Under Little Yue'er's curious gaze, Qin Shaofeng began brewing medicine for the first time. Please search (Pin@Shu￥Net) for the most complete and fastest-updating novels.
It was not as though Qin Shaofeng had never seen alchemists refine pills before, but those he had seen had merely been apprentices.
In Lanjiang City, those people commonly called alchemists were not true alchemists at all. They were only Alchemy Apprentices.
There was only one true alchemist in all of Lanjiang City.
That was a Junior Alchemist whom the merchant Wang Family had invited at enormous expense.
Yes, a Junior Alchemist. Yet even a Junior Alchemist remaining with the Wang Family was a momentous cause for celebration for them.
When that Junior Alchemist had joined the Wang Family, he had deliberately held an Alchemy Competition in Lanjiang City, refining pills before countless spectators.
Qin Shaofeng clearly remembered that when the alchemist refined pills, he had brought out a huge cauldron nearly three meters tall. More than a dozen Alchemy Apprentices had fed wood beneath it while he refined the pills, setting the cauldron ablaze.
Thinking of that scene, Qin Shaofeng could not help feeling uneasy.
This was the system's Alchemy Art. It should not need firewood during the refining process, right?
Though he thought so, Qin Shaofeng was still somewhat uncertain.
That was one of the reasons he had ultimately chosen a large pot.
With a large pot, at least it would be easier to light a fire.
But before that, he wanted to try and see whether he could refine pills simply by activating the skill.
After setting up the large pot, Qin Shaofeng began tossing Vitality Grass into it.
Under normal circumstances, one stalk of Vitality Grass could be refined into one Qi Replenishing Pill.
This was Qin Shaofeng's first time refining pills, so he did not put in much. He only tossed a single stalk of Vitality Grass into the large pot.
Yet to the little girl's eyes, his actions looked strange.
Grass?
When the little girl saw Qin Shaofeng toss something into the large pot, she took a careful look and discovered that it was only a stalk of grass. Her eyes instantly widened. Her crescent-shaped eyes turned completely into round full moons, brimming with suspicion.
Was Young Master planning to boil grass?
But why was he not lighting a fire?
Boiling grass?
If Qin Shaofeng had known what the little girl was thinking at that moment, he probably would have been so angry that he would grab her and give her tender little bottom a serving of bamboo shoots fried with meat.
Young Master is refining pills here! What boiling grass?!
However, Qin Shaofeng was nervous at the moment and did not notice the little girl's expression, allowing her to escape disaster.
Ignoring the little girl's strange expression, Qin Shaofeng covered the pot, pressed his right hand against it, and silently called out, Alchemy Art!
The instant he invoked Alchemy Art in his heart, Qin Shaofeng felt his dantian stir slightly. Then a small stream of Inner Qi split off and flowed directly through his right hand into the large pot.
Then, something that astonished Qin Shaofeng happened.
The Inner Qi entering the large pot seemed to become Qin Shaofeng's eyes, allowing him to sense every situation within it, as though he could actually see what was happening inside the pot.
Buzz!
As soon as the Inner Qi entered the large pot, it trembled faintly, and then...
There was no then. The pill Qin Shaofeng had anticipated did not appear. Just after he "saw" everything in the pot, that stalk of Qi Yuan Grass burst into flames and turned directly into a pile of charred black ash.
At that moment, Qin Shaofeng also lost his connection with the stream of Inner Qi inside the pot and could no longer "see" what was happening within.
Uh, what was this?
Qin Shaofeng froze slightly, then immediately lifted the lid to look.
Sure enough!
Just as he had "seen" earlier, there was no Vitality Grass left in the large pot. There was only a small pinch of charred black ash.
Uh, had it failed?
Looking at the Qi Yuan Grass that had burned into ash, a trace of disappointment flashed through Qin Shaofeng's eyes.
But Qin Shaofeng quickly pulled himself together again.
It was his first time. Failure was normal.
As the saying went, failure was the mother of success. He could not give up.
Perhaps his self-consolation had worked quite well. Qin Shaofeng immediately swept the ash from the large pot and put in another stalk of Qi Yuan Grass.
But this time, the result was the same as before. The moment Alchemy Art activated, the lush green Qi Yuan Grass instantly turned into charred black ash.
Failed again?
Looking at the ash inside the large pot, Qin Shaofeng felt speechless.
"Damn it, I don't believe it. It's only a Mortal-grade One-star Qi Replenishing Pill. I refuse to believe I can't refine it!"
After muttering softly, Qin Shaofeng began adding Vitality Grass again.
But what followed was no different from the first two attempts.
Failure!
Failure!
Still failure!
Several attempts in a row all failed, leaving Qin Shaofeng unable to make heads or tails of it.
No way. This is only low-grade Qi Yuan Grass, and all I'm refining is a one-star Qi Replenishing Pill. I've already tried five or six times, yet not once succeeded?
With a doubtful cry in his heart, Qin Shaofeng looked once more at the properties of Alchemy Art on his Attribute Interface.
That was right. The success rate of Alchemy Art was indeed based on the level of Alchemy Art and the pill being refined!
No matter how low the success rate of Level 1 Alchemy Art was, it should not have failed five or six times in a row while refining a Mortal-grade One-star Qi Replenishing Pill, right?
Could it be because of this large pot?
