Starting with magical girls, I'll reign supreme for eternity.

Pushing open the door, an antique alchemy furnace, surrounded by carvings of auspicious clouds and ancient dragons, suddenly appeared before my eyes.

White smoke billowed up to the ceiling along with the furnace, then fell back down in all directions, filling the entire room with smoke.

It looks like some kind of celestial abode.

However, the dilapidated state of the walls was also evident.

It's just a cheap mud house.

Beside the alchemy furnace squatted a middle-aged man wearing a dark green Taoist robe, his face covered in soot.

Holding a fan, he kept blowing on the fire beneath the alchemy furnace, coughing and muttering incantations.

"Realgar water, alum water, salt, brine, ore, oyster, red ochre, talc, lead oxide... not bad, not bad."

Even after Jiang Si entered, the middle-aged man didn't notice, only staring intently at his alchemy furnace.

He counted on his fingers again, "It's already the thirty-sixth day."

He sniffed the smell, and a slightly manic smile appeared on his tense face:

"All diseases are cured, all diseases are cured... Haha, I've succeeded!"

"I've succeeded, Daoist Master!"

He was hunched over there, almost as if he was about to dance.

Then, the alchemy furnace exploded with a bang, causing the middle-aged man to fall to the ground. After a long while, he threw away his fan.

"Damn it, how could this be!"

Then he looked towards the doorway, his dark face filled with madness.

"Son, come and light the furnace!"

Jiang Changshou, unemployed vagrant, forty-seven years old.

He is Jiang Si's father.

Chapter 238 Scolding Father in the Mourning Hall (First Update, 53000 words, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

"Incorrect quantity?"

"The location of the alchemy furnace..."

"No, no, no, this requirement was set by the Thirteen Surgical Examiners..."

The simple earthen house was decorated like an ancient and dilapidated Taoist temple.

A middle-aged man in a Taoist robe paced back and forth, searching through his large bookshelf for books.

The Book of Changes and the Cantong Qi, The Secrets of the Alchemy Chamber, The Complete Collection of Golden Elixir, The Master Who Embraces Simplicity, The Great Elixir of the Jade Elixir of Jinhua...

After looking around, Jiang Si finally confirmed it.

This is none other than his childhood home.

The father was obsessed with alchemy, and so was his precious alchemy furnace.

He'd fight anyone who dared touch his alchemy furnace.

I remember when I was little, I accidentally fell down while he was refining pills, and instinctively grabbed the pill furnace.

He was slapped.

"Son, do you know who I am?"

When he was a child, this was the question that this man would ask him most often when he held him.

"I am the last Taoist priest in this world! When I become an immortal, my entire family will ascend to heaven!"

For a long time, I had no fixed job and no stable income.

He would do odd jobs to earn money, then buy some raw materials to refine pills.

This went on for more than twenty years.

"One tael of mercury, one tael of alum slightly dried, one tael of saltpeter dried by roasting, one tael of dried salt, five mace of cinnabar, and one tael of ferrous sulfate. No problem, all of it is fine..."

Jiang Si found it a bit boring to see her father scratching his head and cheeks, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

Heretical path.

He looked down at the cat he had picked up on the road.

He was trembling, and I could feel his heartbeat was slow; he was on the verge of death.

So he put the cat in the blanket—there was a simple bed in the house with only one blanket.

There was no need for heating inside. My father was constantly refining pills, and the furnace was very hot. Apart from the smoke that was emanating from it, which might be toxic, there was nothing wrong with that.

It's not to the point where they can't stay.

This time, what came out was yet another pile of pitch-black garbage.

"Dampen with fine sand... Roast the plaster over a low flame until the first incense stick burns out, then increase the heat to a gentler level; after the second incense stick burns out, increase the heat to a stronger level; remove from the heat after the third incense stick burns out and let it cool... Maintain moisture to prevent the plaster from drying out and cracking, causing the elixir to leak out... If the elixir is white, the heat is insufficient; if it is black or purple, the heat is too strong, and inferior elixir cannot be used in medicine... Yellowish-white elixir is of superior quality..."

Jiang Changshou held the black and purple scrap material in his hands, his pupils bloodshot.

"How could this happen? The steps were definitely correct! Where did things go wrong? Where did things go wrong..."

He turned his gaze to Jiang Si. "Yes, you're the only exception."

Finally, he grabbed Jiang Si's shoulders and shook him, "Son, you've ruined my precious elixir!"

"Didn't you place your alchemy furnace in the wrong spot?"

Jiang Si, fiddling with the dying cat and watching it slowly pass away, said without looking up, "The celestial phenomena and the Five Elements are not considered, and there is no special fire. It's just ordinary household fire. How can we refine a true elixir?"

The father looked bewildered. "Celestial phenomena, the Five Elements? And where does this strange fire come from?"

"Battle Through the Heavens," Jiang Si said calmly. "You need to study the celestial phenomena and the Five Elements more often, whether it's the intention or the detailed alchemy process. The Great Dao is all in there. If you only read useless fake scriptures every day, how can you refine true pills?"

Jiang Changshou, who was originally insane, was stunned by his son's words.

"I'm a fake pill? Impossible, absolutely impossible, my pill furnace is in the right place..."

He muttered to himself, but the other person ignored him.

Jiang Si gave a cold laugh and said nothing more.

It seems this is just a memory.

Not long after, someone broke in.

"Jiang Changshou! Are you trying to die?!"

Jiang Si finally raised her head and glanced at it.

The young mother had not seen him for a long time.

In my hazy memories, my mother was always old and frail, her face etched with deep sorrow.

No matter what happens, they will only give in and apologize.

His back was always bent, his head was down, as if he was being pressed down by something and couldn't breathe.

However, when I was young... actually, I'm already over thirty now.

But she stood very straight, her voice wasn't heavy, and her face, though not covered in wrinkles, was full of vigor and sharpness.

Aside from her appearance, she is almost a completely different person from the mother I remember.

"If you poison the child, I'll throw you into the latrine!"

As his mother spoke, she pulled him over.

However, the father simply waved his hand and said, "Go away, get out of here, don't disturb my alchemy."

"Go to hell!"

His mother pulled him out of the house.

Because he got lost from his mother on the way, he instinctively returned to this house.

As my mother dragged me out, a loud explosion came from inside the house, followed by my father's maniacal laughter.

"What's wrong? It's right, it's right, it's right!"

He's gone mad.

This is the consequence of only practicing external alchemy.

Those so-called ancient alchemy methods are mostly heretical and deviant, used to harm later cultivators.

However, it does contain some elements of the path to immortality.

After being compiled and optimized by countless online authors, the true method of cultivating immortality was finally extracted.

However, no matter how many times he was told, his father remained obstinate.

They only recognize this ancient method of alchemy.

"You mustn't become like him in the future, son."

Holding his hand, the mother, who had been irritable and angry, softened her voice.

It resembles some of the things I remember.

"Ah."

His mother gently touched his face and then picked him up. "Are you cold, son?"

"Fortunately."

Where did this cat come from?

Jiang Si then realized that she had picked up the cat from the roadside.

I touched it again, and it was already hard.

So he casually threw it into the trash heap.

"Pick it up."

"Do you like cats, son?"