Tempering Pills? A High-Grade Body Tempering Pill!

Chen Huai'an placed the last Body Tempering Pill into the Purple-Skinned Gourd, his heart full of unease.

"Wait, there's water in the gourd. If I put the Body Tempering Pill in there, won't it dissolve?" Chen Huai'an suddenly slapped his forehead. He had just realized he had done something foolish.

"Whatever. Even if it dissolves, I'll only lose one Body Tempering Pill. If it can improve the water in the gourd, that would be good too." Chen Huai'an did his best to comfort himself and calm down.

The pill had already been placed inside and come into contact with the water. Perhaps it had already dissolved into it.

Then Chen Huai'an took another gulp of water from the gourd.

"There's no improvement. It's the same as before." Chen Huai'an keenly noticed that adding the Body Tempering Pill had not made the water delicious as he had imagined. It was still the same, leaving his stomach warm after he drank it.

Chen Huai'an shut out all distractions and circulated his energy according to the route described in the Body-Refining Formula.

When he had drunk Spirit Spring Water before, Chen Huai'an had released that spiritual energy without any method. But after some discussion, he now understood how to cultivate: use his mind to control the medicinal power, open the meridians within his body, and form a perfect cycle.

At that moment, the quality of one's spiritual roots determined the speed of cultivation.

Some geniuses used the medicinal power of Body Tempering Pills to loosen the blocked meridians in their bodies, guiding the medicinal power and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth entering their bodies to wash through them, opening those blocked meridians and allowing spiritual energy to flow unhindered through their bodies in a perfect cycle.

This step was called body refinement—tempering the mortal flesh.

He had not understood before, but now that he did, Chen Huai'an had no choice but to focus his mind on opening the blocked meridians within his body.

Imagination was plump, but reality was gaunt.

With five-element mixed spiritual roots, his body contained too many impurities, his meridians were blocked, and cultivation was far too difficult.

A mouthful of Spirit Spring Water contained spiritual energy equivalent to one low-grade Body Tempering Pill, yet it had run dry before he had even opened a single meridian.

"To open all these blocked meridians, it'll be impossible without several hundred Body Tempering Pills." Chen Huai'an ended his cultivation and could not help sighing.

This also revealed a problem from another angle: his Purple-Skinned Gourd was a treasure.

It also made Chen Huai'an understand why, in the cultivation world, wealth came first.

"Huh? What's going on? The Spirit Spring Water is gone?" Chen Huai'an decided to press on while the iron was hot, but suddenly discovered that no more Spirit Spring Water would pour from the gourd. He had drunk it all.

Chen Huai'an remembered that the water in his gourd should have lasted him ten days to half a month, yet now it was gone after only a few drinks.

Without this Spirit Spring Water, how was he supposed to cultivate in the future?

Chen Huai'an immediately panicked. He stopped cultivating at once and prepared to go down the mountain to fetch some spring water.

What worried Chen Huai'an was whether water poured into the gourd would still possess its current effects.

There was a large water vat in the Servant Peak courtyard. The water had been carried up from the stream at the foot of the mountain by servant disciples.

A whole vat of water was poured into the gourd without causing even the slightest ripple.

Chen Huai'an had no choice but to go down the mountain to fetch more water.

"Huh? That's not right. This water is hardly any different from ordinary water. It's just a little sweeter, without that warm feeling in the stomach." When he reached the mountainside, Chen Huai'an discovered that the water he had just filled into the gourd lacked that warming effect.

In an instant, Chen Huai'an's heart sank to the bottom of a valley.

The Purple-Skinned Gourd was his hope of rising in the Qingyun Sect, yet now that hope was about to be shattered.

"Huh? No, this water has that warm feeling again." When Chen Huai'an reached the foot of Servant Peak, he took another gulp from the gourd and found that the water had changed again.

"Could it be that the longer the water stays in the gourd, the better its effects become?" A huge question mark surfaced in Chen Huai'an's mind.

If it was truly as he suspected, then the water in the gourd had to be used wisely.

