Chapter 23: A Different Path — Forging Pills with Sword Intent

Elder Qiao looked at Lin Xiao with a puzzled expression.

An unreasonable request?!

Lu Mingyue was equally baffled. Her master was about to begin refining the third batch — whatever it was, couldn't it wait until he was done?

Of all things, Alchemy demanded absolute freedom from interruption.

"Junior Brother Lin Xiao, now really isn't the time to be talking," Lu Mingyue whispered in warning.

"It's fine. Go ahead, little one — what's this unreasonable request of yours?" Elder Qiao's expression remained calm, showing no sign of reproach.

Lin Xiao glanced at the pill furnace and spoke. "Elder Qiao, would it be possible for me to try refining the third batch?"

The moment those words left his mouth, the room fell completely silent.

Both master and disciple stared at him with utterly blank expressions.

What?!

What on earth was this kid saying?

What was Junior Brother Lin Xiao saying?

He wanted to try refining pills? Using the materials for the premium-grade Ascension Vitality Pills, no less?

Had he lost his mind?!

Lu Mingyue grew anxious. Why had Junior Brother Lin Xiao suddenly said something so absurd?

Refining premium-grade Ascension Vitality Pills required the skill of a true Alchemist.

And even for a proper Alchemist attempting this batch, whether even a single premium-grade pill would emerge from the furnace was far from certain.

With good luck and practiced technique, one might manage to produce a premium-grade pill.

With bad luck, the entire batch of materials would be ruined.

Alchemy was like cultivation — a hair's breadth of difference could lead to a thousand miles of error.

At best, the materials would be reduced to nothing. At worst, the furnace itself would explode.

Elder Qiao held back Lu Mingyue, who had been about to speak up for Lin Xiao, and turned to look at the boy. "Little one, have you ever studied Alchemy?"

"I haven't. But after watching you refine two batches, Elder Qiao, something stirred within me — so I'd like to try it with my own hands." Lin Xiao shook his head as he replied.

Elder Qiao's eyes drooped slightly, his brow furrowing just a little.

Lu Mingyue desperately wanted to explain on Lin Xiao's behalf, yet couldn't find the words to begin.

Junior Brother Lin Xiao, how could you be so foolish!

Alchemy is no child's play — how could you show such disregard for it in front of Master?

Beside them, Elder Qiao studied Lin Xiao for a long moment.

Something felt off to him.

If this kid hadn't been sent by that old fellow Mu, he would have thrown him out on the spot for saying something like that.

But knowing old Mu's temperament, why would he send this boy here to collect pills for no reason at all?

Was there something behind this that he hadn't considered?

Or was there a deeper meaning to it?!

After a moment's hesitation, Elder Qiao spoke.

"Then give it a try." With that, Elder Qiao stepped back a few paces, clearing the space at the furnace for Lin Xiao.

There were four essentials to Alchemy: materials, the furnace, fire, and technique.

The materials and furnace were already prepared.

The flame inside the furnace, however, had to be controlled by the alchemist using their own Spiritual Energy.

He wanted to see how this kid would start the fire.

An expert's eye cuts straight to the heart of the matter.

One look at how the boy controlled the flame would tell him everything he needed to know.

Lin Xiao wasted no time and stepped up to the pill furnace.

He genuinely wanted to try.

Since he had never touched Alchemy before, he had spent the entire time watching Elder Qiao refine the two batches with his full attention focused through the small vents of the furnace, observing the changes happening inside.

As he understood it, Alchemy was simply a matter of extracting the needed components from the materials one by one, then fusing them, refining them, and finally condensing them into a pill.

That sounded remarkably similar to modern pharmaceutical manufacturing back on Earth.

With that thought in mind, Lin Xiao moved.

The spirit sword behind him flew from its sheath into his hand.

Whoosh!

"Spark Ignites the Prairie!"

Nearly a hundred streaks of crimson Sword Qi burst from the blade and shot into the pill furnace.

In an instant, the fire inside the furnace surged and the temperature spiked dramatically.

Elder Qiao was stunned.

Lu Mingyue was stunned.

"????"

What in the world?!

Igniting the fire with Sword Qi?

That actually worked?

But a flame like that was wild and explosive — there was no way to control it, surely.

Lin Xiao's very first step had already left the master and disciple dumbstruck.

As for Lin Xiao himself, his expression had become one of intense focus. In his eyes, there was only the pill furnace — he hadn't noticed the pair's reactions at all.

Once the fire had built to a sufficient level, Lin Xiao moved to the next step. He simply gathered all the materials in front of him and dumped every single one of them into the furnace at once.

"Junior Brother Lin Xiao, you—!" Lu Mingyue was stunned again.

"Little one, you—!" Elder Qiao was equally so.

That was enough!

These materials were all extraordinarily valuable, and wasting them was the one thing he despised most.

He raised his hand, ready to put a stop to this nonsense.

But just at that moment, Lin Xiao slashed at the pill furnace through the air once more.

A surge of vast, razor-sharp power suddenly bored into the furnace.

Elder Qiao's raised hand froze in midair.

"Sword Intent?! Twenty percent Sword Intent?! Holy shit!!" Elder Qiao cried out involuntarily.

To comprehend twenty percent of Sword Intent at the fourth stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm—

When had Sword Demon Sect ever produced a monstrous Sword Cultivator like this?!

Snapping out of his daze a moment later, Elder Qiao also noticed something unusual happening inside the furnace.

He extended his divine sense through the small vents of the furnace to take a look.

And when he did—

His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

The materials had fused?!

Only a few minutes had passed — how had they already fused?

What about the extraction and refinement steps?

What about the impurities in the materials?

Elder Qiao watched in silence for what felt like an eternity.

"Little one, your approach to Alchemy is utterly unconventional — I've never seen anything like it. That said, to successfully refine pills using a method like this would likely require hundreds or even thousands of attempts before…"

Elder Qiao trailed off with a sigh, stopping short of an outright dismissal.

As a seventh-rank Alchemist, he could vaguely sense that the pill-refining method Lin Xiao had invented on the spot did carry a certain logic to it.

It might be an unorthodox shortcut of sorts — but whether it was truly viable would require extensive trial and error to determine.

Elder Qiao added a few more words of encouragement, saying that if Lin Xiao was genuinely interested in Alchemy, he could offer some guidance.

Just then, the pill furnace gave a sudden, violent shudder — and then all reaction ceased. The flame within was extinguished along with it.

A wisp of pale smoke drifted slowly from the top of the furnace.

"For a first attempt at Alchemy, failure is perfectly normal, so… Hm?!"

Elder Qiao's words caught in his throat.

Because he had caught the scent of an extraordinarily familiar pill fragrance.

"The pills… succeeded?!" he asked Lin Xiao in astonished disbelief.

Lin Xiao looked somewhat uncertain. "I'm not sure."

He had done everything he thought he should, but this was his first time — he had absolutely no experience to draw on.

He genuinely didn't know whether this counted as a success or a failure.

"Then open the furnace."

"Alright!"

Lin Xiao stepped forward and opened the pill furnace.

In an instant, a fresh and rich pill fragrance flooded the entire room.

All three of them craned their necks to peer inside.

There, ten translucent orbs lay quietly within — clear as glass, like natural spirit jade given form.

"Heavens!! Master — these, these are all premium-grade Ascension Vitality Pills — a full ten of them!!" Lu Mingyue covered her mouth, unable to hold back a cry of astonishment.