Chapter 243: Snot

Gurgle, gurgle.

In the large bathtub, the medicinal soup in Xu Xiaoshou's bath was constantly bubbling and condensing. He lounged leisurely, gazing at the young girl beside him.

Mu Zixi was getting a bit impatient. This was already her fourth batch of Chi Jin Dan, and clearly, the art of condensing pills wasn't easy to master.

Even with her exceptional talent and deep understanding of herbal properties, she had failed three times.

The reason…

"Xu Xiaoshou, are you just brewing soup?" Mu Zixi glanced at his bubbling bathtub and couldn't help but speak up.

In any other situation, she wouldn't have been discouraged by failing three times—or even thirty or three hundred times.

But Xu Xiaoshou's pill refining was the complete opposite of hers.

He seemed to not even need to watch; he just tossed a Jin Zhao Tian Yan flame underneath and propped his chin up, staring at her the whole time.

Heaven, was this flame really that powerful?

Mu Zixi was envious!

She wished she could refine pills like that, instead of ending up covered in soot and grime, yet still having to force herself to keep going.

Xu Xiaoshou just smiled at her words. He relaxed the hand propping his chin and tapped his teeth as he said:

"You got it right. It's my self-created 'brewing soup' style of pill refining. What do you think, Sang Lao?"

Sang Lao said nothing, carefully observing.

At first, he didn't understand it at all and bluntly called it nonsense, but upon closer inspection...

The medicinal soup was being compressed as it recirculated, with an astonishingly low loss of medicinal properties.

If this method could really succeed, it might just be a historic breakthrough in the history of pill refining!

"'Brewing soup' style..."

Just thinking about the name made Sang Lao's eyes nearly roll back.

But Xu Xiaoshou's naming sense was like his large and small bathtubs—seeming off at first, yet perfectly fitting!

There was no way to argue against it!

Since Sang Lao didn't speak, Xu Xiaoshou didn't press further. He knew this technique would speak for itself once the product was ready.

For now, his various spiritual liquids seemed to have a decent shelf life, without any complete loss of efficacy.

Of course, the loss of medicinal properties was still more severe compared to pills.

Whether there were better ways to preserve the properties would depend on what Sang Lao thought of his results later.

The three of them fell silent. Mu Zixi started to focus intently.

Seeing that Xu Xiaoshou's batch of pills was taking so long, she couldn't help but feel cheerful again.

This way of refining might not be effortful, but it was incredibly time-consuming!

Even if Xu Xiaoshou succeeded in forming pills, if the medicinal power couldn't make up for the time lost—enough for others to refine ten batches—he'd still lose.

"There's a chance!"

After calming her mind, Mu Zixi lived up to her reputation as a genius. After summarizing from her previous failures, she finally succeeded in condensing the pill on this attempt.

A few dark, glossy pills slipped out of the small bathtub. Mu Zixi didn't even glance at them and directly picked out the only bright one.

Though it was a bit smaller and looked a little wilted, the medicinal fragrance it emitted clearly told everyone that this was indeed a Chi Jin Dan!

"Success!"

The young girl was overjoyed, fiddling with the little bean in her hand, unable to put it down.

Xu Xiaoshou was a bit surprised and asked:

"How many batches?"

"Eight batches—the ninth one worked!" Mu Zixi exclaimed excitedly.

"Not bad!"

Xu Xiaoshou genuinely praised her. He remembered that when he was refining pills, he had failed over a hundred times!

Though each failure was due to getting stuck on the overbearing Jin Zhao condensing technique, a failure was a failure—nothing more to explain.

Pill refining could mean wasting a thousand or more batches, and that was completely normal.

For this girl to produce a pill in just ten batches, she was impressive!

Mu Zixi proudly handed the undernourished Chi Jin Dan to Sang Lao. After he examined it, his old face broke into a smile.

"Not bad!"

Although it was a bit small, for a first successful pill, this effect was indeed good.

With such praise, the young girl couldn't sit still. She grabbed her twin ponytails and started circling around Xu Xiaoshou teasingly.

"Xiaoshou, your speed is no good. Even if you end up with a pill, the time you've wasted could let someone else refine ten batches. How can you compete?"

Xu Xiaoshou raised an eyebrow. Had this little girl grown bold?

"Just based on your raisin of a pill, forget ten batches—even a hundred wouldn't fill you up," he retorted.

Mu Zixi's delicate nose wrinkled in annoyance, furious.

Raisin? Fill up?

"Ah—"

Her loud yell even startled Sang Lao.

But Xu Xiaoshou had already noticed her sneaky movements behind him, so there was no way she'd interrupt his refining.

As the last drop of liquid recirculated in the large bathtub, the "Chi Jin Ye" formed. With a wave of his hand, a fingernail-sized, gold-red jelly flew out.

Both onlookers were stunned.

"Just this?"

Mu Zixi's cheeks puffed up twice before she couldn't hold back and burst into laughter, clutching her little belly.

"Xu Xiaoshou, are you kidding? I thought you'd brew up some immortal pill after all that time, but instead..."

"Snot?"

Xu Xiaoshou glared at her unhappily: "Does your snot look like that?"

"Pfft, hahaha..."

"Mocked, passive value +1."

But Sang Lao picked up the snot-like substance and licked a bit of it. His facial expression instantly went out of control, filled with shock.

"You created this yourself?"

"Mm."

After getting the affirmative answer, even Sang Lao couldn't stay composed.

He paced back and forth, licking the substance again as if savoring it, then couldn't help but lift his bamboo hat and scratch his head frantically.

Xu Xiaoshou: "..."

What kind of reaction was this?

Mu Zixi felt a sudden thud in her heart and couldn't help but say: "This snot of yours..."

"Chi Jin Ye!" Xu Xiaoshou glared at her. "It has a name!"

"Oh, oh, your Chi Jin Ye—is it really edible?"

"Nonsense!"

Xu Xiaoshou replied irritably, then pulled out a jar of honey from his ring. "Want to try?"

Mu Zixi looked at it with disgust, but it seemed familiar.

Suddenly, she pulled out a jar of honey from her own ring and said in shock: "Is this it?"

Xu Xiaoshou stared at the half-dug jar in her hand, stunned. How did she have it?

Mu Zixi's face turned pale.

This was the only item in the ring she had gotten after Xu Xiaoshou swapped it on her at Tian Xuan Men when she was about to seal it.

The problem was, because she couldn't resist, she had already dug out and eaten most of it!

So, did that mean this stuff was...

"Ugh—"

Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but laugh. "So you've already eaten it, and you call it snot? Where did that missing half go? Don't tell me you picked it out!"

"Shut up!"

"How about it, still calling it snot?"

"Be quiet!"

"I won't—snot, snot, snot..."

"Ugh—"

A suppressed retching sound from behind interrupted their bickering, startling both of them.

Xu Xiaoshou turned in shock to see a puddle of yellowish mess in front of Sang Lao.

Looking up, that already greenish old face had a string of shiny liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"This..."

Sang Lao felt he could no longer look at the sticky drop in his hand. He wiped his mouth and couldn't help but roar: "You two, make me..."

"Ugh!"

Just then, Mu Zixi, seeing the vomit in front of Sang Lao, couldn't hold back and sprayed as well.

Sang Lao was interrupted mid-sentence, his "shut up" turning into another heave.

Xu Xiaoshou quickly dodged, watching in shock as the two faced each other, taking turns to vomit.

"Ugh—"

"Ugh—"