Fifth Grade "Soul Nourishing Liquid"

If Little Er Ha could digest all these "waste pills," then it was really no different from squatting behind Feng Wu's pill cauldron and waiting to eat medicinal dregs.

Either way, they could speed up Little Er Ha's growth.

Of course, this was a bit unfair to Little Er Ha. It wasn't that Feng Wu didn't want to give it something better—it was just that he was still poor and couldn't afford to feed it finished pills.

Squatting down, Feng Wu searched through the shattered jade and porcelain until he found all the pill bottle bases. Only after carefully confirming that none contained poison did he rub Little Er Ha's big face and say:

"Little Er Ha, just wait a little longer. Once your brother gets rich, we'll eat the good stuff. When that time comes, we'll only eat Rank 8 and Rank 9 pills. We'll toss one away after every pill we eat!"

Feng Wu painted Little Er Ha a rosy picture of their wonderful future. After confirming that the pills were not poisonous, he no longer restricted its eating.

Afterward, Feng Wu opened the layer containing Rank 2 pills. There were more than twenty bottles in all, and without exception, every one of them had failed.

All the Rank 2 pills were ruined!

All the Third Grade pills were ruined!

Watching good things disappear right before his eyes was truly heartbreaking.

However, as the pill grade increased, the percentage of medicinal potency lost within the pills began to decrease.

Rank 1 pills had lost an average of around eighty percent of their medicinal potency. Rank 2 pills had lost an average of sixty percent, while Third Grade pills had lost around forty to fifty percent!

By that logic, fourth- and fifth-order pills were quite likely to have retained some effectiveness.

Under normal circumstances, as long as a pill's loss of medicinal potency was below twenty percent, it would not produce side effects. If the loss was below ten percent, the pill's effects would basically remain unaffected.

By the time he reached Fourth Grade pills, their numbers had sharply dwindled, leaving only twelve bottles.

Feng Wu picked up each bottle and examined it, already having a rough idea in his heart.

He casually shattered the pills in seven of the bottles. Sure enough, just as Feng Wu had judged, all seven pills were completely ruined!

These were all pills with relatively little medicinal potency among pills of the same grade, such as Healing Pills and temporary enhancement pills like Beast Strength Pills.

It was only natural that they could not withstand the passage of time.

Feng Wu looked expectantly at the remaining five bottles and opened their stoppers one by one. Unfortunately, the moment he opened them, two pills were ruined on the spot!

Another Spirit Recovery Pill had medicinal activity that was too strong, making it about as prone to oxidation as fruit.

It had been fine while sealed inside the pill bottle, but the moment it was opened, it reached its critical point. It did not even last five seconds before it "died"!

"What bad luck!" Feng Wu tossed the Spirit Recovery Pill aside. Pills that could restore spiritual power were extremely rare.

Then he turned his gaze toward the final two bottles. One held an old acquaintance of Feng Wu's: Qi Gathering Powder, a Third Grade pill. Perhaps because of its value and the difficulty of refining it, the Dou Wang had placed it on the Fourth Grade pill shelf.

Qi Gathering Powder contained abundant and potent medicinal power, so it could barely still be used.

Feng Wu did not dare leave it exposed, lest it suddenly fail like the Spirit Recovery Pill!

He hurriedly placed it in a new jade bottle, then spent 65 experience points to upgrade it into a Foundation Establishment Pill.

The system's increasing experience requirements for upgrades also replenished a pill's consumed medicinal potency, allowing items to be refurbished to a certain extent.

It was the same principle as Feng Wu's Butchering Knife, which had once been refurbished and upgraded.

However, those pills that had already failed had no real value in being upgraded.

It was not that they could not be upgraded. Feng Wu had tried before—the system could even upgrade cow dung into limited-edition "Jin Kela," so upgrading ruined pills was naturally no problem.

It was simply that the experience cost was too high, at least double!

The cost-effectiveness was poor.

