Pill Refining

After settling in, Lu Xiaotian took out the pill furnace again, cleaned the impurities and waste from inside the cauldron, then rekindled the fire to refine pills.

The hardest parts of pill refining were judging the heat and determining when to open the furnace, both exceedingly difficult to grasp. Refining a single batch of Qi-Gathering Pills usually took nearly two hours. Lu Xiaotian had to remain constantly attentive to the strength of the fire, removing some spiritwood charcoal if it burned too fiercely and adding charcoal when it weakened.

Yet both of these depended entirely on the pill refiner's experience. One could not easily refine pills simply by relying on a pill formula.

Even beginner pill refiners were highly sought after in Moonwatch City, because pill refining was not only difficult but also an occupation that consumed an immense number of Spirit Stones. Those just learning pill refinement often had absurdly low success rates, sometimes failing several, or even more than ten, furnaces without succeeding once. Raising the success rate required long-term practice and accumulated experience.

Ordinary Rogue Cultivators simply could not bear such a burden in the beginning. Most pill refiners in Moonwatch City were trained by the Lineages controlling the various pill shops, using their Lineage resources.

After being trained, those pill refiners had to serve the pill shops of their respective Lineages. The pills usually sold outside were low-grade pills, while the better middle-grade and even high-grade ones were consumed by talented members of cultivation Lineages or appeared at auction houses, where they sold for staggering prices. Thus, those from cultivation Lineages were often stronger than ordinary Rogue Cultivators.

Apart from his daily cultivation, Lu Xiaotian stayed in the courtyard and refined pills for nearly ten straight days. He ruined seventeen batches in succession, and his remaining Spirit Stones were nearly exhausted. Such a high failure rate left him somewhat discouraged. If not for the space within the barrier being able to cultivate Purple Spirit Grass, pill refining at such intensity would have become impossible long ago.

The value of seventeen Purple Spirit Grass plants alone amounted to nearly forty Spirit Stones in Moonwatch City. Including the supplementary herbs, the Spirit Stones Lu Xiaotian had wasted over the past ten days were an astonishing amount for a Qi Refining cultivator.

However, through so many failures, Lu Xiaotian had summed up a method for refining Qi-Gathering Pills. He had also gained some understanding of fire control and furnace-opening timing. Lu Xiaotian stared intently at the blazing charcoal fire beneath the cauldron.

By now, he no longer removed spiritwood charcoal whenever the fire became too fierce, as he had when he first began refining pills. His previous failures had given him a rough idea of how much spiritwood charcoal each degree of heat required. This was the experience pill refiners gained through long years of refining.

Nearly two hours later, that familiar fragrance drifted out once more. Lu Xiaotian's heart tightened. If he failed again this time, he could only sell the remaining twenty spirit talismans in his possession to continue refining pills.

Calm his mind and steady his breath—open the furnace!

As he lifted the cauldron lid, a warm and familiar medicinal fragrance rushed at him. Inside the small cauldron lay two pale-yellow pills in silence. One of them gave off an especially rich aroma, and two tiny pill patterns had appeared on its pale-yellow surface.

"I actually refined a middle-grade Qi-Gathering Pill!" Lu Xiaotian was instantly overjoyed. After more than ten days of hardship, he had finally received a return. The meaning of receiving a reward after enduring every hardship was far greater than that of the two pills themselves.

After the heat dissipated from the surfaces of the two perfectly round, plump spirit pills, Lu Xiaotian placed them into separate small bottles.

Strike while the iron was hot. Since he had successfully refined a batch of Qi-Gathering Pills, he would refine a few more batches today.

With enough seeds on hand, Lu Xiaotian refined pills seven more times in succession, using up all the Purple Spirit Grass within the barrier. He succeeded three times, but each batch produced only one pill; none yielded two pills like before.

Still, he was quite satisfied with such a result. Even among the Lineage pill refiners of Moonwatch City, experienced veterans with decades of pill-refining experience would already consider three or four successes out of ten to be an excellent result.

Pill refining was an art that paid great attention to one's realm of mastery. Fire control and furnace-opening were not fixed and unchanging, either. Different Purple Spirit Grass plants differed in their growth stages and conditions.

A skilled pill refiner would make a preliminary judgment regarding the spirit herbs in hand, estimating what sort of heat to use. This judgment could also be inaccurate, so during the refining process, pill refiners would make slight adjustments to the fire and the time of removal from the furnace according to changes. But no matter how formidable a pill refiner was, they could not guarantee that their judgment was one hundred percent correct. The slightest misstep midway would result in an entire batch of pills being ruined.

Thus, even seasoned pill-refining veterans could only maintain a certain success rate.

The reason Lu Xiaotian could achieve such a high pill production rate in such a short time was not merely because his pill-refining skill had improved. More importantly, he had continuously refined the same kind of pill so many times, something other pill refiners did not possess. Furthermore, the Purple Spirit Grass grown inside the barrier had not been disturbed by external conditions such as wind and rain, and grew with greater uniformity. This also increased his pill production rate.

After refining the final Purple Spirit Grass plant, Lu Xiaotian put away the small cauldron with satisfaction. He took out that middle-grade Qi-Gathering Pill. Naturally, good pills had to be kept for himself. Now was the time to test its effects.

