The Extremely Complicated Pill Refinement Process

Following the instructions in the Qi Nourishing Pill recipe, he purchased several Basic Spirit Herbs whose prices had not yet risen too high.

Xiao Chen set up the Pill Furnace in his own small courtyard, laid out a meditation cushion, and prepared to begin refining pills.

The first step was preprocessing the spiritual materials.

This step tested an Alchemist's knowledge and examined how familiar he was with the materials in his hands.

However, this step could currently be skipped. The Qi Nourishing Pill used only Basic Spiritual Material, which the vendors had already processed.

The second step was burning incense to calm the mind.

This step tested an Alchemist's financial resources; it mainly depended on whether it was necessary and whether he was willing to bear the cost.

Xiao Chen now had a full thirty sticks of Agarwood Aloeswood, so he generously took out one and lit it. Then he sat cross-legged, and before long, felt his mind settle into tranquility.

The third step was liquefaction.

This step tested an Alchemist's control over the heat. The Main Ingredient and spirit spring water had to be added to the Pill Furnace, then simmered with Spirit Fire to extract their Medicinal Properties and create Medicinal Liquid.

During the full One Hour of simmering, the flame had to be continuously adjusted according to the condition of the Medicinal Liquid. It could be neither too high nor too low.

Fortunately, with the Three-Legged Revolving Fire Pill Furnace, Xiao Chen only needed to check the heat indicated in the Pill Recipes and activate the corresponding Artifact Inscription on the furnace. This step was easily conquered as well.

The fourth step was adding the herbs.

This step tested an Alchemist's grasp of timing and examined his powers of observation and judgment.

However, the Qi Nourishing Pill was an extremely common basic pill with simple ingredients, so the instructions in the Pill Recipes for this step were also very clear.

Xiao Chen followed the procedure and added the five Auxiliary Herbs at the times marked in the Pill Recipes.

The fifth step was combining the medicines.

This step tested an Alchemist's meticulousness and the precision of his Mana control.

When the Medicinal Liquid in the furnace gradually dried up under the unceasing heat of the Spirit Fire.

The Alchemist had to use Mana to stir, flip, or rotate it, blending the Medicinal Properties and evenly dividing the Spirit Liquid into several pills.

The Pill Recipes contained only eight words: blend thoroughly and distribute evenly.

The exact manner of blending and the final number of portions depended entirely on the Alchemist's own abundant experience and judgment.

The reason it was so vague was that every pill refinement differed in countless ways: the origin of the Medicinal Herbs, their age, how well they had been preserved, the Medicinal Properties extracted during the first two steps, the proportion of spirit spring water remaining at this point, and so on.

And those were only a few simple spiritual materials. If high-grade pills were involved, dozens more aspects could differ from place to place.

Thus, at this step, Xiao Chen could no longer rely on external aids. He had to blend the Medicinal Properties himself, then divide them evenly.

The sixth step was the final one—Pill Formation.

This step tested an Alchemist's overall proficiency, and occasionally, even required consideration of the right time and place.

To condense the evenly divided Medicinal Liquid into pills, every previous step had to be performed as perfectly as possible.

Otherwise, the pills would either fail to take shape or barely condense, only to crack after leaving the furnace. At best, they would become inferior products; at worst, Failed Pills.

As for the right time and place, that was related to the mutual generation and restraint of the Five Elements.

For example, noon belonged to Fire. Forming pills at noon benefited pills with a Five Elements Fire Attribute and Five Elements Earth Attribute, but was unfavorable for pills with a Five Elements Water Attribute.

When refining certain exceptionally crucial pills, Alchemists would sometimes deliberately calculate the refinement time in order to improve the success rate by even the slightest bit.

They would try to keep the approximate time of Pill Formation within a certain window.

Fortunately, as a universally used pill, the Qi Nourishing Pill had no particular requirements regarding the right time and place. It could be refined at any hour.

Therefore, throughout the entire extremely complicated refinement process, the only step Xiao Chen truly needed to rack his brains over was the fifth.

And after five hours passed, the Medicinal Liquid in the furnace, which had been divided into ten portions, gradually took shape and became ten pills.

"Pill refinement doesn't seem all that difficult."

Xiao Chen stopped supplying Mana. As he waited for the Pill Furnace to cool, he reviewed the process of his first pill refinement.

"Could it be that I'm a once-in-ten-thousand-years pill-refining genius?"

Successfully refining pills on his first attempt should qualify him for the word genius, right?

Smack!

A sudden crisp cracking sound rang out, like a clean slap across the face.

Then, like firecrackers going off, the sounds came one after another without stopping.

Xiao Chen watched helplessly as the ten pills in his furnace exploded one after another as the furnace cooled. Not a single one survived.

Failure came so quickly that it caught him completely off guard.

In truth, failing one's first attempt at pill refinement was perfectly normal. Alchemists were built up through failure after failure, piled up by sheer mountains of Spirit Stones.

Xiao Chen had long expected this, so he quickly accepted the outcome.

He slept to restore his energy, then got up the next day and continued.

Second refinement, failure.

Third refinement, failure.

Fourth refinement, failure.

Tenth refinement, total annihilation!

The Spirit Herbs consumed this time were worth forty Spirit Stones in total, equivalent to half a year's cultivation allowance for an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple.

Yet in only ten days, they had already turned into a pile of poisonous trash.

Xiao Chen had taken the Failed Pills to consult Elder Chen once midway through.

As expected, the conclusion was insufficient proficiency.

Elder Chen's exact words were, "Practice more, until practice makes perfect. There is no other way."

