A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Sword-Forging Servant and Ascending to Immorta

Xue Yi stiffened upon hearing the voice.

She smeared her face haphazardly with the back of her hand, which was covered in black ash, before slowly turning her head away.

Those eyes were terribly red and swollen, and the tears welling up in their sockets hadn't been properly concealed, so they stared straight into Zhou Lingxuan's line of sight.

Zhou Lingxuan's heart skipped a beat.

This girl has a stubborn and strong personality. Last time she exploded in the stove, she was still able to curse loudly. Today, if someone sees her secretly wiping away tears, she'll probably explode.

Sure enough, Xue Yi sniffed, put on a stern face, and snorted coldly at Zhou Lingxuan.

"What senior sister?"

She looked Zhou Lingxuan up and down, his face full of wrinkles, with disgust.

"You're about my grandfather's age, calling me 'senior sister' is practically making me sound old, isn't it?"

Zhou Lingxuan coughed twice and nodded repeatedly.

"You're right, I was being presumptuous. I should at least have a way of addressing you, but I don't know how to address you."

Xue Yi got up from the ground, patted the scorched dirt off her skirt, and raised her chin slightly.

"My name is Xue Yi."

"Remember this, don't shout like that again. Don't think that just because you're in the abandoned hall you can casually try to establish connections with inner disciples."

Zhou Lingxuan continued along with her words.

"Miss Xue, can I dispose of these waste pills now?"

Xue Yi was speechless after hearing that.

She stared wide-eyed at Zhou Lingxuan, her anger, which she wanted to vent, stuck in her throat.

What's going on in that old man's head?

I just had a gas explosion and I'm in a terrible mood, can't you tell? Shouldn't you have asked if I was hurt first?

The first question they asked was whether I could work?

"Why is your mind filled with nothing but collecting junk?" Xue Yi rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Go ahead and collect it all, it's just annoying to look at."

Zhou Lingxuan ignored her complaints, rolled up his sleeves, and walked straight towards the shattered remains of the alchemy furnace.

Waste cinnabar was scattered everywhere on the ground, some even rolling into the cracks between the bricks.

He moved swiftly, picked up a stone, and secretly tightened his fingers.

The rampant toxicity and residual medicinal power in the discarded pill instantly surged into the sea of ​​consciousness through the fingertips, and were completely devoured by the small purple jade hammer.

A warm current flowed back through his meridians, and Zhou Lingxuan felt that the blood and energy he had consumed during the battle with the assassin was rapidly recovering.

Moreover, the medicinal power of this batch of discarded pills was even stronger than the last time, and the body felt a slight warmth under the influence of the medicinal power.

nice one.

As Zhou Lingxuan picked them up, he kept wondering to himself.

This girl's alchemy skills are truly terrible.

The furnace exploded last time, and it exploded again this time. The medicinal properties in the discarded pills are in complete conflict; it's like several herbs were forcibly mixed together. No wonder it exploded.

Despite his poor skills, he was incredibly obsessed with alchemy.

However, he certainly couldn't say that out loud.

The source of the waste pills for the abandoned hall depends entirely on this old lady. If we really anger her and she leaves, where will we find such high-quality poisons as nourishment in the future?

Zhou Lingxuan cleaned up the waste pills on the ground, and finally walked to the remains of the alchemy furnace. He reached into the largest piece of the furnace bottom, preparing to pry out the waste pills stuck inside.

His movement stopped just as his fingers touched the bottom.

A slight stinging sensation came from my fingertip, not from the temperature, but from touching a sharp protrusion.

Zhou Lingxuan carefully removed the waste pills and put them away, then reached inside to feel them again.

It is obvious that there is an uneven spot inside the furnace wall.

Although he had never worked with an alchemy furnace, he had become extremely familiar with its internal structure through years of hammering and tinkering.

Since it is a container used for alchemy, the inside must be smooth and flat so that the flames and medicinal power can flow evenly.

This rough texture, when heated unevenly at high temperatures, can easily lead to stagnation of spiritual energy.

Zhou Lingxuan stood up and pointed to the piece of broken metal from the bottom of the furnace.

"Miss Xue, does your alchemy furnace often malfunction during the pill-collecting stage when you're using it?"

Xue Yi was kicking at the broken bricks at her feet, sulking, when she heard this and suddenly turned her head.

How did you know?

"I just touched inside."

Zhou Lingxuan pointed to the broken piece.

"There's a rough spot on the inside of this alchemy furnace; it's very uneven. Although I don't know anything about alchemy, this thing is used to burn medicinal herbs, and with this kind of bump inside, the heat will definitely be uneven."

