"Cough.....cough....!"

Everyone was coughing as they tried to get away from the deadly smoke burning their lungs.

Li Ming flicked her arm in a complete arc and with a glow of bright yellow light, the smoke suddenly disappeared from the room.

As she looked around the room, her eyes immediately took in the refiner which was opened and filled with black ash-like material.

She praised herself for not using all the ingredients in one go. She was sure that something would probably happen but never knew that actually, a blast would happen.

Next, her eyes landed on the two little white furballs which had now turned black as they were the ones who were left unprotected when the refiner suddenly blasted.

Li Ming had immediately pulled a shield in front of herself to keep the lid of the refiner and anything else hitting her. If she knew that the room would be filled with thick smoke within seconds, she would have gone with a full shield.

With another flick of her fingers, the room was back to its previous self and so did Mallow. But Snowy was still covered in black soot.

Li Ming folded her hands and gave Snowy a hard glare as she asked, "Mind to share exactly why you pulled such a stunt?"

Her cold deep voice was enough to freeze anyone to death.

"The furnace was about to die and the medicine wasn't ready yet, so....," Snowy trailed off as Mallow facepalmed herself with her small paw.

"Where did you find this idiot from?" Mallow asked Li Ming as she passed Snowy a hard glare. She couldn't believe that such an idiot existed in the world.

"Don't ask me! All I know is that he loves to test my patience," Li Ming replied as she once again started setting the refiner on the furnace after making sure the refiner was completely cleaned and dirt free.

After the equipment was set, Li Ming took out another batch of spiritual herbs and purified them.

"Go and take a bath. Right now you are looking like the result of a very bad experiment," Li Ming told Snowy as she continued putting the herbs inside the refiner one after another in order.

"Ungrateful people. Huff!" Snowy muttered under his breath as he trotted towards the portal which would lead him outside the library.

Of course, Li Ming and Marshmallow heard his praise but decided to ignore him as they had a more important task in their hands.

Mallow started the furnace and Li Ming covered the refiner with its lid.

She once again channeled her spiritual qi into the refiner.

This time the process went uninterrupted and without any accident. After ten minutes, Mallow turned off the furnace with a flick of one of her tails and Li Ming slowly opened the lid.

Inside the refiner were four small round brown colored pills. They all rose high into the air above the refiner and settled on Li Ming's outstretched palm.

"Does it work?" She softly asked Mallow as her eyes kept trained on the four small round little balls in her hand.

"Two of these are third rank low-grade pills. While the other two are completely useless. See those cracks. That means these pills we're unable to consume spiritual qi and without any spiritual qi, they are not useful," Mallow explained as she pointed out the faults.

Li Ming nodded her head but there was no disappointment in her eyes. On the other hand, she was actually happy about her small success after her four failed attempts.

She put the pills aside and started preparing the ingredients and the equipment for another batch of pills.

After fifteen minutes, she once again opened the lid of the refiner and inside were three third rank low-grade pills.

This time none of them had any kind of cracks in them and all three pills passed Mallow's inspection.

"I think we should try these pills first before continuing to make more," Li Ming told Mallow as she put the five pills in a small bottle.

"Alright! But whom are you going to test them on?" Mallow asked as she followed behind Li Ming and came out of the Library of Alchemy.

"I'm going to the orphanage. I'll test these pills on the children from the orphanage," Li Ming told the baby fox spirit.

"But if the pills come out as defected? Won't it be risky for the health of those children?" Mallow asked her Master with serious eyes.

"What do you think of me as? Of course, I'm aware of this and don't worry, I'll make sure that nothing happens to any of the children who will test these pills. Wait for me, I'll be back soon." Li Ming lightly rubbed the small cute ears of the baby fox who in return shivered under her touch and leaned to get more attention.

Li Ming chuckled softly and with a last pat on the baby Huli Jing's head, she disappeared from the view.

------

When Li Ming appeared in the front garden of the orphanage, she was once again wearing a light violet-colored dress rather than the black leggings and the yellow tank top that she had been wearing a few minutes ago. Her waist-length hair was falling loosely on her back, a single jade hairpin of high quality was set in her hair.

A veil covered the lower half of her face but her eyes were enough to grasp anyone's attention.

The sky had already started darkening and the garden was illuminated by the several lamps that were hanging around.

She went inside the living room and immediately was greeted by a group of children who were sitting around playing chess.

The children greeted her and soon Old Madam too entered into the living room and greeted Li Ming.

"Old madam, can you send Rou Rou and Liu Qiu into the study?" Li Ming asked the Old Madam and when the lady nodded her head, she went inside the study.

After five minutes or something, two young boys around seven or eight entered into the study and greeted Li Ming.

"Are you two afraid because I suddenly called you both here?" She asked in a soft tone as she took in their stiff postures.

The two boys immediately shook their heads in negative as Rou Rou replied, "We are not afraid. You are not a bad person."

Li Ming chuckled softly at his words and motioned the two boys to sit down.

"I called the two of you here because I want both of you to test this pill and this potion for me," Li Ming told them as she tapped the bottle of pills and then the vial of potion.

Her eyes were trained on the two boys who looked a little confused but there was still no fear in their eyes.

"Don't worry too much. I will make sure that none of you face any consequences." She promised and the two boys immediately nodded their heads in agreement. It was clear that none of the two boys was afraid. It was like they had their full trust in Li Ming.

"This is low-grade body cleansing pills and potion. And these can only work on those whose cultivation level is below the seventh rank Basic Cultivator level. Do you two want to take this test? If not, I won't blame you at all," Li Ming explained softly and assured the two that she won't blame them if they refused.

"I'm ready to take the test," Rou Rou said in a determined tone.

Liu Qiu also nodded his head at Rou Rou's words and picked up the vial of potion.

Rou Rou also followed him and took out a pill from the bottle. Both of the boys looked at Li Ming who in return nodded her head.

Liu Qiu drank the sparkly yellow liquid at the same time when Ruo Ruo gulped down the pill.

Li Ming made both of them sit down in lotus position and trained her eyes on them. She waited for about a minute when the potion finally started working.

Little black color particles started coming out of the pores of Liu Qiu's skin and Li Ming directed them towards the open window.

It took another minute before the pill also kicked in action and this time it was Ruo Ruo who was covered in a black oily substance that had started pouring out of his skin pores.

Within the next five minutes, both the pill and the potion stopped working.

With a flick of Li Ming's fingers, both of the boys were once again looking clean and tidy. There was no more trace of the black oily substance on Ruo Ruo's body or the black tiny particles that were released by Liu Qiu.

Li Ming checked both of their pulses and hummed softly under her breath. Just like she predicted the potion was more powerful than the pill.

If her calculations were right then at least six third rank low-grade pills would be needed to completely clean all the impurities out of the body. Moreover, the pills could be used by only those who were below the seventh rank of Basic Cultivator.

In short, the pills were almost useless!