Soon, evening arrived.
Liu Ruyan and Yun Feiyang had already left.
Lin Yuan, however, was kept behind by Jiang Yan.
After all, during the day, Jiang Yan had been busy guiding Liu Ruyan and Yun Feiyang, leaving him with virtually no spare energy to teach Lin Yuan.
Inside a certain utility room in the courtyard, Jiang Yan brought Lin Yuan to a halt.
Right now, an alchemy furnace sat in the middle of the room, which Lin Yuan had moved over from his own alchemy chamber at sunset.
Since he would be spending most of his time learning alchemy from Jiang Yan here in the future, he would frequently need an alchemy furnace. It was impossible to keep running back and forth to Dan Peak, so moving the furnace over here was the most convenient arrangement possible.
"Body Tempering Pill is a tier-three pill. Your spiritual power is currently still at the tier-two alchemist level. The probability of you successfully refining a Body Tempering Pill on your own is less than ten percent. Tonight, watch me refine one first, commit the techniques and the refining process to memory, and in three days, you will refine the second one. Any questions?"
Jiang Yan sat beside the alchemy furnace and spoke thus to Lin Yuan.
"In three days?"
Hearing this, Lin Yuan immediately found himself in a tight spot.
Spiritual power strength could not be elevated overnight.
No matter how high a person's comprehension of the Dao of alchemy might be, even if they had learned all the refining techniques, insufficient spiritual power meant simply not enough. In short, the spiritual power of a tier-two alchemist could hardly make it possible to refine a tier-three pill.
This was definitely not something that could be achieved just by following along and learning.
Senior Brother Jiang was simply making unreasonable demands.
"I have checked your spiritual power strength; it is considered to be at the mid tier-two level. As long as you raise it a bit more, you can reach the high tier-two level. By then, the success rate for refining tier-three pills will be at least forty or fifty percent, so it won't be much of a problem," Jiang Yan said again.
"But if Senior Brother wants me to raise my spiritual power from mid tier-two to high tier-two in a mere three days... that is also an absolute impossibility."
Let alone three days, even thirty days or half a year would be unlikely.
After all, it had taken him several years of hard effort just to reach the standard of a tier-two alchemist. Wanting to jump from mid tier-two to high tier-two in three days—in Lin Yuan's eyes, that was sheer daydreaming!
"I know of a special medicinal liquid, fused from nine medicinal ingredients of different soul attributes. If one can absorb it, it can help a person rapidly elevate their spiritual power strength. If you begin absorbing it tonight, three days from now, it is not entirely impossible for you to reach the high tier-two standard," Jiang Yan said suddenly.
"Such a miraculous medicine actually exists?"
Hearing this, Lin Yuan stood frozen in place, utterly dumbfounded and finding it somewhat hard to believe.
As an alchemist, he naturally understood that improving spiritual power strength was an extremely difficult task.
Moreover, he had never heard of any medicinal liquid or pill that could help someone rapidly enhance their spiritual power.
If such a thing truly existed, it would undoubtedly be a sensational piece of news across the entire alchemy world!
Jiang Yan nodded. "Naturally it exists, except that it's a bit..."
"A little expensive?" Before he could finish, Lin Yuan had already jumped in with the answer.
"It is truly a bit expensive. Senior Brother isn't trying to rip you off this time; after all, the medicinal ingredients used are not of low grade." Jiang Yan spoke with a serious expression.
"If such a thing truly exists, and Senior Brother is willing to help me refine it... even if I am being ripped off, I accept it!" Lin Yuan's face was full of solemnity.
A medicine that could elevate him from mid tier-two to high tier-two in just three days was an absolute treasure of matchless value. Even if he were being overcharged, Lin Yuan was completely and willingly resigned to it.
Without wasting any breath, Jiang Yan immediately fetched paper and brush, dashing off the names of nine medicinal ingredients with a flourish, and handed the list to Lin Yuan.
"Didn't I tell you? These ingredients aren't cheap. There are nine in total, and combined they cost a good several hundred spirit stones," Jiang Yan said.