Xue Yi paused for a moment, then quickly walked over, squatted down, and reached in to touch it.

After touching her a few times, her expression changed.

"There really is!"

She suddenly stood up, her red and swollen eyes regaining their light, and the dejection she had just felt vanished.

"I knew it!"

Xue Yi put her hands on her hips and raised her voice with a sense of self-righteousness.

"My technique was flawless, and my pharmacological deduction was completely correct. How could the furnace explode twice in a row!"

"So the problem was with this broken alchemy furnace!"

She spoke more and more fluently, and even began to draw inferences from one instance to another.

"It's not just the alchemy furnace that's faulty; the medicinal herbs that the Pill Hall allocated to me are not old enough and contain too many impurities. Also, the fire vein under this side courtyard is too fiery, making it completely unsuitable for refining such mild pills."

"Yes, those are the reasons!"

Zhou Lingxuan stood aside, listening to her endlessly and completely absolve herself of responsibility for the explosion, and was speechless.

This girl's ability to go with the flow is far better than her alchemy skills.

However, he naturally wouldn't expose it.

The young lady is concerned about her image; as long as I have the waste pills to collect, I don't care why the furnace exploded.

"Miss Xue is right. Since the alchemy furnace is broken, we can just replace it with a good one." Zhou Lingxuan said dismissively, picked up the cloth bag full of waste pills, and prepared to leave.

"etc."

Xue Yi suddenly called out to him, circled around Zhou Lingxuan twice, and looked him up and down.

"I recognize you."

She suddenly leaned closer and lowered her voice.

"Were you the one who triggered the extraordinary phenomenon of the sect's sacred artifact, the Heavenly Sword, while forging iron in the workshop a while ago?"

Zhou Lingxuan paused, then nodded without hiding anything.

"It's me. I'm Zhou Lingxuan."

This matter was known throughout the entire sect at the time. Although he was later sidelined because he failed to detect a good spiritual root, it was easy to find out with a little inquiry, so there was no point in hiding it.

Xue Yi grinned, her smile as sly as a fox that had just stolen some fish.

"Since you can forge iron to activate the Heavenly Sword, your forging skills must be excellent, right?"

Zhou Lingxuan suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Miss Xue, I only know how to forge iron swords."

"An iron sword is made of iron, and an alchemy furnace is made of iron, so what's the difference?"

Xue Yi waved her hand, interrupting him.

"Those old fogies at the alchemy workshop always make excuses whenever I ask them to repair my alchemy furnace, complaining that it explodes too quickly. By the time I go to the market to buy a new one, my monthly allowance is all gone."

She moved closer to Zhou Lingxuan and stared into his eyes.

"Could you build me a pill-making furnace?"

"As long as you can help me forge a suitable alchemy furnace, I will definitely not treat you unfairly."

Zhou Lingxuan shook his head decisively.

"I've never built a pill furnace before, I've never even seen the blueprints, I can't do this job."

What a joke.

He was skilled at forging blacksmith swords; he could forge them with his eyes closed. But a pill furnace not only required special spiritual materials, but also needed to be inscribed with array patterns for gathering fire and controlling temperature—these were completely different things.

He's not even at the Qi Refining stage yet, so how can he possibly work on array patterns?

"I have the blueprints!" Xue Yi pulled a crumpled piece of parchment from her sleeve and slapped it into Zhou Lingxuan's hand. "I can also find a way to gather the materials. You just need to contribute your labor."

Zhou Lingxuan pushed the parchment back.

"Miss Xue, this isn't a matter of physical effort. The alchemy furnace needs array patterns, and I'm just a menial servant. I can't even use my spiritual power properly, let alone inscribe array patterns."

"You don't need to worry about the array patterns, I'll find someone to carve them." Xue Yi persisted, grabbing his sleeve tightly. "Just help me forge the furnace body. The furnaces made by those people in the Weapon Hall all have flaws on the inner walls, I don't trust them."

Zhou Lingxuan shook his head again.

This job is thankless and exhausting. If it explodes after being fired, this girl might blame him for it.

"Really not going to fight?" Xue Yi released her grip and took a half step back.

"I won't fight."

"That's such a pity." Xue Yi sighed, then flipped her hand, revealing a small jade bottle in her palm.

With a gentle flick of her thumb, she pried open the stopper of the jade bottle a crack.

"I was originally thinking that if you could help me get the alchemy furnace out, I would give you this Foundation Establishment Pill as payment."

An extremely pure medicinal fragrance wafted from the bottle opening and instantly entered Zhou Lingxuan's nasal cavity.

Zhou Lingxuan's breath suddenly stopped.

Foundation Building Pill.