Preparing to Refine Pills

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As the saying went, robbing the Primordial Wilderness made Yuan Tian rich. Yuan Tian had more or less entered a "moderately prosperous" stage. After experiencing a time when "even the sky was scraped three feet bare," Yuan Tian finally had some "money" in his pockets. And with money, he had to spend it. Yuan Tian was already entertaining new ideas.

Speaking of Yuan Tian's gains this time, they were mainly medicinal herbs. And what could medicinal herbs be used for? Naturally, pill refinement.

As for pill refinement, Yuan Tian had not actually refined pills since his rebirth. He had already gained experience in artifact refinement, and more than once at that, but he had no experience refining pills. Besides pill formulas, pill refinement required practice.

And practice required vast quantities of spiritual herbs. Yuan Tian had spiritual herbs now. As for pill formulas, he had countless formulas from his previous ten lives, so he was not worried about that at all. What he lacked now was experience. Yuan Tian was preparing to build up his pill-refining experience.

Speaking of pills, one had to mention their types and grades. The mainstream uses of pills fell into two categories: those used to break through cultivation and those used to heal injuries. Of course, there were also all sorts of other functions—calming the mind, poisoning enemies, preserving one's appearance, and so on. In short, pills had countless uses. If one could think of it, there was basically a pill for it.

Pill grades were generally divided into ranks one through nine below the immortal level, and turns one through nine above the immortal level.

Pills from rank one to rank nine were below the immortal level and were also called Spirit Pills. Rank-one pills had the weakest effects and relatively few functions. Foundation Establishment Pills and Fasting Pills belonged to this category. This level was the lowest among pills in the Primordial Wilderness, and few people bothered refining them, because they were basically useless to the current inhabitants of the Primordial Wilderness. Why refine them at all? Rank-nine pills were the highest-grade pills below the immortal level and had comparatively better effects. A typical example was the Ascension-Breaking Pill. Using an Ascension-Breaking Pill gave cultivators below the immortal level a high chance of advancing to the immortal level. Of course, it only increased the odds; it was not guaranteed. It should be noted that Spirit Pills were mainly intended for cultivators who had not yet become immortals. Their effects on Earth Immortals and above were minimal, if not nonexistent.

Pills from one to nine turns were above the immortal level and were also called Golden Cores: First-Turn Golden Core, Second-Turn Golden Core... Nine-Turn Golden Pill. First-Turn Golden Cores had the fewest functions and the weakest effects among Golden Cores, though they were still far more effective than Spirit Pills below the immortal level. Nine-Turn Golden Pills were the highest-grade Golden Cores. Legend had it that only the great pill-refining master Taishang Laozi had successfully refined one; no one else had ever been heard of succeeding. Even Taishang Laozi had less than a thirty percent chance of success, for the requirements to refine a Nine-Turn Golden Pill were simply too demanding. In the entire Primordial Wilderness, the person with the deepest understanding of pill refinement was likely Taishang Laozi. Not only had he inherited Pangu's art of pill refinement, but he was also utterly obsessed with it and had studied it extremely deeply. In pill refinement alone, even Dao Ancestor Hongjun was likely no match for him.

Refining Spirit Pills basically only required preparing the necessary materials and having sufficiently high cultivation. Even if one did not know pill refinement, one could simply pile up materials until a Spirit Pill came out, as long as one was not heartbroken over the expense. In other words, Spirit Pills did not demand much from their refiners. Whether one had experience or not, one could refine them as long as one was willing to throw materials at the task.

Golden Core refinement was different from Spirit Pill refinement. Golden Cores imposed far greater demands on the refiner. They could not simply be forced out through high cultivation and good materials. To refine a Golden Core, one first had to possess a certain understanding of the Dao of pill refinement. Under equal conditions, the deeper one's understanding of pill refinement, the better the quality of the pills refined and the higher the success rate. If one had not the slightest comprehension of the Dao of pill refinement, then sorry, one should go play somewhere else. No one would play with such a person. No matter how high one's cultivation or how good one's materials were, one should not even dream of successfully refining a First-Turn Golden Core. And if one still refused to give up, fine—refine a few batches, and every single batch would explode.

Fortunately, Yuan Tian had an extremely deep understanding of pills. Although he had gained it during his previous lives, who told him to be reborn? What was the advantage of a reborn person? This was it. The advantage was even more obvious for someone who had cultivated before being reborn.

Yuan Tian had basically prepared the materials for refining pills. His comprehension of the Dao of pill refinement was not particularly profound, but he did have some understanding of it. Refining the most basic Spirit Pills would not be a problem. Yuan Tian had never intended to begin by refining Golden Cores. That was far too unrealistic. He needed to lay a solid foundation.

Although the materials were basically ready, he still lacked one thing: a pill furnace. Yuan Tian had previously used mind refinement for artifact refinement and had never used a furnace. But pill refinement would not work that way. He had to use a pill furnace, yet Yuan Tian did not have one.

Mind refinement and furnace refinement each had their own advantages. Mind refinement could improve one's spiritual cultivation and was more beneficial for training one's control over spiritual energy, but it imposed higher demands during refinement and consumed a great deal of mental energy. Compared to mind refinement, furnace refinement consumed less mental energy during artifact or pill refinement and also made it easier for the refiner to maintain control.

Yuan Tian's pill-refining level simply could not be compared to his artifact-refining level. When he first refined an artifact, he had already dared to use mind refinement, and he was capable of it. But when refining pills for the first time, he could not do so. He needed the aid of a pill cauldron to complete the refinement. That was the difference between the two. If Yuan Tian wanted to refine pills now, he first had to refine a pill cauldron.

Originally, Yuan Tian had not wanted to refine a pill cauldron. He had hoped to see whether he could find an Innate Spirit Treasure like the Heaven-Earth Cauldron or the Creation Cauldron later. Such Innate Spirit Treasures were far superior to ordinary cauldrons for both pill refinement and artifact refinement. But since he wanted to start refining pills now, he had no choice but to refine a pill cauldron first. If he found a better one later, he could replace it.

Yuan Tian really was lazy enough. How much time could refining a pill cauldron possibly take? Why was he so unwilling to "work"? Too lazy to even talk about him.

The cauldron Yuan Tian planned to refine this time would not only be capable of refining pills, but also artifacts. One cauldron, multiple uses. It could "cook rice" and "make soup"—all benefits, saving him from having to refine another furnace specifically for artifact refinement next time. How troublesome would that be? In the end, it still came down to his laziness.

Doing whatever came to mind had always been Yuan Tian's principle in life. Since he had decided to refine a cauldron furnace, he would begin. Wasting time was shameful, even though time in the Primordial Wilderness was truly worth far too little. Why was time in the Primordial Wilderness so worthless?

Uh, it seemed he had gone off-topic again. Let's return to the main subject.

Along the way, Yuan Tian had collected not only a huge amount of spiritual herbs, but also quite a few artifact-refining materials. Perfect. He could finally put them to use this time.

Yuan Tian stretched out his hand, and a large quantity of artifact-refining materials fell from his palm. It turned out that he had stored them all in the Five Elements Space using the Five-Elements Heaven-Seizing Hand. Now, he was merely taking the materials out through his hand. Let's see what artifact-refining materials he had: Geng Metal, Gold Sand, Star Iron, Purple Cloud Crystal, Galaxy Purple Sand, and other top-grade artifact-refining materials. It seemed Yuan Tian was not merely playing around this time—he was getting serious. One could not help looking forward to what kind of fine cauldron furnace he would refine.

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