After the wedding banquet ended, Zhou Xun sought out Wang Erniu alone and gave him a copy of The Art of the Bedchamber.
It made Wang Erniu blush furiously.
Seeing this, Zhou Xun threw back his head and laughed before leaving.
After Wang Erniu got married, he moved out of Zhou Xun's Alchemy Room.
As the Lin family's son-in-law, he naturally could not be slighted.
He was assigned an advanced Alchemy Room of his own, something only genuine Pill Refinement Masters were qualified to use.
And thanks to Warden Lin's arrangements, no newcomer moved into Zhou Xun's room either. Thus, Zhou Xun was able to have an Alchemy Room all to himself.
This left everyone else green with envy.
Time flowed on, and four months passed in the blink of an eye.
During this time, they learned all the fundamental theory behind refining basic pills.
Next came practical operation.
The one responsible for guiding them was Miss Lin herself.
This time, they were refining Pigu Pills.
The method for refining Pigu Pills was simple, and the materials were cheap.
Spirit rice—even Spirit Grain Bran—could be used as the primary ingredient.
It was well suited for beginners to practice with.
Inside the Alchemy Room, Zhou Xun sat before an ancient bronze alchemy furnace.
He held a token used to control the earthfire.
Slowly channeling Spirit Energy into the token, he caused scarlet flames to surge up. This was the first step of pill refinement: warming the furnace.
Next came processing the materials. He carefully took out a large bag of spirit rice and slowly tossed handful after handful into the pill refining furnace at a measured pace.
Refined by the flames, the spirit rice released a unique fragrance that permeated the air, refreshing both heart and mind.
Gradually, the flames within the furnace began to change, turning from red to pale red, then from pale red to golden yellow. Every shift in color represented a change in temperature, an exceedingly important stage in pill refinement.
The final step was condensation and pill collection.
Zhou Xun formed Mystic Gestures with both hands, chanting under his breath.
This was the most common pill-condensing technique, suitable for refining basic pills.
A Mystic Gesture struck the alchemy furnace, and the medicinal liquid formed from the spirit rice swiftly began taking shape.
The medicinal liquid divided into nine portions, gathering together and gradually wrapping into spheres.
Soon, the fragrance of pills wafted out. This was a sign that the pills were about to form. By this point, the success rate had already reached ninety percent.
At the very moment the pills were about to form, Zhou Xun seemed to think of something.
He immediately cut off the flow of Spirit Energy into the token.
Without the token's control, the earthfire abruptly surged.
With a soft puff from within the furnace, the pills that were about to take shape instantly scattered and turned into a wisp of green smoke.
The refinement had failed!
Zhou Xun walked out of the Alchemy Room with his head hanging low, looking thoroughly dejected.
By the time he came out, quite a few people were already standing outside, all drooping their heads. Clearly, they had all failed as well.
"It's normal to fail on your first refinement. Brother Zhou, take it easy!" Wei Shangyi came over and comforted Zhou Xun.
"I succeeded!" A delighted cry suddenly rang out.
The door to an Alchemy Room was shoved open with force, and someone emerged holding a dull gray pill in his hand. It was Wang Erniu.
Lin Xueying swept her gaze over it and said blandly:
"Too much pill toxin. It can barely be considered an inferior pill! Still, since this is your first refinement, you can be said to have talent!"
The pills refined by Pill Refinement Masters were generally divided by quality upon leaving the furnace into waste pills, inferior pills, standard pills, and premium pills.
Waste pills were pills that had been completely ruined. Though they retained the shape of pills, they had utterly lost their medicinal effects and could only be discarded as trash.
Inferior pills were low-quality pills. They retained some of their medicinal effect but contained large amounts of pill toxin. They could barely be consumed; these were the kind taken by Rogue Cultivators on the outskirts of Red Leaf Square.
Standard pills were the most common pills sold in major shops. They possessed the complete effects of the pill, while their pill toxin was controlled to an extremely low level.
Premium pills were refined when a Pill Refinement Master performed beyond their usual limits, granting effects that surpassed the pill's original potency.
Take Spirit Gathering Pills, for example, which could help Mid-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators make breakthroughs.
Standard pills generally had a thirty percent chance of breakthrough, while inferior pills had only twenty percent, or even ten percent.
Premium pills, on the other hand, could have a forty or even fifty percent chance.
For Wang Erniu to refine an inferior pill on his first attempt already counted as astonishing talent.
Even Lin Zhishan had produced nothing but waste pills during his first pill refinement.
After everyone came out and Lin Xueying finished answering their questions, she prepared to leave.
"All right, keep practicing from here on. The earthfire in the Alchemy Rooms will remain open at all times!"
"If you have any questions, ask me during the next lesson!" With that, she drifted away.
"Big Brother, I did it!" Wang Erniu still had the temperament of a youth, his face brimming with excitement.
"I never expected you to have such outstanding pill-refining talent too, Erniu!" Zhou Xun was sincerely happy for him.
"Yes, Erniu, you're really incredible!" The others also gathered around, showering him with praise.
They all understood that Wang Erniu would most likely become a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the future.
Wei Shangyi was among this crowd as well.
Now, among the people of Danbao Pavilion, he was utterly unremarkable.
His talent for pill refinement was truly average.
After chatting briefly, everyone dispersed and returned to their Alchemy Rooms to continue practicing.
Zhou Xun took out spirit rice and repeated the previous pill-refining process.
Soon, a fragrance rose.
"Rise!"
A Mystic Gesture shot toward the alchemy furnace.
Before long, the furnace lid flew open on its own, and ten gleaming yellow Pigu Pills flew out, landing precisely in the pill bottle before Zhou Xun.
"Ten standard pills!"
Zhou Xun smiled faintly.
This batch of Pigu Pills had consumed a total of five catties of spirit rice.
He had obtained ten standard Pigu Pills.
A bottle of Pigu Pills containing ten pills sold for over four Spirit Essence.
"Pill refinement truly is a windfall!"
And these were only basic pills.
For cultivation pills such as Qi Induction Pills and Aura Concealing Pills, the profits would be even higher.
Zhou Xun continued refining Pigu Pills.
Every batch produced at least ten pills, and when he occasionally performed beyond his usual limits, he produced eleven.
In a single day, Zhou Xun refined six batches of pills.
There were two reasons he could refine so many.
First, Pigu Pills were simple to refine, with one batch taking only half an hour.
Second, Zhou Xun's divine sense was powerful and his spiritual power enduring, allowing him to keep going longer.
Still, six batches were already his limit.
After one day, he had harvested a total of sixty-two Pigu Pills.
They were worth more than twenty-four Spirit Essence.
After subtracting the cost of ten Spirit Essence, he had earned fourteen Spirit Essence in profit.
If he refined pills like this every day, he would earn four hundred and twenty Spirit Essence in a month.
That was more than ten times the income Zhou Xun had earned at Mystic Talisman Pavilion.
The wealth of a pill master was terrifying indeed!
"I can't let Danbao Pavilion know about my pill refinement yet!"
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