It turns out, they were the main characters.

Ye Lingxuan's cheeks flushed slightly, but she gently withdrew her hand and said demurely, "I'm really exhausted from refining pills today. I'm sure Brother Mu isn't much better off. Let's find an empty room here to stay for now."

Mu Zhian was taken aback.

Ye Lingxuan tiptoed slightly, bringing her pretty face close to Mu Zhian's, and gently kissed him on the cheek: "Goodnight, Brother Mu~"

"Oh, right,"

Ye Lingxuan stopped and spoke again, "If Brother Mu goes back tonight, I'll be angry."

"You won't let me have sex with you, and you won't even let me find someone else..." Mu Zhian came back to his senses in a daze and nodded slightly: "Alright, it's getting late today, so let's get some rest."

Thinking about it, it doesn't matter if we don't practice dual cultivation for the time being. Focusing on alchemy these next few days is more important than anything else.

After all, it's all for the fox-eared girl!

……

The next evening.

Inside the alchemy room, the elixirs in the cauldron had long since cooled, and the room was filled with an incredibly rich medicinal aroma that refreshed the mind and body.

"Brother Mu's skill in refining pills has improved a lot compared to before. If he had started refining pills back in Tianxuan City, he would probably be a fifth-grade alchemist by now."

Ye Lingxuan stretched out her palm, looking at the round, lustrous second-grade pill in her hand. Her small, brush-like eyelashes trembled, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

"I never knew alchemy could be so interesting, otherwise I would have gone to ask my family's guest elder for guidance earlier," Mu Zhi'an said with a smile as he accepted the second-grade pill he had refined.

Unexpectedly, Ye Lingxuan chuckled and said, "In the past, Brother Mu was so obsessed with beautiful women that he would go to the brothel or flirt with the girls next door every few days. He had no time to refine pills, and even cultivation was a rare thing for him."

Mu Zhian raised an eyebrow, maintaining his smile: "That was only because I didn't know my sister Lingxuan back then."

As he said this, he reached out to her slender waist. Ye Lingxuan blushed slightly, but moved her body two steps to the side to avoid Mu Zhian's hand.

"I'm sorry, I've been too tired from refining pills these past few days. Lingxuan won't be able to stay by Brother Mu's side today either. You should go meditate and cultivate as soon as possible."

Finally, she tiptoed and whispered in Mu Zhi'an's ear, "Since Brother Mu is preparing for the alchemy competition, it would be better to put these thoughts aside for the time being."

"Let's talk about it after the alchemy competition is over."

Mu Zhian: "..."

Even now, he could roughly tell that Ye Lingxuan was deliberately teasing him.

Who did she learn bad habits from? She's never been like this before... Mu Zhian muttered to himself, feeling a little annoyed, but still maintained his gentle smile like a friendly older brother next door: "In that case, let's call it a day."

I can resist the urge to feel aroused, but I don't believe you can hold back forever...

The spiritual energy within the innate furnace was extremely tempting to the female cultivator, especially since she was now absorbing spiritual energy from the Heavenly Court. For cultivators, the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court was an irresistible temptation.

"I never imagined I'd be relegated to the sidelines one day..."

Mu Zhian sighed and continued refining pills in the alchemy room.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side...

The room was brightly lit by candlelight. Ye Qian propped herself up on the bed with her hands, raised her bright eyes and stared straight at the girl in the purple dress, and said softly, "Sister, is it really okay for you to treat Brother Mu like this?"

Ye Lingxuan sat gracefully in the chair, her legs together, her feet, clad in light purple embroidered shoes, dangling under her skirt as she peeled a papaya with a small knife.

She glanced at her younger sister and said calmly, "Someone like Brother Mu should be teased first; we can't let him have him so easily."

"Take a look at this."

Ye Lingxuan took a book out of her storage ring and threw it on Ye Qian's bedside table.

Ye Qian tilted her head slightly, a hint of confusion in her eyes: "This is...?"

