Chapter 427: The Elixir Research Institute

“Today, we’re refining the Netherblood Little New Year Pill. At maximum yield, this batch will produce nine pills....”

“Before adding this Red Snow Mushroom to the pill furnace, we must first slice it into thin pieces so it can dissolve into the elixir’s base as quickly as possible, laying the foundation for the entire batch....”

While continuously adding herbs to the pill furnace, Hsu Henshui provided a detailed explanation covering the properties of each herb, how they should be processed in this formula to maximize their medicinal efficacy, and so on.

He covered the fundamental principles of pill-making, and his audience consisted entirely of loyal and trustworthy individuals. However, when it came to several key ingredients, Hsu Henshui still chose to omit them from his explanation and directly used his Dao energy to mask the herbs’ appearance and aura, to prevent the formula from being leaked.

An ordinary Little New Year Pill was one thing—after all, the Mother Nature Monastery possessed plenty of high-grade pill formulas—but the formula for the Netherblood Little New Year Pill, which used the Blood Yingluo as its primary ingredient, needed to be handled with extra caution.

Inspired by the ancient immortal formula, the new elixir Hsu Henshui developed would significantly reduce the negative side effects of the Blood Yingluo, slightly extend the lifespan it granted, and, at the same time, be free from the restrictions imposed by other longevity elixirs.

Without Wei Yuan’s permission, Hsu Henshui would naturally never disclose this formula to others, and the finished elixirs would be handed over to Qingming for centralized distribution as well.

Hsu Henshui refined the elixir as he explained the process, his water blue sleeves fluttering continuously due to the pill fire. He looked as graceful as a true immortal. His voice was also exceptionally pleasant. When discussing the Dao of pill-making, he also explained complex concepts in an easy-to-grasp fashion manner, which was only possible due to his profound mastery of the Dao of pill-making.

Wei Yuan, refining pills alongside him, had a sudden idea. He immediately dispatched several Dao Foundation stage cultivators to record the scene with stones.

“What is the meaning of this?” Hsu Henshui asked sneakily via sound transmission.

“I intend to record all the lessons you teach, and projection-recording is naturally the best method. In the future, when training new pill masters, we can simply replay them at any time so the students can study them thoroughly.”

“I see!”

Hsu Henshui immediately straightened his chest and put a comely smile on his face. His voice took on various resonances like the singing of an immortal fairy from the nine heavens, indescribably melodious and enchanting. His eyes shone like morning stars, and when he occasionally arched his umber-black brows, it seemed as though the entire pill chamber was enveloped in a swirling mist of immortal qi.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan continuously swept his perception over the pill furnace before him, keeping every detail within it under his complete control. A massive virtual pill furnace had appeared within the Great Realm, synchronously reflecting the conditions inside the furnace before Wei Yuan.

A group of mortals gifted in the Dao of pill-making had already gathered around the orchids and the Ice-Glass Immortal Tree. Using these two types of immortal plants—which served as fives nodes[1]—as the base, they were devoting their full attention to tracking and analyzing the progress of this batch of pills, offering real-time cues.

“The furnace temperature is rising too quickly; it has already exceeded the optimal temperature.”

Wei Yuan immediately reduced the intensity of the flame in his hand.

“The Blood Yingluo has not fully fused with the elixir; perhaps its purity is insufficient. We recommend adding a small amount—”

Wei Yuan immediately picked up a piece of Blood Yingluo at the same time the second half of the suggestion came through: “—of three qian.”

With a flick of his Dao energy, Wei Yuan sliced off a small piece of Blood Yingluo—exactly three qian—and dropped it into the pill furnace.

Beside him, Hsu Henshui was a bit confused by Wei Yuan’s actions. He was unsure why Wei Yuan had added another pinch of the primary ingredient. However, he didn’t dwell on it because multiple cultivators were capturing his projection from different angles right now. Naturally, he could not tolerate even the slightest imperfection in his image, so he suppressed the urge to ask and continued teaching with flawless poise.

......

“... The final step is not the formation of the pill, but its collection....”

As his melodious voice echoed, the pill furnace before Hsu Henshui opened, and a five-colored beam instantly burst forth from its mouth. Several white cranes then circled the beam three times before the extraordinary phenomenon gradually faded away.

