I finally succeeded

Still, there was no denying that Su Tian's talent for alchemy was the finest Qing Mu had seen in all his years.

The greater his talent, the more help he will be to me in that matter in the future.

As he watched Su Tian lying on the ground like a puddle of mud, a strange glint flashed through Qing Mu's eyes, then swiftly vanished.

Su Tian did not notice anything unusual about Qing Mu.

At that moment, Su Tian felt utterly drained, as though an intense, aching numbness was spreading through him from the inside out.

"Cultivating at a time like this yields the best results."

Just then, a familiar sentence suddenly surfaced in Su Tian's mind.

Su Tian froze for a moment, then quickly understood.

Those were the words of advice Yao Lao had given Xiao Yan in the novel when he had exhausted all his Dou Qi refining medicine.

Thinking of those words, Su Tian found himself torn.

Yao Lao's words certainly made sense.

No expert had achieved greatness in an instant. Only after enduring countless trials could they stand at the summit of the Dou Qi Continent and look down upon all other mighty contenders!

Thus, as Su Tian lay sprawled on the ground like mud, laziness and diligence waged a fierce battle in his mind.

A moment later, Su Tian let out a long sigh. Looking thoroughly reluctant, he endured the aching numbness throughout his body and sat up with a grimace.

After crossing his legs, Su Tian raised his slightly trembling hands and formed the hand seal for cultivation. He took a deep breath, then slowly closed his eyes.

In his previous life, Su Tian had always been diligent and eager to learn, and his grades had been outstanding.

Although he had now arrived in an unfamiliar world, his character had not changed much.

After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, Su Tian still felt deeply resigned, but his body soon entered a state of cultivation.

"Whew..."

A moment later, Su Tian's breathing gradually steadied. His chest rose and fell as faint streams of energy entered his body with each breath, constantly replenishing his depleted Dou Qi.

Qing Mu happened to look up from beside him. Seeing what Su Tian was doing, he could not help freezing for a moment.

"This little fellow... no wonder he reached the One-Star Great Dou Master realm at such a young age. Talent is important, of course, but without such unwavering perseverance, he probably would never have accomplished this much."

At that moment, Qing Mu gained a new appreciation for Su Tian.

After giving Su Tian a long look, Qing Mu turned his gaze to the dozen or so Jade Boxes arranged before the Medicine Cauldron.

The Jade Boxes were filled with the pale white powder Su Tian had painstakingly extracted from the Blood-Clotting Branch. These were, naturally, the fruits of his earlier efforts.

Qing Mu nodded, looking over them from left to right.

The pale white powder in the Jade Boxes grew progressively whiter. By the final Jade Box, the powder was almost pure white.

Clearly, Su Tian had refined the Blood-Clotting Branch to perfection.

Before this, Su Tian had possessed no experience whatsoever in refining medicine. These results were enough to demonstrate just how much progress he had made during his first attempt at learning alchemy.

Even Qing Mu could not help nodding in amazement, inwardly admiring the exceptionally keen soul perception Su Tian had displayed.

"This was only his first attempt at refining medicine. I never imagined he could refine Blood-Clotting Branch to this degree in so little time."

Qing Mu gave a wry chuckle, his gaze complicated as he looked at Su Tian.

"Although Blood-Clotting Branch is not particularly rare, its medicinal properties make it exceptionally resistant to fire. Most beginners find it difficult to achieve this in such a short time."

Recalling his own first encounter with alchemy, Qing Mu remembered that it had taken him nearly half a month to refine an ingredient to this degree.

The comparison only made Su Tian's astonishing talent for alchemy stand out all the more.

"Ah, it seems I truly have grown old. This world will belong to the young from now on."

Glancing at Su Tian, who was immersed in cultivation and replenishing his Dou Qi, Qing Mu shook his head with a wry smile. Then he leaned against the wall behind him and leisurely closed his eyes, as though sinking into old memories.

Su Tian's medicine refining had only just begun.

After all, Su Tian had only extracted the first ingredient. Several more still awaited his efforts...

After nearly an hour of resting with his eyes closed, the vortex inside Su Tian, which had dimmed after all his Dou Qi was exhausted, finally shone brightly again.

On closer inspection, its glow seemed a little brighter than it had been a few hours earlier.

"Whew..."

Su Tian slowly opened his eyes. Most of the aching numbness throughout his body had now faded.

Gently twisting his neck, Su Tian let out a long breath. A wave of relief washed over him, and his bones shifted with a series of crisp cracks.

