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Chapter 8 Holy Maiden

According to alchemy, elixir is the essence of spiritual energy.

If only spiritual herbs are used, then after adjusting the five elements, one can directly begin refining. This will result in the purest pill, almost free of impurities, and with the best effect. However, spiritual herbs are rare, and refining low-grade pills would be a waste. Therefore, there is an alternative method: using the spirituality of other living beings to compensate for the lack of medicinal herbs.

The longhorn beetle and ladybug that Chen Xuan casually caught were for replenishing his spiritual energy.

Alchemy requires a furnace that can withstand high heat, and the shop has a pressure cooker.

Alchemy requires a furnace with adjustable temperature, and the shop has a natural gas stove with twelve precise temperature settings.

"Since the equipment meets the requirements, let's see how it's put into practice."

He rolled up his sleeves and, following the method of harmonizing the five elements in alchemy, divided the eight herbs into two batches, soaked and washed them, and then placed them in two pressure cookers. After finishing these, he added the live insects, then covered the pots and lit the fire to begin the refining process. Once the fire was blazing, he used the Purification Mantra to guide the spiritual energy within the furnace to coalesce.

This process is quite peculiar... If you remove the last step, it's practically a culinary disaster, likely resulting in nothing more than wild herbs stewed with insects. But with the guidance of spiritual energy, subtle changes occur. Chen Xuan found it difficult to describe the changes taking place inside the pot. He could vaguely sense the various medicinal herbs permeating and merging with each other, ultimately becoming a unified whole.

It was clearly his first time refining pills, but it was as if he had done it countless times before.

Everything seemed to fall into place so naturally.

Through the blue flames, he seemed to see the figure of a young girl, sitting cross-legged before the medicine furnace, repeating the process of making pills over and over again, while around her were piles of failed pills. The sky above the medicine furnace changed color, from the hazy dawn to the golden dusk, from lush greenery to snow-covered landscape.

"Boom boom boom!"

The pressure cooker's valve started screeching.

The time has come!

Chen Xuan calmly stood up and deflated as he opened the lid in one smooth motion. The moment the lid was lifted, a pungent medicinal aroma wafted out with the steam. When the smoke dissipated, only a few residues and seven or eight brown pills the size of marbles remained at the bottom of the pot.

The pot on the left is refining "Ganbi Qingdan," which is beneficial for dispelling cold and clearing the lungs; in modern terms, it is used to treat respiratory diseases.

The orange in the pot on the right is called "blood orange," which shares the same name as the fruit. It can help to stop bleeding and is quite effective for external injuries.

Both of these pills are considered beginner-level pills, requiring minimal materials and being quite simple to refine. They are the kind of medicine that every cultivator would carry a few of. Even so, the requirement that only cultivators can refine them significantly reduces their accessibility, allowing them to fetch a considerable price even when sold to the general public.

This is true in Liu Shuyue's world, and it is also true here.

Chen Xuan took out the pills and examined them carefully in his hand—these pills were smooth and lustrous, as if they had been polished by the passage of time. Logically, he should now test the effects of the pills, but he had a faint confidence that these pills were of excellent quality and could fully perform the functions described in the study of alchemy.

Just then, a flurry of footsteps broke the silence, interrupting Chen Xuan's observation.

A guest is coming.

"Welcome...to..."

He looked up, his smile freezing on his face halfway through.

Because it wasn't one person who walked into the store, but four!

This is not the most troublesome thing.

The problem was that they were all dressed in full-body metal armor, looking like ancient knights straight out of a museum. The breastplates and cloaks covering their armor were covered in dust, and patches of dark red blood could still be faintly seen. As for the spears and short swords they carried, needless to say, their grooves were full of fresh blood, which dripped continuously from the tips of their blades to the ground.

I just mopped the floor yesterday!
The newcomer is definitely not a good person.

If Liu Shuyue's murderous aura was restrained, then these four strangers made no attempt to conceal it. Through the gaps in their helmets, Chen Xuan could almost see the fierce glint in their eyes, as if they would draw their swords and kill someone at the slightest provocation.

There is no doubt that these four people were not there to buy cigarettes.

Chen Xuan wasn't too worried about safety. Since the other party wasn't there to shop at the department store, it meant they were special guests.

The four of them were also somewhat surprised and uncertain. They looked around, as if they were amazed by the uniqueness of this shop.

After a few seconds of this stalemate, Chen Xuan decided to break the silence and take control of the situation himself... After all, the store manager's handbook says that one should "warmly welcome every guest".

"Hello, what can I help you?"

This question encapsulates his more than twenty years of English proficiency.

The reason for using English is simple: full-body plate armor wasn't popular in China, and asking in Chinese would have been pointless. Didn't they completely ignore the "welcome" greeting before?
Being a store manager requires adaptability.

"Damn it, it's the British!"

