Six Realms Immortal Emperor

"Keep a close eye on him, kid. The key to refining the pills is coming up!" Ochi didn't relax. Instead, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, stretched his palms out in front of him, and continuously poured spiritual energy into the pill furnace.

Spiritual energy swirled around the alchemy furnace, constantly churning and bubbling, with the sound of liquid boiling emanating from within the furnace.

Xu Jingtian, imitating Ochi, sat on the ground with his hands on his thighs, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled the stale air from his abdomen. While carefully observing Ochi, he began practicing the basics of cultivation, starting with Qi cultivation.

This continued for two hours, with Ochi's eyes tightly closed the entire time, his spiritual energy never ceasing. Xu Jingtian secretly admired him; how profound must Ochi's spiritual energy be? He couldn't even gather a trace of it yet.

Just then, Ochi slowly opened his eyes, exhaled deeply, and withdrew his hands.

"Alright, we can start the furnace in two more hours! I'll leave this to you for now."

After Ochi finished speaking, he slowly stood up, stretched his limbs, and then slowly walked down from the attic.

Xu Jingtian quickly stood up and replied, "Okay, Elder Ochi, please rest for now."

After Ochi left, Xu Jingtian didn't dare to relax for a moment, after all, this was the first batch of pills he had helped refine.

The flames erupting from the alchemy furnace gradually diminished, but the furnace itself continued to radiate high temperatures. Xu Jingtian dared not approach too closely; he stood there quietly, carefully observing the changes in the alchemy furnace.

After another two long hours of waiting, Ochi finally returned.

"That's about it, the time has come, open the furnace!" With a wave of his wide Taoist robe, Ochi opened the Golden Sun Crimson Cloud Furnace, and a rich medicinal fragrance wafted out, filling the entire pavilion.

Ochi stepped forward, rolled up his Taoist robe, and took out a pill from the alchemy furnace. He looked at the pill in his hand, then smelled it, and frowned.

"What's wrong, Elder Ochi?" Xu Jingtian asked with some concern. He wondered if there was anything wrong with the pills that he had gone to so much trouble to refine.

Ochi ignored him and took out another pill from the furnace. After examining it for a while, his brows furrowed even more. It wasn't until he took out the third pill that a smile appeared on Ochi's face.

"Quickly, bring the elixir bottle!" Ochi ordered.

"Yes, Elder Ochi!" Xu Jingtian hurriedly replied. The walls of the alchemy room were filled with alchemy bottles, and he quickly carried over a few.

"Take the pills!" With a cold shout from Ochi, a beam of spiritual light struck the Golden Sun Crimson Cloud Furnace. Suddenly, a small circular hole opened at the bottom of the furnace, and several hundred perfectly round pills slid out.

"What are you standing there for? Quickly pick out these dark red ones and put them all into the bottle! If the pills are left for too long, their effects will be greatly reduced!" Elder Yuezhi scolded Xu Jingtian.

Xu Jingtian dared not be negligent, carefully selecting each of the deep red pills and placing them into the pill bottle.

"This Five Elements Blood Coagulation Pill is a common first-grade pill. It contains pure spiritual energy of the five elements. The sect will distribute it to inner disciples every month for their daily cultivation," Yuezhi explained from the side.

The Five Elements Blood Coagulation Pill inherently contains the spiritual essence of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), which can be directly absorbed by disciples. It is an indispensable elixir for inner disciples' cultivation. Sect cultivation is a process of continuously absorbing and accumulating the spiritual energy of the five elements. When this process reaches a certain critical point, one will break through to the next stage.

"Tsk tsk, what about the outer disciples? What will they do?" Xu Jingtian was rather envious of the inner disciples, who were able to receive such good pills every month.

"Outer disciples? What right do they have to receive pills?" Yue Zhi sneered. "As outer disciples, they have to submit a certain amount of materials, either spiritual herbs or other materials, every month. If they fail to complete the task, they will be punished by the elders."

"Huh?" Xu Jingtian was quite surprised. The difference in treatment between outer disciples and inner disciples was really big.

"Hehe, but you're lucky you're with me, you don't have to bother doing those things every month anymore," Ochi said.

"This is so unfair! These outer disciples have no time to cultivate except for submitting materials every month!" Xu Jingtian felt indignant for the outer disciples, but didn't consider himself at all.

