Inside the alchemy room.
The pungent smell of burnt herbs still lingered.
Su Yun stared at the pile of black ash in the furnace, his face darkening.
He refused to believe it.
With his comprehension, and his monstrous Thousandfold Amplification ability—
He couldn't even refine the simplest Body Tempering Pill?
Impossible.
"I refuse to believe it."
Su Yun gritted his teeth.
It was just some lousy pill!
He was going to refine one today, no matter what.
He cleaned out the furnace and dumped all the leftover medicinal ash.
Then he arranged the herbs again.
His second attempt at alchemy began.
This time, Su Yun was even more cautious.
He slowed down every step.
Kindling the fire, controlling the temperature.
Drying the herbs, removing impurities.
As the medicinal liquids fused, he stared fixedly at the changes inside the furnace.
He spread out his spiritual power and locked onto the inside of the furnace.
He didn't dare be careless in the slightest.
The flames were steady, and the medicinal liquid was clear.
Everything looked perfect.
Su Yun nodded slightly, confident in his heart.
This batch was in the bag.
Half an hour passed slowly.
The pill-forming stage arrived.
Just as the medicinal liquid was about to solidify into shape—
It suddenly churned violently inside the furnace.
Its surface quickly blackened, and a wisp of smoke rose.
With a soft poof—
Another failure.
The whole batch of medicinal liquid had carbonized into black ash again.
In the quiet alchemy room, only the furnace's faint residual warmth remained.
Su Yun stood frozen in place, his eyelids twitching wildly.
Twice.
Two failures in a row.
He furrowed his brow, his face full of confusion.
The flame's intensity and the refining time had both followed the formula precisely.
How could he have failed twice in a row?
He must have overlooked something.
Su Yun stopped rushing.
He sat down on a stone stool and took out the Body Tempering Pill Formula Jade Slip.
His fingertips traced the jade slip as he examined it word by word, over and over.
His Thousandfold Amplification of comprehension kicked in at full power.
Every detail of the alchemy process replayed in his mind.
A moment later—
Su Yun's eyes suddenly lit up.
He'd found it!
The problem lay in the temperature difference during the fusion of the medicinal properties.
Ordinary beginners used rough fire control when refining pills.
They dried the herbs over a fierce flame at first, then formed the pills over a medium flame.
The instructions in the book were clear and simple, and that was how everyone practiced.
But this formula concealed a subtle detail.
Red Root Grass could withstand high temperatures, while Blood Coagulation Leaf was extremely sensitive to them.
The two herbs melted at completely different temperatures.
They couldn't be refined with the same heat.
He had to control the temperature in stages, switching back and forth between high and low heat.
First, he needed high heat to dry the Red Root Grass. Then he had to lower the temperature to gently melt the Blood Coagulation Leaf.
Finally, he had to raise the temperature again to form the pills.
This tiny, inconspicuous detail was what had ruined both of his previous batches.
"So that's it."
Su Yun understood at last, the corner of his mouth lifting.
Now that he'd figured out the problem, everything was simple.
He flexed his fingers, his gaze growing resolute.
Third time.
Third time's the charm.
Could a mere first-grade Body Tempering Pill really stump him?
"I'm damn well refining you today!"
Su Yun reorganized the herbs and cleaned out the furnace.
His third attempt at alchemy officially began.
This time, he was neither rushed nor impatient.
His inner flame remained steady, and his spiritual power enveloped the entire furnace.
First step.
He used a fierce, high-temperature flame to roast the Red Root Grass.
The herb dried out, releasing red medicinal liquid.
Second step.
He quickly lowered the flames, causing the temperature to plummet.
At a low temperature, he gently melted the Blood Coagulation Leaf and Spirit-Cleansing Flower.
Tender green and pale white medicinal liquids slowly seeped out.
Third step.
He kept the three medicinal liquids in separate layers and fused them gradually, in the proper order.
There wasn't the slightest clash or rejection.
Inside the furnace, the medicinal liquid was clear and transparent, warm and lustrous.
Su Yun's breathing slowed. His concentration was absolute as his fingertips made minute adjustments to the flames.
He controlled the temperature with utmost precision.
Others controlled fire by feel.
He controlled it down to every wisp of flame.
With his spiritual power amplified a thousandfold, his control over the fire reached a terrifying level.
Time flowed by slowly.
Half an hour.
There were no mishaps, no explosions, and no blackening.
Inside the furnace, the medicinal liquid began to compress, solidify, and roll.