Xiao Chen readily accepted the advice, bought another batch of Spirit Herbs, and continued practicing.

Two months flashed by in an instant, taking with them a full two hundred and forty Spirit Stones from Xiao Chen.

"The seventieth furnace of Qi Nourishing Pills... Hm? One pill formed!"

Xiao Chen habitually recorded the pills, but when he saw a round spiritual pill in the Pill Furnace, he froze slightly. "Hey, I made one?"

Then he felt a round little ball appear out of thin air in his robes. He pulled it out and found an identical spiritual pill.

The effect of Hextech Buy One Get One Free had activated successfully. He had truly succeeded.

At that moment, Xiao Chen did not feel the joy he had imagined. Instead, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

"Pill refinement is really hard. After grinding away for so long, I've finally seen a glimmer of hope."

"If I still hadn't succeeded, even those few Spirit Stones I earned before would have been drained dry."

In fact, if he had not received five hundred Spirit Stones in compensation from the Grand Elder, Xiao Chen would have run out of money long ago.

If that had happened, he could only have miserably taken Sect Missions, risking his life to earn some hard-earned money.

"Fifty Spirit Stones? Why did it get so much more expensive?"

When Xiao Chen went down the mountain to buy Spirit Herbs for the ninth time, he unexpectedly learned that Basic Spirit Herbs had risen in price again.

That made little sense. The Spirit Herbs for Qi Nourishing Pills did not need to rely on merchant caravan trade; Li Province itself could supply them.

Moreover, the lowest-grade Qi Nourishing Pills were closely tied to countless low-level cultivators. A price of five Spirit Stones per bottle was already extremely high.

But if the raw materials continued to rise in price, pill prices would inevitably climb higher and higher as well.

From the bigger picture, the long-term consequences would undoubtedly run deep.

For Xiao Chen himself, the most direct impact was that earning money through Qi Nourishing Pills would undoubtedly become much more difficult.

The peddler was also helpless. Seeing a familiar customer, he could not help complaining, "Ai, I have no choice either."

"Not long after you bought Spirit Herbs last time, the market price climbed all the way to forty-five Spirit Stones. I had hoped it would drop back down these past couple of days."

"Who could have expected a group of Robber Cultivators to suddenly appear in Plain County to the east? They killed so many Spirit Planters that all kinds of Spirit Herbs have suddenly become scarce on the market."

Upon hearing that, Xiao Chen immediately thought of Liu Benxin. The Liu Family he belonged to was in Plain County.

Plain County truly had a vast fertile plain, as well as several natural spirit springs. Most of Li Province's spiritual medicine came from there.

The Robber Cultivators certainly had no interest in the spiritual medicine growing in the fields, but the casualties among the Spirit Planters would inevitably affect next year's Spirit Herb yields.

And now that the Trade Route had been severed and outside trade interrupted, the Spirit Herbs in the market had suddenly become scarce, causing prices to rise.

After figuring this out, Xiao Chen could not help feeling speechless.

It had to be certain Great Families seeing this trend, stockpiling goods in advance and maliciously driving up prices.

"Then give me five batches of Spirit Herbs. That's twenty-five Spirit Stones."

Even so, he still had to practice. He had finally seen a hint of success; he could not give up halfway.

"Well, if it isn't Junior Brother Xiao? Why are you still buying these few types of Spirit Herbs? With Junior Brother's remarkable talent for Sudden Comprehension, shouldn't you have learned pill refinement in one go?"

The speaker was Jiang Cungang. As an Alchemist, he often came down the mountain to buy Spirit Herbs as well.

Last time, outside the Law Enforcement Hall, he had spoken up for Jiang Shiyou. Afterwards, many fellow disciples had pointed fingers at him, believing his character was questionable.

Then Jiang Shiyou lost his position at the Law Enforcement Hall, and the Jiang Family became furious, repeatedly shutting themselves indoors to curse. In the end, all of it was blamed on Xiao Chen.

So when he saw Xiao Chen purchasing Spirit Herbs, he immediately came over to mock him. "Pill refinement isn't actually difficult. Why doesn't someone keep having Sudden Comprehension?"

"It's been over a month now. I heard you've been dumping medicinal dregs out every day on Azure Water Peak, yet you still haven't refined even a single pill. Is that true?"

"Letting you buy these Spirit Herbs is simply a waste of resources, a monstrous squandering of Heaven's gifts."

Xiao Chen put away the Spirit Herbs. "You really can bark like a dog. So much nonsense—want to come with me to the Sect Martial Stage and have a little practice?"

The Li Fire Sect had martial stages for disciples to spar and fight with spells. Killing fellow disciples was forbidden, but injuring them was allowed.

Jiang Cungang instinctively took a step back. Most Alchemists were not skilled at fighting with spells, and Xiao Chen had displayed a certain degree of Martial Prowess during the Outer Sect Trial. He reckoned he probably could not beat him.

But he continued sneering. "Hmph! Xiao Chen, you're nothing but a brute who only knows how to be fierce and fight."

"An idiot like you, with nothing but brawling on your mind, will never become an Alchemist even in your next life."

Another entry in the little notebook's revenge list.

Xiao Chen walked over, pointed at Jiang Cungang, and smiled. "I bought a watch last year."

Jiang Cungang was utterly baffled. What did that mean?

Xiao Chen could not be bothered to continue wasting words on him. In the end, it was inconvenient to truly make a move right now, and trading insults would yield no result.

There was no need to waste his precious time on him. He decisively turned and returned to the mountain.

The seventy-first furnace, begin refining!