263: Trying to refine pills

After all, working under someone else meant doing as they said.

His own life was still in their hands, after all!

The subordinate from Tingfeng Hall nodded directly and said, "Yes!"

After performing a salute, he went straight out.

Gu Changan sensed the state of his Divine Soul and discovered that the Divine Sense enhanced by the last soul-locking heart fruit could now be used with ease.

So, he consumed another soul-locking heart fruit.

The strength of his Divine Sense reached three times that of when he had condensed his Golden Core.

The sensation of his Divine Soul swelling washed over him once more.

Gu Changan had no choice but to slow his pace.

Others were always lacking various resources for their Cultivation.

He, on the other hand, was afraid of improving too quickly.

Ever since his strength had surged to the fourth level of the Golden Core Stage last time, he hadn't fought anyone.

So, he was feeling a bit restless.

Right now, friction had already arisen between the Wu Family and the Lei Family.

As for the other major families of the Treasure Pavilion, they were all still in a wait-and-see state.

Everyone was watching the show; after all, if one Family was gone, the profits of the Treasure Pavilion would increase by a fraction.

Everyone knew how to calculate that!

This gave Gu Changan an opportunity to exploit.

Tingfeng Hall of the Shadow Dust Pavilion had already taken shape in Tianbao City, and the tasks Gu Changan had assigned were all investigated in less than half a day.

When it was reported to Gu Changan,

it already had some clues.

The Shopkeepers of the Treasure Pavilion each had their own areas of responsibility.

Those on the first floor responsible for Qi Refining Stage Cultivators didn't need to be looked at; he passed them over directly.

Those responsible for Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators didn't need to be watched either; they couldn't even touch the core resources of the Treasure Pavilion.

They might not even be able to enter the treasury of the Treasure Pavilion!

Using this elimination method, only three or five candidates remained.

Among them, the headquarters of the Treasure Pavilion had one head and three deputy Golden Core Stage Shopkeepers.

They usually took turns on duty, though if an emergency occurred, two might be on duty simultaneously.

The one who died previously was a deputy Shopkeeper.

Now, only one head and two deputies remained.

There were two others who were rotated in from Treasure Pavilions in other regions.

This meant they had been Golden Core Stage Shopkeepers in the regions of the Blood Fiend Alliance or the Tianji Pavilion.

Then, after a period of time, they were rotated back to the headquarters of the Treasure Pavilion.

Gu Changan was not sure if these two knew many of the secrets of the Treasure Pavilion.

But they certainly didn't know as much as that orthodox Golden Core Stage Shopkeeper.

After all, he was the boss on the surface.

Gu Changan set his target on him.

He took a close look at the name: Wu Shouzhuo, a conventional name.

He looked at his movement patterns and found they were surprisingly fixed.

Every day, he stayed at the Treasure Pavilion headquarters to Cultivate and never left a single step!

This put Gu Changan in a difficult position; could he really charge into the Treasure Pavilion headquarters to capture someone?

However, there was also detailed information provided above.

Every month, Wu Shouzhuo had to return to his Family to report the detailed business situation of the month to the clan elders above.

This gave Gu Changan an opportunity to exploit!

Calculating the time, there were about ten days left until the end of the month.

Gu Changan could afford to wait for that amount of time.

Gu Changan casually dismissed the people from Tingfeng Hall; he couldn't stay idle during this time.

Gu Changan intended to test whether he could actually perform Alchemy.

First, he spent two days familiarizing himself with the "complete compendium of spirit herbs and elixirs" he had upgraded earlier.

Then, on the third day, he began to experiment.

He randomly dug out a Magical Artifact-ranked Pill Furnace from the treasure gathering basin.

As for why he didn't use the best one?

Gu Changan wanted to test whether he had any talent for Alchemy.

Then he checked the treasure gathering basin and discovered he didn't have the most basic Alchemy Materials at all.

He didn't want to ask the people from Tingfeng Hall to buy them; after all, if they knew he was refining low-ranked Medicinal Pills,

wouldn't that make them look down on him?

After all, he had previously produced so many Medicinal Pills casually; he still had to maintain his persona as an expert!

Gu Changan flashed out of the door and passed by a general store.

He bought 10 sets of Materials for refining qi gathering pills directly.

These 10 sets of Materials should be enough to test his level.

If one set didn't work, then he would extinguish the thought of doing Alchemy himself.

After all, he could just grab any Alchemist who was better than him at that time.

Wouldn't it be better to just control someone?

He was only doing this for the nascent soul forming pill,

not because he liked Alchemy!

Gu Changan flashed back to the small courtyard and began to make preparations in a flurry of activity.

First, he lit the furnace fire according to the instructions in the "complete compendium of spirit herbs and elixirs".

He directly channeled the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian to ignite the pill fire.

Then he enveloped the entire Magical Artifact-ranked Pill Furnace within it.

The scorching flames burned the Pill Furnace, and in less than two breaths of time,

the entire Magical Artifact-ranked Pill Furnace was burned red-hot.

The preheating was complete, and the Impurities in the Pill Furnace had been burned away completely.

Gu Changan picked up the Materials for the qi gathering pills he had bought.

These were just the most basic level of Materials, and what he bought had already been processed.

So, there was really no need to process them much.

Gu Changan followed the steps on the prescription and tossed in the Materials one by one.

Purification, refining, Fusion; every step was as simple as cooking.

But when it came to condensing the pill at the end, it failed with a "poof" sound.

Gu Changan recalled everything; the reason for his failure was not because his strength was insufficient,

but because his grasp of the timing was not precise.

It was the optimal moment when condensing the pill.

As long as he mastered the optimal timing, he would definitely succeed.

It was like the "wok hei" when cooking; only when the wok hei was at its most intense could it condense into a pill.

Only then would the Materials inside fully combine to form a Medicinal Pill.

Gu Changan experimented with five or six batches of pills, and it wasn't until the seventh batch that he succeeded.

Every time he experimented, Gu Changan pushed the time for condensing the pill back by one breath.

In this way, he finally found the optimal pill-condensing time.

So, from the seventh batch onwards, he succeeded.

The eighth and ninth batches went without saying.

Out of ten batches of pills, he actually succeeded in four.

Gu Changan was still very happy; this showed that his talent was actually not bad.

Gu Changan picked up one of the qi gathering pills he had refined and observed its surface.

It was pitted and uneven, just like a ball rolled by hand.

It was very ugly!

Gu Changan felt a bit embarrassed, but who told him he was a novice?

Gu Changan casually upgraded the Medicinal Pill in his hand to top-grade.

He tossed it into his mouth to taste it and discovered there was no difference from the Medicinal Pills he had purchased before!

Gu Changan sat cross-legged and began to reflect; since he could perform Alchemy,

then his future plans would have to change as well.

If he could find the Materials for the nascent soul forming pill, he would copy a large amount of Materials and perform the Alchemy himself.

If he couldn't find them, he would have no choice but to go and seize the finished nascent soul forming pill!

Alchemy had also taken two or three days, so now there were three or four days left.

He would use these three or four days to hone his skills!

Gu Changan went out again and bought 200 sets of Materials for qi gathering pills.

As for why he said he wouldn't use the treasure gathering basin to copy them?

Because Gu Changan discovered that some of the items were not actually treasures at all.

They were just some ordinary things!