Practicing the Pill Technique

"Eh? Kiddo, you handed back the wrong book." Xie Gang tried to give back the Spiritual Pill Refinement Technique.

"I've no interest in that book."

"Ah, ok- wait, what??"

"Instead, I'll accept this notebook."

"B, wha...?" Xie Gang had no idea what was happening.

"Grandpa, do you not know how valuable this is?" Lan Xiang's eyes were stuck on the notebook.

Oho, I'm completely aware of how valuable that is. It's worthless. Xie Gang wanted to reply with those words, but they got stuck in his throat.

Why is Lan Xiang looking at it with so much amazement if it is really worthless?

Do geniuses have different trains of thought?

At the side, Xie Jian had a rough idea of what Lan Xiang was doing. He was refusing the manual, as it might put his life in danger, but also making sure to not hurt her grandfather's ego, so he decided to keep the notebook.

And so, Xie Jian played along with Lan Xiang. "That's right, grandpa, don't you know that this notebook is really important?"

"Huh? Jian'er, what are you saying? This notebook is completely useless..." Lan Xiang had no idea what Xie Jian was thinking.

"..." Xie Jian.

"..." Xie Gang.

.....

A woman who looked like she was in her 30s sat on a rocking chair, staring out a single window. A scarf wrapped around her neck as she watched the snow fall heavily outside.

Her phone suddenly began to ring.

"Xie Gang".

It was her husband, who she was just thinking about. Her worries were alleviated because of the phone call.

"Hello, dear. Did your appointment with Doctor Guo go well?" Lu Ran smiled peacefully.

"Ranran, quick! Open video call! It's urgent!"

"Eh...? V, video call?" Lu Ran fumbled around on her phone. From her husband's voice, it was clear that something bad had happened. Perhaps he just wanted to see her face one last time.

A few minutes later, Lu Ran still hadn't figured out how to turn on the "video call" her husband was talking about.

"Xifa! Come here, hurry!"

Lu Xifa came out of the bathroom and rushed to her grandaunt. "What? What's wrong?"

"How do I turn on video call?"

Lu Xifa let out a heavy sigh. "Right here, auntie."

"Huhu, technology is so complicated these days."

As soon as video call was on, Lu Ran's attention was glued to the screen. It was of a familiar face, a face she was so deeply attracted to...

"Dear, what happened to you? Why did you turn young again?"

Xie Gang laughed loudly on the other side of the screen. "You should come back here, to Shenzing. I'll tell you everything!"

"Oh, dear, I'm too far up north to travel right now. There's heavy snowfall everywhere."

Even though she said that, Lu Ran still made plans to come back. Maybe sometime this week? On Wednesday, perhaps.

Lu Xifa had long finished her bath as she looked at her grandaunt still talking to her husband on the phone.

Lu Ran glanced behind her before she continued chatting with Xie Gang.

.....

Xie Jian stepped out of Lan Xiang's room to cook him something. In the meantime, he opened the system.

[Technique Improvement System]

Techniques currently learned: 24

Tech points: 565

Great job progressing!

"Hm."

Prior to Lan Xiang acquiring the two techniques, Spiritual Pill Refinement and Pill Refinement Notes, he only had 60 tech points.

So, Lan Xiang devised a tech point value to each level based on what he knew thus far.

Upon learning, a blank level would give him a measly 5 tech points. A white level technique would give him 10, and jumping all the way to purple would give him 500.

Meanwhile, in terms of selling, a natural purple would be the only worthwhile technique to sell, since they're of no use to him and they have incredible value. The revised, upgraded purples had much less sell value than the naturally purple ones.

"So, that means I should go around acquiring purple level techniques and use those to upgrade trash level techniques. Nice! I have a plan now..."

As he mulled over his plan, Xie Jian came back with some hot porridge.

A little later.

"Um, Xiang."

"Hrm? Whrt rs rt?" Lan Xiang's mouth was full.

"...Do I really need to feed you?" Xie Jian said, as she fed another spoonful of porridge to Lan Xiang.

"Eh, just indulge me once in a while, this feels nice." Lan Xiang was absent-minded.

Xie Jian suddenly felt lazy to hold the spoon, but continued to feed him. Seeing Lan Xiang's satisfied face made her happy.

She left the room with an empty bowl.

Lan Xiang took out a furnace from under his bed, one filled with countless figures and inscriptions on its outside. Inside, it had an impeccably smooth surface.

Xie Gang had given this to him instead as he didn't accept the Spiritual Pill Refinement manual.

In the meantime, Lan Xiang upgraded the Pill Refinement Notes to purple level.

Pill Refinement Notes Revised ver.

Purple level technique

Average practicing speed: Extremely fast

Requirement: Level 6 (Attribution Form Realm)

Limit: Level 18 (Realm of Ascension)

Pill mastery: Extremely high

Founder: Lan Xiang (3 hours ago)

Advance: 500 t-pts.

Sell value: 150 t-pts.

Since there was a loophole in the system that allowed for lower leve techniques to be upgraded at an extravagantly low price, the blank level technique Pill Refinement Notes only costed 350 tech points in total to upgrade to purple level.

Tech points: 215

"Heehee, this is already better than the Spiritual Pill Refinement technique.

"But this one has a requirement, huh? It's the first time I've seen this."

In the end, Lan Xiang shrugged. He was Level 6 anyways, why would he need to care more about a requirement he already passed?

He sat down on the floor and sat beside it.

"Okay, whew."

There were no pills for him to make, for he had no pill recipes to follow. What he was doing now was training the technique.

Since Xie Gang's notes were based on the Spiritual Pill Refinement, and the Xie family used primarily water element techniques, Lan Xiang had to utilize the water element, something he had never done before. Of course, he could also use other elements to use this technique, it just wouldn't be as efficient.

As Xie Jian entered the room, she felt that the air was a little humid. She saw Lan Xiang sitting beside the furnace with his eyes closed, his hands moving in a familiar way.

Xie Jian realized that Lan Xiang was practicing the Spiritual Refinement Technique.

Wait, the Spiritual Refinement Technique?