If the water stayed in the gourd for one more day, its effects would be as different as heaven and earth.

What Chen Huai'an needed to do now was fill the gourd to the brim.

"Glug... glug..."

When he reached the stream, Chen Huai'an submerged the gourd in the water. Emerald-green stream water poured into it through the mouth of the gourd.

"I thought this gourd could never be filled." It was not until the sun set that Chen Huai'an realized the gourd was full.

Chen Huai'an had no idea how much water he had poured in, but when he held the gourd in his hand, he could barely feel any weight.

All that remained was to wait and see whether his guess was correct.

After returning to his residence, Chen Huai'an took another gulp from the gourd. The exhaustion from climbing the mountain vanished in an instant.

"Could it be that putting the Body Tempering Pill into the gourd didn't enhance it at all?" After a night had passed, Chen Huai'an found that the water in the gourd had not improved in the slightest because of the Body Tempering Pill.

That Body Tempering Pill had most likely been wasted.

Chen Huai'an suspected that the gourd could only improve the water inside it. Other things could not be improved.

"I wonder if I can enter the Gourd Space today."

Chen Huai'an silently recited the word "enter" in his heart. Then the world spun around him, and he entered the Gourd Space.

"Huh, what is this? My Body Tempering Pill?" Chen Huai'an looked around. There were no other changes from the last time he had entered the space, except for a small glowing orb emitting a faint golden radiance.

Chen Huai'an reached out, and the pill fell into his hand. It was only the size of a peanut, somewhat different from the Body Tempering Pill he had placed in the gourd before.

The previous one had been black and sooty, carrying a burnt smell. This one had none of that burnt odor; instead, it gave off a faint medicinal fragrance. Just one sniff made him feel refreshed and clear-headed.

"Could this gourd not only produce delicious Spirit Spring Water, but also raise pills by a grade?" Chen Huai'an muttered.

Ordinary Body Tempering Pills did not help Chen Huai'an's cultivation speed at all; their effects were not even as good as the Spirit Spring Water in the gourd. But although he could not tell what grade this pill was, he knew it was good stuff just from its scent.

Furthermore, the Spirit Spring in the space had changed slightly again. There was a little more of it than before.

He had poured so much water into the gourd. Why was there only this little?

When Chen Huai'an emerged from the Gourd Space, there was an pale golden Body Tempering Pill in his hand.

Chen Huai'an did not hesitate. He swallowed the pill immediately.

He did not have much time left. He had only six days.

Apart from mealtimes at the dining hall, the servant disciples who had entered the sect with him spent all their remaining time meditating and cultivating, preparing for the entry test seven days after joining.

Those servant disciples all had better talent and aptitude than he did. He had to put in several times more effort than everyone else.

He did not want to miss any opportunity to increase his strength.

Once the pill entered his stomach, no explosive force spread through his body. Like drinking the Spirit Spring Water from the gourd, it simply left him feeling warm all over.

As time passed, he used his mind to guide the gentle medicinal power released by the pill, striking at the blocked meridians along the circulation route.

One mouthful of Spirit Spring Water from the gourd was enough to sustain Chen Huai'an for the time it took to brew a cup of tea before its energy was exhausted.

But after taking this Body Tempering Pill tempered by the Purple-Skinned Gourd, he cultivated for a full two hours before completely absorbing and refining its medicinal power.

With the help of that pill, Chen Huai'an opened two blocked meridians.

One pill was equivalent to a full day of cultivation by drinking Spirit Spring Water yesterday.

At this rate, if he took twelve such pills a day, it would be equivalent to cultivating for an additional twelve days.

There were still six days until the servant disciples' entry test. If he took ten such pills every day, it would be equivalent to sixty extra days of cultivation. Two months. No matter how poor his aptitude was, he would be able to open the blocked meridians in his body, form a perfect closed cycle, and reach the first level of the Body Refinement Realm.

"This is good stuff, but the sect only gave me two pills, and I even wasted one. How am I supposed to get sixty?" Chen Huai'an frowned.