183: Chapter 183 Refining Failure

Seeing how solemn the old man was, Bai Qian couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of fear.

He cupped his hands toward Ye Jing and then took his leave.

Ye Jing turned to look at the shop, which was in a state of total disarray. The killing intent in his eyes grew more intense as he coldly instructed the attendants.

"Clean up the shop first. Record all the damaged Spirit Medicines and Spiritual Plants in the accounts. Do not be frightened by today's events!"

He did not forget to soothe the shop workers, giving each of them five Spirit Stones as compensation.

The shop workers were naturally grateful upon seeing this. These workers were merely Mortals, and the Spirit Stones they earned could be exchanged for silver at the Tiangong Market's bank.

A single Spirit Stone was worth ten thousand taels of silver, which was an extremely generous reward for a Mortal.

With the Spirit Stones, they were naturally overjoyed.

Afterward, Ye Jing closed the shop for repairs.

He went to the second floor, where Ye Tianhui looked somewhat weak. Seeing Ye Jing arrive, he hurriedly tried to stand up, but before he could call out "Grandfather," he was pressed down by a gentle surge of spiritual power.

"Huier, you are injured; just rest well."

Ye Jing approached Ye Tianhui and saw that his injuries were not light. Had he arrived a step later, his grandson might have lost his life to those ruffians.

Taking their lives so easily was truly letting them off too lightly!

Ye Jing's expression was dark; he only wanted to drag out the person behind the scenes and tear them into ten thousand pieces.

Seeing that Ye Jing's face was very grim, Ye Tianhui said, "Grandfather, those people seemed to... have a grudge against Brother and Second Sister..."

"Tell me about it," Ye Jing said, somewhat surprised.

Ye Tianhui coughed and said, "Grandfather, I heard the Cultivator who came to smash the shop say that if we want to blame someone, we should blame our Ye family for offending his Young Miss. If it weren't for Brother and Second Sister, how could their Young Miss have failed to reach Foundation Establishment?"

Hearing this, Ye Jing immediately sneered, "Useless trash. They lost the competition to Tianhao and Yaoer, and now they resort to such despicable tactics!"

Regarding the Qingyun Sect competition, Ye Tianhao and Ye Tianyao had already told him in their letters. During the match, they encountered a rather domineering girl named Li Linlin, who had used many Spiritual Artifacts to besiege Ye Tianyao during the duel.

If he hadn't sensed his descendants were in danger and released the Golden Erosion Insects to assist, Yaoer's situation would have been far worse than just losing a match.

As for the competition, Ye Jing could have let Li Linlin go; after all, it was a match, and losing meant admitting one's skills were inferior.

But the Li family was so vicious that they took out their resentment over losing the match on his third grandson and trashed the shop like this.

This debt, he, Ye Jing, would remember!

Currently, Ye Jing was only at Qi Refining Level 9. It seemed that if he wanted to establish a foothold in this Tiangong Market, he must advance to Foundation Establishment.

"Grandfather, don't tell my mother about this!" Ye Tianhui suddenly sat up and said.

His eyes held a hint of determination: "Mother mentioned in her previous letter that she is refining a Corpse Puppet General. I don't want to distract her over such a small matter!"

Ye Jing was slightly taken aback, then whispered, "Rest assured, Grandfather won't say a word. Recover in peace; leave the rest to me!"

He glanced at the weak Ye Tianhui on the bed, told him to rest well, and then turned to leave.

Ye Jing looked at the foundation establishment pill Formula in his hand, his gaze heavy.

As the key Medicinal Pill for breaking through from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, the required ingredients for the foundation establishment pill were quite demanding.

The main ingredients required a hundred-year-old qi condensing grass and a Marrow-Cleansing Fruit. The supplementary Materials included one portion each of Heart-Clearing Flower, Spirit Leaf Ganoderma, and cold spring dew.

Even more troublesome was that the refinement process required a large amount of spiritual fire.

Ye Jing could use the Immortal Willow to cultivate the qi condensing grass, so there was no shortage of it. The others could be bought in the market and then cultivated.

As for the large amount of spiritual fire, a Yao Beast would suffice.

