Chapter 3490 — The Quirks of Bingtang's Temperament (Part 1)

"Heh, but never mind that either. Whatever you need refined, just come to me directly," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"That's true enough." Bingtang looked at Wei Zhao's "alchemy artifact" with curious eyes. "This thing—can it refine pills automatically? No wonder your success rate is so high, and so fast too. So you've had a treasure in hand all along!"

"It's not bad." Wei Zhao nodded. "But it's not for sale. There's only one, and it's mine."

"No wonder. Still, keeping a good thing for yourself is the right thing to do." Bingtang nodded. "Then start refining now. Do you need me and Xiaoxiao to help?"

"That won't be necessary." Wei Zhao waved a hand, then opened the medicine cauldron. "Just give me the materials!"

"All right!" Bingtang went to fetch the ingredients for the Great Return Pill and handed them to Wei Zhao. She had prepared them all along, intending to find someone else to refine them—only her relations with the Mysterious Pill Sect had never been good, so they had just sat here ever since.

Wei Zhao took out four portions of materials, hesitated, and then took out five! Judging by the cauldron's capacity, roughly five portions could be placed inside at once. Still, Wei Zhao planned to check first whether four portions would yield the greatest profit, or five.

Wei Zhao pressed the power button on the Shennong Automatic Medicine Cauldron. A welcome screen immediately appeared on the LCD display: Han Jingyi's smiling face, with a line of text beneath it: "The intelligent alchemy system built by Jingjing for Brother Wei Zhao..."

At the sight of this welcome screen, both Feng Xiaoxiao and Bingtang were somewhat astonished!

"Who is this Han Jingyi? How is she so formidable? Did she invent all these medicine cauldrons?" Bingtang asked in surprise.

"She's another itty-bitty wife of Wei Zhao's husband. I don't know if she ranks before you or after you, but she's definitely after me!" Feng Xiaoxiao explained.

Bingtang nodded. Her thinking had always followed the old ways, so she did not much mind how many wives Wei Zhao had. They were all Heaven-rank cultivators, their lifespans endlessly prolonged—such trifles were not something she cared about at all.

On the contrary, she was glad that Wei Zhao had so many people around him who could help him. "Then she really is formidable!"

"Please wait a moment. Jingjing is generating the Great Return Pill alchemy script for Brother Wei Zhao. After Jingjing's calculations, placing five portions of refining materials each time will yield the greatest profit."

Five portions after all! Because the last refinement had used only four portions, Wei Zhao had not paid much attention to that prompt, but he had a vague impression of it.

At that thought, Wei Zhao loaded five portions of Great Return Pill materials into the cauldron, ready to channel his physical true qi and begin refining!

As it turned out, once Wei Zhao had placed the materials in, and Bingtang saw the prompt on the screen, she was even more astonished: "Alchemy script generated. Based on automatic analysis of the weight within the cauldron, five portions of materials have been placed for this refinement. Estimated refining time: three hours and fifty minutes. Please accumulate physical true qi in advance! Estimated pill output: eight pills!"

Five portions of materials could produce eight Qi-Gathering Pills? How was that possible?

But Wei Zhao did not question the prompt on the screen either, so Bingtang kept watching.

Nearly four hours later, when Wei Zhao finished refining and opened the cauldron, there really were eight Qi-Gathering Pills inside!

Yet Bingtang's first reaction was not shock—it was to glare at Wei Zhao. "You told me just now that you still had materials for the Ice-Heart Jade-Bone Pill. In truth you didn't. You were afraid I'd get suspicious if you refined too much, so you lied to me, didn't you?"

"Sweat." Wei Zhao had not expected Bingtang to pick up on that. He could not help but smile wryly—this little Bingtang girl really did hold a grudge! Xiao Chen glanced at Bingtang and said helplessly, "Didn't we not hug before?"

"Hmph! Then you're not allowed to lie to me from now on. Xiaoxiao knows things—I want to know them too! You and her—wasn't it just hugging as well!" Bingtang said.

"Wei Zhao's husband has felt my chest!" Feng Xiaoxiao cut in.

"Pfft, cough cough—" Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears. "That wasn't intentional on my part."

"Oh, come on. At the auction, it was clearly intentional. The car race, fine, we'll count that as unintentional," Feng Xiaoxiao said.

"Then you can feel mine too!" Bingtang, ignoring the bickering between Feng Xiaoxiao and Wei Zhao, thrust out her chest and said, unwilling to be outdone.

"How about we get down to business instead..." Wei Zhao was at a bit of a loss for how to respond. Bingtang really did go through with things—once she had made up her mind, she became utterly unrestrained.

"Coward!" Bingtang gave a humph. "You had the guts to kill the disciples of the Mysterious Dust Ancestor, but when it comes to me you're this timid!"

"I—" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and pounced toward Bingtang.

"Ah!" Bingtang was startled.

"Go, Wei Zhao's husband!" Feng Xiaoxiao cheered, waving her arms and stamping her feet.

What began as a scuffle between two people turned into three—Feng Xiaoxiao joined the fray as well. In the end, all of them were somewhat disheveled. Though the three were top-tier Heaven-rank experts, this kind of romping not only drained their stamina but also their spirit, and after a while they were tired.

Lying on the ground, Bingtang glared at Wei Zhao. "From childhood to now, I've never been this wild. I let you touch here—why are you touching other places?!"

"That was Xiaoxiao touching," Wei Zhao said innocently.

"Nonsense, it was clearly your hand!" Bingtang said angrily.

"That was Feng Xiaoxiao holding my arm," Wei Zhao explained.

Feng Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, was laughing nonstop off to the side. Once the three had rested enough, Wei Zhao finally said, "Bingtang, do you know that the Ice Palace has a mental cultivation method and oral formula suited for cultivators with a sponge constitution?"

"Earlier, what Aunt Qing mentioned—that's your friend, isn't it?" Something seemed to occur to Bingtang. "That Wang Xinyan you carried here last time?"

"Yes, her." Wei Zhao nodded.

"Is she before me or after me?" Bingtang suddenly asked.

"Uh—before." Wei Zhao was taken aback, then smiled wryly. "But when I came to Songshan City, the first person I met on the train was—"

"I was just asking, no other meaning." Bingtang spoke quite calmly. "Otherwise, when we meet in the future, I won't know what to call her."

Wei Zhao sometimes found Bingtang rather strange. She would get jealous over things that did not matter—like Wei Zhao not telling her about the alchemy—but when it came to matters like Wang Xinyan, it had no effect on her at all. (To be continued)