According to Pill Medicine Study, a pill is the essence of spiritual resonance.
If all spiritual herbs are used, they can be directly refined after balancing the five elements, resulting in the highest purity with minimal impurities and the best effect. However, spiritual herbs are rare, and using them to refine low-level pills is sheer waste, so there's an alternative method: using the spirituality of other living things to make up for the lack of herbs.
Chen Xuan casually grabbed the longhorn beetle and ladybug to supplement the spirituality needed.
Refining pills requires a high-heat-resistant furnace, and the shop has a pressure cooker.
Refining pills requires a flame with adjustable temperature, and the shop has a gas stove with precise twelve-level temperature control.
"Since the equipment meets the requirements, let's see the actual operation."
He rolled up his sleeves and divided the eight herbs into two batches according to the five-element neutralization method in Pill Medicine Study. After soaking and washing, he placed them into two pressure cookers. After finishing these, he poured the live insects into them, then covered the pots, lit the fire, and began refining. When the fire blazed, he performed the Purifying Heart Technique to guide the spirituality inside the furnace into cohesion.
This process was very magical... if you exclude the last step, it's essentially no different from dark cuisine, with a high probability of ending up as wild grass stewed with bugs, but with the guidance of spiritual qi, subtle transformations begin to occur. Chen Xuan found it difficult to describe the changes happening inside the pot – he could sense the various materials infusing and merging with each other, eventually becoming a seamless whole.
Even though it was his first time refining pills, it felt as if he had done it countless times before.
Everything seemed to fall into place effortlessly.
Through the blue flames, he seemed to see the figure of a young maiden, sitting cross-legged before a pill furnace, repeatedly going over the pill-making process, surrounded by heaps of failed pills. The sky above the furnace shifted, from dawn till golden dusk, from lush green to snow-covered white.
"Whizz, whizz, whizz!"
The pressure cooker's valve whistled.
The pill time is up!
Chen Xuan stood up calmly, vented the pressure, and opened the lid all in one go. As the lid was lifted, a spicy medicinal fragrance gushed out with the steam. When the smoke cleared, only some residue remained at the bottom of the pot along with seven or eight marble-sized brown pills.
The left pot refined "Sweet Green Clear Pill," which helps dispel cold and clear the lungs, modernly speaking, it treats respiratory-related diseases.
The right pot produced "Blood Orange," named after the fruit, it can dissolve blood clots and stop bleeding, having quite a good effect on external injuries.
Both pills are entry-level, requiring low material standards and easy to refine, regarded as essential items every cultivator carries a few of in their pockets. Even so, the prerequisite that a cultivator is required for refinement sharply limits their prevalence, although they can fetch a decent price if sold to the public.
It's the same in Liu Shuyue's world as it is here.
Chen Xuan took the pills out and carefully admired them in his hand — these pills were thoroughly infused, with smooth contours, as if they had been polished over a long span of time. Logically, he should test the efficacy of the pills next, yet he had an unexplainable confidence that these finished pills were high-quality products, completely capable of achieving the effects described in Pill Medicine Study.
Just then, a commotion of footfalls interrupted Chen Xuan's observation.
Visitors had arrived.
"Welco...me..."
He looked up, his smile halfway to forming froze on his face.
Because the ones who walked into the shop were not just one person, but four!
And that wasn't the most troublesome part.
The trouble was that each of them was clad in full-body metal armor, resembling ancient knights who had walked out of a museum. The armor was covered with dusty breastplates and cloaks, faintly showing patches of dark red bloodstains. As for the long spears and short swords they held, it goes without saying — the blood grooves were filled with fresh blood, constantly dripping from the blade tips onto the floor.
I just cleaned this floor yesterday!
These newcomers were absolutely not benign.
If Liu Shuyue's killing intent was restrained, these four strangers displayed no concealment whatsoever. Through the gaps in their helmets, Chen Xuan seemed to catch a glimpse of the fierce gleam in their eyes, indicating that if a single word was disagreed upon, they wouldn't hesitate to slash at others.
Without a doubt, these four were clearly not here to buy cigarettes.
Chen Xuan wasn't overly worried about safety issues; since the others weren't here to browse the department store, it meant they were special guests.
The four also appeared somewhat uncertain, glancing around as if surprised by the uniqueness of the shop.
After a few seconds of stalemate, Chen Xuan decided to break the ice and control the situation himself... after all, Manager's Code dictates that every customer should be "warmly welcomed."
"Hello, what can I help you?"
This one question harnessed his over twenty years of English proficiency.
The reason for using English was simple — full-body plate armor isn't popular domestically, so asking in Chinese would likely be futile anyway. They just didn't respond at all to the welcome greeting earlier, did they?
