During this period, she had refined all the first-grade elixirs that she could refine. All kinds of elixirs were piled up into a small mountain, and even Bai Xiaoshi would go take a few pills from time to time when he had nothing to do.
She could be considered a skilled first-grade alchemist. Now she wanted to advance to refining the second-grade Beauty Elixir. Still using one hundred parts of medicinal materials.
The spiritual herbs and flowers needed for the Beauty Elixir consisted of more than thirty kinds, almost twice as much as the first-grade elixirs.
After carefully memorizing the pill formula, she started working.
The medicinal materials were added in one by one, everything was added, it seemed to go smoothly.
But when it came to the melting step, there was a gurgling sound of big bubbles coming from the furnace, and it was particularly loud.
She thought that maybe the fire was too big, and she had just wanted to turn the fire down a bit, when suddenly the furnace started spewing smoke rapidly, Jiang Yuqing was startled, and subconsciously ran out.
Just as she turned around, there was a huge boom behind her, deafening. The whole elixir tripod instantly flew into the sky, Jiang Yuqing was shocked and threw herself on the ground.
Unexpectedly, after flipping twice in the air, the tripod made a loud clang as it fell down, and happened to trap her inside!
"......" Jiang Yuqing's mind buzzed, her ears were full of echoes. Physical attacks could be blocked, but magic damage was truly unavoidable. She was really going to lose her life this time.
By the time Jiang Yuqing staggered out with stars in her eyes, covered in all kinds of debris and murky green waste liquid, pushing open the elixir tripod with difficulty, Bai Xiaoshi was already laughing wildly on the ground.
All four hooves were spread out characteristically, unable to stand up at all, his tail swung wildly, fur flying everywhere.
His mouth made a strange laugh, "hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw haw haw", a perfectly fine deer laughed like a donkey.
"Others are refining pills, you, hee-haw hee-haw, do you want to refine yourself?" Even when laughing like this he still didn't forget to mock her.
Jiang Yuqing ground her back molars, determined to teach this disrespectful little spirit beast a lesson.
So she pounced on it directly, hugging its handsome deer head and rubbing it violently, smearing it all over with smelly debris and sticky liquid.
The fastidious spirit beast let out a pig-slaughtering scream, suddenly feeling like the whole deer was not clean.
After the Lord let out her anger, her whole body felt relaxed. Forking her waist, she hahaha laughed loudly: "Let you laugh at me! If you dare to laugh at me again, I will let you know what it means to share hardships!"
This threat worked well, Bai Xiaoshi was actually...not that honest.
He didn't dare to laugh in front of you, but could this treasure still not hide and laugh?
Listen, the constant "bang bang bang" sound, if you knew she was refining pills you wouldn't know she was blasting the mountain.
The sound was so loud that even the house was shaking! She might as well be called Jiang.Blast.Furnace.Yuqing. Or call her "Blast Furnace Alchemist", hee-haw hee-haw.
With this talent, it would be thanks to the good quality of the Dragon Flame Cauldron, if it was another cauldron it would have been blasted into scraps long ago.
Speaking of which, she can really stand the explosions, her hair was blasted into a lion's mane.
Oh\(≧∇≦)O——it's even smoking, usually only ancestral graves spew green smoke, she can make herself spew smoke, that's really amazing. Lu Shu can't compare, just can't compare...
Jiang Yuqing blasted furnaces busily, while Bai Xiaoshi mocked busily.
After 13 consecutive failures, ruining 7 sets of clothes, Jiang Yuqing finally refined the first Beauty Elixir pill, although it was only low-grade, it was still enough to make Jiang Yuqing bloom with joy.
This damn second-grade elixir, the difficulty was at least 10 times that of first-grade.
It was just an elixir formula, without any precautions or experience tips, forcing her to explore over and over again, she almost developed psychological shadows from the explosions.
Fortunately, hard work pays off, she finally managed to refine it successfully.
After succeeding the first pill and finding the knack, subsequent pills became much easier. Although there would still be occasional explosions of one or two furnaces, the success rate was still much higher. After refining 100 parts of medicinal materials, there were a total of 41 pills.
Among them, 11 lower-grade, 11 medium-grade, and 19 top-grade. The lower-grade elixirs could maintain appearance for 3 years without change, medium-grade could maintain for 6 years without change, and top-grade could maintain for 10 years without change.
