After resting for a while, Lin Jing continued refining.
This time was even better than just now. In this furnace, he had unexpectedly produced one superior-grade medicinal pill and three low-grade pills.
Moreover, his alchemy proficiency had increased by 9 points.
Lin Jing had realized that the higher the quality of the elixir medicine, the more the alchemy proficiency added.
Then it was the third furnace.
The fourth furnace.
The fifth furnace.
That night, Lin Jing refined five furnaces of elixir medicine in total and succeeded in two.
This success rate indeed had improved quite a bit.
Most importantly, the quality of the elixir medicines had greatly improved.
In these two successful furnaces, he obtained eight elixir pills in total: two superior, four medium, and two low-grade Fasting Pills.
Lin Jing batched the refined elixir medicines into porcelain bottles, preparing to sell them only after refining a certain quantity.
This was a good start.
The next day
As usual, he sent Luo Luo off, and then Ning Yue went to refine pills again.
This reminded him of a term from his previous life: "office drone."
Using these two words to describe the current situation was particularly apt.
He then thought, if Ning Yue was an "office drone," what should he call himself?
Nanny?
Or a househusband?
Thinking about it, he felt it was even worse than being an "office drone."
With Luo Luo around during the day, it was not suitable to enter the System Space.
Lin Jing started refining elixir medicines in his own room.
Until the afternoon, he had refined three furnaces, but the results were not very ideal.
Two of the furnaces failed, and the last one barely succeeded, producing only one medium and two low-grade Fasting Pills.
It seemed the success rate of the Alchemy Room was not just talk.
It might be due to the Pill Scripture that only during this refining session did Lin Jing discover the wonderful use of that 10% increase in Divine Sense strength.
With that 10% increase in Divine Sense, Lin Jing felt his control over the elixir medicines had strengthened significantly during refining.
In the evening, after Ning Yue came back, the three of them sat around the table as usual, eating dinner.
"Fellow Ning, I heard from Elder Yu at Yuebaolou that a person's cultivation and the strength of their Divine Sense also greatly influence the outcome of pill formation. Is that so?"
Lin Jing asked.
"That is indeed the case," Ning Yue replied.
"For example, you currently only have the cultivation of the second level of Qi Refinement. Your Divine Sense is too weak, and you lack sufficient control over the elixir medicines. Meanwhile, your limited cultivation also means possibly poor control over the flames."
"And this will impact the final results of alchemy."
"However, if you break through to the third level of Qi Refinement, or even to the mid-stages of Qi Refinement, it will be different."
"When you refine now, do you ever feel quite tired and find it hard to concentrate?"
Ning Yue asked Lin Jing.
"Sometimes I do feel that way, but I usually just perk up and persist until the end of the refining."
"Is that not right?"
Lin Jing asked in confusion.
"It's not wrong, but..."
"At that moment, the quality of your elixir medicine begins to decrease, when you could have produced a furnace of superior-grade medicinal pills."
"But, a single lapse in concentration, and the quality of the elixir medicine immediately drops, sometimes even without you realizing it."
"You might even think something went wrong and ponder over it for a long while, but in fact, it's because your cultivation is too low and your Divine Sense strength is inadequate."
"Once your cultivation reaches the mid-stages of Qi Refinement, you won't have this issue when refining First-Rank elixir medicines."
"But even at the mid-stages of Qi Refinement, you cannot refine continuously without stopping, because that will also lead to fatigue and affect the pill quality."
"You need to rest for a while between two refining sessions, only then it is possible to maintain quality."
"I know this; Elder Yu had also mentioned it before," Lin Jing said.
"Mm."
"Going forward, beside alchemy, you also must not neglect your cultivation, and must work to enhance it as well."
"I see you've been consuming Medium Grade Spirit Rice every day, and you must have had some savings from before. However, even so, you shouldn't be too wasteful."
"It's best to learn alchemy early on. Once you master alchemy, it can be very profitable, and then you won't have to worry whether you eat Medium Grade or Superior Grade Spirit Rice every day."
Ning Yue instructed Lin Jing, looking every bit the senior.
Lin Jing felt somewhat embarrassed.
"Medium Grade Spirit Rice?"
"In a short time, when the Superior Grade Spirit Rice in the System Space matures, I'll be eating Superior Grade Spirit Rice every day."
"What then?"
"Mm, it seems by then I'll need to find an excuse."
After dinner, the two returned, and Lin Jing then started his grand undertaking in alchemy.
Thus, for half a month, Lin Jing refined several batches daily, and gradually, the success rate of his alchemy also increased a lot.
In the past few days, Lin Jing had produced three Supreme Grade elixirs, but he had yet to produce any Flawless Elixir.
Of course, it might be because he hadn't managed to produce two Supreme Grade elixirs within the same batch.
After all, the basic condition for producing a Flawless Elixir is to have two Supreme Grade elixirs in one batch.
Otherwise, even if the Alchemy Room had this feature boasting a 10% chance of producing a Flawless Elixir, how could a Flawless appear without meeting the most basic conditions?
A few more days passed, and this time, the materials for the Fasting Pills he'd bought were all used up, and his alchemy skill was almost there.
Next, he planned to start refining other elixirs.
The first time he bought a pill furnace, Lin Jing also purchased materials for several dozens of different elixirs. Since his alchemy skills were not up to scratch back then, he hadn't used them.
This time, Lin Jing was ready, and it was time to start refining, especially the Energy Gathering Pills that are crucial for increasing his cultivation—he was relying entirely on them for advancement.
He entered the System Space and went to the Alchemy Room.
As usual, he started the fire, opened the furnace...
For the first attempt, he put in the ingredients for an Energy Restoration Elixir.
He began refining.
"Elixir successfully refined, Alchemy Proficiency +15."
The appearance of the system notification brightened Lin Jing's eyes.
"15 Alchemy Proficiency."
"A Supreme Grade on my first attempt at refining an Energy Restoration Elixir?"
The Energy Restoration Elixir, used to rapidly recover one's Spiritual Power when exhausted, was priced similarly to the Energy Gathering Pill and was much more expensive than the Fasting Pill.
This one Supreme Grade Energy Restoration Elixir was generally valued at around 20 Lower Grade Spirit Stones on the market.
Quite expensive indeed.
Lin Jing opened the pill furnace and removed the elixir inside.
This batch had produced one Supreme Grade, two Superior Grades, and two Medium Grade Energy Restoration Elixirs.
One Supreme Grade +5 Alchemy Proficiency, while a Superior Grade gave +3, Medium Grade +2, and Low Grade only added one point of Alchemy Proficiency.
As for the Flawless Elixir, Lin Jing had not managed to produce one yet, so he was unsure.
Together, the elixirs from the furnace added up exactly to 15 points of Alchemy Proficiency.
"Next, it's time to refine the Energy Gathering Pills."
Lin Jing thought to himself.
After resting for a while, Lin Jing began to prepare again.
This time, he was still very steady, not panicked at all, nor excited by having just produced a Supreme Grade elixir.
This mindset was just right for alchemy.
Less than half an hour later.
The Alchemy Room was filled with swirling smoke and lingering pill fragrance, different from before, it persisted for a long time, concentrating within the Alchemy Room.
Lin Jing seemed not to notice, focusing entirely, gazing intently at the pill furnace, carefully controlling the flame temperature.
"Ding"
"System notification: Congratulations to the host for refining a Flawless Elixir and obtaining a reward: 5 Harvest Points."
"System notification: As this is the host's first time refining a Flawless Elixir, a reward of 10 Harvest Points is granted."
"Elixir successfully refined, Alchemy Proficiency +27."