Li Ya also followed Bai Shengyi into the room.
"Goddess Bai, shall I serve you?" Seeing Bai Shengyi about to pour tea, she quickly stepped forward and handed her a cup.
Seeing her unease, Bai Shengyi took the tea, took a sip, and placed the cup on the table. "I'm going into seclusion to cultivate. If you're worried about Ming Shenshi, you can stay here."
As she spoke, she noticed that Li Ya had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage. She continued, "You can continue cultivating or do something else, whatever you like, just don't disturb me in the inner room."
Li Ya stood frozen.
She had even forgotten to ask Bai Shengyi why she wasn't going to the Enlightenment Chamber for her seclusion.
The room was divided into inner and outer sections. The inner part was for the goddesses to rest. In contrast, the outer part was inscribed with a spirit gathering array and filled with precious green crystals, making the spiritual energy more abundant. For cultivation, the outer area was more suitable.
Was Goddess Bai giving her her cultivation resources so casually?
Li Ya, being from a common background, understood the importance of cultivation resources better than anyone. She waved her hands repeatedly, "Goddess Bai, you mustn't!"
She even stepped forward and knelt before Bai Shengyi, "I am merely a slave girl, a sacrifice. Even with cultivation, nothing can change my fate. But you are different; you are a goddess. As long as the Winter Moon Battle is won, you can reside in the Wood Spirit Pagoda and be free from mortal danger."
She earnestly and sincerely advised Bai Shengyi.
She was going to die anyway, but someone as kind as Goddess Bai shouldn't have to.
"Get up," Bai Shengyi said.
Li Ya, lying on the ground, shook her head.
Bai Shengyi frowned deeply, bent down, and gently lifted her by the armpits, helping her to stand steadily.
Her indifferent gaze held a barely perceptible disappointment. Li Ya keenly noticed it. Although she didn't know what she had done to disappoint Goddess Bai, she lowered her head even further in shame.
The next moment, Bai Shengyi lifted her chin, tilting her head up.
"Listen, I will only say this once."
"If you always remain at Foundation Establishment, your life will always be in the hands of others. If, one day, your cultivation surpasses that of the temple's Shenshi, or even the Divine Master, will others still be able to casually make you a sacrifice?"
"Don't always think about being a slave girl. If you want to think, think about how to become a Divine Master! How to change all of this!"
She finished speaking indifferently, turned, and returned to the inner room, closing the door.
Bai Shengyi had no idea that her words had caused a monumental ripple in Li Ya's heart.
No one had ever told her that she could change her destiny through cultivation!
However, rationality told Li Ya that Goddess Bai was right.
Only by becoming strong oneself could one change this damned fate!
Being a slave girl and a sacrifice meant death. Cultivating and even aiming to be a Divine Master, even if it failed, would still result in death. So why shouldn't she choose the latter?
She wanted to live!
She wanted to have a future completely different from the two previous goddesses from An Yang Village!
A seed rapidly landed in Li Ya's heart, took root, and sprouted...
She calmed her mind, walked obediently to the place with the most abundant spiritual energy, sat cross-legged, and began to cultivate.
Meanwhile, in the inner room, Bai Shengyi was not in seclusion. Instead, she set up a sound-insulating barrier and took out her pill furnace from her storage bag.
The Samsara Brush and the Sui Xing Divine Fire also flew out.
Samsara Brush: "You're going to refine pills here?"
"Yes, I want to try."
Bai Shengyi didn't say what she wanted to try. She beckoned to the Sui Xing Divine Fire, and a wisp of flame separated from it, floating beneath the pill furnace.
"Bang!"
Unexpectedly, the pill furnace exploded instantly.
"Little Sui, temper the flame intensity a bit." Bai Shengyi frowned, not expecting the pill furnace to be unable to withstand the flames of the Sui Xing Divine Fire.
At this moment, she could only be grateful that after acquiring spirit stones, she had stocked up on many pill furnaces.
