Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

After a cup of tea, Zhang Li began his second attempt.

Ignition, preheating, refining the essence, fusing the essence, condensing the elixir...

Soon, a familiar medicinal fragrance wafted from the alchemy furnace again.

Zhang Li looked expectant and felt a little excited. He stopped outputting his magic power, and the flames under the furnace slowly went out. He couldn't wait to open the furnace.

When Zhang Li saw the finished pills, his expression suddenly changed. There were only a few mottled pills lying at the bottom of the furnace, which were very different from the fasting pills he usually took.

"Cidan?"

Zhang Li's face darkened; he felt a pang of regret.

The so-called "secondary pill" is a product of failed alchemy. The biggest reason is that there was a problem in the step of extracting the medicinal liquid and refining the essence, resulting in impurities not being completely removed.

In this situation, even if the pill is successfully condensed, the refining process will fail due to too many impurities.

"Even the poorest rogue cultivator wouldn't take a fasting pill of this quality."

Zhang Li murmured to himself, took out the few mottled pills from the bottom of the furnace, thought for a moment, and finally put them in a jade bottle and put them away.

This was, after all, his first time successfully forming a pill, and although it was only a minor pill, it still held great commemorative significance.

The third attempt.

The result was still a failure.

The reason for the failure was similar to the first time: the heat was not properly controlled, which led to an error in the process of fusing the medicinal liquids. The liquids failed to fully fuse, resulting in the failure of the pill to solidify.

Zhang Li remained calm in the face of this defeat.

Failure is common for beginners; every alchemist goes through this stage.

As the saying goes, failure is the mother of success.

Fourth attempt!

During the process of dividing the pills, a problem occurred with the control of magical power, resulting in pills of varying sizes.

"Again!"

The fifth, sixth, seventh... batch after batch of spiritual herbs were sent into the alchemy furnace, only to be met with failure after failure.

Impurities may not be completely removed, resulting in inferior pills; the heat may be out of control, resulting in a batch of pill dregs; or the pill-dividing technique may be clumsy, resulting in incomplete pills. Various problems may arise one after another.

In the blink of an eye, it was the tenth batch. The medicinal liquid in the furnace dissipated again, and the alchemy failed once more.

Zhang Li let out a long breath and had to stop what he was doing, sitting cross-legged on the futon to regulate his breathing.

I was so focused on practicing that I kept trying and making mistakes that I forgot all about the losses. Now my dantian is empty and my mana is exhausted. It is no longer enough to support the next batch of complete refining.

"I'm getting a little tipsy!" Zhang Li chuckled wryly, raising his hand to wipe away the fine beads of sweat from his forehead.

Just now, I was so focused on studying the details of fire control and mana output that I wanted to refine a perfect batch of pills. Before I knew it, I frantically opened ten batches in a row, completely ignoring that my cultivation level was only at the second level of Qi Refining and that my mana reserves were not much to begin with.

He raised his hand and put away the alchemy furnace and the fire control array plate together. After swallowing a Qi-nourishing pill, he began to close his eyes and regulate his breathing.

……

When a person has a clear goal and enough motivation to move towards it, time passes much faster than imagined.

Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

this day.

Zhang Li sat cross-legged in front of the alchemy furnace and continued refining pills.

Over the past two weeks, he has been turning on the furnace at least ten times a day after finishing tending to the herb garden.

This frequency of opening the furnace far exceeds that of ordinary novice alchemists, simply because he has a grotto that can accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs and medicines, so apart from time, he hardly needs to invest any additional costs.

Although all of Zhang Li's attempts over the past two weeks ended in failure, he eventually figured out some tricks over time.

He could clearly feel that his control over his magic was becoming more refined and subtle.

However, the changes in the medicinal properties in the furnace, the control of the heat, and the techniques for separating the pills all became more skillful and astute.

Today, during the first batch, he was already very close to success, having produced six pills.

Unfortunately, four of them were substandard pills. A batch of pills needs at least six qualified pills to be considered a true beginner.

However, Zhang Li had a premonition that today would be the day he successfully entered the path of the Bigu Pill.

With a hint of anticipation, Zhang Li activated the fire control array plate again to preheat the alchemy furnace.

Then came the familiar process and steps. This time, he grasped every detail perfectly and controlled the heat almost flawlessly.

There were no problems with the quenching and fusion.

Finally, as all the medicinal liquids in the furnace were completely blended, Zhang Li no longer hesitated and began to slowly lower the temperature of the flames under the furnace. At the same time, he began to activate the pill-separation method and start separating the pills.

Ideally, one set of materials for refining the Bigu Pill should be enough to make ten pills.

However, in practice, due to different methods of dividing the pills and different timing, the number of pills produced is often less than ten.

For some renowned alchemists, pills like the Bigu Pill can be reliably divided into ten pills regardless of the pill-dividing method used.

However, for a beginner like Zhang Li, who was using the most basic pill-dividing technique, the number of pills produced was probably less than eight.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Li divided the pills in the furnace into round pills.

"Six fasting pills!"

When the pills were finally formed, Zhang Li looked at the six pills lying at the bottom of the furnace and couldn't help but feel excited.

Six pills in one batch, all perfect, not a single one substandard. Today's batch truly marks my entry into the path of alchemy.

After more than a hundred failures and countless attempts to reheat the furnace day and night over the past two weeks, we have finally reaped a real reward.

Zhang Li carefully put the six Bigu Pills into the dry jade bottle, and his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

With Kuroda providing a continuous supply of spiritual herbs, he can hone his alchemy skills. In the future, whether for personal cultivation or to exchange the pills for spirit stones at the market, he will no longer have to worry.

Of course, we should not forget those who dug the well when we drink the water.

Zhang Li also did not forget that the reason he was able to quickly enter the realm of alchemy was entirely thanks to the spatial cave heaven, Kuroda.

Thinking of this, he immediately took out another batch of spirit stones and placed them on Kuroda.

After thanking Kuroda profusely with spirit stones, Zhang Li took out a finished Bigu Pill and personally tasted its effects.

After a moment, he had a better understanding.

It is no different from the fasting pills he bought in Hanxi Market, and can be sold directly.

In the market, a bottle of fasting pills, containing ten pills, sells for two spirit stones.

Considering that I hardly need to invest any more costs in spiritual materials, the net profit is almost 100%.

In other words, Zhang Li will earn at least one spirit stone for every furnace he opens in the future.

Although it seems that selling spirit herbs directly doesn't bring in spirit stones as quickly as it does right now, the Bigu Pill is just the most basic kind of pill and doesn't fetch much of a price.

If it were a Qi-Nourishing Pill or Qi-Condensing Pill, which can assist in cultivation, the market price would be drastically different.

In the market, a single Qi Nourishing Pill can be sold for three spirit stones, and a bottle of ten pills costs thirty spirit stones. The required spirit herbs are also supplied indefinitely by Kuroda. By saving the spirit stones needed to purchase spirit materials, the profit from a batch of pills far exceeds that from selling spirit herbs directly.

"Sooner or later, we'll just have to throw away every pill we take."

Feeling pleased with himself, Zhang Li composed himself and began to strike while the iron was hot, consolidating his experience.