Chapter 12: Cultivation in Full Swing
Fang Yuan inspected the rest of the Pills and found that all of them were upper grade.
With the validation of hands-on experience, he had essentially mastered those alchemy insights.
Adding in the assistance of his Major Mastery Spiritual Sense technique, he estimated that he had already reached the level of a first-tier, upper grade Alchemist.
"Let's keep refining Pills."
This time, Fang Yuan took out the herb powders again and began refining a second batch of Pills.
And this time, the amount of powder he used was three times what he had used before!
Three times the amount of herb powder was fed into the pill furnace.
Under Fang Yuan's Spiritual Sense control, it heated evenly and melted perfectly into pure medicinal liquid.
The liquids were then fused together one by one, forming a combined medicinal solution that quickly turned a pale white under the scorching of the Earth Fire.
"Collect!"
He formed a hand seal with his fingers.
One by one, snow-white Pills streamed out from the furnace mouth and fell into the jade tray, rolling around in circles.
Counting carefully, the total came to 27 Pills!
Ignoring the scorching heat of the Pills, he pressed a finger to the one that looked to be in the finest condition.
[Item]: Qi-Nurturing Pill
[Grade]: First-tier, lower grade (Perfect Supreme)
[Effect]: Contains pure Spiritual Energy, easily absorbed
"I did it!"
Fang Yuan burst out laughing. He had truly refined a Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill!
He inspected the other Pills as well — every single one was upper grade.
Although there was only one Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill, it represented that his skill had reached an extraordinarily high level. In terms of mastery over a single type of Pill, he could already be called a grandmaster!
He turned his gaze inward to his Sea of Consciousness and said with satisfaction, "The Spiritual Sense consumption is twice what it was before, but the output is three times as much — efficiency has improved. Still, this is about the limit; controlling it any further would put me under too much strain."
Three batches of Pills from a single furnace — that was the bonus granted by his Spiritual Sense level. The Minor Yan Nine Truth Art at Major Mastery provided an enormous boost to both Alchemy and Artifact Forging.
Fang Yuan continued refining Pills, this time attempting to refine the mid-grade first-tier Qi-Gathering Pill.
The ingredients were Qi-Gathering Grass powder, Twin-Color Flower powder, ten-year spirit ginseng powder, and spirit water for the refining process.
This refining session was not much different from the previous one.
It was still a matter of fusing three materials together, with the spirit water serving merely as a binding medium to supplement a bit of Spiritual Energy.
When Fang Yuan collected the Pills from the furnace, a full six Pills flew out.
Every single one had reached upper grade!
This already surpassed the level of the two Alchemists recorded in the alchemy journal.
"I can refine upper grade Pills for the Mid Qi Refining Stage — it's time to try refining Qi-Condensing Pills for the Late Qi Refining Stage!"
Fang Yuan's expression stirred with excitement. From the powders he had obtained through decomposition, he located the materials needed for the Qi-Condensing Pill and, following the steps from his accumulated experience, began the refining process.
This time, the refining was considerably more difficult.
The proportions of the various medicinal liquids were vague and unclear, and the state the combined liquid needed to reach was equally uncertain. He could only refine by feel.
When the refining was complete, a total of seven Pills flew out of the furnace and landed on the jade tray — among them were four pitch-black failed Pills and three Pills of a dull grayish-white color.
He pressed his finger to each one in turn.
"Three lower-grade Qi-Condensing Pills."
Fang Yuan shook his head. The quality was far too poor.
"The finished products are subpar, and the efficiency is too low. Besides, I'm only at the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining — I can't even consume them. On top of that, refining them costs a great deal, so it's simply not suitable for me to be refining Qi-Condensing Pills right now."
Fang Yuan turned back to refining Qi-Nurturing Pills and Qi-Gathering Pills.
Although the Qi-Nurturing Pill was a pill for the early stage of Qi Refining, a Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill's potency was not far behind that of a Mid Qi Refining Stage pill, making it perfectly usable for everyday cultivation.
And so Fang Yuan kept on refining Pills.
