The space inside the middle-grade Alchemy Room was a bit larger than in the lower-grade ones.
The Alchemy Furnace used for refining pills had also been upgraded from a Lower Grade Magical Artifact to a Middle Grade one.
Fang Yun walked up to the Alchemy Furnace and laid out the Spirit Medicines required to refine the Cyan Jade Pill.
The process of refining a Qi Nourishing Pill could be broken down into nine major steps.
The Cyan Jade Pill, which used one more Spirit Medicine than the Qi Nourishing Pill, had a refining process that could be divided into eleven major steps.
That was two more major steps in comparison.
The more steps there were, the more difficult the pill was to refine. Furthermore, higher-grade Spirit Medicines were also trickier to handle.
As a Tier One, Middle Grade Spirit Medicine, the Cyan Spirit Flower was undoubtedly the most difficult ingredient to process when refining the Cyan Jade Pill. On top of that, it was the primary Spirit Medicine.
Fang Yun took out the Pill Formula for the Cyan Jade Pill and read it over carefully three times.
The very first step in refining the Cyan Jade Pill was to process the primary Spirit Medicine: the Cyan Spirit Flower.
This was very unforgiving for an Alchemy Master.
The most valuable Spirit Medicine was the most difficult to process, and it was the very first step. If a major problem occurred here, there was no point in continuing.
The longer one remained stuck on the first step, the greater the blow to an Alchemy Master's confidence.
Fang Yun didn't think he would have that problem.
At the end of the day, the Cyan Jade Pill was just a pill for mid-stage Qi Refining Cultivators, and he possessed a Two-Star Alchemy Talent.
The talent he had enhanced was somewhat different. After some deliberation, he was convinced that it was more than sufficient.
He activated the Earth Fire, and the temperature inside the Alchemy Furnace began to rise steadily.
Fang Yun enveloped the Cyan Spirit Flower in Spiritual Power and tossed it into the Alchemy Furnace.
He began the first major step of refining the Cyan Jade Pill.
This first major step was primarily focused on processing the Cyan Spirit Flower.
As time passed, a faint, fresh fragrance drifted out of the Alchemy Furnace.
'Now!'
Fang Yun increased the infusion of Spiritual Power into the Alchemy Furnace, simultaneously reducing the Earth Fire to half its original intensity.
Gazing at the semi-formed, cyan Spirit Liquid inside, he completed the final part of the first major step.
Next was the second major step, which required processing one stalk of Qi Nourishing Grass and two liang of Salvia Miltiorrhiza. The remaining stalk of Qi Nourishing Grass and one liang of Salvia Miltiorrhiza would be processed during the sixth and seventh major steps.
After being processed in the first step, the troublesome Cyan Spirit Flower would also be involved in the fourth and ninth steps. The ninth step, in particular, was the most crucial part of refining the Cyan Jade Pill, second only to the final pill-merging process.
…
Fang Yun could now refine a batch of Qi Nourishing Pills within six hours.
Once he mastered the refining of a pill, the time required would naturally decrease.
For his first attempt at refining the Cyan Jade Pill, Fang Yun took nine hours to complete the final pill-merging step.
As the pills dropped into the Pill Output Port, his first batch of Cyan Jade Pills was officially complete.
"Not a single pill formed."
This was worse than Fang Yun had expected.
He had thought that, just like his first time refining the Qi Nourishing Pill, he would succeed in forming at least one pill in his first batch of Cyan Jade Pills.
Of course, the difficulty of refining the Cyan Jade Pill was different from that of the Qi Nourishing Pill. However, he now had experience from refining Qi Nourishing Pills, and that was all valuable Alchemy experience. Different pills always had some steps in common.
That was why refining the Cyan Jade Pill was considered more difficult. If he were refining other pills used by early-stage Qi Refining Cultivators—which had a maximum yield of five—he felt he should have been able to produce at least three Lower Grade pills on his first try.
A single batch of Cyan Jade Pills could yield a maximum of six pills, one more than Qi Nourishing Pills.
