Chapter 23 Alchemy

The large honey peaches transplanted earlier bloomed with pale pink peach blossoms, their fragrance permeating the air and attracting many spirit bees to gather nectar.

Thanks to Wang Nannan's nurturing, what would have originally taken five years to flower and bear fruit now only took two. Once the large honey peaches ripen, Wang Nannan will have another substantial income.

It should be known that large honey peaches can help early Qi Refining stage clansmen break through bottlenecks, making them a very important resource for the family.

The floral fragrance filled the valley, making people feel refreshed and happy.

Wang Nannan took the opportunity to break through, reaching the "second level of Qi Refining."

Even as a cultivator with five spiritual roots, he couldn't stay at the first level of Qi Refining forever, could he? His external cultivation level still needed to be raised appropriately.

After Wang Dingru and the two elders offered their congratulations, the valley returned to tranquility.

In stark contrast to the valley, the outside world was very lively.

Not long ago, the Shennong Sect and the other three Golden Core sects announced that they would open resource exchange points for rogue cultivators and various family cultivators ahead of schedule. They would use the corpses of hunted demonic beasts as proof to exchange for demon hunting points, and then use the demon hunting points to exchange for various resources.

The resources were diverse, covering all aspects of cultivators' needs, including rare resources such as Foundation Establishment Pills and life-extending elixirs, and the quantity was limited, first come, first served.

The news was like a stone thrown into water, causing a wave of shock. Many opportunistic rogue cultivators tried to exchange demon beasts they had hunted before for points, but they were all seen through by the Shennong Sect and driven out. Several of them even clashed with the Shennong Sect and were killed on the spot.

After some hotheads tested the bottom line, everyone knew what was going on.

They formed teams and went to the Qingfeng Mountains, wanting to exchange for more demon hunting points before the beast tide arrived to strengthen themselves.

The Wang family was not to be outdone. In addition to the first batch of demon hunting teams building defenses, Wang Xiangxiu organized a second batch of clansmen to go.

Suddenly, the clan became much quieter, and there were fewer people to talk to.

"Life-extending elixirs..." Wang Nannan was a little envious. He had always wanted to try taking a life-extending elixir himself to see if he could trigger a golden finger bug. If he could, then his strength would increase rapidly.

Unfortunately, he could only watch for now. Not to mention hunting demon beasts, his actual combat level was zero. He probably couldn't even beat cultivators of the same level.

"If I make enough contributions, maybe I can get the family to help me get some life-extending elixirs back," Wang Nannan thought.

Just as Wang Nannan was planning to continue lying low, Wang Xiangxiu sent the alchemy furnace and spiritual herbs he had requested earlier.

"The alchemy furnace is an old one, worth eighty spirit stones."

"The spiritual herbs are cheap, one hundred batches of Lesser Nourishment Pill spiritual herbs, eighty batches of Healing Powder spiritual herbs, totaling fifty spirit stones, enough for you to practice in the early stages."

"There's also this alchemy experience, which your seventh grandfather compiled himself. It's considered support for the younger generation, and it's free."

"Help me thank seventh grandfather," Wang Nannan said, accepting all the items with both hands.

"Your seventh grandfather asked me to tell you that he has several first-grade pill formulas in his hand. If you need them, you can exchange them with your contributions."

Wang Nannan nodded seriously. The number of pill formulas in the clan was extremely small, and most of them were probably in the hands of seventh grandfather Wang Dingkong. If he was willing to exchange, it would be better than searching blindly outside.

But the current matter required him to refine the Lesser Nourishment Pills and Healing Powder first.

Healing Powder wasn't very useful. After all, early Qi Refining stage cultivators were strictly protected by the family and usually wouldn't suffer any injuries, so it was almost never used. Only some rogue cultivators would buy some because Healing Powder was cheap.

Lesser Nourishment Pills were the opposite. They were the simplest pills, but they were very popular. During seclusion, traveling, treasure hunting, and other things, Qi Refining stage cultivators didn't have time to cook, so they could only take Lesser Nourishment Pills.

As for Foundation Establishment mighty cultivators, they could already abstain from grains and could not eat food for a long time, so naturally they did not need Lesser Nourishment Pills.

"Lesser Nourishment Pills are a type of pill with small profits but high sales. The main ingredient is spiritual rice, and the cost is very low, but the advantage is that the sales are good, there is no need to worry about selling them, and the demand within the clan is also high."

"Healing Powder is a bit unsatisfactory, so let's practice with Healing Powder first!"

"After I'm proficient, I'll refine Lesser Nourishment Pills," Wang Nannan decided. Anyway, he wouldn't feel bad about wasting the spiritual herbs for Healing Powder.

As soon as he said it, he did it. He set up the alchemy furnace, lit the fire, recalled the records in "Elementary Alchemy," and practiced little by little.

It was good to have an environment where no one disturbed him. Wang Nannan could concentrate on practicing.

Failing batch after batch of pills did not dampen Wang Nannan's confidence at all. Instead, it only took more than ten days to go from unfamiliar to familiar.

"Finally succeeded!" The first batch of Healing Powder was successfully refined and wrapped in oil paper in front of him.

It was just a small portion the size of a thumb, one spirit sand, capable of treating some minor injuries.

The corners of Wang Nannan's mouth rose slightly. With the first success, there would be a second, a third...

He calmed his breath and continued refining.

The success rate of the simplest pills finally increased. In more than twenty days, all the spiritual herbs were exhausted.

"I wasted a lot of time summarizing experience and practicing, but thanks to the alchemy experience that seventh grandfather sent, it pointed me in the right direction, otherwise it would have taken more than twenty days!" Wang Nannan said with emotion. Now the success rate of refining Healing Powder was close to 60%, which was already very heaven-defying for a beginner.

He took out the Lesser Nourishment Pill spiritual herbs and continued refining.

With more than twenty days of alchemy experience, Wang Nannan was no longer flustered. Refining Lesser Nourishment Pills was also very natural, and the first batch was quickly completed.

"Waste pills. Although it failed, it was much better than the first time I refined Healing Powder."

"The second batch is still waste pills, but at least there is the fragrance of pills."

The third batch, the fourth batch...

By the seventh batch, it was successful.

A Lesser Nourishment Pill the size of a little finger was produced. Looking at its shape, observing its color, and smelling its aroma, it was no different from a normal Lesser Nourishment Pill.

He swallowed it in one gulp, and immediately a feeling of fullness came.

"Normally, one Lesser Nourishment Pill can maintain the needs of one day, and the ones I refined are about the same."

"And a batch of Lesser Nourishment Pills is about ten pills. The cost of spiritual rice plus other spiritual herbs is about fifteen spirit sand, and the profit is 3-5 spirit sand. The refining time is about seven or eight minutes."

"Calculated in this way, without failure, one hour can earn about 20-35 spirit sand, which is more than one spirit stone, which is not bad!" Especially as alchemy skills become more proficient, it is indeed difficult to fail to refine Lesser Nourishment Pills.

Wang Nannan felt very satisfied and put away the other Lesser Nourishment Pills.

Now that the two simplest pills can be refined successfully, the next step is to increase the success rate and obtain new pill formulas.

Pill formulas can be exchanged from seventh grandfather first, but as for the success rate, Wang Nannan plans to put all his time on Lesser Nourishment Pills. As for Healing Powder, he will decisively give up. After all, the role of Healing Powder for his practice has been completed.