately perked up again. She might no longer be the most talented person of her generation, but she could still earn Blue Beauty Clams. That was enough reason to keep going.

“Then I’ll refine them properly for you. I’ve already told you how to make the remaining Turtle Essence Pills, so you can refine those yourself.”

“All right.”

Although Qing Hu had now learned how to extract and refine Turtle Essence Pills, she couldn’t simply discard Ruan Qingwu once she had served her purpose. The girl was still a young pill refiner. Letting her practice more might prove useful in the future.

Thus, Qing Hu cheerfully sent her off to the large suite she had arranged for her so that she could refine pills.

By the time Qing Hu returned, Qing Zhen had already taught their elder brother Qing Jin how to use the extraction technique.

Qing Jin also asked Qing Hu for several live turtles. For most of the night, everyone in the residence listened to the final cries of the ferocious turtles as they died.

Given Qing Jin’s talent, surely he shouldn’t have needed to practice the extraction technique for most of the night.

Early the next morning, Qing Hu saw Ning Qi at home, having come over for breakfast.

“Brother Ning Qi, why are you still here? I thought you had gone home last night.”

“I didn’t leave. I stayed to learn how to extract Turtle Essence Pills with Qing Jin and the others.” Ning Qi’s eyes were bloodshot, as though he had stayed up all night.

“What happened to your eyes?” Qing Hu asked, puzzled. “Why are they so red? They’re full of broken blood vessels.”

“Don’t ask. My soul threads—oh, my soul threads! They’re simply too disobedient. They turned all the Turtle Essence Pills I extracted black and red. I spent the entire night trying to improve my control over them. I didn’t sleep at all,” Ning Qi complained.

“Oh, so the turtle cries that went on for most of last night were caused by you. Hah, control over soul threads isn’t something that can improve dramatically after practicing for only one night. Why did you stay up all night, Brother Ning Qi? You could have cultivated slowly over time.”

“Exactly. You just cultivate slowly,” Qing Zhen said while drinking his porridge. “I started by using my soul threads to control a single strand of dried grass, then ten, a hundred, a thousand…”

“When did you begin cultivating your soul threads?” Ning Qi asked in astonishment. He felt somewhat ashamed. He had practiced for most of the night, and the cries of those turtles had indeed been rather miserable—enough to disturb anyone’s dreams. “I never imagined you would cultivate this. Most people only begin deliberately cultivating their soul power and their control over soul threads after reaching Foundation Establishment or the Golden Core realm.”

“I started playing with soul-thread control when I was five or six. During the long winter days when there was nothing to do, Little Hu and I would use dried grass stems as weapons and fight each other.” Qing Zhen grinned. “Big Brother was even more skilled at it. He beat both of us every time—one against two.”

Ning Qi was deeply shaken.

From now on, if anyone dared tell me that disciples from humble backgrounds were inferior from the very beginning to the heirs of great sects, I’d smack them across the face.

—Author’s Note—

The average subscription count passed five hundred today. Thank you all, my dearest readers, for your tremendous support. I’ll add an extra chapter tomorrow.

Le Wen

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