Facing Yao Qian’s warning, Li i spoke casually.
"It was fine. Besides, didn’t I inscribe the Spirit-Traced Thread Imprint for you?" Li i replied.
"You did that?" Han Yu was astounded.
The reason he had gotten into trouble and was caught in the first place was because of Li i!
"I just wanted to test its effectiveness." Li i shrugged shalessly. "I ca to get you out, didn’t I?" She smiled, like a fox who had just dodged a hunter’s trap and then sold the trap back to the hunter as a decorative flower pot.
Later that afternoon, Han Yu sat back in the pill hut, sipping water like an old war veteran, watching a rat perched on a barrel gently massage its feet with peanut oil—infused with sothing suspiciously glowing. Another one of Li i’s experints, probably.
"So, how are the effects? Still lingering? Any more prophetic or clairvoyant thoughts?" Li i asked, her notepad resting casually at her side, ink ready for fresh madness.
"No. Nothing anymore." Han Yu shook his head. "Though that was strange... How was that pill so powerful?" He had never expected it to grant him such an ability, even if it was short-lived.
He certainly didn’t think so squirrel’s blood would have that kind of power. He’d only ever seen squirrels use their powers for thievery and nut hoarding.
"I... don’t fully know," Li i replied.
"You don’t?" Han Yu raised his newly regrown eyebrows, which were still a bit fuzzy. "Then what about the vitality crystal and all that?"
"Well, it did have that. But I’m sure it wouldn’t cause your spiritual perception to jump so much like this." Li i replied, genuinely puzzled.
"By spiritual perception, you an... Spirit Sense?" Han Yu asked, suspicious.
"So you know about that too." Li i was impressed. She hadn’t expected a re servant to know sothing like that.
"Of course I do. Even children in the villages know about it. Not to ntion soone who’s been in the sect for nearly two months now." Han Yu puffed his chest slightly. Modestly.
"I see... Then do you know how Spirit Sense works, or is made?" she asked, arching a brow.
"No. Tell ." Han Yu leaned forward, genuinely curious.
After all, he was still just a servant, so he didn’t exactly get access to these lessons—lessons only disciples received. His formal education consisted of "Don’t mop the lightning array when it’s active" and "Don’t ask about the glowing chicken."
"Spirit Sense is essentially refined by connecting wisps of Spirit Qi. A cultivator can use it like a finger to trace over things to ’see’ what they are. With more practice and decent proficiency, they can basically use it like all five senses combined into one," Li i explained in surprising detail.
"Huh... Then how is it that sothing like that was obtained by ? I certainly didn’t refine it. Heck, I can’t even use Spirit Qi. I’m not a cultivator yet," Han Yu asked, puzzled.
"Sohow, it granted you a temporary burst of Qi that managed to connect with your ridians and your mind. Though it wasn’t refined in the normal manner. Instead of a single thread of Spirit Qi, it was more like an entire wave of it working all at once," Li i gave her hypothesis.
"Damn." Han Yu was stunned. "You can make sothing like that?" He hadn’t expected the insane alchemist to have such skill.
"Of course! You’re looking at the first-ranked Alchemist among Outer Court disciples—and overall third-ranked Outer Court disciple in the sect," Li i said proudly.
"You... and all that?" Han Yu stared at her. He would much rather believe pigs could fly—or that his mop had sentience—than believe this gremlin was a prodigy.
"Why? You don’t believe it?" Li i said, raising an eyebrow before releasing her aura.
HUALA!
The entire hut was filled with a wave of Spirit Qi so intense it made their robes flutter like laundry in a typhoon. Gone was the childish deanor of the girl—replaced by the dignity and power of a true disciple!
"You... what is your cultivation base?" Han Yu asked, heart pounding. He realized he had never asked before. ’Is she at the Qi Refining Realm too? She seems... stronger than the rest.’
"I’m at the Peak Stage of the Qi Refining Realm, of course," Li i said with the confidence of soone who could blow up a building and then brew tea in its ashes.
"WHAT?!" Han Yu scread.
Her deanor and appearance certainly didn’t show that. She looked more like a cabbage vendor’s niece than a powerhouse.
"Now do you believe it?" Li i smirked, reeling in her aura. "You should call Senior Sister, you know," she added, wagging her finger.
"Senior Sister, that’s a bit..." Han Yu looked her up and down. She wasn’t even five feet tall and still had the baby-faced glow of soone who believed in candy bribes.
"Just because I look like this doesn’t an I’m a child." She pouted, which only made her look more like a child.
"So you’re not a child?" Han Yu scratched his chin. "And here I thought you were one of those genius recruits taken in at, like, seven."
"While that was true when I was first recruited, I’ll also have you know I’m sixty years old," Li i said, puffing up her chest like an old master.
"S-Sixty?!" Han Yu was horrified. "You’re an old hag?!" He shouted.
SMACK!
Li i slapped him across the face with her notepad.
"Say that again and I’ll feed you a pill that’ll make you poop until your soul reincarnates as a raisin!" she shouted.
GULP.
Han Yu zipped his mouth shut. Tight.
A minute passed in thick, awkward silence.
"Speak carefully," Li i narrowed her eyes, still holding the notepad like a divine judgnt tablet.
"Still... From what I know, even if you reach the Core Condensation Realm, a cultivator’s aging doesn’t completely stop," Han Yu said carefully hoping that the girl wouldn’t take offense in this too.
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