May I seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and live a long and prosperous life.

In spiritual practice, years are not counted; before we knew it, another five years had passed.

Inside the cave, Li Heng began his daily cultivation practice.

Li Heng skillfully took out a discarded pill from his storage bag and swallowed it. Immediately, a violent medicinal power exploded in his body. Then, the dispersed medicinal power was firmly locked by solid spiritual power. Finally, the medicinal power was ground up and absorbed bit by bit.

After absorbing the energy, the spiritual power in his dantian became even more concentrated.

This cycle continued, and Li Heng had to consume a lot of Qi Condensation Waste Pills every day to hone his spiritual power.

Now, his cultivation has reached the fifth level of Qi Refining perfection, and he has completed two-thirds of the spiritual energy refinement work.

For now, he just needs to continue refining his spiritual power step by step. Once all his spiritual power has been refined into solidified spiritual power, he can break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining!

Over the years, he discovered that his cultivation speed had slowed down. After all, he was a mixed spiritual root of the five elements, and even if he kept consuming waste pills, there was still an upper limit. The spiritual energy provided by the Qi Gathering Pill was ultimately not as good as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Moreover, as his cultivation level increased, the medicinal effects of those discarded pills also decreased significantly, so he needed to spend more time cultivating and refining his spiritual power.

Perhaps one day, when the effects of taking the "Waste Pill" become very minimal, he will have to start looking for other ways to improve his strength.

However, these things don't affect him much. At worst, he'll just spend more time on it. Time is the last thing he has.

The next day, in the backyard of Baicao Pavilion, Li Heng was instructing two young apprentices on how to process medicinal herbs.

"The Crimson Blood Vine must be sliced ​​thinly so that the medicinal effect is evenly distributed. The Purple Spirit Flower must have its stamens removed but the petals kept. Be careful not to damage the veins of the petals. You must watch carefully and learn carefully." His voice was gentle, but his hands moved smoothly and effortlessly. In the blink of an eye, a Crimson Blood Vine was transformed into dozens of thin, cicada-wing-like red flakes.

"Uncle Li, your technique is truly masterful!" an apprentice exclaimed.

"Uncle Li, your low-grade pills are very sought after. They often sell out as soon as they go on sale. If I could learn even a little bit of Uncle Li's skills, I would be rich and worry-free for the rest of my life!" another apprentice sighed.

Li Heng smiled slightly but did not reply.

He is now one of the three advanced alchemists in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, and the only one who can only refine low-grade pills but was hired as an advanced alchemist.

Although Li Heng's cultivation level was revealed to be late stage of Qi Refining Level 4, this level was not considered high among alchemists. Many alchemists at the Qi Refining Level 5 or 6 looked down on him.

However, when it comes to refining low-grade pills, his success rate is consistently the highest among all alchemists in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion.

He was particularly skilled at refining low-grade Qi Gathering Pills, low-grade Spirit Recovery Pills, low-grade Rejuvenation Pills, low-grade Qi Condensation Pills, and low-grade Body Refining Pills, and the quality of these pills he produced was always a cut above that of other alchemists.

The disciples in the pavilion privately called him "the stabilizing needle," meaning that with Li Heng around, the quality of this batch of low-grade pills would not be bad.

However, the best-selling pills at Baicao Pavilion are low-grade pills, while mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade pills are not selling well.

With his superior quality of low-grade pills compared to other alchemists, his reputation gradually grew. Many low-level cultivators who were used to using low-grade pills made by Li Heng stopped buying low-grade pills made by other alchemists and insisted on using low-grade pills made by Li Heng.

A bottle of low-grade pills, once labeled with Li Heng's name, would be instantly sold out, resulting in a shortage of low-grade pills made by Li Heng, while low-grade pills made by other alchemists were rarely sought after.

Therefore, Li Heng was exceptionally promoted to senior alchemist by the higher-ups of the Hundred Herbs Pavilion on the outer layer of Chixia Mountain.

From then on, Li Heng was in full charge of refining low-grade pills for Baicao Pavilion, and he became a cash cow for Baicao Pavilion.

After becoming a senior alchemist, Li Heng's treatment and status in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion improved significantly. Many young disciples had to address him as Elder Li.

Two years ago, when Li Heng's master, Zhao Bingwen, was out collecting herbs, he was unfortunately attacked by several demonic beasts at the seventh level of Qi Refining. He managed to escape, but was seriously injured and beyond saving.

Before leaving, he called Li Heng to his bedside alone and handed him a jade slip containing his lifelong alchemy insights.

On the hospital bed, Zhao Bingwen, his breath weak, gripped Li Heng's hand tightly and said:

"Li Heng, I am very fortunate to have you as my disciple. Your talent may not be the best, but you have good character, a stable temperament, and can endure loneliness. You have some talent in alchemy. I will have to put in a lot of effort for the Hundred Herbs Pavilion in the future."

Li Heng knelt before the bed, tears streaming down his face, and respectfully kowtowed three times to Zhao Bingwen.

After Zhao Bingwen left, Baicao Pavilion was in real chaos for a while.

It turned out that another senior alchemist wanted to oust Li Heng, seize power, and plot to take over the position of chief alchemist. However, less than half a year later, that person had accumulated a huge debt and started to embezzle the medicinal herbs in the pavilion by selling inferior ones. After being discovered by the higher-ups of the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, he was expelled from the pavilion.

Li Heng has worked diligently for many years without seeking credit or showing off, yet he has contributed nearly one-third of the Baicao Pavilion's performance. This has earned him unanimous praise from all the senior executives of Baicao Pavilion, so Li Heng was naturally promoted to chief alchemist by the senior executives of Baicao Pavilion.

After being promoted, Li Heng didn't show much joy. Instead, he spent more time in the alchemy room. He would sit in front of the furnace for a whole day, carefully studying the heat control for alchemy, experimenting with various proportions of medicinal herbs, and striving to improve his alchemy skills.

Li Heng is still using the waste pills, and his solidified spiritual power is being refined day by day. Now, only a small portion of his spiritual power remains to be refined into solidified spiritual power. He has a feeling that he will be able to refine his spiritual power to perfection within one or two years and advance to the sixth level of Qi Refining.

On this day, Li Heng was attempting to refine a batch of mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills. This was his first time refining mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills, so he was being exceptionally cautious. Five alchemy apprentices stood beside him, carefully watching Li Heng refine the pills.

Before the alchemy furnace, Li Heng remained calm and composed. His temples were completely white, the wrinkles on his forehead were deeper, and his eyes had become much more weathered.

However, this was all a deliberate act on his part; the Scroll of Immortality had the function of altering age (not changing appearance).

Two hours later, a simple black alchemy furnace slowly emitted a fragrant aroma. Li Heng knew that the mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill had been successfully refined.

This batch produced no waste pills, yielding a total of fifteen mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills, each round and plump with clear pill patterns and a fragrant aroma.

This batch of mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills is of excellent quality, even slightly better than any other mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill currently sold by Baicao Pavilion.

Li Heng put fifteen mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills into a jade bottle, affixed it with his unique label, and then instructed his alchemy apprentice to deliver the bottle to the Hundred Herbs Pavilion's alchemy room.

Baicaoge Pharmacy.

Li Heng's alchemist was ordered to hand the jade bottle over to Qi Ming, the manager of the alchemy room.

"Manager Qi, these are fifteen mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills refined by our Master Li. He instructed me to deliver the jade bottle to you."