The Mysterious Pill Furnace That Turns Waste into Treasure

Soon, the Waste Pill Room was left with only Su Shi'er.

The vast space stood empty, and in the distance, faint wolf howls and beast roars could be heard. Su Shi'er stood in the courtyard, his heart pounding with fear. Bold as he was, he was still just a half-grown child.

But he knew well that if he wanted to learn Immortal Arts, he had to overcome the trial before him. Looking down at the Waste Pill Compendium in his hand, he began to flip through it.

The compendium contained simple introductions to over a hundred types of pills, along with depictions of their waste forms. Waste pills were the failed products of alchemists, filled with impurities and even toxins, completely unfit for consumption.

For other children, understanding this would take considerable effort. But Su Shi'er had learned to read and write from his grandfather since childhood, devoured countless books, and had a sharp mind. After silently reading through it a few times, he had memorized most of the compendium's contents.

Clutching the compendium, Su Shi'er turned and walked into the storeroom where the waste pills were kept. Having seen the text and images, the next step was to identify the real things.

Inside the storeroom, piles of waste pills rose like mountains.

However, Su Shi'er, who had memorized the compendium, quickly discerned that there weren't many types—just three or five at most.

The most numerous were Foundation Cultivation Pills, taken by new disciples to solidify their foundation, strengthen their constitution, and purge impurities from their bodies.

Next were Qi Gathering Pills, used by Qi Refining disciples to speed up their cultivation, and Minor Restoration Pills, used for healing injuries.

Surveying the tens of thousands of waste pills before him, Su Shi'er couldn't help but sigh inwardly. If these weren't waste pills, and if he could possess so many real pills, how wonderful that would be.

Unfortunately, for him, this was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Su Shi'er stayed in the storeroom until evening. Besides those three types, he also found waste pills of two other kinds.

But these were all worthless trash that no one wanted. He could only gain a bit more knowledge about pills.

It was getting late, and Su Shi'er planned to return to his room to rest.

Just then, low beast roars and heavy footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the courtyard.

The muffled noise, like thunder or drumbeats, struck Su Shi'er's heart one beat at a time.

"A beast?!"

Su Shi'er was terrified. The image of the broken, limbless figure on the stretcher immediately flashed through his mind.

"What do I do?" He froze in place, not daring to move, afraid of alerting the beast outside.

But the fierce beast outside showed no sign of leaving.

The footsteps grew closer. With a thud, something seemed to leap over the wall and land inside.

Hearing the commotion, Su Shi'er's heart raced. Holding his breath, he peered through a crack in the storeroom door, cautiously looking outside.

In the courtyard, a fierce tiger with a white forehead and blood-red eyes paced back and forth, its breath coming in heavy huffs, white mist streaming from its mouth and nose.

Its brass bell-like eyes gleamed with ferocity. As it breathed, it seemed to catch the scent of a living person. The tiger let out a low roar, shook its fur, and slowly approached the storeroom where Su Shi'er was hiding.

Seeing this, Su Shi'er's pupils contracted, and his whole body trembled. With his small frame, he was no match for this tiger—he wouldn't even be enough to fill its teeth.

Su Shi'er was scared out of his wits, but the more frightened he became, the calmer he grew.

Turning his head to look at the mountain of waste pills behind him, a bold idea formed in his mind.

Without a moment's hesitation, he retreated to the pile of waste pills, quietly dug a deep pit, and buried himself in the heap.

"Bang!"

Just a few minutes later, the storeroom door was pushed open, and a massive, fierce tiger head poked in cautiously.

Its gleaming fangs and blood-dripping maw, reeking of stench, forced Su Shi'er to hold his breath, not daring to move.

Fortunately, the vast quantity of waste pills masked Su Shi'er's scent. The tiger glanced around and then turned to leave.

Seeing this, Su Shi'er breathed a silent sigh of relief. But afraid the tiger might return, he stayed buried in the waste pills until dawn.

After repeatedly confirming there was no sound outside, he finally crawled out of the pile.

"What kind of cursed place is this? A huge tiger shows up as soon as I arrive? If I stay here, I'll be eaten by that tiger sooner or later!"

Su Shi'er's little heart pounded wildly as he muttered to himself in lingering fear.

He didn't think his small frame could stand a chance against that tiger.

"But if I leave, how will I get close to the methods of cultivation?"

"And if I can't cultivate, how will I avenge Grandpa and the others? And that mysterious pill furnace—I need to figure out its purpose too!"

As he pondered, Su Shi'er pulled the old, simple pill furnace from his bosom.

Seeing the furnace again, his pupils contracted, and he froze in surprise.

"Huh? Why are there two pills?"

Inside the furnace lay two thumb-sized, crystal-clear pills, smooth as jade.

He quickly poured the two pills into his palm. Instantly, a rich medicinal fragrance wafted out, refreshing his spirit and sweeping away his hunger and fatigue.

Su Shi'er's spirits lifted. He grabbed a handful of waste pills and compared them in his hand.

The waste pills were pitch-black and emitted a faint stench, worlds apart from these two pills.

After examining them closely for a long time, he finally confirmed that these two pills were genuine Foundation Cultivation Pills.

"Strange, how did this furnace suddenly produce two Foundation Cultivation Pills?"

"This thing—I've only ever used it to hold salt, and I've never seen any pills appear in it before."

"Could it be... that a waste pill fell in last night?"

With that thought, Su Shi'er immediately gave it a try, placing a waste pill into the Pill Furnace, then watching it without blinking.

Under his gaze, the waste pill became shrouded in a layer of cyan light, its black surface visibly fading away.

It looked as if the impurities on it were being refined away by some force.

In just a few breaths, the waste pill turned from black to grayish-cyan.

After another ten-odd breaths, a crystalline, jade-like Foundation Cultivation Pill appeared in the Pill Furnace.

"Hiss—"

Witnessing this with his own eyes, Su Shi'er couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.

"This Pill Furnace can actually turn waste pills into good ones? Turning trash into treasure—how incredible is that?!"

"No wonder... no wonder those immortals wanted this Pill Furnace so badly!"

"But, I wonder if the Pill Furnace can keep refining indefinitely?"

With a nervous heart, he stuffed a handful of waste pills into the Pill Furnace.

In his sight, every waste pill was covered in a layer of cyan light.

After ten-odd breaths, the light vanished, replaced by flawless, crystalline Foundation Cultivation Pills.

Su Shi'er tried it over a dozen times. No matter how many pills he loaded, as long as the Pill Furnace could hold them, they would all be refined into normal pills within ten to twenty breaths.

And from start to finish, the Pill Furnace remained its same ancient, worn-out self, without the slightest change.

Confirming the Furnace's function, Su Shi'er turned his head to look at the mountain of waste pills piled nearby, his breathing growing rapid.

In that moment, in his eyes, this wasn't worthless garbage at all—it was clearly a heap of pills he could use to cultivate!

"With this many pills, even if my spiritual root is poor, I'm bound to achieve something!"

"No, I absolutely cannot tell anyone about this!"

Clutching the Pill Furnace tightly to his chest, his little heart pounded wildly, his small face flushed red.

Though he didn't know much about cultivation, he still understood the value of this Furnace.

Hiding the Furnace close to his body, he found a few porcelain bottles in the storeroom, filled them with the refined pills, and only then returned to his own room.

"Now, I just need to see if these refined pills actually work!"

Thinking this, Su Shi'er pulled a Foundation Cultivation Pill from his bosom.