"Huh? What's that smell?"
Just as Lin Feng was beginning to worry about his future life, he suddenly twitched his nose, turned curiously to the right, and looked towards another room.
The door there was slightly ajar. He couldn't see inside through the gap, but a peculiar odor wafted out.
It smelled like something burnt, yet carried a hint of fragrance—multiple fragrances, in fact. Many different scents seemed to mingle together, creating an extremely bizarre sensation.
"This smell... it's almost like..."
Lin Feng froze for a few moments, then immediately thought of something, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. He set down the booklet he'd been about to read and walked towards the room.
Creeeak...
Pushing the half-open door fully aside, a thick, pungent, and complex smell instantly assaulted his nostrils. Instinctively covering his nose, he stepped inside and scanned the room.
The room was roughly five meters square. Against three of the walls stood large wooden shelves spanning their entire lengths, similar to library shelves. However, instead of books, these shelves held rows upon rows of variously sized... porcelain bottles.
Or rather... pills bottles!!
Lin Feng stared dumbfounded at the countless pill bottles filling the three massive shelves. His pupils contracted slightly in disbelief.
"This... could it be...?"
After a stunned pause, he strode over to the shelf on the right for a closer look. One row had a label affixed to its end. Boldly written on it were the characters: 'Condensing Yuan Pills'.
Lin Feng eagerly grabbed a bottle from this row, pulled out the stopper, and tilted it over his palm. A dozen or so pitch-black, misshapen lumps tumbled out onto his hand.
"They really are pills!!" Lin Feng's eyes widened in barely contained shock as he stared at the lumps in his palm. He picked one up, examining it closely.
"They are Condensing Yuan Pills... but... rejected pills?" Understanding dawned shortly after. These were indeed pills, but unusable ones—'rejected pills'.
After a batch of pills is refined, only those of at least low-grade quality are considered successful. If the quality falls below low-grade, they become 'rejected pills', possessing almost no use value. No cultivator would ever consume them.
However…
"Object Damage Level: 95%"
"Materials Required for Repair: Five grams of Frost Violet Grass, four grams of Ink Feather Grass, four grams of Wavebreaker Flower, three grams of Inkroot Fibers."
A string of information flashed through Lin Feng's mind. His heart immediately began pounding fiercely, almost betraying his composure.
—They could be repaired!!
What did this mean?
Lin Feng slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the rows upon rows of pill bottles on all three shelves. It took immense effort to suppress the urge to burst into wild laughter.
"Struck gold... struck gold... I've struck gold!!" Lin Feng muttered under his breath, his voice low and trembling with excitement. "How could there be such good fortune? This is literally a pie falling from the sky!"
In that instant, all his earlier gloom and apprehension vanished, dispersed to the far corners of the earth. He even felt a flicker of gratitude towards Di Xuan and Xue Ziqi. A hardship assignment? For him, this was clearly a massive, fat duty!!
"Whoa… calm down... calm down… Need to confirm this fully first!"
Lin Feng took several deep breaths. He retrieved the herb pouch from his spatial ring, the one containing all the herbs he'd collected over the past months. He rummaged inside, pulling out the specific herbs required to repair a low-grade Condensing Yuan Pill. As a mere tier-2 pill, it only required herbs of tier-1 or 2, all of which Lin Feng possessed.
Holding a few herbs and one rejected Condensing Yuan Pill in his hand, Lin Feng silently commanded in his mind: "Repair."
"Fwoomph!!"
In the next instant, a burst of deep crimson flame materialized around Lin Feng's hand, engulfing the pill and the herbs.
"Repair complete."
"Object Damage Level: 0%"
"No repair needed."
Almost instantly, the notification of success appeared in his mind. The flames vanished as quickly as they came, leaving behind a few unused herb scraps and a single, translucent, pale-purple pill resting on his palm, emanating a faint, pure fragrance.
