At 5 a.m. (Mao Shi), the morning light was just beginning to break, and the sun was just peeking over the eastern mountains, rising slowly. Zhu Yi had already finished cleaning the first floor of Library No. 1.
Looking at the sunlight streaming in through the wooden window, she felt conflicted.
On her first day of checking in at the sect, she started by cleaning the library.
She didn't need Master Yujing to tell her what to do every day.
Her personally taught disciples received a notification on their life tablets in the morning.
With cleaning techniques being commonplace in the cultivation world, she needed to carry cleaning tools and manually clean the three libraries of the Tianlan Sect every day.
With a two-hour time limit, the three libraries opened promptly at 9:00 AM (巳时), and fellow disciples who needed to borrow books came in one after another to select their books.
In the morning, Zhu Yi successfully got breakfast ahead of time from the chef in the dining hall by using the title of "new disciple of the Imperial Mirror Master".
To avoid not completing today's task and missing the dinner distribution time, she shamelessly asked the uncle to convert her dinner portion into two steamed buns, one boiled tea egg, and two spirit fruits.
There was no other reason than that the fate tablet clearly stated that after manually cleaning the three libraries, she would need to go to the pharmacy to assist the managers.
She was responsible for whatever work she could do in the pharmacy, and she had to work there for two hours, with the pharmacy manager supervising her.
Up to this point, everything is normal, except for the fatigue, Zhu Yi still feels tired!
If it were the original owner, Zhu Yi, she definitely wouldn't be able to handle it.
After transmigrating, Zhu Yi's physique improved significantly, but she was still somewhat different from her previous self. She always felt a strange soreness and disharmony in her body...
In the pharmacy, Manager Lu, who looked to be in his forties, shook his head as he looked at the little girl who had come to report for duty.
"You're Master Yujing's disciple? That intermediate-level alchemist?"
Zhu Yi nodded repeatedly after finishing cleaning the three libraries.
The distance between the three libraries was quite far, and she was getting quite confused from running around.
Manager Lu looked at her sweaty face with disgust and cast a cleaning spell on her before leading her into a pharmacy.
The air was thick with the smell of steam and a bitter taste. What came into view was a large stove and a big wok.
"Then you can stir-fry the Blazing Fire Flowers. These are Blazing Fire Flowers that the sect disciples found in a secret realm during their missions recently." Steward Lu demonstrated to Zhu Yi while clearing away the small weeds mixed in with the Blazing Fire Flowers.
Zhu Yi nodded.
"Watch carefully, I'll show you how, so you can learn properly and not ruin this sparkling fire later."
Zhu Yi nodded.
"These Blazing Fire Flowers can be roasted to make them easier to store and carry for a long time. They can be used directly for alchemy or to make tea. Winters in the cultivation world are especially cold, and many junior disciples with low cultivation levels like to use them to make tea to keep warm in winter."
Zhu Yi humbly took note and continued to nod obediently...
When you first arrive, what can you do besides nod and agree politely?
"Manager Lu, don't worry, I still know how to stir-fry the Firefly. The Firefly here looks much better than the ones I usually buy!"
Manager Lu scoffed, "Little girl, don't talk big! Stirring up a pot of firecrackers is not the same as stir-frying a bunch of sparks. If you mess up this task, I won't let you off easily!"
Zhu Yi, ever the sycophant, poured a cup of tea from the table in the room and handed it to Manager Lu, saying, "Manager Lu, don't worry, I guarantee I'll be able to handle these Blazing Fire Flowers!"
"Alright, then get to work. Let me make this clear first: I don't care what your master told you, once you're here, you're not allowed to leave until you've finished your work!"
Manager Lu pointed to two large bags of blazing flowers on the medicine shelf in the room, indicating that Zhu Yi should finish frying them all today. Then, with a flick of his sleeve, he casually took the tea and left.
After seeing Steward Lu off, Zhu Yi began cleaning out the two large bags of blazing flowers on the medicine shelf.
One of the bags was as tall as two people. Two hours? Her still-growing little body really doesn't think she can finish it.
It's even more deadly than the library...
I wonder if she'll make it to Spirit Beast Peak to collect manure today...
She laid the large bag down and then spread the bright red sparkling flowers on the round medicine basket.
With three medicine baskets in front of her, Zhu Yi first used wood spirit energy to test the activity of the Blazing Fire Flowers, sensing the different activities of each Blazing Fire Flower and classifying them.
"Before making medicine and refining pills, we need to first determine the activity of spiritual plants." Zhu Yi carefully recalled the words that Master Miaoyin taught her when the original owner was learning alchemy.
She used her wood elemental power to stir-fry ingredients with similar activity levels together.
Remove the pot from the heat and start a fire.
The pharmacy has a supply of earth fire, so Zhu Yi only needs to use his own fire spirit energy to start a fire.
Zhu Yi silently sighed in her heart: Fortunately, she is a research girl with good hands-on skills, and she is still very patient when faced with two sacks of medicinal materials to be processed.
It's a bit tiring, but she can still manage. It's just... the process is a bit slow. She wonders if it could be cooked faster...
As the sun gradually set and dusk settled, two hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Steward Lu had already finished counting the spiritual plants that the sect disciples had handed in today.
Just as he was about to turn back, he heard the hissing sound of a boiler burning in a small side room of the pharmacy.
