"Such a pity. There are too many impurities in the medicinal liquid, and the quality is far too poor."
The furnace flames went out.
Su Hao opened the furnace and looked at the batch of charred-yellow pills inside, which gave off a faint bitter smell.
In terms of quality, they were even inferior to Low-grade Pure Qi Pills.
"Right..."
Su Hao raised an eyebrow, took out several Pure Qi Pills, and circulated spiritual power to envelop them.
His spiritual power wrapped around them like water, causing the four pills inside to spin.
Fine gray-white powder continuously flaked off.
After a moment, the pills had shrunk by half, but their texture was smooth and rounded, glowing with a lustrous white sheen and carrying a hint more fragrance.
"Between low-grade and mid-grade, but the medicinal power is insufficient—only half that of a normal finished pill. Still, at least they're presentable. If I really put them up for sale, I won't have to worry about nobody wanting them.
"Besides, if I start removing impurities and purifying the medicinal liquid from the extraction stage, I should get a different result!"
A sudden idea struck Su Hao, and he directly tossed this batch of inferior pills into a box to one side.
He quickly began the third batch of pills.
This time, he began interfering with the quality of the medicinal materials using his unique spiritual power from the boiling stage onward.
It was only when purifying the Three-Colored Lotus that he expended a greater amount of spiritual power.
After going through the entire pill-refining process, the spiritual power required by the Fire Control Art was negligible, while purification consumed around ten percent of his spiritual power.
Time passed second by second.
The pill furnace gradually released a rich medicinal fragrance.
Before the final fusion into pills, it was already possible to tell that this batch had succeeded—and that its quality would not be poor!
Bang~
The instant the lid sprang open, billowing violet-white smoke rose up.
Inside were fifteen Pure Qi Pills spinning round and round. Each was crystal clear, with a strange luster resembling a layer of radiance.
"Top-grade Pure Qi Pills!"
Su Hao's eyes lit up. With a single glance, he had judged them from their appearance.
Top-grade, high-grade, mid-grade, and low-grade represented the impurity content and medicinal efficacy of pills. There was at least a thirty percent difference in efficacy between each grade.
Top-grade pills meant that their impurities were already close to zero. Almost none of the medicinal materials' effective components had been wasted, and no pill toxins would accumulate.
A bottle containing five Top-grade Pure Qi Pills could sell for seven or eight times the price, and there would be no shortage of buyers.
On his first contact with the Dao of Alchemy, after only three attempts, he had refined pills of top-grade quality. Even among the sects in the Golden Light Sect renowned for alchemy, he would be an unprecedented genius of pill refinement!
This batch greatly encouraged Su Hao, and he became even more interested.
He began the fourth batch, then the fifth...
His success rate in pill refinement was over ninety percent, and more than half of the pills were top-grade!
Each batch consumed ten percent of his spiritual power. It seemed quite taxing, but even if Lin Zhi Shan refined them, he could only produce seven or eight batches a day. Refining pills was not merely a matter of skill; it was also a tremendous test of one's spirit and concentration.
Su Hao, by contrast, found it very easy. After all, his current pill-refining method was practically cheating. It consumed spiritual power but saved time and simplified the process.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Su Hao became increasingly proficient at refining Pure Qi Pills. By the end, he no longer needed to purify the medicinal materials; even using the normal pill-refining process, he still had a fairly high success rate, though producing top-grade pills became difficult.
Over the course of two days, he failed five times and succeeded twenty-two times.
He produced a total of 260 Pure Qi Pills.
Among them were 100 Top-grade Pure Qi Pills, 80 High-grade Pure Qi Pills, 50 Mid-grade Pure Qi Pills, and 30 Low-grade Pure Qi Pills.
"There's no need to wait until next month. I can fulfill Heavenly Treasure Pavilion's commission by the end of this month.
"But I can't give them the Top-grade Pure Qi Pills. I can't even give them too many High-grade Pure Qi Pills.
"Even if Lin Zhi Shan has the Hundred Profound Gang Body, there's no way his attainments in pill refinement could be this high."
After two days of high-intensity pill refinement, Su Hao's eyes were bloodshot. He sorted the pills by quality, placed them into different bottles, and divided them into three piles.
Once his excitement faded, he instead began to worry.
Although Pure Qi Pills were low-level cultivation pills, if one could produce top-grade pills at a high probability, the resulting profits would be enough to make any cultivator green with envy!
Once this was exposed, Su Hao's situation would become even more dangerous!
It was important to control the degree carefully: he had to keep a low profile while still displaying a certain amount of value.
