Hermit in the Mountains

Gu Changsheng carefully broke open the shriveled pill, revealing a delicate, light brown pill. He gently picked it up and brought it to his nose to sniff; it had no odor.

He channeled his divine sense into the pill, and a ring wrapped around its surface. The ring seemed to possess some kind of power that tightly locked the medicinal effects and aroma inside the pill.

In other words, the core medicinal properties are contained within the ring, which, together with the auxiliary medicinal properties within the pill, produce new medicinal properties, which is the medicinal effect exhibited by the pill.

He had no time to verify the efficacy of the new Peiyuan Pill, so he struck while the iron was hot to comprehend the "Prosperity Phase" and grasp the critical point of the "Withering and Prosperity Phase".

He put the new pill back into its wooden casing and sealed it away, then casually put it in his shirt pocket. He then took out another ordinary Qi-Nourishing Pill.

A wisp of "withered power" flowed down the arm and into the pill, and just as the pill's life force was about to vanish, a wisp of "prosperous power" was injected.

However, he was still a step too slow. The instant the 'Power of Glory' entered the pill through the skin of his palm, the life force inside the pill was extinguished, turning it into a useless pill.

Gu Changsheng frowned. This doesn't make sense; it shouldn't be like this!

Why did I fail to activate "Power of Glory" even though the timing was the same both times?

Completely baffled, he didn't dwell on it and continued trying new pills. The third, fourth... and ninth pills all failed.

The series of failures forced Gu Changsheng to abandon his idea of ​​continuing to try.

He began to reflect on the reasons for his failure, replaying in his mind each of his "Rong Hou" judgments and the timing of the "Rong Zhi Li" injections.

Every failure had striking similarities: he was too eager to succeed, and his thoughts interfered too much, which led to injecting the "power of glory" too hastily or too slowly, causing him to miss the best "opportunity".

Gu Changsheng took a breath to relax, forget the previous failure, clear his mind, and eliminate distracting thoughts.

Unconsciously, Gu Changsheng once again entered a state of neither joy nor sorrow. Following the feeling he had when he succeeded the first time, he channeled the "Power of Withering" into the pill, allowing the power of annihilation to cleanse the pill of impurities.

At one moment, Gu Changsheng had a sudden inspiration and, on a whim, infused a wisp of 'Power of Glory' into the pill.

Just as the medicinal properties of the pill were about to fade, the "Power of Glory" timely protected the last trace of the most essential medicinal properties.

From barrenness comes life, the medicinal properties undergo a transformation, and entirely new medicinal properties are born within the pill.

Having refined the second elixir, Gu Changsheng gained a deeper understanding of the "withering and flourishing, the fixed seasons" principle, and he continued to devote himself to the great cause of refining elixirs.

After an unknown amount of time, Gu Changsheng stopped refining the elixir because only five strands of the 'Power of Withering and Flourishing' remained in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Prolonged periods of alchemy deplete one's spiritual energy; continuing the process will further exhaust one's spiritual power and consciousness.

He gave up on refining pills and casually took out the wooden shells from his pocket and placed them on the table. He opened the sealed wooden shells one by one, and five light brown elixirs of the same size came into view.

A hint of joy flashed in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. However, his happiness didn't last long. After calculating the success rate, the smile on his face disappeared.

Out of thirty attempts, only five succeed, a success rate of less than 20%.

The success rate was appalling, and the materials were incredibly expensive. His face twitched slightly.

Not everyone has the ability to comprehend the art of alchemy. Without sufficient financial resources, it's best not to get involved in alchemy. You might end up bankrupt after just a few batches of pills, and the success rate is low.

Not everyone has the opportunity to become an alchemist; the financial resources required to purchase the materials alone would deter 90% of people.

When you finally have the money to buy alchemy materials and are ready to start alchemy with high expectations, you'll find that the materials are the least technical part of alchemy.

One after another, difficulties arise, such as mastering the method of alchemy, comprehending the formulas, controlling the heat, consuming spiritual energy and mental energy, and maintaining a calm mind during alchemy.

The Peiyuan Pill is probably the most basic elixir, yet its success rate is so low. Gu Changsheng gets a headache just thinking about other elixirs.

He could probably only grow his own herbs and collect them in the mountains; the herbs wouldn't be enough to support him in refining pills several times.

In particular, the medicinal herbs in his herb field were all seedlings, and he could not obtain enough herbs to refine pills in a short period of time.

He thought of Zhang Yuanfu of Fushoutang and Li Anlan of Qinyao Group, both of whom were engaged in the work of medicinal materials and had stable channels.

Although he had never tried the effects of the elixir, he knew that it was impossible for outsiders to know about it. At most, he would sell semi-finished Peiyuan Pills, and the quantity could not be large. He understood the principle that scarcity makes things valuable.

The semi-finished Peiyuan Dan is twice as effective as the regular Peiyuan Dan. For ordinary people, this effect is just right and will not cause too much trouble.

The efficacy of elixirs is uncertain, and excessive use could potentially cause side effects.

Gu Changsheng hadn't figured out how to launch the semi-finished Peiyuan Pill, so he kept it to himself and decided to test the effects of the elixir for now.

He tossed a elixir into his mouth, swallowed it without chewing, and focused his mind to sense the changes within his body.

The moment the elixir entered his body, Gu Changsheng suppressed the 'Dao Tree's' automatic absorption ability with a thought, allowing his physical body to absorb the medicinal effects on its own.

The elixir slid down the esophagus into the stomach and began to dissolve. The elixir slowly shrank, and after more than ten minutes, the medicinal effects of the elixir were completely eliminated by the physical body.

He suppressed the Dao Tree's automatic absorption ability, but his physical body had been strengthened six times, greatly enhancing his absorption ability and making him far beyond the realm of ordinary people.

His speed at which he absorbed the effects of the elixir and his physical tolerance are not relevant to ordinary people, so this experience is currently useless.

Eighty percent of the elixir's effects penetrate the whole body, while the remaining twenty percent enters the kidneys.

As the medication took effect, his stomach started making rumbling noises, just like when he had an upset stomach from eating something unclean, and he felt like he needed to go to the toilet.

Another ten minutes or so passed, and Gu Changsheng couldn't resist going to the toilet to detox. (I won't describe the very smelly scene; you can imagine it yourself based on the pungent odor and deafening noise.)

After relieving himself, Gu Changsheng hurriedly ran out of the outhouse. He glanced back and seemed to see a cloud of foul air hanging above the outhouse. He then turned and quickly left.

He didn't go inside, but plopped down on the wooden stump by the door to let his body smell off. As he calmed down, he realized that he felt comfortable all over, with a warm feeling in his lower back.

He scanned his body with his divine sense and found that the impurities in his stomach and body had been greatly reduced.

It didn't increase his physical strength, defense, or mental power at all, but he just felt much more comfortable.

Gu Changsheng thought about the food he had eaten in the past few days. This food was not beneficial to him; it was impurities that his body had absorbed and were now being eliminated.

He could have survived without food, relying on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to sustain his energy needs for an extended period.

It's not that he can't eat, but the energy contained in ordinary food is like acquired turbidity that he can't absorb, and in the end, it all turns into impurities and settles in his body.

It's fine to eat things that contain spiritual energy; they can even nourish his physical body, such as elixirs, spiritual vegetables, and spiritual fruits.

With this in mind, Gu Changsheng decided to cultivate spirit rice. Consuming spirit rice and spirit items for a long time would surely nourish the body.

Once the smell of the outhouse had dissipated, Gu Changsheng took a cold shower and changed into clean clothes.

He sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace in the living room, his eyes scanning the four spirit pills on the table, preparing to determine their grade.