However, Ye Jing thought of Ye Tianyao's Xiao Chi; Demon Fire could be used as a substitute. But to ensure high efficiency in Alchemy, Ye Jing decided he needed to find another contracted Yao Beast for his daughter-in-law Liu Xianglan, preferably one with a fire attribute.

With this in mind, Ye Jing began to make preparations.

A month after he left to search for Materials...

At this time, inside Lingyun Valley.

Liu Xianglan was sitting cross-legged in the valley. Before her was a hideous, flesh-colored Pill-vessel, and from within that distorted human face, the sound of countless souls screaming had already emerged.

The souls shrieked hideously, ear-piercing and shrill. The Corpse Person who had been bound for a long time at the edge of the valley also seemed to feel the call, roaring hideously and constantly resonating with the monster in the Pill-vessel, letting out screams.

The soul fluctuations from that Pill-vessel were too great. Liu Xianglan struggled with all her might to control these screaming souls, preventing them from spiraling out of control.

Bit by bit, she extracted the screaming souls from the Pill-vessel and funneled them into the body of the Foundation Establishment Corpse Person.

Beside her, Wu Guiyun controlled the flames to envelop both the souls and the Corpse Person. The two women were working together to refine this Corpse Person into a Corpse Puppet General according to the method written in the "Demon Puppet Refinement."

But this Corpse Person had been a Foundation Establishment Cultivator in life, while the two women's cultivation was only at Qi Refining Level 5. Even with layers of restraints, the difficulty of refinement was immense.

Above them, a massive White Eagle circled continuously, its eyes fixed on the roaring Corpse Person. As soon as the Corpse Person broke free from its restraints, it would use lightning to suppress it.

Fine beads of sweat had already seeped from Wu Guiyun's forehead. Her control over the spiritual fire became increasingly unstable; the flames flickered, and she felt she was losing the strength to keep the Corpse Person enveloped.

"Xianglan, I can't... I can't hold on! The residual Foundation Establishment spiritual power in this Corpse Person is fighting back, and the souls are starting to become restless!"

Her voice carried an unmistakable tremble, and her face had turned pale due to the rapid consumption of spiritual power. The spiritual power around her was so chaotic it was almost on the verge of collapse.

Liu Xianglan was in the same state; her face was as white as paper, her brow was furrowed, and a trace of blood had already leaked from the corner of her mouth.

The spiritual power she used to control the souls was like silk threads being torn by a gale, liable to snap at any moment.

The vibration of that eerie Pill-vessel grew more intense. Blackish-red turbid air seeped from the human face patterns as countless souls, as if they had finally found a Breakthrough point, frantically slammed against the inner walls of the vessel.

The screams they let out almost shattered the two women's eardrums.

"Sister-in-law! Hold on a bit longer! We've been refining it for a month! This is the most critical moment! If we can refine this Corpse Puppet General, our family will have another Foundation Establishment combatant!"

Suddenly, a drastic change occurred. The Foundation Establishment Corpse Person began to struggle violently, and the chains on its body snapped one by one. Even the suppression Talismans draped over it began to dim.

Clearly, they were about to lose control over this Corpse Person!

The Corpse Person's hollow eye sockets were filled with crimson light, and the souls surging from the Pill-vessel were being absorbed by the Corpse Person one after another.

The Corpse Person's body suddenly swelled up, and it let out a low growl.

Its body expanded significantly, and even the sores on its body were gushing out large amounts of black gas. Sharp wails could be faintly heard from within.

However, because the Corpse Person and the souls were not compatible, and with Wu Guiyun's fire refinement, the Corpse Person could only let out continuous wails. But even while bound, the sinister evil energy it emitted almost suffocated the two women.

The Corpse Person still wanted to rush forward, but Liu Xianglan acted first, shaking the soul-inducing lamp in her hand. As the lamp swayed, the Corpse Person stopped its screaming.

The vengeful spirits within its body surged out frantically and returned once more to that eerie Pill-vessel.

Seeing this, Liu Xianglan's pretty face was filled with disappointment: "It still failed..."

Over the past few years, she had been studying this Corpse Person and the Pill-vessel, wanting to completely refine it into a Corpse Puppet General, but after so much effort, she had still failed.