Chapter 1023 - Pill Studies
“Ha ha. Boss, you don’t know that in the Heavenly Gates, messengers are symbols of one’s identity! If you don’t have a high-leveled messenger, you will feel bad greeting others outside…” Having said that, Jhonas suddenly kept quiet. He seemed to have gone too far as Wang Zhong had not obtained a messenger… At that moment, he suddenly changed the topic and patted his chest. “Relax, Boss. What is mine will be yours! In the future, if you need to send any letters outside, I will cover it! The two of us will share our happiness and our pain!”
Lao Wang laughed. “This small thing can probably only transmit simple information.”
“Heh heh, that’s enough. It’s cheap but good!” Jhonas said. “That’s right, I heard a joke from today. I heard that someone from the Combat Cultivation Hall brought out a spirit from the Spirit Flower Garden. Damn, such unreliable information! Only one or two spirits appear each year, and they always go to Pill Refinery experts. If someone from the Combat Cultivation Hall has one, can’t a pupil from the Weapon Refinery Hall like me have one too?”
Lao Wang glared at this fellow. He was cowardly and liked to show off, but had a strong desire to live.
Jhonas did not forget about his proper business. He came back with a large bag on his back. At that moment, he pulled the bag over and opened it. There was a layer of black metal at the bottom of his bag, which was the living Aggadahsi metal that Combat Cultivation pupils needed. On top of the black metal were broken spiritual flowers and plants that were on the verge of death and did not seem to have any intelligence.
“Boss, look at this!” As Jhonas spoke, he took out all the pill ingredients from his bag along with the living Aggadahsi metal and divided them into two portions. “Ha ha. You have one portion, and I have one. Everything has been assembled! Don’t be humble with me. This is reciprocation for obtaining the sign for me. We help each other, right?”
Wang Zhong took a closer look and realized that most of the flowers and plants were low-quality defective goods. Furthermore, the vitality and spiritual power within them were very poor, and they were extremely thin. “Are you sure these can be used to refine pills?”
Luckily, he had learned some general knowledge about medicine and pill studies from Uncle Sea and understood the most basic principles. Only good medicinal materials could increase the success rate of producing high-quality pills. This time, after collecting all the materials for the level-7 pill, they would definitely allow everyone to learn how to refine them. This would truly be the first step in interacting with pill studies. Even if people were able to master it, they would be split into different levels.
Normally, as long as the pill was formed, one would be able to enjoy the basic 10% of its effects. However, if one forcibly formed a pill, the results would be very poor. One would pass if they managed to achieve 50% of its effects and be excellent if they achieved 60% of its effects. Furthermore, the best pill that achieved 100% of its effects was called the Perfect Pill. However, refining a level-7 100% Perfect Pill was much easier than refining a level-6 or even a level-5 pill.
What about these materials? Putting aside producing a pill, throwing these into a better furnace was a form of violation towards the furnace.
“Boss, we are just here to enjoy the liveliness. Who knows? Maybe we can actually refine a pill. Do you know the pill-refinery basics? Asking us to refine level-7 pills from the beginning… They are really not giving us a way out,” said Jhonas with the look of a professional.
The Flying Pig was also speechless. The way Lao Wang stared at the materials and spaced out made him feel as if Lao Wang actually had plans to try refining pills. “You aren’t actually thinking of refining pills, right? Even the Illusion race might not be able to do so… I’m saying that we should be realistic and hand these in for the mission.”
Whether or not they could do pill refinery depended on how much money and natural endowments they had. If one had natural endowments, one could become at least a level-9 alchemist just by using several dozen furnaces’ worth of materials. Then, many powers would be able to nurture them. However, if they did not have any natural endowment, even if they invested several thousand furnaces’ worth of materials, they would not even be able to see powder. Even a level-8 civilization would not have enough resources to allow one to do so.
In other businesses, practice made perfect, and persistence paid off. But what about pill refinery? There was no way to practice until perfection. If one had natural endowments, then so be it. What if one did not have natural endowments? They would only get powder even after practicing for 10,000 years.
There were many low-leveled civilizations that wanted to learn from the Shell race and stand out through pill refinery, but ever since the establishment of the divine territory, only the Shell race had been successful. This was not without reason. High levels of natural endowments and wealth were not things that low-leveled civilizations could obtain. However, Lao Wang was different.
