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Towering peaks and undulating valleys stretched out in one continuous chain, surrounded by a faint mist that added a layer of ethereal beauty to the scenery. The ground was covered with dazzling spiritual flowers, their bright colors complemented by the vibrant green of the leaves. Spiritual butterflies danced among the flowers, their wings emitting a soft spiritual glow, creating a scene as beautiful as a dream. Multiple paths wound their way through the field of spiritual flowers, one of them leading up to an exquisitely constructed pavilion that stood quietly in the distance.
Suddenly, an explosion shattered the serene, almost otherworldly scene and brought it down to the mundane world. The door of a small hut to the right of the pavilion burst open, and thick smoke billowed out. The figure of a little dumpling, dressed in white and blackened with ash, could be seen rushing out through the smoke.
“Cough, cough, cough—” A child’s coughing sound soon followed. With her hair a tangled mess and face coated in ash, the little dumpling’s features were obscured.
People in the vicinity had heard the explosion and soon, someone rushed over, “Little Junior Sister, did you blow up the furnace again?” The person burst into laughter upon seeing her ash-covered face, “Oh my, where did this little beggar come from?”
A crisp, childish voice immediately retorted, “Failure is the mother of success. Just because I blew up the furnace once doesn’t mean it will happen every time. And you, Third Senior Brother, has Master lifted your confinement?”
Come on! Let’s hurt each other!
The little girl crossed her arms and glared at the laughing young man. Her big, obsidian-like pair of eyes sparkled, standing out even more against her blackened face.
“Yaoyao, my little junior sister, you’re getting less and less cute.” Mo Ziwan clutched his heart, his tone rising and falling dramatically.
This ash-covered little dumpling in white was indeed Lu Yaoyao. She had been studying the path of alchemy in the Guiyuan Sect for two and a half years and had finally received her Master’s approval to practice alchemy on her own. Perhaps because she had often accompanied Mo Ziwan to the alchemy room and saw him constantly exploding furnaces, Lu Yaoyao herself had caused explosions from time to time since she started working with the alchemy furnace six months ago.
However, she had only caused one… two… three… sixteen explosions in total. Considering this, where did Third Senior Brother, who had an amazing record of blowing up nine times out of ten attempts, get the confidence to laugh at her?
Lu Yaoyao rolled her eyes as she continued to watch Mo Ziwan’s exaggerated performance.
After he had enough, Mo Ziwen stretched out his hand to pinch Lu Yaoyao’s face. Feeling traces of ash on his fingertips, he grinned and drew a few cat whiskers on her face, revealing fair and tender skin underneath the soot.
Lu Yaoyao gave a piercing glare, “Third Senior Brother, if you bully me again, I’ll tell Master and other senior brothers that you’ve been leading me astray.”
“!!!” Not willing to be confined again so soon, Mo Ziwan reluctantly withdrew his hand, sighing, “How could I bully you, Little Junior Sister? Don’t you know how much I adore you?” Speaking of which, Mo Ziwan felt quite aggrieved. When he caused an explosion, he would be locked up without a second thought, but when Yaoyao did it, Master would only be concerned about whether she was injured. Hmph!
Lu Yaoyao glanced at his hand: the evidence’s still there, yet he dares to argue!
Mo Ziwan reflexively went to touch his nose, but luckily, he remembered his hand was covered in ash, or else he would have ended up with a face as comically marked as his little junior sister’s.
Lu Yaoyao touched her face, causing her already dirty hand to become even dirtier. She then cast a few dirt-removal spells on herself, instantly returning to a clean, white little dumpling.
As the smoke at the door dispersed and the hut quieted down again, Mo Ziwan gestured, “Come on, let’s go inside and see what caused the explosion this time.” He pushed Lu Yaoyao into the hut and boasted, “Your awesome third senior brother is the most experienced in this matter.”
Lu Yaoyao fully agreed with this statement, because no one had more bizarre and numerous explosion incidents than Mo Ziwan.
The inside of the hut was in total disarray, with the walls and floor covered in soot and ash, showing signs of the havoc wreaked by celestial fire. An ancient alchemy furnace lay on the ground, its half-open mouth still emitting wisps of black smoke. Mo Ziwan stepped forward, bent down to pick up a handful of failed pills that had partially turned into ash, and sniffed it, “Were you trying to refine Bining Pills?”
Lu Yaoyao nodded, “Yes.”
Mo Ziwan clapped his hands, marveling inwardly. No wonder Master and the senior brothers all said Yaoyao had the best talent for pill refining among them. The Bining Pill was no basic pill, and Yaoyao had managed to refine it after only half a year of working with the furnace. At the same stage, he could only refine the most basic pills.
“Tell me, what did you do during the refining process?”
Lu Yaoyao looked up at the ceiling, “Actually, I didn’t do much. I was just curious why using the same spiritual materials in the wrong order would result in failure when refining Bining Pills. In other pills, usually it only affects their efficacy, right?”
“It’s not that I can’t refine them; I just wanted to try different methods to see why that happens,” Lu Yaoyao defended herself. Among her master’s five direct disciples, she was the latest to start. She hadn’t been on the path of alchemy for long, but her exceptional talent was undeniable, as her very first attempt at pill refining had successfully produced three pills. Two were given to her Father and Daddy, and the last one to her Master. She didn’t keep any for herself.
Nonetheless, even with her extraordinary talent, she couldn’t avoid blowing up the furnace. Her main motivation for choosing the path of alchemy was to eventually develop spiritual pills for the devils. It was a tall order, and naturally, she needed to try all sorts of methods, which is understandable… right?
“I know the answer to this.” Mo Ziwan solemnly cleared his throat twice, assuming the posture of a teacher, “Among other ingredients, the Bining Pill requires starfall herbs, red charm flowers, and cloud mulberry leaves. Under the influence of cloud mulberry leaves, starfall herbs and red charm flowers develop new properties that clash, preventing the pill from forming and resulting in an explosion.”
“Therefore, starfall herbs and red charm flowers must be put into the furnace first, followed by the remaining ingredients until they condense. Cloud mulberry leaves should be added last to successfully form the pill.”
“If cloud mulberry leaves are added even a moment too soon, the refining will definitely fail.” Like a teacher, Mo Ziwan paced slowly with his hands behind his back, “Given the magnitude of the explosion just now, if I’m not mistaken, you added cloud mulberry leaves to the furnace first, followed by starfall herbs and red charm flowers, right?” Mo Ziwan confidently repeated the exact order in which Lu Yaoyao had used the ingredients.
Lu Yaoyao, completely absorbed in the lesson, was amazed to hear Mo Ziwan recount the exact sequence of her actions as if he had been there watching. “Senior Brother, how did you know?” she asked curiously.
“Because I’ve blown it up too.” Mo Ziwan said proudly.
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So both of these little Megumins were exploding their pills on furnace?