Chapter 3 - Alchemy

"Five mid-grade Ruan," the butcher gave the price.

"Ruan? Isn't it too similar to yuan?" Liu Xin thought. However, mid-grade didn't sound bad, so he agreed.

After receiving the money, the first thing he did was buy new clothes. He bought a black robe and wore it.

Afterward, he went to an inn to eat something. He ate chicken soup and goat meat hurriedly, like a person who had not eaten for a long time.

Afterward, he went to his room and rested for a while.

In all his expenses, he spent only half of one mid-grade yuan. This means he spent 50 on low-grade Ruan, 30 on clothes, and 20 on food and lodging.

One mid-grade Ruan is equivalent to 100 low-grade Ruan. Mid-grade Ruan is twice as big as low-grade Ruan. It's a reddish-black stone carved with various patterns on it.

Liu Xin slept for a whole day, and the next day, he walked to the market. He didn't buy anything. Instead, he downloaded two Alchemy data files, each of which was 3 MB in size:

[Small Healing Pills Concatenation (3 MB)]

[ Energy Refill Pill Refining (3 MB)]

After installing the data, Liu Xin walked to the herb store. A young man who looked to be in his twenties was selling a variety of herbs on the roadside, with an array of herbs laid out on the ground.

"Hello, friend. You look like a cultivator. Are you here to buy herbs?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes," Liu Xin nodded.

"Great. I just picked these herbs not long ago," he showed the herbs enthusiastically.

"I want Calendula, Spiritual Ginger, and Valerian root," Liu Xin listed the medical herbs needed to concatenate pills.

"Oh, you have done your research on these pills. May I know if you are an alchemist?" The boy's eyes lit up, and he peered into Liu Xin's eyes.

"Umm..." The sudden action stunned Liu Xin, but he calmed down instantly. "I am not an alchemist, but I may become one," that was true, as he first wanted to check if he could refine a pill based on the knowledge and understanding he had of pill refining.

"Really!" The boy grabbed Liu Xin's arm. "Do you know about the Qi Energy Pill?" he asked energetically.

"Yes. It's a pill that helps low Qi Refining cultivators to break through to a mid-level. It's not a very popular pill, only those who couldn't break through the low levels of Qi Refining use this pill."

Hearing the description of the pill from Liu Xin's mouth, the boy relaxed and looked at Liu Xin with respect.

"I am Huang Jun, and I am in urgent need of this pill. I am ready to give you one high-grade Ruan for it."

Liu Xin was speechless. He wasn't even an alchemist, and he had already gotten his first customer who seemed desperate for the pill.

Liu Xin didn't feel any aura from Huang Jun, so he couldn't guess if the pill was for him. Suppressing his curiosity, Liu Xin opened his mouth.

"I need materials for that." Huang Jun looked desperate, so Liu Xin couldn't reject him.

"Don't worry, I will provide the materials for you tomorrow," Huang Jun puffed his chest and ensured the availability of the materials.

"What's the price of these herbs?" Liu Xin asked, holding the herbs he had asked for. Huang Jun chuckled. "Don't worry, you can take these herbs for free."

"Okay," Liu Xin was confused, but he shook his head and walked toward the inn he was staying in.

He locked himself in the room and sat in a meditative position.

"Let's first use the technique to refine pills that don't require a furnace," he was ready to refine pills using the technique recorded in his mind.

However, a prompt appeared before him, startling him.

[Materials Detected for "Vitality Regen Pill."]

[Do you want to create a pill?]

Seeing the box, Liu Xin was elated as he didn't have to do the task by himself. He clicked on "Yes."

An interface appeared before him.

[Alchemy]

[Materials: (Calendula), (Spiritual Ginger), (Valerian root)]

[Pill: (Vitality Regen Pill)]

[Process: 10 minutes]

[Refining....]

A long loading screen appeared before him. As the pill was being refined, a bit of spiritual energy emitted from his body.

After ten minutes, a "ding!" sound echoed in his head as the light flashed on the interface, throwing five pills out from it.

From one herb of each type, a total of five pills were created, and each of them spread a sweet fragrance.

"Hmm, five pills out of six," he sighed. "I guess some materials were lost." As he had all the basic knowledge about alchemy, he knew about the loss of materials. The number of pills that can be refined from materials depends on the level of the alchemist.

A top-grade alchemist who can refine high-level pills could easily use all the materials to create the maximum amount of pills possible from them, which is quite impossible for a low-level alchemist.

As for Liu Xin, his first pill was quite a success. Alchemists generally start from exploding furnaces or with failed or low-quality pills. But the fragrance coming out of the pill indicated that these pills were of high quality. Top-notch. They could easily heal any injuries of his within a second with these quality pills.

Smiling at his success, Liu Xin looked at the pill and placed it in the cloth bag. He then refined more than fifty pills from all the materials, refining five pills from each material every time.

Not only was his energy depleted, but his materials were too. Exhausted, he lay on the bed and instantly fell asleep.

The next day, the first thing he did after waking up was checking the pills. As he had guessed, every pill was of high quality.

He also remembered the agreement between him and Huang Jun, so he took his leave to meet him.

As he was going to the destination, a scene attracted him. A crowd had formed on the middle street.

He also joined the crowd to watch the scene.

A man was whipping the ground with his whip. A girl sat on the ground, covered in wounds, her nice robe tattered and dirtied. Another man was there, covering the girl with his body.

If it were someone else, Liu Xin wouldn't have cared and would have walked to his destination. However, the person covering the girl was none other than Huang Jun.

Liu Xin's face was complicated; he was contemplating whether to help him or not. He wasn't a justice-loving person, but as he had an agreement with him, he didn't know whether to step up or not.

After pondering for a while, he finally came to a conclusion.

"Since he is my first customer...or will be my first customer, I should at least help him this much. If any problem erupts after this...I will figure something out." He took a deep breath and walked into the scene.

As the man's whip hit Jun Huang's back, which was now full of bruises, he pulled the whip back and tried to hit him again.

However, this time, the whip got stuck.

"Who?!"