She took out another pill furnace.
However, it exploded again.
After five consecutive pill furnaces exploded—
Bai Shengyi fell silent.
"Little Sui..."
"It's not my fault!" The Sui Xing Divine Fire was displeased. "It's your pill furnaces that are too shoddy! I've already reduced the flame temperature to the lowest and the intensity to the weakest!"
Bai Shengyi rubbed her forehead. She hadn't expected the first step to be so difficult. Had she sensed it wrong? Was the Sui Xing Divine Fire not her destined fire? Or was it not suitable for alchemy?
Her gaze fixed on the nearby pill furnaces, as if she could poke a hole in them.
"Why does your flame only have fire spiritual energy and not wood spiritual energy?" she suddenly asked the Sui Xing Divine Fire.
The Sui Xing Divine Fire put its hands on its hips. "I am fire! Wood spiritual energy is only gathered, nurtured, and circulated by my fire, but I don't absorb wood spiritual energy!"
Therefore, its flames inherently could not carry wood spiritual energy.
"Then come and heat the furnace for me."
"I won't—"
"I'll give you half of the refined pills." Bai Shengyi said casually.
The Sui Xing Divine Fire immediately changed its tune. "Alright, I'll reluctantly help you! But I want the better half of the pills you refine!"
"What do you want pills for?" The Qing Meng Vine next to them asked curiously.
The Sui Xing Divine Fire squatted beneath the pill furnace, rubbing its hands and burning happily. "Cultivation. We divine fires also need to cultivate."
"That's not right. Ten Directions and the others don't cultivate." The Qing Meng Vine sought help from its boss. "Boss, Little Vine Leaf remembers correctly, right?"
The Samsara Brush flipped its shaft and tapped the Qing Meng Vine's leaf. "Except for Long Zhu, Ten Directions and Lie Yang don't even have consciousness, how can they cultivate?"
The Samsara Brush stared at its increasingly solid pen tip and said abruptly, "If they could also cultivate, my pen body would have been fully repaired by now."
It spoke these words very softly, so softly that even the Qing Meng Vine couldn't hear clearly.
"Boss, what did you say?"
"Nothing. I said I wanted to go out for a stroll. Do you want to come along?" The Samsara Brush looked at the Qing Meng Vine.
It felt in excellent condition today and should be able to last longer without falling asleep.
Seeing her master engrossed in refining pills, the Qing Meng Vine quietly nodded. "Yes! Let's go and help Master gather more information."
Bai Shengyi noticed the moment the vine and the brush left. However, she knew the Samsara Brush had its limits, so she didn't interfere. Instead, she propped up her chin and gazed at the herbs in the pill furnace, which were being refined the moment they were thrown in, falling into deep thought.
As expected of the Sui Xing Divine Fire, known as the "Pill Fire Emperor," it refined the seventh-grade spirit plant with ease!
Moreover, judging by the medicinal juice, the medicinal properties were intact, the spiritual energy was pure, and the flames had completely removed impurities from the spirit plant.
Bai Shengyi straightened her expression and methodically added other spirit plants.
She was going to refine a seventh-grade Breakthrough Pill.
After breaking through to the Mahayana stage that day, she could already skillfully refine sixth-grade Spirit Nourishing Pills, Spiritual Root Impurity Removal Pills, and Spirit Nourishing Pills. According to the grading system of alchemists in the Divine Revelation World, being able to refine three sixth-grade pills meant one was a sixth-grade alchemist. In other words, she was already a sixth-grade alchemist.
This time, Bai Shengyi could feel that her wood and fire dual spiritual roots were even purer. She wanted to see if, with the help of the Sui Xing Divine Fire, she could refine a seventh-grade pill.
Bai Shengyi continued refining for six days.
"Done!" The Sui Xing Divine Fire couldn't help but exclaim. It wasn't to remind Bai Shengyi, but rather because it had been holding back for six days without speaking and was going crazy!