Lao Wang waved his hand and weighed the ingredients in his hand. As expected, they were of extremely inferior quality. Not only were they of poor quality, they were also very thin and looked as if they could no longer continue living. Even Jhonas could not bear to look at them. They were simply defective goods that could not be sold out.
However, Lao Wang’s eyes lit up as an idea appeared in his head. Broken medicinal materials. Maybe…
Ever since his spiritual power had reached its upper limit, Lao Wang had not spent effort on his fragment world, but it was not because of money. Low-leveled medicine did not provide much help to him, and it was hard to find good- and high-quality medicine in Heavenly Treasures Street. Even if he obtained them, he would not be able to plant them in the fragment world with its level back then. The fragment world was related to Wang Zhong’s geographical position. The richer the spiritual influence, the better the effects of the fragment world would be.
Before coming to the Heavenly Gates, he had also thought about making use of the excellent geographical environment of the Heavenly Gates to try and plant high-leveled ingredients. However, he had been extremely busy throughout the days he had been here and completely forgot about this matter. Now, when he looked at the defective ingredients on the table, his thoughts started to flourish.
“It’s nothing. I was just thinking of something.” Lao Wang had recovered to his normal state from his deep thoughts. He laughed cheerily as he wrapped everything up. “Thanks!”
After all, they had just started classes. There would be more classes in the first month.
The Pill Refinery Hall held lessons on the second day. Unlike the minor figures who listened to the classes for the other two Halls, almost everyone was present. Even those who already knew that they did not have pill-refinery talents at all could not bear to pass up the opportunity to listen to Elder Yimo teach.
In cultivation, it was said that all roads led to Rome. Meanwhile, pill cultivation was the most abstruse path and the core of cultivation. Feeling and experiencing more would be of great help to other kinds of cultivation.
Fifteen hundred pupils assembled beneath Furnace Mountain. They had already arrived a long time ago as no one was willing to be late for one second. It was like a grand ceremony.
First, they handed up their ingredients. Three supervisors set up tables. They only checked their ingredients but did not collect them. The expressions of the supervisors were cold, but every pupil was still relatively excited and looked at one another’s ingredients. The best ingredients had all been snatched up. Since there were 1,500 portions for the same kind of pill, there would not be that many top ingredients. During these times, they competed with power, wealth, and status.
Of course, the best ingredients were given to the strongest people.
Lao Wang and Jhonas lined up in the long queue. When Jhonas looked at the various fragrant ingredients that other pupils had handed up, he was obviously rather nervous. When their turn came, the expressionless supervisors were all dumbfounded.
When they saw the materials that these two fellows pulled out of their bags, the pupils beside them felt like rolling their eyes.
“That is residue from other medicine, right?”
“Look at that Ghost Lip Orchid… My god, it’s really not easy for them to grow like that.”
“Damn, what kind of action is this? That is trash that they picked up from the spiritual medicine market, right? Can this be considered passing the mission?”
Amidst the clamor and dumbfounded stares all around them, Lao Wang and Jhonas both had an invincible sense of shame. The supervisor in charge of collecting materials checked them for a long time. In the end, he registered them on the namelist. However, his gaze towards Jhonas, Wang Zhong, and the rest was somewhat cold. From his disdain that pierced through the bones, he was evidently not fond of these impostors.
According to the statistics, all 100 pupils from the Pill Refinery Hall had definitely completed this mission with both quantity and quality. Furthermore, they had all submitted three or more portions of ingredients, and the highest number of portions submitted was 50. Meanwhile, the other audit students did poorly, especially the Combat Cultivation Hall. Out of 900 pupils, only over 300 students had submitted the materials. It was not that they were not willing to earn these 10 points. They were simply embarrassingly short of money. Not everyone could casually obtain medicinal materials for level-7 pills, and the cost was enough for a level-6 Faction to be in distress for several months. There were also a few people like Jhonas who used inferior goods to make up the numbers. However, it did not matter. If there were systems, there would also be flaws. The Heavenly Gates was not against pupils having twisted ideas and brains. If one was able to blend in and pass time and again, and accumulate points through trickery, it was also a skill.
After some tossing around, Elder Yimo appeared on the stone furnace platform on time.
A namelist appeared in his hands. This was the namelist created when everyone had handed in their materials. He raised and waved the namelist in the air.
