After notifying her family of her retreat, An Yiqing, amidst the endless cautions and exhortations of Old Master An and Old Lady An, entered the Ancient Space with her provisions.
By the Spirit Spring, she took out the Medicine Cauldron and, following the ancient method recorded, used the Internal Breath Flame to add the herbs beside her into the cauldron in sequence.
About an hour later, the Internal Breath Flame slowly extinguished, and An Yiqing lifted the lid of the Furnace Cauldron, only to see a plume of black smoke emerge...
The first attempt at Condense Spirit, a failure!
Immediately, she began the second and third attempts at refinement. Perhaps due to the complexity of the Condense Spirit pill, the subsequent attempts all ended in failure.
This was an unprecedented event for An Yiqing, who had always had smooth sailing in the field of medical arts. However, she didn’t feel defeated. Sitting in place, she slowly became lost in thought, summarizing her previous failures, then she started the Furnace Cauldron again to refine!
Indeed! This time, the refinement of Condense Spirit was successful! However, looking at the grayish color, An Yiqing’s mouth twitched. If you eat this, won’t Grandpa and Grandma get diarrhea?...
After over twenty days, An Yiqing finally succeeded in refining all of the Condense Spirit!
Including the An Family and An Zhifeng’s twelve people, there were a total of eighteen pills!
Inside the Medicine Cauldron, lay eighteen pills, translucent and as white as jade, emitting a soft glow, and a refreshing fragrance enveloped the air, soothing to the heart and spleen.
An Yiqing smiled warmly, her eyes curving as she looked at the eighteen pills that resembled pearls, feeling extremely pleased.
Her family would no longer have to live in fear!
Carefully collecting the Condense Spirit into porcelain bottles, An Yiqing walked to the edge of the Spirit Spring and scooped out the Jade Spirit, which had grown larger.
With Internal Force Shaping, a faint white light flashed, and the Jade Spirit was cleaved into two halves.
Placing her hand upon the stone body of the jade, An Yiqing clearly felt the energy fluctuations within.
Thinking back to the recent Xuandu Jade Stone Conference, she couldn’t help but wonder. If Guh Siqing had the ability to sense jade, why hadn’t she detected such powerful energy fluctuations from the Jade Spirit?
Of course, An Yiqing didn’t realize that the Jade Spirit was the essence of all things in nature, and with Guh Siqing’s negligible special ability, it was impossible for her to sense such a natural energy.
Holding one half of the cleaved Jade Spirit, An Yiqing left the Ancient Space.
By then, four days had already passed in the outside world.
Packing the Jade Spirit into her bag, An Yiqing greeted her family and then left the An Family home.
At the "Red Thorn" Base, the training field was bustling with activity. An Zhifeng’s twelve men were all wearing camouflage pants and black combat boots; bare-chested, they carried sandbags weighing fifty pounds on their backs as they strenuously ran through the mud. Behind them, three hungry wolves that hadn’t been fed for several days were following with hunger in their eyes.
As soon as An Yiqing entered the training field, the first thing she saw was the image of An Zhifeng and others tumbling and scrambling as they were chased by the hungry wolves. Tan Yulin, standing to the side, was laughing so hard he was shaking.
"Is this how you train them...?" An Yiqing drifted over and asked softly.
Tan Yulin raised an eyebrow, proudly saying, "Of course! That’s how the boss trained me back in the day!"
No sooner had he spoken than he felt there was something off. His body stiffened, and as Tan Yulin’s neck turned bit by bit, he saw An Yiqing’s smiling face.
"Xiao, Xiao, Xiao Qing! Haha~ You’re here?" Tan Yulin, chilled by An Yiqing’s ambiguous smile, involuntarily swallowed his saliva and spoke obsequiously, "You know, you really should’ve told me you were coming. I would have come to pick you up! We’re all family here, no need for formalities!"