Female Lead, Something's Not Right (GL) - Chapter 21

“What are you talking about?” Chu Ning looked at the suddenly worried Gu Shiyan with confusion.

“Nothing, let’s go.” Gu Shiyan took a deep breath, straightened her back, and suppressed her worries.

She knew her overthinking was useless. The most important thing now was to break through her cultivation and secure a spot in the inner sect during the competition. The current world situation was strangely unpredictable, deviating from the path laid out in the heavenly book yet containing similarities. Gu Shiyan didn’t dare to gamble! All signs indicated that the time of the chaotic era of turbid energy mentioned in the later stages of the heavenly book was fast approaching…

But no matter how the situation changed, she just needed to lay low and protect her own small domain.

The two handed in their tokens and, having received their allocated herbs, entered the alchemy room. Four people shared one alchemy room. Gu Shiyan and Chu Ning exchanged a look and each placed the ten-year spiritual grass into the small, copper alchemy furnace in front of them.

They were currently practicing the most common and high-success-rate low-grade Qi-Inducing Pills. The process was quick, requiring only that the herbs be placed in the pot and baked. No specific order or waiting time was needed. Five pills per batch; a skilled hand could produce three, or at least two.

Gu Shiyan meditated, regulating her breath and mobilizing her spiritual energy to guide the fire from the earth dragon into the copper alchemy furnace. Because she was poor, she had a strong obsession with alchemy in her previous life. She might not have had other skills, but she had the most patience and would often refine low-grade elixirs to sell. Therefore, she was very adept at it this time. After about half an hour, the heat was just right, and a faint fragrance came from the furnace. She quickly withdrew her spiritual energy.

“Success.” Gu Shiyan looked at the five glossy, round pills with delight.

Soon, the others also finished refining their pills. Chu Ning happily ran up to Gu Shiyan in surprise. “Wanwan, you’re amazing! All five pills were a success! I only managed three!”

Gu Shiyan smiled. “Three is already very good.”

“Yes, I only managed two.”

“Me too, only two. The heat was too high just now. I wonder what method this Junior Sister used to achieve such a high success rate. Could you share some pointers?”

Chu Ning’s eyes were also shining. “I’d really like to know, too, but it’s okay if you’re not comfortable sharing.”

Gu Shiyan spoke gently. “There’s actually no secret. I also received guidance from a senior. The key is to practice more, and second, you must not have distracting thoughts when refining pills. You must constantly watch the flame and control the refining area based on the properties of the herbs. Take the spiritual grass, for example—it’s not resistant to high temperatures, so you need to heat it slowly from the outside in. You can’t bake it directly from the center of the furnace, or it will easily ruin the pill.”

“Junior Sister’s explanation is excellent. Thank you!”

Chu Ning was excited. “We still have half an hour to refine another batch. If we can gather five Qi-Inducing Pills, we can sell them to the Alchemy Division for ten low-grade spirit stones!”

The “senior” Gu Shiyan mentioned was her past self. She vividly remembered that her first attempt at alchemy was a complete failure. Unwilling to accept defeat, she struggled with alchemy ever since, practicing privately countless times more than others just to reach the point where she was now comparable to them.

Half an hour later, the four of them came out from the Alchemy Division, collecting their spirit stones with satisfaction. Along the way, Chu Ning chattered excitedly about the competition. Gu Shiyan touched the storage bag at her waist. She wasn’t short on spirit stones at the moment but was in dire need of high-quality elixirs and defensive artifacts.

Recalling her death in the previous life and the Qin Qianqian incident, Gu Shiyan decided to prioritize keeping more life-saving elixirs and artifacts on her, as spirit stones are useless in a real crisis. Although the storage bag Shen Shu left her must contain things she needed, she didn’t plan to use them. In her heart, those things were meant to be returned.

She also didn’t want to have too much interaction with Shen Shu in the future. Recalling Zhou Yun’s unchanged fate, Gu Shiyan felt a little scared.

