Apart from a difficult stretch at the very beginning, Xiao Yan soon found himself at leisure again. Refining pills over such a long period also helped consolidate his spiritual power, so he was not particularly opposed to this kind of life. Of course, making him work day and night like some scab laborer was absolutely out of the question.
Besides, as an Earthling, Xiao Yan understood scarcity marketing. With demand for Grandmaster-Level Spiritual Pills so high, he had even less reason to supply enough to satisfy it. As the saying went, rarity made things precious. If Grandmaster-Level Spiritual Pills were as commonplace as ordinary spiritual pills, their prices would never have been so staggering.
Once he had some free time, Xiao Yan settled down to develop his own Pill Formula. Back on the Dou Qi Continent, Yao Lao had once told him that any high-level Alchemist was bound to have formulas of his own creation. If someone only knew how to pick up the scraps of wisdom left between their predecessors' teeth, rather than inventing anything themselves, they would never get far.
Xiao Yan wholeheartedly agreed. After all, something he created himself would always suit him better than someone else's work. Moreover, with his current strength, he could actually refine high-grade Grandmaster-Level Spiritual Pills. Unfortunately, he had no suitable Pill Formula on hand, so his only option was to find a way to create one himself.
When Qingtan came calling, she found Xiao Yan sitting before a Medicine Cauldron, with countless jade bottles in front of him. Discarded sheets covered in lists of medicinal herbs lay scattered carelessly across the floor. Clearly, these were all failed attempts from his work on a Pill Formula. When he saw Qingtan, he merely glanced up before lowering his head and returning to his