He continued until his Spiritual Sense was completely exhausted.
In total, he harvested 270 Qi-Nurturing Pills and 30 Qi-Gathering Pills!
"A normal cultivator at the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining could probably refine four or five batches at most. My Spiritual Sense is strong enough, and since the herb powders don't need to have impurities purged, the process is greatly simplified — that's why I was able to refine fifteen batches. Add in a hundred percent success rate and a high pill yield, and my total pill count is probably ten or more times what others could manage."
Fang Yuan felt this was entirely reasonable, and this was still while he was not yet fully Proficient. Once he became more skilled, he might be able to refine even more.
He casually took out a Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill and swallowed it.
The Pill slid into his stomach and rapidly released a massive surge of medicinal power.
In that instant, Fang Yuan's three cultivation techniques activated simultaneously.
Minor Yan Nine Truth Art!
Mingqi Art!
Cloud Body Art!
All three began to refine the medicinal power from the Pill.
A portion was converted into Spiritual Power and channeled into the Dantian; another portion was absorbed by his flesh and blood, strengthening his physical body; and yet another portion was drawn into the Sea of Consciousness to restore and expand his Spiritual Sense.
Ordinarily, a Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill was potent enough to substitute for five days of grueling cultivation at the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining, requiring slow refinement — and more than half of its medicinal power would still dissipate.
But now, with three ravenous consumers inside Fang Yuan's body devouring everything in a frenzy, the medicinal power was effortlessly divided up and consumed entirely.
The increase in Spiritual Power within his Dantian amounted to only about one day's worth of hard cultivation — meaning only twenty percent of the medicinal power had been absorbed there.
Of the remaining eighty percent, fifty percent was absorbed by his flesh and blood, and thirty percent was absorbed by his Sea of Consciousness.
And the Spiritual Power produced by the Mingqi Art would in turn be drawn upon and absorbed by the Sea of Consciousness and the physical body, leaving his Spiritual Power cultivation barely improved — while his Body Tempering cultivation surged dramatically!
"Excellent. This is exactly what I need. The physical body is the foundation; Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Sense are merely the floors built upon it. The stronger the foundation, the faster and better the higher floors can be constructed!"
Fang Yuan's mind was crystal clear. Once the current Pill's power was fully consumed, he took out the second Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill and refined it, not at all concerned about the traces of medicinal power still lingering in his body. Whatever scattered power dissipated would simply dissipate — there was no need to worry about the loss.
The second Qi-Nurturing Pill entered his stomach, and once again a great surge of medicinal power welled up.
Fang Yuan turned his gaze inward and could see that his flesh, blood, and bones were already showing clear cloud patterns throughout.
In particular, on one of his vertebrae, a complete cloud pattern had successfully condensed!
The white cloud seemed to breathe on its own, autonomously absorbing Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Power to strengthen that bone!
Not only on the bones — on the stomach organ as well, a white cloud pattern had appeared, strengthening the stomach and converting more of the Pills' medicinal power into Spiritual Power!
Without realizing it, his Body Tempering cultivation had already reached the Third Layer!
"What an incredible cultivation speed!"
Fang Yuan was astonished.
"At the normal Body Tempering pace for a cultivator, it would take two or three years to go from the early Third Layer to the peak of the Third Layer. But with Pills accelerating the process, one Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill is worth ten days of hard cultivation — theoretically, consuming a hundred Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills would be enough to reach the peak."
This was an extravagantly enormous expense. A single Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill was priced at 500 Low-Grade Spirit Stones — a hundred times the price of a Lower-Grade Qi-Nurturing Pill — and even then it was rarely available for purchase. All told, it was worth 50,000 Spirit Stones. Spending that on Body Tempering at the Third Layer was truly an outrageous luxury.
But for Fang Yuan, all of this was freeloaded — it cost him nothing at all. And that made it very, very satisfying.
Fang Yuan continued swallowing Pills, refining one Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill every ten minutes.
By the time daylight had fully brightened, Fang Yuan had consumed 50 Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills.
His Body Tempering cultivation had reached the late stage of the Third Layer.