Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

The storage room was large, filled with bookshelves full of books, various bottles and jars, and even a whole shelf of strangely shaped alchemy furnaces. Xu Lingguang couldn't move after entering and stared at the furnaces for a long time before regretfully looking away.

Although this senior's taste in alchemy furnaces was somewhat eccentric, for Xu Lingguang, who was too poor and stingy to afford the most ordinary and basic brass alchemy furnaces, these obviously expensive furnaces were enviable luxuries.

Who wouldn't want luxury goods?

Only those who can't afford it will lie and say they don't like it QAQ

While comforting himself, Xu Lingguang thought that these alchemy furnaces were too ornate and complicated in design, and that they were definitely not as convenient to operate as his own small brass furnace. Moreover, he would feel bad for it if he accidentally bumped or damaged it. While comforting himself, he tried to find a few suitable books to take back and read slowly.

But after wandering around for a while, he discovered that this senior colleague was extremely lazy and had absolutely no sense of organization.

The books on the shelves were just randomly placed, without any categorization. He sighed, feeling bad about keeping Lan Jian waiting outside for too long, and also because he was really tired today, so he just randomly picked a book from a shelf labeled "Alchemy Manual" and took it out.

"I'll take one back to read first, and then I'll come back to exchange it," Xu Lingguang said to Lan Jian.

Lan Jian nodded and didn't say anything more.

Xu Lingguang bid him farewell and returned home with a storage bag of spirit stones and a pill manual.

As he left, he looked at the thriving spiritual plants in the clan's land and smiled contentedly, saying he would come back to pick them when he had time after resting.

When he returned, the cubs were already asleep. However, perhaps because they were waiting for him but didn't see him, the four cubs didn't sleep in their own little nest, but instead squeezed onto Xu Lingguang's bed.

Yunfeng and Yurong slept head to head together, while Muyun and Zhaoling each found a spot on their bellies to curl up and sleep.

Xu Lingguang approached quietly, and even heard Yu Rong snoring softly.

He suppressed a laugh and pinched Yu Rong's nose, stopping the snoring. The sleeping cub pawed at him a couple of times, and Xu Lingguang let go. He then happily rolled over and continued snoring softly. Mu Yun, who had been sleeping on his belly, slipped off because of his sudden roll and was now pressed under his furry belly. Probably having some difficulty breathing, Mu Yun struggled a couple of times, barely managing to expose half of its body. Finding it couldn't move, it simply stopped and continued sleeping soundly.

Xu Lingguang's heart softened at the sight. He went to the yard to wash up, changed into his pajamas, and didn't put the cubs back in their nest. Instead, he slept on the other half of the empty bed.

The next morning, after breakfast, the cubs went to play, while he stayed under the tree in the yard to look at the alchemical manual he had brought back the day before.

When he first opened it, he was filled with admiration and respect. After all, he was an alchemist from the Chenghuang clan, a master from ancient times. Even the most basic alchemy manual must have unique insights.

But after flipping through a few pages, Xu Lingguang's eyes gradually widened, and finally his expectant expression turned into a blank one.

Although it is called a manual on alchemy, this book should be called a diary more accurately, or rather, a diary with a few random notes on alchemy mixed in.

such as--

April 1st. Today I'm preparing to refine the Scale-Dyeing Pill. The Qilin next door always likes to talk nonsense about white-haired girls. Let me see if he'll still be so sarcastic after he turns into a body full of white scales :)

Dyed Scales Cinnabar.

Materials: 10 Tribulus terrestris plants, 2 Polygonum hydropiper roots, 2 Litsea cubeba fruits, 2.5 leaves of Dendrocalamus chinensis.

Efficacy: This elixir can dye scales of any color white, with an effect lasting one month.

Xu Lingguang's lips twitched when he saw the hastily prepared pill formula. Moreover, the Dyed Scale Pill sounded bizarre from its name to its effects. But then Xu Lingguang recalled Lan Jian's subtle comments about this senior, and it didn't seem so surprising after all.

This senior is indeed very unconventional and unforgiving, and also petty and vengeful.

Xu Lingguang continued flipping through the book and discovered that the pill formulas recorded in this book seemed to be all created by this senior himself. In addition to the Dyed Scale Pill, there were also various Itchy Pills, Insomnia Pills, Haha Pills... Pills with strange names and strange effects were all developed because he had a grudge against someone and wanted to mess with that person.

Although these pills sounded outrageous, after Xu Lingguang looked at them more closely, he found that this senior was very meticulous in the research and development of pills. He carefully recorded the feedback on the subsequent use of each pill.

Xu Lingguang witnessed the aftermath of the Qilin who had taken the Dyed Scale Pill.

The booklet records that after the Qilin consumed the Scale-Dyeing Pill, its scales instantly turned snow-white, but this lasted for three years.

The annotation next to it reads: "Too much white tribulus was added, so the effect lasts longer than expected. I can add less next time. That guy chased me for three years just because the color of my scales wouldn't turn back. What a petty jerk! Aren't white scales better looking than a black one? Ugly, tasteless thing."

Xu Lingguang: "..."

This senior even called others petty.

Because the booklet was so interesting, Xu Lingguang became completely absorbed in it and finished reading it in half a day.

When he closed the book, he was still somewhat unsatisfied, feeling that this senior was truly a remarkable person.

He only realized at the end that this senior was not just good at making strange but useless pills. He also seriously studied and improved some pill formulas. For example, for the Rejuvenation Pill that Xu Lingguang urgently needed, he listed the commonly used refining methods at the time. Then he felt that the refining method was not effective and too complicated, so he made his own improvements and named it Rejuvenation Pill (Yuan Jiu version).

That's right, this remarkable senior was named Yuan Jiu.

Xu Lingguang was somewhat tempted by the pill formulas listed in the book. According to the few words in the book, the ancient gods did not need to take pills. They were born with strong bodies and excellent talents. In ancient times, they were the darlings of the heavens and could roam freely throughout the entire Mountain and Sea Realm.

However, after the collapse of the Heavenly Pillar and the near destruction of the Mountain and Sea Realm, the ancient gods were rejected by the Heavenly Dao, and various races perished one after another. Even those that did not perish temporarily were merely clinging to life. At this time, the ancient gods no longer possessed their former glory and needed elixirs to aid their cultivation or heal their injuries.

However, at that time, travel between the Mountain and Sea Realm and the Human Realm was not easy, and the relationship between the ancient gods and humans was not harmonious. Where to get the elixirs was a big problem. In order to ensure the safe birth of the cubs in his clan, Yuan Jiu risked crossing the barrier between the two realms to seek elixirs in the human realm several times, but returned empty-handed. So he began to teach himself alchemy.

He stole several alchemy manuals from the human race and began to study alchemy on his own, becoming the only alchemist among the ancient gods.

Xu Lingguang had also learned on his own through trial and error, and now that he suddenly discovered that there was such a self-taught alchemist in Chenghuang, he felt a sense of kinship and regret for not having met him sooner.

Since Yuan Jiu could become self-taught, so could he.

At most, he's just not as talented as Yuan Jiu and needs to put in more effort.

But Xu Lingguang was the most resilient. He acted immediately. He first greeted the cubs, then went to the Chenghuang tribe's land to collect the necessary medicinal herbs. After taking a few more books from the storage room, he began to think about how to refine the Rejuvenation Pill.

Of course, the Rejuvenation Pill refined this time is the regular version, not the Yuan Jiu version.