Therefore, the pills delivered to Heavenly Treasure Pavilion could not be too high-grade. He would rather give them some inferior pills.
"Next, I'll try Spirit Gathering Powder. It's somewhat higher-grade than Pure Qi Pills, but the refining method shouldn't be any more complicated. There are just more auxiliary materials."
At the end of the month, Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.
These days, Su Hao had been refining pills at high intensity.
More than half of the five hundred spiritual herbs had been used.
He had produced a total of 212 bottles of Pure Qi Pills and 100 portions of Qi Gathering Powder.
He kept all the high-grade and top-grade pills for himself.
Carrying the inferior pills he had selected, he headed to Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.
"Well, if it isn't Nephew Su! What wind brings you here?"
When Huang Shanyu spotted a familiar face among the customers, he immediately came smiling out from behind the counter and personally received him.
"Let's talk inside." Su Hao swept his eyes over the surrounding counters and noticed several black-clad disciples casting puzzled looks his way, seemingly trying to guess his origins.
"Yes, yes, this way."
Huang Shanyu slapped his forehead, then gave a look to a shop assistant, signaling him to prepare tea and refreshments.
After Su Hao entered the inner room and sat down, he let out a sigh.
"Has something troubling happened to Nephew Su?" Huang Shanyu asked with concern.
Su Hao shook his head. "It's nothing much. I came this time for two reasons. First, to settle the loan."
"That isn't urgent. Given our relationship, it wouldn't matter even if you didn't repay it."
Huang Shanyu waved his hand generously, though in truth, he hoped even more that Su Hao lacked the ability to repay the spirit stones.
Su Hao swept his hand over the table, and a pile of spirit stones appeared on it. "Elder Huang, please count them. Two hundred spirit stones in total."
"Why count them? Do you think I don't trust you?"
That was what Huang Shanyu said, but the instant he put away the spirit stones, he already knew the exact number. "How long has it been, and you've already gathered two hundred spirit stones, Brother Su? It seems your master treats you very well. Looking across the outer sect, I've never seen another master so generous as to turn around and bestow so many spirit stones on a disciple."
"Not at all. It's a long story." Su Hao kept his worried expression and continued playing the riddler. With everything, he feared neither that others would speculate nor that they would guess wrong—he only feared saying too much. The more he said, the more flaws he would reveal.
Just as Huang Shanyu was about to put on the air of an elder and ask after him with concern,
Su Hao took out another storage pouch. "My master told me to hand this over to you. He said he wouldn't be able to fulfill Heavenly Treasure Pavilion's commission as promised. He had something to attend to and had to leave. Once he returned, he would deliver the remaining pills."
"What happened?"
Huang Shanyu's expression changed slightly. He reached out and caught the storage pouch, then swept his divine sense inside. There were only 100 bottles of Pure Qi Pills and 40 portions of Spirit Gathering Powder—less than half the commissioned amount.
He set the storage pouch down and stared at Su Hao curiously.
"I don't know what happened this time.
"Senior Brother Lin Yu was in contact with me for a few days at first, then he disappeared.
"Not long after that, the formation around my master's cave abode was destroyed.
"My master seemed to have suffered a serious injury as well. He went into seclusion for several days and ordered me to manage Heavenly Medicine Mountain.
"A few days ago, he suddenly emerged from seclusion, hurriedly instructed me on some matters, and then told me to give the storage pouch to you. Knowing that I owed spirit stones to your Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, he gave me a scolding, then gave me two hundred spirit stones and told me to repay the debt.
"After that, he disappeared without a trace."
Su Hao sighed long and hard, speaking the lies he had prepared long ago. "I don't know what kind of enemy my master provoked. Given his standing in the outer sect and his wide network of connections, it shouldn't have come to him fleeing like a refugee, should it?"
Huang Shanyu stroked his beard, glancing at Su Hao from time to time. "You truly don't know what happened?"
"How could I be qualified to ask? Normally, I stay behind closed doors and cultivate, afraid that my master will be displeased. I'm also worried that Senior Brother Lin Yu will dislike me and scheme against me in secret..."
Su Hao spoke helplessly.
"That's true. You're only a minor cultivator at Qi Refining Level 3. How could you know too much?" Huang Shanyu narrowed his eyes slightly and thought for a moment. "I'll tell you the truth. Your master most likely offended Joy Peak!"
"..."
Su Hao was stunned for a moment. That's not right. How does Huang Shanyu even know this? Could it be that Liu Mei has made some move?
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