Qin Shaofeng quickly seemed to find the cause, his gaze fixed firmly on the large pot.
Sigh, a large pot was still just a large pot. It was not an alchemy furnace. Failure in pill refinement was normal!
Yes, the problem definitely wasn't with me. It was with this large pot.
It seemed he could only find a real alchemy crucible.
With a soft sigh, Qin Shaofeng muttered for a while, whether seeking comfort or making excuses, before placing all the blame for his failed pill refinement on the large pot.
At this moment, the little girl beside him saw Qin Shaofeng remain silent for a while. She looked at the large pot, then at the small amount of ash on the ground nearby.
The little girl was completely confused!
Young Master clearly had not lit a fire, so why had all that grass been scorched?
She could not understand it!
However, the little girl did not dwell on it. After thinking for a moment, she hesitated before finally speaking to Qin Shaofeng. "Young Master, if you're boiling grass, you should add some water. That way, the grass won't get burned."
Qin Shaofeng, who was currently pondering where to find an alchemy crucible, suddenly heard the little girl's words and nearly toppled headfirst to the ground.
Boiling... boiling grass?
This girl actually thought that all this time, Young Master had been boiling grass?
This time, Qin Shaofeng could not hold back any longer.
"You're just a little girl, what do you know? Young Master is refining pills! What boiling grass? Where did you get such a bizarre idea?"
As though defending his dignity as her young master, Qin Shaofeng gave the little girl a stern warning.
Where had she gotten such a bizarre idea?
The little girl suddenly felt wronged and could not help mumbling softly, "Wasn't it because I saw Young Master doing this that I thought so?"
Uh...
Qin Shaofeng was speechless.
But the little girl quickly recovered. Then she suddenly looked at Qin Shaofeng with admiration again. "Refining pills? I never knew Young Master could refine pills. Could it be that Young Master is an alchemist too?"
Uh...
Qin Shaofeng was still speechless.
An alchemist?
Since he possessed Alchemy Art, he could seemingly be considered an alchemist.
Though he had not yet successfully refined even a single pill.
But the little girl did not care about that at all and continued speaking excitedly.
"Little Yue'er heard people say that alchemists are extremely formidable important figures! Even in our Lanjiang City, only the Wang Family has an alchemist, and that person is an old man with a white beard. Young Master is far younger than him."
"But Little Yue'er also heard that alchemists use huge cauldrons when refining pills. Why is Young Master using a large pot?"
Her crisp voice rang out in a string like jade beads, and the little girl began chattering away.
At first, it was fine. Hearing the little girl's admiring tone whenever she spoke of alchemists, Qin Shaofeng felt rather pleased with himself.
But the conversation gradually took an awkward turn, especially that final remark, which made Qin Shaofeng somewhat embarrassed.
If it had been anyone else, Qin Shaofeng would certainly have taken it as mockery. But facing the little girl, whose face was full of admiration and whose crescent moon-like starry eyes sparkled brightly, Qin Shaofeng knew very well that she was not mocking him at all.
Yet even knowing that, Qin Shaofeng's face reddened slightly, and he felt somewhat awkward.
It wasn't that your young master deliberately chose this large pot. The problem was that I couldn't find an alchemy crucible!
But the more the little girl acted this way, the more Qin Shaofeng wanted to successfully refine a Qi Replenishing Pill.
Seeing the little girl's excited and admiring expression, Qin Shaofeng felt motivated again.
A large pot it is, then. I refuse to believe I truly can't refine a Qi Replenishing Pill!
He took out another stalk of Qi Yuan Grass and tossed it into the large pot. After covering it with the lid, he silently activated Alchemy Art once again.
Alchemy Art!
With that silent invocation, Qin Shaofeng's Inner Qi instantly dropped by 10 points, and the familiar scene appeared again.
Qin Shaofeng once more "saw" the situation inside the large pot.
But this time, a thought stirred in his heart, and an idea could not help surfacing.
During the previous attempts, he had merely watched and allowed the Inner Qi to act naturally. What if he controlled that small stream of Inner Qi himself this time?
Though Qin Shaofeng did not understand the general principles behind refining pills, was the process not simply melting medicinal ingredients into medicinal liquid, then condensing that liquid into a pill?
If that was the case!
A gleam flashed through his eyes. Qin Shaofeng stirred slightly and began attempting to control the small stream of Inner Qi that had entered the large pot.
To his surprise, his attempt succeeded.
It really worked?
Qin Shaofeng was delighted, but he did not let down his guard.
Thinking of how the Vitality Grass had been instantly burned to ash in the previous attempts, Qin Shaofeng carefully controlled the stream of Inner Qi, moving it little by little toward the stalk of Vitality Grass in the large pot.
This really worked!
As only a tiny amount of Inner Qi approached, the stalk of Vitality Grass was not instantly scorched into ash. Instead, it began melting little by little.
So that was what had happened!
Seeing this, Qin Shaofeng finally understood.
It was neither his problem nor the large pot's problem. His repeated failures had only occurred because he had not controlled the Inner Qi, allowing it to burn the Vitality Grass directly into ash.
But Qin Shaofeng did not know that this truly was because of the large pot.
When ordinary alchemists refined pills, they used proper Alchemy Crucibles. That was because Alchemy Crucibles could temper and soften the Inner Qi released by alchemists.
Thus, an alchemy crucible was an indispensable item for every alchemist!
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