Refining a Shape-Shifting Pill

Liu Xi had no dou qi cultivation, and in the Lie Clan's ranks, he could come and go freely due to his current relationship with them. Besides, after returning to the Xiao Clan this time and refining a few more Dou Qi Pills, he could raise his cultivation to nine-star Dou Zhi just by taking pills. He would be only one step away from becoming a Dou Shi.

Dealing with Liu Xi after that would truly be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

When Chu Yang returned to the Xiao Clan, Xiao Zhan and the others were confused by his sudden disappearance, but a casual "I had something to take care of, so I went out for a while" was enough to stop their nagging questions.

In truth, no one in the Xiao Clan dared ask him too much.

However, after Chu Yang brought back a batch of herbs, Xiao Zhan and the others cautiously asked whether he had gone alone into the Monster Mountain Range to gather medicinal ingredients. Xiao Zhan and the Xiao Clan's Great Elder now understood that an alchemist like Chu Yang would not merely be refining Dou Qi Pills from now on. He would certainly be able to refine many more kinds of pills.

Xiao Zhan and the Xiao Clan's Great Elder said that they hoped Chu Yang would not risk entering the Monster Mountain Range alone again. If he needed any medicinal ingredients that could not be found in Wutan City and had to go into the Monster Mountain Range, they were willing to accompany him as bodyguards and serve him faithfully.

They did not dare say that magical beasts were unlike humans in the outside world and would not show any respect to a noble alchemist, but Chu Yang merely smiled, neither agreeing nor refusing.

That was right. Xiao Zhan and the Xiao Clan's Great Elder were both Da Dou Shi of several stars. Their strength exceeded Chu Yang's current combat ability, but they were still far inferior to the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King.

Chu Yang did not mention that he had the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King as a bodyguard, afraid that he would frighten Xiao Zhan and the others.

With the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King's strength, it could easily sweep through all of Wutan City.

In the days that followed, Chu Yang shut himself away from visitors. While vigorously refining Dou Qi Pills for the Xiao Clan and the Lie Clan, he also took them himself.

He quickly swallowed several Dou Qi Pills and raised his cultivation to nine-star Dou Zhi. It was faster than riding a rocket. If Xiao Yan, whose cultivation speed with Old Yao's help was already considered monstrously fast, found out, he might cry himself unconscious in the latrine.

But Chu Yang did not seem to have time to care how jealous, envious, or resentful Xiao Yan might become after learning of it. He felt that he had even more pressing matters to attend to.

Besides refining Dou Qi Pills, Chu Yang now had another urgent matter: the Shape-Shifting Pill he had promised the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King.

Could he really remain stuck in this Monster Mountain Range outside Wutan City forever?

Yet no matter how hard Chu Yang studied, several days passed, and even though he had thoroughly read the Medicine Emperor's Beginner Alchemy Manual, he still had no idea how to refine the Shape-Shifting Pill.

What should he do?

Chu Yang thought of Huan Huan's earlier prompt again: buy inspiration from the system!

Although Chu Yang had already made a fair amount of Gold Coins by profiting from both the Xiao Clan and the Lie Clan, the Gold Coins of the Dou Qi Continent were scarcely worth more than cow dung to the system shop.

What the system wanted were Check-in Points!

Chu Yang glanced at the savings in his system space. He had one hundred Check-in Points left.

He had earned three hundred Check-in Points from his previous random mission, but buying the flying dou technique Azure Cloud Wings had cost him two hundred. At present, he had only one hundred Check-in Points remaining.

Spend them!

Chu Yang made the decision at once, as though he had no fear of spending tomorrow's money today.

He wanted to refine the Shape-Shifting Pill quickly, so that he would not ultimately disappoint a magical beast with a human promise.

He had always believed that humans should stand above magical beasts. They should not be so faithless.

As Chu Yang wondered when another mission might appear so that he could earn more Check-in Points, he decisively spent his last hundred Check-in Points to exchange for inspiration on refining the seventh-grade pill, the Shape-Shifting Pill.

He knew himself that he was currently probably only comparable to a third-grade alchemist. At most, he could challenge a fourth-grade alchemist.

There was no way he could refine a seventh-grade Shape-Shifting Pill.

But the Medicine Emperor's alchemy techniques were simply that miraculous—so miraculous that ordinary alchemists of the Dou Qi Continent could scarcely imagine them.

When the inspiration returned by the system entered Chu Yang's mind, he vaguely felt as though he was about to grasp the key.

Finally, only a few days later, a somewhat formed pill appeared in Chu Yang's pill room.

This pill was not one of the Dou Qi Pills that Chu Yang could already refine in bulk.

It was the Shape-Shifting Pill that the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King had dreamed of obtaining for so long—it had officially emerged from the furnace!

Though he had refined it without the slightest confidence, he had spent a great deal of Gold Coins on medicinal ingredients during this time. Fortunately, between the stores in the Xiao Clan and Lie Clan's medicine vaults, the rare herbs he had brought back from the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King's old home in the Monster Mountain Range, and the help of the Mier Auction House, he had managed to gather all the ingredients required by the formula.

What pained him most, however, was still those hundred Check-in Points. They were as hard to come by as some priceless treasure.

Now, he had no idea whether this Shape-Shifting Pill, whose quality he himself could not judge, would successfully allow the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King to take human form after consuming it.

Feeling uneasy, Chu Yang quickly took the pill to see the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King, who was waiting in the Monster Mountain Range outside Wutan City.

Chu Yang was not afraid that it would turn hostile on the spot if the pill proved ineffective. If it did not work this time, he would continue refining pills for the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King until he succeeded. It surely understood that.

As long as it did not die from eating it.

As soon as Chu Yang entered the mountains and the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King heard that he had brought the Shape-Shifting Pill, the magical beast immediately cheered and leaped about like a child who had seen candy.

Chu Yang was still uneasy about whether he had truly refined a qualified Shape-Shifting Pill, but now he could only treat a dead horse as though it were alive.

Before he could give the Shape-Shifting Pill to the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King, the latter opened its huge mouth and swallowed it in one gulp, ruining the moment as thoroughly as a cow chewing a peony, as though afraid the pill would suddenly run away.

Chu Yang could only watch helplessly and wait for the effects to change.

"Bang! Bang! Bang—"

Suddenly, the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King's bones began to crack and pop, nearly making Chu Yang's heart burst. He thought it was about to explode...

That should not have been the worst possible outcome...

Chu Yang was just short of chanting prayers.

But in the next instant, the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King's enormous form vanished.

In its place stood a burly man before Chu Yang, already dressed in clothes.

Was the Shape-Shifting Pill really this miraculous?

Chu Yang was dumbfounded. Truly!

This burly man was what the Purple Crystal Lion Wing King had become after swallowing the Shape-Shifting Pill he refined?!

Otherwise, was there anyone else here?

Suddenly, the burly man ran to a small nearby pond to look at his reflection.

"Wow—"