In the secret room of the attic, Lin Tianming sat upright on the meditation cushion.
After several days of cultivation, the spiritual power in his Qi Sea Dantian had increased only slightly; relying solely on meditation here would bring minimal results.
Before coming here, he had exchanged some spiritual medicine from the Family Merits Hall, and together with the Lingshen Pills given by his grandfather and father, he had as many as ten, a considerable number.
Lin Tianming planned to take a Lingshen Pill once a month, which would just be enough to last a year. The remaining time would be used for pill concoction and meditation.
Having decided that, he took out several sets of fasting pill materials and then consecutively retrieved the Elemental Fire Bottle and the Four Symbols Furnace.
The Earth Fire inside the Elemental Fire Bottle was collected with the help of Elder Wu by his grandfather.
According to his grandfather, the Elemental Fire Bottle turned out to be a First Order Medium Grade spiritual bottle, specifically for containing various types of flames or treasured spiritual objects.
Without Earth Fire in Qingfeng Town, pill concoction was impossible, and it was quite a struggle when they collected the fire.
It appeared that his grandfather had already considered everything thoroughly; he himself had been careless. If encountered in a battle of magic, such oversight could be disastrous—a lesson to always be vigilant.
His storage bag wasn't short of fasting pill spiritual medicine materials, with as many as ten sets, each capable of making three batches, and thus thirty batches in total.
At Green Bamboo Mountain, ten sets of materials yielded thirty-nine fasting pills, already qualifying him as a competent First Order Lower-Grade Alchemist with a success rate around fifty percent, and more than three pills per batch.
Everything was ready, except for the crucial element.
After skillfully adjusting his breathing through cultivation, a series of spells were cast onto the Elemental Fire Bottle.
Instantly, the Elemental Fire Bottle expanded to the size of a bucket, and a stream of crimson flames surged out, soaring the temperature in the secret room.
He placed the Four Symbols Furnace over the Elemental Fire Bottle, heating the furnace for a quarter of an hour as the temperature inside the furnace slowly increased.
Every quarter of an hour, a herb was tossed into the furnace, then the furnace lid was closed.
The spiritual medicine gradually melted into a spiritual liquid, a faint fragrance of medicine filling the entire room.
With practiced ease, he decomposed, purified, separated, infused spirit, and condensed the mixture into elixirs.
Half an hour later, the scent of the medicine was even more intense, and merely smelling it could reduce one's hunger significantly.
Lifting the lid of the furnace, five fasting pills hovered within. He took out each fasting pill and placed them into exquisite little jade bottles.
Elixirs could only be stored in jade bottles. The jade bottles had a higher density and contained a trace of faint spiritual energy, whereas ordinary bottles could hardly retain the spiritual energy of the pills. In a few days, the pill's energy would dissipate, its internal power leaked out, turning it into waste.
Before coming to Qingfeng Town, he specifically prepared several hundred jade bottles to store the elixirs he concocted. Every alchemist would prepare a good number of jade bottles; high-grade elixirs were stored one pill per bottle.
After concocting a batch of fasting pills and obtaining five pills, he continued to concoct the remaining two batches of spiritual medicine.
Four hours later, a set of materials for three batches of fasting pills had been completely concocted.
Taking half of the day, he had finally finished concocting the three batches of fasting pills, with a rest period of a quarter of an hour's breathing adjustment between each batch.
Under careful precautions, two out of three batches were successful, and the success rate had reached seventy percent.
The first batch produced five pills, the second batch failed, and the third batch produced six pills—a result that left him very satisfied.
After completing one set of fasting pill materials, there was still more than half of the residual spiritual energy left in his Qi Sea Dantian.
At the Fourth Level of Qi Practice, concocting three batches of fasting pills would deplete all his spiritual power, and he would have to meditate to restore it.
After reaching the Fifth Level Qi Practice, it took less than half of the three batches of Fasting Pills to finish the process, and both the success rate and the number of pills produced increased significantly, highlighting the importance of cultivation level in mastering the Four Arts of Cultivation.
He continued to make Fasting Pills until his Spiritual Power was completely depleted.
In the blink of an eye, night had fallen, a bright moon hung in the sky, and Qingfeng Town was silent except for the occasional cries of children from within a few houses.