Jiang Yuqing decided to give one top-grade pill to her mother and two aunts each, and one pill each to her 7 sisters-in-law (including future ones).
She would also give one pill each to her grandmother and aunt, one to the Empress, one to Second Master's wife, and one to Third Master's wife.
It was a pity that Eldest Master's wife passed away early, otherwise she could have kept one pill for her too.
That added up to 16 pills, with 3 surplus pills left. Jiang Yuqing decided to first auction off the 3 surplus pills, one low-grade, medium-grade and top-grade each. Rarity determined value!
She would slowly release more later depending on the situation!
After organizing the elixirs, Jiang Yuqing returned to the medicine garden, plucked a string of loquats and sat by the spiritual spring to peel and eat them. She inadvertently looked up and found that the scale on the merit stele had risen by another large section.
She immediately got up to check the jade bowl on top of the stele. She discovered that there was actually a shallow layer of spiritual milk that had condensed inside, at least twenty or so drops.
Each drop of this spiritual milk could increase a mortal's lifespan by ten years. Cultivators could directly take it to directly improve their cultivation level, and it could also be used to refine life-extending pills. It was an absolute heavenly treasure.
Jiang Yuqing was extremely excited and asked Bai Xiaoshi what had happened.
Bai Xiaoshi said: "You took out several kinds of high-yield grains, saving countless commoners. You also donate so many supplies to the military camp every year, helped build the memorial monument, funded orphanages, built farms to settle disabled soldiers, and so on. These virtuous deeds have accumulated into great merit.
The more faith power you have, the thicker your merit will be, so naturally, the more spiritual milk the spiritual spring will condense."
Jiang Yuqing hugged Bai Xiaoshi tightly and kissed him hard, "That's so great. Xiaoshi, thank you!"
Bai Xiaoshi was uncharacteristically a little embarrassed, and said arrogantly: "Cough, it's pretty good I guess!"
Jiang Yuqing took ten drops from the middle, drank them in one go, and sat down to meditate by the spiritual spring.
Three days later, the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly rushed madly into her body. She gathered this spiritual energy into a sharp spear, and fiercely stabbed at an invisible barrier. With a "pop", the barrier shattered with a cry.
Then the spiritual energy rushing in from outside also formed a whirlpool, quickly pouring into her body. She concentrated her mind, compressed this spiritual energy into spiritual fluid, and guided it into her dantian.
After running the exercises for thirty-six weeks, the spiritual fluid finally stabilized in the dantian. She had actually directly broken through to the fourth layer of Foundation Building in one go.
In the path of cultivation, the more advanced one becomes, the more spiritual energy is needed, and the harder it is to advance.
She had only just advanced to the second layer of Foundation Building last year. To jump two small realms in such a short time and advance to the mid Foundation Building stage, the potency of the spiritual milk really came as a pleasant surprise.
This spiritual milk really was a great treasure.
Jiang Yuqing decided that in order to obtain spiritual milk in the future, she must do more good deeds from now on.
Early next morning, Jiang Yuqing stuffed an American ginseng Beauty Elixir pill into her mother's mouth.
Over the next two days, Lu's skin visibly became smooth and fair, and the fine lines on her face completely disappeared. Her condition looked even better than when she first got married.
When Lu turned her rippling eyes, she even made Jiang Wenyuan fall deep into them, holding his wife's charming face, he looked at her tenderly and said: “Wanniang, why do I feel that you look much younger than before recently, as if when we first married."
Lu happily said: “You noticed it too? It was given to me by my good daughter. She gave me the Beauty Elixir she refined with spiritual herbs and flowers from the Immortal World. She said one pill can maintain appearance for ten years without change."
Jiang Wenyuan said: "No wonder!" He thought for a moment and touched his own face: "You look so young and beautiful now, won't I look very old when standing next to you?"
Lu glared at him, then looked at her husband infatuatedly again: “No, in my eyes, you will always be the most handsome!"
Jiang Wenyuan was successfully soothed by his wife. Feeling wonderful, he tidied up and went to the government office.
That day after breakfast, Jiang Yuqing took Lu with her into the palace. As soon as Empress Qin saw Lu’s condition, she was immediately shocked.
Although Lu’s appearance had always been beautiful, she had only looked slightly younger than her peers.