"Sister Ruoxi lent it to me a few days ago. It contains a lot of writing about men, as well as some..."

Ye Lingxuan paused slightly as she peeled the papaya. Her face was burning hot. After hesitating for a moment, she whispered, "And some special ways to play."

Ye Qian looked at the book in her hand, nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, "Why have you been eating papaya so much lately, sister? Logically speaking, once you reach the Refining Spirit Realm, you should be able to abstain from grains and not have any problem eating or not."

Ye Lingxuan glanced at her younger sister, whose face was innocent but whose figure was incredibly sexy, and said quietly, "You don't understand... Don't ask so many questions."

……

Time flies, and another day has passed in the blink of an eye.

The news of the alchemy competition spread throughout the sect, attracting the attention of countless cultivators.

The Empress of Yuzhou decided to stay at the Liangyi Sect for a few more days and offered an eighth-grade elixir as a reward for the alchemy competition.

Eighth-grade pills require at least one Emperor-level medicinal herb to refine, and even a Dao Integration expert would be lucky to have two or three of them.

As the alchemy competition drew near, this news quickly ignited the entire Liangyi Sect, with many disciples skilled in alchemy becoming extremely excited.

You must know, this is a living, breathing female emperor at the Dao Integration Realm, and also an extremely rare alchemist!

Only the Medicine Emperor Luo Tanshe, who created the Immortal Dynasty, would be willing to undertake such a grand undertaking.

If one could gain her favor in the subsequent alchemy competition, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that one's career would skyrocket.

After all, what cultivators lack most in their cultivation is resources.

With resources, one can accelerate the pace of cultivation. Two cultivators, one with abundant resources and the other with scarce resources, can cultivate at three times the speed.

Cultivation resources are scarce, even for ancient aristocratic families.

Normally, if an ancient family invests its resources in cultivating disciples at the Void Returning Realm, it would be extremely difficult to cultivate even two or three.

After all, refining pills requires medicinal materials, and alchemists can't succeed every time they refine pills. It's already quite difficult to refine one pill from the same three ingredients.

But for Empress Luo Tan, such pills were as common as beans.

After all, she herself is one of the world's top alchemists.

Imagine if this alchemist were lucky enough to be chosen by her to become an exchange student in Yuzhou, spending every few days in her palace feeding her a few pills... her future prospects would be limitless!

Moreover, since she is his personal disciple, if we're lucky, we might even be able to develop a deeper relationship...

Of course, this is actually overthinking it. After all, what kind of geniuses hasn't that empress seen in the past? If she really wanted to take a liking to a mere cultivator, she would have done so long ago, instead of waiting until now.

But no matter what, even if they can't develop a deep and intimate relationship with each other, they can still roam freely in Kyushu in the future just by virtue of their 'master-disciple' status.

"It's a pity that the spiritual energy in the innate furnace can't be directly converted into pills. Otherwise, even if I can't refine high-grade pills, I'm sure I can still impress the elders who are responsible for judging the quality of pills... and even impress Luo Tan."

In the alchemy room, Mu Zhian gazed at the cauldron before him and murmured to himself, feeling a pang of regret.

But then, he quickly thought of something else and muttered to himself, "Although I can't actively use the spiritual energy in the Natural Furnace, my own furnace now contains the same Heavenly Court spiritual energy. Although it's two or three times weaker than the Natural Furnace's spiritual energy, with the help of refining pills, the quality will definitely be top-notch..."

It should be noted that the spiritual energy in the Heavenly Court is extremely special; even absorbing just a portion of it is enough to break through one's own bottleneck.

However, the path to immortality has never been clear, and in addition, one needs to meet the conditions of the Heavenly Court to absorb its spiritual energy.

These conditions are far too stringent. The first requirement—that one must be at the Dao Integration Realm to enter—already filters out 99% of the cultivators.

