Fang Ping returned to his small courtyard.
After drinking a cup of water and resting briefly, he took out the jade slip that recorded the Basic Understanding of the Dao of Alchemy.
This time, he was not as perfunctory as when he had flipped through the Heavenly Heart Pharmacopoeia. Instead, he mustered the same desperate drive he once had for his college entrance exams, burying himself in assiduous study.
Starting from foundational theory, he progressed to medicinal principles, the transformations of medicinal properties, fire control, alchemy techniques, and the accompanying data on common Spirit Grass. He read thoroughly, moving step-by-step from the shallow to the profound.
Every day, outside of cultivation, he spent all his remaining time clutching this alchemy text. He studied to the point where even in his dreams, he was memorizing the medicinal properties of spirit herbs.
The systematic education he had received before transmigrating was ultimately still of use.
Once Fang Ping truly applied that desperate drive, it took him only a month to become thoroughly familiar with the Basic Understanding of the Dao of Alchemy.
But memorization was one thing; whether he could actually put it into practice was another matter entirely.
“Other newcomers learning the Dao of Alchemy can’t afford to burn through medicinal materials. They can only repeatedly deliberate and mentally simulate before refining, trying their best to improve their chances. But I have the Prime Cauldron. I can practice through actual hands-on work!”
This was his unique advantage.
Releasing the Prime Cauldron from his Dantian, Fang Ping took out a set of Inedia Pill materials packaged by the Pill Cauldron Workshop and placed them inside.
After adding a small amount of mountain spring water rich in Spiritual Qi, he followed the basic techniques recorded in the Basic Understanding of the Dao of Alchemy. He formed hand seals, raising a steady stream of spirit fire.
Compared to the mortal Minor Restoration Pill, refining the Inedia Pill required far stricter fire control.
He needed to make constant minor adjustments based on the characteristics of the spirit medicines, strictly following the requirements of the Inedia Pill formula.
As the spirit fire surged, the medicinal liquid and materials within the Prime Cauldron began to churn and boil.
Just as in his previous attempts, an invisible restriction automatically activated within the cauldron, confining all the medicinal liquid and any medicinal power that would otherwise dissipate, without the slightest loss.
Thanks to Fang Ping’s diligent study of the text and formula, the initial refinement went fairly smoothly.
But after only the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a slight error in his manipulation of Spiritual Power caused the temperature of the spirit fire to rise slightly too high. The fusion of the spirit medicines within the cauldron immediately turned unstable.
“Sure enough, true Spirit Pills aren’t so easy to refine!”
Watching the minor error trigger a continuous chain reaction that completely ruined the Inedia Pill refinement, Fang Ping shook his head and activated his first rewind of the day.
The mysterious and vast divine light of time emerged, returning everything to its original state!
After summing up the experience and insights from his failure, Fang Ping pressed on without pause, beginning his second attempt.
“The fire is still too hot. Rewind!”
Third attempt!
“This time the timing for harmonizing the medicinal properties was off. Rewind!”
Fourth attempt!
When it was time to condense the liquid, my Spiritual Power fluctuated slightly. Again!
After relentless, persistent attempts, Fang Ping reaped failure after failure, until all nine rewinds for the day were exhausted.
Imperceptibly, these failures were also tempering his Dao Heart.
When a person has a clear goal and sufficient motivation to pursue it, time passes in a flash.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
On this day.
Fang Ping stood before the Prime Cauldron, once again starting up his alchemy.
Over the past month, he had fully utilized the Prime Cauldron’s rewind ability, refining at least nine furnaces of Spirit Pills every single day.
Although he had ostensibly only been studying alchemy for a month, this high-intensity practice meant he had actually refined hundreds of furnaces of Inedia Pills.
Although every attempt had ended in failure, through these zero-cost, repeated trials, he had gradually grasped the crucial tricks.
He could clearly feel that his control over his Spiritual Power was becoming much more refined and subtle.
His sensitivity to the changing medicinal properties within the cauldron, as well as his grasp of fire control, had become far more precise.
During yesterday’s final furnace, he had actually been extremely close to success.
It was just that the produced Inedia Pills had significant flaws. Their exteriors were slightly blackened, qualifying them only as defective products, so he had ultimately rewound the process.
