Zhou Lihua sat before her cauldron, which came up to about her waist when she stood up. It came almost up to her head while sitting. He’d never actually seen an alchemist’s cauldron until yesterday, so he had no idea they were so large.

“Do you know how alchemy works?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“You explained a little to me before. You refine ingredients into a pill shape. But I don’t know much more than that.”

“That’s only the basics. Alchemy requires two elements to refine pills. The first is fire. We use fire to break down each ingredient and refine it into a liquid form. Of course, fire on its own does nothing but burn. If we used only fire, we’d simply reduce our ingredients to ashes. That’s where the wood element comes in. The wood element acts as a catalyst during the refining process and protects the ingredients. Of course, the predominant element needed is still fire.”

The cauldron was a deep brown like burnished copper. Zhou Lihua waved her hand, and a wave of energy similar to but different from chi erupted from her palm like an invisible ripple spreading through the air. It reached the cauldron. The lid opened seemingly on its own.

Situated around Zhou Lihua were a variety of different ingredients stored in glass vials with seals over them. These vials kept the ingredients fresh. Wu Jian did not know what kind of ingredients they were. Some looked like vines or roots, but others were clearly magical beast cores, and still some were flowers.

“What are you going to make?” asked Wu Jian.

I’m going to make a 3rd Tier Pill: Meridian Opening Pill. This is a pill that opens the meridians, allowing chi to flow more easily through them. On its own, this pill doesn’t do much, but it allows you to accept more chi into your dantian. While you’re cultivating, you can absorb more chi from Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills and increase your cultivation two times faster than normal.”

“That does sound incredibly useful,” Wu Jian added. “I’d love to get my hands on one of those.”

Zhou Lihua grinned. “I’ll make you some once I’ve made enough to sell. I’m also going to try my hand at refining Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills.” She bit her lip. “Up to now, my success rate with Meridian Opening Pills has been less than one out of ten--and I have had no success with Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills, even though Master Wong Jiu says I have the talent to refine both with ease. I’m hoping that your presence here will help me refine each pill as needed.”

“Don’t worry. I know you can do this.”

“Hee-hee. Thank you.”

Zhou Lihua closed her eyes, took a deep breath, held it, then released it. She did this again. It looked like she was trying to center herself.

Wu Jian held his breath as the moments passed. When Zhou Lihua finally opened her eyes, the first thing she did was grab a vine of some sort. It was silver instead of green. She tossed it into the cauldron, waving her hand to close the lid, then made a hand seal.

It was the pig seal.

Zhou Lihua inhaled a deep breath, then opened her mouth and exhaled flames. The flames flew underneath the cauldron and there they remained. Zhou Lihua changed her hands into a rabbit seal. The flames warped, becoming smaller and more concentrated. She changed her hand one more time into a dragon seal, and the heat from the flames intensified.

The cauldron had turned a deep red near the bottom where the flames burned, and the color gradieted upward into lighter shades. Wu Jian could only imagine how hot it was inside of that cauldron. He wanted to use his perception to sense what was happening inside of the cauldron, but he dared not for fear that it would break Zhou Lihua’s concentration.

Sixty seconds passed. Then Zhou Lihua waved her hand, the lid open, and she tossed in another ingredient. It was a flower this time. He had seen the blue petals before it was tossed inside and the lid closed.

Wu Jian had no idea how much time had passed, but fifteen ingredients were eventually tossed inside of the cauldron. Zhou Lihua had explained the process to him. She was individually refining each ingredient. Once one ingredient had been refined, she protected it with her chi, then added another ingredient.

Some alchemists could refine multiple ingredients at the same time, and it was supposedly a standard practice at the higher tiers, when pills used hundreds or even thousands of ingredients, but Zhou Lihua was afraid of burning her ingredients.

Each ingredient required a different temperature to properly refine. If the flames were too weak, the ingredients would simply dry out and shrivel up, but if they were too strong, they would burn into ash. Controlling your flames and adjusting the temperature as needed was one of the basic tenants to refining ingredients.

This was another reason Zhou Lihua didn’t refine multiple ingredients. She was still learning how to judge what temperature each ingredient needed, and splitting her mind in multiple directions made that harder.

Sweat formed on Zhou Lihua’s forehead and her fingers trembled as she shifted her hands from an ox seal into a tiger seal. A whirlwind of energy seemed to erupt from the cauldron. Wu Jian nearly yelled in shock, but he clamped down, aware that any noise on his part could cause the woman’s concentration to slip. The cauldron soon settled down, and Zhou Lihua wiped the sweat from her brow.

