Alchemy

Late at night.

Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged on his bed, with two exquisite wooden boxes placed before him.

The one on the left contained a Soul Ascension Pill.

The one on the right contained a Profound Water Pill.

Either of these items would be enough to make ordinary soul masters green with envy, but Huo Yuhao was not thinking about how to consume them.

Besides automatically refining pills, the Heavenly Creation Cauldron possessed an even more outrageous ability—reverse-engineering pill formulas.

As long as a finished pill was placed inside, the cauldron could analyze its ingredients, medicinal properties, and refining process before deducing the complete method of refinement.

Huo Yuhao reached out and opened the wooden boxes.

"Let's see whether you're really worth that much money."

With a thought, the two pills vanished simultaneously.

Deep within his sea of consciousness.

The Heavenly Creation Cauldron trembled lightly, and a mist of creation completely enveloped the Soul Ascension Pill and the Profound Water Pill.

Not long afterward, an enormous amount of complicated information flooded directly into Huo Yuhao's mind.

The names of hundreds of medicinal ingredients, their processing methods, soul power control points, and refining procedures so complex they made his scalp tingle all crammed together.

Huo Yuhao's face went pale.

Good grief.

That much information nearly made his brain smoke.

First soul skill, Mind-Clearing.

A cool aura instantly spread through him. Huo Yuhao's previously muddled mind swiftly regained clarity, and the chaotic information was gradually sorted out.

The Soul Ascension Pill required twelve century-old medicinal herbs.

The Profound Water Pill was even more absurd. Besides more than a dozen varieties of water-element soul beast essence blood, several of its main ingredients were nearly ten thousand years old.

And after the pill was refined, several high-level water-element soul masters still had to continuously nurture it with soul power for forty-nine days.

Huo Yuhao remained silent for a long time after reading through it all.

No wonder this thing sold for over ten thousand gold soul coins.

The materials were expensive, sure, but the refining process was genuinely exhausting too.

Yet the Heavenly Creation Cauldron's assessment contained only four words—utterly superfluous.

A great deal of precious medicinal efficacy had been wasted during the crude processing. The so-called soul power nurturing merely compensated for flaws left behind during the refinement.

Huo Yuhao could even sense a trace of disdain in the information sent by the cauldron.

It was like a master chef watching someone cook ten-thousand-year ingredients into a pot of sludge.

What a waste.

Fortunately, the Heavenly Creation Cauldron quickly deduced an alternative method.

Huo Yuhao opened his eyes, picked up a pen and paper, and wrote down all the materials he truly needed.

Soul Ascension Pill: fifty gold soul coins per batch.

Profound Water Pill: three hundred gold soul coins per batch.

There was no need for main ingredients approaching ten thousand years in age, nor any need for high-level water-element soul masters to work nonstop for forty-nine days.

Huo Yuhao stared at the list, the corners of his lips slowly rising.

The original Profound Water Pill cost at least several thousand gold soul coins per batch, and that was without counting labor.

After all, the soul masters belonged to one's own sect. Issuing a mission and giving them some contribution points was enough—who would actually pay them?

His version of the Profound Water Pill eliminated a series of complicated procedures, replaced high-grade spirit herbs and soul beast essence blood with lower-tier alternatives, and directly removed the labor-intensive step of having high-level water-element soul masters nurture the pills.

How was this merely cutting costs?

He had practically broken the price's legs.

Early the next morning.

Ju Zi held that list of ingredients and stared at it for a full quarter of an hour.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Three hundred gold soul coins can refine Profound Water Pills?"

"They should be better than the ones you brought back."

Huo Yuhao answered with complete seriousness.

Ju Zi's breathing immediately grew a little faster.

Having controlled the Sun Moon Empire for many years in her previous life, she understood better than anyone that the true value of such pills did not lie in making money.

It lay in cultivating geniuses in batches.

If Profound Water Pills and Soul Ascension Pills could be refined at low cost, then the list of talented individuals in her hands would no longer be merely a list.

It would become a core force that truly belonged to her.

Ju Zi abruptly stood up.

"Three days."

"What?"

"Within three days, I'll deliver every material to you."

With that, she turned and left.

