Yi Zuojun appeared in front of the main hall, a smile on his face indicating he was in a very good mood.
"If you ever let those two little ones adapt to nuclear conditions by taking medicine again, I'll skin you alive!"
Lin Yao's eyes widened, his brows furrowed in a stern expression, which startled Yi Zuojun, instantly shattering his good mood.
"It's not my business. It was Elder Gong who arranged it. He might have been provoked and wants to advance to the Heavenly Rank. Isn't he just trying to flatter the young master?" Yi Zuojun thought to himself, but dared not say it aloud. He could only swallow his anger and respectfully reply, "Yes," before continuing to wait with his head down for everyone to go eat.
“Lili and Nannan are not eating, they like to eat Dandan. These past two days we have been feeding them ‘Bigu Dan’ and skipping meals.”
Lin Yao was still angry. He glanced at the two children's annoyingly weak posture one last time, turned around, and left with a flick of his hand. The two little ones and Yi Zuojun stared at each other for a long time, not coming back to their senses. After a while, they burst into tears. They knew they had angered Lin Yao. They no longer felt the joy of being heroes. They felt like the sky was about to fall.
Eating "Bigu Pills"? That stuff is pointless. They see others eating with great relish, but they can't eat anything themselves. Although their stomachs are neither hungry nor full, they still need to have an appetite if their stomachs can handle it. So not letting them eat is a kind of punishment, but at the moment they don't value this punishment. They just hope that Lin Yao won't be angry with them.
Yi Zuojun dared not take the two sickly little ones to the dining room. He had to bear leaving them behind and go to the dining room to eat by himself, otherwise he would upset Lin Yao again.
Lin Yao disappeared at night and didn't return until almost noon the next day. Everyone sensed his unhappiness upon his return, even the Grand Elder Yi Potian used the excuse of consolidating his cultivation to go into seclusion and not appear. He didn't show up until mealtime. At this point, the clever Yi Zuojun wouldn't cause trouble. It was time to discipline the child; otherwise, with Elder Yi Gong's indulgence, who knows what kind of character he might turn into.
When Lin Yao returned to the hall after the meal, the two little ones had almost recovered and were howling at the top of their lungs, showing signs of getting stronger with each howl. Their tears had long since dried. Xiao Guli and Nannan were just howling like they were having a competition, having forgotten the original purpose and meaning of their howling.
"alright."
Lin Yao's tone was very soft and indifferent, but the effect was excellent. As soon as he finished speaking, the two little ones stopped making a sound, rolled off the sofa, and hugged his legs on either side, looking pitiful with pleading eyes.
"You can't eat for two days, you can only drink some water, there's no room for discussion on that." Lin Yao announced his decision. "You have to rely on your own abilities to resist the feeling of weakness, so that you can truly improve your personal abilities in the future and help your father, and, well, help your uncle."
"Um!"
The two little ones didn't say anything, but hummed in unison from their nostrils, very firmly, their little eyebrows furrowed, looking very sensible.
"Alright, I'm going into seclusion now. You know what seclusion is, right?"
Lin Yao immediately stated his purpose, and only after the two little ones nodded in unison did he continue, "You two must be good and obedient before I come out of seclusion, and you are not allowed to cause trouble! When the time comes, I will give an extra drop of nuclear power to whoever behaves better."
The matter was resolved so easily. After instructing Elder Yi Potian and the others, Lin Yao had Yi Zuojun move a large number of medicinal herbs from the storage room to the basement in case of emergency.
After everything was prepared, Lin Yao suddenly hesitated to try. He was afraid of failing, because that would mean losing a tremendous ability.
"Yaoyao..." Little Grass's voice rang out, "Let's begin, stop overthinking..."
Despite her words of advice, Xiaocao herself sounded conflicted. The pills Lin Yao had refined were not only of great value to others, but also a crucial asset in the duel with "Chen Ai," and they could not be lost under any circumstances.
"All right……"
Lin Yao sighed, all the joy of advancing to the Core Formation realm gone. His heart was filled with tension and worry, lacking any of the carefree spirit of a master. He stood silently in front of the cauldron for a long time before raising his arms and making a hand seal gesture.
A dazzling flash of electricity danced at Lin Yao's fingertips once more. The temperature in the basement instantly rose, and even the light seemed to suddenly become extremely bright.
Instead of immediately injecting the lightning into the cauldron, Lin Yao kept it at his fingertips. His hands moved swiftly like butterflies, and the lightning traced bright silver marks between his increasingly ethereal hands, making it look from a distance as if Lin Yao was holding a glittering sphere.
disease!
go!
With a loud bang, Lin Yao felt as if his head was being pierced by needles. The intense pain made him lose consciousness instantly. Only a massive amount of information rushed into his brain: inexplicable symbols, fantastical images, and disjointed chanting sounds like Sanskrit. He felt as if the whole world had suddenly disappeared, and he was surrounded by a fantasy world.
