Chapter 436: First Pill

Meanwhile, Yi Chen, who was all excited to rush back, paused the moment he stepped outside the sect’s library.

Grumble~

’Well... eating is also important,’ he thought with a wry smile and changed direction the very next moment.

"Looks like I’m early..."

Yi Chen muttered when he entered the dining room to see there were no signs of Qin Yao and the rest, and the meal distribution had just begun.

’I wanted to inform them that I’ll be staying in the pill refining room for the next two weeks if I meet them... Guess I’ll have to do that during dinner.’

With those thoughts, he soon grabbed a sumptuous meal and left the dining hall once he had completely devoured the plate.

Using his movement art, he hurried back to the pill refining room his smile of anticipation growing as he drew closer to his destination.

He had initially been confused as to how he was going to refine a pill with his scattered knowledge, but that was no longer the case, all because of the fact that he had ended up getting his hands on the very book he needed for that to happen.

’Looks like lady luck was on my side this time,’ Yi Chen thought as the smile on his face widened as his rushing figure soon reached the Pill Hall.

"Let’s start then," Yi Chen said with a grin as he latched the door of his pill refining room from inside, and the very next moment the storage ring on his finger glimmered, and a book appeared in his hand.

’Master Guide to Refine Your Very First Pill!’

Reading the title once again, Yi Chen’s mood only brightened as he made his way towards his cauldron; he sat down cross-legged right next to it and started going through the pages of the book eagerly.

Time slowly passed as Yi Chen’s nose became used to the subtle burnt smell continuously coming up from underneath the fire lid.

At first, it had been a little irritating for him, but now it had started to aid him in his concentration as the rate at which the pages were being turned seemed to have increased subtly.

Before long, thirty minutes had completely elapsed and closing the book shut, Yi Chen nodded in satisfaction. During this period, he had been able to go through the entire book twice and was more familiar with the things he needed to do now.

"Although I’ll still need to refer to this guide during the pill refining process for accuracy, it has still helped greatly in increasing my overall confidence..."

He muttered with a smile and got up from the floor the very next moment after massaging his numb legs.

"Let’s go and buy the required herbs then!"

He thought with anticipation and went towards the Herb Store he visited earlier, the Herb Store which he had only glanced at earlier when he was visiting the Item Store to buy the refining apparatus and cauldron.

"Greetings, I’m looking for a Crane’s dried-up feathers, Yellow Stone’s extract, Violet Toad’s Skin oil..." Yi Chen stated the ingredients he needed one after the other to the store owner.

The Herb Store’s owner wasn’t a disciple but was instead an old cultivator hired by the Sect.

He was in the Qi Absorption Stage and seemed to be quite adept when it came to herbs. The moment Yi Chen stated the ingredients he required in order to create the pill, the old man said with a smile,

"So, you’re planning to refine the Sleeping Crane Pill. Not a bad choice for a first refinement." He nodded the next moment and continued, "How many batches of the ingredients do you want me to prepare?"

"Uhm..." Yi Chen thought for a couple of seconds before answering, "Prepare twenty batches for now."

"Alright." The owner nodded with a smile and said, while placing one batch after the other on the counter, "I’ve got several more batches of these with me, so you can come back as many times as you want, as practice leads to perfection, isn’t that right?"

The old man let out a soft chuckle as he finished his words.

"Yes, you’re right." Yi Chen nodded with a subtle smile and finished the transaction using his contribution points.

[Contribution Points: 305]

Glancing at his remaining contribution points, Yi Chen let out a forced smile and took his leave.

’In the morning I had 570 of them with me, and look at it now...’ He let out a sigh while thinking of the five contribution points it had cost him to procure the twenty batches of ingredients.

’Life in a sect sure is expensive... Once these contribution points are finished, I’ll be forced to use my spirit stones for all my transactions...’

Even though he was loaded with spirit stones, just thinking of how many high-grade spirit stones he’ll need to spend on a regular basis from now on just to keep up with his expenses made his heart ache.

If not for the fact that he was banned from taking missions from the Mission Hall for an entire month, his mind wouldn’t be occupied with such useless thoughts.

He was naturally reminded of Huo Xun as a result. If not for that rascal, he wouldn’t have suffered this fate when he had just entered the sect.

"I didn’t catch sight of that bastard since I got out of confinement," Yi Chen let out a snort in irritation and continued, "I would have made his ears bleed from curses if we had met otherwise. That sly rascal won’t dare to challenge me to a duel anyway, so I’ll make sure to do it to my heart’s content whenever we meet from now on."

Yi Chen soon shook off those thoughts, not wanting to waste his energy thinking about such a bastard, and soon arrived back in his pill refining room.

"I got the cauldron, the apparatus and even the required herbs! Let’s start the pill-making process in earnest then!" Yi Chen exclaimed in excitement and, taking out the first batch of ingredients, started processing them on the table.

Grabbing a bunch of dried feathers, he soaked them in the toad’s skin oil before shoving all the feathers into a spherical flask.

Placing the flask on top of a burner, he glanced through the guidebook, which instructed him to wait until a pungent smell entered his nose.

"There it is..." he muttered while controlling his urge to sneeze, and poured a beaker full of Yellow Stone’s extract into the spherical flask slowly and carefully as the crane’s feathers completely dissolved, turning the entire solution thicker.

"One done, eleven more to go..." Yi Chen muttered and began focusing on creating another concoction that, unlike the thick solution from before, would be a paste.

Checking the guidebook whenever he was a little confused, Yi Chen followed the entire process with as much accuracy as he currently could and created the next concoction, followed by the next and the next...

Time passed slowly, and a little more than an hour later, all twelve separate concoctions required to form the pill had been created by him.

"Good... now for the most important step." Yi Chen took a deep breath before looking at his cauldron that had been half-filled with water that was about to reach its boiling point.

A few minutes later, seeing the bubbles coming out of the water, Yi Chen no longer hesitated.

Grabbing the beaker full of red powder, he poured it all into the water and watched the transparent water slowly turn red as he stirred the solution with a long ladle.

"Yes... it feels viscous enough," he muttered around ten minutes later, grabbing the flask that contained the Crane Feather’s solution and pouring everything inside.

A faint smell, pleasing to the nose, spread the very next moment, but not being bothered by it, Yi Chen started stirring the solution with even greater force, for the refinement process had just started.

Stirring until the scent disappeared completely, he added the required mixtures of the ingredients one after the other and continued following all the steps written in the guide as accurately as possible.

He did all this while keeping the timing in mind, adjusting the flame’s intensity and stirring the solution with as much intensity as possible.

However, not a single sign of impatience could be seen on Yi Chen’s face. Instead, his eyes glimmered with expectations similar to those of a cook waiting to check out his creation.

The entire process took three hours to complete, and, feeling that the final product was complete, Yi Chen stopped stirring the solution, which had become quite difficult to stir because of the thick black precipitate that had formed at the bottom of the cauldron.

Draining out the excess water, he glanced at the final precipitate with a bitter smile, "That much should be enough to form ten pills... but wasn’t it supposed to be green?"

Letting out a disappointed sigh, he muttered, "Whatever, this was supposed to be an experiment anyway, so I might as well make the finished product out of them.

With that thought, he scooped out portions of the precipitate one after the other and shaped them into ten spherical black pills using his hands.

However, to his surprise, a system message appeared before his eyes the moment he formed the tenth pill.

Ding! Congratulations on creating 10x Sleeping Crane Pills (Failed): You earned 10 EXP!

"...Oh?"

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