Preparing for the Funeral
Zhou Lihua stared into her cauldron. She took several deep breaths, holding it, then breathing out slowly. Her hand hovered over a set of ingredients placed in little boxes to her left as she inspected each one with her chi. She could tell what kind of condition they were in simply from letting her chi hover over them.
Another deep breath later and Zhou Lihua tossed one of the ingredients into the cauldron. She held out her hands and pushed her chi outward, turning it into an alchemical flame that roared to life underneath the cauldron. With her eyes narrowed in concentration, she focused on the ingredient inside of her cauldron, working hard to refine it into a liquid state without burning it.
“Control your flame,” Wong Jiu said behind her.
“Yes, Master.”