Third Grade

Third Grade...

Flames churned and leaped inside the Green Medicine Cauldron, slowly gathering under Xiao Yan's control into ring after ring of flowing fire.

Yao Lao raised an eyebrow and stroked his beard, but said nothing.

"Purple Leaf Orchid Grass, Bone Cleansing Flower..."

Xiao Yan freed one hand, lifted a box of flowers and herbs, and gave it a rough look. "Seems like it should be a three-to-two ratio... right?"

Forget it. Whatever.

With two clanging dumps, he poured the whole box of medicinal ingredients in all at once, like he was cooking.

"Whoosh!"

The flames inside the cauldron suddenly flared up, a yellow pillar of fire blazing fiercely as if oil had been poured over it. The medicinal ingredients wrapped within were thrust upward and scattered, completely melting into the flames.

"Uh... one extra plant?"

Xiao Yan was counting magic cores in his hand. Pinching one, he scratched his head with its pointed tip, then added a few more medicinal ingredients inside. After thinking for a moment, he tossed the magic cores in one by one like he was throwing sweet potatoes.

They had to be burned sooner or later anyway. Just throw them in and be done with it.

"Heh heh..."

Watching the process before him, which looked less like cooking and more like juggling, the smile on Yao Lao's face only grew thicker.

He could hardly be called some old fossil. The principle he had followed his entire life was this: if you could refine the medicine, that was victory. As for rigid old rules, they could all go to hell.

If everyone in the world merely followed and imitated the ancients, how would they be any different from machines processing products according to a Pill Recipe? "Almost there."

Xiao Yan lay against the side of the cauldron and looked left and right. At last, he took out the lid and pressed all the flames down, sealing them inside the cauldron. Then he sat cross-legged and controlled the fire with both hands, clearly having reached the most critical moment.

It was time to condense the medicine... However—Yao Lao's eyes narrowed slightly, as if he had some ominous premonition.

Sure enough, at the very last moment, when Xiao Yan was fully focused—

"Condense for me!"

Bang!!

Following Xiao Yan's urgent shout, the Green Medicine Cauldron suddenly shook. The cauldron lid shot straight into the sky with a thunderous boom, dragging a trail of black smoke and dust behind it.

Another shockwave spread out, once more flattening the already battered ground. Xiao Yan, who was right next to it, was naturally sent flying on the spot. Only after flipping eighteen hundred degrees through the air did he forcibly twist his direction with a Suction Palm and shoot back.

"Uh..."

The medicine cauldron before him billowed with rolling black smoke. Waves of burnt stink mingled with fragrance in the air, and as the creator, Xiao Yan could not quite determine the result.

"Master, does this count as the cauldron exploding?"

After asking guiltily, Xiao Yan muttered under his breath, "I knew this cauldron's quality was no good. The Auction House just hyped it up like it was unmatched under heaven..."

"Enough, enough!"

"Don't get a bargain and still act aggrieved. They put thought into getting this cauldron for you, and even gave you quite a discount besides."

Yao Lao stretched his neck over the mouth of the cauldron and peered inside, holding a twig as he tapped the medicine cauldron with clinks. Then he handed it to Xiao Yan. "You refined it, so you collect it yourself. Once you're done, your master still needs to refine something."

"Eh! Got it."

Xiao Yan snapped the twig, leaned over the cauldron mouth, and started picking, scraping, and prying.

In the end, he dug out a fist-sized lump of earthy-brown paste, with tiny specks of luster scattered across it like stars.

"So what grade does this count as?" Xiao Yan looked left and right but could not make anything of it.

"Do you even need to think? Third Grade medicinal paste!"

Yao Lao gave him a sharp knock on the head. "The medicine is good medicine, but how could someone at the Dou Qi stage withstand a pill of this grade? Even Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid can only be dripped into water and taken slowly... If you applied this paste, your Meridians would probably be completely ruined on the spot!"

Although he scolded Xiao Yan as if he were a dog, Yao Lao was still very satisfied with his performance this time.

Though the quantities of medicinal ingredients in a Pill Recipe were fixed, the ingredients themselves could not possibly grow exactly the same. The strength of their medicinal properties also differed from one to another.

Thus, tolerances naturally appeared during the refining process.

Xiao Yan had thrown in an entire basket without a word, shaving down all the peaks and filling in all the pits, so the overall quality actually became much more stable.

The instant the medicinal ingredients entered the cauldron, he controlled the fire to lift them, creating dozens of cavities isolated from heat. With one sweep of Soul Power, he knew both their amounts and their medicinal strength.

He melted and refined different medicinal ingredients in batches, and could even make slight adjustments to the order based on each individual plant's condition, achieving the effect of simultaneous refinement.

