Alchemy

Su Hao walked around the cave dwelling and found the medicine vault.

The medicine vault had been built from special stone. It was cool inside, and the scents of various medicines mingled together.

One jade box after another sat on the display cabinets, each containing different herbs.

Having mastered the Pill Dao Scripture and the Medicine King's Secret Codex, Su Hao had skipped the tedious learning process.

His theoretical foundation in herbal medicine was already extremely solid.

He could not compare with an apothecary who had worked for decades, but he knew the properties and effects of all kinds of herbs and spiritual medicines by heart.

After opening several boxes and taking only a brief look, he could identify the specific information of the herbs inside.

"Three-Colored Lotus. An aquatic medicinal herb. Its stem stands upright, pale green with fine white hairs, and grows a little over a foot tall... It is a prized medicine for nourishing yin and replenishing qi.

"This is the primary ingredient for Pure Qi Pills. Combined with Polygonatum, mountain ginseng, Snow Lotus, and more than ten other qi-enhancing herbs, it can be refined.

"One of the entry-level pills for alchemists.

"If the success rate exceeds thirty percent, it counts as having mastered the technique."

"One batch produces around ten to fifteen Pure Qi Pills. The standard for sale is five pills per bottle."

"Heavenly Treasure Pavilion gave three hundred Three-Colored Lotuses and required Lin Zhi Shan to supply three hundred bottles, or fifteen hundred Pure Qi Pills.

"Counting conservatively, Lin Zhi Shan's success rate with Pure Qi Pills must be at least fifty percent, right? If his skill is better or his luck is good, he can even pocket some of the Three-Colored Lotuses."

"The same applies to Spirit Gathering Powder."

No wonder Lin Zhi Shan was so wealthy. He had managed to rise above the low-level cultivators and cultivate the Hundred Profound Medicine Veins—a technique both extravagant and ruthless.

After looking around the medicine vault, Su Hao left the cave dwelling.

He went to take a look at the Blood Tribute Field.

After all, these were temporarily his properties now.

The Blood Tribute Field lay to the north. Three mu of farmland was enclosed by high walls, and the soil was dark red.

One bright-red, thorn-like herb after another grew across it.

"Are these Blood Thorn Ginseng?" Su Hao observed them carefully. "An auxiliary medicinal herb used in many spirit pills."

Huang Jiao stood to the side with his back bowed. "Yes, this is Blood Thorn Ginseng. The master spent a great deal of effort on it. He began trying to cultivate it ten years ago and finally succeeded after four or five years. At first, he tended it personally and wouldn't even let us approach."

"Go prepare the materials needed for one hundred batches of Pure Qi Pills."

Su Hao glanced at him.

"The master..."

"Don't talk so much." Su Hao's voice turned colder.

"Yes, I'll prepare them right away."

Huang Jiao left quickly, trembling with fear.

Su Hao held up a Blood Thorn Ginseng leaf with one hand, sending spiritual power into it.

Because of the Wood Emperor Physique, no matter what cultivation technique Su Hao practiced, his spiritual power carried a special effect: nourishing herbs.

Strand after strand of spiritual power entered the Blood Thorn Ginseng.

Ten percent, twenty percent... This Blood Thorn Ginseng grew even more vivid, while the number of blood-colored veins increased by twenty to thirty percent.

Su Hao frowned and withdrew his hand. "Forty to fifty percent of my spiritual power can ripen one Blood Thorn Ginseng by half a year..."

He was deeply dissatisfied. This method was completely incapable of ripening herbs on a large scale, and its benefits were far lower than he had expected.

Increasing a herb's age by one or two years would not raise the value of Blood Thorn Ginseng.

Only increasing it by ten or twenty years could raise its price by one or two spirit stones, making the cost-effectiveness far too low.

But if it had the same effect on some top-grade herbs, that would be a different matter.

After confirming the effect, Su Hao had no intention of wasting time and spiritual power on the Blood Thorn Ginseng.

"Young Master Su, the medicinal ingredients are ready. Should we send them to the cave dwelling now?"

Huang Jiao returned. Two carriages slowly emerged from the warehouse, each carrying one small wooden box after another.

"That fast?" Su Hao was somewhat surprised.

"Er, that's normal. Pure Qi Pills and Spirit Gathering Powder are medicines the master often refines, so we always keep some materials prepared in advance."

Huang Jiao explained.

