1058 Rookie Expert Or Something

They had received 630,000 Silver Star Stones! Uncle Sea and Old Cow's faces turned red from carrying over 6,000 heavy Gold Star Stones in their pockets. This was worth 10 years of work for the two of them, but Wang Zhong had been able to earn this in a few days. Furthermore, this was only the beginning. This impressive alchemist's money-earning abilities made ordinary people in the divine territory like them feel extremely inferior.

Of course, they were also far inferior in their money-spending abilities. When Nini sent them the letter, she had made another request. She left around 100,000 Silver Star Stones for wolf goblin Basir to help find Earthlings, to provide funds to manage the Heavenly Treasures Street, and to purchase a batch of new and relatively high-end medicinal ingredients.

This was in preparation for the level-7 pill. Uncle Sea, an expert who had spent decades in the pill shop, had never heard of most of the ingredients needed. Luckily, there were the Allansians, but when Old Cow went over to ask, the prices were relatively terrifying. Purchasing just one batch of ingredients that could be used would cost at least 200,000 Silver Star Stones, let alone if he wanted to buy ingredients of the highest quality. Not everyone had the qualifications to pick up trash ingredients from their friends like Jhonas. If one were to sell the trash ingredients that Jhonas had given Wang Zhong back then, the price would not have been cheap either…

With over 600,000 Silver Star Stones in hand, and after buying some miscellaneous goods, the remaining money was only enough to purchase two sets of ingredients. It was no wonder that pill refinery burned one's funds, and even large Factions sometimes could not gather enough funds to buy the ingredients for a high-quality pill. It could only be said that the world of profound pill studies and the world of ordinary people were too far apart.

Furthermore, even if one was willing to spend money, one also needed time. All the main ingredients that could be included in a level-7 pill were usually rare. When it came to level-4 pills and above, a large majority of the ingredients for these pills could only be found by chance and could not simply be bought from the market. Old Cow placed an order with the Allansians but had to wait at least half a month for them to transport the goods.

Recently, it had been peaceful in the Heavenly Gates, and no one caused any trouble. The supervisor continued his holiday. The self-study of spiritual power usage from the Combat Cultivation Hall was obviously something that Lao Wang did not need to waste his time on.

Thus, he had been busy recollecting and recalling everything about the Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill over the past few days. He had derived the prescription directly from Elder Yimo's lesson, and the Pill Refinery Hall did not see this as a taboo. Furthermore, all the prescriptions that were released during lessons were not valuable ones, but ones that were widely circulated among the large Factions. A majority of the pupils from the Pill Refinery Hall knew that Elder Yimo was only in charge of explaining the prescription.

As for the audit students, if they were able to understand, then they were very skilled. They were all people from the Heavenly Gates, and there was no harm in listening. However, one would not allow benefits created by one's own work to accrue to others. Of course, this was on the condition that they absolutely could not circulate what they had heard. Since they had dared to establish the audit-student system, there were, naturally, ways to stop outside circulation. A supervisor had warned them about this again and again after the first Pill Refinery Hall lesson.

Back then, when he had listened to Elder Yimo explain the Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill, frankly speaking, Wang Zhong felt that most of what he was listening to were like heavenly scriptures to him. He could grasp the description of the realm and concepts regarding pill studies that Elder Yimo taught, but it was very difficult to understand many details and technical terms. He simply memorized mechanically during the lesson.

At that moment, when he revised that content with his practice and attempts from refining the Vitality Supplement Pill and the Yin and Yang Pill, he had a certain understanding of many pill refinery facts. When he recalled Elder Yimo's teachings, his understanding became much deeper. Furthermore, with Nini beside him to explain, Lao Wang felt that he had a grasp of the level-7 pill after just four to five days.

When the batch of ingredients for the Yin and Yang Pill from Uncle Sea arrived, it became his last chance to practice his skills. Wang Zhong immediately went into the pill house.