Lin Yuan looked over the list carefully before nodding. "Indeed, none of these are ordinary ingredients; the cost alone must be around six hundred spirit stones. But why does the final settlement price written by Senior Brother come out to one thousand and three spirit stones per portion?"
"The cost is six hundred, is it so unreasonable for me to sell it for one. thousand and three spirit stones?"
"Would you sell things at cost if you were doing alchemy yourself? I have to make a profit somehow! Making four hundred spirit stones off you, with another three spirit stones counted as labor fees—isn't that entirely reasonable?" Jiang Yan said with a straight face.
"This..."
Lin Yuan was somewhat speechless. Logically speaking, it was indeed reasonable.
Pills were inherently a super-profitable industry. Often, a pill that only cost one or two hundred spirit stones in raw materials would still cost five or six hundred, or even upwards of a thousand spirit stones to purchase once it hit the market.
As for Jiang Yan's special medicinal liquid, with a raw material cost of six hundred spirit stones, being a miraculous medicine capable of enhancing spiritual power, and priced at only a thousand with a mere three spirit stones for labor, this was already an absolute conscience price.
If Lin Yuan were to take it and sell it himself, he reckoned he would have to ruthlessly rake in at least two thousand spirit stones to be satisfied!
"I must give you a warning: I only supply this medicinal liquid in limited quantities, and for now it is exclusively for you to enjoy. Don't go spreading it around everywhere; I still plan to sell it at a high price to other people on Dan Peak in the future," Jiang Yan reminded him.
"Senior Brother, rest assured, this time my lips are truly sealed tight!" Lin Yuan swore an oath.
Only a fool would go around blabbing about such a thing—wasn't enjoying it exclusively to oneself better?
Soon, Lin Yuan ran back to his own herb garden overnight to harvest the ingredients.
Furthermore, because some of the medicinal ingredients used were a bit too high-grade and he didn't have them on hand, he had no choice but to go and purchase them from the herb gardens of a few other senior and junior brothers.
Fortunately, all nine ingredients were eventually acquired right here on Dan Peak and brought back to Jiang Yan.
Not wasting any time, Jiang Yan immediately helped Lin Yuan formulate the medicinal liquid, and then personally taught him step-by-step how to refine the Body Tempering Pill, since he had to hand it over to Yun Feiyang tomorrow.
Deep into the night.
Jiang Yan left Lin Yuan alone to tinker away by himself, while he returned to his own room and fell fast asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The next day.
In the courtyard, Liu Ruyan and Yun Feiyang arrived bright and early. Knowing that Jiang Yan was still sleeping in, they didn't dare to disturb him and could only busy themselves with their own cultivation.
"Junior Brother Qin Feng, why have you only arrived today?"
Around midday, before Jiang Yan had woken up, the three of them—Liu Ruyan, Yun Feiyang, and Lin Yuan—paused their cultivation, sitting in the courtyard to chat, drink tea, and discuss their respective insights with one another.
Just at that moment, someone approached from outside the courtyard.
It was a young man of around twenty years of age named Qin Feng. He was an outstanding talent of Array Peak, rumored to have been exposed to the Dao of arrays since childhood. At the age of sixteen, he was taken in as a personal disciple by Xu Hua, the master of Array Peak, and had spent four years at Array Peak intensely studying the Dao of arrays.
Qin Feng could casually deploy all sorts of arrays, big and small. It was even said that a portion of the Dao Sect's grand protective array had been personally set up by him, showing just how extraordinary his attainments in the Dao of arrays were.
"Lately, I've been busy researching a certain array, troubled by being unable to find a solution, and feeling quite annoyed. Yet yesterday, Master suddenly told me to come over to Ru Peak to study. Who knows what goes on in his head? Could there possibly be anyone on Ru Peak capable of teaching me?"
Speaking of this matter, Qin Feng could not help but frown. "Today Master urged me again, and constrained by the command of my master, I came over to take a look. Studying here is out of the question—it's sheer a waste of time. I still have to go back later to continue researching my array."