Modern Volume Nineteenth Chapter First Trial of Jingchen Dan

  Having had experience with Yiqi San, Zuo Xiaoyao was even more looking forward to the effect of another Dan medicine suitable for Naiqi stage. She made up her mind to buy some affordable Zi Ye Shen after work in the evening and try out the refining of Jing Chen Dan. As she walked into the company, Zuo Xiaoyao's mood was quite good.

  As soon as I sat down in the office, a clerk from the mailroom came over with an envelope "Miss Zuo, good morning, this is your letter, please sign for it!"

  "Alright, thank you!"

  After signing her name on the receipt, Xue Xiao Yao smiled and thanked him as she took over the envelope.

  It appears that this letter is not like the usual advertisements, which piqued Zuo Xiao's curiosity. Due to her simple interpersonal relationships, aside from Wang Zi Jia, with whom she had a relatively good relationship, she didn't have many other close friends or acquaintances. During her school days, although she got along fairly well with most of her classmates, they all maintained a subtle distance from each other. After graduation, they rarely kept in touch, and it was extremely rare for her to receive personal letters.

  When I opened it, I found that inside was an invitation letter for a high school classmate reunion, scheduled on New Year's Day, which is four days later, on the weekend.

  She smiled slightly and put the invitation aside, not feeling particularly surprised or excited. Since graduating from high school, she had received one in her junior year of college, but at that time, she was busy earning tuition and living expenses during all holidays and didn't think about attending. Although the three years of high school left a deep impression on Zuo Xiaoyao's memory, what she missed most were always the times spent with her grandmother.

  In the evening, after returning home and having dinner, I received a call from Wang Zi Jia: ".... Xiao Yao, I heard that your class is holding a high school reunion on New Year's Day. Are you going this time? Now that everyone has entered society, it feels like the friendship between classmates during school days was the most pure and precious. You're always busy with work and don't even go out to play with your colleagues, isn't life so boring?"

  So soon you got the news! Zuo Xiao Yao was somewhat surprised "Huh, how did you know? I just received the invitation letter this morning!"

  "Hum, hum! Who am I? Think back to those years when we were in high school, I was the famous all-knowing one. Of course, now I'm still not past my prime!"

  On the other end of the phone came Wang Zi Jia's rather self-satisfied voice.

  "Alright, I don't even know you! You're like a loudspeaker, go ahead and announce my work address to everyone. Are your classmates gathering too?" Zuo Xiao Yao retorted bluntly.

  "Uh, our class reunion is still in the planning stage, the date hasn't been set yet, it should be around Chinese New Year. Two days ago, Hu Qingguo called me and asked for my current address, that's when I found out about this. I heard your class has chosen Sheng Hong Building as the venue for the reunion, and it's all being paid for by that big shot from your class. So jealous! Are you going?"

  "You're already a small rich lady now, do you need to be so sentimental about the cost of this meal? Let's talk about it later, maybe something will come up and I won't be able to go anyway."

  When Wang Zi Jia mentioned the organizer of this gathering, Zuo Xiao Yao paused for a moment before smiling and responding.

  "I know you're a slippery guy who never gives people a straight answer, always pushing things off until the last minute. I really don't get what you do all day cooped up at home! On Grandpa's birthday, put everything aside and come, my dad and mom will probably be there too, they're both worried about you. Let's get together, it's not often we have a chance to..."

  It's not just that there aren't many, but will there be any more in the future? Putting aside the thread of suspicion in her heart, the feelings she had cultivated with the four members of the Wang family over the years were still not shallow. Thinking about how they had already fallen apart, Zuo Xiao Yao couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, let alone Wang Zi Jia.

  "I'm going for sure, is Zhang Kun going or not? When are you planning to bring him to meet the parents?"

  "It's none of your business, you're not my parent, I won't talk to you about it, goodbye!"

  Wang Zi Jia's attention was diverted as soon as she detected the teasing tone in Zuo Xiao Yao's words, and her heart, which had just begun to feel a little hurt, immediately forgot its original intention. She spoke sternly for a few sentences before quickly hanging up the phone, completely forgetting what she had originally wanted to say. Even though Zuo Xiao Yao had already discovered what was going on with Zhang Kun, Wang Zi Jia still felt a bit embarrassed to bring it up in front of her, and perhaps needed some time to fully adjust her mood.