Fang Yun picked up a Wasted Pill fresh from the furnace. Not minding the heat, he began to examine it carefully.
"This Wasted Pill was so close to forming properly. What a pity." He then consoled himself, 'The Spiritual Materials for the Cyan Jade Pill were too low-quality. If they were a bit better, I could have at least refined one Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pill.'
After this brief moment of self-reassurance, Fang Yun began to analyze his experience from refining the Cyan Jade Pill.
Recalling the process, he spent a full three hours on his first analysis of the experience.
Half a day had passed since he entered the Alchemy Room.
Once he finished his analysis, Fang Yun began refining his second batch of Cyan Jade Pills.
Refining the Cyan Jade Pill took fifty percent more time than refining the Qi Nourishing Pill, but it consumed far more than fifty percent more Spiritual Power.
At this moment, the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea was down to fifty-three percent. He had enough to refine one more batch of Cyan Jade Pills at most.
If he were still just at the initial stage of the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, he wouldn't have had enough Spiritual Power to support the refining of two batches of Cyan Jade Pills.
It had been over a month since he'd entered the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, and he had consumed nearly sixty Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills. If one were to subdivide the Qi Refining Fourth Layer into three stages, he was now approaching the peak of the initial stage.
Another nine hours passed.
Fang Yun had been disappointed with his first batch of Cyan Jade Pills, but the results of the second batch made him very happy.
"My luck is good! Two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills."
A single Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pill sold for three Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
Factoring in the cost of Spiritual Materials and the rental fee for the Alchemy Room, he needed to refine four Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills just to break even. And that was barely breaking even, if he sold them to the Dan Cloud Pavilion.
On his first day of refining, he averaged one Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pill per batch.
This was a good start.
...
「Dan Cloud Peak, Dan Cloud Pavilion.」
After refining his tenth batch of Cyan Jade Pills, Fang Yun appeared here.
He was in need of Spirit Stones.
He had managed to produce a Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pill by his seventh batch.
Today's tenth batch set a new record: he had produced two Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pills, two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills, and two Wasted Pills.
He now had four Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pills and thirty-two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills on him. It was worth noting that his eighth batch had not produced any Middle Grade ones.
Fang Yun genuinely attributed his success in refining two Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pills in today's final batch to good luck.
Before today, he had thought it would take at least twelve or thirteen batches before he could produce two Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pills in one go.
The price of a Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pill was double that of a Lower Grade one, just like with Qi Nourishing Pills.
"Senior Sister Wang, I'm here to sell some pills." Seeing the familiar Senior Sister, Fang Yun walked up to the counter and placed the small porcelain vials of pills on it.
"Fifteen Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills and thirty-two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills."
Fang Yun didn't sell the Middle Grade Cyan Jade Pills, choosing instead to sell off his remaining Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills first.
"Junior Brother Fang, your efficiency is truly impressive. You've already refined thirty-two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills," Wang Yourong couldn't help but remark.
And that was on top of his sect mission to tend the Spirit Fields.
"Time is precious, Senior Sister."
"For you, it certainly is." From her recent interactions with Fang Yun, Wang Yourong could tell that despite having Five Spirit Roots, he was very ambitious about reaching Foundation Establishment.
The Dan Cloud Pavilion's acquisition price for the fifteen Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills was twenty-seven Lower Grade Spirit Stones. For the thirty-two Lower Grade Cyan Jade Pills, the price was eighty-six Lower Grade Spirit Stones, with the fractional remainder paid out as four jin of Clear Water Rice.
To simplify the transaction, Fang Yun took out an additional six jin of Clear Water Rice to sell. This way, he would receive a total of one hundred and fourteen Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
While Wang Yourong was counting and inspecting the pills,
Fang Yun heard an unfamiliar male voice.
"Well, if it isn't Junior Brother Fang?"
Hearing the voice, Fang Yun turned his head to see an Inner Sect senior brother.
This senior brother looked a bit familiar; he felt like he had seen him somewhere before.