Chapter 20: The First Time Refining Pills

At this moment, Long Xuan was completely unaware that he had been mocked, and what was being mocked was his most prized imaginative thinking.

Seeing how stubborn this little medicine boy was, he decided not to persuade him any further.

“If you want to trade for my Little Strong Gu, you can, but its price is far more than ten thousand spirit stones now.”

“How about this, give me ten pieces of each kind of waste pill, and we’ll call it even.”

The little medicine boy nodded. Not to mention giving away some insignificant waste pills, he would have even paid an additional hundred thousand spirit stones eagerly.

“It seems you really don’t have the ability to turn waste pills into treasures. Otherwise, you would have taken all my discarded pills instead of just ten pieces of each.”

The little medicine boy smiled, picking up some of the wasted pills. He then took out a green tripod cauldron from his storage bag, threw all the waste pills into it, and handed it to Long Xuan.

Long Xuan glanced at him sideways and took out a small bottle containing the Little Strong Gu from his insect nurturing bag and tossed it to the medicine boy.

The little medicine boy happily received the small bottle, verified its authenticity with a blood contract on the spot, and then quickly began packing up his stall.

The waste pills were now treasures to him; only a fool would sell them.

At this time, the scar-faced burly man who had been arguing with the little medicine boy was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect that someone actually wanted the waste pills. Truly, the world is vast, and strange things happen.

Just as Long Xuan was about to leave, the burly man quickly stepped in front of him and hurriedly said, “Young friend, please stay. I also want to trade for the Little Strong Gu. I’m willing to use spiritual herbs in exchange.”

“These are all personally picked by me from the mountains. Feel free to choose.”

He quickly threw a storage bag towards Long Xuan, revealing a flattering smile, afraid that Long Xuan might leave.

Seeing his appearance, Long Xuan knew that this person must really love the Little Strong Gu.

With his muscular body and scarred face, it was clear he liked to engage in physical combat, frequently hovering on the brink of death. The Little Strong Gu would naturally become a favorite for such individuals.

The cost of the Little Strong Gu was extremely low, and Long Xuan still had many in his insect nurturing bag.

So, he casually took the burly man’s storage bag and checked inside, finding it filled with various spiritual herbs.

Coincidentally, the three herbs he was planning to search for were all inside, and in considerable quantities too. This was truly an effortless gain.

Long Xuan smiled with joy, then poured all the spiritual herbs from the storage bag into his own, leaving none behind. He tossed the empty storage bag back to the burly man, followed by a small bottle containing the Little Strong Gu.

...

This first step alone stumped the majority of alchemists. Very few could complete it successfully.

Even the experienced Elder Long often burned spiritual herbs, wasting valuable materials during the refining process.

Thus, Long Xuan understood the difficulty of this step deeply and decided to be extremely cautious, focusing all his attention without the slightest slack.

After adjusting his state, he saw that the alchemy furnace was warm and casually grabbed a spiritual herb, tossing it into the furnace.

Just as he was about to increase the heat, something astonishing happened.

The furnace displayed a purification progress bar, showing 0% progress.

Long Xuan took a deep breath, almost unable to believe it.

He recalled that a similar situation had occurred during his first Gu refining.

It seemed that the progress display was not limited to inanimate or animate objects but also included ongoing activities.

For instance, if he was refining a Gu, it would show the Gu refining progress. If he was purifying spiritual herbs, it would show the purification progress. When he later refined the pill, it would probably display the pill refining progress as well.

This realization raised the upper limit of his abilities, and Long Xuan was extremely excited.

Thus, what was incredibly difficult for others became straightforward for Long Xuan.

He could clearly see the purification progress. If it steadily increased, it meant his operation was correct, and he just needed to maintain it.

If the progress suddenly changed drastically or disappeared, it indicated an error, and he needed to adjust the flame quickly.

With this error prompt, purifying spiritual herbs became easy for Long Xuan.

As expected, there were no surprises.

What was exceedingly difficult for others was incredibly simple for Long Xuan.

As a novice refining spiritual herbs for the first time, he not only made no mistakes but succeeded easily. Can you believe it?

If other alchemy apprentices knew this, they wouldn’t know what to think.

Staring at the purified spiritual essence he put into a vial, Long Xuan was in a daze, feeling like he was dreaming.

Was it really this easy?