First Time Refining Pills

At this moment, Long Xuan had no idea he had been mocked—and mocked over the very imagination he was most proud of.

Seeing how stubborn the little medicine boy was, he stopped trying to persuade him.

"You can trade for my Cockroach Gu, but my Cockroach Gu has long ceased to be worth ten thousand Spirit Stones."

"How about this? Give me ten of each kind of waste pill to make up the difference."

The little medicine boy nodded. Forget a few worthless waste pills—even if he had to fork out another hundred thousand Spirit Stones, he would fight to do it.

"Looks like you really don't have the ability to turn waste pills into treasures. Otherwise, you would have swept up all my waste pills in one net instead of taking only ten of each kind."

The little medicine boy smiled as he picked up some of the waste pills. Then he took a green, three-legged pill furnace from his storage pouch, tossed all the waste pills into it, and handed it all to Long Xuan.

Long Xuan shot him a sidelong glance, then took a small bottle containing Cockroach Gu from his Insect-Rearing Pouch and tossed it to the little medicine boy.

The little medicine boy happily caught the bottle. After checking its authenticity on the spot through a blood contract, he quickly began packing up his stall.

To him, those waste pills were all treasures now. Only a fool would keep them out for sale.

Meanwhile, the scar-faced burly man who had just been arguing with the little medicine boy was dumbfounded. He had never expected anyone to actually want waste pills. The world was vast indeed; anything could happen. What a living ghost story.

Just as Long Xuan was about to leave, the man immediately stepped in front of him and hurriedly said, "Wait, little friend! I also want to trade for Cockroach Gu. I'm willing to use spirit herbs."

"I picked all of these myself from the mountains. Take whatever you like."

He immediately tossed a storage pouch to Long Xuan, wearing a flattering smile as though afraid Long Xuan would run away.

One look at him was enough for Long Xuan to know that this man must be exceptionally fond of Cockroach Gu.

With muscles bulging all over his body and scars covering his face, he was clearly the sort who liked to charge headfirst into battle with his fleshly body. Injuries had become commonplace for him, and he often lingered at death's door. Naturally, Cockroach Gu would become the favorite of people like him.

The cost of raising Cockroach Gu was simply too low, and Long Xuan still had quite a few in his Insect-Rearing Pouch.

So he casually accepted the burly man's storage pouch and checked it, only to find that it was filled with all kinds of spirit herbs.

By coincidence, the three spirit herbs he had been planning to search for were all inside, and there were quite a few of them. Truly, he had worn out iron shoes searching everywhere, only to find them without the slightest effort.

Delight appeared on Long Xuan's face. He poured every spirit herb from that storage pouch into his own, not leaving behind a single stalk. Then he tossed the utterly empty storage pouch back to the burly man, followed closely by a small bottle containing Cockroach Gu.

By the time Long Xuan returned from the market, it was already late at night. Quite a few people had wanted to trade with him for Cockroach Gu, and poor Rogue Cultivators especially loved haggling, so he had been delayed.

Still, his gains were gratifying. Refining the Eye of Heavenly Secrets had previously drained his little treasury dry, but selling a batch of Cockroach Gu had finally restored a fair amount of his funds.

He could see it clearly now: the new project, Divine Ice Flame, was absolutely a resource-devouring monster. If he truly wanted to refine Divine Ice Flame, the materials it consumed would probably amount to an astronomical number. He had no choice but to save Spirit Stones as quickly as possible and prepare in advance.

Although it was already deep into the night, he had gathered all the materials for refining Hundred Flower Pills. Everything was ready save the east wind; he could now attempt pill refinement for the first time.

He was completely fired up right now, his heart itching with anticipation. How could he possibly sleep without refining a batch of pills first?

Thus, Long Xuan decisively took out the pill furnace and placed it on the ground, beginning his first pill refinement in his life.

After constantly observing Old Long, he might not know how to refine other pills, but he had thoroughly learned how to refine Hundred Flower Pills.