"Outer disciples are basically the sect's laborers. What else would we keep them for? Unless they are exceptionally outstanding and have great fortune, they won't be favored by the sect and selected as inner disciples for further training." Yue Zhi disagreed and corrected Xu Jingtian, saying, "Besides, there are thousands of outer disciples, several times more than inner disciples. The sect doesn't have the energy to support them all."

Xu Jingtian remained silent. It seemed the cultivation world was much like the secular world. The weak were oppressed everywhere; only by becoming strong could one rise above others and enjoy the fruits of the weak's labor. If one wanted to be respected, or even looked up to, one had to become stronger.

"There are 112 pills in total, Elder Ochi." Xu Jingtian finished packing the pills and counted the number as well. Although there were many pills in this batch, the deep red pills only accounted for about 30%, and they were put into four pill bottles.

This is a habit he developed since childhood: every time he returns from letting the horses out, he counts them to make sure none of them are lost.

"Sigh, there are only 112 left, half short. We'll have to start another batch!" Ochi sighed and said softly.

"Let's start another batch. What about these pills?" Xu Jingtian asked, pointing to the remaining pills. The rest were all dark red. Not only were they different in color from normal pills, but they were also almost shapeless and would crumble at the slightest touch.

"Pick up all the rest and throw them away!" Ochi said with a stern face.

"Throw it away?" Xu Jingtian asked, quite surprised. He'd gone to waste the pills he'd painstakingly refined?

"These are all useless pills, what's the use of keeping them? Quickly pack them up and throw them down the cliff!" Ochi said coldly.

So many pills, and they're all useless? Xu Jingtian muttered to himself, the success rate of these pills is just too low.

Waste pills are not only useless for cultivation, but they also contain harmful impurities and can only be discarded.

A skilled alchemist is judged not only by the quality of the pills they produce, but also by the number of waste pills they produce; the fewer waste pills, the higher their alchemy skill.

Although four bottles of pills were produced this time, 70% of them were defective, which explains why Ochi's expression was not good.

It's important to understand that every alchemy ingredient is extremely precious, and most of them are gathered by outer sect disciples. These outer sect disciples, with their pitifully low cultivation levels, often endure countless hardships, sometimes even risking their lives, to collect these ingredients. And once these ingredients are used to refine a worthless pill, they all have to be thrown away—what a waste!

"Take the pills in the elixir bottle to the storage room and give them to the elder in charge of guarding the pills below," Yuezhi instructed. "Remember, if he asks you about the pills, don't say anything other than these refined pills."

"Understood, Elder Ochi!" Xu Jingtian said while tidying up the discarded pills.

"Throw away these waste pills tonight. Remember to be careful and make sure the other disciples don't see you doing it." After giving these instructions, Ochi left first.

He must have used up a lot of his spiritual energy to refine this batch of pills, so he must have gone back to rest.

"Let's deal with these waste pills tonight. Take these to the storage room first." After Ochi left, Xu Jingtian picked up the four bottles of refined pills and headed straight for the storage room. He had been helping Ochi for over two days and was exhausted. Since Ochi had said so, he would wait until tonight.

"Elder Shou Dan, this is the Five Elements Blood Coagulation Pill that has been refined. Please keep it safe." Xu Jingtian handed over the pill.

"Four bottles of pills, how much is that in total? Let me register it for you." Elder Shou Dan glanced at the pills in Xu Jingtian's arms and said slowly.

Such important items as elixirs must be registered whenever they enter or leave the storage room.

"Reporting to the elder, there are a total of one hundred and twelve," Xu Jingtian answered truthfully.

"Hmm, is that all this time?" Elder Shou Dan asked with some doubt. "Based on the alchemy materials you took, the number of pills could easily be at least twice as many!"

"This..." Xu Jingtian hesitated, remembering what Ochi had told him.

"Hmph, I already know even if you don't say it. This time, about 70% of the pills should be ruined, right?" Elder Guardian of Pills said with a smile.

"How did you know?" Xu Jingtian asked with great curiosity.

"Hehe, I was just guessing!" Elder Shou Dan chuckled, his face calm and expressionless, as if the quantity of pills had little to do with him.