Hearing Shen Muzhi's words, Lu Wuming immediately stood up. Though he said nothing, the expression on his face was enough for the two of them to understand what he was thinking.
Pressing his forehead hard, Shen Muzhi said, "I was simply telling you a possibility, not asking you to actually go find a phoenix. Those ancient divine beasts have been extinct for a long time; they aren't that easy to find."
Lu Wuming frowned, "But..."
You Siqi walked over and patted his shoulder, signaling him to sit back down. He then comforted him, saying, "It's been over a month since Liu Buli entered the furnace. If you went to find a phoenix, it might take one or two months, or even half a year to find one. So whether it's needed or not is another matter. By the time you get back, Liu Buli will have long since emerged from the furnace. Don't you want to be the first person he sees when he comes out?"
You Siqi knew how to get to the point.
This simple question successfully dispelled all of Lu Wuming's wild thoughts.
He obediently sat back down beside Shen Muzhi. After hesitating for a long time, Lu Wuming still couldn't help but ask, "Then... what can I do?"
"Nothing for now," Shen Muzhi smiled, a hint of fatigue in his eyes. He said, "Just stay put. If those ghost tribes come to bother us, you can deal with them for me. Just don't let anyone disturb the furnace."
Shen Muzhi paused here.
He sighed deeply again and added in a murmur, "It's fortunate you're back. Besides those ghost tribes, the cultivation world probably isn't that peaceful right now either. With you watching our backs, it's certainly much safer, and I can finally relax a little."
He spoke very earnestly.
Lu Wuming stared at him for a moment, then asked with some confusion, "You two are here watching this furnace. Besides the two of you, is there no one else to protect you? If I hadn't returned, what would you have done if something happened? Could you have handled it?"
"We couldn't have," Shen Muzhi smiled helplessly. "So if something really happened, we would have died with Liu Buli. As for people to protect us... there were. But they..."
Mentioning Yun Xiang and Ao Lie, Shen Muzhi found it difficult to continue. Even though he had been trying to tell himself that perhaps things weren't as bad as he imagined, over a month had passed and the people still hadn't returned. It was becoming impossible to delude himself into thinking of positive outcomes.
Fortunately, Lu Wuming was a simpleton. Even though Shen Muzhi's hesitations were so obvious, Lu Wuming just looked at him blankly, not fully grasping what he had been trying to say.
The topic was temporarily dropped, and Shen Muzhi felt a stifling discomfort, falling silent for a while.
Lu Wuming, on the other hand, focused all his attention on the furnace. Even though his mind was occasionally disturbed by chaotic memories, he inexplicably felt that as long as Liu Buli woke up, and as long as he saw the other person's face, his muddled thoughts would surely become clear.
With this thought, they continued to watch the furnace for a few more days. At another dusk, the spiritual fire that Shen Muzhi had added suddenly extinguished completely.
There was no wind, and Shen Muzhi hadn't voluntarily stopped outputting spiritual energy. Seeing this, Shen Muzhi was stunned, and Lu Wuming was even more startled. He quickly asked Shen Muzhi, "What's going on? Didn't you say your body could handle it? I..."
"Don't rush. The furnace itself extinguished my spiritual fire. According to what Liu Buli told me before, this means the refining is successful."
Shen Muzhi, fearing that Lu Wuming might act rashly and reignite the extinguished fire, quickly stopped him. He took a deep breath and said with some uncertainty, "So... we should be able to open the furnace now."
He said it, but Shen Muzhi remained seated, with no intention of going to open the furnace.
Although he had been watching the furnace all this time, it was precisely because of this that he felt a surge of nervousness looking at the extinguished furnace.
The worries he had harbored all along resurfaced in his mind.
Had he really refined Liu Buli to death?
Lu Wuming was standing nearby, so Shen Muzhi naturally didn't dare to say such a thing directly.
However, Lu Wuming watched him for a while, and seeing that Shen Muzhi truly had no intention of acting, he walked over to the furnace himself, frowned, and then asked with certainty, "Can I open the furnace now?"
Since Lu Wuming was willing to do it for him, Shen Muzhi nodded vigorously.
Lu Wuming took a deep breath.
He actually trusted Liu Buli's plan a lot, so he didn't know what he was so nervous about.
Trying to calm his emotions, Lu Wuming finally reached out and pulled open the tightly closed door of the alchemy furnace.
Scalding hot air rushed out, and Lu Wuming held his breath.
He looked up into the furnace, and upon seeing the situation inside, Lu Wuming finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The man familiar to him sat cross-legged inside the furnace, his hands resting on his knees, as if asleep. The expression on his face looked utterly peaceful.
And in his upturned palms, two round orbs of light rested quietly.
One was a faint blood-red, and the other was a deep black.
The three of them crowded around to look at the scene. After a long while, You Siqi asked, "Um... which one of these is Liu Buli?"