Advancing in the Dao of Alchemy, Refining the Wood Essence Pill
[You tended the first-tier Spirit Plant, Blood Li Rice, with exquisite skill, helping it grow strong. Experience +0.1...] [...]
As the final panel message appeared, Li Ye drew his Method Formula to a close, shook the bloody mud from his body, and leaped.
Whoosh-
His slightly more robust body erupted with surging strength. In a single bound, he jumped straight from the field ridge below to the hillside.
Looking down at the four Spirit Fields, where the plants were growing vigorously and had begun to send up dense shoots, Li Ye's gaze filled with satisfaction.
"More than half a month has passed, and I've finally received the first experience feedback. Now I've finally brought all three Spirit Fields into peak condition and under control... I just didn't expect the panel to take so long to establish a connection with Spirit Plants taken over from someone else!"
"Given the condition of the seedlings, I should be able to harvest Blood Li Spiritual Essence from them soon..."
"I haven't even used half of those first hundred strands, and another three hundred are coming soon... My Dao of Alchemy can also be improved again, so I can try refining Qi and Blood Pills! There might even be enough to support Elephant Armor Force reaching the second layer..."
After returning to his residence and descending into the underground quiet room, Li Ye opened the panel.
[Name: Li Ye] [Spirit Root: Low-Grade Earth-Wood Spirit Root] [Remaining lifespan: 73 years (3 years lost due to overdrawing primordial Qi)] [Skills: planting, first-tier upper grade (341/3000); alchemy, first-tier lower grade (165/3000); artifact refining, beginner level not reached (12/2000); talismans, first-tier lower grade (177/2000); Gu Technique, beginner level not reached (178/1800)] [Plant Spiritual Essence: Jade Sprout Spiritual Essence ×186, Blood Li Spiritual Essence ×58] [Spiritual Essence trait: Vitality, level 1] [Experience: 5890]
Such an accumulation amounted to a huge fortune.
And that was despite the Blazing Sun Flower still showing no response!
To the Blazing Sun Flower, this brief period might have been only the beginning of its buildup toward growth.
Li Ye himself had only helped Elder Ji plant it. Elder Ji still wasn't comfortable letting him tend it alone, which was probably another factor.
"There's no rush with that..."
He murmured to himself, quite patient about the matter.
First, he would take care of what lay before him.
With a thought, Li Ye once again filled the experience bars for [Alchemy] and [Talismans]!
Once alchemy reached middle grade, he would be able to refine Qi and Blood Pills and pills for advancing Middle Stage cultivation. As for talismans, he could begin drawing more difficult ones, such as the Golden Bell Talisman.
Compared with improving his other skills, these were still a better investment for the current Li Ye.
He had always been sparing in his use of Jade Sprout Spiritual Essence. Even after refining it until now, he was still some way from the Qi Refinement Fifth Layer, and he had long been ravenous with impatience!
And pelting opponents with talismans was a truly ferocious tactic during the Qi Refining stage. Ordinary cultivators would find it hard to fight back.
He intended to carry it through to the end!
The familiar sensation arose. His soul ascended and drifted, and boundless thoughts and flashes of inspiration engulfed him.
Only a few moments later, when his awareness returned, his skills in the arts of alchemy and talismans had advanced considerably.
[Talismans, first-tier middle grade (0/3000)] [Alchemy, first-tier middle grade (0/5000)]
"The difficulty of the Dao of Alchemy is truly outrageous..."
Glancing at the experience required for his next advancement, Li Ye felt his eyelid twitch involuntarily.
"Luckily, I now have a full four mu of Spirit Fields under my care. That's more than enough to feed this big eater!"
He muttered with some relief. Seeing that the thousand-odd experience remaining on the panel wasn't enough to raise any skill by a level, he simply got up and headed for the alchemy room.
He deftly lit the firewood and heated the Pill Furnace.
At the same time, he began processing some low-grade spirit medicines in preparation for the refining to come.
By the time the temperature inside the Pill Furnace reached the proper level, he had prepared each of the spirit medicines.
Relaxed, Li Ye casually measured out a handful of Jade Sprout Rice and tossed it into the furnace. As it changed under the high heat and its gentle spiritual power became active, he changed his Method Formula and added the other medicinal ingredients one by one.
Under his control of Law Power, the refined medicinal powers fused into a medicinal liquid.
Time passed bit by bit. Li Ye, who had been watching the changes in the medicinal power inside the furnace all along, finally grew a little more serious and cast several Method Formulas in succession.