This time, he did not choose the most inferior pill house. Firstly, he was no longer lacking in money. Other than the six portions of ingredients for the Yin and Yang Pill, there were also 100,000 Silver Star Stones left over after buying the ingredients for the level-7 pill. Thus, there was completely no pressure even if he used a second-class pill house. Furthermore, the Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill was a divine object that could forcibly put one's life in danger. It possessed a relatively high vitality. Using an Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace, a furnace that was extremely stable but lacked vitality, to refine the pill was obviously not suitable. When it came to pill refinery, it was not necessarily the case that higher-leveled pills were better. However, depending on the pill to be refined, choosing the most appropriate pill furnace was basic knowledge.

The Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace.

This pill furnace was made of wood and could endure extremely potent fire powers. Furthermore, it contained wood materials that could transfer high amounts of heat. It was extremely rare, even throughout the entire divine territory. There was no doubt that Jiuli wood was one of the materials.

This was said to be an ancient and mysterious tree from the Netherworld. It was able to take root and sprout in the Netherworld River, which had the least vitality, and soar into the sky, breaking through the thick layers between the Netherworld and the Land. The Ancient Jiuli Tree was definitely one of the most mystical materials in the divine territory. It had a powerful vitality that was unimaginable. The branches of a Jiuli Tree had been chosen to create this Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace. The words "Heaven and Earth" did not refer to some other metal that had been added to the furnace, but referred to the arrangement of the empty and earth holes on the furnace. They formed the heaven and earth numbers, resulting in 72 empty holes and 36 earth holes. As compared to the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace with 36 holes that Lao Wang had used, there was no doubt that the operations would be much more complex.

He first used the Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace to refine the Yin and Yang Pill and to get used to it.

Without the natural adjustment of the yin-yang fire by the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace, the difficulty this time increased significantly. However, the stability and circulation abilities of the Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace were indeed better than the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace's. Thus, there was an obvious improvement in his basic control of medicinal properties.

Refining the six batches of pills was a daunting experience, but there were no mishaps. The success rate for the first two batches was slightly poorer as he was not yet familiar with the furnace. However, he maintained his average standard for the next few batches. In the end, he refined 221 Yin and Yang Pills and maintained a quality of about 70%.

He had spent almost three days warming up. Luckily, this was a second-class pill refinery house, and there was a wooden bed made out of Jiuli wood inside the house. Sitting on the bed and meditating provided extremely powerful spirit recovery effects. As he had refined six batches of Yin and Yang Pills consecutively, it was very impressive that he was not half-dead from fatigue afterwards, let alone being in a perfect state.

"Pills are divided into high, medium, and low grades. In particular, levels 1 to 3 are high-leveled; levels 4 to 6 are medium leveled, and levels 7 to 9 are low-leveled. Every three levels is a boundary. Even though the level-7 pill is classified as a low-leveled pill, it is considered the first symbolic dividing line in pill refinery." This was what Elder Yimo had said. However, he only briefly mentioned this. Lao Wang only understood the concrete reason behind this after Nini's detailed analysis.

"This is because every level — high, medium, or low — represents not only the effects of the pill but divides the pills in terms of refinery skills."

"Low-leveled pills emphasize on skills and basic operations. Level-7 pills are the limit of these. As for medium- and high-leveled pills, they are categorized as such because of pill refinery demands in other aspects. For example, they require the integration of pill studies and many other profound things. However, in terms of basic operations, they will not demand more than that of a level-7 pill. Thus, the level-7 pill is called the first dividing line as it represents the limit of basic pill refinery operations."

The level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill was an overall test from Elder Yimo to this new batch of pupils. Frankly speaking, the Pill Refinery Hall only taught elites. Only alchemists who had refined their basic techniques to the maximum had the qualifications to remain in Elder Yimo's classes.

In reality, the Pill Refinery Hall had already pasted up an announcement. After two months, although the Pill Refinery Hall would still allow audit students, this would only be applicable to classes by ordinary supervisors. What about Elder Yimo's classes? Only those who had successfully refined the level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill would be able to attend them. After all, from now on, the classes would definitely involve prescriptions for level-6 pills and above. Regardless of how generous the Heavenly Gates were, they would not allow people who could not refine pills to casually listen and waste their resources.

Wang Zhong was sufficiently prepared. He had tried refining six batches of Yin and Yang Pills and had adjusted to the Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace. Now, regardless of his condition, confidence, or even accompanying facilities, they had reached a perfect standard.