"It worked!" Joy surged within Lin Feng. His previous interactions had mostly involved medium-grade pills or better, so he hadn't tested repairing a rejected pill before. Seeing it succeed filled him with elation.
He had previously assumed the four pill grades—Low, Medium, High, Supreme—corresponded roughly to quarters of 100% integrity. Supreme would be <25% damage, High 25-50%, Medium 50-75%, and Low anything over 75%.
Now, he realized he'd forgotten about 'rejected pills'. It seemed the threshold for Low-grade must be narrower; perhaps damage exceeding 90% pushed it into 'rejected' territory.
He lifted his gaze again, sweeping it across the labeled rows on the three shelves, whispering the names aloud as he spotted them: "Recovery Pills, Blood Plume Pills, Qi Condensing Pills, Foundation Establishment Pills, Coldbreaker Pills, Fasting Pills, Coagulation Pills... even Spirit Nourishment Pills!!"
His eyes shone with unconcealed astonishment. Over twenty different types of tier-1 and tier-2 pills—common and precious ones—and even a few tier-3 pills!
All were rejected pills. Failed batches from the numerous elders and disciples of the Lingyue Sect attempting alchemy. Their sole remaining purpose was to serve as 'feed' for the spirit beasts. Yet, in Lin Feng's eyes, they represented a vast treasure trove!!
To Lin Feng, there was no such thing as a 'rejected pill'. All of these could become Supreme-Grade Pills!!
...
It took Lin Feng a long time to calm down from his initial excitement. Staring at the three shelves overflowing with rejected pills, he murmured to himself, "So this must be the 'feed' Fei Biao mentioned. The spirit beasts of the Lingyue Sect eat these rejected pills as food? Well, it makes sense. While these pills are harmful for cultivators to consume, offering more drawbacks than benefits, it's different for demon beasts whose 'digestive capabilities' far surpass cultivators. Regardless, the raw materials are still medicinal herbs. Demons beasts can absorb the residual medicinal energy within. For them, these rejected pills are actually decent nourishment..."
Lost in thought, Lin Feng exited the pill room and returned to the writing desk in the main hall. He picked up one of the booklets and began flipping through it. Sure enough, it contained feeding records for the Sect Leader's spirit beast, the Verdant-Horned Rhino—simply noting the time, location, type of rejected pill used, and quantity.
The other booklets held similar records for the other beasts.
Next, Lin Feng picked up the topmost jade slip beside the booklets. Probing it with his spiritual sense, he discovered a map inside. It depicted the Lingyue Sect's rear mountains—the Spirit Beast Garden. The map was divided into several marked territories, each labeled with the name of a specific spirit beast.
Lin Feng finally understood. The so-called 'Spirit Beast Garden' wasn't a confined farm or manor as he'd imagined. Instead, the entire rear mountain range was designated as the Spirit Beast Garden, serving as the habitat for these creatures. Of course, it made sense. These were spirit beasts, not ordinary livestock. They couldn't be kept penned in enclosures or cages. Each one claimed its own territory, carving up the hundred-mile stretch of the rear mountains.
His role as a 'keeper' granted him absolutely no authority to 'manage' them. His duties boiled down to delivering 'snacks' to these formidable beings and constantly monitoring their status—tracking their daily movements, observing their health, and promptly reporting if any beast went missing or showed signs of illness.
Lin Feng then proceeded to examine every other jade slip. Each one contained detailed information about a specific spirit beast: species, origins, behavioral habits, etc.
After finishing the jade slips, he found a handwritten manual underneath. It was clearly compiled by Fei Biao, meticulously detailing the keeper's daily tasks, precautions, and various other miscellaneous procedures in exhaustive length.
It took Lin Feng a solid four to five hours to absorb all this information. Despite his mind being far sharper and more flexible than an average mortal's, he still felt dizzy afterward.
In the end, Lin Feng confirmed one thing: If he truly had to perform all the tasks described according to these records… Forget studying alchemy in the future. He likely wouldn't even have much time left for cultivating…