Chapter 97: Alchemy Trial Reward
With his mass production method, Li Lang easily passed the second round of the alchemy trial with flying colors. Even the third round was easily conquered, as it only required him to refine multiple batches concurrently. This was something Li Lang had already been used to doing, so he breezed by.
It was the fourth round that stumped Li Lang. It required Li Lang to refine a top-quality pill. He was allowed a whole ten attempts and the right to pause the trial in between sessions to rest. It didn’t specify any pill, so anything was fair game, but Li Lang was still stumped.
He had never refined a top-quality pill before. It was just too easy for something to go slightly awry, resulting in small errors during the process. He was taught that only pills with over ninety-five percent purity were considered top quality, so it wasn’t even perfect. With the equipment he had access to, he couldn’t come up with a quick solution.
Having hit a roadblock, Li Lang decided to take one attempt before retiring for the day. As expected, his first attempt didn’t produce the desired results. He couldn’t just will a top-quality pill in existence. It depended on both luck and skill every time he refined. He could only hope the set of materials he worked with wouldn’t flare up the flames or cause other issues.
Despite the directionless attempt, it didn’t mean he wasted it. He gathered every bit of information from the refining session and recorded it for review. It was all based on his own insight as to what went wrong.
His Qi sense told him the main reason why top quality was so far away was because almost all the materials had small traces of impurities within them. Microscopic pockets of unwanted elements that he could do nothing to.
Perhaps he could find a way to deal with one type of impurity given enough time. The problem was that there were uncountable varieties of them. Each tiny pocket of waste was different and difficult to separate.
Seeing no quick progress to be made, Li Lang swiftly exited.
By the time he returned, he was just in time to gather at the mess hall. They each discussed the obstacles they faced before quickly becoming a brainstorming session. They aimed to have others’ perspectives on their issue, attaining a fresh take. They merrily chatted all the way until a familiar girl arrived.
“Hey everyone, seems like I’m late.”
Li Lang smiled and nodded amiably to the newcomer, Sima Xue.
“No worries. You didn’t miss much. We just vented to each other.”