Alchemy Master

Having already left Qinghe Town, Liu Yuanchen naturally had no idea about what had happened inside the Myriad Treasures Trading Association.

Relying on his identity as a disciple of the Azure Elixir Sect, he returned safely to Yujin Mountain.

After entering his cave residence, Liu Yuanchen took out the Crimson Copper Furnace, forced out a drop of blood essence, and dripped it into the furnace.

Then, he released a strand of Divine Sense and, together with the blood essence, traced a universal Master-Recognition Inscription across the bottom of the Crimson Copper Furnace.

Several dozen breaths later, the Master-Recognition Inscription had completely taken shape.

Afterward, the inscription rune merged into the furnace itself.

He poured spiritual power into the Crimson Copper Furnace. The furnace, originally no larger than his palm, instantly expanded into a copper furnace nearly three feet tall.

Liu Yuanchen carried the pill furnace into the alchemy room, which had already been there before.

It was a stone chamber roughly two zhang square, with a small stone pit in the center that bore scorch marks.

He placed the pill furnace directly above the pit and put several dense chunks of charcoal inside it.

Taking out two pieces of flint, he struck them together several times.

Sparks from the flint fell onto the charcoal, igniting a tiny crimson flame.

The flame swiftly grew, soon enveloping the entire bottom of the furnace.

He did not know any fire-element spells, so he could only rely on this plain and simple method to start a fire.

Inside the Crimson Copper Furnace, an inscription rune faintly gave off light.

Before long, the entire pill furnace had heated up.

Firelight flickered faintly within the furnace. This was the first step of alchemy—heating the furnace.

Liu Yuanchen then took out one jin of Golden-Thread Rice and placed it into the pill furnace.

What he intended to refine was the Grain-Banishing Pill, the simplest among low-grade first-tier pills.

There were many versions of the Grain-Banishing Pill formula. The simplest used only spirit grain.

By refining out its essence and then condensing it into pill pellets, one could produce Grain-Banishing Pills.

If a cultivator ate one jin of low-grade first-tier spirit grain, he would not go hungry for three days.

Eating three Grain-Banishing Pills could likewise keep him from going hungry for three days.

Yet a single Grain-Banishing Pill weighed only one qian, and a hundred pills weighed merely one jin.

Spirit grain tasted better when cooked, while Grain-Banishing Pills could be eaten directly.

When traveling, carrying Grain-Banishing Pills was clearly far more convenient than carrying spirit grain.

Liu Yuanchen released his Divine Sense, drew flames from the furnace walls, wrapped them around the Golden-Thread Rice, and extracted its essence.

He had not deliberately examined it, yet the distribution of energy within every grain was perfectly clear to his senses.

The moment his attention wandered, the flames in the furnace became somewhat unstable. He hurriedly steadied his emotions and guided the flames to roast the Golden-Thread Rice.

Using his Divine Sense to draw out the energy within the grains took little effort. Tiny droplets soon flowed from the rice grains—this was the essence of the Golden-Thread Rice.

After losing their essence, the grains turned to ash in an instant.

Over a hundred breaths later, all the rice grains had vanished, leaving behind only a fist-sized mass of essence.

Refining the essence from spirit herbs was an extremely important step in alchemy.

The maximum number of pills one could produce was determined at the essence-refining stage.

If the refined essence was only enough for two pills, then no matter how exquisite the later fire control or pill-condensing techniques were, at most two pills could be formed.

Liu Yuanchen was overjoyed. His attention slipped for a moment, and the flames went out of control.

In less than a breath, all that remained was a wisp of green smoke and a little ash.

His first attempt at alchemy had failed, yet Liu Yuanchen was not disappointed in the slightest. Instead, his face was filled with delight.

The mass of essence he had refined earlier was absurdly abundant.

When he had first entered the sect, he had once served as an attendant to a second-tier Alchemy Master.

The foundations of his Alchemy Art had all been learned during that time.

When that Alchemy Master taught his disciples how to refine Grain-Banishing Pills, Liu Yuanchen had been present as well.

