Chapter 28: The Green and Yellow Fruits

  With the fresh medicinal materials needed for Dan Fang, even if she knew that Yi Pin Yi Qi San and Jing Chen Dan had no effect on her, Zuo Xiao Yao still wanted to try using fresh medicinal materials to refine the elixir.

  As usual, after putting the four small portions of medicinal materials into the Dan Ding, with the continuous burning of the fire below, Zuo Xiao Yao controlled the medicinal materials to be heated and purified separately with a spiritual power that was several times stronger than before. Everything went very smoothly, but just as the four successfully purified medicinal essences were about to condense into a pill, an abnormal change suddenly occurred. At the same time as a thick brown smoke emerged from the Dan Ding, a pungent smell also spread around, making Zuo Xiao Yao feel somewhat unexpected.

  She thought it was because she was using this new medicinal material to refine the elixir for the first time, and an accident occurred during the refining process due to her lack of control. Although she didn't reflect on where she went wrong in the operation, after adjusting her state, she started the second refinement again.

  But in fact, some things are not really won by not admitting defeat. Looking at the pile of ashes in front of her, Zuo XiaoYao didn't find it hard to accept her failure, but she couldn't figure out why she failed, which was really puzzling!

  After carefully recalling the process of successfully refining Dan medicine with dry medicinal materials again, she still couldn't find any difference in the refining process. Zuo Xiaoyao still felt puzzled, but if we talk about medicinal materials, the original materials of those well-made Dan medicines refined before were still semi-finished products that had been air-dried, which was no match for these fresh medicinal materials specified in the Dan formula, even after being soaked in water.

  Water!

  A sudden flash of inspiration in her mind, Zuo Xiao Yao instantly thought of a possibility and then hastily went to the pond outside the yard to fetch a bucket of water.

  Half an hour later, Zuo Xiaoyao gazed delightedly at the successfully refined elixir in the crucible, its quality far surpassing anything before, worthy of being a top-grade product. Besides marveling at the extraordinary craftsmanship of the purple-robed woman, she couldn't help but feel that this was no ordinary object. Unbeknownst to Zuo Xiaoyao, not only did the time difference between the Purple Yuan Boundary and reality defy the heavens, but even the water in this pool, which seemed no different from ordinary water, possessed a miraculous effect of increasing the success rate of elixir refinement and enhancing the quality of the elixir. She thought to herself that she had been using these waters for bathing all along, truly wasting their potential!

  At the same time, this discovery also made Zuo Xiaoyao realize another fact, that is, her alchemy level was not as good as she thought it was in the past!

  Guarding a natural resource library, Zuo Xiaoyao, who has three points of stubbornness in her character, is naturally unwilling to just get by like this. Although there is a nearly hundred-square-meter pond there, she doesn't lack this kind of rare water, but because she is not willing to let her alchemy skills rely on 'external objects'!

  Since then, in the following days, while cultivating, entering and exiting the peaks and valleys of Shennongjia, Zuo Xiaoyao never gave up her efforts to improve her alchemy skills.

  When nearly two years have passed in reality, relying on the speed of producing medicinal materials in the Purple Yuan boundary, after experiencing countless experiments, wasting a large amount of medicinal materials, and adjusting the fire time and original medicinal material quantity multiple times, Zuo Xiaoyao can finally maintain the success rate of refining first-class elixirs at above 90%, and can produce twenty-four elixirs per furnace without needing to divide the medicinal materials into small portions like before.

  So now she has just begun to focus on the second-grade elixir, although before this, Zuo Xiao had already successfully produced several excellent second-grade elixirs using the Chi Water, and even without it, her success rate was around 20%.

  With a time difference of twenty to one, excluding the time she spent entering and exiting the Shennong Platform, Zuo Xiaoyao had been cultivating in the Zi Yuan Boundary for nearly twenty years. This is an absolutely astonishing number, yet her cultivation had only reached the Rong Ye stage of the Rong Ye realm, still a considerable distance from breaking through to the Zhu Ji stage.

  The Shennong Shelf is not only rich in medicinal resources, but also makes the large area of the medicine garden opened up by Zuo Xiaoyao in the Purple Boundary Realm full of various medicines, with many varieties that even she herself does not recognize.

  At the same time, there are many lovely animals in the mountains. Zuo Xiaoyao likes those primates other than golden monkeys, and also those white bears and white deer that have turned white due to reversion. These gentle creatures are her best companions during this lonely period.