"Have you recovered?"

Seemingly sensing the change in Su Tian's aura, Qing Mu opened his eyes. Seeing Su Tian brimming with vigor again, he smiled faintly.

"Since you've recovered, prepare to continue."

Hearing this, Su Tian looked at Qing Mu, who was leaning against the wall with a teasing expression. He could only shake his head with a wry smile, but he did not refuse.

After that earlier, undeniably painful process, Su Tian had gained a profound understanding of what refining medicine entailed.

In his earlier fantasies, refining medicine involved nothing more than summoning a flame, tossing in a few required herbs, and casually heating them for a while. Then a pill that countless people would go mad for would emerge.

But when he actually tried it himself, Su Tian finally realized he had been too naive. He had imagined things far too simply.

Refining medicine was even harder than hauling bricks at a construction site during his vacations.

Even so, Su Tian could only accept reality with resignation. Understanding this now was clearly a little too late.

After all, Su Tian still wanted to use this path to give himself more bargaining chips and preserve his life.

Su Tian sighed in frustration, then sat upright before the Medicine Cauldron again and resumed extracting the remaining medicinal ingredients.

However, with the experience he had gained from extracting the Blood-Clotting Branch, Su Tian clearly found refining the other herbs much easier than he had at the beginning.

Putting his earlier experience to use, Su Tian burned six vitality fruits, eight stalks of breath-channeling grass, and ten poppy flowers before finally extracting from those three herbs the ingredients needed for the healing medicine Qing Mu had prescribed.

What he extracted from the vitality fruits consisted of tiny, somewhat blackish granules that promoted blood circulation and dispersed bruising.

When experienced mercenaries were injured in the wilderness without enough healing medicine on hand, they would often gather vitality fruits, crush them into granules, and apply them to their wounds to lessen the injury.

As for the breath-channeling grass, its extract was a slightly yellow substance resembling finely shredded grass.

This substance cleared blockages and relieved stagnation, dispersing stagnant energy within the body. Taking it after an injury helped Dou Qi circulate smoothly.

The extract from the poppy flowers was a pale red liquid. It numbed the nerves and could be used to relieve pain and provide sedation.

Looking at the four extracted medicinal ingredients Su Tian had neatly arranged before him, Qing Mu nodded lightly and spoke in a low voice.

"Good. All the ingredients required for the prescription I gave you have now been extracted."

Qing Mu paused briefly and looked at Su Tian's expectant face. With a faint smile, he said, "If you're ready, fully merge their medicinal properties now. Remember, this is the most critical and important step in refining medicine!"

Seeing Qing Mu's solemn gaze, Su Tian took a deep breath, suppressing his nervous excitement, and nodded gravely.

"Rise!"

Su Tian raised his right hand with a low shout. He gathered the pile of pure white powder into his hand, then deftly tossed it into the Medicine Cauldron, where flames were dancing.

The moment the pure white powder entered the Medicine Cauldron, the flames surged over it.

Su Tian remained calm. His soul perception firmly enveloped the inside of the Medicine Cauldron as he suppressed the flame's temperature and heated the powder gently for nearly ten minutes. Once the pure white powder began to turn faintly red, he swiftly poured in the liquid extracted from the poppy flowers.

The instant the liquid entered the Medicine Cauldron, it completely enveloped the pure white powder under Su Tian's control.

As the two combined, Su Tian carefully controlled the changes in the flame's temperature with his soul perception. After the liquid surrounding the pure white powder churned briefly within the flames, the two gradually merged before his eyes into a pale red, viscous liquid.

Watching the change inside the Medicine Cauldron, Su Tian breathed a sigh of relief.

However, this was not yet the final stage. Su Tian still did not dare relax in the slightest, using his soul perception to carefully control the flame's temperature as he slowly heated the pale red, viscous liquid.

During medicine refining, the temperature of the flame played a crucial role in merging and refining the ingredients.

If the temperature became either too high or too low, the refinement would fail.

Thus, Su Tian kept himself utterly focused, carefully sensing every change inside the Medicine Cauldron.

"Pfft..."

Just as everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly and Su Tian was about to relax his mind a little, a dull sound suddenly came from inside the Medicine Cauldron.

The flame's temperature had risen slightly, exceeding what the pale red, viscous liquid could withstand and scorching it into a pile of pitch-black ash.

At the sight, Su Tian's expression turned ugly.

My soul perception only fluctuated a little, but that raised the flame's temperature beyond the medicine's limit and ruined it.