“There. It’s finished.”

She waved her hand, and the lid flipped open as a pill flew out and came to rest on her palm. It was a light silvery color, though it seemed a tad dull.

“This is the Meridian Opening Pill?” asked Wu Jian.

“It is. Would you like to see it?” asked Zhou Lihua, holding the pill out to him.

He walked over, sat down, and grabbed the pill. Rolling it between his hand, he studied it. Wu Jian wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He knew very little about alchemy pills.

“Is it supposed to have these bumps?” he asked.

Zhou Lihua smiled bitterly and shook her head. “It’s not. The bumps are a sign that this is a low-grade pill. Each pill is graded on how pure it is. These bumps and the dullness of the pill is a sign that mine is low-grade. A middle-grade pill will have fewer bumps and a brighter shell. High-grade pills have almost no bumps and are so bright they shine. There’s also supposedly a perfect-grade where a pill forms veins on its surface, but I’ve never seen one of those before. It’s a mere legend amongst alchemists, as far as I am aware.”

“So this is a low-grade pill because it has a lot of contaminants in it?” asked Wu Jian.

“Basically.” Zhou Lihua took the pill back from him. “Ingredients are never inherently pure. Part of the refinement process involves burning the impurities. This is another reason why it is so important to get the perfect temperature for each ingredient. If the heat is too low, it won’t burn all the impurities away. Too high and it burns the pure medicinal essence along with the impurities.”

“It must be hard to judge how hot your flames need to be for each ingredient,” Wu Jian mumbled.

“It is, but discovering this is part of what makes alchemy so fun,” Zhou Lihua said.

“So you enjoy refining pills?”

“I do.”

“Then… do you want to try refining some more?”

“Yes!”

The smile Zhou Lihua gave him was bright enough to outshine the sun, moon, and all the stars in the night sky.

***

The first day, Zhou Lihua could only refine low-grade pills. She told him this was to be expected. In fact, she said that her alchemy was better than she expected because, up to this point, she had only been able to refine a pill one out of every ten times. She could now refine a pill ten out of ten times, which was a massive improvement from before.

Wu Jian visited Zhou Lihua every day to watch her refine pills, and every day, Zhou Lihua improved dramatically. She was able to refine mid-grade pills on the second day. Not only did she refine middle-grade pills after just one day, but she was able to refine a pill seven out of ten times. That was above average.

These pills could also be sold. While Zhou Lihua refused to sell them for Hou Jingshu, having judged them to not be good enough for their purpose, she did hand them off to the Zhou Family. The panda-haired woman, Zhou Wen, was ecstatic when Zhou Lihua gave her almost one hundred middle-grade Meridian Opening Pills.

It was now Wu Jian’s third day of visiting Zhou Lihua, and the young alchemist had told him that she was determined to make a high-grade pill. He believed she could do it. He even said as much, which caused her to grin from ear to ear.

“Will you reward me if I do well?” she asked.

The request took him by surprise, but he nodded after thinking about it for a moment. “Sure. So long as it’s within my power.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Wu Jian took his normal seat several chih away, while Zhou Lihua sat before the cauldron. She seemed so much more confident now than she had before. The first day she had done this, she needed a moment to center herself. This time, she didn’t even hesitate to toss her ingredients into the fire. She actually tossed several into the fire, presumably because she planned to refine them at the same time.

Her cauldron exploded several seconds later.

“Ah…”

Wu Jian studied the young woman as she refused to turn his way. Her ears were bright red, and he assumed her face was an even deeper shade of scarlet.

“Looks like you got overconfident,” he observed.

“D-don’t remind me. I know I let my previous successes get to me. Ugh, I thought I could refine more than one ingredient at a time, but it looks like that is still out of my reach.”

Zhou Lihua grabbed the cauldron, set it outside her door, then went into an adjacent room and came back with another cauldron. Wu Jian observed her as she set it down.

“How many spare cauldrons do you have?”

“A few hundred…”

“That’s a lot.”

Zhou Lihua said nothing, but she didn’t have to. Wu Jian understood. This was not the first, second, third, or even tenth time a cauldron had exploded while she was refining pills. How common of an occurrence did this have to be that her family had decided to provide her with over a hundred spares?

No more words were said as Zhou Lihua went back to work. Her concentration this time was far more intense. She opened the lid, tossed an ingredient inside, closed the lid, and formed a hand seal. It seemed she had learned her lesson from her earlier overconfidence and was now unwilling to let hubris get in her way.

