Chapter 333 - Gifts and Hidden Treasures

Chapter 333: Chapter 333 - Gifts and Hidden Treasures

Su Bai looked down at the two gifts in his hands.

Yan’er was watching him with barely concealed anticipation, while Liu Meng appeared calmer, though the slight curve at the corners of her lips betrayed her own curiosity.

He decided to start with Liu Meng’s gift.

It was a storage ring. It looked ordinary enough.

When Su Bai sent his spiritual sense inside, his expression immediately froze.

For several breaths, he said nothing.

Su Bai checked again, just to make sure his spiritual sense had not suddenly developed a sense of humor.

It had not.

A large section of the storage space was filled with pill dregs.

There were enough discarded remnants to form small hills, accumulated from failed batches, residue, and materials most alchemists would have thrown away without a second thought.

Beside them sat an equally impressive collection of Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills.

Su Bai slowly withdrew his spiritual sense.

A laugh escaped him.

He had only recently started missing the familiar taste of chocolate chip cookies.

And now they had practically fallen from the heavens!

Su Bai glanced at Liu Meng.

’No, that was inaccurate.’

They had fallen from Meng!

His smile widened.

She really did understand him.

Seeing his reaction, Liu Meng finally relaxed.

"Senior Brother, those pill dregs accumulated while you were away. I asked Verdant Peak to keep theirs instead of disposing of them, and the Liu Family Auction House gathered what it could as well."

She pointed toward the storage ring.

"I also helped refine the Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills."

Su Bai nodded with solemn approval.

"Good. Very good."

Liu Meng laughed softly.

Anyone else might have been offended after receiving a storage ring filled largely with alchemical waste.

Su Bai looked happier than most people did when handed Spirit Stones.

Yan’er shifted beside her.

Su Bai noticed immediately.

He smiled and turned toward her.

"Now yours."

Yan’er straightened.

Unlike Liu Meng’s storage ring, her gift had been carefully wrapped.

Su Bai opened it slowly rather than tearing through the covering.

Inside was a small charm.

It was plainly handmade.

The stitching was not perfectly even, and one side sat a little higher than the other, but the thread had been carefully woven around a tiny protective pattern.

There was no powerful formation hidden inside it, no rare material, and no astonishing spiritual fluctuation.

Su Bai simply stared at it for a moment.

Yan’er’s earlier confidence began to weaken.

"I made it myself, Senior Brother," she said quietly. "Senior Sister Meng helped me with the pattern a little."

Su Bai’s expression softened.

He lifted the charm and tied it directly at his waist.

Yan’er’s eyes immediately brightened.

"You’re really going to wear it?"

"Of course."

He adjusted it once before looking at both of them.

"Thank you. I really appreciate your gifts."

The words were simple, but neither Liu Meng nor Yan’er missed the sincerity behind them.

Su Bai glanced toward the storage rings he had been studying earlier.

Their timing was actually convenient.

He had already found something for Liu Meng.

With a wave of his hand, a large shadow appeared in front of them.

The dark three-legged cauldron landed heavily on the stone floor.

The impact made Yan’er jump.

Liu Meng did not.

She had stopped moving entirely.

Her eyes traveled across the cauldron.

As an alchemist, she did not need Su Bai to explain how unusual it was. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Even with most of its deeper formations dormant, the cauldron carried a quality that surpassed anything commonly seen in the current cultivation world.

Liu Meng slowly looked at him.

"Senior Brother..."

"This belongs to you now."

Her eyes widened.

"Senior Brother, you don’t have to give me something like this. This is far too valuable."

Su Bai shook his head.

"I can’t make proper use of it."

That was true.

His Cold-Forging Alchemy had never required a cauldron in the first place. Even if Su Bai could eventually find another use for it, leaving such a valuable alchemical artifact with him would be far less beneficial than putting it in Liu Meng’s hands.

"You can."

Liu Meng looked back at the cauldron.

Her fingers twitched slightly.

Su Bai noticed.

He almost laughed.

Her mouth was still trying to refuse while the alchemist inside her had already begun examining the flame channels.

"There are formations inside for heat distribution, flame isolation, and preserving medicinal properties," Su Bai continued. "I haven’t understood all of them yet."

Liu Meng’s attention sharpened.

Su Bai tapped the side of the cauldron.

"There is something else too. A cauldron like this doesn’t have to be used only for alchemy."

She blinked.

"It can be used in combat?"

"Apparently."

Su Bai had seen enough in the jade slips to understand the principle.

Some high-level cauldron methods treated the artifact as both an alchemical vessel and a heavy weapon. Properly controlled, it could suppress attacks, defend its owner, or simply be dropped on someone with considerably more force than good manners permitted.

He looked at Liu Meng.

"You won’t be able to use its full strength yet, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll sort through the technique later and write down the parts you can use."

Liu Meng was still staring at him.

"Senior Brother, this is really..."

Su Bai pushed the cauldron toward her.

The heavy artifact scraped slightly across the stone.

"Too late."

Liu Meng looked at the cauldron, then at Su Bai.

He had already turned away.

Her protest died before it properly began.

Yan’er covered a small smile.

Su Bai noticed and reached toward another newly opened storage ring.

He had not forgotten her.

A number of talismans rested inside.

Some contained structures Su Bai still could not fully understand.

Others had degraded over time or possessed minor flaws in their markings.

The weakest among the usable ones were around Nascent Soul level.

To whoever had originally owned this storage ring, such talismans had probably been little more than failed products.

In the current cultivation world, calling them failures felt offensive.

Su Bai selected three.

He checked each one carefully before turning toward Yan’er.

"These are for you."

