Chapter 132 - The Pure Pills and the Unnamed Grade
Chapter 132: Chapter 132 - The Pure Pills and the Unnamed Grade
Days passed.
Azure-Jade City grew busier with each sunrise.
The Fallen-Star Sanctuary had not opened yet, but the pressure around it had already begun to tighten.
Every force was preparing.
Radiant Sky Sect’s preparation was simpler.
They refined pills.
Inside the private pill-refinement hall, Liu Meng and Su Bai continued refining Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pills every day.
Li Xuanzong allowed them to work, but not endlessly.
At the end of each day, he would personally stop them.
Only Ji Ruyue was more difficult to understand.
After producing the tenth strange reversed pill, she quietly stepped away from the cauldron.
Su Bai naturally stored every reversed pill. Carefully with clear satisfaction.
...
By the third day of refinement, Liu Meng’s lowest result had become high-grade.
Low-grade pills had disappeared from her batches.
Mid-grade pills had also disappeared.
Every successful refinement now produced high-grade Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pill.
Sometimes, when the flame responded well and the miasma-cleansing flower behaved, the pill pattern became nearly perfect.
Liu Meng was improving too quickly.
Even the troublesome miasma-cleansing flower seemed less aggressive under her hands now.
By then, Radiant Sky Sect had already accumulated more than a hundred Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pills of varying grades.
Their stockpile grew quietly.
Outside, many sects were still arguing over prices.
Inside, Radiant Sky Sect had already begun counting pills by boxes.
What surprised Su Bai most was the ingredients.
They never seemed to run out.
Every time he thought the stock should be close to empty, Lu Canghai or Li Xuanzong would return with more boxes of them.
Sometimes Lu Canghai returned smiling.
Sometimes Li Xuanzong returned calm.
Sometimes both returned at the same time.
Whenever that happened, the disciples of Quiet Jade Inn avoided asking questions.
There were some answers juniors did not need to know.
...
With abundant herbs available, Su Bai finally decided to test an idea that had been sitting in his mind since Li Xuanzong and Lu Canghai explained the old world’s pill yields.
Cold-Forging preserved essence extremely well.
Normal alchemy inevitably lost some essence through heat, scattering, fusion instability, and medicinal conflict.
Su Bai’s method caught the essence at its awakening moment and froze it before it could disperse.
That was why he could consistently create Transcendent-Grade pills.
But if preserved essence was sufficient...
Could he divide it?
Su Bai understood the danger.
The current herbs were weakened. Their total medicinal weight could not compare to ancient spirit herbs. If he divided too much, the structure would collapse.
So he did not attempt three pills. He tried two.
One batch. Two pill embryos.
The moment he began, everyone in the room became quiet.
Liu Meng stopped her own refinement and came over.
Ji Ruyue also watched.
Li Xuanzong and Lu Canghai stood nearby without speaking.
Su Bai still used the same sequence.
But this time, after preserving the awakened essence, he did not condense everything into one lotus structure.
He split the frozen essence evenly.
The first difficulty appeared immediately.
The lotus-heart root essence did not want to divide.
Once separated, both halves weakened at the edges.
Su Bai had to use the purification dew to stabilize both sides at once.
Then the white jade marrow became troublesome.
Its heavy nature preferred a single center.
When forced into two stabilizing hearts, it tilted toward one pill embryo and left the other thin.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
Ashen-Frost Blight Flame moved like mist across the jade table.
One thread pressed down.
One thread lifted.
The two pill embryos slowly regained balance.
Then came the miasma-cleansing flower.
The flower already disliked his method when there was only one structure.
Now there were two.
Its cleansing nature rushed between both pill embryos, unable to decide which impurity to attack first.
For several breaths, the entire structure nearly scattered.
The purple mark appeared on Su Bai’s forehead again.
Dao-Shattering Jade activated.
His eyes became clear.
He did not suppress the flower.
He created two false impurities.
One for each pill embryo.
The miasma-cleansing flower split its cleansing motion.
Su Bai caught both at completion.
Froze both.
Stabilized both.
The process took longer than usual.
By the time the two pill embryos finally condensed, one and a half hours had passed.
Two pale white pills hovered above the jade table.
They were flawless.
There were no impurities.
Their lotus patterns were clear.
Their outer petal rings were complete.
But they were thinner.
Medicinally.
The room remained silent.
Liu Meng stepped forward first.
She inspected the two pills carefully.
Then her brows slowly furrowed.
