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Three and half an hour later...

Both of Song Shuhang’s eyes were clear, but his body was somewhat exhausted.

"This is the forty-first ingredient... finally, it’s coming close to an end." Song Shuhang muttered.

He didn’t expect that he would be able to persevere up till here on his first attempt. However, his current state was him almost reaching his limits. After this ingredient, what was left would be Fresh Overlord Branch, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, Ocean Trench Frost Crystal, and Core of the Snow Demon, these four ingredients. He would definitely be able to endure until the end!

Opening the lid, he swiftly tossed the forty-first ingredient inside.

Before Song Shuhang was able to put the lid back, a strange thing happened within the hot pot.

When the ash-gray medicinal liquid made up of the initial forty ingredients came in contract with the forty-first one, a wave of foul and burning smell suddenly burst forth!

The pot that had contained more than half worth of medicinal liquid rapidly evaporated, and reduced by one-fifth within a moment’s time!

‘Tsk, did it fail?’ Song Shuhang vexedly thought. Well, due to him adding water initially, he was suspecting if he had failed from the start.

However, there wasn’t a problem until the forty-first medicinal ingredient, so he couldn’t help but have a trace of hope and expectation in his heart. This should be a gambler’s mentality characteristic all humans had?

Whereas right now, was he finally about to fail?

‘No, wait, it has yet to thoroughly fail.’ Song Shuhang saw that despite evaporating, the gray liquid was still tenaciously dissolving the forty-first ingredient.

He knew that he had to do something right now, and if he didn’t do anything, it would really be a failure.

In actual fact, the forty-first medicinal ingredient was indeed the hardest stage in refining the ‘simplified body tempering liquid’.

From this step onwards, it was actually the finishing phase of ‘simplified body tempering liquid.’ The four other medicinal ingredients after this would no longer increase its effects.

Fresh Overlord Branch, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo; Ocean Trench Frost Crystal, Core of the Snow Demon. The former two represented yang and firmness, while the latter two represented yin and softness. The four ingredients were solely used to purify ‘Body Tempering Liquid’.

The most important step in refining this body tempering liquid was purification. If it wasn’t completed, then the pot of body tempering liquid would at most be a pot of all-nourishing soup, and when consumed, it would only make one feel good, while the body tempering liquid effects would be greatly reduced. However, with the addition of purification steps, this would let this all-nourishing soup transform into body tempering liquid, similar to an ordinary medicine becoming a cultivation liquid.

And, the forty-first medicinal ingredient was the catalyst for purification process.

This step was indeed the process that was the easiest to fail at, and Soft Feather had been defeated here dozens of times.

However, what should he do to remedy the impending failure?

If Medicine Master was present, with his excellent pill refining experience and techniques, he would be able to turn the tides and save this furnace… no, to be exact, it should be this pot... of body tempering liquid.

Nonetheless, neither did Shuhang have experience, nor did he possess techniques Medicine Master had.

‘The evaporating speed is too fast, I must slow down this process. I’ll add water!’ Song Shuhang was trying everything in a desperate situation and added a ladle of water into the pot despite not knowing if there would be any effects; at least the evaporation rate has slowed down considerably.

‘There are still four medicinal ingredients left.’

Song Shuhang’s thoughts were frantically spinning about.

Timewise, it was not enough for him to begin another attempt. He reckoned his roommates would be back in another one to two hours.

Frankly speaking, if they saw him attempting to ‘refine pills’ in their small kitchen, he couldn’t guarantee that his enthusiastic roommates wouldn’t tie him up and send him to the nearest mental hospital.

Judging from the fact that they were so enthusiastic that he had given ten good friend cards to each individual, this possibility was high!

‘I’ll try tossing all the remaining ingredients in one go. After all, it is almost a failure already, at most I’ll treat this as gaining more experience,’ Song Shuhang decided.

Northern River’s Loose Cultivator and Soft Feather within the group had failed a couple of times. If he had succeeded on his first try despite being purely an amateur, that would probably be ridiculous.

He opened the lid.

These four ingredients—Fresh Overlord Branch, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, Ocean Trench Frost Crystal, and Core of the Snow Demon—were tossed into the pot in one go by Shuhang.

He closed the lid!

After that, Song Shuhang witnessed a hot pot of incompatible element of fire and ice.

Fresh Overlord Branch, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo... these two dissolved into one portion of the liquid and turned red upon heated, as if they were about to ignite or something. This portion of medicinal liquid boiled and evaporated faster, with steam bubbling out from the lid’s air vents like a fountain.

