Immortality: Starting with the Fruit of Taiyin

……

Having made up his mind, Wang Xuan secluded himself for the next year to cultivate himself, studying alchemy and spiritual practice.

Unlike the previous isolated case, with the second use of the Dao Fruit's [Extraction] ability to comprehend conceptualized knowledge, Wang Xuan gained a clearer understanding of his comprehension progress.

Taking the alchemical text as an example, regardless of the level, as long as one comprehends it once, it is considered to have "entered the gate".

Once someone has mastered the basics, they can guarantee the successful refining of pills. However, the finished products are mostly inferior pills, with an extremely low success rate and a significant waste of medicinal materials.

This level of alchemy is basically operating at a severe loss, requiring a continuous influx of resources to refine.

For example, when Wang Xuan was studying the "Introduction to Alchemy," he relied on the supply of medicinal materials from a formal alchemist for two years before he was finally able to refine a genuine elixir.

This is only because those three kinds of pills are too basic; otherwise, the time would have been even longer.

To consistently produce genuine products and achieve a success rate of over 30%, Wang Xuan would need to study the technique five times to reach the level of "proficiency".

Going further, after thirty attempts at comprehension, one can achieve "minor success," possessing a 50% success rate in pill formation, or maintaining a 30% success rate while ensuring stable quality and guaranteeing that more than half of the pills are genuine—this is the level of a formal alchemist recognized by the sect.

Only at this stage can an alchemist turn a profit and earn a small amount. With each further advancement in alchemy, the profitability increases.

As for higher-quality pills... according to Wang Xuan's estimate, he would need to study the pill manual at least one or two hundred times to achieve a 'great mastery' in his understanding of it before he could produce them reliably. However, he did not pursue that.

After all, once you reach a minor level of mastery in your comprehension, your understanding of that part of the alchemical text will be comprehensive enough, and you can start to comprehend the next stage. There is no need to reach a major level or even perfection in every stage.

Ultimately, in the cultivation world, cultivation level determines everything. High-grade pills are in high demand and short supply, often commanding a premium price, and can be profitable even with minimal effort; conversely, low-grade pills tend to depreciate, and even sect alchemists can barely break even.

In this situation, alchemy is not like cultivation, which emphasizes the concept of "foundation," so naturally, the priority is to refine high-level pills.

Once he becomes a second-tier alchemist, with his superior understanding, he may be able to fully comprehend the first-tier content without needing a Dao Fruit, and there will be no need to waste his Origin anymore.

It's important to understand that even if Wang Xuan achieves Foundation Establishment in the future, it doesn't mean that first-tier essence blood will be useless to him.

There are countless arts and skills in the cultivation of immortality. Apart from the one or two he specializes in, many of the others are worth mastering.

Having attained the Dao Fruit, Wang Xuan naturally wanted to become an "all-rounder" if given the opportunity.

……

One year later, in a quiet room.

Sit cross-legged and absorb the surrounding moonlight and spiritual energy.

After a short while, Wang Xuan exhaled a breath of stale air and slowly opened his eyes.

"As expected, the bottleneck of the fourth level of Qi Refining is no longer a problem for me."

"With the natural operation of the cultivation method, the mid-stage of Qi Refining will be achieved naturally."

"However, compared to the initial stage of cultivation, the progress in the middle stage is significantly slower."

More than half a year ago, Wang Xuanxiu reached the peak of the third level.

For ordinary people with mid-grade spiritual roots to reach this stage, it is inevitable that they need to calm their minds, comprehend the cultivation techniques, and spend anywhere from one month to a year to break through the bottleneck.

However, in front of the [Taiyin Jade Scroll], the fourth level of Qi Refining was completed in one fell swoop without any pause.

From entering the sect at around thirteen years old to reaching the mid-stage of Qi Refining at just over sixteen, it took a total of three and a half years, roughly more than half the average time for a mid-grade spiritual root, placing it at the lower-middle level of a high-grade spiritual root.

Although this data is based on the absence of elixirs, and with resource enhancements, cultivation progress can often be faster, in actual cultivation, no one can maintain the theoretical cultivation speed indefinitely.

After all, studying various arts, visiting friends, hunting monsters, and handling sect affairs... all these things take up enough time to offset the time spent on pills and resources by wealthy rogue cultivators, outer disciples of sects, or children of small cultivation families.

So overall, even without the aid of elixirs in his cultivation, Wang Xuan's progress was quite remarkable.

"The pills that can enhance cultivation are too expensive, basically starting from mid-grade first rank. I don't have the ability to refine them yet."

Silently pondering, Wang Xuan began to consider the path ahead.

"After entering the middle stage, the cultivation time becomes significantly longer."

"Generally speaking, based on the average speed of a mid-grade spiritual root, it would take five years to enter the fifth level, seven years to enter the sixth level, and another nine years to reach the threshold of the late stage of Qi Refining. On average, it would take twenty-one years, and then three to five years to complete the breakthrough."

"Including the time spent cultivating in the early stages of Qi Refining, thirty years have passed in a flash."

"If this pace continues, with the addition of the eighth and ninth levels of Qi Refining, even if a cultivator practices diligently, they will only have one chance to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage before their Qi and blood decline at the age of sixty or seventy."

"A mid-grade spiritual root has little chance of establishing a foundation, and a low-grade spiritual root has no hope of establishing a foundation... Indeed, there are only misremembered classics, not misremembered songs."

Shaking his head slightly, Wang Xuan had to admit that he now somewhat accepted the sect's theory of relying solely on spiritual roots.

Not to mention the success rate boost that different levels of spiritual roots provide during Foundation Establishment, even with normal cultivation, a low-grade spiritual root might never reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage before death without elixirs.

Fortunately, Wang Xuan did not have a low-grade spiritual root; otherwise, even with the [Taiyin Jade Scroll] and Dao Fruit by his side, he would probably have suffered greatly in the early stages of immortality.

Therefore, there are two urgent tasks at hand.

"First, the art of protecting the Dao; second, the refinement of alchemy."

"Once I become a mid-grade first-level alchemist, I will be able to refine elixirs to increase my cultivation level."

"Moreover, I can also use this to expand my network and open up new channels."

The Han family is a prime example of what constitutes a distribution channel.

In the past year, in addition to focusing on alchemy and cultivation, Wang Xuan has sent out several letters of "experience" that do not involve the inheritance of alchemical texts.

In each letter, he subtly revealed a little progress, intentionally showcasing some of his 'talent for alchemy'.

In a short time, the Han family's attention to him increased significantly.

With the last batch of pills replaced with the essence blood of demonic beasts, and with the additional 'payment' from the previous advance payment, Wang Xuan successfully completed five rounds of comprehension of the first-tier, low-grade stage of the [White Sun Pill Book], officially entering the 'proficient' stage.

However, this means that unless he reveals his true rate of progress, he will have to find a new sales channel for himself outside of Han's existing channels.

However, this was within his expectations.

"After all, only when my alchemy skills reach the second stage can I refine genuine pills consistently."

"As one of the ways the sect supports formal alchemists, only genuine pills are the bottom line that Baiyi Pavilion accepts."

He tapped the table lightly and took out the extra elixirs he had accumulated over the past year.

Wang Xuan knew that not everyone among the lower-level alchemists was capable of selling elixirs.