Second level, Four Seas Building.

Xiao Ruyan lightly bit her lip; the tips of her hair carrying sweat beads about to drip at any moment as she had a very strained look.

With a puff, a cloud of green smoke appeared in the medicinal cauldron. Evidently, a furnace of useless pills was refined.

"Why? Where is the problem?!"

Xiao Ruyan used the back of her hands to wipe away the sweat on her forehead as she looked restless with anxiety.

"Second Miss, better not force it. This Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill has already been confirmed as a medicinal pill that cannot be refined. Even Family Head can't refine it. Second Miss . . ." Manager Tong consoled her by the side.

Xiao Ruyan's eyes welled up with tears, but it stubbornly refused to flow out.

"Since this Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill was handed down, it's impossible that it can't be refined! There must be something wrong! I'll try again! I can definitely refine it!" Xiao Ruyan said obstinately.

Manager Tong heaved a sigh and said, "I know that Second Miss wish to let First Young Master's body recover before the Grand Pill a.s.sembly begins. But Second Miss, if your own soul force is overdrawn in these two days, wouldn't that affect the overall situation even more?"

"Humph! Didn't that Ji Qing say that he can take on three by himself? Let him go alone then!" Xiao Ruyan was not swayed but pointed the spearhead at Ye Yuan instead.

Evidently, Ye Yuan's jesting action made her very displeased.

"Miss Ruyan, can I presume that you're praising me?" Ye Yuan's voice suddenly sounded out.

Xiao Ruyan saw Ye Yuan, and she became even more incensed and said huffily, "Your skin is really thick! A punk that doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. Do you know how strong Tong Yongchang's strength is? Don't think that there's anything impressive about you refining a Jade Dragon Heart Calming Pill. When you're in front of Tong Yongchang, you're nothing!"

Ye Yuan shrugged and said, "The Tong Yongchang that Miss Ruyan is talking about is the Quasi-Alchemy King known as the Tong Family's junior generation's number one genius, right? How about this? During the Grand Pill a.s.sembly, I'll handle him and leave the rest to you all. How does Miss Ruyan feel?"

"Leave to you? Truly overrating your own abilities! Enough c.r.a.p! Don't hinder me refining pills!"

Xiao Ruyan already completely lost patience with Ye Yuan's arrogance. She did not have time to bicker here.

A middle-rank Alchemy Grandmaster dealing with a Quasi-Alchemy King?

Was this insulting people's intelligence?

"Oh? So, Miss Ruyan is currently refining pills huh. Then I'll have to learn well by the side!" Ye Yuan suddenly became interested.

He also really wanted to know what kind of standard this Xiao Ruyan was at.

20 years of age was merely around the same as Nanfeng Ruoqing, but her strength was a full major realm higher than Nanfeng Ruoqing.

While there was the support of the Xiao Family in-between this, Xiao Ruyan's monstrousness need not be mentioned.

The Huang and Xue Family taking fancy on Xiao Ruyan were most likely not just because she was one of the two beauties in the capital, but probably because of her unlimited potential in the Alchemy Path.

To marry a future Quasi-Alchemy King, maybe even Alchemy King back home, this deal was worthwhile no matter how one looked at it.

But Xiao Ruyan did not buy it. "Stay far away from me!"

Ye Yuan curled his mouth and said, "Do you think that I want to curry favor with you? Isn't it still because that old man of yours asked me to interact more with you, saying that it can improve everybody's alchemy standards. Honestly, I'm unwilling to do so. My level is so high; what if you secretly learn from me?"

Xiao Ruyan nearly spewed out a mouthful of blood.

Your level was high? How high?

Refined a Tier 3 high-grade medicinal pill and you really think that you're invincible?

Do you have shame or not?!

Xiao Ruyan confirmed with Manager Tong's opinion. Seeing Manager Tong nod his head slightly, she knew that the first half of what Ye Yuan said was true.

Since it was Lord Father who made him come, then it was not good to chase him out.

"Stay at one side and watch properly! Don't interfere with my refining! If you ruin my furnace of medicinal pills, see how I take care of you!" Xiao Ruyan warned.

As for the latter half of Ye Yuan's words, she chose to directly ignore it.

Her old man was an Alchemy King. Did she need to secretly learn from Ye Yuan?

After saying this, Xiao Ruyan began refining the Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill once more.

This Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill's refinement was extremely challenging. Not only did it have a humongous expenditure on soul force, but it was also an immense burden on the alchemist's essence energy.

Xiao Ruyan already refined two furnaces of useless pills prior to this. Hence, not long after this refinement started, she appeared to be struggling very hard.

But it was as if Xiao Ruyan was at loggerheads with herself; gritting her teeth hard and persevering.

Ye Yuan watched Xiao Ruyan calmly. With his vision, he could naturally see through Xiao Ruyan's depth.

Although it was just this short while, Ye Yuan was also able to see that Xiao Ruyan's foundation was rather solid.

Even under a situation where the expenditure was so huge, not the slightest bit of error appeared in her refining.

Just from this aspect, Xiao Ruyan was a qualified alchemist.

Though they were both high-rank Alchemy Grandmaster Realm, Xiao Ruyan was way stronger compared to Qiu Zhi and the like.

But very soon Ye Yuan discovered some problems appeared in Xiao Ruyan's refinement.

The control of fire was of utmost importance to the refinement of the Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill. One needed to continuously control the changes in temperature of the medicinal cauldron to adapt to the medicinal pill's transformation.

But Xiao Ruyan's refinement did not have such changes. The medicinal cauldron's temperature was consistent from beginning to end.

Even if her refining technique was not wrong, due to the control of the medicinal pill's temperature being lacking, she simply could not refine the pill either.

"Miss Ruyan, do you think that if this medicinal pill was refined this way, it would be a little better?" Ye Yuan suddenly interjected.

At the same time as he spoke, Ye Yuan already fired out a seal, submerging into the medicinal cauldron.

Xiao Ruyan was currently fully engrossed in the refining. Having the procedure being disordered by this seal that arrived unexpectedly, she instantly had an impulse to kill Ye Yuan.

But the Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill was already being refined. Giving up at this time would cause everything to fall short of final completion. She could only forcefully suppress the fury in her heart and glare viciously at Ye Yuan.

Ye Yuan stuck out his tongue to show his innocence and retreated to one side embarra.s.sedly.

But right at this moment, Xiao Ruyan's expression changed! Because she discovered that being disrupted by Ye Yuan, not only was the medicinal pill was damaged, it became even more solidified instead!

Xiao Ruyan clearly remembered that during the refinement previously, it seemed like she would lose total control over the medicinal pill at this time. Why did it have signs of the pill forming instead this time?

Xiao Ruyan unwittingly recalled that scene earlier. When that seal of Ye Yuan's. .h.i.t over, it did not seem to have any change towards the medicinal pill, but rather . . . it seemed to have offset a portion of her essence energy!

It was precisely because this portion of essence energy was canceled off that it seemed to have made some changes happen to the cauldron's temperature.

Could it be that . . . when refining the Vast Tuber Essence Stimulating Pill, one needed to grasp the cauldron temperature at all times according to the process of the medicinal pill's refinement?

This discovery made Xiao Ruyan pleasantly surprised!

She started to experiment with increasing or decreasing a portion of essence energy to control the temperature of the medicinal cauldron.

Grasping the temperature of the cauldron was an alchemist's basic skill. But those able to truly grasp the cauldron temperature well were very rare.

Just a short while pa.s.sed, and Xiao Ruyan was already drenched in sweat.