After returning to her small courtyard, Shi Yu took out the newly purchased jade slips, intending to craft jade talismans, while storing the rest of the items inside the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell for the time being.
Materials like spirit beast blood would slowly lose their spiritual energy over time, even when stored in jade bottles. Large shops and merchant houses like Tongyi Pavilion hired formation masters specifically to set up array restrictions to slow down this loss. Thus, under normal circumstances, it was best to buy such items right before use rather than hoarding them.
However, with a treasure like the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell in her possession, Shi Yu didn't need to worry about the dissipation of spiritual energy at all when storing items inside it.
She was in no rush to try crafting spirit talismans, deciding to adjust her state of mind first before proceeding.
Attempting it with an unsettled mind in a rush would most likely result in wasted materials, and she only had a single spirit stone left to her name.
Making jade talismans first was also a way to temper her patience.
Shi Yu sat at the table, holding a curved knife to carve into the jade slips. Every stroke fell with precise force, effortlessly outlining intricate and orderly source rune patterns.
She placed the completed jade talismans in a corner of the table, and within the time it took for an incense stick to burn, they had piled into a small stack.
Crafting jade talismans posed no difficulty for her, but given her current lack of cultivation, making just this many nearly exhausted her energy.
Feeling mentally and physically drained, Shi Yu put away the finished jade talismans, returned to her bed to sit cross-legged, and retrieved the newly purchased Dew-Condensing Pills from the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell.
The small jade bottle contained five uniformly sized pills. Giving the bottle a slight shake sent the pills rattling smoothly inside.
She poured one out and inspected it.
The pill was pale green and perfectly round, but upon closer inspection, numerous specks of discoloration were visible within the green hue. Bringing it close to sniff, there was almost no pill fragrance to speak of.
Shi Yu twitched her lips, unable to mask her disdain.
Dew-Condensing Pills were Tier-1 pills, the most common medicinal pills taken by cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Shi Yu was no longer as ignorant as when she had first transmigrated. After browsing through various markets over the past few days, she had quietly filled in her common knowledge of this world.
In the Origin Realm, based on the age and medicinal potency of the spirit plants used as well as the alchemist's skill, the efficacy of the finished pill varied. Aside from waste pills, every tier of medicinal pill was further divided into three grades: Low, Mid, and High.
Waste pills were visibly flawed, lacking a round shape, possessing an irregular form, and featuring an uneven, pitted surface. Leaving aside their abysmal medicinal efficacy, what was far worse was the excessive pill toxicity within them. Consuming them brought no benefits whatsoever, instead harming one's body and cultivation.
Low-grade pills were neat, smooth, and perfectly round, with little to no pill fragrance. Their efficacy was acceptable, though they contained a fair amount of impurities and pill toxicity.
Mid-grade pills were perfectly round while also releasing a noticeable pill fragrance—one that could be refreshing to the soul or captivating to the mind, depending on the pill's nature. Their medicinal efficacy was higher, and impurities as well as pill toxicity were drastically reduced.
High-grade pills went a step further; besides possessing a distinct fragrance, a hazy halo known as a "pill halo" appeared on their surface. At the High grade, the medicinal efficacy could be utilized almost to a full hundred percent, with next to no pill toxicity.
Of course, this classification was not absolute. For instance, if an average alchemist used rare spirit plants with immense age and potency, the resulting pill's medicinal effect might reach the Mid-grade or High-grade level, yet be plagued with an overwhelming amount of impurities and pill toxicity. Depending on the circumstances, such a pill might be classified as Mid-grade or High-grade.
Conversely, even an alchemist of supreme skill could not make bricks without straw if they only had spirit plants of low age and weak potency. Even if the pill they refined contained virtually no impurities or pill toxicity, it could only be classified as Low-grade based on its medicinal strength.
Generally speaking, inspecting the shape, smelling the pill fragrance, and identifying the pill halo were reliable methods for distinguishing between Low-, Mid-, and High-grade pills.
In the game Xian Yuan, however, there was another tier above High-grade pills: Supreme-grade pills.
Supreme-grade pills not only possessed both fragrance and a halo, but their surfaces were also etched with pill veins of various forms. Certain high-tier pills could even be further categorized within the Supreme grade based on the complexity and quantity of their pill veins.