After dealing with the ingredients for the level-7 pill, he calmed himself down and lit the furnace fire. Nini still assisted him in terms of techniques, and she had gone through a theoretical explanation and rehearsal through words in advance. He had to split the furnace heat into seven portions, signifying that the seven colors of the rainbow were auspicious and peaceful. Her explanation also contained the principles for forming the Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill. This was an advancement in his furnace fire control techniques.

He had learned the Split Control Technique when refining the Yin and Yang Pill previously. Even with the theoretical support, something that did not feel too difficult caused Lao Wang to immediately fail countless times the moment he started.

Controlling the yin-yang fire was simple, but controlling the seven-colored fire was ridiculously difficult. Doing two things at one time and doing seven things at one time were two completely different concepts.

The moment he started, he failed. He would either split the heat into five portions, or into eight or nine portions. Furthermore, the fire continued to transform and could not be stabilized. On his best attempt, he could only control four stable fires. This seemed to be the limit of Lao Wang's current control. To be honest, one could not look down on the foundations of the divine territory. This was still only a level-7 pill.

After an entire day of experiments, even starting the furnace had stumped Lao Wang, let alone the ingredient arrangement and further pill refinery.

To be honest, Wang Zhong had always been relatively confident in his spiritual power control and techniques. However, controlling spiritual power and controlling the furnace fire were two completely different things. He had tried various methods. For example, he had been able to split his soul into millions of divine cells and maintain the independence of each cell. With this kind of technique, controlling seven fires should have been free of any pressure. However, in reality, splitting his soul into divine cells was a completely simultaneous action. Regardless of how much he fragmented his soul into millions of pieces, this was considered one action. However, these seven fires were seven completely different fires with seven temperatures. If he wanted to stabilize and control them, allow them to exist in completely different forms, and still complement each other, he needed to have seven separate souls that did not disturb one another at all.

"Your consciousness must be independent. Your spirit cannot be too focused, but cannot be too dispersed either. You must maintain that fine balance in that instant…" Nini was a teacher once again. She repeated various basic tricks again and again very patiently. However, the results were very insignificant. The difference between this and Lao Wang's heaven-defying performance earlier on was extremely large.

However, Nini was not surprised. After all, she was a true pill-studies expert. Even though Lao Wang's earlier heaven-defying performance had proven his natural endowments in pill refinery, pill studies were not that easy in reality. Regardless of whether it was the Vitality Supplement Pill or the Yin and Yang Pill, they had some link with what Wang Zhong had learned previously. This was called "compatibility and conformity" in pill refinery terms. Naturally, it would be slightly easier for him when he refined those pills, causing him to ignore their difficulty.

Now, when he suddenly switched to a completely different refinery method, the difficulty had multiplied by multiple times. The weaknesses in Lao Wang's lacking foundation gradually exposed themselves fully.

It was fine as he could slowly learn. There was no need to doubt her master's natural endowments in pill refinery and fire control. Over time, greater ability in controlling the seven-color fire would be expected. However, this obviously needed time…

After a full two days of working, Wang Zhong was fatigued from controlling the fire and even felt as if he was going to go mad. However, his fire-control standards firmly remained at the level where he could only control four fires. Occasionally, he could control five fires, but it was very difficult to maintain the fires for long periods of time. Lao Wang was also furious. Perhaps it was because his spirit had gradually grown numb, or perhaps it was because he was anxious to achieve victory. On his last try, he managed to control a seven-color fire by a curious coincidence. However, before Nini could cheer…

Bang!

There was a massive crash and explosion. A terrifying wave of energy spread from within the Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace, sending Lao Wang, who was holding on to the handles of the furnace, and Nini, who was floating beside him, flying outwards. They fiercely crashed into the wall of the pill house, causing the entire house to rumble. The bottles, cans, and other items around them exploded and crashed to the floor.

The furnace had exploded even while starting the furnace. Lao Wang was slightly helpless.

