Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 4 Xiaoqingdan

The dawn had not yet come, and the moon was still hanging in the sky. Jiang Xuan lay in bed, sleepless all night.

The excitement of the upcoming journey has gradually dissipated, replaced by an increasing uneasiness after a sleepless night.

After parting with his father yesterday, Jiang Xuan excitedly went to find the housekeeper Li Qizhi, but was unexpectedly poured a basin of cold water.

In Li Qizhi's words, the Qixi Desert is not a good place to travel, but a barren land with no people and full of dangers.

Yingzhou people's understanding of the Qixi Desert mostly comes from a plant called sand thorn.

Sand thorn is a plant commonly used in recovery pills. It is mainly produced in desert areas. The Qixi Desert is the largest desert in the eastern part of the original country, and naturally it is one of the main sources of sand thorn.

Like other states, Yingzhou has a huge demand for sand thorns. Every year, many people travel to the Qixi Desert to collect sand thorns, and many more remain in the desert.

Jiang Xuan is one year older than Jiang Xian, so naturally he has practiced martial arts for a longer time. Although both of them are at the top level of martial arts, Jiang Xian is a little weaker than Jiang Xuan in actual combat.

This trip to Qixi is not just a leisurely trip, but a real adventure and an experience.

Jiang Xuan couldn't help but start to worry about Jiang Xian's safety on this trip.

……

The sun shone through the horizon, and there was no trace of Jiang Xuan in the room. Only a letter was left on the table.

Outside Yingzhou City, the silhouette under the morning sun shows a young man with a spear walking away.

Under the morning sun, Jiang Xuan's mouth was wide open, and his mind flashed with the image of his sister Jiang Xian's beautiful smile, and he was filled with gratitude... Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan felt that his own shadow had also become a little taller.

"Ah!"

Jiang Xian, who was washing up, suddenly sneezed. He rolled his eyes and whispered, "I'm afraid Jiang Xuan is saying bad things about me again."

After washing up, Jiang Xian looked at the ancient book in his hand, slightly lost in thought.

Ever since they found this alchemy book on my mother's dressing table yesterday, my parents have looked strange, as if they were worried about something.

Jiang Xian asked the two of them, but they just said nothing, so he didn't ask any more questions.

However, this alchemy book seems to have some magical attraction, and I haven't been able to forget it since I read it yesterday.

After Jiang Yuan told Jiang Xian about the Qixi Desert yesterday, she made up her mind to follow the instructions in the book and practice it before setting off to refine a pill for this trip to Qixi.

"Xiao Qingdan, one plant of Qinglian grass, two plants of purple thread flowers, and a rat tail."

Jiang Xian recalled a prescription he had read in a book yesterday: "This Xiaoqingdan has both the effect of preventing and removing poisons, and according to the book, it's also very easy to refine. I heard there are many poisonous insects in the desert. If I can refine Xiaoqingdan in the next two days, I can go there with much peace of mind."

……

In Qingxi Town, a girl was carrying a large bronze bow on her back, with her trouser legs rolled up, groping for something in the stream barefoot.

"Miss, please come out quickly. The water in the stream is too cold." The maid beside her stretched out her hand to test the temperature of the stream water, then suddenly retracted her hand.

"Qiongying, please save your breath. Don't you know Miss Xian's temper?" A guard beside her said to the maid.

The maid named Qiongying pouted and complained to the guard, "If Steward Li hadn't insisted on you two coming, why would the young lady have asked you two to come with her? Who needs your protection?"

Qiongying looked at the water plant in her hand, threw it into the stream, and said again: "I knew you would cause trouble."

"How could it be called a nuisance? Steward Li said the eldest young master had just had an argument with Xing Yue. Coincidentally, I heard Xing Yue took a Heavenly Grade Pill today, but failed to advance and suffered a backlash from the pill's toxicity. While he's successfully detoxified, his path to advancement will likely be even more difficult," the guard said. "In that case, there's no telling if those scoundrels from the Xing family will bring this up. If they come looking for trouble, Miss Xian won't be able to handle it," another guard added.

Qiong Ying put her hands on her hips and said, "Isn't Xing Yue known as a martial arts genius? How come he also needs to rely on pills to advance? Also, what does the backlash from his pills have to do with the Jiang family?"

“That Heavenly Grade Pill…” The guard hesitated and waved his hand, “Forget it. Even if I tell you, you won’t understand.”

Jiang Xian placed a light green water plant in his hand into the small basket beside him and said calmly, "Although Heaven-grade elixirs can help warriors quickly advance from the peak of the Earth-grade to the Heaven-grade, they are often quite toxic and need to be neutralized with inner elixirs. Inner elixirs from ferocious bears are more effective. Lower-grade inner elixirs are not very effective in neutralizing, while higher-grade inner elixirs have too much violent energy. Jiang Xuan has a second-grade inner elixir from a scaly-eared white bear in his hand. It is actually a good material for refining Heaven-grade elixirs."

"So, the last time the Xing family father and son came, they wanted to ask for the inner elixir of the scaly-eared white bear?" The guard suddenly realized.

Jiang Xian didn't say anything and continued looking for aquatic plants in the stream.

……

"boom!"

A huge explosion was heard from the pharmacy in the backyard of the Jiang Mansion, thick smoke billowed, and then several people staggered out of the pharmacy.

"Second Miss, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are gone just like that. Don't you feel sad?" an old man said to Jiang Xian.

Jiang Xian brushed off the black dust on his body, frowning slightly: "Don't we have two medicine furnaces? Bring another one!"

"But the Second Miss..."

"Since it is about refining medicine, it is not surprising that there is an explosive furnace. Although the medicine furnace is valuable, if the refining is successful, the value of the elixir and the benefits it brings cannot be measured by the value of one or two medicine furnaces." Jiang Xian looked at the pharmacy with a firm gaze.

There are two types of alchemists in Yuan Country. Only alchemists with the status of monks can be called real alchemists, and alchemists who have not become monks can usually only be called pharmacists.

The biggest difference between an alchemist and a pharmacist is whether they can accurately control the alchemy flame with spiritual power.

Since the pharmacist has not condensed his true Qi and is therefore unable to mobilize his spiritual power, he is fundamentally unable to control the flame for refining medicine. He can only use a more basic medicine furnace to perform some simple medicine refining.

It is precisely because of the limitations of pharmacists that the pills they refine often contain a large amount of impurities and even retain the toxins of the raw materials used for refining the medicine. Not only are the medicinal effects far weaker than those of the pills refined by pharmacists, some pills even have the risk of poisoning the person taking them.

An example of this is Xing Yue's poisoning from the backlash of taking the Tianjie Pill.

In the Jiang Mansion Pharmacy, after carefully observing the exploded medicine furnace and the scattered medicinal materials, Jiang Xian decided to make a second attempt at refining the medicine.

The old men in the pharmacy all had bitter faces, and even the action of moving the medicinal materials seemed extremely reluctant, each of them looking like a coolie.

The huge medicine furnace lid was closed and the flame under the furnace was ignited.

Jiang Xian stared at the flame and carefully directed everyone to control the flame temperature through the blower.

The unique restriction of the medicine furnace was activated by the flames, and red flames flashed to calcine the medicinal materials.

After calcination, the materials in the medicine furnace began to turn into powder, which indicated that the medicine refining was progressing smoothly.

At this moment, everyone in the pharmacy had less solemn expressions on their faces and more joy.

Jiang Xian wiped the sweat from his forehead and was about to say something when an old man beside him protected him and said, "Second Miss, be careful!"

"boom!"

(End of this chapter)