Spirit Cultivation (Web Novel)

Back in Lisa's mansion, Xuefeng was dragged all the way to her alchemy room, not stopping for a moment to show him around the mansion. Xuefeng still looked around and had a good first impression. Everything was clean and neat, sorted in the right order. For a second he thought their cooperation would be nice until he saw her lab.

Ultimate mess.

Vials with pills were scattered all over the place, various cauldrons as well as medical ingredients' boxes piled in the corner. The middle of her room was all burned, her wooden floor looking like a fireplace. If it was Xuefeng, he wouldn't be able to work in such a place.

Apparently, Lisa was the same as her first order correlated with the mess.

"As you are my assistant, you have to do whatever I want. Your first mission is to clean the mess inside this room. I need to make some precious pills so I need a clean environment," Lisa ordered as she showed the room with an open palm before turning around while attempting to leave. "I will come back in an hour, I want it all cleaned up."

Unfortunately, she couldn't even make one step as Xuefeng cut her way of exit with his arm. "Did all your assistants clean your mansion?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, why?" She nodded as if it was not a big deal and Xuefeng finally understood why it was so clean outside. He didn't reply to her question and instead turned her back in the direction of the messy room.

"I'm not going to clean this room. You will," Xuefeng said seriously. "I can at most help you."

Lisa blinked twice as if she heard wrong. "What did you say?" she asked to confirm.

Xuefeng smiled and repeated himself, his mouth opened wide so she could hear him clearly while showing her the act of cleaning with his hands, "YOU… WILL… CLEAN… THIS… ROOM… NOW—"

"Okay, okay! I heard you! Thats not the issue here!" Lisa shouted, cutting him off before he could finish. "I'm not cleaning anything! It's your job!"

Humph!

She grunted and stomped in disapproval. She was used to being spoiled and having her assistant do everything. No one was talking to her like Xuefeng did.

Xuefeng didn't care at all. He took a nearby chair while closing the doors and sat up right in front of them, preventing Lisa from leaving. "You won't leave until we are done cleaning. An alchemist should be organized else they will be lost in their mess. You have to learn some self-discipline," Xuefeng reprimanded her firmly.

"And what if I don't?! You can't keep me here forever!" Lisa called out her response, her voice still raised. It was the first time someone ever ordered her to do anything.

"Oh really?" Xuefeng asked back with a grin and closed his arms, cultivating as he waited. "Let's find out."

Two minutes passed and Lisa finally realized Xuefeng wasn't just playing. She was too stubborn to give in so she sat down on the floor, hugging her knees while staring daggers at him.

The room had no windows as the sunlight could ruin her experiments so she couldn't sneak out even if she wanted.

Another eight minutes passed, both sitting in complete silence until Lisa finally let out a sound. Or rather her body did, calling for food.

Growl…

"I'm hungry…" Lisa muttered, no longer as angry as before. She knew that Xuefeng didn't give a damn no matter how much she screams so she tried a softer approach.

Xuefeng only shrugged and replied, "The faster we start, the sooner you will eat."

To his surprise, Lisa stood up, rolled her sleeves and walked up to her desk, sorting the mess. "Are you going to help or you will just sit there?" she asked a moment after, glancing at him.

"Sure," Xuefeng nodded and helped her segregate stuff just as he promised. With her subtle lead of what went where, they quickly cleaned the whole room.

"Whoa, it has never been this clean before," Lisa said in amazement.

"Isn't it better like this?" Xuefeng asked but Lisa was already thinking about something else.

"I only did it for my food," Lisa barked and ran out of the room, coming back a minute later with a big slice of cake on her plate, munching on it happily.

"What pills can you make?" She asked out of blue, smile visible on her face as if she wasn't mad at him. Based on her expression, Xuefeng figured it had to be the food that changed her mood.

"Uhmm… Do you have any pill recipes? I don't think you have materials to make low ranked pills in here," Xuefeng bluffed as he looked around, having no idea how to do alchemy.

Lisa looked around her herbs and realized he was right but then thought of something, a grin appearing on her mouth. She pulled out a parchment from her storage ring and passed it to him. "This is the easiest pill recipe I have. If you can't even make it then you will be useless to me," She described casually and Xuefeng took a look what's written inside.

Dragon Fire Pill: Allows the user to gain the strength of a dragon for one hour.

Reading just the title and the description, Xuefeng immediately knew it wasn't a simple pill. Lisa had to be playing with him, but he didn't have the knowledge to confirm it.

'Don't ask me,' Drakos called out before he could ask. 'Just because it has word dragon in the name, it doesn't mean its related to us. Alchemist like to use our name to make anything sound powerful. Heh, I kind of understand them.'

Xuefeng didn't want to bother with him so he turned for her to the girls yet they also knew little about alchemy. Despite living for countless years, they were not omnipotent.

Lisa saw Xuefeng's frown and smiled, happy to have her revenge on him. "Here are the ingredients," She called out as ten boxes appeared on the ground in front of him. "Follow the recipe and begin. Open the boxes while surrounding them with your Spirit Qi else the air will ruin them."

Lisa gave him a little advice as she wasn't that cruel before sitting back on the chair, waiting for the show.

'Okay, it can't be that hard, right?' Xuefeng thought as he glanced at the recipe. He didn't want to give up before he even tried.

Melt all the herbs together under fire burning evenly from all sides, making sure they doesn't stick to each other before mixing it at the same time, condensing the pill.

'That's it?' Xuefeng checked the instructions and couldn't help but wonder if it was Lisa herself who wrote it. He wouldn't be surprised if she did.

Glancing down at the available cauldron, he didn't know what to do with it.

'Ah, fuck it. I will just do it myself. I can make my own cauldrons,' Xuefeng quickly decided, throwing away any unknown tools.

With a flick on his finger, Xuefeng surrounded the boxes with his Spirit Qi and all ten Spirit Herbs flew out of their boxes, hovering in front of him. They looked really fancy, glaring at him with a colorful pallet of its petals.

"My method is slightly different so don't freak out," Xuefeng warned.

Lisa only smirked. "Don't worry, I saw everything in the world of alchemy. If you can surprise me then I will eat my—" She acted like a master but when she saw Xuefeng create ten round fireballs surrounding the herbs, she stopped talking, observing his action closely.

Xuefeng followed the guide, melting the herbs evenly from all sides until each of them turned into liquid. Bringing all of it into one spot, he then mixed it all together until the color unified.

'Now condense!' He called out in his mind and applied pressure onto the liquid. 'Huh?'

Despite utilizing its bloodline to the max, he could not condense the liquid at all. It was still burning hot.

'Maybe I should cool it down first?' Xuefeng thought and immediately formed ten small balls the size of normal pills. Instead of fire, Xuefeng created an air bubble with wind spinning all around the liquid, essentially cooling it down until it became hard. He didn't know what else he could do so he cleaned the scene and showcased ten pills to Lisa.

"I'm done," He called out happily. "It took a while, sorry I made you wait." He spent more than five minutes which Xuefeng considered to be pretty long time, even if his pills were a failure.

Lisa stared at the ten pills in shock, signaling either a massive win or an expensive loss. Not helping him at all, Lisa put down her cake and shouted at him.

"Do you have any idea what have you done?!"