The Golden-Thread Rice essence refined by that Alchemy Master had amounted to only around ninety percent of the mass Liu Yuanchen had just produced.

In the end, that batch of Grain-Banishing Pills had yielded five pills.

Using one jin of Golden-Thread Rice to refine Grain-Banishing Pills, the limit was six finished pills.

For a second-tier Alchemy Master to produce five pills was already considered highly skilled.

Liu Yuanchen murmured, "I haven't even officially crossed the threshold to become an Alchemy Master yet. My alchemy skills are nowhere near that second-tier Alchemy Master's.

"Yet the Golden-Thread Rice essence I refined was actually greater than his.

"And when I was refining the essence, I could clearly sense the energy distribution within the rice grains.

"With only a slight pull from my Divine Sense, that energy flowed out and condensed into essence."

"To achieve this definitely isn't because of my Alchemy Art. It should be related to the Immortal Seed.

"Previously, I could sense the vitality of plants and draw it out.

"The essence within rice grains is also energy contained within plants. The two have something in common.

"After opening the Blessed Land Embryo and changing my cultivation method, my ability to sense the vitality of plants must have grown stronger."

"The essence I refined earlier was fully enough to form six pills. In other words, I can extract nearly one hundred percent of the essence.

"For me, the difficult hurdle of essence refinement can be completely ignored.

"As long as I improve my fire control to a passable level, a sixty or seventy percent pill success rate will be effortless."

An alchemist with a pill success rate of around thirty percent could generally avoid losses.

If the success rate reached sixty or seventy percent, the profit would be more than double.

Alchemy Masters were all either fire-element or wood-element cultivators, and each had its own advantages.

Fire-element cultivators excelled at controlling flames, making it unlikely for an entire batch of pills to be ruined.

However, they refined relatively little spirit-herb essence, so their pill success rates were generally low. A forty or fifty percent rate was already considered decent.

Furthermore, the spirit-herb essence they refined contained more impurities, so the quality of the finished pills was usually not high.

Wood-element cultivators had an advantage in refining spirit-herb essence. They could refine more essence with fewer impurities, giving them a higher upper limit for pill success rates and making it easier to produce high-quality pills.

However, their fire control was generally lacking. The chance of ruining an entire batch was higher, as was the risk of the furnace exploding.

The most suitable Alchemy Masters should be cultivators with both fire and wood attributes.

Liu Yuanchen adjusted his condition and began refining Grain-Banishing Pills once more.

Just like last time, he refined a fist-sized mass of essence without expending much effort.

Next, he needed to divide that mass into six portions and roast them with flames, a process known as reducing over high heat.

There was skill involved in deciding how many portions to divide the refined essence into. If there were too many portions, each would contain too little essence and could easily burn during the high-heat reduction.

Even if pills were produced by luck, they would be too small and considered defective, making them difficult to sell for a good price.

If there were too few portions, each would contain too much essence. The heat would not distribute evenly between the inside and outside, and the pills would likely fail to form.

Once every mass of essence had been reduced to the size of a longan, it was time for the final pill-condensing stage.

The fire had to be lowered at an extremely fast pace, allowing the thick pill liquid to solidify into pill pellets.

From reducing over high heat to completing the pill condensation, the slightest mistake in fire control could reduce the essence entirely to ash.

Liu Yuanchen was a wood-element cultivator, and fire control was his innate weakness. After more than ten consecutive failures, he finally refined a Grain-Banishing Pill.

Looking at the golden-yellow Grain-Banishing Pill, he felt somewhat excited.

After putting in so much effort, he had finally achieved a result.

Over the next four or five days, he refined several batches of Grain-Banishing Pills each day, and his pill success rate quickly rose to around fifty percent.

For any first-tier pill, as long as the pill success rate exceeded thirty percent, one could be considered a low-grade first-tier Alchemy Master.

With a Grain-Banishing Pill success rate above fifty percent, he was unquestionably a low-grade first-tier Alchemy Master.

He had used nearly thirty jin of spirit grain in total and produced over sixty pills, barely managing to recover his costs.