"Open!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
The rich medicinal liquid in the furnace immediately divided and condensed into ten pills, which flew out and landed in the prepared container.
Just then, two of them turned pitch-black, while another was dull in color. The remaining seven were pale red pills.
"Two ruined pills, one substandard pill, and seven finished pills... A success rate of nearly eighty percent. These Qi Condensation Pills pose no difficulty for me anymore!"
Li Ye put the pills away, looking pleased.
Qi Condensation Pills, used to increase Law Power at the lower levels of Qi Refining, were like Grain Avoidance Pills in that they could be made using spirit rice as the main ingredient, though they required a larger quantity.
Their cost wasn't high, yet they sold quite well.
His predecessor had taken plenty of them!
Previously, Li Ye's success rate when refining Qi Condensation Pills had been less than forty percent, enough only to break even or make a small profit at best.
But now... these pills could become a steady source of income for him!
Having finished a batch of Qi Condensation Pills, with the Pill Furnace now hot, Li Ye grew serious.
He took out a variety of different spirit medicines once more.
Some overlapped with the ingredients for Qi Condensation Pills, while the different ones were more valuable, rich with medicinal fragrance and a hint of fresh Wood Element Spiritual Qi.
The Jade Heart Grass, the main ingredient, was especially lush and green, and its scent was refreshing.
Even with Li Ye's current wealth, buying these few sets of ingredients had cost him several dozen more Spirit Stones...
If he hadn't been confident he could recoup the cost, this purchase alone would have left him hard-pressed for money!
He took each medicinal ingredient and ground it into powder, pressed out its juice, or sliced it for later use... His preparation was meticulous in every detail.
The pill he intended to refine this time was the Wood Essence Pill. It was suitable for Middle Stage Qi Refining cultivators who primarily cultivated the Wood Element, and it could also help lower-level cultivators break through to the Middle Stage.
It was one of the few Pill Formulas recorded in the Li Household's incomplete inheritance, and its value and effects far surpassed those of Qi Condensation Pills and the like.
Li Ye had tried before, but most attempts had ended in complete failure. Even when he managed to produce pills, there had been only one or two at most, all of them substandard. He hadn't even been willing to take them himself.
They wouldn't fetch a good price if sold, either.
The costs had far exceeded the returns!
He fired up the furnace again.
With a grave expression, Li Ye carefully controlled the heat, gradually adding the medicinal ingredients one by one and refining away their impurities to obtain medicinal power as pure as possible.
Now that his skill had improved, he understood all the many precautions involved in refining this pill.
Though still a little nervous, his control over the heat had risen to a new level. Little medicinal power was lost, and as the masses fused, they became a pool of purple medicinal liquid with a slightly mixed color.
This showed that the medicinal powers had not blended completely, but it was still within acceptable limits, so he could continue.
Taking a deep breath, Li Ye summoned every ounce of concentration and put the Jade Heart Grass into the Pill Furnace.
He kept the heat steady as its leaves gradually shrank, extracting drops of emerald-green spiritual liquid and blending them with the purple medicinal liquid refined from the many supplementary ingredients.
One drop, two drops...
As the Jade Heart Grass's medicinal power blended in, the purple liquid gradually changed color, turning toward green.
During this process, if the medicinal powers had not blended sufficiently beforehand, there was a considerable chance they would fall into chaos and be ruined.
Li Ye had stumbled at this step many times in his previous attempts.
But this time he was much better prepared. Even after the entire Jade Heart Grass had turned to ash and its medicinal power had fully blended into the now green-and-purple medicinal liquid, nothing had gone wrong.
All he had to do was maintain the heat and wait for the medicinal powers to fuse. Once the liquid turned completely green, he could form the pills!
At this point, Li Ye became even more cautious, watching the changes in the medicinal power...
When the last trace of purple vanished from the medicinal liquid, he immediately changed his Method Formula and increased the heat somewhat for the final extraction and condensation.
But just then, the heat seemed to be too high after all, and a little less than half the medicinal liquid instantly evaporated and burned away.
Li Ye had no time to grieve over the loss. He hurriedly adjusted the heat and stabilized the process. Once the medicinal liquid had condensed, he activated the pill-collecting Method Formula.
Whoosh-
The medicinal liquid condensed, barely dividing into six pills.
After they flew out of the Pill Furnace and landed in the container, three turned pitch-black, while two were slightly dull in color.
The last was pale green and faintly luminous—a fully finished pill!
Two substandard pills and one finished pill: those three alone would fully recover the cost of the ingredients for this batch!