There are many martial arts sects, often at odds with each other, each waiting for the other to make a mistake. Shen Xiang was surprised to find that young cultivators like Zhang Long, at the Eighth Level of the Martial Realm, were not valued. It was easy to imagine that there were many powerful warriors within those sects, and only those with great potential would receive attention.
With things having calmed down, Shen Xiang began to focus on learning alchemy and nurturing spiritual herbs. He had not consumed the True Yuan Pill yet because both Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou advised him to take it when he reached a bottleneck, as it would be of great benefit to him.
After the Shen family took over the Dan Pharmacy's business, prices dropped significantly, which delighted many martial artists. They all began to support the Shen family, which greatly helped their future development.
In this world, the law of the jungle is the norm. The wealth accumulated by the Yao family over many years now belonged to the Shen family overnight! This was also a consequence of the Yao family's own choices; had they not opposed the Shen family, they would still be thriving.
After absorbing the Yao family, Shen Xiang now had no shortage of spiritual herbs for alchemy. He was currently in the Yao family's herb garden, picking some herbs to use for refining high-grade ordinary pills. The process of refining high-grade ordinary pills not only significantly increased in difficulty but also required more precious spiritual herbs.
There aren't many types of high-grade ordinary pills, and the ones commonly used are just a few, which are also the most beneficial for martial artists. The difficulty of refining them is quite high; these are pills that every alchemist must master. Shen Xiang began learning to refine higher-level pills by first selecting these.
"The status of high-grade ordinary pills is a bit awkward! How should I put it? In the real martial arts world, most martial artists are above the Tenth Level of the Martial Realm and are relatively wealthy! They have very high demands for pills, so when purchasing, they typically do not choose ordinary pills, opting instead for low-grade spirit pills, which they buy in large quantities. The effects are significantly better when consumed," Su Meiyao explained.
Shen Xiang asked, "So, among those martial arts sects, are the Eighth and Ninth Level martial artists all poor?"
"Of course! So they can only afford middle to upper-grade ordinary pills. But you should know that high-grade ordinary pills don't have a significant effect on Ninth and Eighth Level martial artists," Su Meiyao replied.
"So, you just need to master a few of the more expensive high-grade ordinary pills, mainly the Qi Cultivating Pill, Great Yuan Pill, and Refining Essence Pill," Su Meiyao continued.
Shen Xiang was already familiar with these pills; they were indeed among the more expensive high-grade ordinary pills, with very noticeable effects. The Qi Cultivating Pill mainly improves the quality of true energy, allowing martial artists to refine their true energy to be purer.
The Great Yuan Pill, on the other hand, is a pill for enhancing cultivation. Consuming it provides a large amount of spiritual energy, which can be directly refined into true energy without worrying about the thinness of spiritual energy or the quality of spiritual veins. Lastly, the Refining Essence Pill can directly convert true energy within the body into mental strength, primarily for enhancing spiritual consciousness and training.
Shen Xiang had the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace, a holy-grade dragon artifact that accelerated the passage of time inside the alchemy furnace, saving him a lot of time in refining these high-grade pills.
Some pills can take years or even decades to refine successfully, but the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace could help Shen Xiang shorten that time significantly.
Shen Xiang first attempted to refine the Great Yuan Pill because he needed to consume this pill to enhance his cultivation. He needed to reach the Ninth Level of the Martial Realm to enter those major sects.
The main ingredients for the Great Yuan Pill were three types, although not many, each requiring over five hundred years of age. The auxiliary materials amounted to over twenty types, with the highest requiring a hundred years and the lowest being around fifty or sixty years, demonstrating the preciousness of the Great Yuan Pill. If it failed, the alchemist would surely cry for a long time.
"This rock-like fruit is really difficult to handle!" Shen Xiang had already begun refining. The herbs were originally from the Yao family, and each portion was worth over a hundred thousand big spiritual coins.
Although the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace could make the flames more suitable for alchemy and control the temperature more freely, it didn't help with the heating of the spiritual herbs; no divine furnace could replace that understanding.
Shen Xiang divided his divine consciousness into over twenty parts, controlling twenty flames to burn over twenty types of spiritual herbs. All these herbs needed to be turned into powder at the same time, and the timing couldn't differ too much. He also had to gather the various medicinal energies extracted from those herbs, which consumed a great deal of his divine consciousness. Fortunately, the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace allowed him to save on divine consciousness, as he didn't need to consume pills to recover while refining.
In the alchemy furnace, Shen Xiang's divine consciousness seemed to pass a whole day, but only a brief moment passed outside! The time inside the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace flowed faster than outside!
"Damn it, it's all over!" Shen Xiang was drenched in sweat, watching the colorful mist rising from the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace, cursing loudly.
That was over a hundred thousand big spiritual coins, instantly turning into smoke; Shen Xiang felt fortunate not to be crying already.
"No wonder it's the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace; it didn't even explode," Su Meiyao giggled.
"Meiyao, please don't tease me!" Shen Xiang grumbled.
He had just failed because of burning a spiritual herb called "Iron Origin Fruit." Its toughness had surprised him; no matter how he burned it, it wouldn't break. He had increased the flame, only for the Iron Origin Fruit to explode in an instant. The energy released mixed with the other powders and energies, causing various reactions, resulting in an explosion that sprayed out of the exhaust port of the Flame Dragon Furnace.
"I told you long ago that fruit is difficult to handle. I fell for that ugly fruit many times back in the day! Seeing someone fail in front of me makes me quite happy," Su Meiyao stuck out her pink tongue at him, continuing to laugh.
Every time Shen Xiang refined pills, Su Meiyao would appear to accompany him. Sometimes she would wipe the sweat off him, other times she would relish his misfortune, encourage him, or even tease him occasionally.
Shen Xiang pouted, saying, "You can afford to fail; I can't! I only have three portions of materials left." He marveled at how Su Meiyao had managed to accumulate so many resources during her alchemical training to be able to fail so many times.
"Don't be discouraged, dear brother; I was just reminiscing about my past experiences," Su Meiyao said sweetly, wiping the sweat off Shen Xiang's face with a handkerchief.
Shen Xiang inhaled Su Meiyao's refreshing fragrance and felt her delicate hand occasionally caressing his cheek, creating an indescribable wonderful feeling.
After resting, Shen Xiang continued to refine...
On his second attempt, he still failed, once again getting stuck at the stage of handling the Iron Origin Fruit.
On the third attempt, he successfully processed the Iron Origin Fruit but failed to control the fusion of the various herb powders and energies during the final pill formation, resulting in a small explosion inside the Flame Dragon Treasure Furnace!
"I'm really going to go broke; in just two short hours, nearly four hundred thousand big spiritual coins evaporated like this." Shen Xiang lay on the ground, watching the dissipating mist in the secret room with a pained expression.