It felt like only a moment had passed, yet also like a thousand years had gone by. When Lin Yao regained his senses and awareness of the outside world, he suddenly found himself completely soaked in sweat, and the mottled cauldron was undergoing tremendous changes.
The rust disappeared, vanished into thin air, without being refined by the electric light. Lin Yao couldn't even sense any energy reaction from it. The large area of the cauldron that was still covered in rust became clean and smooth in the next moment, revealing its true appearance in large areas.
The matte, frosted surface, seemingly rough yet actually intricately detailed patterns and symbols, and the deep blue-gray color give it a profound feel. Through an inexplicable connection with the electric light, Lin Yao discovered that the internal space of the cauldron changes even more dramatically than the external space.
Unfamiliar patterns and symbols were arranged in a disorderly manner. Although he knew nothing about them, Lin Yao instinctively sensed that there were extremely complex array diagrams on the inner wall of the cauldron. These array diagrams were actually absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered by the leaping lightning. They absorbed as much as it came, leaving no excess spiritual energy behind, as if Lin Yao's hand seals could no longer gather spiritual energy.
"Little Grass..." Lin Yao had to multitask. He was completely confused about the situation, so it was better to discuss it according to the principle of "two heads are better than one."
"Don't ask me, I don't know, you continue."
Xiao Cao didn't rush to throw the medicinal herbs she had brought over into the cauldron. She knew that the right thing to do was to test the characteristics and control methods of the cauldron first. As for whether she could continue refining pills, there was no use being anxious at this time.
The moment Lin Yao unleashed the lightning, the little grass lost its mysterious connection with him. Although it was only for a brief instant, it certainly knew that something must have happened, otherwise Lin Yao wouldn't be drenched in sweat. It was just inconvenient to investigate the reason at that moment.
Lin Yao remained silent and could only continue printing the incantation. The amount of medical true energy he was consuming was negligible, and he could continue printing continuously. However, it was quite a difficult task to completely deplete the true energy in his body through the incantation.
It wasn't until Lin Yao performed the hand seals for the third time that Xiao Cao lost all expectation for the changes brought about by the lightning. By this time, the entire cauldron had undergone a complete transformation. Apart from its height and size, it was no longer recognizable as the rusty cauldron it once was. Instead, it had become an object that exuded mystery and majesty at first glance, like a prop enshrined in a temple, commanding respect.
Bright silver lightning still danced merrily inside the cauldron. Xiao Cao was certain of this by reaching out her tentacles to probe through the cauldron's opening at the top. The magical cauldron body prevented her from probing; her tentacles couldn't see through the thick cauldron to observe the inside. For the first time, Xiao Cao's senses were weaker than Lin Yao's, making her even more eager for the cauldron's effects.
"Little Grass, how long are we going to keep trying? Right now, the cauldron isn't doing anything except absorbing the spiritual energy gathered by the hand seals. Shouldn't you try putting in the medicinal herbs?"
Lin Yao was getting anxious. He was now stuck in a vicious cycle. The cauldron was only absorbing the gathered spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and nothing else was happening. He couldn't possibly keep printing incantations all night long. Besides, Lin Yao had an instinctive feeling that this absorption of spiritual energy would never end. Even if he was exhausted to the point of vomiting blood, the cauldron would probably continue to absorb spiritual energy without accepting anything, but there would still be no movement.
"All right……"
Xiao Cao didn't insist on her point of view. Lin Yao's understanding of the cauldron was obviously superior to hers, so she immediately rolled up two large bundles of medicinal materials for refining "White Cloud Pills" and threw them into the cauldron.
Just like last time, the herbs vanished with a hiss, without even a wisp of smoke.
"Sigh... This is so boring. This damn electric light is powerful, but it's completely useless. It's not even as good as the electric arc from the stun gun in the hands of a policeman. At least that can hit people. Yao Yao, your damn electric light is completely useless!"
While vehemently condemning the lightning that had devoured the pseudo-elixir fire, Xiaocao casually tossed another huge bundle of medicinal herbs that had just been rolled over into the cauldron. She thought that since these herbs couldn't be used for alchemy anyway, it would be troublesome to drag them out for disposal and they wouldn't fetch much money anyway. It would be better to just burn them. Burning them all would make it less unpleasant to look at.
"Huh..."
Xiao Cao suddenly stopped rolling up the medicinal herbs and shouted, "Yao Yao! Look, hasn't it changed? It seems like these herbs weren't burned completely, leaving some medicinal liquid behind, right?"
Lin Yao paused and carefully examined the internal space of the cauldron. Relying on his connection with the electric light, he indeed discovered that some gel-like or emulsion-like substances were floating inside the cauldron, unlike before when it was completely empty.
"Little Grass, it seems like it's refined something, and it's from different medicinal herbs." Lin Yao's tone was filled with surprise. "Shall we give it a try?"