Chapter 145: Earth Dragon Turning Over

The attendant spirit’s heart gave a sudden, flustered beat. "...As an attendant of the immortal palace, this humble spirit naturally holds the Exalted Monarch in his thoughts with complete devotion."

When Shi Xianyu heard this answer, she wasn't particularly surprised; he always spoke in this exact tone.

"Oh," she casually acknowledged.

Not daring to look directly into her eyes, he had originally intended to gently ask why she had stayed away for so long, but now he didn't dare to utter even half a syllable.

Fortunately, Shi Xianyu didn't continue to make things difficult for him, and her attention quickly returned to the alchemy furnace.

The first batch of elixirs was completed much faster than anticipated.

The very moment it was successfully refined, the alchemy furnace emitted a humming sound—low, lingering, and exceptionally melodious, much like the plucking of strings on some musical instrument.

Hearing this sound, Shi Xianyu's mood instantly brightened. She opened the furnace to inspect the contents: the true fire had extinguished, a rich and unusual fragrance permeated the air, and eight elixirs lay quietly inside.

There were eight pills in total, but most of them had the wrong coloring and surface cracks. Only two were completely intact, glowing with a clear, restrained luster.

Shi Xianyu did not touch them. Following the suggestions of Shen Xiao and Master Changfeng, she used the entire first batch of elixirs as an offering to feed the furnace, continuing to temper it with the true fire until the medicinal properties and spiritual energy within the pills were entirely forced out and absorbed into the furnace, after which she proceeded to brew the second batch and officially begin formal alchemy.

The pills Shi Xianyu was refining were called Tianyuan Pills. They could strengthen the physical body and soul, ward off aging and illness, and thereby achieve the effect of prolonging life.

Among the recipes gifted by Master Changfeng were also youth-preservation pills, soul-nurturing pills, and others. The sole reason she chose to refine the Tianyuan Pills was that this was the only recipe for which she currently possessed all the necessary ingredients.

The second batch of elixirs took longer, and the output remained eight pills, varying in quality.

Shi Xianyu retrieved the elixirs, separated the good ones from the flawed ones into brocade boxes, and then unhurriedly began refining the third batch...

Seeing her so engrossed in alchemy—neither eating, drinking, nor speaking—the attendant spirit always felt somewhat unsettled inside.

It was a faint sorrow born of being neglected.

Taking advantage of a brief pause in Shi Xianyu's alchemy, he asked her, "Recently, the spiritual energy within the Spirit-Gathering Furnace has surged dramatically. Does the Exalted Monarch intend to restore the Star-Gazing Pavilion?"

"Surged?" Shi Xianyu was startled, thinking to herself, how could it possibly surge?

On second thought, she understood. It must be that the divine statue in the Hall of Eternal Joy had been completed. Even if the newly sculpted statue didn't attract many outside worshippers, the disciples within the Hall of Eternal Joy would certainly offer their devotions to her.

Generally speaking, practitioners possessed a willpower much stronger and firmer than ordinary mortals in the mundane world; this must be the reason for the surge.

Shi Xianyu continued to sort through the medicinal herbs and asked, "The Star-Gazing Pavilion? Is that the place for viewing stars you mentioned last time?"

The attendant spirit nodded gently. "Under normal circumstances, it is indeed only used for stargazing, but it can also be used for divination. For instance, if the Exalted Monarch ever goes out and fails to return for a long time, this humble spirit can ascend the Star-Gazing Pavilion and divine the Monarch's exact location."

Shi Xianyu glanced at him, thinking that he was rather clingy.

"You didn't mention this function last time. If stargazing can be used to track people, doesn't that mean it's equivalent to pinpointing coordinate locations across the three thousand worlds? ...That's actually quite practical."

Shi Xianyu paused and asked him, "Aside from finding people, can it find objects?"

"Once the Star-Gazing Pavilion is restored, the Exalted Monarch might wish to try," the attendant spirit replied respectfully. "This humble spirit has not yet witnessed the art of stargazing being used to locate objects."

Curious, Shi Xianyu asked, "Didn't the immortals you served previously use the Star-Gazing Pavilion? Did they only ever look for people?"

