246: Chapter 246 Second-Tier Martial Artist

After the first batch was successful, the technical team quickly assembled four more units.

Five units started working simultaneously, producing one hundred and eighty pills per round.

The total amount of the four Tier-4 Yao Beast cores was limited. Tianheng calculated that if they were all refined into realm breaking pills, at most it could yield around one thousand pills.

One thousand pills sounded like a lot, but there were already sixteen soldiers with S-grade Root Bone in the base alone, over one thousand three hundred A-grade ones, followed by more than six thousand B-grade and over twenty thousand C-grade ones.

Distributing them evenly was definitely out of the question.

When Tao Zhe reported this number to Su Mingyuan, Su Mingyuan was just coming out of his seclusion room to eat. After four days of pure Cultivate, the Spiritual Qi pool in his Dantian was filled to about thirty percent.

"One thousand pills, how should we distribute them?" Tao Zhe asked.

Su Mingyuan held his rice bowl and calculated.

"Sixteen people for S-grade, ten pills each, one hundred and sixty pills. The remaining eight hundred plus pills go to A-grade, with each person getting a little more than half a pill. Even if it's not enough to break through the first tier, it can push the progress forward by a large margin."

"What about B-grade and C-grade?"

"Wait." Su Mingyuan picked up a chopstick of vegetables and chewed twice, "The Materials are not enough, so we can't take care of everyone. B-grade and C-grade will have to hard-train with Cultivation Technique first, and we'll talk when the supply of Yao Beast cores catches up."

Tao Zhe did not refute.

The logic was right there—with the exact same realm breaking pill, S-grade could absorb over ninety-five percent, A-grade about sixty percent, and by B-grade only forty percent remained. Most of the medicinal power turned into Impurities and accumulated in the Meridians, which was not only wasteful but also risky.

Good steel should be used on the blade's edge.

"The Yao Beast cores are not enough," Tao Zhe said. "Four Tier-4 Yao Beast cores are only enough for this batch."

Su Mingyuan put down his bowl.

"Aren't there still many Yao Beasts north of Cang City?"

Tao Zhe understood: "Take the initiative to attack?"

"Medicinal Pills require Yao Beast cores, and Yao Beast cores grow on Yao Beasts, which roam in groups north of Cang City."

Su Mingyuan said, "We'll talk about this later. Let's refine the one thousand pills first and distribute them. S-grade has priority, nine pills each, rushing to Second-Order Martial Artist at top speed. Give the rest to A-grade, ranked by total Root Bone score, with higher scores taking first. Leave nine pills for me."

Tao Zhe nodded and went out to make arrangements.

The five pieces of equipment ran continuously for two days.

Sun Liang hardly closed his eyes for these past two days.

Every batch of raw Materials sent to the workshop was personally inspected by him for the quality of the Spiritual Plant. He would rub them with his hands, smell them with his nose, and then report his adjustment suggestions.

"This batch of Dragonbone vines is a bit old, add one point."

"The color of the pistils of the Fuling flower is too light, change the batch."

"The huilong grass is fine, proceed with the standard amount."

The young men of the technical team went from being dismissive in the first two days to proactively bringing medicinal Materials over to show him later.

The reason was very simple—for any batch whose ratio Sun Liang adjusted, the fluctuation range of the finished product's Spiritual Qi concentration was nearly half smaller than the standard batches.

Two days later, all one thousand realm breaking pills were produced.

They were packaged in small sealed porcelain bottles, nine pills per bottle, with labels on the bottle body—grade and dosage interval.

It was similar to the medicine bottles in the Main World.

Sun Liang picked up a bottle to look at it, then put it down.

"If I go back and tell the people in Cang City about this Alchemy speed of yours, probably no one will believe it."

That afternoon, one hundred and forty-four realm breaking pills were delivered to the hands of the S-grade soldiers, with sixteen people getting nine pills each.

The remaining eight hundred plus pills were distributed one by one by Tao Zhe according to the ranking of the total A-grade Root Bone scores. Those ranked at the front got two pills each, those at the back got one pill each, and the last few hundred people could only wait for the next batch.

Those who got the Medicinal Pills treated them like treasures, while those who didn't watched longingly, but no one argued.

Soldiers understood the rules; if it was your turn, it was yours, and if it wasn't your turn yet, you waited.

Zhang Dabiao pulled out the bottle stopper and sniffed it, raising his eyebrows.

"What's that smell?" asked the person next to him.

"Fragrant. An indescribable fragrance, it makes my stomach hungry just smelling it."