For example, before Shi Yu transmigrated, she had refined a Tier-9 pill in the game—the Wangsheng Soul-Returning Pill.
On that longan-sized pill were engraved several types of pill veins containing the true intent of the Grand Dao, depicting auspicious beasts, mountains, and rivers. It felt as though one could glimpse all living beings within that single, tiny pill.
Supreme-grade pills brought medicinal efficacy to its absolute limit, completely devoid of impurities or pill toxicity. If an alchemist successfully refined a Supreme-grade pill, observing the formed pill veins upon completion would be immensely beneficial for comprehending the true intent of the Grand Dao, naturally providing immense aid to advancing their cultivation realm.
This wasn't limited to alchemy, either. Artifact forging, talisman crafting, and array mastership yielded similar benefits when brought to their absolute perfection.
This was the meaning behind the saying that the Dao took ten thousand paths.
The world of Xian Yuan shared largely the same worldview as the Origin Realm. Shi Yu had not heard any mention of Supreme-grade pills here yet, leaving her unsure whether the Origin Realm truly lacked this classification, or if this remote region meant the local cultivators had limited knowledge.
Be that as it may, the Dew-Condensing Pills resting in the small jade bottle before her were unimpressively round with no special qualities—classic Low-grade Dew-Condensing Pills.
Low-grade pills had limited efficacy and contained a high amount of impurities and pill toxicity.
If one consumed too many of such pills over a long period, the accumulated pill toxicity within the body would affect their state of mind and cultivation. Without finding a way to refine and purge the toxicity, it would become an increasing hindrance to one's path of cultivation.
All cultivators understood this, but circumstances dictated their choices. If given the chance to use Mid-grade or High-grade Dew-Condensing Pills, who wouldn't? Yet Mid-grade Dew-Condensing Pills cost several times more, and High-grade ones were exorbitantly expensive. Excellent as high-grade pills were, what was the point if one couldn't afford them?
Furthermore, one couldn't refrain from taking pills altogether out of fear of pill toxicity.
The path of cultivation was fraught with perils and danger at every turn. To contend for opportunities, to fight against heaven and fellow men, taking various pills was unavoidable. Terrifying as pill toxicity was, could it be more terrifying than losing one's life?
Fortunately, pill toxicity wasn't a major issue for Shi Yu.
Possessing a fire-attribute spiritual meridian made it naturally easier for her to refine and purge pill toxicity compared to other cultivators. In the game, she possessed a trait called "Ancient Clan Descendant." Though it was never explicitly stated which ancient clan it was, various signs later indicated it was likely related to the phoenix clan.
The phoenix clan's natal fire, the Nirvana Pure Fire, was the sovereign among flames. Regrettably, when Shi Yu transmigrated, her bloodline had not yet awakened, so her natal fire had naturally not evolved into Nirvana Pure Fire either.
Even so, her natal fire still displayed a distinct uniqueness compared to others', carrying an imperious majesty that commanded authority among flames, making the refining of internal pill toxicity far from difficult.
However... her Supreme-grade Fire-attribute Spiritual Meridian had been forcibly extracted and implanted into Eldest Senior Sister Yan Xiao. She didn't know if her newly grown fire-attribute spiritual meridian would retain its past might in the future, or if it could still awaken the Ancient Clan Descendant trait.
But even without it, she remembered plenty of methods in her mind to purge pill toxicity, so she didn't need to worry too much regardless.
Besides, when she consumed the Life Spring water, in addition to replenishing life force and filling her spiritual power, it also seemed to possess the effect of purging impurities from her body.
Considering all this, there was no need to worry about pill toxicity for now. She only needed to focus on refining the pill's potency to quickly cultivate and step into the First Layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
“I only hope my cultivation rises quickly so that a natal fire can spawn within my spiritual meridian.”
“No matter whether this newly born natal fire is strong or weak, good or bad, as long as it works, that's enough.”
She had always used her own natal fire for alchemy and artifact forging. Although mundane fire and earth fire could also be used, they were never as handy as her own natal fire.
Spiritual energy, divine sense, fire seed, heavenly materials, and earthly treasures—lacking any one of these made alchemy and artifact forging impossible.
She shook her head, swallowed a Dew-Condensing Pill, and began circulating her cultivation technique to refine the pill's medicinal power.
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