Chapter 23 : Chapter 23
Chapter 23 – Alchemy Skill
Unfortunately, even though she had tried her best to restrain herself, five Spirit Gathering Pills were still produced.
“Damn it! I tried so hard to suppress my alchemy technique, so why did five pills still come out? How am I supposed to explain this?” Ye Liuyun stared at the pills that rolled out of the furnace, her head beginning to ache.
She cautiously glanced at Nalan Yan beside her from the corner of her eye.
At this moment, Nalan Yan’s expression could only be described with four words: completely stunned.
Her eyes were wide open, her mouth slightly agape, and disbelief filled her face.
Ye Liuyun knew she had frightened Nalan Yan.
“This is bad.”
Ye Liuyun had already begun thinking about how to respond to the inevitable questioning.
In the eyes of ordinary people, if an alchemist could successfully refine one pill from one portion of ingredients, it was already considered excellent technique.
If one portion could produce two pills, that would be master-level skill.
Producing three pills would be considered almost unheard of.
But Ye Liuyun had refined five pills in a single attempt.
And Nalan Yan had witnessed it with her own eyes.
There was no cheating involved—it was genuinely five pills.
“Senior Sister? Senior Sister, I am finished refining the pills. I passed, right?” Ye Liuyun forced herself to speak, snapping Nalan Yan out of her daze.
Hearing her voice, Nalan Yan slowly turned her head and looked at Ye Liuyun.
“You passed. But… Junior Sister… how did you do that?”
Nalan Yan suddenly grabbed Ye Liuyun’s arm, her eyes filled with intense longing—the kind of gaze someone had when pursuing the Path of Alchemy.
For alchemists, what they pursued throughout their lives was their alchemy skill.
In their eyes, cultivation level could even be secondary.
But if they could improve their alchemy techniques, they would be willing to pay almost any price.
In the cultivation world, there were several major secondary professions: alchemists, artifact refiners, formation masters, and talisman masters.
These four were the most important—and also the wealthiest professions.
However, advancing in these fields was even more difficult than cultivating itself.
It depended entirely on comprehension.
If one lacked talent, perseverance alone would not help.
Each profession also had strict requirements.
For example, alchemists required naturally strong soul power.
If one’s soul strength was ordinary, they could only learn basic techniques and might at best become a White Grade alchemist, with no possibility of advancing further.
As for those with sufficient soul power, improving their alchemy skill depended on accumulated experience.
The highest-level alchemist in the Yunxia Sect was Yun Xiao, a Blue Grade Peak alchemist.
Yun Xiao could refine pills of Blue Grade Peak quality.
Nalan Yan, as Yun Xiao’s direct disciple, could refine Blue Grade Low-tier pills, which was already extremely impressive.
Blue Grade and Purple Grade formed the dividing line for all secondary professions.
Nearly seventy percent of practitioners would remain stuck at the Blue Grade level for their entire lives.
And this was not limited to alchemists—every secondary profession faced the same barrier.
Techniques above Purple Grade were extremely rare inheritances.
At least within the Tang Kingdom, there had never been any known Purple Grade alchemist.
In other words, Blue Grade Peak was the upper limit of the Tang Kingdom.
“Senior Sister… you are hurting my arm,” Ye Liuyun said awkwardly.
Nalan Yan quickly realized she had lost her composure and immediately released her grip.
“My apologies. I lost my composure.”
She quickly calmed herself.
After all, even if Ye Liuyun’s alchemy skill truly was extraordinary, there was no reason she would share her secrets with someone she had just met.
“It is fine,” Ye Liuyun replied innocently.
“Junior Sister, what is your name? My name is Nalan Yan,” she said.
“Uh… Senior Sister Nalan, did I not just say it? My name is Ye Liuyu,” Ye Liuyun replied helplessly.
Only then did Nalan Yan remember that Ye Liuyun had already introduced herself earlier.
She had simply ignored it at the time.
“I… I am sorry. I was distracted just now and did not hear clearly,” Nalan Yan said, blushing slightly.
In truth, it was not that she had not heard—it was that she had not taken an entry disciple seriously.
Which was understandable.
The status of a direct disciple was far beyond that of an entry disciple.
It was like asking whether an emperor would remember the name of an ordinary citizen.
Normally, that would be impossible.
But from today onward, the name Ye Liuyu had firmly entered Nalan Yan’s memory.
After taking a deep breath, Nalan Yan brought Ye Liuyun to handle the registration for a special Alchemy Pavilion disciple token.
With this token, Ye Liuyun could freely enter the Alchemy Pavilion to refine pills.
As for the secret Nalan Yan wanted to know, she could only suppress her curiosity for now.
After all, they had just met. Their relationship was far from the level where Ye Liuyun would teach her alchemy techniques.
Once the registration was complete, Ye Liuyun thanked Nalan Yan.
“Thank you for your help, Senior Sister. I will go see if there are any tasks I can accept,” Ye Liuyun said before turning and leaving.
Nalan Yan wanted to say something, but the words never came out. She could only take a deep breath and return to her alchemy room.
However, the pills Ye Liuyun had refined were still there.
“Five pills from one refinement… that must require extremely advanced alchemy techniques. Let me see how these five Spirit Gathering Pills differ from ordinary ones.”
Nalan Yan began studying the pills Ye Liuyun had produced.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun had already arrived at the task hall, looking at the many task tokens hanging on the wall.
White tokens represented tasks to refine White Grade pills.
Green tokens were for Green Grade pills.
Blue tokens were naturally for Blue Grade pill tasks.
Each also had quality levels, so even tokens of the same color were divided into four grades.
In truth, Ye Liuyun’s alchemy skill was sufficient to refine pills of any grade.
However, her current soul power was only enough to refine White Grade Peak pills.
Moreover, as an entry disciple, it would be inappropriate to draw too much attention.
After the incident earlier, Nalan Yan was certainly already suspicious.
She needed to remain low-key.
So Ye Liuyun casually accepted a few tasks for refining White Grade Low-tier pills and headed toward the alchemy room assigned to her.
Thus, Ye Liuyun’s comfortable life had officially begun.
Meanwhile, Song Shuwen had returned to his residence.
He took out the pill Ye Liuyun had given him.
He was curious to see what kind of pill she had provided.
However, when he poured the pills out, he realized that he had never seen anything like them before.
“Hmm? It looks like a Spirit Gathering Pill… but not quite. The fragrance and color seem unusual.”
Sitting in his cultivation chamber, Song Shuwen sniffed the pill carefully.
After thinking for a moment, he swallowed it.
As soon as the pill entered his body, he felt a massive amount of spiritual energy surging toward him from all directions.
“What? What kind of pill is this? Such tremendous spiritual energy—just one pill provides the equivalent of three days’ worth of cultivation!”
Song Shuwen was stunned.
Normally, a Spirit Gathering Pill only doubled the cultivation efficiency of one day.
Eating one pill meant gaining the equivalent of two days’ cultivation.
But Ye Liuyun’s Burst Spirit Pill directly injected three days’ worth of spiritual energy into the body.
This was not simply accelerating cultivation—it was directly increasing one’s cultivation base.
After absorbing the spiritual energy, Song Shuwen stared at the remaining pills in his hand.
For a long moment, he could not even find the words to describe them.
He had never heard of any pill that could directly increase cultivation like this.