For the next half a month, Nan Zhi dove headfirst into the alchemy room, ignoring everything else to bury herself in refining pills.
Blood Supplementing Pills, Qi-Supplementing Pills, Rejuvenation Pills, Qi-Augmenting Pills, inedia pills, Spirit-Absorbing Pills, and Origin-Restoring Pills...
The pill recipes she had collected before, combined with Daoist Qinglong's private collection, added up to around a hundred in total.
Nan Zhi picked out the low-grade recipes to test them one by one, but they all ended in failure.
As for the more powerful offensive pills, she didn't even need to think about them. She hadn't even gathered all the ingredients yet, let alone began condensing the pills.
Thus, over the course of more than ten consecutive days, the only pill Nan Zhi successfully refined was the inedia pill used by Qi Refinement stage cultivators.
“Polygonatum, sesame seeds, black beans, mulberries, and red rice—refined in the cauldron for one-eighth of a shichen, and you get a hundred inedia pills. The yield is actually beyond my expectations.”
Nan Zhi pinched a round pill, her expression strange.
“Why is it that only the inedia pill succeeded? Clearly, the Blood Supplementing Pill and Qi-Supplementing Pill are low-grade pills of the exact same tier. Is there any difference?
“And... what on earth is a completely impurity-free inedia pill?”
Cultivation pills were divided into nine grades in total, and above the ninth grade, there were immortal pills.
Among the types of pills consumed by practitioners, there was a further distinction of Heavenly Yuan, Earthly Yuan, Mortal Yuan (Xuan Yuan), and Huang Yuan.
Heavenly Yuan pills used heaven and earth as their cauldron, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, and naturally evolving from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into heavenly treasures. They contained no impurities and were extremely pure.
Every single one of these “pills” was a supreme treasure of heaven and earth. Once consumed, the user could ascend on the spot and attain the Great Dao.
But such pills had only ever existed in myths and legends.
Earthly Yuan pills were “pills” nurtured by Heavenly Treasure Trees or spirit stone veins, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon.
For example, the Ginseng Fruits, Peaches of Immortality, and Fire Dates in 《Journey to the West》, or the Yellow Plums that took ten thousand years to mature and the Immortal Apricots that granted the power to control lightning upon consumption in 《Investiture of the Gods》.
The first two types of “pills” were completely free of impurities. When practitioners consumed them, they not only avoided the trouble of pill toxins, but could also extend their lifespan and greatly boost their cultivation, offering a hundred benefits without a single harm.
Mortal Yuan pills, also known as Xuan Yuan pills, were the most common pills refined by practitioners.
Humans borrowed power from heaven and earth to refine pills using spirit herbs. Even if one's cultivation reached the heavens, they still could not replicate the natural processes of heaven and earth to refine a spirit pill that was completely pure and free of impurities.
When humans consumed pills, the impurities within them would accumulate over time, condensing into pill toxins in the body and hindering the path to immortality.
Huang pills mostly referred to poor-quality pills filled with impurities, or spirit herbs consumed directly without processing.
The higher the quality of a spirit pill, the fewer impurities it contained.
Therefore, when practitioners consumed pills, they would prefer spirit pills of higher quality to avoid any obstruction to their immortal bodies during their future ascension.
The pills circulating on the Four Provinces Continent were mostly divided into high, medium, and low grades. Anything lower was classified under Huang pills.
As for top-grade or supreme-grade pills, they never circulated on the market. Once they appeared, they would inevitably be claimed by various sects and clans.
So, logically speaking, only after ascending and becoming a Golden Immortal, gaining enlightenment of heaven and earth, and glimpsing the principles of creation from the laws of heaven and earth, could one refine a completely impurity-free pill.
There were no immortals in the world, so how could there be a flawless, man-made pill?
Yet at this moment, Nan Zhi held one in her hand.
【Inedia Pill (Immortal Grade): An immortal's inedia. Consuming it staves off hunger for half a month.】
She furrowed her brows and thought about it carefully, her emotions complicated.
So, she had used the simplest ingredients to refine a batch of the lowest-grade... immortal pills?
—It was like going out to scavenge trash, and using a piece of rusted wire she found to hand-craft a perfect screw for an aircraft carrier.
“So, there are no special bonuses, no other effects, and it just keeps you from getting hungry for half a month after eating it?
“An Immortal Grade inedia pill... What's the difference between this and building an electromagnetic railgun only to find out it can only be used to swat mosquitoes?”
The corner of Nan Zhi's eye twitched slightly as she stuffed the inedia pill into a large gourd she had prepared and gave it a shake.
Inside the hollow gourd, the sound of over a thousand rolling inedia pills was exceptionally pleasant to the ear.
Alchemy was not just a technical skill; it was also a form of metaphysics.
Over this past half a month, the only pill she hadn't failed to refine was the inedia pill.
The most ridiculous part was that the success rate of refining inedia pills was one hundred percent.
So, she now had over a thousand “immortal pills” in her hands.
Yes, immortal pills that served absolutely no purpose other than keeping her full for half a month after consumption.
...
New Year was being celebrated everywhere, and even the entrances of the buildings on the island base were hung with festive red lanterns and couplets.
Nan Zhi walked out of the alchemy room with unsteady steps, looking as if she were questioning her entire existence, with two plump, worm-like demon beasts following close behind her.
“Happy New Year.”
She greeted a guard stationed nearby, who saluted and smiled back:
“Happy New Year, Teacher Nan! These two big darlings of yours have been waiting for you at the door every day, practically wearing their eyes out looking for you!”
Nan Zhi sighed helplessly.
Ever since these two Golden-Winged Flying Centipede pups recognized her as their master, as long as they weren't staying inside the red gourd, they would follow her wherever she went.
Under her careful feeding, the two fat worms had doubled in size in just half a month.
When they stood upright, they could almost reach Nan Zhi's chest.
Perhaps due to a mutation, or perhaps thanks to the dragon meat, the two centipede pups looked nothing like the dead giant centipede—
They were snowy white all over, round, and chubby, covered in a dense layer of soft white fluff. A pair of translucent wings was tucked behind their backs, and above the six large compound eyes on their heads were two slender antennae.
Since she couldn't tell their genders for the time being, Nan Zhi simply named the two little ones Dajin and Xiaojin.
The one with a larger head and thinner body was Dajin, while the one with a slightly smaller head and thicker body was Xiaojin.
Nan Zhi had been obsessed with refining pills during this period, and Dajin and Xiaojin were sensible enough to lie by the door of the alchemy room, acting as sentries.
If anyone tried to approach, they would immediately stand upright and hiss to drive the intruder away.
—Earlier, a young soldier who lingered for a bit while delivering food to Nan Zhi had been ruthlessly hung up at the entrance by the two fat worms.
In the end, it was Qin Yue who rushed over to rescue him.
Seeing Nan Zhi finally leave the alchemy room, Dajin and Xiaojin stood upright, their massive heads gently nudging her stomach as they made some meaningless whimpering noises:
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!”
One on each side, they clung to Nan Zhi's legs, looking exactly like begging kittens or puppies acting spoiled:
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak!”
Having received the news, Qin Yue hurried over and couldn't help but laugh at the sight:
“Little Aunt, you're finally out. How did it go? Any gains?”
“You could say I made some progress, but I seem to have hit a bottleneck. I had to come out to clear my head.”
Nan Zhi retrieved a thread of dragon meat as thin as a strand of hair from her storage bag and fed it to Dajin and Xiaojin respectively:
“I haven't asked you yet—how is the bonding with your spirit turtle going?”
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