The people outside seemed to have heard the commotion of the furnace exploding inside. There was a wave of anxious warnings outside before someone finally came in to check. Even though no one made any sarcastic remarks thanks to the incident where Lao Wang had beaten up the goblin outside the pill house, after the entire situation was cleaned up, he had to pay over 20,000 Silver Star Stones for the objects and the damage to the pill house. Luckily, the pill furnace was fine. If he harmed the pill furnace, the compensation would easily be worth millions or even tens of millions of Silver Star Stones.

There was no way out of this. When he controlled the seven-color fire, he thought that hope had descended upon him and that he was exploding with luck. But looking at things now, it had purely been ridiculously ill luck.

Two months after starting pill refinery, this was the first time Lao Wang experienced a barrier that was difficult to overcome.

"This is a rookie expert's bottleneck period." When Nini spoke, she was professional. When it came to pill refinery, no one had been able to reach the top in one leap without many obstacles. Wang Zhong had started off bold and powerful, and only reached his bottleneck when refining a level-7 pill. This was a historical record that defied the heavens. If he had been able to succeed in refining a level-7 pill on his first try, Nini would start to suspect whether her master was some super pill refinery god who had reincarnated into this world. "Master, this is very normal. It's fine. Let's adjust back. This kind of thing needs accumulation over time. With master's natural endowments, I believe that you will definitely be able to conquer this within one or two years."

Lao Wang started to sweat profusely. One to two years did not sound like a long time, but the problem was that he did not have time. If he could not hand in the level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill in two months, he would not need to think of listening to Elder Yimo's classes. Elder Yimo was a truly almighty expert. There were many reasons why Lao Wang had such a good starting point in pill refinery. However, the explanation of the path during Elder Yimo's class and Lao Wang's resulting inspiration in pill refinery was the most important factor among all the reasons.

He could throw everything else away, but not this.

He allowed Nini to return to the Spirit Flower Garden. When Lao Wang returned to the mushroom house, Jhonas happened to be there as well. It was said that this fellow was busy with him beginning to refine weapons and was extremely busy, to the point that he was not at home two-thirds of the time. It was not easy to bump into each other by coincidence.

It was said that Jhonas's recent progress in weapon refinery was not bad. After all, he was from the Illusion race that relied on weapon refinery to build up their fortune. His natural endowments were definitely extraordinary. When this little fellow boasted, he was always exultant and extremely delighted. However, when he saw Lao Wang's dejected expression, Jhonas immediately guessed the results.

He had definitely caused his furnace to explode and had probably compensated for it with a large sum of money.

"Ahem. Boss, I wasn't the one who said this." It was rare for Jhonas to be decent. He sincerely said, "When it comes to pill refinery, you have to take it slow. You said that you were rather successful when refining Vitality Supplement Pills, so you ought to accumulate more experience. If you directly jump into refining a level-8 pill, the jump is just too large. It is only strange if you didn't cause a furnace to explode. After all, it's pill refinery. Everyone will experience a furnace explosion. Regardless of how successful you were in the past, accidents are hard to avoid. An alchemist who has never caused a furnace to explode is not a good alchemist…

"In any case, Boss, I feel that you shouldn't panic. My friend has already helped you look for a prescription for another level-9 pill, the Nothingness Pill. It is not a popular prescription, but as long as you refine it, you will definitely earn something. The prescription is not expensive either, only 300,000. Do you want to try it? I can lend you the money for the prescription. I will be fine with it, Boss, as long as you sell the pills after refining them."

"Oh." Lao Wang did not explain. He simply asked, "I heard that weapon refinery also involves fire control, right? How are your fire-control standards?"

"You asked the right person!" Jhonas instantly became lively. He turned from a nagging auntie to Superman in seconds. "When it comes to fire control, the Babi family is definitely…"

He boasted in an unceasing torrent that lasted almost twenty minutes until Lao Wang was about to turn into stone. Only then did Jhonas, who was not done expressing himself, return to the main topic. "In short, anyone from the Babi family has fire control skills that can be described in one word: impressive! There is no technique that we do not know!"

"…Ahem…" Lao Wang spaced out for a few seconds before regaining his senses. If Jhonas were to become a stand-up comedian, he would definitely be a first-rate comedian. He could boast and attract the attention of thousands even with a monologue. "How about the seven-color fire? Can you control it? Are there any tricks to controlling it?"