Apart from the fact that the Heavenly Court had given some spiritual energy to the disciples who participated in Ye Qingxin's cave assessment, there had been no other Heavenly Court spiritual energy in the Nine Provinces.

What would happen if this extremely rich celestial spiritual energy were injected into the refining of pills?

Mu Zhian's gaze fell upon the cauldron in front of him.

Inside the cauldron, a pale white pill was suspended in mid-air.

This is a second-grade elixir, the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill.

Those who take this pill can recover from minor injuries within a day.

If one were to use this Lesser Rejuvenation Pill as the entry for the competition, it would naturally be far inferior.

Mu Zhian closed his eyes slightly, held his breath and concentrated. The extremely rich spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court in the Natural Furnace emitted a faint colorful glow, and quietly flowed into the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill as Mu Zhian operated the furnace.

Click.

A soft cracking sound was heard, followed by countless cracks appearing on the surface of the Lesser Rejuvenating Pill.

Then, with a 'bang,' the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill shattered completely.

"As expected, it won't work... Ordinary pills are completely unable to withstand the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court." Mu Zhian sighed softly.

But then, after a brief moment of reflection, he muttered to himself, "If I were to discard the medicinal properties of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill and merely strengthen its hardness, I wonder if it could withstand the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court...?"

With this in mind, Mu Zhian quickly took out another batch of ingredients for the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill from his storage ring, and then took out a Huangji Root.

According to the jade slip he crushed not long ago, although Huangji Root is a medicinal herb, it is usually used to decorate weapons, making them indestructible.

Under normal circumstances, the Imperial Root is not needed to refine any elixir.

Mu Zhian turned the cauldron around again, using his own spiritual sense to condense the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill, and then put the Imperial Root into the cauldron.

Nearly half an hour later, the Imperial Root completely covered the surface of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill, turning the originally pale white pill into a deep silver color.

Mu Zhian activated the Heavenly Court spiritual energy within his body and carefully infused it into the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill.

After an incense stick's time, the deep silver color on the surface of the Little Rejuvenating Pill began to subtly change, transforming from its original silver to a faint color.

An incredibly rich aroma of medicine, mixed with the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court, filled the entire alchemy room.

Mu Zhian dared not relax in the slightest, maintaining the flow of spiritual energy from the Heavenly Court.

Half an hour later, the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill was finally fully formed, and Mu Zhian breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, took the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill out of the cauldron, and put it into his mouth.

The rich spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court filled his entire body almost instantly, and then a thunderclap resounded in the sky.

Breakthrough at the bottleneck of the fourth rank of Refining Spirit!

"It really works! This Lesser Rejuvenation Pill is essentially transformed by the Heavenly Court's spiritual energy, and it has a beneficial effect on cultivators below the Enlightenment Realm!"

Mu Zhian was quite pleasantly surprised. He looked at the cauldron that had cracked due to its inability to withstand the spiritual energy of the Heavenly Court and a funny smile appeared on his face.

If that's the case, then it doesn't seem to matter what rank of alchemist I am...

……

For the next day, Mu Zhian spent the entire time in the alchemy room conducting repeated experiments. He also confirmed that no matter what kind of pill he was refining, as long as the Imperial Root was added, it would become indestructible. Furthermore, if the Heavenly Court's spiritual energy was added, any pill would change and become a special pill containing the Heavenly Court's spiritual energy.

Before they knew it, the day of the alchemy competition had arrived.

Mu Zhian woke up alone in the room, yawned lazily, and got out of bed to change.

"Brother Mu, are you all better yet?"

Ye Lingxuan's voice came from outside. Mu Zhian hummed in response, pushed open the door, and saw the classically beautiful woman.

Her delicate figure was draped in an elaborate and gorgeous long dress, her hair was neatly combed with hairpins, and she wore a pair of small embroidered shoes, which outlined the graceful beauty of a young girl in the prime of her youth.