Chapter 9: Daily Cultivation

In the secret room of the pavilion, Lin Tianming sat cross-legged on a meditation mat.

After several days of cultivation, the spiritual power in his dantian had not increased significantly. It was clear that relying solely on meditation here would yield little progress.

Fortunately, he had exchanged some spiritual herbs from the family's Merit Hall before leaving, and with the Spirit Essence Pills given by his grandfather and father, he had ten in total—enough to sustain him for a year if he used one per month. The rest of his time would be spent on alchemy and meditation.

With that, he took out several sets of Bigu Pill materials, along with the Yuan Fire Flask and the Four Symbols Furnace.

The ground fire in the Yuan Fire Flask had been collected by his fifteenth grandfather at the request of his grandfather. According to his grandfather, the Yuan Fire Flask was a mid-tier first-grade spirit bottle, specifically used to contain various types of fire or precious spiritual substances. Without ground fire in Qingfeng Town, alchemy would have been impossible; obtaining it had not been easy.

Clearly, his grandfather had considered everything. He realized that such oversight could be fatal in a battle, teaching him to be more vigilant.

He had plenty of Bigu Pill materials—ten sets in total, with each set capable of producing three batches, allowing for up to thirty batches of pills.

At Green Bamboo Mountain, ten sets of materials had yielded thirty-nine Bigu Pills, qualifying him as a competent lower first-grade alchemist with a success rate of about fifty percent and more than three pills per batch.

With everything ready, he began his preparations.

After a round of meditation, he activated the Yuan Fire Flask with a series of incantations. The flask expanded to the size of a bucket, and crimson flames erupted from it, rapidly heating the room.

He placed the Four Symbols Furnace on the flask and heated it for fifteen minutes, gradually raising its internal temperature.

Every fifteen minutes, he added a spiritual herb to the furnace, closed the lid, and allowed the herbs to melt into spiritual liquid, releasing a fragrant aroma that filled the room.

He skillfully executed the processes of decomposition, purification, separation, infusion, and condensation to form the pills.

After half an hour, the fragrance grew stronger, and the smell alone reduced his hunger.

He opened the lid to find five Bigu Pills suspended inside. He carefully extracted them and placed them in a small, exquisite jade bottle.

Pills had to be stored in jade bottles to preserve their spiritual energy; ordinary containers would cause the pills to lose their potency in a few days.

Before leaving for Qingfeng Town, he had prepared several hundred jade bottles for storing his pills. High-grade pills were usually stored one per bottle.

Having successfully produced five pills from the first batch, he proceeded with the remaining two batches from the same set of materials.

After two hours, he had completed three batches of Bigu Pills, consuming half a day. Each batch required a fifteen-minute rest before starting the next one.

With caution, two of the three batches succeeded, giving him a seventy percent success rate.

The first batch yielded five pills, the second failed, and the third produced six pills, making him quite satisfied with the results.

One set of Bigu Pill materials produced three batches, and after entering the fifth level of Qi Refining, his spiritual power was still half full.

At the fourth level, three batches would have exhausted his spiritual power, requiring meditation to recover.

At the fifth level, he could make three batches without depleting half of his power, and his success rate and pill yield had significantly increased, demonstrating the importance of cultivation level in the Four Arts of Cultivation.

He continued refining Bigu Pills until his spiritual power was completely depleted.

By nightfall, with a full moon hanging in the sky, Qingfeng Town was silent except for the occasional cry of a child.

After a full day of alchemy, Lin Tianming was exhausted, having consumed three sets of Bigu Pill materials to produce nine batches of pills.

His experience in alchemy had grown significantly. His success rate for lower first-grade Bigu Pills stabilized at over seventy percent, with no fewer than five pills per batch, reaching as many as eight.

Counting his day's harvest, he had a total of thirty-eight Bigu Pills, worth thirty-eight lower-grade spiritual stones.

In Green Bamboo Mountain, a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator in the Lin family would need a full year to save up thirty-eight spiritual stones from the family's monthly stipend.

Lin Tianming couldn't help but marvel at how lucrative alchemy was in the cultivation world. Even producing lower first-grade pills was highly profitable.

Cultivators consumed a vast amount of resources, and alchemists could quickly earn spiritual stones and herbs by making pills for others, or exchanging for other resources.

Every alchemist had a wide network, often indebting other cultivators. Offending an alchemist was risky, as it would attract many who owed them favors, making high-level alchemists highly respected and untouchable.

Reflecting on this, he stored the Bigu Pills in his storage bag and began meditating.

Lin Tianming noticed that every time he exhausted himself in alchemy, his cultivation progress doubled.

As he replenished his spiritual power, his dantian visibly expanded, and his spiritual sense slowly increased with each session. The Four Arts of Cultivation honed a cultivator's spiritual sense, yielding significant long-term benefits.

A strong spiritual sense allowed broader detection and enhanced overall abilities. Lin Tianming's spiritual sense, even at the fifth level of Qi Refining, rivaled that of a sixth-level cultivator, if not stronger.

A strong spiritual sense enhanced combat, control over spiritual tools and techniques, and detection, boosting overall strength.

In the Four Arts, a strong spiritual sense greatly increased success and efficiency in alchemy, tool refining, talisman crafting, and formation setting.

However, techniques for honing spiritual sense were rare and challenging, far more so than regular cultivation techniques. They were likely found only in the central human regions of Yunzhou and Xuanzhou.

In remote places like Qingzhou and Jizhou, with only a few thousand years of history, such techniques were extremely scarce and precious.

It was said that in ancient times, tens of thousands of years ago, there were countless heavenly techniques and rare skills, with numerous prodigies.

Rumors even spoke of celestial secrets from immortals, though their truth was uncertain.

As night fell, Lin Tianming, having fully restored his spiritual power and spiritual sense, felt his cultivation flowing smoothly.

Satisfied with the growth in his dantian, he noted that though he had only been at the fifth level for a month, there was still a long way to go before reaching the sixth level. Deciding not to push further, he chose to rest.

After a full day of alchemy and cultivation, he felt a hint of fatigue.

He left the secret room, heading toward another room, disappearing into the night.

4o