The Bronze Meridian Root-Tempering Pill was much harder.
It required ironbark ginseng, bronze-vein grass, heated marrow dew, beast blood residue, meridian-soothing powder, and a tiny amount of refined Low Common beast core dust.
The difficulty lay in contradiction.
The body-tempering ingredients were harsh.
The meridian ingredients were gentle.
The root-nourishing ingredients were slow.
If refined separately, each was simple.
If merged incorrectly, the harsh force damaged the gentle essence, the gentle essence weakened the body-tempering effect, and the root-nourishing power scattered before pill formation.
The pill needed pressure.
Then softness.
Then pressure again.
Like tempering metal around living thread.
Qin Yuan placed the first ingredient into the furnace.
Fire rose.
This time, he added a flicker of lightning.
Not enough to destroy.
Only enough to stimulate separation.
The bronze-vein grass cracked open. Its essence emerged slowly, heavy and dull, carrying a metallic green light.
Qin Yuan watched it carefully.
The harsh essence wanted to dominate.
He lowered the flame, then pushed Spirit Qi through the furnace ring.
The essence folded inward.
The heated marrow dew entered next.
Steam rose.
Qin Yuan's fingers moved quickly, almost too naturally.
He knew what to do, how to do it, and where not to stumble. Everything came smoother than butter, smoother than anything else in his life. All of his talents stacked together, creating a seamless process where focus, fire, lightning, perception, memory, and pill mastery supported one another.
Fine Control Experience +0.33
Pill Mastery Experience +0.42
Multi-Focus Experience +0.29
The first batch took nearly two hours.
When it finished, Qin Yuan opened the furnace.
Two pills rested inside.
Both were bronze-green.
Both carried faint white lines like tiny meridians across their surfaces.
Both were clean.
Qin Yuan checked them twice.
High Common Rank.
Two High Common Bronze Meridian Root-Tempering Pills.
For a moment, Qin Yuan simply looked at them.
It was truly surprising.
Since creating the High Common Rank Qi Harmonizing Pill, creating another High Common pill had come almost too easily for him. No wonder there was a separation between those with genius talents and those who had to steadily work hard.
Fine Control Level Up.
Fine Control — Level 1 → Level 3
Then he let out a slow breath.
"Good."
His eyes were brighter than before.
He stored one pill and held the other.
He did not take it immediately.
Foundation pills were not candy.
Taking them incorrectly could injure meridians, clog the Spiritual Root, or waste most of the medicinal force.
Qin Yuan sat cross-legged on the floor.
He placed purification cloth beneath him.
Opened the window.
Activated the cheap room ventilation array.
Then swallowed the pill.
Heat exploded in his stomach.
Not gentle warmth.
A heavy, metallic heat.
It spread through his body like molten bronze poured into thin channels.
Qin Yuan's face tightened.
The pill's power rushed toward his meridians first, then sank toward his flesh.
His Iron Flesh Gates reacted like rusted doors being forced open.
Pain struck.
Deep pain.
Not skin pain.
Not muscle pain.
It felt as if something inside his body was grinding old iron into powder and rebuilding the frame beneath it.
His meridians burned.
His Spiritual Root trembled.
The weak root in his dantian, once dull and thin, absorbed the medicinal force slowly at first, then with increasing hunger.
Too rough.
Qin Yuan's mind sharpened.
If the medicinal force continued like this, it would improve him, but leave behind residue.
Residue meant hidden weakness.
Hidden weakness meant future cost.
He controlled his breathing.
Spirit Sense moved inward.
Absorb only what can be refined.
Reject what cannot.
Circulate through the skin, then flesh, then meridians.
Do not let the pill decide the path.
I decide.
The system flashed.
Absorption Talent Unlocked.
Absorption — Level 1
Impurity Refinement Talent Unlocked.
Impurity Refinement — Level 1
Qin Yuan's eyes remained closed.
Inside his body, the process became clearer.
The medicinal force was not one thing.
It was many.
Useful essence.
Harsh residue.
Beast blood remnants.
Burnt impurities.
Root-nourishing threads.
Body-tempering pressure.
Before, he would have endured it all and hoped for the best.
Now, he separated them.
Absorb.
Refine.
Expel.
Absorb.
Refine.
Expel.
Black-gray sweat seeped from his pores.
The room filled with a bitter metallic smell.
His bones felt heavier.
His flesh felt tighter.
His meridians, previously thin and fragile, expanded by a small but undeniable margin.
His Spiritual Root brightened faintly.
Not much.
But enough.
System notifications appeared one after another.
Absorption Experience +0.46
Impurity Refinement Experience +0.51
Cultivation Talent Experience +0.39
Spirit Sense Experience +0.32
Pill Mastery Experience +0.28
Foundation Change Detected.
Spiritual Root: Ninth-Grade Spiritual Root → Unstable Eighth-Grade Spiritual Root
Flesh Gates: Iron Flesh Gates → Unstable Bronze Flesh Gates
Qin Yuan did not open his eyes.
Unstable was not enough.
He continued refining until the first pill's power was completely exhausted.
Only then did he take the second pill.
The second pill hurt less.
Not because it was weaker.
Because Qin Yuan had changed.