He poured the first pill into his palm to look at it, and without saying another word, threw it into his mouth and swallowed it.

A warm current rose from his stomach, traveling along the Meridians to his whole body, spreading across his limbs in two or three seconds.

The Spiritual Qi in his Dantian began to surge violently.

Zhang Dabiao immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and circulated his energy.

The other fifteen followed suit and swallowed their first pill, each finding a place to sit down.

By the time Su Mingyuan got his nine pills, it was already evening.

Returning to his room, he placed the Medicinal Pill bottle on the table, ate a bowl of noodles and drank a bowl of soup first, and only started after he was full.

The first pill entered his belly.

The warm current surged into the Meridians, and the Spiritual Qi accelerated its circulation.

The medicinal effect of one pill lasted for about three hours, running nearly one hundred and twenty cycles, and his Dantian grew from thirty percent to fifty percent.

After the medicinal effect dissipated, he was covered in sweat and his clothes were soaked through.

He changed his clothes and rested for twelve hours.

The second pill, fifty percent to sixty-five percent.

The third pill, sixty-five percent to eighty percent.

The fourth pill, eighty percent to ninety-two percent.

The efficiency was diminishing.

The fuller the Spiritual Qi in the Dantian was, the harder it was for the newly poured-in Qi to find a position.

After the fifth pill went down, it rose from ninety-two percent to ninety-six percent.

It fell just short.

The Spiritual Qi was already spinning spontaneously in the Dantian, the prototype of a vortex had formed, but it was still not dense enough.

Su Mingyuan was not in a hurry.

He held off on eating the sixth pill, relying purely on running the cycles, filling it circle by circle, waiting for the Spiritual Qi to reach that critical point on its own.

Tianheng's model had stated that the Breakthrough to Second-Order Martial Artist was the same as the first tier; once the accumulation of Spiritual Qi was in place, it would automatically compress and condense.

However, the compression density of the second tier was more than a dozen times that of the first tier, placing higher demands on the endurance of the Meridians and Dantian.

At 3:00 AM on the sixth day.

Running to the thirty-seventh cycle, the Spiritual Qi in the Dantian moved.

The vortex began to sink downwards, pressing toward the deepest part of the Dantian.

The force was much fiercer than the first tier.

A severe bloating pain came from his lower abdomen, as if someone was pushing outward from the inside with a fist.

Immediately afterwards, the bloating pain turned into a sharp pain, like dozens of needles piercing into the Dantian simultaneously.

The pain lasted for nearly ten minutes.

"Click."

The Spiritual Qi was released instantly, and a warm current rushed out of the Dantian to flood his entire body.

His Meridians hummed, his limbs felt as if they had been electrocuted, his muscles twitched involuntarily, and his pores opened wide.

Grayish-black viscous substance oozed out of his skin again.

Cleansing the marrow and washing the bones, the second time.

The smell was much more unbearable than last time.

Su Mingyuan opened his eyes.

By this time, the room was already so stinky that people couldn't stay in it.

The grayish-black mucus on his arms was twice as much as last time, as thick as asphalt.

Su Mingyuan took a shower, changed his clothes, and went out.

Tao Zhe was already waiting at the medical station, and Military Doctor Lao Song had powered on all the physical examination equipment.

Fifteen minutes later, the data came out.

Lao Song's hand trembled slightly when he handed over the report.

Grip strength: 800 kg.

Reaction speed: 0.011 seconds.

Vital capacity: 12600 ml.

Resting heart rate: 36 beats/minute.

Comprehensive physical fitness: approximately 3.2 times that of the first tier, and 15 times that of a normal state.

Su Mingyuan glanced over it and put down the physical examination report.

Half a month ago, he still needed bodyguards to follow him when going out.

Tao Zhe asked, "What level does a Second-Order Martial Artist count as in Cang City?"

"The captain of the hunter team in Cang City, Zhao Hu, is also a Second-Order Martial Artist."

"Then you are in the same tier as Zhao Hu."

"The rank is the same, but if we really fight, I definitely wouldn't be able to beat Zhao Hu."

Tao Zhe lowered his head to look at the tablet.

"Zhang Dabiao also broke through to the second tier last night, and three more S-grades broke through this morning. At this rate, all sixteen S-grades should reach the second tier within three days."

Su Mingyuan nodded.

He still had four realm breaking pills left in his hand—he only used five for the second tier, which was nearly half less than the estimated nine pills.

"Give the remaining realm breaking pills to the other brothers first; this Medicinal Pill has a relatively low effect on me now. Also, there's another matter: what is the current situation of the upgraded version of the Root Bone detector?"