He was still a bit rusty, having only refined pills once before. Therefore, he didn't expect the first batch to be successful. Instead, he planned to try several times, and the Blood Ganoderma he had would be enough for at least three batches.
Pill refining required a special dan fire, and to possess dan fire, one needed to refine special charcoal, which he hadn't had time to make. The reason his previous Minor Hundred Herbs Pill could only reach the third-grade upper level at most was due to the furnace fire. Otherwise, the quality of the Minor Hundred Herbs could have been even better.
He chopped some fresh bamboo from the backyard, first patting it continuously with his palms to cause subtle changes in its internal capillary pores, then roasting it with fire, and finally burning it into charcoal.
Just making the bamboo charcoal took over three hours, producing fifty catties in total. Afterward, he soaked it successively with lime, vinegar, and alcohol. It wasn't until dawn that he successfully produced the desired charcoal fire.
As the sun rose, he began refining pills.
He washed the furnace, lit the fire, warmed the furnace, and added the medicinal ingredients. Besides the Blood Ganoderma, there were twenty-four other medicinal ingredients he had prepared in advance, including the five-hundred-year-old ginseng gifted by Yang Shoucheng.
The professional charcoal fire indeed produced excellent results. To Ye Tian's surprise, the first batch of pills was refined to the fourth grade, a much better effect than the previous Minor Hundred Herbs Pill.
Four pills were refined, emitting a medicinal fragrance, the size of peanuts, with a purplish-red hue and a peculiar luster on their surface.
He refined a second batch, which yielded third-grade pills with an even better effect, and this time he produced five pills.
After a night of busy work and refining two more batches of pills, he was physically and mentally exhausted. He then called the Yang family, as this particular pill was intended for Yang Zhenguo.
Ye Tian slept for two hours and woke up at half-past nine. Ye Shaodong said, "Xiao Tian, we can leave now."
The two had discussed yesterday that they would attend his maternal grandfather's funeral today.
Ye Tian replied, "Let's wait a bit longer. It's just a memorial service, and we won't be staying for the meal."
He washed his face, changed into a black outfit, and then drove with Ye Shaodong to his maternal grandfather's house.
The place where his maternal grandfather's family lived was once a village within the city, but it was later uniformly rebuilt into two-story houses. After a forty-five-minute drive, the car stopped in front of a building.
On the wide road five meters in front of the house, a mourning tent had been erected. Inside, dozens of tables were set up for a continuous banquet. With the sound of firecrackers, guests began to dine.
Seeing Ye Tian's car stop, the two brothers got out. A teenager, about a dozen years old, quickly ran back, reached the mourning hall in one breath, and said to a middle-aged man, "Dad, Big Cousin and Second Cousin are here!"
This middle-aged man exchanged glances with two others and said, "I know. Bring them over."
The speaker was the third son of the Xu family, named Xu Fengcai. The other two were the eldest son, Xu Fenghe, and the second son, Xu Fengguo.
The relationship between the three brothers was not very good, but their attitude towards the Ye family brothers was consistent: to use their father's funeral as an opportunity to teach their two unfilial nephews a lesson!
The Xu family had been doing very well over the years. The eldest, Xu Fenghe, had become the neighborhood committee director. The second son, Xu Fengguo, owned a small factory with an annual income of several hundred thousand yuan. The third son, Xu Fengcai, owned two supermarkets and a restaurant, with an annual net profit of nearly a million yuan.
It could be said that the Xu brothers were relatively well-known figures in the local area, and people would show them respect when they met.
After the teenager left, Xu Fenghe remarked, "Those two little beasts from the Ye family, who knows how they got rich. They must be doing something shady."
Xu Fengguo added, "Whether it's legitimate business or not, having money is enough. Let Huang Wu go and ask for money from their table later. Let these two little beasts bleed a little."
Xu Fengcai sneered, "What is this little bit of money? Over the years, their mother has never fulfilled her filial duties. We should at least make them compensate us for the support fees!"