Refining a Fifth-Grade Medicinal Pill

The entrance to the mountain cave was blocked by piles of tangled rubble and twisted trees. Upon closer inspection, there was even a first-tier rock snake magical beast coiled among them.

Seeing this, Xiao Kun directly circulated his Dou Qi and casually flung out a force blast over three meters wide, sweeping the debris and the rock snake into the deep ravine.

With the trees and stones no longer blocking his view, Xiao Kun finally saw the cave left behind by his predecessor clearly.

The entrance was not wide, only enough for two or three people to pass through. Faint chisel-like marks covered the surrounding walls, revealing the great age of the cave.

Xiao Kun knew that this was almost certainly the Predecessor's Cave Dwelling, so he walked straight inside.

More than ten minutes later, Xiao Kun slowly made his way through the quiet, dark cave, unable to help marveling at just how deep it was.

Before long, just as a trace of impatience arose within him, a stone door emitting a faint yellow glow appeared ahead.

Xiao Kun examined the thickness of the stone door and realized that not even a Dou Master could break through it. He gave up on searching for a mechanism and forced the door open instead.

Xiao Kun pushed the door open and discovered a huge stone chamber inside. Unlike the darkness outside, the embedded Moonlight Stones illuminated the chamber as brightly as day.

The stone chamber appeared somewhat plain and empty. At its center stood a seat, upon which rested a skeleton.

In front of the seat was a bluestone table, where three locked stone boxes had been neatly arranged.

In one corner of the stone chamber stood a small flower bed filled with many rare medicinal herbs. The other three corners were piled high with gold, silver, and jewels, worth roughly several hundred thousand Gold Coins.

Seeing this, Xiao Kun first stored the gold, silver, and jewels, which occupied the most space, into his Storage Ring. To be honest, this amount of Gold Coins did not even catch his eye. His Storage Ring already contained a billion Gold Coins obtained through critical hits.

After putting away the Gold Coins, Xiao Kun caught the faint medicinal fragrance in the air. Without realizing it, he walked over to the flower bed and looked at the white-and-red Ice Spirit Flame Grass growing at its center.

Xiao Kun knew that he had finally gathered all the ingredients needed to refine the Fifth-Grade Blood Lotus Pill. As for the remaining third-tier magic core, he had obtained quite a few third- and fourth-tier magic cores while training in the Magic Beast Mountain Range near Wu Tan City.

It could be said that once he left this cave, he could find a place to refine the Blood Lotus Pill.

Next, Xiao Kun used exquisite jade bottles and a small jade shovel to collect the precious medicinal herbs one by one.

After collecting them all, Xiao Kun went to the skeleton in the center of the stone chamber and took the black key used to open the three stone boxes on the table, as well as the fragment of the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame map, ranked third among Heavenly Flames, hidden within its hand bones.

After casually burying the predecessor's exposed remains, Xiao Kun placed the map fragment into his Storage Ring, then used the key to open the three stone boxes one by one.

He obtained the three items stored within: a Profound-tier High-grade battle skill scroll, Mad Lion Roar; an ancient, multicolored scroll, the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture; and a Profound-tier High-grade flying battle skill, Eagle Wings, which was the Purple Cloud Wings Xiao Yan would later cultivate.

Xiao Kun stored all his gains in his Storage Ring, carefully inspected the chamber once more, and, after finding nothing left behind, departed from the cave.

Thinking of Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian entering the cave full of anticipation in the future, only to find nothing at all, Xiao Kun could not help secretly chuckling.

He then immediately resumed a serious expression and began searching for a secluded cave where he could refine pills and cultivate in seclusion.

Before long, Xiao Kun found a cave with a fairly decent environment. After cleaning it up, he nodded in satisfaction and took out a Medicine Cauldron to prepare to refine the Blood Lotus Pill.

Taking out a sixth-tier Medicine Cauldron he had obtained from a previous critical hit, Xiao Kun could not help sighing. He wondered when he would be able to own a Medicine Cauldron from the Heavenly Cauldron Ranking. Those were every alchemist's dream!

Although he had prepared everything, Xiao Kun still felt somewhat uneasy before beginning the refinement.

Based on the experience inherited from the sixth-grade alchemist's notes and his current Soul Power, he had enough to support refining Sixth-grade Medicinal Pills, with a certain chance of success.

However, this Fifth-Grade Blood Lotus Pill was his first attempt, and he only had one set of ingredients. Considering the importance of this pill,

after thinking it over, Xiao Kun decided to first use the precious medicinal herbs obtained from the cave dwelling to refine two Fifth-grade Healing Medicinal Pills: Restoration Pills, ensuring the Blood Lotus Pill's success rate.

No sooner said than done, Xiao Kun first took out two sets of ingredients for Restoration Pills, then sent Heavenly Flames into the Medicine Cauldron and began refining.

The extraction and refinement went smoothly, but when it came time to condense the pill, a moment of carelessness caused him to lose control of the heat, burning the pill to ruin.

Although he had failed, it was not beyond Xiao Kun's expectations. After all, it was his first time refining a Fifth-grade Medicinal Pill.

After resting for a while and restoring his body, energy, and spirit to their peak, Xiao Kun began his second attempt at refining a Restoration Pill. With his complete concentration, the second attempt finally succeeded.

Looking at the jade-green pill still warm in his hand, Xiao Kun knew that his first Fifth-grade Medicinal Pill, the Restoration Pill, had finally been successfully refined. He could now truly be considered a fifth-grade alchemist.

Next, Xiao Kun recalled the Blood Lotus Pill's refinement method from his mind, as well as the insights he had gained from refining the Restoration Pill just now.

After a long while, once he had returned to his peak state, Xiao Kun began refining the Blood Lotus Pill. The process was even more complicated than refining a Restoration Pill, and danger arose several times, but Xiao Kun endured them all with the support of his formidable Soul Power.

A day later, an intense medicinal fragrance suddenly erupted from Xiao Kun's cave, carrying a faint reddish hue. These unusual signs all indicated that the Blood Lotus Pill had finally been successfully refined after Xiao Kun's full day of work.

Putting away the pill, Xiao Kun let out a long breath and sighed. "It finally succeeded!"

With this success, a strong sense of accomplishment surged in Xiao Kun's heart. Riding this momentum, he decided that for the next month, he would work hard to gather medicinal ingredients and refine more pills, striving to ensure that he would not fail when refining Fifth-grade Medicinal Pills.

A month later, amid a rich medicinal fragrance, a pale-blue Fifth-Grade King Augmenting Pill fell into Xiao Kun's hand.

Together with the two Restoration Pills and one Blood Lotus Pill he had refined previously, this was the eighth Fifth-grade Medicinal Pill he had refined, as well as the fifth pill he had refined that month.

He had only refined five Fifth-grade Medicinal Pills in total that month, not because he was slow at refining pills, but because he had spent most of his time searching for medicinal ingredients.

In his search for medicinal herbs, he had also fought many fifth-tier magical beasts comparable to Dou Wangs. After all, powerful magical beasts generally guarded rare medicinal herbs.

Relying on Heavenly Flames and Secret Arts such as Three Mysteries of Heavenly Flame and Shifting Phantom, Xiao Kun had become unmatched among Dou Wangs. He had even killed two fifth-tier magical beasts, obtaining two fifth-tier magic cores and gaining considerable valuable combat experience.

His cultivation had also naturally broken through to the six-star Dou Wang level amid his pill refinement and battles.

After refining his pill today, Xiao Kun felt that the time was about right. Xiao Yan should have arrived in Qingshan Town by now. He planned to go out, find Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian, and give them critical-hit compensation.