After that, he had even refined so many magic cores in one breath without any mistakes.

As for the final explosion...

"At the final moment of condensation, the medicinal liquid itself releases a portion of waste. It's just that normally, when refining medicine, the quantity is small and there isn't much waste, so it gets directly burned away and purified."

Yao Lao summoned the Bone Chilling Flame and tossed it into the medicine cauldron, letting it roam around and burn the residue away completely.

"This time, you threw in so much all at once. It would've been stranger if it didn't explode. If you want to try again in the future, during the process of suppressing the fire and condensing the pill, you can yield halfway through, raise the fire temperature once for a ring-shaped burn, then open the furnace first before forming the pill."

"Mm-hmm..."

Xiao Yan carefully scraped that strange lump of medicinal paste into a bottle. "This disciple understands. Then how should this medicinal paste be used? We can't just leave it there as a collectible."

At that question, even Yao Lao fell into thought.

This medicinal paste contained even stronger energy than Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid. To someone at the Dou Qi stage, it could practically be called a savage flood-beast, and even an ordinary Dou Zhe might not necessarily be able to digest it.

But its actual effect seemed rather useless. It could only nourish the meridians and increase Dou Qi. For a Dou Zhe or Dou Master, it could probably raise their cultivation speed by two or three months.

At first glance, it seemed pretty powerful.

But this thing was a Third Grade pill... Whose family was rich enough to use such a luxury item to improve cultivation?

Those below did not dare use it, and those above had no need for it.

Pills that forcibly raised their grade by piling on quantity basically all had this problem.

"Perhaps you could give it to that little girlfriend of yours to try?"

Venerable Yao suddenly gave a wicked grin. "You haven't gone to see her for ages. Maybe she's missing you terribly right now! At least send her a little gift to keep the relationship warm."

Little girlfriend...

The corner of Xiao Yan's mouth twitched, and he covered his forehead. "How many times have I said it? We're brother and sister, all right! Where did this random relationship even come from?"

What kind of relationship could there possibly be between them!

It was not like he had sneaked into her room in the middle of the night to feel her bones and nourish her meridians. He did not even know whether the affection trigger had activated or not, so how could there possibly be a relationship?

"I know, I know... a sweetheart sister, right~"

Yao Lao nodded repeatedly, wearing an expression that said, I understand, I understand everything. "Who said that doesn't count as a sister?"

"..."

Xiao Yan opened his mouth but could not make a sound. In the end, he decided not to keep talking with this shameless old man.

He could not win. He really could not win.

"Hmph, hmph~"

Yao Lao started the fire and opened the cauldron with the air of a victor. He even deliberately sent up a few pillars of flame just like Xiao Yan's, showing off his technique.

"How old are you, still acting like a child?"

Xiao Yan glanced sideways, feeling rather speechless. But he still had to take the notes he needed to take. They were little tricks from the dignified Venerable Yao; even taking apart any one of them would be enough for a Fifth Grade or Sixth Grade alchemist to study for a lifetime.

"Sigh—"

Xun Er sat dispiritedly on the steps of her home. "Brother Xiao Yan hasn't come to see me in so long..."

Ling Ying shifted in the shadows, then finally braced himself and spoke.

Even so.

"Miss, Back Mountain isn't far."

The interactions with Ya Fei and the like were just cut out directly. Just fill them in with your imagination (bushi).

Mainly because in these areas, a lot of other fanfics have already written plenty, so there's no need to keep clinging to the same similar stuff everyone has seen countless times.

It's enough to know that the protagonist often goes to restock, and even changes medicinal cauldrons.

10.6 update—

Someone brought up that the refining was complete nonsense (?) so let me explain.

Sorry, all the First Grade and Second Grade medicines at home were refined by the protagonist himself. I personally just felt that writing it out would be too watery, and those things have already been written to death in countless books.

Was the whole refining process nonsense? As an old hand who had been refining medicine for years, this was his first time refining dozens of portions at once. Yao Lao knew he would get into trouble doing it that way, so he was waiting to teach him a lesson and make him remember it.

Xiao Yan had opened dozens or hundreds of furnaces and was thinking of trying one furnace with higher difficulty. In the end, because of some omitted knowledge that would only be encountered at a higher level, something went wrong, and he failed to handle it properly.

The furnace exploded because the method of handling waste materials was wrong, not because the pill turned into explosives.

What was refined was Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid. Because the furnace explosion concentrated it from a liquid, it doesn't count as Third Grade?

It's not that this thing can't be used, it's just that there's a problem with its effect. Dou Zhe and Dou Masters can just use other medicines directly; there's no need to smear this thing on.

With these dozens of sets of materials, why not use them to support those at the Dou Qi stage?