Manager Lu had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, the next second, he heard a loud "bang", and flames immediately erupted in the small room. The heat wave from the explosion overturned the wooden door of the small room.
It's that little girl! What is she doing? How did she set the house on fire?
Zhu Yi was somewhat flustered at this moment.
Fortunately, she managed to set up a protective shield just as the iron pot exploded...
"You brat, what are you doing? You you you..." Manager Lu stammered for a long time before the old man came in with a red face and a thick neck. As soon as he entered, he saw Zhu Yi with a hairstyle resembling a male lion, her whole body burned black.
"Manager Lu, don't worry. Look, thankfully I set up a protective shield in time. I've already cooked a whole bagful..." Zhu Yi said guiltily.
"You're happy after just one bag of roasted meat?" Manager Lu said, his face contorted with rage. "You've got some nerve, daring to burn down my pharmacy's premises!"
"Not at all..." Zhu Yi exhaled a breath of black smoke, showing her pearly white teeth as she apologized to Steward Lu.
"Manager Lu, I didn't expect that the combination of wood and fire elemental energy would create such a huge energy field..." Zhu Yi had never done anything so embarrassing in her two lives. More and more fellow disciples gathered around to watch the spectacle, and her voice gradually weakened.
"This isn't the first time I've done this job, so I don't have much experience... Look, luckily I reacted quickly, all these sparks are inside the protective shield, not a single one is missing!"
The more Zhu Yi described it, the darker Manager Lu's face became.
"You think you're safe just because you lost one of those fiery sparks?"
"You calculate how many spirit stones it would cost to repair this pot and this door. I will reimburse the pharmacy in full."
Zhu Yi's face was contorted with distress. She should compensate the person who damaged the item, but she still felt heartbroken.
On her first day of sect practice, she not only learned nothing but also spent half the day as cheap labor and even broke the equipment. It really dampened her enthusiasm for cultivation!
But the thought of being turned into a murderous puppet by her elder sister Zhu Qianying five years from now, and the heart-eating poisonous insects ravaging her body, filled her with dread.
The little girl looked so delicate and frail, as if she had suffered a great injustice, that the disciples watching couldn't bear to see her like this.
"Manager Lu, please don't be so fierce. The Blazing Fire Flower is rich in fire element, so it's normal for it to explode during the frying process."
"Yes, yes, Steward Lu, didn't a while ago there was a Dan Sect disciple whose furnace exploded five or six times in one day?"
"Yes, yes, I know about this. I happened to be going to the Pill Sect to get some pills that time, and I happened to be there. It was clearly that disciple who didn't understand the order of refining the herbs that caused the furnace to explode, but he insisted that it was the furnace that was faulty that caused the explosion."
"As a result, the disciples of the Weaponry Sect were very unhappy when they heard this, so they went to argue with him..."
Looking at the blue-robed disciple in front of her, who was talking animatedly, Zhu Yi felt a little heartbroken. She felt that she had only caused an accident once, while she had never caused so many accidents when refining pills.
"Alright, alright, all of you, stop talking. It makes it seem like I'm bullying her." Manager Lu tugged at his small mustache, silencing his disciples as he worked on his abacus with a clattering sound.
"You want compensation, right? The cost of the cookware, the stove, the new door, the repairman's fee, plus the cost of the scrap materials, totals seven hundred and seventy-eight low-grade spirit stones."
"Wow! That's so expensive!" Zhu Yi gasped.
Suddenly, I felt that she didn't seem to have any talent for cultivation.
So, in order to increase the speed of frying the Blazing Fire Flower, she tried to control the wood elemental energy to pick out the herbs with one hand and the fire elemental energy to stir-fry them in the pot with the other? As a result, she didn't control both sides well, and the fire element of the Blazing Fire Flower went berserk and out of control.
Zhu Yi closed her eyes: Okay, although she was trying to find a million reasons to comfort herself about her dish, she still had to face the trouble she had caused...
She was conflicted and heartbroken.
She always felt her limbs stiff and her movements somewhat sluggish when she circulated her spiritual energy, as if her body was unwilling to accept her commands.
In an instant, I was transported back to the time when Zhu Qianying turned me into a puppet...
If I can't even control my spiritual energy, how am I supposed to cultivate?
If she fails in her cultivation, she can simply hide when she encounters Zhu Qianying five years later; that's not out of the question...
Zhu Yisheng, feeling utterly dejected, counted out 778 spirit stones from the blue storage bag on his waist and handed them to Steward Lu.
Despite the pain and the urge to hide away, those chaotic thoughts were fleeting. She focused more on pulling herself together and continuing to fight.
Heartbroken, she felt her life savings, painstakingly accumulated by the original owner, vanish in an instant. She currently only had forty-five low-grade spirit stones left in her storage bag, making her feel utterly impoverished.
Do you think that's all? Not at all.
After leaving the pharmacy, she needed to go to the Spirit Beast Peak to clean up the animal dung, and then place the dung next to the herb garden to ferment.
Five days later, once the manure has fermented, she will manually distribute the manure fertilizer to the medicinal plants in the garden that need it...
That's not all.
If the spiritual plants in the herb garden don't need manure fertilizer for the time being, then she will need to carry manure fertilizer to fertilize the plants near the library and the Hall of Skill Transmission...
As expected, the gifts that fate bestows upon you come with a price tag; the luxurious gift package from Master Yujing is not something you can easily obtain!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com