I Can Refine Pills

Miaowa Kingdom, Jinyang Valley, Great Sword Sect.

"No, please, waaah!" "Damn it, do you think our families won't take revenge for this?!" "Animals! You're animals!"

Within the scenic mountain valley, towering palaces flanked both sides, each lined with suspended iron cages. These cramped cages left no room for their occupants to even turn around. The stench of fresh blood was overwhelming, mingling with curses and pleas for mercy in a chaotic din.

"You... you're doing this... aren't you... aren't you afraid of the Heavenly Sword Sect?!"

As the youths walked forward, they witnessed countless atrocities. When they themselves faced the possibility of ending up like that at any moment, their eyes held only fear, along with a trace of confusion and helplessness. They were all prodigies, the pride of their families' younger generations, each one expected to achieve greatness. Even they had believed they could carve out their own path—until this bloody reality dragged them back to earth.

"The formation is sealed."

Lin Chang'an and the other youths watched helplessly as the misty formation closed. The sunlight was still so bright, the air still carried the fragrance of grass, yet they were trapped in a foreign place.

The youths were led to a raised platform paved with dark brown bluestone carved with patterns. Lin Chang'an's heart sank—those dark brown spots were bloodstains.

Looking down at them from on high was Lu Pingyuan, Elder Lu, his face wreathed in a smile.

"You are fortunate. Your talent and age set you apart from them."

Steward Lu pointed at the figures in the hanging cages and said with a cruel grin, "Now it's time for you to prove yourselves."

On the platform, the youths stood lost and helpless as the talented ones proved themselves nearby, leaving the rest to rely on luck.

"What do you need to refine pills?"

A sect disciple glared at him with a menacing scowl. Lin Chang'an calmly glanced back at the man, who looked about thirty.

"I am skilled in refining Bigu Pills, Qi Gathering Pills, and several other medicines. Do you need me to demonstrate each one?"

Just then, Elder Lu walked over and laughed heartily at Lin Chang'an. "Friend Lin has extraordinary courage. This old man naturally trusts you."

With a casual flick of his finger, a spirit light flashed from the storage pouch at his waist. A waist-high Low-grade Artifact Cauldron appeared before them, along with ten floating Pellets.

Lin Chang'an caught the ten Pellets in his palm, frowned, examined them closely, sniffed, and licked one. A smile spread across his face as he teased, "Who made these? The quality is lacking by more than a little."

Anything not refined in a cauldron was merely called a Pellet—a half-finished product.

"Ten Pellets, half succeeded. You pass."

Elder Lu spoke like a kindly elder, but Lin Chang'an knew the cruelty behind that smile.

"Pills made from materials like this?"

Lin Chang'an showed no fear, rolling his eyes and retorting, "I'd be grateful if even five succeeded."

Then his tone shifted, and he cupped his hands with pride. "If I refined them from start to finish myself, I could get six or seven out of ten Bigu Pills with this material."

Alchemists were a scarce resource. A six or seven out of ten success rate for Bigu Pills was already impressive for a Qi Refining-level alchemist.

Steward Lu didn't get angry. Instead, he clapped with a smile. "Good. This old man will watch your skill."

Lin Chang'an turned around and took a deep breath. Cold sweat had already broken out on his back. As confident as he looked, he was relying entirely on his craft.

When famine strikes, the skilled never starve. The ancestors' saying never lied.

Calm down, calm down! Things are like this now. First, stabilize. Then secretly build up strength.

Lin Chang'an calculated silently. Looking at the cauldron before him, he felt a sense of familiarity, and a hint of fervor gleamed in his eyes. Steward Lu, watching from the side, nodded inwardly.

This one is clearly a cultivator with an extraordinary obsession with alchemy. Only such people can go far on a given path.

"Rise!"

Lin Chang'an's expression turned serious as he sharply formed a hand seal and lightly slapped the cauldron. Instantly, the spirit stones embedded in the gilded cauldron's formation walls flashed with light, and spiritual fire rose within the cauldron.

Low-level cultivators lacked deep enough reserves of spiritual power, so the cauldron had a dedicated formation. By embedding spirit stones to activate it, the spiritual energy within the stones was consumed to generate spiritual fire.

Lin Chang'an calmly began using his own spiritual power to control and adjust the temperature and intensity of the cauldron's spiritual fire.

This meticulous, unhurried behavior actually made Steward Lu nod in approval. This kid has real skill.

"I need to draw talismans—I need cinnabar!"

A panicked voice rang out, followed by gasps from the crowd of youths.

A Great Sword Sect cultivator grinned cruelly, drew his sword, grabbed a cultivator from one of the cages, and slashed his wrist. Blood flowed into a bowl.

"No cinnabar. We have something more precious—Cultivator Blood. Use this to draw."

The youth's face turned pale. His hand trembled as he held the brush, and his lips quivered. "You! How can you do this?!"

"Stop wasting time. You have ten chances. If you can't prove your worth, you'll become livestock."

The chaotic scene showed these youths the brutal darkness firsthand.

By now, Lin Chang'an had shut out the outside world entirely, his mind focused solely on the cauldron before him.

One hand pressed against the spirit stone on the cauldron, the other channeled the Object Manipulation Technique. The ten Pellets floated slowly inside the cauldron, spinning and glowing with spiritual light as they underwent refinement by the spiritual fire.

The ten Pellets spinning inside the Pill Furnace, under the tempering of the Spiritual Fire, continuously had black impurities separated from them, while the pills themselves emitted a spiritual glow as the medicinal power within began to fuse.

Lin Chang'an, who appeared tense, had his hand resting on the Spirit Stone embedded in the furnace wall, subtly and imperceptibly drawing in a portion of the Spirit Stone's spiritual energy.

Inside his sea of consciousness, a Jade Pearl greedily absorbed the spiritual energy drawn from the Spirit Stone, and Lin Chang'an muttered to himself, 'Suck a little less, will you? It's not every day you get freebies to leech off.'

As he refined pills, Lin Chang'an couldn't help but narrow his eyes. The Mysterious Treasure in his sea of consciousness required a massive amount of Spirit Stone resources to sustain, so...

The anxiety of being tricked into coming here dissipated by more than half at this moment. Now, with narrowed eyes, Lin Chang'an looked again at this blood-soaked place.

At that moment, a smile spread across his face. The mountains were clear, the waters beautiful, birds sang and flowers bloomed—he felt a growing fondness for this place.

He took alchemy seriously, but the success rate of pills was never high; an alchemist was essentially a money pit, a fact universally acknowledged in the cultivation world.

Thinking of this, Lin Chang'an couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile and thought to himself, "Don't blame me for this. Easy to invite a god, hard to send one off. You're the ones who insisted on keeping me."

"The pill is complete, open the furnace!"

On the plaza, as Lin Chang'an let out a solemn shout, the cultivators of the Great Sword Sect all stared in astonishment at this newcomer. Good heavens, they had seen plenty of cultivators tricked and bound here, but this was the first time they'd seen a newcomer treat this place like home.

And beneath Lin Chang'an's confident smile as he looked at these fierce-faced Great Sword Sect cultivators, there was an unmistakable air of kinship.

Step one: rely on the resources of the Great Sword Sect as a backing and become their Chief Alchemist.

A new book sets sail. Dear readers who enjoy it, please follow along on Mondays and Tuesdays. On other days, you can let the chapters pile up. A thousand thanks.