On the path to immortality, I can see destiny.

Inside the furnace, several pale green spiritual threads trembled slightly, slowly cutting into the pale green medicinal liquid under Su Ziyun's focused control.

She remembered how Zhao Fan calmly divided the medicine into ten portions during his demonstration, and she also longed to make more pills. So she tried her best to activate her divine sense and divide the medicine into six portions evenly.

Ling Si trembled as she separated the liquid medicine; at first, it seemed to go smoothly.

However, as soon as the six nascent medicinal liquids of varying sizes were barely separated and suspended above the furnace fire, beads of sweat rolled down Su Ziyun's pale face.

Her consciousness was as if it had been forcibly divided into six thin streams, each of which had to maintain the stability of the medicinal liquid while also sensing its internal changes.

In addition, she also had to divert her attention to guide the firepower to quench the flames evenly.

This was too much of a burden for her, who was only at the second level of Qi Refining and had a weak spiritual consciousness!

Two of the smaller portions of the medicine went out of control first, their internal spiritual energy structures becoming disordered due to insufficient divine sense to monitor them.

With two soft sounds, the medicinal liquid turned into two wisps of blue smoke and dissipated.

Immediately afterwards, the other two also fluctuated violently.

Su Ziyun was extremely anxious and hurriedly tried to shrink her divine sense to prioritize protecting the remaining two parts, but this distraction completely shattered the already precarious balance.

"Sizzle..."

An unusual sound rang out, and almost simultaneously all the remaining liquid medicine went out of control, its color rapidly turning grayish and turbid, eventually turning into a sticky, charred mess under the residual heat of the furnace.

Su Ziyun stared blankly at the bottom of the furnace, her pale face filled with regret. The joy of successfully fusing the medicinal liquid had been shattered by the cruel reality.

It still failed, and it happened during the most promising stage of elixir separation and condensation.

Su Ziyun carefully recalled her entire alchemy process, and finally decided to divide the pill into six parts, realizing that she had indeed been too greedy.

Su Zichen and Su Ziheng witnessed the whole process, from initial anticipation to later regret, and finally only a silent sigh remained.

They could tell that Ziyun had done very well, but that last step was just too difficult.

Zhao Fan had been quietly observing from the side. When he saw Su Ziyun fail, he stepped forward, but instead of looking at the slag inside the furnace, he spoke gently to Su Ziyun.

"Do you see the problem?"

Su Ziyun raised her head, her eyes filled with confusion and resentment, and whispered.

"I... my spiritual power is not enough to control so many portions... it's too greedy."

Zhao Fan nodded slightly and pointed into the furnace.

"You see me dividing into ten parts, so you want to divide into more parts too, but you forget your own foundation."

"The number of times you can divide your elixir is not necessarily better the more you have; the most important thing is whether you can maintain stable control over it with your divine sense."

"You are only a beginner at this stage, and your spiritual strength and control precision are insufficient. If you force yourself to divide more, you will inevitably be overwhelmed."

He paused, then his tone softened.

"The process of making the Rejuvenation Pill requires a large amount of spiritual power and divine sense. Spiritual power can be replenished with spirit stones, but divine sense is a major problem."

"Your current divine sense is able to reliably control two parts, which is already quite good."

"Next time, try not to be greedy, just divide it into two portions, or even focus on making only one portion."

"Once you can reliably succeed with one or two batches, it's not too late to pursue three or four batches. Alchemy is like spiritual practice; it requires a gradual approach."

After listening for a long time, the confusion in Su Ziyun's eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by understanding.

She nodded emphatically.

"I understand, Brother Zhao! I misunderstood; I shouldn't have thought about dividing it up so much from the beginning."

"That's good."

Zhao Fan nodded.

"It's late today, and you've all done your best. Go back and reflect on today's gains and losses, especially the failures, and try again tomorrow."

The three nodded to each other, bid farewell to Zhao Fan, and left the alchemy room.

Zhao Fan took over the medicine furnace and began refining the Qingling Pill.

In the days that followed, the aroma of cooking and medicinal herbs filled the alchemy room almost continuously.

Su Zichen continued to work steadily, with most failures stemming from improper handling of details or a lack of control over the heat. However, he was able to barely reach the later stages of the fusion process, only to fall short at the last moment each time.

After being severely reprimanded, Su Zihuan became somewhat more restrained, but his impatience still flared up intermittently, and his success rate remained pitifully low.

The one who has made the most progress is still Su Ziyun.

She completely abandoned her unrealistic greed and, when she tried again, she focused all her attention on controlling the two most basic spiritual threads, carefully dividing the fused liquid into two uneven portions.

With her spiritual burden greatly reduced, she was able to control the pill much more easily. Although she ultimately failed to control the condensation process well, resulting in only one irregularly shaped and dull-colored pill and the other turning into dregs, she still succeeded!

Although it was just a very poor-quality Rejuvenation Pill, with an efficacy that was probably only 30% to 40% of a normal low-grade Rejuvenation Pill, and it was also extremely toxic, it was indeed a Rejuvenation Pill that had completed all the necessary steps!

She held the poorly presented pill, her fingertips trembling slightly, but her eyes shone with an incredibly bright light.

Su Zichen and Su Ziheng gathered around, looking at the ugly but real pill, their envy evident in their expressions.

They haven't even refined a pill embryo yet, but Ziyun has already touched the threshold of pill formation, even if it's just one pill.

This greatly motivated Su Ziyun, and also made Su Zichen and Su Ziheng work harder and compete with each other secretly.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

This day marked the end of the month.

Just as Zhao Fan finished packaging the newly refined Spirit Nourishing Pills and Spirit Clearing Pills into bottles, Su San's voice came from outside the courtyard.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, I apologize for disturbing you!"

Su San stepped into the courtyard, her gaze first sweeping over the three children who were busy sorting medicinal herbs, their faces more or less tinged with the grime of fire, before she smiled and looked at Zhao Fan.

"It seems you've been working very hard these past two weeks, fellow Daoist."

"Fellow Daoist Su."

Zhao Fan responded by cupping his hands and handing over the storage bag containing the pills.

"The pills for this month are here; please check them."

Su San took it, scanned it with her divine sense, and then her smile widened.

"Fellow Daoist's alchemy skills have become increasingly refined. The quality of this batch of pills is much better than the ones we bought before."

He put away his storage bag, then changed the subject, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over Su Zichen and the other two again. He lowered his voice, but it was enough for Zhao Fan to hear him clearly.

"Fellow Daoist has been instructing these three juniors of mine for a month. In your opinion, which of these three unworthy juniors possesses the best talent and temperament in the art of alchemy?"

His gaze finally settled on Su Ziyun, who was carefully cleaning the alchemy furnace. He then glanced at Su Zichen, who was deep in thought, and Su Zihuan, who seemed somewhat distracted, before waiting for Zhao Fan's reply.

The air in the courtyard seemed to quiet down a bit after that question.

At this moment, Su Zichen and the other two appeared to be busy, but in their hearts they were all paying attention to Zhao Fan and Su San.

Su Zichen and Su Ziheng knew they were not as good as Su Ziyun, but they did not want to lose the opportunity to become alchemists.

At this moment, their fates were both in Zhao Fan's hands.