Five days later.
Late at night, the moon shone bright amid sparse stars, and all was silent.
"Whew..."
Inside his grade-D cave abode, Lin Changheng swallowed the remaining low-grade [Blood-Replenishing Pill]. After refining it, he barely replenished his depleted blood essence.
But the little square box in his hand was now completely empty.
"One low-grade [Blood-Replenishing Pill] costs two spirit stones. That's an extra twenty-four spirit stones a year spent on nothing else."
"Besides fixed allotments of spirit rice and spirit tea, the Xu Family provides three low-grade spirit stones each month, along with one monthly batch of ingredients for [Crimson Flame Pills]."
The Xu Family had carefully assessed and calculated these resources. They were certainly sufficient to cover everyday cultivation needs.
For Lin Changheng, they were exceptionally generous as well. An alchemy apprentice's labor could never earn him so much.
The trouble lay in the expense of [Blood-Replenishing Pills], which left him strapped for funds and short of cultivation resources. Every so often, he even had to spare some [alchemy ingredients] to trade for spirit sand.
During those first few years, Lin Changheng had known he had no chance of successfully refining pills, so he had used the ingredients to supplement his expenses.
"No wonder I've struggled to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining. This factor can't be overlooked either."
It was a chain of cascading negative effects.
Each link interlocked with the next, weaving an immense, impenetrable net that descended over his head.
"This time, I must break through! And I certainly can!"
Lin Changheng had advanced in his cultivation art and replenished his blood essence. Now he also felt a sudden, inexplicable stirring deep within.
It was the sense that an opportunity for a breakthrough had arrived.
The cultivation bottleneck that had held him back for so long was finally ready to break!
Lin Changheng immediately took out one of his two spirit stones and held it in his hand, circulating the "Flowing Flame Art" at the same time.
Then he crushed it with a forceful squeeze. Spiritual energy spilled out, and a sudden suction burst from his palm, drawing all of it into his body.
Time slowly passed.
Eyes closed, Lin Changheng sat cross-legged on his meditation cushion, his breathing steady throughout. The spiritual energy within him had already gathered into a little river, flowing ceaselessly and surging through his qi channels.
The "Flowing Flame Art" circulated more smoothly than ever, without the slightest obstruction. His spiritual energy was being refined into magical power faster and more efficiently.
The effects of the [first-tier origin treasure seed] were revealing themselves here!
As the circulation continued without pause, the spiritual energy transformed strand by strand into magical power, sinking into his dantian like smoke and mist.
His dantian grew ever fuller.
The fuller it became, the steadier his mind grew, calm and unruffled, neither anxious nor impatient.
At last, Lin Changheng faintly sensed that he had reached a critical threshold.
Crack!
There seemed to be a sound, yet in truth there was none.
Lin Changheng's mind remained still as water. Only after completely refining the scant spiritual energy left in the shattered spirit stone into his body did he slowly bring his cultivation to a close.
He opened his eyes.
There was no joy at having broken through, only the composure of someone for whom it was only natural.
The third layer of Qi Refining!
Having achieved his breakthrough, Lin Changheng briefly examined himself. His maximum magical power had surged by more than fifty percent.
Not only could he cast low-level spells two more times, but he would no longer have to worry so much about running out of magical power midway through pill refinement.
Everything was taking a turn for the better.
He rose to his feet and pushed open the window. Frost-white moonlight blanketed the courtyard.
He could not help chuckling softly.
"All that came before was merely a little wind and frost."
Another three days passed.
Early that morning, Lin Changheng had only just stepped into the shop when a clan member doing odd jobs came up to him.
"Brother Lin, Guest Elder Mo wants to see you."
Lin Changheng went straight up to the second floor.
To the left was a reception room; to the right was a secluded cultivation chamber reserved exclusively for Master Mo.
"Master Mo, you wanted to see me?"
Lin Changheng entered the reception room and found it empty. Two long wooden boxes sat on the tea table before the seat of honor. At the sight of them, his pupils immediately contracted slightly.
These are...
"Good. Have a seat first."
With those words, an aged voice rang out as Master Mo emerged from the cultivation chamber and sat in the seat of honor.
"Please give me your instructions." Thirty years of wasted effort had taught Lin Changheng exactly how to conduct himself.
Master Mo reached out and pushed the two long wooden boxes forward. They shot toward Lin Changheng, who caught them in both hands.
"Didn't I speak to you a few days ago about inferior and failed pills?"
Lin Changheng nodded at the appropriate moment without interrupting. Inwardly, however, he had already formed a guess, and excitement began to stir.
"Disposing of failed and inferior pills was originally Xu Hanzhou's responsibility. But since he has returned to the clan, I can only have you take over."
"After all, you two are the only people I can trust who are also capable of the task."
Lin Changheng immediately mustered an excited expression. "I will not fail the trust you've placed in me, Master Mo."
Next, Master Mo handed him an old booklet. "This contains the methods for processing inferior and failed pills. Take it and study it. Return it to me once you've learned them."
"These pills must be processed within two days. Afterward, deliver them to the Li Family Spiritual Meat Shop on the eastern side of the market, hand them to the shopkeeper, and settle the payment on the spot."
Having finished his brief instructions, he waved to indicate that Lin Changheng could leave.
"Yes!"
Clutching the old booklet and hugging the two long wooden boxes tightly against his chest, Lin Changheng left, his heart burning with excitement.
The furnace in the rear courtyard's pill room would not be lit that day. No one would come, leaving the place pleasantly quiet.
Lin Changheng set the old booklet aside and first picked up the two long wooden boxes.
The boxes were made of pearwood and were quite heavy. They could greatly slow the dissipation of medicinal potency and were commonly used to store low-tier pills.
Precious pills would instead be stored in specially made jade bottles, or a [Spirit-Locking Talisman] would be affixed to the wooden box to reduce the loss of potency to almost nothing.
He opened the wooden boxes one after another.
He found that each box had twenty pill slots, making forty across the two.
Only twelve slots were empty, and every pill bore crimson cloud patterns on its surface.
[Crimson Flame Pills]!
A full twenty-eight of them!
They were probably a month's worth of failed and inferior pills.
Although he did not know why there were no Wood Origin Pills, Lin Changheng could not spare the attention to dwell on it.
He reached out and touched a pill. The [Origin Cauldron], which stood quietly within his sea of consciousness, immediately reacted, azure radiance roiling above its mouth!
"It really works!"
With his suspicion confirmed, Lin Changheng could hardly suppress the curve of his lips.
"Twenty-eight pills. I wonder how much spiritual essence I can seize?"
Despite that thought, Lin Changheng did not act rashly. Instead, he began reading the old booklet on processing failed and inferior pills.
Half a cup of tea's worth of time later.
Lin Changheng slowly closed the old booklet, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.
According to the booklet,
Failed pills were easy to process. He only needed to crush them, burn them thoroughly to ash, and then collect the ashes.
They would be sent back to the clan each year and scattered into the Blackwater River, where they would turn into black mud to nourish the grass.
Inferior pills were much more troublesome. An extremely inexpensive neutralization method had to be used to permeate the pills and dissolve most of their pill toxins, forming substances harmful to humans but harmless to beasts. The pills would then be cut up and sold.
I can absorb all the blood essence in the failed pills, but I must take only a portion from the inferior ones. I can't drain them completely, or I might expose myself...