  As she hung up the phone with the familiar ringtone, Zuo Xiao Yao couldn't help but curve her lips into a wry smile. Wang Zi Jia's call had reminded her that she should attend the gathering, but her motivation was not entirely pure. She had sensed it, of course, and although she knew it was good intentions from a friend's perspective, she couldn't bring herself to do something that went against her own will just because she understood their kind intentions. After all, everyone has their own principles to uphold!

  Entering the Ziyuan boundary, Xue first soaked the newly purchased purple leaf ginseng in water before sitting down cross-legged to start her cultivation.

  Feeling the aura in her dantian showing signs of condensing into a misty state, Zuo Xiaoyao sensed that this was a precursor to further advancement in her cultivation. With a surge of excitement in her heart, she also felt an increased urge to intensify her practice, hoping to break through as soon as possible.

  The steps for refining the Jingchen Dan are similar to those of Yiqi San, with the main difference being in the control of the fire required for purifying the medicinal materials. If there is even a slight mistake, all previous efforts will be wasted. Even though Zuo Xiaoyao had mastered the technique of refining Yiqi San very well, she still didn't dare to be careless when first refining Jingchen Dan.

  It turned out that even if she was careful, it wasn't easy to succeed in anything at once. After failing three times in a row, Zuo Xiaoyao finally mastered the fire control for refining the four medicinal materials at the same time. Later, after watching five batches of refined medicinal materials turn into powder and fail to form a pill, she finally understood that the difference between the dried medicinal materials and the fresh ones required by the pill formula led to differences in the amount of medicinal essence extracted from equal quantities of the two, resulting in discrepancies.

  After failing more than ten times, Zuo Xiaoyao finally successfully refined a complete Qingchen Dan, and compared to the previous refining of Yiqi San, the speed has been greatly improved.

  Smelling the faint medicinal fragrance emitted by this Dan medicine, Zuo Xiaoyao had successfully learned and refined two kinds of Dan medicines suitable for Nasal Qi stage. With a strong sense of accomplishment, she felt relieved in her heart! Thinking that it has the effect of improving physical quality, she was quite looking forward to it, although she still didn't know what specific improvement method would be used.

  But in fact, not every kind of Dan medicine is gentle and harmless. As soon as the dust entered her throat, Zuo Xiaoyao felt a sharp pain spreading through her body almost instantly. Even with great effort to continue running her Gongfa, it was no use. Cold sweat dripped down like rain at the same time, and she was in so much pain that her whole body convulsed, making her nearly lose consciousness, to the point of fainting.

  But since her self-cultivation, she had set a goal for herself in her heart and made mental preparations to persevere no matter what. After that, Zuo XiaoYao had been holding on to the last bit of clarity within herself, using all her might to prevent herself from truly fainting.

  The severe pain made her feel like seconds were like years, fortunately the effect of Jingchen Dan was limited in time. Until she got through the most difficult period, after feeling the pain disappear, Zuo Xiaoyao knew she had succeeded and finally relaxed, falling to the ground.

  Regaining consciousness, Zuo Xiao Yao still felt a lingering fear from the pain before she fainted. However, she soon caught a whiff of an extremely foul odor emanating from around her. Unconsciously, she lowered her head to investigate and only then did she discover that the smell was coming from herself. At some point, her skin had become stuck with a layer of dark brown filth, and the casual clothes she had changed into after entering the Purple Boundary Realm were now so dirty they were beyond recognition.

  Without thinking twice, Zuo Xiao Yao suddenly appeared in her own bedroom and then rushed straight to the bathroom without any hesitation.

  After taking a shower for four or five times, and burning the dirty clothes that had been emitting a strange smell earlier, Zuo Xiao Yao finally walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. It turned out that the method of using Jing Chen Dan to improve physical fitness was to remove toxins from the body, similar to some weight loss drugs, but with a completely different external manifestation.

  But anyway, she found that her skin had become noticeably whiter and more delicate as a result, and she looked even younger, which made Zuo Xiaoyao still very happy. Of course, this was also related to the fact that she wasn't too old to begin with, and her skin was already good.

  After dressing up, it was found that it was already approaching dawn. Zuo Xiaoyao, who re-entered the empty space of Zi Yuan, continued to refine the Jing Chen Dan in his spare time from cultivation, but did not take it directly again. Instead, he put them into an empty jade bottle taken out from the dan room.

  Thanks for the support from Jin Mo and Dizzy Girl! I'll definitely double update tomorrow!