Unless it was a special pill, it was not worth it.

Then there was the Fourth Grade Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill, a high-grade pill that could directly raise a Great Dou Shi's cultivation. It had no real side effects upon consumption and was exceedingly valuable!

Thanks to its exceptionally strong medicinal potency, it had survived with difficulty.

A purplish delight appeared on Feng Wu's face. This Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill alone was worth at least five hundred thousand gold!

After carefully putting away the Foundation Establishment Pill and the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill, Feng Wu looked heatedly toward the final two layers of the pill shelf.

If any pills on the fifth layer had survived...

He carefully took out the jade bottles containing the Fifth Grade pills.

If even one pill at this level were ruined due to his own mistake, Feng Wu would be heartbroken to death!

There were four Fifth Grade pills in total. One ordinary Healing Pill and one Qi Replenishing Pill, both of the most common variety.

Although they had not failed, their value was limited.

To be honest, the combined value of these two Fifth Grade pills was only slightly higher than that of the Fourth Grade Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill.

The hierarchy and value chain among pills were clear at a glance.

Qi Replenishing Pills and low-grade Healing Pills were the least valuable kinds.

As for the remaining two pills, they did not disappoint Feng Wu!

One was a Fifth Grade Dou Ling Pill, a special cultivation-enhancing pill for the Dou Wang realm!

It could raise a Dou Wang by one star and was absolutely worth over a million!

The other—or rather, one bottle—was a medicinal liquid Feng Wu could use right now: Fifth Grade "Soul Nourishing Liquid," a medicinal liquid specifically used to nurture and enhance Soul Power!

Its effects were very similar to the Seven Illusions Green Spirit Saliva Xiao Yan had obtained from the Nalan Family. However, one was a supreme-grade spiritual herb while the other was a Fifth Grade medicinal liquid, so Feng Wu did not know which was superior.

But this was absolutely good stuff!

To an Alchemist, it was even more precious than some Rank 6 Pills!

The strength of one's Soul Power represented, to a certain extent, the upper limit of an Alchemist's ability!

The lower limit of one's alchemy depended on the Alchemist's talent, resources, and effort, but the upper limit was inevitably constrained by Soul Power!

Without sufficiently vast and powerful Soul Power, an Alchemist could never support the finer operations required for alchemy or refine more powerful pills!

Feng Wu was going to use this himself!

His Dou Qi was already just a step away from possessing the Liquid State characteristics of the Dou Shi realm, and both its intensity and quantity were impressive.

If he raised his Soul Power as well, Feng Wu felt that he could try refining Rank 2 Pills.

Feng Wu was already completely satisfied after obtaining this Fifth Grade "Soul Nourishing Liquid." No matter what the remaining results were, this trip would definitely not be a loss!

Suppressing the urge to sit down and use the Soul Nourishing Liquid immediately, Feng Wu carefully put it away and raised his eyes toward the final compartment on the pill shelf.

Pill formulas!

If pills were finished products, then pill formulas were the process.

Given the choice between finished pills and pill formulas, Feng Wu would definitely choose the pill formulas.

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime!"

Likewise: "Taking someone else's fish is inferior to learning their fishing."

Pill formulas were an Alchemist's lifeblood and very difficult to obtain.

Not to mention those exclusive formulas privately researched for years, even widely circulated "common pill formulas" such as Qi Gathering Powder, Dou Ling Pill, and Imperial Extremity Pill were actually hard to acquire.

Compared with Xiao Yan, Feng Wu was now ahead in every aspect. The only thing he lacked was resources.

Yao Chen could provide Xiao Yan with Dou Techniques, cultivation methods, and pill formulas all at once!

Feng Wu had already made up for his shortcomings in Dou Techniques and cultivation methods through the upgrade system.

But when it came to pill formulas, Feng Wu barely even had a basic template to upgrade!

And now, obtaining this box of pill formulas by chance had undoubtedly solved Feng Wu's urgent problem!