With a light tap of his slender finger, Hsu Henshui caused pills to spurt out of the furnace one after another. The pills were dark red in color. Despite what he had said earlier, this batch actually yielded a total of ten pills, and one of the pills sported a golden Dao pattern!

Hsu Henshui’s eyes lit up, but he feigned composure as he placed the pill with the golden Dao pattern in the palm of his hand and displayed it before the crowd

Every Mother Nature Monastery disciple was deeply moved by the pill, exclaiming in awe: “As expected of Senior Uncle Hsu—he actually refined a grade-worthy spirit pill!”

“A pill formula like this normally wouldn’t be able to produce a grade-worthy pill, but Senior Uncle Hsu managed to refine a first-grade spirit pill regardless. That’s truly incredible!”

They weren’t just flattering him; it was simply the truth. Upon hearing this, Hsu Henshui tried to maintain a cool, faint smile on his face but soon discovered that he could not keep the corners of his mouth from curving upward no matter what.

The appearance of the first-grade spirit pill had come as a surprise even to him. The fact that Hsu Henshui had, after performing at his best, refined ten pills from a batch that was supposed to yield only nine was already an achievement worth boasting about in itself. But with the emergence of a first-grade spirit pill, even Dan Mingzi would have praised him for a job well done.

“This batch was originally supposed to yield nine pills, but if the timing of the collection of the pill is right, it’s possible to obtain more. For example, I had ended up with ten pills—”

Suddenly, Hsu Henshui paused, noticing that Wei Yuan was still continuously channeling true fire into the pill furnace. However, the flame in his hand looked somewhat peculiar—a pale-red tiny mingled with a white-gold hue. They clearly carried traces of immortal spirit qi.

Hsu Henshui resumed his explanation, “If you miss the timing of the collection, it will affect both the quantity and quality of the pills. That said, if some of your previous steps weren’t executed perfectly, you can make slight adjustments at this stage to make up for it....”

The Mother Nature Monastery disciples all wore odd expressions. They could clearly tell that Hsu Henshui was trying to make excuses for Wei Yuan.

Using the exact same formula, Hsu Henshui had produced pills of higher quality and in greater quantity than the original formula had called for, proving that his timing for collecting the pills was spot-on. On the other hand, Wei Yuan had delayed his collection for so long that, even if all of his previous steps had been flawless, he’d be lucky to yield even one-third of the normal yield from this batch.

Meanwhile, cues were still ringing one after another in his mind:

“Maintain a low-temperature immortal flame. Elixir purity at ninety-five or ninety-six percent....”

“... Elixir purity at ninety eight point three percent....”

“Purity at one hundred percent! Infuse it with fortune now!”

Wei Yuan instantly cast more than ten wisps of blue qi into the pill furnace, and a faint melody rang out from within. It was a pleasant tinkling and clinking sound. Then, he channeled the Pill Collection Method. The furnace lid opened, releasing a cloud of white vapor, and countless immortal birds flew out of the furnace, each clutching a pill in its beak!

Moments later, the extraordinary phenomenon faded, and a total of eighteen pills actually appeared in the air, over half of which bore a single Dao pattern. The one in the center especially was a full circle larger than the others and actually sported two blue Dao patterns!

It wasn’t until this batch of pills clinked and clattered to the ground, like pearls falling onto a jade plate, that Hsu Henshui snapped out of his shock.

When an elixir had taken on the shape of a pill, they gathered the spirit qi of Heaven and Earth and subtly harmonized with the Great Dao. That was how pill patterns came to be. Elixirs bearing these patterns were considered grade-worthy and possessed far greater medicinal efficacy than their ordinary counterparts.

Hsu Henshui was beyond caring about his appearance at this point. He snatched up the two single-pattern pills and the one double-pattern pill before throwing a series of Dao spells at them. At the same time, his eyes blazed with aqua-blue light as he began to meticulously examine their quality.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan issued a command with his perception to preserve the entire pill-making process. He also issued another task that could be summarized in one word: optimization.

Wei Yuan had refined this batch of pills himself. Now, he could truly call himself a pill maker. However, who would be responsible for refining future batches? In his opinion, his Dragon Guards and Dao Foundation warriors all seemed capable of this task.