Hundred Flower Pills required a full hundred portions of spirit flowers as ingredients. With such an enormous amount of material, the spiritual pills produced would naturally be anything but ordinary. There was no need to think about it—their medicinal potency would definitely be first-rate.

Following the method he had secretly learned from Old Long, Long Xuan mobilized his dual fire and wood attributes. Wood below, fire above, he kindled a wisp of flame in his palm.

To become a pill refiner, one had to meet three requirements. First, one needed both fire and wood attributes. Second, one's innate soul had to be powerful. Third, one's control over fire spiritual power had to be precise enough.

Those three restrictions were enough to block the vast majority of people in this world outside the gates of pill refinement. Fewer than one in ten thousand possessed the aptitude to become a pill refiner.

Such harsh conditions were also why pill refiners were so exceedingly rare in this world, granting them incomparably noble status.

Long Xuan naturally met those requirements, and he exceeded them by far.

His cultivation aptitude was abysmal, but his pill-refining aptitude was absolutely that of a genius.

When Heaven closed one door, it often opened a window for you.

Long Xuan's soul was naturally not yet strong enough to lift a pill furnace, so he could only slowly set it on the ground.

Then he controlled the flame in his palm and sent it flying. Under the control of his soul power, it landed beneath the pill furnace and began heating it.

The first step of pill refinement was to use high temperatures to remove the impurities from spirit herbs, taking their essence and discarding their dregs.

Most of the substances within spirit herbs were useless. A pill refiner needed extremely fine control over the flames, burning away the impurities while leaving only the essence of the medicinal liquid.

Achieving this was exceedingly, exceedingly difficult. If the temperature was too low, the impurities would liquefy and completely blend with the essence. If it was too high, both impurities and essence would burn away together. Burning away the impurities without destroying the essence was even harder still.

Even more outrageous was that different spirit herbs required different temperatures. Even the same kind of spirit herb could have subtle differences, and the same herb required the temperature to change constantly at different stages. This was practically enough to drive someone to death.

This first step alone stumped the overwhelming majority of pill refiners. Those capable of completing it were few and far between.

Even Old Long, despite his abundant experience, often burned up spirit herbs while extracting them, wasting precious herbs for nothing.

Therefore, Long Xuan deeply understood the difficulty of this step. He decided to be careful, careful, and careful again, concentrating all his attention without allowing the slightest lapse.

After adjusting his condition, he saw that the pill furnace had warmed up and casually grabbed a spirit herb, tossing it inside.

However, just as he was preparing to increase the heat, something that stunned him happened.

A purification progress indicator actually appeared on the pill furnace. It was currently at 0%.

Long Xuan drew a deep breath, finding it hard to believe.

Only then did he recall that something similar had happened when he first refined Gu.

The progress displayed by his golden finger apparently was not limited to dead things and living things. It also included whatever task he was currently carrying out.

For example, if he was refining Gu, it would display Gu-refining progress. If he was purifying spirit herbs, it would display purification progress. Even during the final pill-refining step later, it would probably display pill-refining progress.

With that, the upper limit of his golden finger had risen once more. Long Xuan was excited beyond measure.

Thus, the purification step, which was incredibly difficult in others' eyes, changed completely when it came to Long Xuan.

He could clearly see the purification progress. If it rose steadily, that proved his operation was correct, and all he had to do was maintain it.

If the progress suddenly changed drastically or even disappeared, that proved his operation was wrong, and he had to adjust the heat as quickly as possible.

With an error prompt like that, wouldn't purifying spirit herbs be as easy as turning his hand over for Long Xuan?

What followed unfolded without the slightest surprise.

What others considered an insurmountable challenge was exceptionally simple in Long Xuan's eyes.

As a novice extracting spirit herbs for the first time, not only did he make no mistakes, he succeeded with ease. Would you dare believe it?

If other pill-refining apprentices learned of this, who knew what they would think.

Staring blankly at the spirit-herb essence he had poured into a medicine bottle, Long Xuan was lost in thought, as though he were dreaming.

That was it?