I’ve watched her refine pills all day for the past two days. You’d think I would get bored of it. All I’m doing is sitting here while she stares at a cauldron, but I feel like I could watch her forever.

There was something captivating about Zhou Lihua while she was performing alchemy. Her every movement defined grace and elegance. Her concentration was honed into a fine point like a blade as she peered through the cauldron’s surface and into its depths. Ripples of chi emerged from her as she adjusted the heat of her flames accordingly.

It used to take her nearly an hour to refine a single pill, but it only took her about ten minutes this time, and the pill that emerged this time was a bright silver with no visible blemishes. Zhou Lihua stared at the pill in shock. Then she broke out into a bright smile.

“I did it! Look at this, Jian! It’s a high-grade pill!”

“Congratulations! That’s amazing! It looks so clear! It’s beautiful!”

Wu Jian was as excited as if he was the one who had refined the pill. He had watched her every day, so he understood how difficult pill refinement was now. It was amazing that she could increase her alchemy this far in just three days. Of course, Wu Jian knew she already had the talent for it, but the slump she had been trapped in had prevented that talent from growing.

“This pill is good enough to sell,” Zhou Lihua declared as she stored the pill in a lacquered box with several seals to preserve its freshness. “I’m going to refine several more though.”

“I’ll be right here watching you,” he said.

“Thank you. I’m gonna ask for my reward after I finish, okay?”

“Sure.”

He didn’t think she would ask for anything bad, so he just shrugged and agreed.

Zhou Lihua made forty more attempts and refined thirty-five high-grade pills. The rest were middle-grade. She did not destroy a single ingredient during the process, which was amazing in and of itself. Most alchemists would burn at least one set of ingredients during the refinement. That was why any cultivator coming to an alchemist needed to present at least three sets of ingredients. Even then, successfully refining a pill was not guaranteed.

As the sun reached a peak, Zhou Lihua stood up with a satisfied sigh. Several lacquered boxes, each with a high-grade Meridian Opening Pill, sat on a table near the wall.

“I think I’m done for today, so now it’s time for my reward,” she said, turning to him.

He chuckled. “All right. What would you like from me.”

“Come here.”

She grabbed his hand, led him to the bed, and pushed him down. He blinked. Then he blushed.

“Lihua, I don’t think…”

“Shush. I’m gonna ask you to take my virginity or anything.” Zhou Lihua narrowed her eyes as she climbed onto the bed. “Though I will admit, I am not pleased that you and Jingshu have already had sex.”

“How did you know?!”

She rolled her eyes at his surprise. “Oh, please. Anyone who’s got a pair of eyes can tell. Jingshu has been glowing ever since she arrived home. Any woman would recognize it. It’s a glow that women only get after they’ve slept with the man they love.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, we cannot do that right now. Purity is a big thing in the Zhou Clan, and they have been checking every day after you leave to make sure I’ve remained pure.”

“I know purity is important, but I do not know why,” Wu Jian confessed.

“It’s because of our pure essence. Men are composed primarily of yang and women of yin. Each person has a Pure Yin Essence or Pure Yang Essence depending on their sex. This essence comes with many benefits for cultivators. The person you first sleep with will gain the most benefits from sleeping with you by claiming your pure essence for themselves. This is just one reason remaining pure is important. Among powerful families like my own, it is also considered an honor for a woman to give away her Pure Yin Essence to the man she marries.”

That explained a lot. Like why his cultivation rose after he slept with Hou Jingshu, and why her cultivation also rose. They had given each other their pure essence.

“I understand now. Should Jingshu and I be worried about this?”

Zhou Lihua shook her head. “If Emperor Hou Jun was not bedridden, you might. But no one is going to worry about it at this stage. You should be safe.”

“Okay. I get it now. So… my reward to you is… what? Me lying here?”

“No, you goof.”

“Then what should I be doing?”

Zhou Lihua didn’t respond right away. She instead laid down right beside him and snuggled up until they were pressed together. She curled her legs around his, placed a hand on his chest, and rested her head against his shoulder.

“I want you to hold me,” she declared.

“Oh. Well, that is something I can do,” Wu Jian said as he wrapped an arm around her and placed his other hand over the one she had rested on his chest.

They would remain like that until the very rude Zhou Wen knocked on the door. Wu Jian decided then and there that he did not like that woman. Not at all.