The attendant spirit thought for a moment and replied, "They didn't frequently use the Star-Gazing Pavilion. They would only ascend it when shooting stars appeared, to track the landing spots of those meteors."

"Why track where shooting stars land?"

"There are many rare treasures condensed between heaven and earth within the three thousand worlds. Shooting stars can pierce through the barriers of the worlds and reveal their locations. However, shooting stars are exceedingly rare, and even when they do appear, they vanish without a trace before one has time to observe them. Therefore, even this humble spirit does not know what kind of heavenly treasures might be found."

His description sounded mystical and deeply tempted Shi Xianyu. Yet, considering her current skill level, she decided against aiming too high. She should first steadily master talisman-making and alchemy before pondering other matters.

Shi Xianyu continued to bury herself in alchemy, leaving the entire task of restoring the Star-Gazing Pavilion to the attendant spirit.

After several days of continuous refining, the herbs in the Spiritual Herb Garden were nearly depleted, and only then did she finally stop.

Counting them up, she had obtained a total of one hundred and fifteen pills, but among them, qualified Tianyuan Pills numbered a mere twenty.

Although the remainder were not up to standard, they could not be thrown away. They had been refined from precious medicinal herbs, and even if imperfect, consuming them posed no harm—at worst, their effects would be halved, or they would simply have no effect at all.

Considering that the recipe was provided by Master Changfeng and the alchemy techniques were taught by Shen Xiao, Shi Xianyu kept half for herself and distributed the remainder to the Hall of Eternal Joy and Shen Xiao.

She discovered that as long as materials were sufficient, alchemy could be performed endlessly. Talisman-making, on the other hand, did not require as many varied materials, but it demanded an infusion of spiritual energy.

If the patterns on the talisman paper were likened to blood vessels, the process of infusing spiritual energy was equivalent to pumping fresh blood through them to imbue them with vitality. Excessive loss of spiritual energy led to fatigue, and this sense of exhaustion usually lingered for many days.

Therefore, alchemy and talisman-making each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

Judging solely by the difficulty of practice, talisman-making suited her better, since the required materials were merely yellow paper and cinnabar.

Shi Xianyu decided to go out and procure a large quantity of yellow paper and cinnabar to practice daily. As the saying goes: constant dripping wears away the stone, and an iron pestle can be ground into a needle. As long as there is life, there is struggle; she would use persistent perseverance and spirit to achieve excellent results in the discipline of talisman-making!

Upon returning from her purchases, the immortal palace suffered another earth-shaking tremor!

Walking halfway, Shi Xianyu was almost thrown off the Wishing Pool. She gripped the white jade railing tightly and waited a few seconds before the tremors finally subsided.

Utterly baffled, she wondered why there was an earthquake again.

The attendant spirit hurried over to meet her and reported, "The Exalted Monarch need not be concerned; it is likely the restoration of the Star-Gazing Pavilion causing the earth dragon to turn over."

"Is the earth dragon baking pancakes? Why is it flipping over so frequently?" Shi Xianyu climbed to her feet and complained, "Since this place isn't peaceful, let's move the immortal palace somewhere else."

The attendant spirit wore a troubled expression.

"Is it not possible?" Shi Xianyu frowned and asked.

The attendant spirit bowed and replied, "Because the Star-Gazing Pavilion requires a vast amount of spiritual energy... the immortal palace is currently unable to relocate elsewhere."

Shi Xianyu looked past him toward the peak west of the Alchemy Pagoda. Out of thin air, a flight of silver-gleaming stone steps had appeared, stretching upward straight into the clouds, though only half-finished and clearly still under construction.

Subconsciously, she glanced at the Spirit-Gathering Furnace. The furnace, which had previously brimmed with celestial spiritual energy, was now withered and colorless, devoid of even a single drop of spiritual energy.

Instantly, a wave of annoyance washed over her—it felt just like working desperately outside to earn money, only for her partner to squander it all on a extravagant spree without leaving a single penny in savings!

Yet, he wasn't spending recklessly...

He was doing it for the sake of this household, too...

Shi Xianyu rubbed her weary brow and closed her eyes. It seemed she could no longer afford to rest; she had to go out and find some work again.