Yan’er stared at the talismans placed in her hands.

Even without recognizing their exact level, she could feel the dense protective power contained within them.

Her eyes widened.

"Senior Brother..."

"Keep them hidden unless you need them."

Su Bai deliberately stopped at three.

Giving Yan’er an entire stack would certainly make her safer, but it would also give observant people far too much reason to pay attention to her.

Three were already excessive.

Yan’er held them carefully.

"Thank you, Senior Brother."

Her smile was so bright that Su Bai felt the talismans could have been blank pieces of paper and she would still have reacted the same way.

He reached out and rubbed her head.

Yan’er did not complain.

Liu Meng watched them with a faint smile before turning back toward her new cauldron.

Her attention had already returned to its formations.

Su Bai saw the familiar look in her eyes and chuckled.

It seemed he had chosen correctly.

After the excitement settled, his attention shifted to something that had bothered him since they arrived.

Both of them felt different.

The changes were subtle from the outside, but after everything that had during his breakthrough, Su Bai was not willing to dismiss them.

He sat down again and looked toward Liu Meng.

"How much did the blessing affect you?"

That was enough to pull her attention away from the cauldron.

Her expression immediately became animated.

"A lot."

The enthusiasm in her voice made Su Bai smile.

Liu Meng moved closer and sat across from him.

"My Spirit Roots changed again."

Su Bai’s interest sharpened.

Actually, during his Golden Core tribulation, Liu Meng’s Fire and Wood Spirit Roots had already been tempered and purified by the Heavenly Blessing.

Apparently, that had only been the beginning.

Liu Meng raised one hand.

A small flame appeared above her palm.

It was warmer and gentler than ordinary spiritual fire.

Before Su Bai could inspect it properly, a trace of green radiance appeared within it.

The two did not clash.

The flame seemed to carry vitality rather than simply consuming it.

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

Liu Meng smiled.

"My Fire and Wood roots changed together."

She had clearly been waiting to tell him.

"The Wood affinity has become much more sensitive to medicinal vitality. I can feel changes in herbs that I used to miss completely."

The flame above her palm shifted.

"And my Fire affinity has become easier to control. It doesn’t just burn more strongly. I can adjust it much more precisely."

Her excitement grew as she spoke.

"Senior Brother, I think I can control how quickly medicinal essence is released without damaging it nearly as much."

Su Bai stared at the flame.

That was not simply a stronger pair of Spirit Roots.

Their mutation had clearly followed Liu Meng’s path.

Wood preserved and perceived medicinal vitality.

Fire extracted and refined it.

Even better, the two affinities now seemed naturally compatible.

It’s a Spirit Root mutation designed for an alchemist.

Su Bai smiled.

"That suits you almost too well."

Liu Meng nodded eagerly.

"I thought so too."

She hesitated briefly.

"I’ve been calling it the Verdant Flame Dual Root for now."

Su Bai considered it.

The name was simple enough.

More importantly, it described what he was sensing.

The original Fire and Wood affinities still existed, but they no longer behaved like two separate talents forced to cooperate.

The mutation had linked them.

Su Bai leaned forward slightly.

"How much did your cultivation improve?"

Liu Meng hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Senior Brother, thanks to the blessing, I advanced two stages."

His brows rose.

Liu Meng gave a small, embarrassed smile.

"I am now at Ninth Stage Foundation Establishment."

She hurried to explain.

"It wasn’t only the Heavenly Blessing. When the Heavenly Law appeared yesterday, I managed to understand a little from it."

Her earlier embarrassment quickly gave way to excitement.

"I saw the same laws everyone else did, but while I was trying to comprehend them, I realized that some of those principles could also be applied to alchemy."

Su Bai’s attention sharpened.

Liu Meng continued, clearly growing more animated as she spoke.

"I saw the same Heavenly Law everyone else did, but while trying to understand it, I realized that some of what I had glimpsed could be applied to alchemy."

Liu Meng’s eyes brightened as she continued.

"The way that Heavenly Law imposed itself so completely, holding everything within its influence under a single order... it made me think about the control inside a cauldron."

She paused briefly, gathering her thoughts.

"Different medicinal properties are difficult to manage because each one behaves differently. But after seeing that, I started thinking about whether I could impose a clearer order over the entire refining process instead of controlling every change separately."

Liu Meng smiled.

"I only understood a tiny part of it, but that alone cleared up several problems I had been stuck on."

Su Bai watched her quietly. A smile gradually appeared on his face.

From the way Liu Meng spoke, it was obvious that the glimpse of Heavenly Law had not shown her something different from everyone else.

She had simply found a way to understand the same thing through the path she knew best.

For her, that might eventually prove far more valuable.

Su Bai smiled.

"That sounds more useful than two stages."

Liu Meng laughed.

"I thought so too."

Yan’er had remained beside them throughout the conversation.

At some point, however, she had become suspiciously quiet.

Su Bai glanced toward her.

Yan’er immediately looked away.

He raised an eyebrow.

That reaction was never a good sign.

Before he could ask, Liu Meng smiled.

"Yan’er changed too."

Yan’er’s shoulders lowered.

"Senior Sister Meng..."

Su Bai’s attention moved fully toward her.

Yan’er looked increasingly reluctant.

He waited.

Eventually, she sighed.

"My Spirit Root became better."

That did not sound like something worth being embarrassed about.

Su Bai looked at Liu Meng.

She supplied the missing part.

"Much better."

Su Bai’s spiritual sense quietly extended toward Yan’er.

What he sensed made him pause.

The mixed foundation he remembered was gone.

Or rather, it had been refined again.

His expression slowly changed.

The blessing had done far more than he expected.