"Beware of ambush!"

Unexpectedly, the other party instantly became alert, raising their weapons, which had been restrained just moments before, and aiming them at Chen Xuan from multiple angles!

But what made Chen Xuan even more nervous was that these people all spoke fluent Chinese, and even had a Sichuan accent!
Are you all blind?

I am a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, how do I look like a foreigner? Besides, since you are wearing Western-style armor, you should be speaking a foreign language! After all this, it seems like I've become a foreigner?
"Stop!" The man at the front suddenly raised his right hand and said.

The voice wasn't loud, but the command was clear: the three armored warriors beside him immediately stopped and did not continue to approach the bar.

Only then did Chen Xuan notice that the leader was actually the shortest of the four.

"He hasn't defended himself yet. I want to hear his side of the story before making a decision." The other person added, "Are you a British spy?"

Although I really wanted to curse them out, I couldn't say it out loud, since they were guests. "You're joking, of course I'm not."

This time, he switched to his mother tongue with ease.

"Hmm... then this must be a misunderstanding. Put away your weapons." The leader waved his hand and apologized to Chen Xuan, saying, "I'm sorry to have startled you. We are being pursued by the enemy, so we have to be careful."

You believed it so easily?

This has absolutely nothing to do with being cautious, does it?
To his surprise, the others did not object and simply accepted their leader's judgment.

"Aren't you afraid I'm lying?" Chen Xuan couldn't help but ask curiously.

“God told me you didn’t deceive me.” The other person then removed their helmet, revealing their true appearance. She was a young woman with bright, short blonde hair, and her emerald eyes shone like uncut gemstones, though a heavy weariness veiled that light. Her voice was somewhat hoarse and androgynous, which made it difficult to tell if she was male or female when she wore the helmet.

She spoke with considerable confidence, seemingly convinced of her reasoning. Not only her, but the other three also appeared to be used to this kind of response.

"So, what country are you from?" Chen Xuan wanted to ask another question, why could they also speak Chinese, but he quickly realized that wasn't the case. The other party's lip movements didn't match the spoken language, just like watching a dubbed film. The fact that they could communicate normally wasn't because they shared the same language, but because some force had manipulated their perception of what they heard and heard.

Thinking about it for a moment, this should also be the effect of the legendary ability - if the store manager can't even speak the language, how can he deal with all kinds of customers?

“Of course we are French,” the other person replied quickly, with undisguised pride in their tone.

The French... no wonder they get sick when they hear English, aren't they natural enemies?
"I see. My name is Chen Xuan, and I'm the manager of this store. May I ask your name...?"

“Jeanne Darc,” the girl said calmly.

Oh? That sounds familiar.

Chen Xuan casually searched on his computer and found that the name had another translation.

A name with a reach and fame a thousand times greater—

"...Joan of Arc?"

"Yes, is there anything strange about this name?" she asked, puzzled.

She probably thought she was just repeating the name.

But for Chen Xuan, the word Joan of Arc carried a much deeper meaning! Even though, influenced by his extensive knowledge of history, he only knew that Joan of Arc was a legendary hero who saved France from peril, and he couldn't quite recall her specific deeds, this little problem was no challenge for him. He would find out everything by searching her biography in a bit.

Joan of Arc ignored his strange reaction and continued to plead, "Although I don't understand why you would open a shop in a place like this, we desperately need help. Hot water, soft towels, bandages, spirits... If you can provide these things, I guarantee in the name of the Holy Maiden that you will receive appropriate compensation in the future."

"Is any of you injured?"

She nodded.

"let me see."

"You...do you know medicine?"

“That’s right,” Chen Xuan answered without hesitation. “He is particularly skilled at treating external injuries.”

He certainly didn't understand medicine, but what did it matter? He happened to be holding a few freshly made pills in his hand. During Joan of Arc's active period, she was basically leading her army in battles against the English, so the injuries her subordinates sustained must have been sword wounds and spear wounds, which would be perfect for testing the effects of "blood orange".

"Excellent!" Joan of Arc exchanged a delighted glance with her subordinates, then turned and said, "Please follow me."

As Chen Xuan stepped out of the store, he was slightly startled.

Outside the shop, there were moving torches everywhere, and the figures of people and horses frantically moving about were faintly visible in the night. He roughly counted the people nearby; there were at least a hundred.

Did this ridiculous shop door just teleport to the battlefield between England and France?

Even if it's to attract customers, this is outrageous!
He also noticed that most of the soldiers were covered in dust and looked exhausted, their eyes revealing anxiety and unease as they looked at Joan of Arc, a situation that surprised Chen Xuan.

He vaguely remembered that Joan of Arc was famous precisely because she was invincible on the battlefield, sweeping all before her and winning wherever she went, and almost never suffered a defeat.

The army in front of us, however, did not look like a victorious force at all.

(End of this chapter)