“Today, I might just succeed!”
With a measure of anticipation, Fang Ping continuously formed hand seals, finely tuning the flame within the cauldron, and precisely timed the harmonization of the medicinal properties.
Finally!
A faint sound echoed from within the cauldron as all the medicinal materials perfectly fused into a milky-white liquid.
Fang Ping did not hesitate to stop the fire. After the Prime Cauldron’s invisible restriction dissipated, he utilized a basic pill-separating technique recorded in the Basic Understanding of the Dao of Alchemy, grabbing toward the liquid that was just about to condense into pills.
In a normal alchemy process, it was impossible to perfectly divide all of the medicinal liquid. Once the furnace was opened, the Spiritual Qi and medicinal power contained within the liquid would rapidly dissipate under the high temperatures, inevitably resulting in some waste.
A skilled alchemist, however, could use precise and efficient pill-separating techniques to increase the final output.
For example, when refining Inedia Pills, an ordinary alchemy apprentice might only produce seven or eight pills per furnace. A first-tier alchemist who had mastered an exquisite pill-separating technique, on the other hand, could produce ten.
Those extra two to three pills embodied the gap in skill between a true alchemist and a mere apprentice—and directly affected the final profits!
Although Fang Ping was only using an ordinary pill-separating technique, his repeated practice still made his hand movements a dazzling blur.
In the blink of an eye, right as the liquid in the cauldron was about to volatilize, Fang Ping separated it into round, white medicinal pills, instantly sealing them.
With the final step completed, Fang Ping looked at the six Pills resting quietly at the bottom of his porcelain bottle, his heart stirring with excitement.
Hundreds of failed furnaces, yet he had consumed only a single set of materials.
His first successful refinement had actually yielded six pills!
Without the Prime Cauldron’s help, Fang Ping would never have dared to dream of such an achievement.
Of course, when drinking water, one must not forget the man who dug the well.
Fang Ping did not forget which great benefactor had self-destructed his life-bound Dharma Treasure just to cross the void and deliver the Prime Cauldron right to him.
“Perfected Qingyang… what a guy. I’m so moved I could cry!”
Having silently thanked a certain someone for their selfless sacrifice, Fang Ping examined his first batch of finished products. He took one out, tasted its effects, and compared it against the Inedia Pills he had used in the past.
A moment later, Fang Ping had a clear assessment.
“Aside from the final two Inedia Pills, whose effects are slightly inferior and can be classified as defective, the first four have no issues at all. They can be bottled and sold directly!”
“In the market, a bottle of ten Inedia Pills goes for one Spirit Stone.”
“But five sets of Inedia Pill materials also cost exactly one Spirit Stone.”
Assuming an alchemy apprentice’s average yield of eight pills per furnace, if all five attempts succeeded, they would produce forty Inedia Pills, which would sell for four Spirit Stones!
After deducting the one Spirit Stone material cost, that was an astonishing three hundred percent net profit!
Of course, in reality, such a high success rate was impossible.
However, considering that the Inedia Pill was, after all, a Low Grade basic pill with a low difficulty of refinement, it wasn’t hard for a skilled alchemy apprentice to maintain a success rate of fifty to sixty percent.
Even calculating at a fifty percent success rate, five furnaces would produce an average of twenty Inedia Pills. That still left a one hundred percent net profit!
This one hundred percent net profit, of course, didn’t account for the wear and tear on the pill cauldron, the alchemist’s labor cost, or the initial investment required to learn.
Even so, the high profit margins of the Dao of Alchemy were blatantly obvious.
“However, with the Prime Cauldron’s aid, my initial investment is zero!”
A supreme treasure like this shouldn’t suffer wear and tear like an ordinary Magical Artifact… so there’s no need to consider depreciation.
“Additionally, I have nine guaranteed rewinds every day.”
Under these circumstances, Fang Ping’s alchemy profit margins would far exceed those of an ordinary alchemy apprentice.
And this was only a basic pill found everywhere. It had stable prices and no room for markups. If it were a Middle Grade basic pill like the Origin Condensation Pill that could increase one’s cultivation, or even a true first-tier Spirit Pill…
Hiss…
He did not even dare to imagine it!