Junior Sister, Please Cultivate Scientifically

Qingyun Sect, outer sect alchemy workshop.

Amid the swirling smoke, Lin Zhixia stared at the old-fashioned pill furnace before her, her brows furrowed.

“Fire control relies entirely on feel, and ingredient ratios are based solely on old texts... This is too inefficient, and the margin for error is too high.”

She recalled yesterday’s furnace explosion. It hadn’t been an accident, but a failed experiment in pushing past the pressure limit.

“According to the laws of thermodynamics, the best way to improve reaction efficiency without raising the temperature is to increase the pressure in the system...”

So when Chu Wuhen, the senior disciple in charge of watching the workshop, followed the strange sizzling sound inside, he saw a sight he would never forget:

The new Junior Sister Lin, who was said to have mediocre talent, was carefully welding a metal component, apparently salvaged from some discarded magical artifact, onto the pill furnace’s exhaust port. The notebook spread open beside her was covered in dizzying symbols and graphs.

“Junior Sister Lin! What are you doing?” Chu Wuhen cried, his voice cracking with alarm.

Lin Zhixia looked up and pushed up a pair of nonexistent glasses, her tone perfectly calm.

“Senior Brother, I’m installing a safety valve and pressure gauge on the pill furnace. According to my calculations, the safety factor of the current design is below 1.5, which is a serious hazard. With these improvements, we may be able to raise the success rate for Qi-Gathering Pills from thirty percent to over ninety percent using the ingredients we have now.”

Chu Wuhen: “???”

Looking into the girl’s clear, confident eyes, he found himself questioning the very nature of the world for the first time.