Crafting the Lingyuan Dan

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that Chen Wenshan was behind this. If he had learned of the fate of his daughter and family, he might have been driven to a rage, leading to a breakthrough in his cultivation.

However, it was unlikely that he possessed the ability to summon hundreds of thousands of locusts, nor could he have controlled the packs of late-stage Qi Refining wolf demons that emerged from the dense forests of Vulture Mountain.

If he were the mastermind, he must have borrowed power from another faction.

"Third Uncle! When will the next trip to the front market be? I'd like to join the procurement team."

Chen Jinshu was worried that the schedule might have changed due to recent events.

"This hunt yielded many late-stage Qi Refining wolf demons. Selling them at the market should fetch a decent amount of spirit stones. Aside from the family's compensation, the spirit farmers will also receive some consolation in spirit stones."

Chen Huaiyang paused in thought before continuing.

"In a month. We'll wait until the family's compensation is distributed first. The spirit farmers need spirit stones to buy new spirit seeds and replant their fields."

"Don't worry, I'll send someone to inform you before we depart."

"Thank you, Third Uncle!"

Chen Jinshu let out a relieved sigh. She had feared the locust plague might force an earlier procurement trip, as the damaged spirit fields needed to be replanted quickly to yield harvests in six months to a year. But since the schedule remained unchanged, she could proceed with her plans as intended.

Upon returning to Plum Blossom Courtyard, Chen Jinshu couldn't shake the memory of the locust swarm.

The sky-darkening horde had been terrifying.

Had her defensive formation been left open, her spirit herbs and spirit rice would have been completely lost.

The acre of magnolia flowers on Vulture Mountain might not match the quality of those in her spirit planting space, but they could still fetch a decent price at the market.

Three hundred plants per acre—though varying in quality—could be sold at a rate of five plants per spirit stone, netting her sixty spirit stones per harvest.

Most spirit farmers on Vulture Mountain earned around a hundred spirit stones in half a year.

"My strength is still insufficient. Against those locusts, I was completely powerless."

This incident gave her a clearer understanding of her own limitations. If those locusts had been casual cultivators instead, would she have survived? The answer was almost certainly no.

"I must continue practicing my spells while also improving my alchemy skills." Her cultivation path grew clearer in her mind.

She then took out the Shadowpeak Finch from her spirit beast pouch—its spiritual energy had been greatly depleted.

"Thank you for the warning earlier. Without it, many spirit farmers would have lost everything."

"Chirp chirp!" The little sparrow's golden eyes gleamed brightly, looking utterly adorable.

"These locusts are your spoils of war. There are too many, so I'll store most of them and leave a portion for you to eat."

The sparrow nodded and began nibbling on a dead locust.

Next, she went to the enclosure where her five spirit chickens were kept and scattered some broken, low-grade locust carcasses inside.

Though she had hunted more spirit chickens later, she chose not to raise additional ones—five already consumed a significant amount of spirit grain, and her Plum Blossom Courtyard was too small to accommodate more.

The chickens eagerly pecked at the locust remains.

A short while later, she entered the alchemy room adjacent to her quarters, preparing to attempt her first true Grade-1 Low Tier pill—the Lingyuan dan.

While the Fasting Pill was classified as a Grade-1 Low Tier pill, it barely qualified as a true spiritual pill.

Currently, she could refine four Bigu dan per batch, with the lowest quality being Low Grade.

"A forty percent success rate isn't great, but it's passable."

Most Grade-1 Low Tier alchemists had a fifty to sixty percent success rate with Bigu dan, producing five or six per batch (with a maximum of nine).

It wasn't that her talent was lacking—she had only been practicing alchemy for about three months, far less than others who had years of experience.

With a thought, the Genesis Alchemy Furnace hovering in her consciousness emerged from the red dot between her brows, expanding from a tiny speck into a massive alchemy furnace that settled steadily atop the spiritual charcoal.

She flicked her hand, and sparks crackled to life beneath the furnace, flames slowly rising.

She had studied the Lingyuan dan recipe countless times and could recite it from memory.

The magnolia flower, being the primary ingredient, required the lowest refining temperature and was processed first. The six supplementary herbs followed, each needing only moderate heat.

Thanks to her experience with Bigu dan, Chen Jinshu could now precisely control the furnace's temperature.

As the heat approached the required level, she placed the magnolia flower inside, beginning the refining process.

Her fingers moved like blooming lotus petals, guiding the flower's rotation within the cauldron…

Four days passed in the blink of an eye.

Chen Jinshu failed ten times in a row—sometimes due to improper temperature control, other times because her refining technique was too fast or too slow.

But on the eleventh attempt, success finally came.

"Condense!" she commanded, her hand seals flashing as the three dark-brown medicinal liquids inside the furnace rapidly coalesced.

Beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

At last, the pill formation was complete—three pale-white Lingyuan dan.

"Eleven attempts to succeed isn't bad."

Compared to the thirty-plus failures she endured while learning Bigu dan, this was significant progress. She was satisfied—perhaps with the Recovery Pill, she wouldn't need eleven tries.

Releasing a wisp of spiritual sense, she detected remnants of uncondensed medicinal mist inside the furnace. Quickly, she formed several golden circular seals with her hands and directed them toward the pills.

The mist was instantly absorbed.

As the pills were about to emerge, Chen Jinshu swallowed one to replenish her spiritual energy.

"I wonder how my own Lingyuan dan compare to the ones bought from the market."

She focused, circulating the Chángqīng Jué.

In moments, the pill's energy was drawn into the red dot between her brows, where her birthmark—once a lotus petal, now a single crimson point—purified it without loss of efficiency.

Strangely, within that tiny mark, the faint outline of a blood-red lotus could still be seen.

Whether it expanded or shrank, the lotus remained unchanged.

"Could it be that an ancestor of this body was an immortal who ascended to immortality, leaving behind this inherited treasure? But before its power could be fully utilized, the descendant had to pass a trial of character…"

Pure spiritual energy surged from the red dot into her meridians, flowing toward her dantian after five full cycles.

Her energy was mostly restored.

Refining Lingyuan dan consumed far more energy than Bigu dan—at her current level, she could only manage three batches a day. This was her second-to-last attempt today.

With a wave, the furnace lid lifted, and the three pills flew into a prepared vial.

"Barely Low Grade… what a pity."

The pills were dull and contained noticeable impurities, inferior to the white Lingyuan dan she had purchased.

"The path of alchemy is long and arduous."