8 Pill Concocting
What Hou Yan decided to do was begin his journey into becoming an Immortal Alchemist. With pills, he would be able to gain a tremendous amount of help in his cultivation and selling those pills can turn him rich.
"System, I want to concoct pills. Can you briefly explain the art of concocting?"
'Hm? Did you not say that you had no more questions left to ask?'
"Well, I do now..."
'Such a c*nt... Fine then, Let us start in discussing the art of concocting.'
'Pills and ingredients are both categorized from ranks 9 to 1, with 9 being the lowest rank and 1 being the highest rank in this world. In the outer world, there are 3 more ranks, which are Saint, Divine, and lastly Immortal. Saint is after rank 1 and Immortal is the highest of all. To be able to concoct immortal pills requires one to understand the Dao of Alchemy.'
'Ingredients' rarities are categorized by age.'
10+ years: ranks 9 and 8.
100+ years: rank 7.
500+ years: rank 6.
1,000+ years: rank 5 and 4
5,000+ years: rank 3 and 2
10,000+ years: rank 1.
50,000+ years: rank Saint.
1,000,000+ years: rank Divine.
Unknown years: Rank Immortal.
'And lastly, alchemists are categorized depending on what type of pills they can concoct. For now, that's all you need to know.'
"Oh, wow. System, will I be able to concoct any type of pill I want?"
'What the hell do you think this is? The Str*ng*st Syst*m? You don't have 100% on concocting any kind of pill you stupid. Don't tell me you are worried about getting multiple failures and losing tons of money? AHAHAHA, such an idiot. Well, you don't have to worry about that. The moment you selected the alchemist occupation, some tweaks have been done to you in order to have a better affinity with alchemy.'
"Oh... wait, did you just say you did some tweaking to my body without my consent?"
'Here are some pills you need to concoct for beginners.'
"Wait, don't ignore..."
9th ranked pills
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- Body Tempering Pill (Tempers one's body)
- Blood Coagulating Pill (Improves the blood circulation and such...)
- Qi Restoring Pill (Restores one's Qi)
- Qi Accumulating Pill (Helps those in the Qi Condensation realm with gathering Qi)
- Bone Marrow Pill (Improves one's bones and marrow)
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'Go and buy Liverleafs, Blood Lotus, Violet Burning Clover, Bloodroot, Ginse...'
The system began to list many types of ingredients needed to concoct those pills.
At the market, Hou Yan could be seen arguing with an old man in order to gain some discount.
"Come on old man, this is just a 10 years old LiverLeaf, can you lower the price to 10 silver? It's not even 15 years old or even 11."
"Kid, do you even know how hard it is for us mortals to obtain these kinds of pill ingredients? I had to risk my life in order to get this Liverleaf. During the journey, I encountered many ferocious monsters that wanted my life but I still didn't back out and continued searching for it. It was truly a dangerous journey in obtaining such a Liverleaf. From its story alone could make its price rise all the way to 20 silvers but because I am a nice old man, I will give you 30% percent off and sell it to you for 14 silvers."
"Stop exaggerating old man. If I go to the black market, I will most definitely get it for 8 silvers. I'm even planning to give up 2 silvers for your bravery so why don't you sell it to me for 10 silvers."
"You think my life costs 2 extra silver?! You better watch your words and buy this LiverLeaf for 13 silvers. That's the lowest I will go!"
"Stop being a stinky old man. All you did was lower the price by 1 silver. Why don't you lower it by 3 more silvers?"
"To us commoners/mortals, 1 less silver can result in us spending some days starving."
"Old man, If I were to spend all my 13 silvers to buy this Liverleaf, how am I going to feed my widowed mother and crippled sister? I was planning on buying them a meal with those 3 silvers."
As they kept arguing, the sky was getting dimmer and dimmer. Finally, after hours of arguing, Hou Yan was able to obtain the LiverLeaf for 11 silvers.
'Heh, now you can go feed your widowed mother and crippled sister with those '2 extra a silvers'.'
The system sneered at Hou Yan. He was truly a shameless fellow. He had a lot of money but even then, he would rather resort to shameless tactics in order to gain some discount on items.
Hou Yan just rolled his eyes and ignored the system. He went back to the inn he had been staying and took out all the ingredients.
Under the system's instructions, Hou Yan began to separate the ingredients for Qi Accumulating Pill and Qi Gathering Pill into piles, then into batches.
Then, Hou Yan began to experiment with his fire. He began to use his fire on adjusting the temperature of the furnace he had bought.
After 2 hours of experimenting, it could be said that Hou Yan truly had perfect control over his fire ability and adjusting the temperature of the furnace.
Hou Yan began to concoct the first batch for Qi Accumulating Pill. Following the system's directions, Hou Yan began to warm up the furnace. When the heat was coming out of the furnace, Hou Yan threw a spirit grass into the furnace and after sometime later, he put more ingredients into the furnace.
After a while, the furnace began to shake. It was shaking for a while and when it stopped, it released a burned aroma. This indicated that Hou Yan failed on concocting his pill.
Hou Yan took out the ash that was left from the burnt ingredients and began to study it. He kept on studying it till his eyes were bloodshot.
Finally, He began to start concocting his second batch. He did the same thing as he did before, warming up the furnace and when it was releasing heat, he threw the spirit grass into the furnace.
When the spirit grass turned into a liquid, he isolated it with his Qi. Then he threw in a bit more ingredients. He let those mix together and isolated them with his Qi too. After that, he joined both the liquids together. Once both liquids were joined together, he turned the liquid into a sphere and began to solidify it. This process required him to add his Qi into the liquid in order to quicken the process.
After a while, the liquid began to solidify and turned into a light green pill. While holding the green pill, Hou Yan could feel his qi in it and began to remove his Qi from the pill. This resulted in a change of color. The pill turned from light green to dark green.
The dark green pill meant that Hou Yan had succeeded in creating a 9th ranked pill, Qi Accumulating Pill. This also meant that He was now a 9th ranked Alchemist.
Hou Yan was still unpleased with his results. He was able to concoct only 1 pill out of a batch. This made him the lowest of the lowest ranking alchemist.
Hou Yan then began to concoct all of the batches left of Qi Accumulating Pill in order to familiarize himself in the art of concocting and lower his chances of making mistakes while increasing the number of pills he can produce.
He then proceeded to concoct Qi Restoring Pill. Because this pill was the same ranking as Qi Accumulating Pill, it wasn't hard to concoct it. He succeeded in his first try and began to concoct all of the batches left for that pill.
From concocting Qi Restoring Pill, Hou Yan was able to concoct more pills out of a batch. The reason why he was only able to create 1 pill out of a batch is due to the fact that most of the liquefied ingredients would evaporate from the intense heat.
Finally, after concocting all those pills, Hou Yan thought it was finally time to concoct the Body Tempering Pill, Bone Marrow Pill, and Blood Coagulating Pill.
Separating the ingredients into three piles, he began to separate those piles into batches. This resulted in 3 batches per pile.
He then proceeded to light up the furnace and once it was hot enough, he began to throw the ingredients in there per system's instructions. He then separated the parts that needed to be separated using his Qi. After a while, he began to join all of the isolated parts together and created a liquid sphere. Then, using his Qi, he began to solidify that liquid which turned into a pill. Finally, he removed his Qi and was able to create Body Tempering Pill.
Following the same process, Hou Yan was able to concoct 3 of each type of pill.
Hou Yan was proud of himself and decided to go back to the sect and use the training grounds to improve his physique and his cultivation.