After a whole day of making Fasting Pills, he exhausted all his Spiritual Power and used three sets of Spiritual Medicine Materials to make nine batches of elixirs.
His experience in alchemy grew substantially; the First Order Inferior Fasting Pill now had a stable success rate of over seventy percent, and the yield was no fewer than five pills per batch, with the highest reaching as many as eight pills.
Tallying the day's proceeds, he had a total of thirty-eight Fasting Pills, which, if exchanged for Spirit Stones, would be valued at thirty-eight Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
For the Lin Family Members living on Green Bamboo Mountain with a cultivation level of Fifth Level Qi Practice, it would take a whole year to accumulate thirty-eight Low-Grade Spirit Stones, just based on what the family distributed.
Lin Tianming couldn't help but marvel at how lucrative the profession of an alchemist was in the Cultivation World, given that just making First Order Inferior elixirs could be so profitable.
Cultivators consume vast resources in their cultivation practice, and alchemists can quickly earn Spirit Stones and Spiritual Medicine for other cultivators by making elixirs, which they then use for their own cultivation and to trade for other resources.
Every alchemist has a wide network of contacts, making it easy for many cultivators to become indebted to them. The risk of offending an alchemist is quite significant; they could find themselves troubled by many indebted parties, which is why High Order Alchemists are so respected, and one wouldn't dare to offend them lightly.
Gathering his thoughts, Lin Tianming stored the Fasting Pills in his storage bag and began to cultivate.
Lin Tianming found that every time he cultivated after exhausting himself through alchemy, his cultivation practice progressed twice as efficiently.
After replenishing the depleted Spiritual Power, the Spiritual Power within his Seven Seas Dantian grew at a visibly fast rate, and his Divine Sense was also slowly improving after the high-intensity consumption and recovery.
The Four Arts of Cultivation can fortify a cultivator's Divine Sense; over time, the cumulative increase is considerable.
The assistance of a strong Divine Sense to a cultivator is beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
The stronger the Divine Sense, the larger the area it can cover; at the Fifth Level Qi Practice, Lin Tianming's Divine Sense could already encompass several miles, able to detect the metabolic processes of every blade of grass and tree.
Born with an exceptionally powerful Divine Sense, Lin Tianming's abilities at the Fifth Level Qi Practice were probably no less than those of an ordinary Sixth Level of Qi Refining cultivator, if not even stronger.
A powerful Divine Sense is of great significance in combat, mastering the Four Arts of Cultivation, practicing techniques, and concealing one's presence.
With it, one can control more and stronger Spiritual Artifacts and Magical Treasures, cast secret techniques more smoothly, detect enemies earlier, and better conceal oneself, greatly enhancing a cultivator's overall strength.
In terms of the Four Arts of Cultivation, a stronger Divine Sense increases success rates and efficiency in both Alchemy and Artifact Refining, Talisman Making, and Formation.
However, in the Cultivation World, secret techniques to train the Divine Sense are extremely rare and significantly more challenging to practice than cultivation techniques, perhaps only found in central regions of the Human Race like Yunzhou and Xuanzhou.
In the remote provinces of Qingzhou and Jizhou, with their mere ten thousand years of development and shallow foundation, secret techniques for training the Divine Sense are incredibly rare and highly treasured.
It is said that during the ancient times tens of thousands of years ago, there was no shortage of Heavenly Grade Techniques and strange and precious secret techniques, with numerous outstanding figures emerging.
There were even rumors of the emergence of Immortal Realm manuals, though it is unknown whether they were true or false.
In the quiet of the night, having fully recovered his Spiritual Power and his Divine Sense restored to normal, his Spiritual Power flowed smoothly and unimpeded.
He looked at the slightly increased amount of Spiritual Power in his Dantian with a sense of satisfaction.
It had been only a month since he reached the Fifth Level Qi Practice, and he still had some way to go before reaching the Sixth Level. Therefore, he decided not to cultivate any further and to rest easy instead.
After a full day of Alchemy and cultivation, he felt a faint sense of fatigue.
Lin Tianming left the secret chamber and walked towards the adjacent room, gradually disappearing into the night.