Being a manager requires adapting to circumstances.
"Damn, it's the Brits!"
"Watch out for ambush!"
Unexpectedly, the other party instantly became alert, weapons that were previously held back swung up swiftly, aimed at Chen Xuan from multiple angles!
But what truly surprised Chen Xuan was that these people spoke fluent Chinese, and it even had a Sichuan accent!
Are you all blind?
How could a proud descendant of the Yan and Huang Emperors look like a foreigner?
Besides, since you're wearing Western armor, shouldn't you be speaking a foreign language? How did I become the foreigner here?
"Stop!" The person at the forefront suddenly raised their right hand and said.
The voice wasn't loud, but it was authoritative. The three armored warriors immediately halted and stopped advancing toward the bar.
Only then did Chen Xuan notice that the leader was actually the shortest among the four.
"He hasn't defended himself yet. I want to hear his explanation before making a decision." The leader said again, "Are you a spy for the United Kingdom?"
Though he really wanted to retort a bit, he held back because they were guests, "You're joking, of course I'm not."
This time he switched comfortably to his native language.
"Hmm... then this must be a misunderstanding. Put away your weapons." The leader waved his hand, then apologized to Chen Xuan, "Sorry for scaring you. We are being pursued by enemies, so we must act cautiously."
Did you really believe so easily?
This doesn't seem cautious at all, does it?
What surprised him even more was that those people didn't oppose the leader's decision and just accepted it.
"Aren't you afraid I'm lying?" Chen Xuan asked curiously.
"The Lord told me you weren't deceiving me." The other party removed their helmet, revealing their true appearance. Surprisingly, she was a young woman, with brilliant short golden hair and emerald green eyes like uncut gems, though a heavy fatigue veiled that light with a grayish hue. Her voice was a bit hoarse and androgynous, making it hard to tell her gender when she wore the helmet.
When she said this, she seemed very confident, as if she firmly believed in this reason. Not only her but the other three appeared accustomed to such explanations as well.
"Which country are you from?" Chen Xuan wanted to ask why they spoke Chinese, but he soon realized it wasn't the case because their lip movements and the sounds he heard didn't match, like watching a dubbed movie. Their communication wasn't due to a shared language but some power altering their speech recognition.
Thinking a bit, it was likely due to a Legendary Ability—how could the manager deal with all kinds of customers if they didn't even share a language?
"We are, of course, French." The other party quickly replied, with undisguised pride in her tone.
French... No wonder they act up at the sound of English; aren't they born enemies?
"I see. I'm Chen Xuan, the manager of this shop. May I ask your name..."
"Jeanne D'Arc." The girl said calmly.
Oh? That sounds somewhat familiar.
Chen Xuan casually searched on the computer and found another translation of this name.
A name much higher in popularity and fame—
"... Joan?"
"Yes, is there something strange about this name?" she asked, puzzled.
To her, it seemed like he just repeated the name.
But for Chen Xuan, Joan of Arc carried a much greater meaning! Even under the influence of the Encyclopedia of Ancient and Modern, he only knew this person was a legendary hero who saved France in times of crisis. The specific events were mostly forgotten, but that minor issue was easily solved—searching the character encyclopedia later would make everything clear.
Jeanne didn't mind his strange reaction and continued to plead, "Though I don't understand why you opened a store here, we urgently need help. Hot water, soft cloths, bandages, spirits... If you can provide these things, I promise in the name of the Holy Maiden that you will be duly rewarded in the future."
"Is someone among you injured?"
She nodded.
"Let me take a look."
"You... do you know medicine?"
"Indeed." Chen Xuan answered without hesitation, "Especially good with external injuries."
He certainly didn't understand medicine, but what did it matter? He happened to have some freshly made Pills in hand. During Joan's active period, she mostly fought against the British, so the injuries her soldiers sustained were likely sword and spear wounds, just perfect for testing the "Blood Orange" effect.
"Great!" Joan looked joyfully at her comrades, then turned and said, "Please follow me."
Upon exiting the store, Chen Xuan was slightly shocked.
Outside were countless moving torches. Human and horse shadows flitted chaotically in the night. He roughly counted the nearby ones and there were at least over a hundred people.
Could it be this strange shop door had teleported directly to the Anglo-French battlefield?
Even for attracting customers, this was way too outrageous!
He also noticed most of the warriors were dusty, weary, and looked at Joan with eyes filled with urgency and anxiety, a situation that surprised Chen Xuan slightly.
He vaguely remembered that Joan was famous for her invincibility in battle, advancing triumphantly, winning wherever she went, and hardly ever facing defeat.
Yet, this troop before him didn't project the aura of a victorious army.