“I plan to go to the Immortal Market tomorrow to buy some things. Do you want to come along?” Gu Shiyan turned to ask. Chu Ning was the highest cultivated in the dorm, at the eighth stage of Qi Refining, but she was very warm, cheerful, and unpretentious, treating people sincerely. Among her roommates, Gu Shiyan preferred to be close to Chu Ning.

“I can! But what do you want to buy? Because the competition was moved up, the Immortal Market this year has more people than in previous years. Everyone came early, and the prices of the merchants’ goods have increased a lot.” Chu Ning sighed helplessly, thinking of her own purse.

Gu Shiyan frowned. “It can’t be helped. With the competition coming up, everyone is caught off guard. For us alchemists, the main focus is the pill refining competition. Although there are people who play dirty tricks and sneak attacks during the matches, it’s still better than those fighting competitions, which have no restraints. Everyone wants to win, and it’s easy to get hurt if you’re not careful.”

“You’re right. You can’t be without self-defense. We definitely need to buy some defensive artifacts.”

In the quiet night, most of the outer sect disciples in the Alchemy Division were asleep. On the bed in the bedroom, Gu Shiyan’s consciousness was hazy. She felt a burning heat all over her body. Her eyelids were heavy, and every muscle and bone in her body was swelling and aching unbearably.

“What’s going on! Why is so much spiritual energy surging inside me!” She was shocked. The intense pain made her whole body tremble, and her undergarments were soaked with sweat.

Gu Shiyan gasped and struggled to prop herself up by the bedside, and a mouthful of sticky blood suddenly shot out from her throat!

“Pfft!”

Chu Ning was the first to wake up. She quickly lit a lamp and rushed to Gu Shiyan’s side. What she saw was Gu Shiyan’s face flushed red with blood flowing from her nose and mouth.

“Xiao Wan! What’s wrong!” Chu Ning was terrified. The noise drew the dissatisfaction of the other roommates. Chu Ning sent her spiritual energy into Gu Shiyan’s meridians, only to find that the spiritual energy in her body was surging wildly, with excess, unabsorbed spiritual energy crashing around.

“Heh, who knows what kind of forbidden technique she used to forcibly break through her cultivation in a short time. Now she’s facing the backlash,” a female cultivator who was close to Zhou Yun before sneered sarcastically.

Of the original six, Gu Shiyan had the lowest cultivation. Since that trip outside, she had not only made rapid progress in cultivation, surpassing them, but also acquired a lot of spirit stones. Naturally, everyone was very envious. Coupled with the incident involving Zhou Yun, their once-decent relationship had gradually turned cold.

“That’s enough!” Chu Ning yelled, dissatisfied. She quickly turned and helped the pained Gu Shiyan stand up. “Xiao Wan, hold on. I’m taking you to a physician!”

Chu Ning supported Gu Shiyan, who could barely stand, and rushed out of the bedroom. She anxiously took out a Wind Manipulation Talisman and stuck it on her leg, but Gu Shiyan spat out another mouthful of fresh blood.

“Ah!”

Gu Shiyan fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The spiritual energy was already crashing into her dantian, like fiery sharp blades tearing and twisting her flesh. Her meridians burst. Her white undergarment was stained red with blood. Her consciousness grew heavy, the world was spinning, and Chu Ning’s anxious shouts faded into the distance.

Chu Ning watched her friend lying on the ground, her aura growing weaker and weaker, and urgently shouted, “Help! Guards!”

Thousands of miles away, Shen Shu was currently entangled with a fourth-tier Fire Bear demon corrupted by turbid energy in the Suzaku Tower. A dark river of fiery magma flowed at the bottom of the tower. Heat waves swept in, and dense Spirit-Devouring Scorpions crawled toward the several people standing on the rocks.

The Fire Bear demon, six meters tall and shrouded in black mist, stood in the magma as Shen Shu sliced off its left arm with a sword strike from mid-air.

“Roar!” The enraged Fire Bear demon gathered a ball of fire in its mouth.

Its power was comparable to the self-detonation of a Core Formation powerhouse. If struck, Shen Shu, at her current cultivation, would be severely injured even if she didn’t die. The moment the ball of fire shot towards her, Shen Shu’s heart jolted!

The demon flower seed gu was dissipating!