JSCMU-Chapter 40: A Mature Furnace Should Learn to Refine Pills on Its Own

The scene once again fell into silence.

Lan Cen looked at Yue Zhao in a daze. “Has your junior sister always been this… unique?”

Yue Zhao looked even more dazed than she did. He asked very sincerely, “If I say right now that I actually don’t know her, would you believe me?”

“Eldest Senior Brother, do you still have any of those spiritual sunflower seeds you gave me last time? I’m almost out over here,” Yun Jin suddenly shouted.

Lan Cen stared silently at Yue Zhao.

Yue Zhao silently tossed over a bag of sunflower seeds, but he still held his ground and said, “She’s just yelling nonsense. I really don’t know her.”

Lan Cen nodded.

She believed him. Okay?

The furnace continued diligently refining the pills, while the spectators, with nothing else to do, could only watch Yun Jin munching on sunflower seeds.

She ate one after another, and, to be honest, they looked pretty tasty…

Yun Jin munched for a while and noticed everyone staring at her, especially Ming Heng.

And he wasn’t just looking.

In his eyes, there was confusion, anger, and even a murderous urge.

Yun Jin didn’t understand. She was just eating some sunflower seeds, was it really that offensive?

Seeing the continuous influx of Emotion Points, Yun Jin decided she had to keep munching. No way she was stopping now.

“You’re just going to sit there eating sunflower seeds?” Ming Heng said through gritted teeth.

Yun Jin blinked, then seemed to understand. 

She offered him a handful of seeds. “You seem kind of bored too, want some?”

Ming Heng took a deep breath and said through clenched teeth, “I meant, aren’t you going to control the alchemy flame?”

Technically, according to the rules, proctors weren’t allowed to give reminders during the assessment.

But Ming Heng really couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Throwing in herbs without preprocessing, arbitrarily omitting ingredients from the recipe. Any normal alchemist would be tense and focused during refinement, afraid that even one breath out of rhythm could ruin the whole batch.

And Yun Jin?

She just sat there munching sunflower seeds?!

Was she here to take the test, or to insult the entire profession of alchemy?

“Control?” Yun Jin said righteously. “No need. This furnace is pretty good, it can light itself. A mature alchemy furnace should be able to refine pills on its own. If an alchemist has to stare at it the entire time, how can that be considered a good furnace?”

Ming Heng liked to think of himself as someone with good self-restraint.

But right now, his chest was heaving. If not for the fact that the assessment was still underway, he probably would have hit her.

Through clenched teeth, Ming Heng said, “There is no such thing in this world as a furnace that refines pills on its own! If you keep this nonsense up, this batch will explode within a few breaths!”

Yun Jin heard this and began breathing deeply.

“What are you doing now?” Ming Heng growled, practically through his teeth.

Yun Jin looked a little aggrieved. “Master Ming, I’ve taken quite a few breaths already, but it hasn’t exploded.”

Ming Heng’s head was spinning. He opened his mouth and said, “That’s because…”

Because what?

Yun Jin looked at him intently, full of curiosity.

Ming Heng’s words got stuck in his throat.

Suddenly, he was stunned.

That’s right! She did everything wrong, and yet the furnace still hadn’t exploded?

He couldn’t help but turn to look.

The pill furnace spun diligently, and a faint medicinal fragrance had already begun to emerge from within.

Yun Jin asked, “Master Ming, what were you going to say?”

Master Ming’s eyes widened.

This…

How could this be possible?

The furnace was actually refining the pills on its own?

Had he gone insane?

Or had the furnace gone insane?

Or had the world gone insane?

Ming Heng’s gaze began to look unfocused.

He had studied bitterly for over a hundred years, and only then had he advanced to third rank alchemist. Yet at this moment, all the knowledge he had learned came crashing down.

“You… what exactly did you do?” Ming Heng couldn’t help but ask Yun Jin.

Yun Jin spread her hands. “What did I do? Everyone saw it with their own eyes.”

Ming Heng’s lips trembled.

It was true.

Every move Yun Jin made had been under everyone’s watchful gaze. She was just a Qi Refining Stage little girl. Under such scrutiny, there was no way she could’ve secretly done anything.

So now… was the furnace really refining pills on its own?

Impossible!

Ming Heng began to question reality.

Yun Jin sighed with emotion: “As expected, competing with yourself is worse than competing with the furnace. This furnace is just too dedicated.”

Ming Heng gritted his teeth. “The Dao of Alchemy is vast and profound. There must have been something that happened in the process we don’t understand.”

As he spoke, he began to mutter to himself: “Could it be that the true method of refining the Biling Pill is to discard the other ingredients and just use Biling Grass and Cleansing Liquid?”

He raised his eyes and stared hard at the furnace.

But it was still too soon to say anything.

The furnace hadn’t exploded yet.

But whether it would actually yield pills was another matter.

He refused to believe that such a crude and simplistic alchemy method could result in a real product.

As he continued to wait, however, the medicinal aroma only grew stronger and more concentrated, with no signs of failure.

Yun Jin remained as nonchalant as ever, lazily munching on sunflower seeds.

Ming Heng was now standing, not daring to even blink.

This medicinal fragrance seemed even richer than that of a normal Biling Pill. It spread outwards, soon filling the entire street.

The onlookers started to stir.

What was going on?

Could this chaotic, absurd method of pill refining actually produce results?

Everyone had clearly seen Yun Jin’s earlier process and could summarize it in just five words:

We could do this too!

If this worked, then couldn’t they all become alchemists?

“Brother, is this some kind of exclusive technique your junior sister developed?” Chen Changrong couldn’t help asking.

Yue Zhao: “…That… that might be possible.”

Chen Changrong also began to ponder.

If this pill truly formed, maybe he should try having someone test this new alchemy method too?

For now, they waited for the final result of the furnace.

Pills are typically divided into three grades: Normal, Refined, and Perfect.

The higher the quality, the more spiritual energy it contains, and the better the effect.

As long as it reached normal quality, the batch would be considered a success.

As for refined or perfect… Chen Changrong didn’t even dare to hope.

He had worked in the medicinal herb business for many years and knew more than the average person about alchemy. Even skilled alchemists often failed when refining pills. Especially among low ranked alchemists, the failure rate was extremely high. That’s why candidates were given three full sets of materials for the test.

Most examinees, if they succeeded even once out of three tries, were already considered excellent.

The pills produced were usually only normal quality, higher qualities were rarely achieved, and low ranked alchemists shouldn’t even think about perfect quality.

Take Ming Heng, for example. As a third rank alchemist, even when he refined Grade 1 pills, the majority are refined quality, with perfect quality being nearly impossible.

Time ticked by.

The fragrance from the furnace grew richer.

The crowd stirred restlessly.

Ming Heng’s expression grew more serious.

He didn’t know what had happened, but that furnace looked like it was about to produce a result!

If the pills were truly complete, the final step would be to extinguish the flame and collect them.

This step was also crucial. The alchemist needed to control the heat and allow the furnace to cool gradually, ensuring that the moment it cooled, the pills were just ready.

Too early or too late, and it could either ruin the pills or damage the furnace.

This delicate timing required experience to master.

Did this little girl even have that kind of experience?

Ming Heng was getting anxious.

If this batch really succeeded, it would be of immense research value.

If this weren’t part of the official assessment, he would have wanted to help her finish the process himself.

“Ah, looks like it’s time,” Yun Jin said, putting down her sunflower seeds and walking toward the furnace.

Ming Heng watched, a little nervously.

Anyone who didn’t know better would’ve thought he was the one being tested.