Having only just crossed the threshold of becoming an Alchemy Master, not losing money was already a victory.

With the foundation he had built from refining Grain-Banishing Pills, Liu Yuanchen began attempting to refine Spirit-Restoring Pills.

Spirit-Restoring Pills required five kinds of spirit herbs, and the refining process was largely similar to that of the Grain-Banishing Pills.

The only added step was merging the essences of different spirit herbs, and that process was the most likely to cause the furnace to explode.

Thanks to the foundation he had built earlier, the refining process went extremely smoothly.

He failed only twice, then successfully refined two Spirit-Restoring Pills on his third attempt.

The fourth batch yielded four pills, while the next three batches each yielded five.

One set of Spirit-Restoring Pill ingredients cost three Spirit Stones. In theory, it could yield up to ten pills, and each Spirit-Restoring Pill sold for one Spirit Stone.

The seven sets of ingredients yielded a total of twenty-one pills, just enough to recover the cost of the ingredients.

If the consumption of Spirit Charcoal were counted, he had actually suffered a slight loss.

Still, he had developed his skill. Such minor expenses were nothing.

At this point, Liu Yuanchen did not have a single Spirit Stone left.

He left Yujin Mountain again and headed to Qinghe Town to sell pills, buy more spirit herbs for refining Spirit-Restoring Pills, and continue earning Spirit Stones through alchemy.

Upon reaching Qinghe Town, he arrived in front of an elixir shop.

The sign above its entrance bore several large words: "Dongyang Liu Clan Elixir Shop."

After entering the shop, a cultivator in his forties asked, "What would this fellow Daoist from the Azure Elixir Sect like to buy?"

Liu Yuanchen smiled. "Sixth Uncle, you don't even recognize me anymore?"

This man was named Liu Qingfeng. He was a member of the Liu Family's main branch and the Liu Family head's cousin.

The cultivator looked at him carefully. "You're Yuanchen? It's been seven or eight years since we last met.

"If you didn't resemble Third Brother so much, I truly wouldn't have recognized you.

"What did you come to buy this time? I'll give you a ten percent discount."

Liu Yuanchen took a cloth bundle from his storage bag. After opening it, twenty-one milky-white pills were revealed. They were Spirit-Restoring Pills.

"Sixth Uncle, I came here this time to sell pills."

Liu Qingfeng picked up a pill, examined it carefully for a while, then sniffed it.

"Yuanchen, where did these pills come from?"

Liu Yuanchen wore a smile. "Your nephew refined them himself."

A trace of surprise appeared on Liu Qingfeng's face. "These pills are truly of excellent quality, already very close to good-grade. Did you really refine them yourself?"

Pill quality was divided into four levels: inferior, ordinary, good, and supreme.

Inferior pills could display seventy or eighty percent of their medicinal effect, but they contained large amounts of pill toxin. Taking too many could clog the meridians or even cause poisoning, so they generally could not be sold.

Ordinary-grade pills were the most common pills on the market. They contained relatively little pill toxin, and their side effects were not obvious. At most, they created a few extra obstacles when breaking through realms, so they were generally bought and sold at the standard price.

Good-grade pills were relatively rare on the market. Their pill toxin could be ignored, and consuming them regularly had no side effects. Their price was around ten percent higher than the standard rate.

Supreme-grade pills were nearly perfect. They contained no pill toxin at all, and their medicinal effects were roughly thirty percent stronger than ordinary-grade and good-grade pills.

Even for pills of little value, their prices were thirty to fifty percent higher than the standard rate.

For supreme-grade pills that assisted with breakthroughs, such as Barrier-Breaking Pills, people would scramble to buy them even at one or two times the usual price.

The so-called pill toxin mainly came from impurities within spirit-herb essence.

It could also arise when insufficient fire control caused the medicinal properties to undergo unknown changes, producing pill toxin.

Liu Yuanchen nodded. "I did refine them myself. As you know, I possess the Wood-and-Grass Immortal Seed.

"The spirit-herb essence I refine contains fewer impurities, making it easier to produce high-quality pills."