“Pill refinery is sacred and serious. It does not tolerate trickery to serve oneself. Ingredients are the basics of all pill studies. If you do not have resources and support, it is best to give up while it is still early to prevent tricking others and yourself.” Although Elder Yimo’s voice was very amiable and did not mention any names, many people immediately turned to look at Jhonas, Wang Zhong, and a few other people. These people had used broken materials to make up the numbers, and many people had personally witnessed this. It was as if Elder Yimo had called out their names.
Various hateful, mocking, and disdainful gazes turned to look at them. Jhonas acted as if he had not heard anything. One could not tell that this fellow had rather thick skin. As for Lao Wang, it did not matter to him. He even smiled at the unfriendly gazes.
“How shameless!” Someone scolded them in a low voice.
The medicinal materials handed in would be returned. The Pill Refinery Hall would not take a fancy to the materials from their students. Instead, they were warning those pupils who had unrealistic dreams of refining pills that if they did not have the money, they should not waste their time.
Since they had asked the pupils to prepare level-7 materials, they would have to explain what refinery was. Naturally, they talked about level-7 pills. This evidently required good foundations. While those who were able to enter the Pill Refinery Hall had obviously passed these standards, the other audit students fell far behind. However, Elder Yimo was not interested in generalizing this knowledge for the audit pupils. At that moment, his pleasant voice simply started with how to refine this level-7 pill.
“The level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill. This pill…”
Elder Yimo’s voice was still very pleasant, but the jump in progress of this lesson was far too big. A large group of audit students were instantly stunned. However, they quickly understood. When Elder Yimo explained the basics of pill studies during the previous lesson, that had been a massive exception. They could not possibly ask him to teach them from the very beginning. After all, he mainly taught genius students in the Pill Refinery Hall who had good foundations. No one cared about the audit students. Whether they understood was completely reliant on their luck.
If they understood, then good. If they could gather their own materials and conduct experiments, then so be it. After all, this was not the Charity Hall.
Elder Yimo had already finished introducing some effects and special characteristics of the level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill. “Everyone knows the four steps of pill refinery — gathering ingredients, lighting the furnace, integrating the soul, and refining the pill.”
“When you gather ingredients, you have to consider the arrangement and proportion of ingredients, the age of the ingredients, the grade of its medicinal properties, its level of freshness, and other details. For example, for a level-7 Glazed Crystal Life Extending Pill, there are 11 kinds of bases…
“Just as its name implies, lighting the furnace involves making a fire and lighting up the furnace. A good furnace is important, but it is not enough to just have a good furnace. You also need a good pill fire…
“Integrating the soul involves matching your soul with the furnace, allowing your soul to integrate with the furnace. This is a step beyond lighting the furnace. All furnaces have intelligence and are embryos that give birth to things. If you are sincere towards it, it will also repay you accordingly. It might be very difficult for beginners to achieve the realm where one’s soul is compatible with the furnace, but there is a rather dumb but very effective method. You can bathe yourself in incense, quieten your thoughts, and even kneel three times and kowtow nine times. As long as you are sincere enough, you can also establish feelings with the furnace. This is a process that a beginner must go through…
“As for refining the pill, it can be said that the three steps mentioned previously are all in preparation for this most important step. In this fourth step, the word ‘refine’ is most important. Using your body’s spiritual power as a guide and the intention of your soul, you will occasionally sense the process of intelligence accumulating in the furnace as it moves towards continuously adjusting the pill and accumulating spiritual influence…
“These methods and ways are very simple. Being able to take shortcuts for some steps can only provide some help. Actual ‘refinery’ can only be understood, but cannot be passed on, and requires accumulating a lot of experience. When 10,000 people refine the same kind of pill, there will be 10,000 different experiences and processes. There will be no two pills in the world that will be the same as each other. You will not be able to find two completely similar pills even if they came from the same furnace.
“Some say that every single pill is unique. This is not an exaggeration. Everyone has to find their own way and path. Teachers can lead the way, but cultivation depends on yourself…”
Elder Yimo’s pleasant voice sounded from the stone platform. Unlike the obscure information that appeared when he explained the basics of pill cultivation previously, this lesson was mostly filled with details.
