Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improving Spiritual Root Aptitude

Time flies, and more than three months have passed in the blink of an eye.

At the end of the month, it is the time for Baidantang to collect its monthly pills.

This was the sixth time Wu Fan had delivered the Qi-Inducing Pill, exactly half a year had passed.

This time, he plans to deliver more than 60% to nearly 70% of the Qi-Inducing Pills, in order to demonstrate that his success rate in refining Qi-Inducing Pills is steadily improving.

This is also a display of "talent," and he believes that this delivery of pills will definitely be noticed by the people of Baidantang.

Shortly after, Wu Fan completed the handover with the person in charge of pills sent by Bai Dan Tang, and then returned to his room to meditate and cultivate.

Meanwhile, in an elegantly furnished room on the second floor of Baidantang, Bai Ruanyu was sitting at an expensive wooden table, holding a cup of tea and gently blowing on it to warm it.

Sitting beside her was a middle-aged cultivator dressed in dark blue robes, Bai Chenrang, the accountant who had served in the Hundred Pill Hall for decades.

Bai Chenrang was reading the records in the ledger word by word, while Bai Ruanyu listened while drinking tea, her brows furrowing from time to time.

It's easy to tell from her expression that Baidantang's business hasn't been going well lately.

"Sixth Uncle, why is the sales of low-grade pills this quarter so much worse than last quarter?"

A melodious voice, as sweet as a lark in the mountains, interrupted Bai Chenrang's recitation. Bai Ruanyu looked up and saw a hint of coldness in her eyes, which contrasted sharply with her sweet voice.

"Young Miss, this is because two low-level alchemists left our Hundred Pills Hall last year."

Bai Chen closed the ledger and explained, "They were both originally capable of refining dozens of first-tier pills, all of excellent quality. However, after they both broke through to become mid-grade first-tier alchemists last year, they both started their own independent alchemy businesses. The newly recruited alchemist, Sun Yi, can refine four types of first-tier pills, but the quality is slightly inferior. Wu Fan, the apprentice trained by Alchemist Ge, produces pills of acceptable quality, but can only refine Qi-Inducing Pills. As for the first-tier alchemists in the clan, apart from three who increase their monthly production to maintain appearances, the quality of most of the others' pills has been quite unstable lately..."

At this point, Bai Chenrang paused, his expression revealing a hint of something unspeakable.

"It's unbelievable that our Bai family, which started with pills, now has very few people among the younger generation who can refine first-grade pills of acceptable quality."

After hearing her sixth uncle's words, Bai Ruanyu's face showed a slight anger, and then she fell into deep thought.

Her father defied the opinions of the clan and allowed her to take over the management of Baidan Hall at such a young age, hoping that she would achieve something and increase her chances of becoming a candidate for Foundation Establishment Pill in the future.

If the profits of Baidan Hall can be maintained, that's fine. But if they continue to decline, wouldn't that give the other branches of the clan ammunition to attack them?

She knew perfectly well that those people would never care about the reason why the Hundred Pill Hall lacked qualified alchemists; moreover, among the alchemists in the clan responsible for refining first-grade pills, several of them belonged to those lineages.

It's possible they deliberately lowered the quality of the elixirs.

Thinking of this, Bai Ruanyu felt even more agitated. Just as she was about to ask again, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

Bai Ruanyu immediately composed herself and replied coldly with a blank expression.

The door clicked open, and a woman dressed in a yellow ruqun (a traditional Chinese dress) walked in.

She is Bai Ruanqiu, a distant cousin of Bai Ruanyu, and also the person in charge of collecting the elixirs.

"Sister Ruan Yu, this is the ledger of the number of pills produced by each alchemist this month. Please take a look."

As Bai Ruanqiu spoke, she placed the account book in front of Bai Ruanyu on the table.

"Okay, you can go now."

Bai Ruanyu nodded, her gaze falling on Bai Ruanqiu, giving her a meaningful look.

After Bai Ruanqiu left and closed the door, she picked up the account book and carefully looked through it.