Su Hao nodded. Every box already contained the ingredients needed for Pure Qi Pills. Add one Three-Colored Lotus, and refinement could begin.

"Let's go. We can chat casually while we walk."

Su Hao headed up the mountain.

He would take the opportunity to learn more about the operation of these properties and the assignment of personnel.

Aside from Lin Miao and Zhao Bai Jiang, the two Qi Refining cultivators, Heavenly Medicine Mountain had no other cultivators.

According to Huang Jiao, Lin Zhi Shan had taken in one formal disciple and several cultivators many years ago, but they had betrayed him miserably. After that, he never recruited cultivators to Heavenly Medicine Mountain again.

The Golden Light Sect disciples were all difficult to control. These ordinary people, by contrast, were more obedient.

When assigning tasks to Huang Jiao and the others, Lin Zhi Shan mostly transmitted messages through a special jade scroll called the Mirror Script Jade Contract.

This item was not a magical artifact, yet it had a strange function. It came in two matching halves: when one scroll was written on, the corresponding words would appear on the other.

The two would function within a range of twenty li.

Only then did Su Hao recall that a strange scroll had been placed on the offering table in the loft. It was the Mirror Script Jade Contract.

That makes sense. With such a great distance between them, Lin Zhi Shan couldn't possibly always deliver messages personally or have someone relay them.

Heavenly Treasure Pavilion also had an even better communication artifact, but it was not cheap.

After returning to the cave dwelling with the medicinal ingredients,

Su Hao began preparing to refine pills.

Under normal circumstances, an alchemist progressed step by step. They would spend three years as an apprentice, only beginning to come into contact with alchemy in the fourth year. They would start by refining ordinary pills for mortals, and only after seven or eight years would they try refining Mortal Pills needed by cultivators.

For cultivators with no alchemical talent at all, refining Mortal Pills was already the limit.

Nurturing an alchemist was not easy. Especially in a competitive demonic sect like this one, setting resources aside—even with sufficient resources, few cultivators would spend their time on a craft that could not directly increase their combat power or cultivation.

This made an alchemist like Lin Zhi Shan all the more precious.

If he possessed Qi Refining Level 10 or Foundation Establishment cultivation, he would have an easier time joining the inner sect than the other disciples.

Pure Qi Pills were relatively basic among Mortal Pills, but only a success rate of thirty percent or higher left room for profit.

Su Hao brought over the auxiliary ingredients and poured them into the pill furnace.

"Boil the auxiliary ingredients at high temperature in the pill furnace and extract the medicinal liquid. The fewer impurities in the medicinal liquid, the higher the quality of the finished pill.

"Heat control is extremely important. It determines the extraction efficiency. If the heat is too high, it damages the essence of the medicinal ingredients; if it is too low, it becomes difficult to extract the effective components.

"The content of the effective components determines the success or failure of alchemy..."

Su Hao recalled the introductory alchemy knowledge from the Pill Dao Scripture and the Medicine King's Secret Codex.

His theory was solid, but he had no practical experience in refining medicines or pills.

Still, he had advantages over other apprentices and alchemists.

The first was pill formulas. Pill formulas were exceedingly rare and precious, even harder to find than cultivation techniques. The Scripture Repository had no books of that sort; one could only buy them from an alchemist or Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

The second was the Wood Emperor Physique and his apothecary talent.

The former needed no elaboration. With an orange talent, he could be called a prodigy across the entire Golden Light Sect without exaggeration.

As for apothecary talent, it was an essential talent for an alchemist, much like cultivation itself.

His extremely high talent in wood, along with his keen perception of plants, wood-type spiritual energy, and the like, all indicated immense potential in alchemy and herbal medicine.

Inside the alchemy room, the temperature gradually rose.

After two incense sticks' worth of time, the pill furnace erupted in flames, and a foul burnt smell filled the room.

The first batch of Pure Qi Pills had failed.

"I operated too hastily. I didn't control the fire properly with the Fire Control Art."

This failure instead gave Su Hao more confidence.

During the refinement process, he suddenly discovered that he had a wondrous perception of the medicinal ingredients inside the pill furnace. He could clearly sense the changes in their medicinal power and vitality.

This was an extraordinary ability no other alchemist possessed.

Su Hao began the second batch. This time, he was more careful and patient, smoothly reaching the step of fusing the more than ten medicinal liquids and refining them into pills.