Chapter 16: Gone

After realizing this, Su Jingzhen directly headed towards the quiet room.

He still instinctively knocked on the door.

However, this time the door didn’t open, and there was no response from inside.

Su Jingzhen’s heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad premonition.

“Miss Jiang, are you there?”

As his words fell, the quiet room remained silent.

Su Jingzhen’s heart grew more complicated, and he directly pushed open the door.

At a glance, the room was empty.

The alchemy furnace was still in the corner, and the stone bed had his set of sky-blue clothes neatly laid out.

“Gone…”

Su Jingzhen had actually predicted this outcome from the time he sent the jade pendant, but when it really happened, he still felt a pang of disappointment.

Although he had only spent a short time with Shuang Jiang, he had gained a lot from her.

“It’s just cause and effect, but I wonder if we’ll have another chance to meet in this vast cultivation world.”

He sighed, and after a moment of sentiment, he didn’t dwell on it anymore.

He brought up the interface, and at least Shuang Jiang’s panel was still there, which was a small comfort.

After feeling sentimental for a moment, Su Jingzhen quickly regained his composure, a bitter smile spreading across his face.

“Shuang Jiang is gone, and my sister-in-law doesn’t know when she’ll return. I’m still short of seven points, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to make up for it.”

Currently, the only ones who had a shared emotional connection with him were Zhang Xiu and Shuang Jiang, but now both of them were gone, leaving him feeling stuck.

This feeling of being just one step away from a breakthrough was frustrating.

“Oh well, I guess I can’t completely rely on the Golden Finger.”

After thinking for a moment, Su Jingzhen still brought out the alchemy furnace from the corner.

Shuang Jiang’s departure had made him realize that the Golden Finger, although it had made him a hanging precipice, was not omnipotent.

Since the Golden Finger awakened, he had developed a psychological dependence on it.

To the point that when he couldn’t get points, he had a brief feeling of helplessness just now.

This was a terrifying phenomenon.

After realizing this, he let out a bitter laugh and adjusted his mindset.

He directly took out the 25 medicinal materials from his storage bag and placed them on the table.

As his hands touched the medicinal materials, his heart quickly calmed down.

He sensed the medicinal materials and lit the furnace.

After a series of processes, the quiet room was once again filled with the fragrance of alchemy.

Today, he directly produced a finished product on his first attempt at refining the Qi-replenishing pill.

He was getting more skilled at refining the pill, and his speed had also increased significantly.

By the time the sun began to set, he had used up ten sets of medicinal materials.

However, this time, the ten sets of medicinal materials had yielded eight finished products and two defective ones.

This success rate was even higher than before.

“Once I use up the remaining 15 sets of medicinal materials, the success rate of the Qi-replenishing pill will likely approach 100%,” Su Jingzhen exclaimed in excitement.

According to today’s prices, his harvest was worth 86 lower-grade spirit stones.

He couldn’t help but feel that making spirit stones as an alchemist was too easy.

However, his excitement was also somewhat one-sided.

At this time, Su Jingzhen didn’t know that a normal first-rate alchemist’s success rate was around 30-40%, and a 10-20% success rate was already considered normal for a first-rate alchemist.

So, alchemists were indeed wealthy, but not as exaggerated as he thought.

He casually placed the refined pills into two jade bottles.

“Perhaps next time I sell them, I’ll buy a formula to increase my physical strength.”

In his opinion, after Shuang Jiang left, the difficulty of obtaining points would undoubtedly increase greatly.

He would need to struggle for two more days to accumulate enough points to open up the Labor Palace acupoint.

But he couldn’t rely solely on the Golden Finger; he also needed to work hard to push his Python Scales Power to a higher level.

As night began to fall, Su Jingzhen didn’t choose to continue refining pills.

According to Shuang Jiang, the academy should have been visited by assassins last night.

Last night, Shuang Jiang was still there, and there was no need to worry.

But what if they came again tonight?

Su Jingzhen’s face turned serious, and he put away the alchemy furnace.

He directly changed into the black robes he wore during the day and closed the doors to the quiet room and kitchen.

Then, he jumped up onto the roof beam.

As a Qi-refining Stage cultivator, this height was easy for him.

He found a beam under the eaves and quietly settled in.

His line of sight allowed him to see the academy’s quiet room and the entire courtyard.

Tonight, he planned to spend the night here.

After witnessing the murder on the street during the day, it was better to be cautious.

After all, life was precious, and once you died, everything would be lost.

If assassins came, even if he was discovered, he could still see them coming.

He might be mistaken for a fellow practitioner if he dressed up.

……

The night passed quickly.

Although he had been in a state of half-sleep and half-vigilance, fortunately, the previous night had been calm.

【There are 499 days left until the host’s Dantian is permanently shattered.】

At dawn, when Su Jingzhen jumped down from the roof beam, he saw a few lines of golden text flashing before his eyes.

【Daily fixed emotional points: Zhang Xiu: 4, Shuang Jiang: 2】

【Remaining usable points: 99】

The fixed points had arrived as expected.

He was just one point short of developing the first hidden treasure in his body!

After changing back into his regular clothes, Su Jingzhen walked to the peach blossom tree in the courtyard.

He took a few deep breaths, and then the cultivation method of the Python Scales Power appeared in his mind again.

His hands and feet, as well as his entire body, began to move slowly and awkwardly.

Sometimes he was as soft and flexible as a snake, and sometimes as strong and rigid as a python.

Before he could even finish the entire set of movements, Su Jingzhen was already drenched in sweat.

His body was in agony, with pain radiating from every part of him.

With his current physical abilities, he couldn’t even complete one set of movements.

After stopping, he could clearly feel every cell in his body coming alive.

After a brief rest, he repeated the movements again.

But after only four repetitions, he was completely exhausted and unable to move.

However, Su Jingzhen’s heart was racing with excitement.

No wonder even Shuang Jiang felt that this Body Cultivation method was extraordinary. He felt that if he continued to practice, the benefits would far exceed his imagination.

Just as he was exhausted, the academy’s main gate suddenly echoed with a hurried knocking sound.

Su Jingzhen’s spirit tensed up again, thinking, “Oh no, someone’s here.”

But the next moment, when a pleasant voice rang out, his heart completely relaxed.

“Mr. Su, are you home?”