After flipping through several pages, she discovered that the pill production of all the alchemists in Bai Dan Tang had not increased at all this month, and the quality had not improved either; what was even more infuriating was that the pill quality evaluation of the first-level alchemists of the Bai family from other branches had dropped a few points again.

Bai Ruanyu suppressed her anger and continued flipping through the pages, just in time to come across Wu Fan's records of medicinal pills.

It was observed that the number of pills delivered by Wu Fan each month was steadily increasing. Although the increase was very small, after half a year, the success rate of Qi-inducing pills had reached nearly 70%.

She remembered that Master Liu had mentioned that Wu Fan had some talent in alchemy and might grow into a first-grade high-level alchemist in the future.

However, this discovery only made Bai Ruanyu pause briefly.

Even though Wu Fan has some talent in alchemy, he can only refine one type of pill, the Qi-Inducing Pill, and its quality is only average, which is not enough to solve the current predicament of the Hundred Pill Hall.

After reviewing the account book, Bai Ruanyu pondered for a moment, then looked up at Bai Chenrang: "Sixth Uncle, among the Hundred Pills Hall members, you and Pill Master Liu are the most experienced and knowledgeable. I would like to trouble you to tell Pill Master Liu to put in some effort to recruit some lower-level pill masters with decent alchemy skills into the Hundred Pills Hall."

"Yes, Miss, your sixth uncle will take care of it right away."

Bai Chenrang nodded slightly, exchanged a few more pleasantries with Bai Ruanyu about the trivial matters of Baidantang, and then got up and left.

Not long after Bai Chenrang left, Bai Ruanqiu returned. After carefully closing the door, she quickly walked to Bai Ruanyu's side.

Bai Ruanyu whispered a few words in her ear, and Bai Ruanqiu's expression gradually changed from initial surprise to seriousness...

......

one year later.

Inside the medicine-making room, Wu Fan had just finished refining a batch of Qi-Inducing Pills. Looking at the pills in his hand, a hint of helplessness appeared on his face.

He kept trying to further eliminate impurities from the pills, but each time he was just one step short.

If he could eliminate a few more impurities, the quality of this Qi-Inducing Pill could be upgraded to the highest grade. However, no matter how he adjusted it, he could not break through this constraint.

Wu Fan had no choice but to give up for the time being.

Over the past year, he has been taking these high-quality Qi-inducing pills continuously, and his cultivation level is getting closer and closer to the fourth level of Qi Refining. He thinks it won't be long before he breaks through.

However, he had doubts in his heart, wondering if there was a bottleneck in the spiritual root aptitude improved by the Five Elements Beads.

Normally, there is no bottleneck for a mid-grade spiritual root to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining; as long as the spiritual power in the dantian is complete, the advancement can be achieved naturally.

Even so, he still has a large pile of the high-quality Qi-inducing pills he refined, which he takes continuously at the precise time of the pill toxin expulsion, and he can't possibly use them all.

He had considered using a false identity to cooperate with Li Buhui's shop to sell his goods, but whether he went to the transaction in person or relied on the Bai family's caravan for transportation, it would be easy to expose his identity, which was not a foolproof plan, so he had to give up in the end.

When he went out for a walk last time, he saw many posts in the market offering high prices for elixirs. He was tempted at the time, but then immediately shook his head.

These kinds of posts don't even reveal the poster's information, so it's hard to tell if they're not traps. At best, you'll be scammed; at worst, you'll be robbed.

Which legitimate shop would use such shady methods to acquire elixirs?

However, although they are not for sale, I can start submitting a few high-quality Qi-inducing pills this month as a signal that I have made another breakthrough in the art of alchemy.

Once he has a year of stable delivery, he will be able to transition to refining other elixirs.

Thinking of this, Wu Fan remembered that Niu Dazhuang had asked someone to pass on a message saying that he would come to meet with him today.

So he cleaned up the residue in the alchemy furnace, got up and quickly washed up.