On the path to immortality, I can see destiny.

This is the state of alchemists; the difference between their skill levels is enormous.

Those with poor skills might even lose money, while those with high skills could earn dozens of spirit stones from a single batch of pills.

For someone like Zhao Fan, a minimum of four pills per batch is required to earn spirit stones.

Because elixirs are not something you can take every day.

All elixirs contain erysipelas, and the lower the quality of the elixir, the more erysipelas it contains.

Taking a regular-quality Qingling Pill as an example, it generally takes about a month to completely remove the poison.

The lower the quality, the longer it takes; the higher the quality, the shorter it takes. The highest quality pills may take about ten days to consume the second one.

This is why high-quality pills sell for much higher prices.

If Zhao Fan didn't want to delay his cultivation, he would usually open the furnace once every seven days. After deducting three pills to cover the cost and one for his own cultivation, he would only have three pills left.

These three pills, sold for fifteen spirit stones, belong to me.

A typical alchemist can earn fifteen spirit stones a month, which is roughly equivalent to the monthly income of a mid-grade first-tier talisman maker.

It can be said to be a skill with a very high ceiling and a very low floor.

……

At dawn, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Zhao Fan pushed open the door to the alchemy room and walked out looking exhausted.

His current cultivation level is only at the fourth level of Qi Refining, so refining a mid-grade first-level pill is really a stretch.

After leaving the alchemy room, Zhao Fan turned around and went into another room.

He didn't immediately begin meditating and cultivating; instead, he... took a nap first.

Zhao Fan was also helpless about this. Although his master said that meditation could replace rest, if he did not rest and meditated, his head would only hurt more and more, and his mental state would not improve.

He can only continue meditating and cultivating after he has had a full night's sleep.

Zhao Fan slept until the afternoon before finally opening the door and stretching his body a little with sleepy eyes.

He walked to the edge of the pool, scooped up some water with his hands, washed his face, and only after he was completely sober did he take out the gun technique book from his storage bag.

The spiritual energy in the cultivation room is limited, so Zhao Fan can only meditate and cultivate when the spiritual energy in the cultivation room has accumulated to a certain level. He usually meditates at night until dawn.

Without the aid of the spiritual spring, relying solely on the meager spiritual energy of heaven and earth, even meditating for a day might not increase one's spiritual power by a single ounce.

Instead of wasting this time, we should do something else.

Especially after encountering danger on this trip, Zhao Fan realized just how important it is to learn the art of killing.

Even if it's just a mortal martial art, he's willing to learn it if it makes him stronger.

Of course, the most important reason why Zhao Fan lacked the art of killing was that his techniques were different from those of his master.

His master followed the path of physical cultivation and mainly practiced earth-attribute techniques. There were many things about his master that he could neither learn nor use.

The only spells you can learn are some basic ones, like fireball and golden blade.

These spells are not the most powerful in terms of attack, and they also consume a lot of spiritual energy.

Thinking of this, Zhao Fan couldn't help but sigh.

If he hadn't escaped death this time and obtained these magical artifacts, he really wouldn't have had any effective means of attack.

Even the green knife he took out at that time, he only held it in his hand to defend against attacks.

Because that knife is also of the earth element.

Zhao Fan tried to force it, but it had no effect.

"In any case, it's always good to learn more."

Zhao Fan muttered to himself, and began to slowly turn the pages in his hands.

Cultivators' memories far surpass those of ordinary people. Although Zhao Fan didn't know if he was born with a poor memory and was much slower at remembering things than other cultivators, his memory was still far superior to that of ordinary mortals.

After flipping through the book four or five times, Zhao Fan memorized everything in it.

Then came a long period of practice.

Although this marksmanship has some exquisite aspects, it is ultimately just the basic moves of shooting practice: thrusting, parrying, chopping, blocking, entangling, and so on.

Zhao Fan practiced until the moon was high in the sky before he stopped.

After putting away all his belongings, Zhao Fan entered the cultivation room and began meditating.

The accumulation of spiritual energy throughout the day had significantly increased the concentration of spiritual energy in the cultivation room.

Zhao Fan sat down in meditation with practiced ease, swallowed a Qingling Pill, and began to circulate the Tianyuan Technique.

As soon as the pill entered the mouth, its medicinal power began to be released slowly, and a large amount of spiritual energy surged out and was absorbed by the body.

Zhao Fan suddenly felt the bottleneck that he hadn't encountered for almost a year.

With the help of the medicine, Zhao Fan quickly circulated his spiritual energy, maximizing his absorption speed and attempting to break through the bottleneck.

The next moment, under the impact of the surging spiritual energy, something seemed to shatter.

The circulation of spiritual energy accelerated in the blink of an eye, and the surrounding spiritual energy was quickly absorbed by Zhao Fan, transforming into pure spiritual energy that flowed into his dantian, which was now larger than before.

Gradually, the circulating spiritual energy began to stabilize until it returned to the dantian.

A flicker of excitement flashed in Zhao Fan's eyes. After being stuck at the fourth level of Qi Refining for a year, he had finally broken through!

The medicinal power of the Qingling Pill had also been exhausted at this time.

After stabilizing his cultivation, Zhao Fan excitedly got up, stretched a bit, and then pushed open the door to come out.

But after he came out, he felt somewhat lost.

He desperately wanted to shout, "Master, I've broken through!"

But when you come out now, the valley is unusually quiet—quiet fields, quiet trees, quiet ponds, quiet graves.

Only the occasional breeze rustled the leaves.

The initial excitement quickly subsided, and the desire to confide vanished in an instant.

He slowly walked to the grave mound, squatted down, looked at the tombstone in front of him, and spoke softly.

"Master, I miss you."

But no one responded to him.

After a long silence, Zhao Fan stood up again and let out a long breath.

"It's still early today, let's go out for a walk, maybe we can find something good."

Zhao Fan gently stroked the black ring on his index finger with his thumb and murmured to himself.

After saying that, he packed his things and went down the mountain.

Before he had gone far, Zhao Fan saw a surge of air currents. Following the currents, he soon came across a spiritual herb used to refine healing pills.

Although this medicinal herb wasn't very valuable, every little bit helps, so Zhao Fan picked it anyway.

Continuing onward, Zhao Fan wandered around the cave for nearly half an hour, but did not encounter any spiritual herbs or anything else.

"It seems that good luck isn't always the case."

After half an hour without any results, Zhao Fan's expectations gradually faded.

He was being too optimistic, thinking he could find all sorts of good things along the way, just like the day before yesterday.

Looking back now, perhaps he was just lucky at the time.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Zhao Fan also felt that it was normal. His master had lived here for so many years, and if there were any good things around, his master would probably have picked them all up long ago, and it wouldn't be his turn.