Pills Complete

Therefore, before entering the ranks, martial artists actually cultivated both life and fate simultaneously through essence, qi, and spirit.

As the theoretically perfect immortal body, the Holy Demon Embryo could rapidly recover from any injury so long as a single breath remained.

With such terrifying restorative power, Chen Wu had no fear of the depletion and hidden injuries caused by tempering his body.

Even when sparring with his secondary body, as long as he controlled himself properly, he would not lose any true essence.

Instead, during the process, he could absorb the primordial qi of heaven and earth, accelerating the tempering of his true essence.

With the divine sense enhanced by the three souls, his path of spirit cultivation was even further ahead.

Through this day of exploration and practice, Chen Wu had gained a deeper understanding of his Holy Demon Embryo and learned how to make better use of this advantage.

Before the martial arts gym closed at eight-thirty that evening, he checked out, collected his deposit, and left.

When Chen Wu emerged from the martial arts gym, the large shopping mall, which had still been fairly bustling that afternoon, now had only a few pedestrians.

Quite a few mall workers dressed in gray were carrying out the cleaning before the mall closed.

Each of them held an enormous square mop and cleaned the floors assigned to them.

The mop heads swept across the pristine square tiles, leaving transparent trails of water as they carried away dust and grime.

Watching the workers easily wield mops weighing at least twenty kilograms when soaked in water as they cleaned at high speed—

Not wanting to add to their workload, Chen Wu immediately employed the lightness skill he had just gained some insight into. Like a swift bun, he descended an entire floor in just a few breaths.

Before long, Chen Wu returned home. He opened the WuTuan app on his phone and ordered dinner, then quickly showered and tidied himself up.

Just as he stepped out of the bathroom in his pajamas, he heard the doorbell ring along with a strong voice.

"Hello, WuTuan delivery!"

Chen Wu opened the door and saw a deliveryman in yellow standing outside with his food.

"Thanks for the trouble."

"You're welcome. Please give me a five-star review."

"Next time for sure."

After closing the door, Chen Wu sat on the living room sofa. As he drank some happy water and enjoyed his meal, he absorbed the alchemy experience the three souls had deduced that afternoon.

How to trim the roots and stems of medicinal herbs, where to cut them most appropriately; how to stir-fry them so their medicinal potency could be better brought out...

Without the three souls' deductive ability, Chen Wu would likely have needed two or three days and consumed a great deal of medicinal ingredients to figure out such experience on his own.

After dinner, Chen Wu absorbed the qi of heaven and earth for a while longer, transforming it into wisps of qi that gathered within the mouthful of true essence above his qi sea.

Feeling the seed of true essence within him slowly growing stronger, Chen Wu checked the time, took off his slippers, turned off the lights, and went to bed.

The entire room fell silent, with only the rise and fall of his breathing audible.

Once the excitement of having transmigrated had faded, the suppressed emotions surged into his heart all at once.

Longing, sorrow, hesitation, confusion—within this once-familiar atmosphere, these emotions continually battered his thoughts. The mother he remembered so vividly had become an "eternal farewell."

Chen Wu abruptly sat up and gazed at the bright moon hanging high beyond the window, overcome with boundless melancholy.

Only then did he understand the meaning of the first half of that line by the Poet Buddha.

"Alone in a foreign land, a stranger in a strange place."

Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains and spilled into the room. A new day had officially begun.

Chen Wu woke from sleep, stretched lazily, got out of bed and put on his slippers, then went to the bathroom to wash up.

He made breakfast. After finishing it, he washed the bowls in the sink, dried them, and neatly put them away in the cupboard.

Before long, Chen Wu heard his phone ring.

Knowing that the alchemy equipment and medicinal ingredients he had ordered must have arrived, Chen Wu immediately opened the door, put on his shoes, took the elevator downstairs, and headed to the entrance of the building.

A deliveryman in a green uniform was already waiting there. At his feet sat two large cardboard boxes bearing postal markings.

After showing his ID and the phone number he had left during registration, Chen Wu signed for the goods in front of the deliveryman.

Then, he hoisted the two large boxes onto his shoulders, one on each side, estimating them to weigh roughly five and ten kilograms respectively.

After Chen Wu returned home and shut the door, he summoned his secondary body, Zhu Wu.

"Help out."

"Oh? Why do you always like ordering me around?"

Amid Zhu Wu's complaints, the two of them drew a thread of true qi from their tempered true essence and poured it into their fingertips. With a few light swipes of their fingers, they removed the outer packaging from their respective boxes and took out the contents one by one.

Looking at the alchemy equipment and medicinal ingredients laid out before him, Chen Wu sighed sincerely.

It had to be said, it truly was a project strongly supported by the state. The service was thorough indeed.

Medicine pots, medicine spatulas, medicine boxes, medicine bottles, and other items were all included, each with an instruction manual.

The ingredients for the three kinds of pills—the Spring-Nourishing Pill, Origin-Restoring Pill, and Qi-Accumulating Pill—had also been sorted, labeled, and packaged separately.

All he had to do was open the packages, wash and chop the medicinal ingredients inside, then put them into the medicine pot and stir-fry them.

Seeing such considerate service, Chen Wu could not help saying, "With instructions this clear, even a fool could refine pills, right?"

Very quickly, reality taught Chen Wu a lesson.

Chen Wu stared awkwardly at the charred failed pills in the medicine box. The corners of his mouth twitched, and he fell silent for a moment.

Beside him, Zhu Wu mercilessly mocked his main body. "Who was it just now that swore he would definitely refine top-grade pills? See? Didn't you just get slapped in the face?"

Adhering to the principle that as long as he was not embarrassed, someone else would be, Chen Wu rubbed his chin and consoled himself. "Something must have gone wrong. I clearly followed the deduced steps without the slightest mistake. How could it have failed?"

Zhu Wu fully displayed his talent for snark. "Is there a possibility that you yourself are the biggest problem?"

"Wait, what heat did I set when I was refining just now?"

Remembering something, Chen Wu abruptly turned to ask his secondary body.

Zhu Wu calmly gave the answer. "High heat."

Chen Wu clapped his hands together in sudden realization. "So that's it."

It turned out that when refining pills, Chen Wu had overlooked the importance of heat control, preventing the medicinal properties within the herbs from being fully brought out.

He took another portion of Origin-Restoring Pill ingredients, washed them, removed the roots, mashed them up, and placed them into the medicine pot to be repeatedly stir-fried.

About fifteen minutes later, the ingredients in the pot had turned into a pool of medicinal liquid.

Knowing that the crucial moment had arrived, Chen Wu immediately poured the still-warm medicinal liquid from the pot into a pill-rolling board specially used to make pills.

As the medicinal liquid inside cooled and solidified, he shook it repeatedly.

When he opened the medicine box lid, a plume of white smoke shot out from inside.