After assigning the task, Wei Yuan returned to reality and saw Hsu Henshui scrutinizing him from head to toe, as if he were looking at a monster.

The surrounding Mother Nature Monastery disciples watching the demonstration were all frozen in shock as well. While the rest of the cultivators on the periphery weren’t sure what happened, they had a feeling that something extraordinary had just occurred.

Wei Yuan had just put away the sentient Dao Foundation warriors recording the projection when Hsu Henshui suddenly grabbed his wrist and said urgently, “Come! Follow me to see the founder!!”

Wei Yuan naturally had no intention of going. For one, True Lord Dan Ming was currently at the northern mountain gate, and he had just returned from there. Judging by the time, Zhang Sheng should still be in seclusion, so going there would just be a waste of time.

Hsu Henshui, however, insisted, “No, you must go! With how gifted you are, it’ll be a complete waste for you to remain in the Skyblue Hall! You should transfer to the Mother Nature Monastery; the next abbot will certainly be you!”

Wei Yuan knew his own limits all too well; his meager pill-making skills couldn’t even scratch the surface of Hsu Henshui’s expertise, let alone qualify him to inherit the Mother Nature Monastery.

Besides, the reason this batch of pills was exceptionally good was due to the infusion of fortune, and because he so happened to have the Bay Laurel Immortal Tree’s lunar essence to use as a low-temperature immortal flame. If even one of them was missing, if he switched them for something else, then he wouldn’t be able to achieve the same results.

Wei Yuan wasn’t concerned with the pill patterns or the quality of the pills at the moment; he had something else in mind. “How much is this batch of pills worth?”

Hsu Henshui picked up an ordinary Netherblood Little New Year Pill and said, “Although this pill can only extend one’s life by three years, its advantage is that it has no limitations. As long as the consumer hasn’t previously consumed large quantities of Blood Yingluo or burned through their lifespan before, it would add a full three years to their lifespan. A lifespan extension of this quality costs a thousand taels of immortal silver per year added, so this pill is priced at three thousand. If it weren’t for the extremely heavy residual karmic debt contained within it, the price would be even higher.”

Hsu Henshui then picked up a Netherblood Little New Year Pill with a single pill pattern and continued, “This one has absorbed the essence of Heaven and Earth, which both enhances its life-extending effect and reduces the residue karmic debt it carries. It can add four years to one’s lifespan and be sold for six thousand taels.”

Finally, Hsu Henshui picked up the Netherblood Little New Year Pill with two pill patterns produced by Wei Yuan and simply stated, “This pill is worth double that amount; twelve thousand taels.”

Wei Yuan’s batch had yielded eighteen pills: one with two patterns, eight with one pattern, and nine ordinary ones. According to Hsu Henshui’s appraisal, this batch alone was worth 87,000 taels. And if Wei Yuan’s own calculations were correct, the total value of the herbs used in this batch was roughly 500 taels only.

On a side note, Hsu Henshui’s batch was worth 33,000 taels. Moreover, these life-extending pills were in such high demand that they could be sold as quickly as they were produced.

Wei Yuan silently calculated the profit multiplier, then concluded that the measurement tool invented by Xu Wenwu’s world known as “percentage” was completely superfluous.

For an instant, Wei Yuan was tempted to return with Hsu Henshui to pay his respects to Founder Dan Ming.

It was then Wei Yuan recalled the 20 million taels of immortal silver he owed. He wondered how much of that had been converted into Mother Nature Monastery’s cultivation resources.

It wasn’t until he had personally refined a batch of pills that Wei Yuan truly understood just how profitable the Dao of pill-making was. Wei Yuan was desperately short on funds at the moment, and having experienced firsthand the Dao’s ability to turn something worthless into a fortune, he immediately resolved to incorporate pill-making into one of Qingming’s core industries.

Wei Yuan promptly issued an order, instructing all mortals with a gift for pill-making to establish a specialized research institute dedicated to the study of the Dao of pill-making.

And so a group of mortals was selected. They found a fairly spacious courtyard and hung a plaque right at the entrance named: Supreme Sage’s Benevolent Heart Elixir Research Institute.

However, it was not the first specialized research institute to have been established in the Imaginary World. It was the one next door called the Research Institute of War Equipment for Equality of All Beings.

1. Since there are 4 orchids. ☜