Lu Xiaotian sat directly on the stone chair in the small courtyard and swallowed the middle-grade Qi-Gathering Pill. The pill slowly dissolved within his body, turning into a gentle current of heat that flowed through his limbs and bones.

In the past, refining the medicinal power of a Qi-Gathering Pill required nearly six hours. But now that he was at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining, it took less than two hours.

The spiritual energy his meridians could not contain appeared inside the barrier as usual. After absorbing the medicinal power within his meridians, Lu Xiaotian's Primordial Spirit chased after and consumed the vitality inside the barrier. He then scattered Purple Spirit Grass seeds and crushed a Spirit Stone into powder, sprinkling it over the soil beside the seeds.

When the Purple Spirit Grass had run out during his earlier pill refinement, he had been so anxious while cultivating more that he nearly stamped his feet. Spiritual energy dispersed through the air and drifted about, making it difficult for it to float directly onto the Purple Spirit Grass seeds and be absorbed. Later, having no other choice, he used Spirit Stones and discovered that he could control them with his thoughts and crush them apart.

There was also particular care involved in using Spirit Stones. After all, he had all five types—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—on hand. Only the rarer ice, wind, and lightning types were absent. Water was the source of life, but it could not be used excessively, or the soil would become overly moist, which would instead hinder the growth of Purple Spirit Grass.

Earth-element Spirit Stones could enhance the spiritual power of the soil. Wood-element Spirit Stones were likewise naturally suited to Purple Spirit Grass, and all three types could be used as fertilizer. However, overall, the corresponding wood element worked best for Purple Spirit Grass, followed by earth-element Spirit Stones, then water-element Spirit Stones.

He had also tested the metal and fire elements, and they were completely unusable. After absorbing the spiritual energy from a Metal-Element Spirit Stone, Purple Spirit Grass rapidly withered. A Fire Spirit Stone directly burned it into black ash.

Overall, one Spirit Stone could cultivate roughly three Purple Spirit Grass plants. Based on his previous pill success rate, which was already close to forty percent, after subtracting the ruined batches, selling Qi-Gathering Pills would yield four Spirit Stones in return for every one Spirit Stone invested.

Although Qi-Gathering Pills were somewhat less effective for cultivators in the Qi Refining Middle Stage, they made up for it in quantity. With an ample supply of pills, his cultivation speed began to soar in a straight line, more than several times faster than relying on meditation alone. Within half a year, though he had only just entered the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining before, the vitality he had accumulated at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining had now nearly reached half.

At this time, Lu Xiaotian, dressed in green, had grown quite a bit taller than before. His figure remained somewhat lean, and he was not particularly handsome, but his fairly delicate features, combined with his long periods of solitude and the life-and-death hardships he had experienced over the past few years, had given him an aloof and distant air.

Roar. The Leopard's senses were sharper than those of ordinary cultivators, and it quickly noticed the disturbance outside the courtyard. It abruptly rose to its feet from where it had been lazily sprawled in the courtyard sunning itself.

Bang, bang. Knocks sounded at the door.

"Is Brother Lu here?" Luo Qing called sweetly from outside.

Hearing the visitor's voice, the Leopard lay back down where it had been. Over the past half year, the Luo siblings had occasionally come by to visit, and after seeing them once or twice, the Leopard had remembered them.

"Eh, this Qi-Gathering Pill smells different from usual." As soon as Luo Qing entered, she sniffed hard several times and spoke.

"Why did you come so early today?"

Lu Xiaotian smiled at her words and avoided discussing the pills. He had been lucky just now and had actually refined a high-grade Qi-Gathering Pill. Over the past half year, he had continuously refined Qi-Gathering Pills. The number of times he had opened the furnace to refine pills probably exceeded the combined total of other pill refiners over several decades. After all, even Purple Spirit Grass planted in spirit fields could only be harvested once a year. It was impossible for others to continuously harvest spirit herbs as he did, so long as they had Spirit Stones.

Luo Yuan said, "It's like this. In another four months, the major immortal sects will begin their annual disciple recruitment. My sister and I, along with several other familiar friends, plan to enter the Moonwatch Mountains to search for spiritual items. If we are lucky, we might even find items required for missions from other sects. Brother Lu, your strength is quite impressive. I would like to invite you to join our team. With one more person, we will be that much safer in the Moonwatch Mountains."

"What, are the Moonwatch Mountains very dangerous?" Lu Xiaotian asked in surprise.

"Brother Lu, you may not know this, but not only do demon beasts run rampant in the Moonwatch Mountains—the greater danger comes from other cultivators. I have entered the Moonwatch Mountains several times. More of my companions have died in ambushes by other cultivator teams than beneath demon beast attacks," Luo Yuan said gravely.

Lu Xiaotian shuddered inwardly. Having spent half a year refining pills in the small courtyard, he had grown somewhat removed from the bloody slaughter among cultivators.

"Who else have you invited, Brother Luo? Who has the highest cultivation?" Lu Xiaotian asked, without agreeing immediately.

"Including my sister and me, there are five others. The highest cultivation among them is the same as mine, the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining. But Brother Lu is an extremely skilled pill refiner. If you join our team, you will have a certain priority over the spirit herbs we obtain."

Luo Qing spoke with an expectant expression. Over the past half year, they had come to understand Lu Xiaotian somewhat. In their eyes, being able to rely solely on pill refining to rent such a large courtyard while also maintaining his daily cultivation was already extremely impressive.