Meanwhile, Ocean Trench Frost Crystal and Core of the Snow Demon’s exterior had cracks upon being heated while blue color liquid flew out. The temperature of this blue liquid seemed to be extremely low and when it merged together with the other half of the liquid, it began causing the boiling medicinal liquid to cool down.

The calmed portion’s temperature became lower, while the boiling half evaporated even faster. Unexpectedly, two portions of medicinal liquid showed signs of separation.

I can’t let them separate. Song Shuhang thought and immediately increased the heat of the induction stove, attempting to make the cooled-down portion boil once again.

With the heat raised, the evaporation speed of the medicinal liquid increased. In less than a minute, only less than one-third of the original half pot worth of liquid was left.

It would completely evaporate in at most ten breath.

"It has thoroughly failed," Song Shuhang laughed. He had been mentally prepared, therefore, he did not mind failing.

He reached out his with hands, preparing to switch off the induction stove. If this continued, the pot was going to be burnt.

In the midst of extending his hands, he stopped—he could see that although the medicinal liquid was evaporating faster, it was not separated, and started to merge instead.

Due to this unexplainable event, Song Shuhang did not choose to switch off the heat and resolutely chose to maximize the heat power instead!

Risking everything in this moment and increasing the heat, he might as well cause the liquid to merge in one go, and force these forty-five medicinal ingredients effects to undergo purification! In this way, perhaps he would be able to obtain some paste before the liquid thoroughly evaporates?

With the heat switched to maximum, a weird sound was produced.

Within the hotpot, ice and fire were interwoven together, forming a beautiful shape. Two different medicinal liquids boiled while the pot vibrated.

Lastly, even Shuhang was unable to see the changes within the pot as the evaporation of the medicinal liquid formed a thick layer of impurities on the reinforced glass lid.

"Drip, drip…" this was the sound of medicinal ingredients boiling; the interval between the sounds produced was exactly one second.

Song Shuhang once again fished out his phone and stared at the time.

As he was unable to see the situation within the pot, he could only calculate the timing and had intended to switch off the induction stove in five minutes.

Three minutes, twenty-three seconds.

"Bang…!"

Just then, a sudden force rushed forth from within the pot, causing the lid to fly away.

Shortly after, a wave of black clouds sprayed out and shrouded the entire small kitchen, a stinking smell assiling his nostrils.

That smell was too pungent, as if combining numerous unpleasant smells in the world together. Just carelessly inhaling would cause one to vomit.

"Ugh…" Song Shuhang pinched his nose while hastily switching off the induction stove.

"So smelly." Even if he had pinched his nose and held his breath, that weird smelling stench was stuck in Shuhang’s nose and was impossible to get rid of.

He immediately rushed towards the window and opened it. If he didn’t get fresh air, most probably he would have to wait for his roommates to pick up his corpse when they return—the death reason being suffocation by this pungent smell.

Once the windows were open, the black mist floated out before the pungent smell in the kitchen gradually dispersed.

"This smell, was simply indescribable using words. Furthermore, it had left a rich aftertaste," Shuhang sighed. He estimated that he wouldn’t be able to forget this smell even in three days. Also, would he even be able to consume any food after this?

‘The killing effect of failing to concoct this was extremely terrifying, and can even be used as a biological weapon. If this smell can be collected, I can release this in the house of whoever offends me. It’s guaranteed to be memorable.’ Song Shuhang mocked himself.

On the floor, the hot pot's lid was still rolling about. Fortunately, there were no casualties as this was reinforced glass. If not, he would probably have to fork out money to compensate the school.

Picking up the lid, Shuhang felt giddy for a moment as feeling of exhaustion rushed forth. This was nearly four hours of accumulated fatigue.

He hastily held onto the tabletop and slowly sat down.

While resting for a moment, he pinched his nose and looked at the pot. He wanted to see how the failure of a medicinal liquid looked like to be able to release such a stinking smell.

Within the hot pot, the original half pot of medicinal ingredients was only left with a thin layer.

Black color, somewhat transparent, with an overwhelming pungent smell.

‘A black sesame paste yet slightly transparent. Just that it is too pungent.’ Song Shuhang complained inwardly.

"Eh? This… why?" He suddenly recalled something and swiftly took out the notebook he used to record down Medicine Master’s recipe.

The medicinal liquid will become a paste, with the completed product in black yet transparent form, and exude a strong smell. This was how Medicine Master described about the completed Simplified Body Tempering Liquid.

It seems… similar to the ‘thing’ he had refined???