By his second batch of pills, Chen Changan's rate of improvement was simply breathtaking.
His first batch had still included two medium-grade pills, but in the second, even the lowest quality was high-grade. He once again produced five pills: two supreme-grade and three high-grade.
Chen Changan was reasonably satisfied with this result, but he did not stop there. Instead, he continued refining.
Only after he could produce nothing but supreme-grade pills did Chen Changan finally stop.
"Is he really human?"
"He just kept refining until every pill in a batch was supreme-grade?"
"Isn't he improving far too quickly?"
"He improves with every attempt and identifies his shortcomings every time. It's truly terrifying."
"Don't just stand there in shock. What did you learn from watching?"
"I did gain some insights. Pill refining requires sufficient comprehension, but even more than that, it requires care and patience."
"Chen Changan improves every time because after each batch, he goes through the process again and reviews it, checking where he fell short during the refinement."
"Although he cares about the quality of his pills too, he cares because it helps him improve. Unlike us-if our pills turn out a little better, we immediately get carried away and rejoice, completely forgetting to review our shortcomings."
"Sigh. So we have neither Chen Changan's talent for pill refining nor his care and patience?"
"You could say he crushes us on every front."
They exchanged smiles filled with bitterness and self-mockery. Every one of them had thought they were quite good, but only after seeing Chen Changan did they realize they had merely been smugly congratulating themselves and deceiving themselves.
"By the way, am I supposed to hand over some of the pills I refined, according to the rules?"
"How many was it again?" Chen Changan asked the Branch