A faint fragrance wafted out through the gaps in the furnace.
The pill fragrance was sweet and mellow, not at all pungent.
It was the pure fragrance of a medicinal pill.
"It worked!"
A flash of delight crossed Su Yun's eyes.
He waited a little longer.
Then he raised a hand, withdrew the earth fire, and slowly lifted the furnace lid.
A rich medicinal fragrance burst out at once, filling the entire alchemy room.
Inside the furnace—
Ten perfectly rounded pills lay quietly.
They were crimson all over, their surfaces smooth.
A faint bloody glow flowed across each pill.
Their markings were clear, and they were crystalline and translucent.
Not a trace of discoloration. Not a single flaw.
Su Yun was stunned.
He picked up a pill and examined it between his fingertips.
Then he checked its grade against the alchemy book.
Pills were graded as inferior, low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.
Top-grade pills had pure color, naturally formed spiritual markings, and almost no pill toxins.
The Body Tempering Pill was only a first-grade pill, the lowest rank.
An ordinary alchemy apprentice would be doing well to refine an inferior one.
Even a formal third-grade alchemist wasn't guaranteed to produce a top-grade first-grade Body Tempering Pill.
But this batch of his—
All ten were top-grade!
"Good heavens!"
Su Yun couldn't help letting out a quiet exclamation.
Shocking.
Absurd.
Absolutely monstrous.
He understood in an instant.
It wasn't that he had some astonishing talent for alchemy. It was Thousandfold Amplification working behind the scenes.
Others removed seventy percent of the impurities. He removed ninety-nine percent.
Others could barely form four or five pills. He filled a whole furnace with ten.
Others got a random grade. He was guaranteed top-grade.
This felt amazing!
Su Yun grinned from ear to ear.
Based on the market price—
An ordinary low-grade Body Tempering Pill cost two low-grade spirit stones.
A top-grade Body Tempering Pill had triple the efficacy and almost no pill toxins.
They sold for at least fifteen low-grade spirit stones each.
That was a seven- or eightfold increase!
And they were so scarce that buyers couldn't find them even at that price.
Low-level cultivators fought to buy them.
Then there was the cost.
A batch of herbs cost less than twenty low-grade spirit stones.
Ten top-grade Body Tempering Pills from one furnace could be sold for one hundred and fifty low-grade spirit stones.
That was a seven- or eightfold profit!
A gold mine!
Now this was a real path to wealth.
"I'm going to get rich."
Su Yun's eyes blazed.
Financial freedom was right before him.
He didn't stop to rest. He struck while the iron was hot.
He would get a feel for the process, master every detail, and learn to control the heat.
Next came mass production.
One batch, two batches, three batches...
The furnace fire never went out, and the medicinal fragrance flowed without end.
Late at night.
The Alchemy Room blazed with light as Su Yun immersed himself in alchemy.
His movements flowed like water, and his technique grew more and more practiced.
He controlled the flames at will, and the medicinal liquids blended together with flawless ease.
Every time a batch came out of the furnace, it was filled with top-grade pills—not a single high-grade one.
He spent the entire night refining pills without rest.
Ten furnaces of Body Tempering Pills.
Ten furnaces of Blood Qi Pills.
All twenty batches of pills came out perfectly.
The huge stock of low-grade medicinal ingredients he had bought in advance was completely used up.
Over the next ten days,
Su Yun threw himself into an all-out frenzy.
He left early and returned late, his whereabouts mysterious and secretive.
Every day, as soon as the sky began to lighten, he headed straight for the Alchemy Pavilion.
His life became extremely monotonous.
There were only two things.
Cultivation and alchemy.
By day, he stayed in the alchemy room, the furnace burning without pause as he refined batch after batch of pills.
At night, he returned to the other courtyard, circulating the Golden Spirit Art as he sat in meditation and cultivated tirelessly, consolidating his realm and breaking through his bottleneck.
Neither pursuit held the other back; he surged ahead on both fronts at once.
With Thousandfold Amplification as his safety net, his spiritual power was honed and tempered at a furious pace even as he refined pills.
Controlling the flames, forming the pills, purifying the medicinal liquids—every precise operation honed his mind.
His spiritual power grew increasingly condensed, robust, and refined.
In just ten days, his spiritual strength—which had been no more than that of an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator—surged dramatically, far surpassing that of cultivators at the same level.
His cultivation advanced as naturally as water following its course, breaking through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining.