recipe

The sun rose up in the sky, representing noontime.

Song Shuhangl had woken up, did his daily routine, and left off to his classes with his phone.

'' Classes are such a bore when I already know everything their teaching, maybe I should get an online degree? Nah " Song Shuhang dismissed the thought, and entered his class.

" Long Ming? " The teacher was calling out names, but he ignored it and opened up his chat app.

He saw the number of unread notifications beside the Nine Provinces Number One Group chat group, and opened the chat to see what the members had been saying although he already knew some of it.

The chat log from morning appeared before him.

Questions about the newcomer by Northern River's Loose Cultivator, Thrice Reckless Mad Saber seeking death, and the interesting Spirit Butterfly Island's senior. There was also a guy who claimed that he had calculated his affinity with Shuhang, True Monarch Yellow Mountain.

Looking at the chat logs, he slightly chuckled.

'I wonder what True Monarch Yellow Mountain had gotten out of his divination, it should have changed from my arrival'

"Song Shuhang?"

He responded with a "here, and continued on reading.

"Can you put the phone down Shuhang?" The teacher asked.

" No mam, this is important and my grades aren't suffering from this...so no" Song Shuhang's response made the teacher huff in anger, but she didn't do anything else but start the class.

Scrolling through the chat, Song Shuhang wondered if he should finally respond back.

He really wanted to join in, and yet wanted to make the plot go regularly.

He sighed, he was gonna wait another few days.

✨✨✨

Ten days had passed.

June 1st, Saturday, Children's Day.

Song Shuhang's roommates were all staying part-time at the dormitory. That is to say, they would stay in the dorm from Monday to Friday and return home during the weekends. Therefore, he was left alone in the dorm whenever weekends arrived.

He had some potato chips on his side, and was waiting for the text message with the recipe. This had been his routine thing, watching and reading the Nine Provinces Number One Group.

He had tracked the days, and concluded this was the real start of everything.

Lurking for more than ten days, the majority of the members was discussing about their adventures in the secret territory and their harvest, or where did the evil spirits and demons appear at, and how they would subdue and kill them while speaking as if it was all real. Song Shuhang had slowly written an online novel called the Dragon Emperor's Chat Group, which was basically the novel he was in but slightly altered and was pretty famous online.

True Monarch Yellow Mountain—the admin—rarely appeared, or the two managers, Daluo Sect's True Monarch Rain Moon and Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue, that had never appeared since he had joined the group like previously.

The ones usually online were 'information-gathering' Northern River's Loose Cultivator, the expert in seeking death Thrice Reckless Mad Saber, Su Clan's Seven who only spoke about fighting whenever he opened his mouth, and Medicine Master whose words were as precious as gold.

There was another lurker named Wandering Monk Profound Principle inside the group. Even if he were to appear, he would only send some emojis or punctuation marks. It was said that this senior monk was in a silent meditation. He didn't talk, nor type any words and the most he could do was to send an expression.

Lastly, there was Spirit Butterfly Island's Soft Feather who seemed normal, her messages were pretty normal. He had wondered if he should pursue her, have only one person, or have a harem. Honestly he didn't know, but he just might if he ffelt the desire to.

✨✨✨

Opening Nine Provinces Number One Group chat's window, the first thing he saw was Medicine Master's message.

"Improved a foundation liquid recipe." It was a rare thing for Medicine Master to speak.

This was a sentence of five words and a full stop. Ever since Song Shuhang had entered the novel, he had forgotten all the recipes so he read it with enthusiasm.

His message was sent during wee hours.

"Simplified Body Tempering liquid recipe: Ginseng 150g, Wolfberry 215g, Morning Dew Mysterious Grass 50g, Rising Sun Stone 150g, Maiden's Fragrance 65g, Fresh Overlord Branch 50g, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo 200g…"

A series of forty-five different ingredients—with the familiar ones such as ginseng, wolfberry, and such, and also uncommon ones like Rising Sun Stone along with a few ingredients that were totally unheard of such as Morning Dew Mysterious Grass, Fresh Overlord Branch, Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, and more in the normal world.