His new Absorption and Impurity Refinement talents activated immediately. His Spirit Sense guided the medicinal force more smoothly. His body no longer reacted like a closed gate being battered open. It opened, accepted, filtered, and transformed.
The second wave of bronze heat sank into his flesh.
His Flesh Gates shuddered.
The iron-like stiffness broke apart.
Something denser replaced it.
Not strong.
Not yet.
But no longer the lowest of the low.
His Spiritual Root drew in the final root-nourishing threads.
The dull ninth-grade root brightened one shade further, stabilizing into the level above.
Qin Yuan's breathing became deep.
Black sweat dried on his skin.
A faint bronze sheen passed over his flesh, then disappeared.
Foundation Change Stabilized.
Spiritual Root: Eighth-Grade Spiritual Root
Flesh Gates: Bronze Flesh Gates
Impurity Refinement Level Up.
Impurity Refinement — Level 1 → Level 3
Absorption Level Up.
Absorption — Level 1 → Level 3
Qin Yuan opened his eyes.
The room was silent.
The furnace was cold.
The city lights outside the window flickered across his face.
He raised one hand.
Spirit Qi entered his body.
The difference was immediate.
Before, Spirit Qi had felt like cold mist leaking through cracked pipes.
Now it moved through his meridians with slightly less resistance.
Still slow.
Still weak compared to real geniuses.
But smoother.
Cleaner.
His body also felt different.
The muscles beneath his skin carried a faint heaviness. His bones felt more stable. His breath sank deeper into his abdomen. When he clenched his fist, his body answered more firmly than before.
Bronze Flesh Gates.
Eighth-Grade Spiritual Root.
Mid Common foundations.
Nothing worth boasting about in a great academy.
Everything worth celebrating for someone who had started at the bottom.
Qin Yuan stood and washed the impurities from his skin.
After cleaning himself, he sat back down and went into deep thought.
Qin Yuan clearly understood one thing.
Even if he revealed his Pill Dao talent, the Qin Family would bring him more harm than good.
Sure, on the surface, he would be greatly respected. If he entered the family's alchemist branch, his treatment might even surpass that of his siblings. A young alchemist with talent was valuable anywhere, especially in a family that cared deeply about status, politics, and resource control.
But respect was not the same as safety.
Once his value rose, eyes would fall on him from every direction. Elders would want to control him. Branch members would want to use him. Rivals would want to suppress him. Enemies of the Qin Family might even decide that removing him early was better than letting another useful piece grow on the family's board.
And with his meager 1st layer Spirit Opening strength, Qin Yuan would not be able to resist any of it.
High talent did not matter if he died before it became strength.
That was why he decided to bring out the magical phone he had bought a few days ago.
It was not one of those fancy crystal-gem phones used by nobles and powerful cultivators. There were no spirit-jade frames, no floating projection crystals, no private encrypted family channels, and no automatic spell-defense seals. It was just a low-end black device with a cracked protective shell, decent storage, and access to the public spirit-net.
In the modern age, information was a resource.
And like all resources, the poor received the damaged version first.
Still, it worked.
Qin Yuan leaned back in his room, lowered the brightness, and quickly searched through the available alchemist organizations in Jadefall City.
GREEN CASCADE PILL HALL
Requires recommendation letter.
LIAN FAMILY HERB AND PILL APPRENTICE PROGRAM
Requires background review and sponsor.
JADEFALL THREE PATH ACADEMY AUXILIARY PILL COURSE
Application season closed.
CLOUDGLASS TECHNICAL DAO ACADEMY PILL AUTOMATION TRACK
Requires exam score history.
LOWER MARKET FREELANCE ALCHEMIST REGISTRY
Unsafe. No protection.
Qin Yuan kept scrolling.
Then his finger paused.
CLEARBELL EASTERN THREE-PATH PILL ASSOCIATION
Public Seedling Entrance Test.
Open to Martial Cultivators, Wizards, Witches, and Warriors with verified Common-rank foundations or above.
Jointly supervised by registered Origin Sky Alchemists, Arcane Sky Medicinal Wizards, and Sky Body Pill Guards.
Same-day direct entry available for exceptional candidates.
Qin Yuan opened the details.
The association was not the most prestigious pill organization in Jadefall City, but it was fairer than most.
That mattered.
It had been founded after several scandals where noble families monopolized pill apprenticeships and buried common geniuses under contract traps. After that, the Three Path Directorate had forced several organizations to create public seedling channels.
Naturally, "fair" did not mean kind.
It simply meant the rules were written clearly enough that a person with enough ability could use them.
For Spirit Opening and Mana Opening seedlings, the direct-entry standard was brutal.
Create ten Low Common Basic Qi Harmonizing Pills and five Mid Common Basic Qi Harmonizing Pills within six hours.
Zero furnace mistakes.
Zero contaminated batches.
Zero outside assistance.
Those who failed could still receive acceptance letters later if they performed well enough.
But direct entry required crushing the day's batch.
The requirements for Spirit Masters, Arcane Masters, and higher-realm applicants were even more brutal.
Qin Yuan read the requirements twice.
Then he closed the page.
Six hours.
Ten Low Common pills.
Five Mid Common pills.
Before yesterday, that would have sounded insane.
Now?
A faint, confident smile touched Qin Yuan's lips.
It was almost too easy.