Page: Advances

One day has passed since Long Bai started staying at the Hu residence. At the moment, he was preoccupied in trying to breach the layer between the flesh refining stage and the visceral stage. With the few numbers of essence shards that were left on the floor where he was sitting, he felt a blissful sensation after reaching the visceral stage. Although it didn't take much time for Long Bai to reach the next minor realm because of the system's assist , he realized that the amount of resources he would require for the next layers has significantly increased. This made Long Bai reconsider about looking for places that are rich in essences, may it be world essence or elemental essence.

Yesterday, upon arrival, Long Bai was escorted to a wide room with an expensive looking pill furnace at its middle. This was the place where Hu Ling, the head of the family provided. The room was spacious and with a simple design to prevent mishaps during pill making. On the counter beside the pill furnace were the materials he requested which includes hundreds of essence shards. Since he was asked if there were other things he needed, he bluntly stated some figures of essence shards and yet they did not go against it. Instead, they provided even more shards than the amount Long Bai said. Now that he's done with his first step, it is now time for the next objectives.

[STATUS

Cultivation: Visceral Tempering stage (initial -1st)

Core grade: Unique (elemental)

Skills:

Movement skills:

~Flash Steps (mastered)

...

...

...]

Long Bai separated first the herbs for making the grade 4 pill and herbs meant for making a grade 3pill. At this juncture of time, he plans to increase first the efficiency of the grade 3 alchemy skills before attempting to make the grade 4 pill.

On another part of the Hu residence not far away from Bai's location, the whole council of the household were holding a meeting. In there, a debate is going on and the discussion was none other than Long Bai.

"We need to ask another physician to look on Liqin's condition. What's difficult about that?"

The elders were demanding the same but the head's sister who was the household's physician opposes it.

"Are you doubting this household's physician? I've been curing enumerable diseases that attacked this family for a ling time. Are you saying that my long time experience is not enough? Now, you're even asking an outsider to diagnose Little Liqin? What if this information will be leaked outside? Will you be able to handle the outcome?"

"Sisters, please calm down. I trust my sister's diagnosis. I also know that you are worried about my daughter but this man that I invited might be the answer. Although he looks suspicious, his skills are proven by the quality of pills he make and compared to the past ones, he never asked something too absurd. In addition, sister Hong diagnosed my daughter and assessed that she has few months left. I can't wait any longer. I have no choice but to take chances in these kinds of opportunity. I hope you understand."

"Esteemed Leader, we didn't mean anything bad. Liqin was like our daughter too but I hope you will reconsider our plea. We are the household's elders but you are the head so we will follow your decision. "

"Alright, as the head, I will not change my decision. I will be the one to closely monitor our guest. This meeting is over. "

Everyone started to return to their everyday work but before the room was emptied, Hu Ling called her sister's attention.

"Sister Hong, thank you for staying by my side since we were young. I owe you a lot."

Elder Hong replied a smile and exited the room. At the hallway, elder Hong clutched both of her hands with anger. She was the older sister but because her younger sister had a better aptitude, she was left to become an advisor instead of taking the household head position. A lot of negative emotions welled up from within causing her to curse silently at her situation.

'Just you wait, if the plan works, they will see your incompetence and impeach you from your position. Ahh... I can't wait to see your face when you realize that you killed your own daughter. Haha. I really hope that man will be successful in making the pill.'

The hallway she was traversing was quiet but her mind was filled with the echoes of her laughter. The idea of giving despair to the ones who belittled her became more satisfying in her head as she continued to imagine the many possible outcomes. She tried gaining support from the past in secret but due to her weak aptitude, only those who have similar desires like her were swayed. Although she never plotted to kill her sister in the past, this time was different. She's tired and sick of being on the sidelines, being treated like an ordinary resident of the household.

Elder Hong went straight to her own place and drowned her sorrows with good wine. Back on Long Bai's place, he had just finished creating the grade 3 pills. Over all, he was able to significantly increase his proficiency in making grade 3 pills. Along with the experience, he was able to make high grade batches of the fire essence pill and the decade pill, a low grade life- extending pill.

[STATUS

Alchemy level: Student

*As a student, you are able to grasp the fundamentals of making pills. Now, you are able to maximize your essence per creation to eight pieces.

Max output per creation/attempt:

+grade 1&2 (10 pills)

+grade 3&4 (8 pills)

~grade 1 (100%)

~grade 2 (100%)

~grade 3

-low (92%)

-mid (83%)

-high (71%)

-mystic (59%)

~grade 4

-low (31%)

-mid (23%)

-high (10%)

-mystic 1%). ]

It is time to attempt the grade 4 pill from the scroll. Judging from the contents, Bai was able to make a guess of the type of pill he's making and was only confirmed by the system after reading the whole content of the paper. After learning the pill characteristics, Bai was momentarily curious as to how they would use it however, this was not his main concern for now.

At the first attempt, there was no pill formed but just a powdery substance. What Bai was attempting to create was the mystic grade. As for his reasons, the efficiency of the lower grades improve as long as he tries to make the pills with the highest grade. As for this, Bai suspects that pills are fundamentally at the mystic grade and their grade just gets lower due to lack of understanding on the process or the concentration was not fundamentally reached its peak.

When a low quality pill is created, this means that the alchemist was only able to maintain about 20-25% of the pill's maximum quality.

Now for the second attempt, the product was still powder in form however there are small lumpy bodies that coagulated. This means that the efficiency has gone up to an extent that a pill was nearly formed. At the third attempt, lumps are more apparent and are harder than the previous. This was Bai's last practice round as he used up the 3 out of 4 worth of ingredients.

STATUS

Alchemy level: Student

*As a student, you are able to grasp the fundamentals of making pills. Now, you are able to maximize your essence per creation to eight pieces.

Max output per creation/attempt:

+grade 1&2 (10 pills)

+grade 3&4 (8 pills)

~grade 1 (100%)

~grade 2 (100%)

~grade 3

-low (98%)

-mid (89%)

-high (77%)

-mystic (64%)

~grade 4

-low (91%)

-mid (83%)

-high (70%)

-mystic 61%). ]

For the final attempt, Long Bai can only rely on the 70% for making the pill. It was the last shot he have for the day. Now, pill making, commence!

Long Bai's essence entered the furnace where the ingredients were being heated. Using the system's automated function, his essence steadily extracted the essence of the herbs and slowly condensed it at the middle of the furnace. Now for the third step, a huge amount of essence from Long Bai's essence core was pouring out of his body towards the furnace to create a great pressure from all around the coagulated extract. Little by little, the heat causes the moisture of the extract to evaporate leaving the powdery part inside the furnace. This was it, the final phase of the condensation where the powdery substance needs to be formed into a pill.

Long Bai was intently watching the whole process. 1, 2, 3, and 4. Inside the furnace, Long Bai was able to count 4 pills with golden outer color. The exhaustion he felt was after all rewarding.

[System notice: You were able to create 4 grade 4 pill of high quality, the Freezing heart pill. The effects upon ingesting causes one's heartbeat to slow down. People with weak constitution must not ingest this pill or it will lead to a slow and painless death. ]