Yet in such a short time, it was as if she had become a different person, suddenly looking ten years younger, her face smooth and tight like a seventeen or eighteen year old girl.
Loving beauty was a woman’s nature, even for an empress it was the same. Empress Qin immediately asked what kind of miraculous elixir she had taken.
Jiang Yuqing took out an embroidered box. As soon as she opened the lid, a very pleasant aroma wafted out that was different from any other expensive fragrance she had used before. It was wonderfully beautiful and comfortable beyond words.
Jiang Yuqing said, "This is Beauty Pill! My mother ate this."
"Beauty Pill?"
"Yes!" Jiang Yuqing explained, "The medicinal materials are extremely rare, all heavenly treasures. I collected them for years, in addition to my master's collection, putting my heart and soul into finally refining this pill. At present, there are only a few pills total.
Even among these few pills, they are of different grades - top grade, middle grade, and low grade. Although they can all nourish skin and beauty, the duration of efficacy is different.
The low grade can maintain appearance for three years unchanged, the middle grade for six years, and the top grade for ten years. My mother ate the top grade. The pill in this box is also top grade! Generally speaking, you can see obvious effects three days after taking it."
Empress Qin did not hesitate and popped the pill into her mouth. The pill was the size of a fingertip yet dissolved as soon as it entered her mouth, leaving only the full scent of flowers. It slid down her throat, permeating her internal organs.
This feeling was indescribably wonderful and comfortable.
Jiang Yuqing was startled at first, then exclaimed in surprise, "Is Her Majesty not afraid that this pill might be poisonous?"
Empress Qin laughed, "With your abilities, if you wanted to harm me it would be easy, so how could you be so blatant as to leave yourself vulnerable!"
There were some things outsiders did not know about, but she knew a little. For example, she had another true master with extraordinary abilities.
Jiang Yuqing also laughed, "Thank you for Her Majesty's trust. I surely won't disappoint you.
Frankly, I still have a few more of these pills on hand. I was planning in a few days to take them to Baoyue Auction House, but I was afraid they wouldn't believe me, so I used Your Majesty to make a big fuss about them!"
Hearing the music, one knows the elegant meaning.
Empress Qin was in a very good mood. She waved her hand grandly, "This Empress approves! After a couple days of seeing the effects, I will invite some madams into the palace for tea."
Jiang Yuqing was overjoyed, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The next day when Empress Qin got up to wash, her personal maid was shocked to find her mistress’s skin had improved a lot overnight.
Although the Empress maintained herself well, after all she was getting on in years, and one could still faintly see some fine lines on her skin.
Yet after a night, those fine lines were gone. That pill really was powerful. Empress Qin stroked her face, clearly tighter, but just smiled silently.
Two days later, Empress Qin was better by the day. Not only was all her skin tight and delicate, her face was fair beyond words, still flushed with a faint natural glow, fully like a young girl in her prime.
Standing together with her son Jingyan, they didn’t look like mother and son but more like sister and younger brother. This made Emperor Xia Jing’s eyes pop out! He spent several nights in Jiaofang Palace in a row!
Empress Qin was very satisfied. As promised, she picked a sunny and warm day and held a small tea gathering in Jiaofang Palace, inviting many noblewomen into the palace for tea.
The noblewomen who attended were shocked and envious to see the astounding transformations of Madam Jiang and Empress Qin, and they hurried to ask what beauty secrets they had.
Then Empress Qin happily let slip that she had eaten Beauty Pill, which she obtained from Princess Jiang.
Under the noblewomen’s repeated questioning, Lu had “no choice” but to “reluctantly” reveal that her daughter had come upon only a few pills serendipitously.
She herself ate one, Empress Qin ate one, and the remaining three were sent to the auction house. They would possibly be auctioned off at this year’s final auction on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.
Disappointed, the noblewomen secretly swore they must obtain those remaining pills.
So when they returned home from the palace, they began taking stock of their own assets while having their servants keep a close eye on Baoyue Auction House for any updates to immediately report back.
In just two days, the noblewomen indeed saw news of the Beauty Pills in the auction catalog Baoyue Pavilion had sent out.
At the same time, word of the Beauty Pills quickly spread throughout the capital. Not only the aristocracy knew, but madams of rich merchant families also received the news.
For a time, the women were rubbing their palms, each wanting to collect such a treasure.
