After a Week of Refining

A week later

A knock sounded outside the door of Sheng Zhen's house before it was opened by a frayed-looking Sheng Zhen. His eyes were bloodshot and his hairs were matted with dust and debris. Even his usually pristine green robes were stained with soot and such.

Outer sect disciple that knocked on the door did not seem to be fazed by the sight. As someone who was in charge of delivering Pill ingredients, he was not new to such sights. Although even in his entire time here he never saw someone so young so passionate about alchemy.

"Today's ingredients batch is here, young master." the outer sect disciple said, cupping his hands while two more Outer sect disciples unloading heavy wooden crates twice their size from the back of the beast, and placed them at Sheng Zhen's feet.

"Good Work", Sheng Zhen praised them, before proceeding to effortlessly pick up the crate thrice his size and went inside the house. The outer disciples that unloaded the crate just watched in shock.

Inside, Sheng Zhen went to the alchemy workshop and placed the crate in a corner. The whole alchemy room was a mess, soot, ash, and gunk, remnants of failed pills. Sheng Zhen spent the entire week trying to make as many pills as possible. As well as experimenting to advance to become a Rank 3 alchemist, but only to meet failure every time.

The only thing left pristine in the room was the bronze alchemy cauldron sitting in the center. Even the spirit lamp that always burned under the cauldron was discarded to a corner.

"Xiao Yan, get up. It's no time to laze around", a blood-red flame in the vague shape of a child materialized on his palm before jumping down towards the cauldron and manifesting as red flames under it.

Uncaring of the expensive green robes, Sheng Zhen sat on the floor in front of the large cauldron and released the tight hold on his immense spiritual energy. The ingredient-filled crate's lid opened and dozens of ingredients started to float around the cauldron, like the earth around the sun.

"Let's start with Foundation Strengthening Pills, superior grade one's are worth quite a lot of Pill Contributions", Sheng Zhen mused before focusing back on ingredients.

"Moon nip flower's petals", a white, five-petaled flower floated towards him, floating just above the cauldron. The heat from Earth Flame Spirit burned away the physical flower, leaving behind the ethereal alchemic essence of the flower. After that, he levitated other ingredients and started the delicate refining process.

Lost in pill refining, he did not notice Daiyu coming down from the bedroom. She still looked pale, with black veins visible on every part of her skin but it was not as bad as a week before. Staggering due to lingering weakness, she softly hopped down behind Sheng Zhen.

All ingredients entered the cauldron one by one, guided by Sheng Zhen's spiritual energy. He removed the impurities, refined the essence, and refined the properties of ingredients he needed while removing those he didn't.

An hour passed like that before long, the all the essence was refined enough for Sheng Zhen's taste.

'Well, making a flawless pill might earn me a lot of points, but all the scrutiny that would follow would not be worth it.' he thought. If other alchemists knew what he was thinking, they would have tied his limbs and thrown him off the Alchemy Tower. Normally alchemists spent days o just a single batch of pills, meticulously purifying the essence only to get low-grade pills most of the time. It was already a blessing if an alchemist could refine a pill with mid-grade purity.

Sheng Zhen closed the lid of the cauldron and mentally commanding Earth Flame Xiao Yan to flare, starting the last step in the pill refining process.

"Now...Form", he said, and all the ethereal essences inside the cauldron combined together. Xiao Yan's flame rose, heating the bronze cauldron so much that it started to glow. After all, the cauldron was just a low-level artifact, how could it compare to an Earth Flame Spirit, even an infant one.

But having the cauldron on verge of melting did not impede the final refining process. The essences came together, and guided by the Spiritual Energy, coagulated into a handful of Green pills.

The pills floated into Sheng Zhen's hand, and with a wave of the hand, he immediately withdrew Xiao Yan back into his body, saving the poor cauldron from melting. He frowned, this cauldron would not last long, he needed a new one.

~Clap~Clap~Clap~

Sheng Zhen turned to see Daiyu sitting on the floor behind him, clapping. Her coal-black eyes looked at him with admiration, "Whow,... that was amazing!"

"Ah, Daiyu", Sheng Zhen looked at the smiling girl. During the last week, every moment Daiyu was not awake, he spent refining pills; and every moment she was awake, he spent it on her treatment. Now her health was on the path of recovery and given time, all the impurities in vein would clean themselves, and she could cultivate again.

For him, treating Daiyu was by no means easy. Despite all his knowledge, she was his first patient. At first, she was wary of him, but seeing his genuine effort and given the fact he was just a twelve-year-old, she let her guard down a little.

"That was alchemy? That fat bas##d just poured over cauldron for days, you just did in what? an hour."

"Oh, I just use different refining techniques from what most use", he said. What he did not say was that the techniques he used were far superior to elders here. Even his control over his spiritual energy was far superior. It was obvious he would be better and faster than other alchemists. While other first-grade alchemists take more than a whole day to refine a low purity batch, he could do a batch with superior grade purity in hours.

"Hmm...do you feel hungry? You must be exhausted now. I can make something to eat.", Daiyu asked. It was another personality she had, despite knowing he was hundreds of times more powerful than her, she was still quite protective of him and expressed it in her quirky ways.

Sheng Zhen sighed, she could barely walk and still wanted to take care of him. Not to mention there was no kitchen or hearth in the house, "It is all right. Just rest,...You should recover before thinking of cooking for anyone."

"You should rest too", She said before getting up and making her way upstairs.

Sheng Zhen turned his attention back to the pills in his hand and analyzed their purity

"Eighty-five percent purity, so superior grade. Hoo..this much should be enough."

He summoned a wooden box from the shelf deactivated a small formation on it before opening it.

Immediately a scent of fresh herbs filled the entire room.

Inside lay hundreds of pills first-grade pills, similar to the one he was holding. Placing the recently refined pills inside, he again closed the box.

"I think these much should be enough to get a few Five Element Pill."

He thought of going to the tower to exchange the pills for pill contributions, only for...