  During this time, apart from increasing the power of the three techniques she learned during her Nascent Soul stage by several times, she not only became more proficient in using the Concealment Technique but could also display her cultivation at will, limited to her actual level of cultivation. After that, Zuo Xiao Yao learned a few more practical techniques.

  They are the Lingyuan technique that can be used to observe the air, the Jin Si Hou's light body technique that allows her to chase after swift and agile targets in the woods, the Tu Lao technique that can draw a prison on the ground to trap opponents, the binding technique of entwining spirits, and the minor illusion technique that can create simple scenes, all of which are low-level spells with very limited power.

  But for Zuo Xiaoyao, who lives alone in the jungle and occasionally faces unknown dangers, these spells undoubtedly play a huge role. It is precisely because of this that when she finds her cultivation speed to be too slow, she has worked hard on these spells, having cultivated each one to the point where they require almost no preparation time, can be released instantly, and can be cast simultaneously.

  On this day, having just left the Purple Boundary, she appeared on a tree and hadn't been there for long when a white bear with a short tail, who was quite greedy but familiar to her, waved its paws at her while standing on the ground. Zuo Xiaoyao knew that it wasn't just greeting her, but mainly wanted to take her to pick some food again. Smiling and nodding, she didn't say much, and as the bear turned around and ran towards the southwest, Zuo Xiaoyao used her Light Body Technique to follow closely behind it, running through the mountains and forests.

  After more than a year of living in the jungle, Zuo Xiaoyao felt that she still preferred to be with these animals that were close to nature, and it was relatively easier for her to get along with them. She could speak and laugh without any scruples, and these spiritual animals could also give corresponding reactions, very sincere, without any pretence or calculation. All emotions could be judged from the movement of their paws and the sounds they made, simple!

  For some reason, most of the animals in the mountain did not reject her appearance and existence. Some primates were even willing to approach her. At first, Zuo Xiaoyao was also puzzled by this phenomenon. Later, she thought that it might be because they sensed that she had no malicious intentions towards them, which made these naturally vigilant and sensitive or suspicious animals willing to trust her. In fact, she did not betray this trust either.

  The vast Shennongjia is home to towering peaks, dense forests and winding rivers. In fact, the area that Zuo Xiaoyao has explored accounts for less than one-tenth of the total area. It's the animals that live here all their lives that are more familiar with this relatively primitive forest.

  Half an hour later, one person and one bear appeared under a stone peak next to a pond. Xiaobai's paw pointed at the opposite stone wall where a crooked neck tree with six greenish-yellow fruits grew. The white bear made a slightly urgent "huh, huh" sound. Lü Xiǎo Yáo took two steps forward while turning her head and gesturing with both hands to mimic a jumping motion, saying "You mean I should go pick those fruits now?"

  The white bear lifted one of its front paws and hooked her calf, making a "hissing" sound, then pointed to the ground with its small white paw, and then pointed to the tree across from it.

  Xiao Yao casually sat down on the ground and then pointed to that tree, saying "We'll wait here for a while before going to pick those fruits?"

  Only to see the white bear then 'sit' beside her, gently using its two small white paws to stroke the fine white fur on its belly, looking quite comfortable. Zuo Xiaoyao already knew she hadn't misunderstood this time - the shape and appearance of this white bear were somewhat similar to those of the national treasure giant panda, with the biggest difference being that it wasn't black and white, but also had a slightly more protruding mouth, which looked extremely cute. With its keen sense of smell, it was very good at finding mature wild fruits and other foods.

  The waiting time always passes slowly, and in the blink of an eye, half a day has passed. Suddenly, a refreshing fruit fragrance wafts out from around the water pool, and at the same time, the white bear lets out another urgent "roar, roar" cry. Left Xiao Yao quickly casts her Light Body Technique, stepping on the water to jump towards the opposite stone wall.

  At this moment, a sudden " splash" sound came from the water pool, and a huge python with an unknown length, but as thick as a bucket, suddenly raised its upper body from the water, staring at Zuo Xiaoyao who had stopped on the water surface with full vigilance due to her slightly moved mind, sensing danger ahead.

  PS: Thanks for the support from Dizzy Girl and thanks for everyone's recommendation votes and collection support, I will definitely try to release two chapters tomorrow!