The primeval forest.
Looking at the Foundation Replenishing Pill in his hand,
a thoughtful look flashed through Ye Xuan's eyes.
According to the classification system in Low-tier Alchemy Mastery,
ordinary pills were divided into four tiers: low, mid, high, and top.
Each tier was further divided into four grades: inferior, standard, superior, and supreme.
Inferior pills contained the most pill toxins, and it took a great deal of time to purge them.
Standard pills were a little better. They contained fewer pill toxins, but still had to be taken with care.
Superior pills contained so little pill toxin that it could basically be ignored.
And what about the legendary supreme pills?
Supreme pills were flawless. Not only were they toxin-free, they also caused no drug resistance whatsoever.
As long as one had enough supreme pills,
even a pig could grow powerful in no time.
Unfortunately,
that lousy furnace had limited Ye Xuan's performance.
On top of that, the medicinal ingredients were nothing special, so making superior pills had been the absolute limit.
"One pill equals five years of hard cultivation..."
Ye Xuan rubbed his thumb over the pill's smooth, warm cloud patterns, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
The Foundation Replenishing Pill was one of the best among inferior pills. A single pill could increase one's cultivation by five years.
Those five years didn't refer to the cultivation of some astonishingly talented prodigy, but to five years of meditation and cultivation by an ordinary person with average aptitude.
Even so,
in the Zhu Xian World,
the Foundation Replenishing Pill was still a rare treasure.
And five Foundation Replenishing Pills amounted to twenty-five years of cultivation.
Ye Xuan tipped his head back.
His wrist flicked.
Five pale-gold Foundation Replenishing Pills turned into five streaks of light and shot straight into his mouth.
"Gulp."
His Adam's apple bobbed as the pills went down.
If the heads and elders of Qingyun Sect had seen this, they would probably have been so shocked that their beards fell right out.
That was reckless!
Those were pills containing immense spiritual power, not candy!
Swallowing all five at once would unleash such tremendous medicinal power that it could burst the meridians of a Yuqing Realm disciple.
But Ye Xuan looked completely calm. He even smacked his lips twice, finding the taste a little bland.
Boom!
The pills dissolved as soon as they entered his stomach.
In that instant, it was as if an active volcano had erupted inside him.
A surging wave of heat burst forth like a flood breaking through a dam, roaring wildly along his meridians.
Wherever it passed, the barriers of his meridians rumbled under the impact.
Anyone else would have been bleeding from all seven orifices by now, screaming in agony.
But Ye Xuan merely furrowed his brow.
The Primordial Era Version of the Innate Dao Body was domineering beyond compare.
The spiritual force of a few low-tier pills was like an egg hitting a rock against this body.
"Be still!"
Ye Xuan willed it.
The rumbling inside him grew even louder.
The medicinal force had been raging wildly, trying to tear his meridians apart, but the moment it encountered the Innate Dao Body's instinctive resistance, it immediately settled down.
The violent spiritual energy turned as docile as a lamb and obediently began circulating along the cultivation path of the Tai Chi Xuan Qing Dao.
One circuit, two circuits, three...
With each cycle,
a portion of the immense medicinal force was absorbed, transformed into pure Tai Chi Vital Energy, and gathered in his dantian.
As for the faint trace of pill toxin?
Under the Innate Dao Body's overbearing cleansing, it didn't even make a ripple. It was treated as waste and expelled through his pores.
A faint gray mist rose from Ye Xuan's body, then vanished.
Incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
The feeling of his cultivation skyrocketing like a rocket was intoxicating.
The Tai Chi Vital Energy in his body grew at a visible rate.
What had originally been a trickle of spiritual energy had now gathered into a surging river.
The bottleneck at the fifth level of the Tai Chi Xuan Qing Dao was as thin as a sheet of paper before this power.
"Break!"
Ye Xuan gave a low cry in his heart.
There was no resistance.
Not even a pause.
The invisible barrier shattered in an instant.
Rumble!
The bluestone beneath Ye Xuan shook violently.
A wave of invisible energy swept up the fallen leaves around him, sending them whirling wildly through the air.