"Following the ratios in the recipe, add the ingredients one by one into the furnace, simmer for five minutes; add the new medicinal ingredients, and continue to simmer for around five minutes. Do pay attention to fire's temperature! Repeat this cycle until the medicinal liquid becomes a paste. After that, the completed product should be black, transparent, and exude a strong smell."

Shuhang's memory cleared and he finally remembered everything.

Out of the over forty ingredients' names, more than thirty were all common traditional chinese medicine, the type used for replenishing qi and blood.

The were fifteen other ingredients such as Morning Dew Mysterious Grass, Overlord Branch, Scarlet Flame Bamboo and so on that wouldn't be sold normally so he waited.

''I already know my body is stronger than normal, so would the liquid even affect me that much?" Suddenly, his wisdom answered for him.

{The Body Tempering Liquid would only increase your percent by two, but if you add Dragon Dew it can increase to thirteen}

"Dragon Dew?" He curiously asked his Wisdom.

{Dragon Dew is a plant found in places with miasma and spirits, it is usually found underground and is shaped similarly to ginger but with three roots longer than normal. The more mature, the more black spots they have which is ten at the most mature. They are usually mistaken for rotten ginger by mortals, and thrown away}

Shuhang thought of places, and wondered if a grave will do.

{No, only places without the bodies of the dead, but still having miasma and spirits}

' I can only think of one thing, but I'll have to wait for Soft Feather ' Shuhang sighed, and continued reading the chat, sure enough, Soft Feather had already followed the recipe to refine the medicine at around 2 a.m.

Spirit Butterfly Island's Soft Feather: "Compared to the older version of body tempering liquid, several rare ingredients were removed and the concocting process has been simplified drastically. Senior Medicine Master, to what degree should the heat be controlled? I have just attempted it earlier on but failed during the process. Also, what's the difference in efficacy between the old and new versions?

"Effect 2:1," Medicine Master replied.

The medicinal effect was only half of the one before, after all many precious ingredients were removed. However, with such common and mass-orientated ingredients being sufficient to concoct a body tempering liquid, it was already worthwhile.

"Heat control and specific timing have to be grasped by oneself and can't be explained," once again, Medicine Master had sent another long text. It was only when questions regarding pills appeared that he would type more. "Also, if your heat control is lacking, it's recommended to use fire control treasures."

"Thank you, Senior, I shall try it again." Butterfly Feather sent a 😊 and went offline.

The last message sent by Spirit Butterfly Island's Soft Feather was at 2:30 am.Shuhang released a Yawn, and got a drink of water before reading on.

His computer shook and a 😄 popped up within the chat window.

This was from an administrator of the group—named Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue—that had yet to appear since he had entered the group. "This recipe is pretty good. I have consecutively tried out seven furnaces and successfully concocted it without much trouble, the success rate is also on the high side. Although the medicinal effect is roughly 50% of that of the old recipe, its difficulty has decreased by more than ten times. Despite this being the lowest-grade body tempering liquid, precious ingredients are getting scarcer and scarcer due to the thinning of world's spiritual qi and to us, this is a good thing. Medicine Master, continue to work hard. If you could simplify a recipe of third grade and above, it would really be a virtuous achievement.

P.S. "Most importantly, the concocting method's difficulty was greatly reduced, such that it can even be passed to trainees to concoct."

Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue was a renowned big senior within the group and his strength was a tier above True Monarch Yellow Mountain's. Furthermore, he had extremely deep attainments in concocting pills, therefore it could be said that he was an authority with regards to pill refining. Thus, his praise would naturally encourage a junior like Medicine Master.

"Thank you Senior, I shall work hard!" Medicinal Master excitedly typed a sentence of more than six words, furthermore with a fast speed.

Shuhang developed an idea.. what if... he began to double the world's spiritual qi?