"They are pure."
Li Xuanzong looked at them.
"Completely pure."
Lu Canghai narrowed his eyes.
"But they are not Transcendent Grade."
Su Bai also looked at the pills.
The current pill grading system judged pills mainly by purity.
But these two pills had no impurities.
By that standard, they should have been Transcendent Grade.
Yet they were not.
Their medicinal structure was complete, and their purity was flawless, but their medicinal weight was thinner. Each pill carried only half of the essence that should have supported a true Transcendent-Grade Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pill.
For a moment, no one knew how to grade them.
They were too pure to be called ordinary. But too light to be called transcendent.
Liu Meng said softly, "If judged only by purity, they are perfect. But their effect should be weaker than a true Transcendent-Grade pill."
Li Xuanzong nodded.
"Then they are not low, mid, or high grade in the ordinary sense."
Lu Canghai stroked his beard.
"Pure but light."
Ji Ruyue looked at the two pills.
"Half-weight perfect pills?"
The room became quiet.
Lu Canghai looked at Ji Ruyue.
"That name is strangely accurate."
Su Bai accepted it.
For now, that was enough.
The two pills were not failures.
They were useful.
But the process was too slow.
One and a half hours for two pills.
During that same time, Liu Meng could refine five to seven ordinary batches depending on her rhythm, and her minimum result was already high-grade.
Su Bai looked at the two flawless but lighter pills.
Then he looked at Liu Meng’s cauldron.
He silently calculated.
"..."
For now, Transcendent Grade was better.
The half-weight pills proved the idea was possible, but they were not efficient enough yet.
Su Bai stored the two Half-Weight Perfect Pills separately.
He did not attempt that method again that day.
The refinement continued.
Liu Meng became even more focused after watching Su Bai’s experiment.
The sight of two flawless but lighter pills did not discourage her.
It inspired her.
If Su Bai’s Cold-Forging could preserve essence so completely, then ordinary alchemy also had room to improve.
Perhaps she could not eliminate loss entirely yet.
But she could reduce it.
Her eyes became brighter.
Her next batch came out high-grade.
The batch after that was also high-grade.
The one after that nearly crossed the line into perfect.
...
Like that, days passed.
Su Bai signed in each morning.
For several days, the reward was the same.
[Ding! Signed in at Azure-Jade City.]
[Reward: Counterfeit Parasite-Dust.]
By the third repeated reward, he had already prepared a cup before signing in.
By the fifth, he felt oddly calm.
It filled his stomach, stabilized his circulation, and kept his hunger quiet.
In terms of usefulness, it was better than spiritual dishes. For him.
Liu Meng once saw the gray dust in his cup and paused.
"Senior Brother Su, what is that?"
Su Bai looked at the cup.
"Breakfast."
Liu Meng stared at it.
Then she chose not to ask further.
...
Ten days of refinement passed.
By then, Radiant Sky Sect’s private stockpile had become extremely impressive.
There were hundreds of Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pills.
Li Xuanzong personally sealed and divided the pills.
Lu Canghai watched the boxes being sorted with bright eyes.
Li Xuanzong looked at him.
"Do not sell too many."
Lu Canghai sighed.
"You wound me."
...
On the tenth day, a message arrived.
The younger generation was invited to another gathering.
This time, it was not a formal banquet.
It was a smaller meeting for those who would enter the Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
The purpose was simple.
Familiarity.
And perhaps, one last chance to see who could be trusted before the mystic realm opened.
Li Xuanzong read the invitation and looked toward Su Bai and Liu Meng.
"You two will stop refining today."
Liu Meng looked at the herb trays.
Su Bai looked at the sealed boxes.
For a brief moment, both seemed reluctant.
Liu Meng finally lowered her head.
"Yes, Sect Master."
Su Bai also nodded.
"Yes."
Lu Canghai laughed.
"You two have been refining for ten days. Go outside before you start thinking everyone is shaped like a pill."
Liu Meng’s ears turned red.
Su Bai thought for a moment.
That had not happened yet.
Probably.
Ji Ruyue quietly picked up one of the pills and looked at it.
Han Yuelin and Qin Baoshan, who had been cultivating during most of these days, also received the notice.
"Finally, something other than cultivation pressure."
Qin Baoshan looked at him.
"You chose to cultivate."
"Yes," Han Yuelin said. "That is why I know I need something else."
By afternoon, the five Radiant Sky Sect disciples prepared to leave Quiet Jade Inn.