Su Tian took a deep breath, calmed his irritation, and carefully reflected on the lesson of this failure.

"Remember, you must not be impatient when refining medicine. Keep your mind steady and use your soul perception to its fullest."

Qing Mu slowly walked over to Su Tian's side. Glancing at the black ash inside the Medicine Cauldron, he spoke evenly.

"Every medicinal herb has a different tolerance for heat. You must learn to control the temperature of the flame anywhere within the Medicine Cauldron at will. For herbs that need low temperatures, use your soul perception to suppress the flames. For those that need high temperatures, ease that suppression and raise the heat..."

"Thank you, Senior Qing Mu. I'll remember that."

Su Tian fell silent for a moment, then nodded firmly, determination shining in his eyes. He took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and began refining the prescription again.

Tossing all the substances extracted from the Blood-Clotting Branch and poppy flowers into the Medicine Cauldron, Su Tian instantly unleashed his soul perception, enveloping every part of its interior.

With the lesson of his earlier failure in mind, Su Tian did not dare rush again. He patiently waited for the two ingredients to merge.

Once the two ingredients became a pale red, viscous liquid again under the constant heat, Su Tian's eyes flashed. With a sweep of his right hand, he tossed in the shreds extracted from the breath-channeling grass.

Whoosh!

The instant the grass shreds entered, the flames swept over them. Under Su Tian's control, they gradually merged with the pale red, viscous liquid.

Su Tian stared intently at the ingredients through the Medicine Cauldron's transparent viewing window, barely daring to breathe for fear of repeating his earlier mistake.

Watching the pale red, viscous liquid gradually turn into a dark red paste after the Breath-Channeling Grass shreds were added, Su Tian hesitated briefly. Then he swept his hand out and tossed all the tiny black granules extracted from the vitality fruits into the Medicine Cauldron.

At first, nothing happened to the tiny black granules after they entered the Medicine Cauldron. The mass of granules kept dancing in the flames, refusing to merge with the dark red paste.

I refuse to believe I can't get you under control!

Seeing the ingredients refusing to merge inside the Medicine Cauldron, Su Tian knitted his brows and snorted inwardly.

Closing his eyes slightly, Su Tian recalled Qing Mu's earlier words.

Different herbs have different tolerances for heat?

At that thought, Su Tian quickly separated out a strand of soul perception, carefully using it to control the flames surrounding the tiny black granules and slowly increase their temperature.

Whoomph!

As his soul perception eased its suppression of the temperature, a tongue of flame suddenly surged up out of control. Just as it was about to burn the tiny granules to ash, Su Tian's heart jolted, and he hurriedly suppressed it with all his might.

Meanwhile, his soul perception had to struggle to maintain the flame's temperature in one area while increasing it in another.

Dividing his attention like this left Su Tian's head spinning.

After several frantic bouts of fumbling, however, Su Tian finally began to get the hang of it and gradually stabilized the situation inside the Medicine Cauldron. He poured all his remaining Dou Qi into its flame inlet.

The tiny granules inside the Medicine Cauldron finally could no longer withstand the steadily rising temperature. With a crack, they burst one after another into heaps of dark powder. Under Su Tian's control, the powder slowly merged with the dark red paste, deepening its color.

"Whew..."

Only after the final pinch of dark powder drifted into the mixture could Su Tian finally let out a long breath. He withdrew his palm from the flame inlet, and the flames inside the Medicine Cauldron slowly died out.

Although exhausted in both body and mind, Su Tian's face was alight with wild delight. He hurriedly stood, took a deep breath, and swept his hand out.

Clack!

The Medicine Cauldron's lid suddenly flew up and fell to the ground. The large mass of reddish-black paste within shot into the air before landing in Su Tian's hand.

Feeling the lingering warmth of the large mass of reddish-black paste, Su Tian's grin grew wider and wider.

Finally, it erupted into laughter that rang endlessly through the air.

"Hahahaha! I finally succeeded! From now on, I count as a distinguished Alchemist too!"

Seeing Su Tian lose his composure like this, Qing Mu did not interrupt him. He merely smiled faintly, as though seeing his younger self in Su Tian.

System, system! I've completed the check-in task! I've become a First-Rank Alchemist!

In excellent spirits, Su Tian came back to himself and hurriedly called out to the system in his mind.

Yet no matter how Su Tian addressed it, no reply from the system sounded in his mind.

What is this supposed to mean? Damn you, system! Are you messing with me again?