Elder Yimo’s explanation was relatively thorough. It was said that one could only provide hints but not pass down one’s path. However, to an almighty expert like Elder Yimo, he was usually able to find the most accurate words to explain principles that were obscure and hard to understand. Furthermore, the visual image that his pleasant voice provided made the entire lesson very vivid. Thus, it was as if Lao Wang was intoxicated from listening to him.
It was relatively thorough, and he understood very well!
However, this was obviously a feeling that was unique to Lao Wang. Putting aside the Pill Refinery Hall pupils in front, almost nine in 10 audit students were confused. They were at a total loss.
This was not just a problem of their natural endowments, but more of how their civilizations had nurtured them.
The Earth was a very special existence. It was called the Playground of the Gods, and countless deities had left behind their footprints. Thus, this civilization had received its inheritance from a mix of many gods. Even though humans had not mastered the method of accumulating their core, “pill refinery” had existed in the early ages long before the Dark Ages on Earth. There were also writings and records of these. The Holy Land and Earth had always been doing research on this. However, as they lacked spiritual influence, they were restricted and could only develop metal refinery but did not have any other achievements.
However, in terms of theory, they did not lack knowledge in certain areas. After all, even if they had never eaten pork, they had imagined pigs running around. Thus, this made Wang Zhong feel that it was very easy and clear to understand general knowledge about pill refinery. In particular, when Elder Yimo taught about his path, he was rather inspired, and Lao Wang immediately understood, which was unthinkable for other people.
Meanwhile, Jhonas beside him had completely fallen asleep. It was still fine when he was listening to the general framework yesterday, but when Elder Yimo talked about the details today, he simply felt that his head hurt. The other audit pupils also listened to the class with a worried look and almost pulled out their hair. It was as if they were listening to the contents of a book from heaven. Even some of the Pill Refinery Hall pupils in front had constant questions about some of the details.
This was also the first time Lao Wang had been treated to a great feast for the eyes and the senses. He was extremely satisfied.
Ever since he had entered the Heavenly Gates, he had always felt that Elder Yimo’s classes were the most interesting and the most brilliant. The old man on the stone platform who looked thin and did not release any oppressive aura was extremely outstanding, not just in Lao Wang’s eyes, but in the eyes of all 1,500 pupils here.
When the class ended, many people formed their own groups.
The Three Halls in the Heavenly Gates were the main differentiator of the pupils’ social circles, but in reality, there was an even more important factor that differentiated the social circles in the Heavenly Gates: the organizations and associations. These had been initiated by the pupils of the Heavenly Gates. They formed organizations and associations based on their habits, hobbies, identity, and status, and naturally gathered together. These were very tight alliances in the Heavenly Gates.
To be honest, those who came here were all not simple. Learning and progress was only one aspect, but not everyone had the opportunity to ascend. This was an upper-leveled social circle where they could form relations, make friends, and blend in with the top classes of society. This was the core reason why many people joined the Heavenly Gates. In fact, in the eyes of some people, blending in with the social circles was more important than their studies.
Some famous associations included the Level-8 Brother Association, which only accepted pupils from level-8 civilizations. Everyone in this social circle was a tyrannical son of a bigwig in the Land. They were also called the “Crown Prince Association” by other people in the Heavenly Gates. This was an association formed based on identity and status.
For example, the Thunder Alliance was only made up of elites who cultivated thunder techniques. Furthermore, not only could Combat Cultivation pupils cultivate thunder techniques, in reality, many pupils from the Weapon Refinery and Pill Refinery Halls could do so as well. The Thunder Alliance was extremely strong in the Heavenly Gates as thunder techniques were called the number one representative of fierce attacks. The Leader of the Thunder Alliance was a gold Titan senior from a few batches before. It was said that he had already accumulated his Gold Core and had the opportunity to ascend after some preparation.
Meanwhile, the “Pill One Association” was an association that only the peak experts in the Pill Refinery Hall could enter. This kind of association was rather fair as it did not look at one’s civilization or background, but one’s ability.
Even the proud Flying Pig Jhonas had an association. However, it was very straightforward and was called the “Heavenly Gates Chamber of Commerce…”
There were some older pupils there who could be called seniors and were attracting new members. Of course, associations that needed older pupils to actively attract new pupils were basically weak associations. Associations like the Level-8 Brother Association, the Thunder Alliance, and the Pill One Association did not even recruit people as everyone wanted to blend into their social circle even if they had to break their heads. Even if they had the qualifications, they had to wait to be picked by those associations.