Watching her hurried back, Huo Yuhao could not help reminding her, "Sister Ju Zi, you haven't even had breakfast."

"I'm not eating."

"You won't grow taller."

Ju Zi's steps paused for a moment.

Then she walked even faster.

Three days later.

The empty room in the small courtyard had been completely packed with wooden crates of all sizes.

Huo Yuhao sorted the materials into categories and threw them all into the Heavenly Creation Cauldron.

His soul power began to drain rapidly.

Fortunately, he had already reached level thirteen. Combined with the embryonic Blue Jade Pill replenishing his soul power, he could barely sustain the cauldron's continuous operation.

Half an hour later.

The first batch of Soul Ascension Pills emerged.

There were exactly twelve of them.

Each one was pale azure, with purer medicinal efficacy and none of the impurities remaining in the original pills.

Another hour passed.

Nine Profound Water Pills quietly fell into Huo Yuhao's palm.

The pills were no longer dull and black. Instead, they were a translucent watery blue, with faint ripples of light flowing within them.

Ju Zi picked one up, her eyes going slightly blank.

"They really were refined..."

"Don't be in such a hurry."

Huo Yuhao handed her two pill bottles, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"There's something even more interesting."

Besides replicating those two types of pills, the medicinal knowledge poured into him by the Heavenly Creation Cauldron's reverse-engineering of their formulas had, under the effects of Mind-Clearing, unconsciously been fully integrated by Huo Yuhao.

He had accidentally deduced two new pill formulas himself.

Blue Jade Pill.

It could restore soul power and increase the speed of soul power cultivation for a period of time.

Azure Jade Pill.

It could stimulate brain activity, enhance neural reactions, and gradually raise spiritual power with long-term use.

To test the effects of the Profound Water Pill and the Soul Ascension Pill, Ju Zi had Shao Xing, the first confidant she had recruited and a six-ringed Soul Emperor, test them.

He first consumed a Profound Water Pill. After an hour, once Shao Xing had refined it, he delightedly stated that his soul power had increased somewhat. But that was not the important part. The important part was that the impurities accumulated in his body had been removed, his cultivation speed had increased severalfold, and his innate soul power had risen by one level.

Next came the Soul Ascension Pill. In theory, this thing was only effective up to Soul Elder rank. After reaching Soul Elder, even those who had never taken a Soul Ascension Pill would only gain some soul power from it rather than directly advancing a level.

Ju Zi had never expected that after Shao Xing took it, his soul power rank would directly rise by one level, reaching level sixty-three.

"It works on Soul Emperors too?"

Ju Zi stared at Huo Yuhao, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.

Huo Yuhao nodded.

"It works, but the higher the realm, the weaker the effect."

Afterward, Shao Xing took the Azure Jade Pill and Blue Jade Pill in succession. Both pills were still effective for a Soul Emperor, though their effects were not particularly strong.

That was already enough.

After all, any cultivation resource capable of affecting a Soul Emperor was an astonishingly valuable treasure.

Yet the main ingredients of the Blue Jade Pill and Azure Jade Pill were merely ten-year medicinal herbs.

Ye Guyi stood at the side, silently looking at the row of pill bottles on the table.

She suddenly felt that her younger brother might be even more terrifying than Ju Zi.

One was responsible for finding people, money, and materials.

The other was responsible for turning ordinary materials into supreme-grade pills.

With these two together, would they not eventually turn the entire continent upside down?

Time slowly passed.

With a steady supply of pills, the three of them began improving at an astonishing pace.

Red Jade Pills strengthened the body.

Blue Jade Pills aided soul power cultivation.

Azure Jade Pills slowly increased spiritual power.

Combined with the training regimen Ju Zi had devised, and the enhancement of Huo Yuhao's soul skills by the Heavenly Creation Cauldron, Huo Yuhao's control over and perception of his own body became unprecedentedly powerful.

While using his soul skills, he could clearly sense the path taken by every strand of soul power during cultivation, every tremor of his muscles during training, and the friction between his bones.

It was precisely because of this that Huo Yuhao understood better than anyone else why cultivation and training made him stronger—what changes occurred within his body on a microscopic level, leading to increased soul power and a stronger physique.