93:

  Xiao Feng took a deep breath as he finished arranging the seven ingredients before him upon a bevelled wooden tray that was deep enough to contain any spills, their glass vials and sealed containers catching the soft, diffused light of the private alchemy vault. As Lianhua had taught him, only the ingredients necessary to the pill refinement were to be brought into the alchemy vault to minimize the chances of any unintended reactions between ingredients, which meant that the bulk of Xiao Feng’s supplies were still stored in Lianhua’s room, on the opposite side so as to make sure the bulk of the ingredients were as far from the alchemy vault as possible.

  Once he was finished, he turned to face Lianhua, his gaze once again falling upon the quarter-full glass jar that she had placed before her, or more specifically, at the two dozen icy-blue pills that were contained within.

  “What are those?” Xiao Feng finally asked, no longer able to contain his curiosity.

  “Profound Grade Flashfrost Pills,” Lianhua answered, her normally gentle expression having yielded to a placid one as she stared at the ingredients Xiao Feng had arranged intently. “It is a niche pill that is only used by alchemists that are dealing with volatile ingredients and want an extra degree of safety. Since we are skipping more than a few steps in your education by letting you refine a Beast-Bonding Pill this early, not to mention that your Qi is likely to be far denser than the average alchemist designate, it is only proper for me to arrange countermeasures to failed refinements.”

  “Are they expensive?” Xiao Feng blurted out, eyeing the pills cautiously as he decided right then and there that he would pay Lianhua back for them, regardless of how much she insisted that she was his master in their temporary arrangement.

  “That is what you wish to ask?” Lianhua asked, giving him a baffled look that broke through her mask of placid calm. “Not what the pill does? Or how it’s used?”

  Xiao Feng shrugged as he answered, “I assume it freezes the refining mixture. Er, fast.”

  Though Lianhua tried to stifle it, a chuckle still escaped her lips. Then, her she away with a pout playing upon her lips, before she asked, “Will you not me fulfill my duties with the demeanour asked of a master?”

  “My sincere apologies, Master Lianhua,” Xiao Feng replied with mock formality, offering her a dip of the head before continuing, “Pray tell, what is the divine purpose of this pill?”

  Lianhua sighed, before shaking her head with a wry smile upon her lips, “Forget I asked. Now, where was I— ah, yes, the Flashfrost Pill. If you feel the refinement going awry, then you are to add this pill to the refinement immediately. When exposed to heat beyond a certain temperature, a temperature that is high enough that it is most likely to be found in the heart of a heated pill furnace or exposed to the flames of a flame cultivator, it releases the frost qi contained within and targets the source of that heat. It’s effects last less than half a second, but that is enough to encase everything within the pill furnace in a block of ice.”

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  “Could you not just use your alchemist’s flame to help me instead? I mean, I know I can’t count on your assistance in the duel, but it feels like that’s a better option to having the ingredients go to waste. Well, if it’s not difficult for you, I know how valuable your father’s alchemist flame is now,” Xiao Feng reasoned out loud.

  “I could use my alchemist flames to accelerate the refinement, but as you well know, your Qi is a crucial ingredient for the Beast Bonding Pill and doing so will give you less time to imbue it into the refining mixture. But even if you were willing to rise to the challenge, you are aware that my father’s alchemist flame burns the decay in ingredients, thereby making them more potent. Do you see the problem now?” Lianhua asked and from her tone, Xiao Feng could tell that he was being tested.

  “If I fail the refinement, the backlash is going to be even more potent than the norm,” He offered.

  “Indeed, but that is not all. I am accustomed to using my father’s alchemist flame and my wind refinement techniques will adapt to the accelerated refinement process. On the other hand, not only are you unaccustomed to refining with the aid of an alchemist’s flame, but it is also not yours to call upon. I may be a Senior Alchemist, but I am not nearly skilled enough to adjust my use of the flame to sychronize with your wind refinement.”

  “Oh,” Xiao Feng muttered, not having considered that Lianhua, unlike him, didn’t possess the Essence Cultivation Art. She could not peer into the pill furnace from a distance with the absolute clarity he could and instead had to rely upon her sense of touch and instinct honed across years of practice. “Right, so these Flashfrost Pills you were talking about. If they are valuable, I cannot accept them without recompensing you for them.”

  “Valuable, huh,” Lianhua considered. “I suppose Flashfrost Pills aren’t particularly cheap to come by, but that is not because the ingredients involved in it’s refinement are rare or expensive. In fact, refining Flashfrost pills is issued to alchemist designates as punishment when they break protocol.”

  Xiao Feng blinked, not having expected such a peculiar answer. Perhaps it was because of the alchemist flame she possessed, the collection of spiritual silver tools that were arrayed in her room or the fact that she was the daughter of Grand Alchemist and Senior Alchemist by her own merit, that Xiao Feng had come to see any alchemic tool or pill in her possession as valuable.

  “Why?” He asked.

  “It is difficult to refine, with a success rate of one pill in every ten refinements for the average alchemist designate. But more so, it is annoying to refine. Because the Flashfrost pill has to be refined at a low but constant heat, requiring an alchemist designate to spend anywhere from six to twelve hours on each refinement. The annoying part comes when the alchemist gets impatient or doesn’t modulate the heat to the specifications required and the interior of his furnace gets encased in frost. It takes a day to thaw and you cannot use flames to melt it, lest you trigger the half-refined mixture. Really, it is quite the amusing punishment to assign,” Lianhua explained with no small amount of glee.

  Xiao Feng suppressed a shudder at her words.

  “But you need not worry about the cost, these pills were refined by an alchemist designate who gave them to me as a gift,” She explained.

  Xiao Feng nodded, suddenly wondering if he had perhaps, been taking the Senior Alchemist too lightly.

  Then he refocused himself and reached for the first ingredient.

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