"What is your pill success rate?"

"After practicing for several months, my success rate has reached forty percent."

Liu Qingfeng's face was full of smiles. "Not bad. With this skill, you can earn quite a few Spirit Stones. Reaching the Sea of Qi Realm in the future is no longer impossible.

"When others come to sell pills, I usually lower the price by ten or twenty percent.

"But since you're the one selling them, I'll purchase them at market price."

With that, he put away the pills and gave Liu Yuanchen twenty-one Spirit Stones.

Pills close to good-grade contained far less pill toxin than ordinary-grade pills.

No matter which shop he took them to, there was no reason for anyone to lower the price.

With his status as an Azure Elixir Sect disciple, ordinary small elixir shops would not dare suppress his price either.

Liu Qingfeng said that only because he was shameless.

Still, Liu Yuanchen accepted the Spirit Stones and cupped his hands. "Thank you, Sixth Uncle."

Liu Qingfeng waved his hand. "Over the years, the family's resources have all been concentrated on Yuan Si, and the others have received very little support.

"There's nothing we can do about it. Resources are scarce on the Red Wasteland, and it's impossible to cultivate every descendant.

"We can only focus on nurturing those with the best talent. Don't blame the family."

Every family on the Red Wasteland operated this way, concentrating the vast majority of their resources on several talented descendants of the main branch.

Main-branch descendants with poorer talent could still get a small share.

When they went out to handle affairs, they could also obtain lucrative assignments.

As for distant-branch descendants, unless their talent was exceptional enough to lead the entire family to greater heights, they could only struggle on their own.

Those with above-average talent would merely receive some Spirit Stones from the family and be sent into the Azure Elixir Sect.

Distant-branch descendants with poor talent like Liu Yuanchen had never received even a single Spirit Stone in family subsidies since childhood.

The resources he needed for cultivation in his early years had all come from his father's meager salary.

He had been able to enter the Azure Elixir Sect only because his father had pulled strings and spent money on connections. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the Liu Family.

He could not exactly be said to hate the family, but he had little sense of belonging toward it.

It made no difference which shop he sold his self-refined pills to. For matters that did not harm his own interests, he could give the family priority.

But if the main branch wanted him to pay some price for the family, that was nothing but wishful thinking.

"Sixth Uncle, you overstate it. If I bore a grudge against the family, there would be no need for me to come here to sell pills.

"I haven't gone home in about a year. How is everyone at home?"

Liu Qingfeng's expression changed slightly, then quickly returned to normal. "Third Brother has been guarding the Salt Marsh all this time. Nothing has happened."

The Salt Marsh lay downstream of Dongyang Lake at the Liu Family Ancestral Land. It was a small saltwater lake.

The family had built a saltworks there, and the salt it produced each year could sell for around a hundred Spirit Stones.

Three members of distant family branches had been assigned to stand guard, protecting the ordinary clansmen drying salt there. Liu Yuanchen's father, Liu Qingyun, was one of them.

Liu Yuanchen had grown up by the Salt Marsh alongside his father.

Seeing him like this, Liu Yuanchen's heart sank. It seemed something had happened at home.

"Sixth Uncle, stop hiding it from me. What exactly happened to my father?"

Seeing that he could not deceive him, Liu Qingfeng sighed. "More than ten days ago, several Red Sand Wolves launched a surprise attack on the Salt Marsh.

Over a dozen ordinary clansmen died. Your father was injured, but it was nothing serious. He's fine now."

"My eldest brother was at the Salt Marsh too. How is he?"

"Yuanfu was unharmed. Third Brother was injured while saving him."

Liu Yuanchen breathed a sigh of relief. "I need to go back and see."

With that, he turned to leave.

Liu Qingfeng grabbed him. "The family is five or six hundred li from Qinghe Town. If you walk back, it'll take at least two or three days.

The roads aren't safe. Loose cultivators could easily ambush you at night.

The family's cargo ship happens to be heading back to pick up goods. Take the cargo ship home.

With favorable winds and currents, it'll be faster than walking back."