Sixty years of blacksmithing, a single hammer blow forging a celestial being.

Li Ping'an felt his nearly depleted dantian instantly fill up again, and he felt full of power.

However, these powers still need to be converted into spiritual power through the Heaven-Splitting Hammer before they can be permanently stored in the body.

He searched the furnace again and found two more broken pills, which were failed and defective products of the Qi Nourishing Pill.

With just a little processing using the Heaven-Forging Hammer, it can become a top-grade Qi-Nourishing Pill.

Li Ping'an silently tucked the pill into his robes, climbed out of the alchemy furnace, and remained impassive.

He didn't intend to make a Qi-Nourishing Pill for Hong Ling in the first batch; he would wait.

At the very least, we'll have to wait until the sixth or seventh batch.

He didn't even want to give the woman the pills, because he had a really bad impression of her.

However, given the woman's unpredictable temper, Li Ping'an secretly planned to find an opportunity to give her a Qi-Nourishing Pill to appease her.

Then the second batch,

With the alchemy furnace cleaned, the second batch of alchemy began to be practiced intensively.

This time, Hongling was more careful and attentive.

However, this Qi-Nourishing Pill is, after all, a second-tier pill, and it is not so easy to refine. Even if she was skilled and calm, she could not avoid the fate of failure.

As a burnt smell filled the entire alchemy room once again, Hongling's face darkened even further.

Li Ping'an happily continued cleaning the residue inside the alchemy furnace. This time, he found three more defective Qi-Nourishing Pills inside the furnace.

Excellent, excellent!

"What a bountiful harvest today!" Li Ping'an's eyes lit up with excitement.

Then they started the third batch, which also failed.

The fourth batch was started, but it failed again.

The fifth batch failed again.

The sixth furnace attempt was also a failure.

Soon, Hongling had only one bundle of herbs left in her hands.

At this moment, Hongling's face had turned ashen, and she had lost the composure she had when she first arrived.

You should know that she has already tried to refine this Qi-Nourishing Pill nearly a hundred times, but she has failed time and time again.

Today I heard from Qingyue that there is an unusual old man in this hall who can successfully control the fire every time he helps him, so he came here to try it out, but he failed again.

"Looks like you're not as amazing as my junior sister said."

Hong Ling looked at Li Ping'an and sneered.

"Actually, my purpose in coming here today to refine pills is secondary; the most important thing is to test you."

Li Ping'an frowned upon hearing this, wondering what this guy was trying to say.

Hongling continued speaking.

"You're nothing but a wretched old man clinging to life. I advise you not to make a move on my junior sister. I know exactly what you're thinking."

Upon hearing this, Li Ping'an glanced at Hong Ling with some surprise, thinking to himself, "Is this woman crazy?"

When did I start having designs on Qingyue?

It was always Qingyue who took the initiative to come to her, so how come Hongling made it sound like she was the one trying to please Qingyue?

"Li Ping'an, I advise you to stop now. Although I don't know how you managed to get a few Body Tempering Pills for my junior sister, remember this: Qingyue is not someone you can aspire to. You don't even have the right to look up to her, understand?"

Li Ping'an didn't speak, but simply lowered his head to arrange the wood.

Seeing Li Ping'an remain silent, Hong Ling felt a surge of anger and said coldly,

"Now I'm going to refine one last batch of pills. If this batch fails again, you know the consequences."

As she spoke, Hong Ling's tone carried a hint of ruthlessness, which made Li Ping'an frown. Could this woman be planning something against him?

"The timber is ready."

Li Ping'an spoke quietly, his tone devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"it is good."

Seeing Li Ping'an's fearless attitude, Hong Ling's anger intensified. She was determined to teach this brat a lesson today.

The seventh batch of furnaces was started again.

This time, Hongling didn't care anymore. After all, she had already failed six times in a row, so it didn't matter whether this last one failed or not.

At this moment, all she could think about was how to beat Li Ping'an up after the pill refining failed.

Time passed second by second.

When the alchemy furnace shook violently again, Hongling's face was now devoid of any expression of joy or sorrow.

She glanced at Li Ping'an, the meaning in her eyes was self-evident.

Get ready to get a good beating from your mother.

However, Li Ping'an remained calm and ignored Hong Ling's murderous gaze, hunching over as he crawled into the alchemy furnace.

"You little brat..."

Hongling was about to make her move when she saw Li Ping'an crawl into the alchemy furnace. She then thought better of it and decided to punish him after he cleaned the furnace.

He stood silently outside, waiting for Li Ping'an to come out.

About ten minutes later, Li Ping'an finally climbed out of the alchemy furnace.

"Oh, I thought you were hiding inside. Come on, I told you, if the alchemy fails, you'll be in big trouble!"

Hong Ling clenched her fists so tightly they cracked, a sinister smile playing on her lips.

Suddenly, Li Ping'an opened his palm, revealing two crimson pills inside, with a faint spiritual light flowing over them.

"A Qi-Nourishing Pill? I succeeded? I successfully refined it, and it's a top-grade Qi-Nourishing Pill at that?"

But how could that be?

After a brief moment of joy, a look of confusion appeared on Hongling's face.

He clearly saw that the alchemy furnace had exploded and black smoke was billowing up, so how could it possibly succeed?

But those pills in Li Ping'an's hands are genuine, there's no mistake, they can't be faked!

It contained a strong spiritual energy, which Hongling could sense.

"Senior Sister, it's possible that two pills were successfully made before the failure. Qingyue had a similar experience when she was refining pills before. Although the furnace exploded, some pills were still preserved during the explosion."

Li Ping'an maintained his previous statement.

"It survived the explosion?"

Hongling looked at Li Ping'an with disbelief, feeling suspiciously that the old man was hiding many secrets and was not simple at all.

However, she really couldn't understand why Li Ping'an could produce two high-grade pills after just a few casual movements in the alchemy furnace.

Could it be that he was afraid of being punished by me, so he specially took out two Qi-Nourishing Pills to deal with it?

Upon considering this idea, Hongling immediately shook her head; that was impossible.

The Qi Nourishing Pill is a second-tier pill that costs four or five hundred spirit stones on the market. How could this old man just casually pull out two of them?

As for Li Ping'an's claim that some pills were preserved during the explosion, Hong Ling didn't believe such nonsense at all.

She was no naive girl like Qingyue; her skill in alchemy far surpassed Qingyue's.

She naturally knew that if the furnace exploded, all the pills inside would shatter; it was impossible for pills to still exist after an explosion.

There's definitely something wrong with this old man.