The Tai Chi Xuan Qing Dao, sixth level!
One had to remember—
Ye Xuan was only ten years old.
A ten-year-old at the sixth level of the Yuqing Realm—how astonishing was that?
A moment later,
Ye Xuan opened his eyes and clenched his fist.
His knuckles cracked.
A sense of abundant strength surged through his entire body, as if a single punch could pierce the mountain.
"As expected."
"Pills are the cultivation method best suited to me."
Ye Xuan narrowed his eyes and murmured softly.
The Primordial Era Version of the Innate Dao Body was like a dimensional blow against the Zhu Xian World.
What did Great Bamboo Peak amount to?
As one of the Seven Peaks of Qingyun Sect,
Great Bamboo Peak was considered a fine paradise by outsiders.
But to someone with an Innate Dao Body like Ye Xuan, it was like throwing a whale into a little pond.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth on Great Bamboo Peak simply couldn't satisfy Ye Xuan.
That was precisely why
he had been stuck at the fifth level of the Tai Chi Xuan Qing Dao for a full six months.
It wasn't that Ye Xuan hadn't worked hard.
There simply wasn't enough spiritual energy on Great Bamboo Peak.
If Ye Xuan were sent to a world rich in spiritual energy,
then even without cultivating, relying only on the breaths he took,
with the support of the Primordial Era Version of the Innate Dao Body,
his cultivation would rise rapidly until he crossed the tribulation and became an immortal!
"Forget it."
"I'll take it slowly."
After a while,
Ye Xuan shook his head and glanced at the ground.
The Bronze Cauldron he'd used to refine pills had now been completely ruined.
Fine cracks covered its walls.
"Trash."
Ye Xuan kicked it in disgust.
Crash!
The cauldron shattered at once, turning into a pile of scrap metal.
He really needed some proper equipment.
He needed a furnace for alchemy.
He needed a furnace for artifact forging.
And if he ever took a dislike to someone, he could use the furnace to smash them.
Just imagine it.
One day, in the middle of a fight.
His opponent: "Behold my flying sword!"
Ye Xuan: "Behold my cauldron! I'll smash you into the ground, you little bastard!"
Just thinking about it got him fired up.
It was decided.
His first magical treasure would be a cauldron-type artifact.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Ye Xuan began rummaging through his Storage Bag.
Several chunks of pitch-black metal tumbled out. They were heavy enough to punch several holes in the ground.
Black Cold Iron.
It was hard, carried a chill of its own, and was a common artifact-forging material in this world.
There was also a crimson stone, its surface pitted and uneven, radiating heat.
Red Copper Essence.
In the eyes of ordinary blacksmiths, this stuff was priceless.
Add a little while forging, and the resulting blades could cut through iron as if it were mud.
But in the eyes of cultivators, it was nothing special either.
Besides that,
Ye Xuan took out some beast bones and scales.
"I'm broke."
Looking at the artifact-forging materials in front of him,
Ye Xuan sighed helplessly.
It was like a top chef with peerless cooking skills,
only to be given rotten cabbages and sour tofu and told to prepare a lavish banquet.
It was simply asking the impossible.
"Forget it. I'll make do."
Ye Xuan knew that now wasn't the time to be picky.
He'd make the tools first, then upgrade them once he got better materials.
"Rise!"
Ye Xuan let out a low shout.
The spiritual power of the sixth level of the Tai Chi Xuan Qing Dao surged forth without reservation.
Red flames sprang into existence in midair, their heat many times greater than when he'd refined pills.
The air warped under the scorching heat, making a strange sizzling sound.
The chunks of Black Cold Iron and Red Copper Essence were swept into the flames all at once.
The incredibly hard Black Cold Iron, under the licking flames,
lasted less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea before it began to glow red and soften.
Black impurities were forced out bit by bit, dripping onto the ground and burning several charred pits into it.
Ye Xuan focused all his attention.
The materials were rubbish, but his technique couldn't be.
His fingers danced like butterflies among flowers, forming one complicated hand seal after another.
Each hand seal carried an ancient, primordial quality.
This was the Low-tier Artifact Forging Technique he'd received as a reward from the system.
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