Promotion to Alchemy Apprentice

You browsed the Basic Alchemy Canon. Congratulations, you triggered Triple Critical Hit and gained triple the insight!

You browsed the Basic Alchemy Canon. Congratulations, you triggered Fivefold Critical Hit and gained fivefold the insight!

As the saying went, one minute of toil brought one minute of harvest. So long as he studied something, he would certainly gain something from it—and there were the occasional critical hits as well.

This sent Qin Dongcheng's attainments in basic alchemy soaring by leaps and bounds. On top of that, he had already studied and understood many of the things within, so his improvement was simply absurdly fast.

In just a few days, Qin Dongcheng had thoroughly comprehended the Basic Alchemy Canon and firmly committed it to memory.

Next came the actual refining. The Diligence Space had already prepared a large quantity of herbs, waiting for Qin Dongcheng to put them into practice.

Inside the Bamboo House, Qin Dongcheng had also set aside an Alchemy Room and arranged an Alchemy Furnace and the like.

He entered the Alchemy Room, took out the various herbs, and began processing them.

For his first attempt at refining pills, he chose one of the simplest kinds: the Blood-Replenishing Pill.

It was a low-grade pill, and also one of the most common low-grade pills. It was mainly used to replenish Blood Qi and speed up cultivation.

He carefully processed the various medicinal ingredients. He was rather clumsy at first, but as time passed, he became increasingly proficient.

You processed Angelica. Congratulations, you triggered Double Critical Hit and gained double the experience and skill!

You processed Red Peony. Congratulations, you triggered Triple Critical Hit and gained triple the experience and skill!

Processing medicinal ingredients could likewise trigger critical hits, which made Qin Dongcheng's ability in handling herbs soar by leaps and bounds as well.

For his first time processing medicinal ingredients, it took him only a little over half an hour to prepare the ingredients for one batch of Blood-Replenishing Pills.

He lit the Earth Fire Stone and began refining the Blood-Replenishing Pill.

First step: add the chopped Angelica... Successfully completed!

Second step: add the dried Red Peony... Successfully completed!

Perhaps he had triggered the protection of the beginner period, because things went quite smoothly at the start. But when he reached the sixth step, a boom rang out, black smoke billowed from the Alchemy Furnace, and his first attempt at refining Blood-Replenishing Pills ended in failure.

Qin Dongcheng's expression remained calm. This was only to be expected. How could alchemy and pill refinement possibly be so easy? If it truly were that easy, even the Handymen of the Herb Field could become alchemists.

Though he had failed, he had gained much from it, and his Alchemy improved by a great deal.

After resting properly and summing up the lessons from his failure, Qin Dongcheng began his second attempt. More than half an hour later, that second attempt also ended in failure.

In the days that followed, while managing the Herb Field and practicing his fist techniques, Qin Dongcheng never gave up cultivating Alchemy. Failure after failure, lesson after lesson, improvement after improvement... and from time to time, there were critical-hit gains as well.

The herbs accumulated in the Diligence Space dwindled at a visible rate. Soon, he no longer had enough ingredients for Blood-Replenishing Pills, forcing Qin Dongcheng to buy batch after batch from the Black Market.

Only half a month later, after who knew how many failures and accumulated lessons—and several Hundredfold Critical Hits along the way—did Qin Dongcheng finally achieve a breakthrough in this area.

This refining attempt seemed blessed by the gods. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Qin Dongcheng had processed all the ingredients needed for the Blood-Replenishing Pill and began the formal refinement.

First step: add the chopped Angelica... Successfully completed!

Second step: add the dried Red Peony... Successfully completed!

All the way until the final step—the pill emerged from the furnace!

Looking at the completed Blood-Replenishing Pill inside the furnace, Qin Dongcheng finally relaxed.

You refined a Blood-Replenishing Pill. Congratulations, you triggered Double Critical Hit and gained double the Blood-Replenishing Pills, double the alchemy experience, and double the alchemy skill...

What delighted him even more was that this refinement had actually triggered a Double Critical Hit. The original one Blood-Replenishing Pill had directly become two, giving him an extra pill as a bonus.

One Blood-Replenishing Pill was worth one tael of silver. Two pills meant two taels of silver.

The ingredients for one batch of Blood-Replenishing Pills were worth two hundred copper coins, while one thousand copper coins could be exchanged for one tael of silver. In other words, as long as one attempt succeeded out of every five refinements, he would basically not lose money.

Once he became more skilled later on, he could add more ingredients each time he refined, allowing him to produce multiple Blood-Replenishing Pills in one batch. That would be when he truly began making money.

At present, Qin Dongcheng was still operating at a loss. Even though he had succeeded once, whether he could break even afterward remained unknown.

He still needed to keep refining and constantly increase his success rate. Only then could he earn silver and Sect Contribution from it.

Even so, successfully refining a Blood-Replenishing Pill signified that Qin Dongcheng's status had risen enormously. From then on, he was qualified to be called an Alchemy Apprentice rather than a Herb Field Handyman.

If he reported it, even if he could not become an Official Disciple, his status would rise considerably, and he might even have a chance to become a steward.

However, his current life was fairly good, and for the time being, he had no plans to reveal the matter. Otherwise, the Sect might assign him more tasks, cutting into his cultivation time.

He would be better off quietly building himself up here first. Once the time was right, he could consider displaying his talents.

Official Disciples certainly enjoyed more benefits, but they also faced greater dangers. The Sect missions they had to accept every month alone were burdens that many Official Disciples could not shirk.

Among those Sect missions were quite a few that could endanger one's life.

Therefore, before he possessed sufficient strength, even if Qin Dongcheng qualified to become an Official Disciple, he would not undergo the assessment.

With the first success came the second soon enough.

After failing more than a dozen more times, Qin Dongcheng refined a Blood-Replenishing Pill for the second time. After that, his failures became fewer and fewer, while his successes became more and more frequent.

You refined a Blood-Replenishing Pill. Congratulations, you triggered Triple Critical Hit and gained three Blood-Replenishing Pills and triple the experience, skill, and insight...

You refined a Blood-Replenishing Pill. Congratulations, you triggered Fourfold Critical Hit and gained four Blood-Replenishing Pills and fourfold the experience, skill, and insight...

The occasional critical hits brought Qin Dongcheng many pleasant surprises, sending his Alchemy soaring by leaps and bounds. Before long, he had already mastered the refinement of Blood-Replenishing Pills.

His success rate had astonishingly surpassed thirty percent, enough for him to break even and even make a small profit.

However, considering the time and effort he had invested, it was still not enough. He needed to keep raising his success rate.

"How are the medicinal ingredients being prepared?"

That day, while he was tending the Herb Field, he saw a middle-aged man in green robes with a slightly round face walking over, followed by several Handymen.

His name was Liu Yuan. He was the steward responsible for the surrounding Herb Fields, and every month he came at a fixed time to collect medicinal ingredients.