Chapter 32 – Hitting His Stride, Alchemy Beginner!

Su Xing stared blankly for a moment, then smacked himself on the head.

“Of course! The potency of the herbs is related to their age… How did it take me this long to figure out something so simple?”

Su Xing felt a wave of embarrassment.

But it really wasn’t his fault. After all, he had no master to guide him in the art of alchemy — everything had to be figured out on his own through trial and error.

The fact that he could refine ungraded pills at all was the result of decades of relentless effort, let alone graded pills, which would only be harder to produce.

Once Su Xing thought this through, he felt more confident about refining the Organ Tempering Pill and continued the simulation.

【You wanted to continue refining Organ Tempering Pills, but you had already run out of the primary ingredient Yellow Immortal Essence. So you took some seeds from the herbs Qingyunzi had left you and planted them in the spirit field.】

【You had already exhausted all your previous savings, so you refined another batch of budget Beauty-Preserving Pills and sold them to Jin Congxue.】

【Year Five: The Yellow Immortal Essence you previously planted now had one year of potency. You believed the three-year Yellow Immortal Essence had been too potent, so you harvested it and prepared to begin refining.】

【Year Six: You spent an entire year refining over a hundred furnaces of Organ Tempering Pills, continuously improving the refinement process along the way. You believed your Organ Tempering Pills had reached an acceptable quality.】

【One day, you attempted to swallow an Organ Tempering Pill.】

【The Organ Tempering Pill’s powerful medicinal properties instantly made your entire body feel as though it were being consumed by raging flames. You gritted your teeth and endured.】

【You didn’t immediately explode and die, but blood continuously seeped from your meridians, your body looking like a person drenched in blood. You tried taking several Healing Pills to treat your injuries.】

【The ungraded Healing Pills had no effect on injuries this severe. You could only watch helplessly as you bled to death.】

【You died!】

【Your talent Die With Eyes Open activates!】

【You stared blankly at the furnace of Organ Tempering Pills before you…】

【Ding! This simulation has ended!】

Su Xing was completely speechless.

“Damn it, dead by year six? That’s got to be the earliest I’ve ever died in a simulation!”

Su Xing’s heart ached. Each simulation required a full week of waiting, making every single run incredibly precious.

He had been quite cautious this time around — after all, he’d refined hundreds of batches of Organ Tempering Pills before finally daring to try swallowing one.

But even after reducing the pill’s potency, he still couldn’t withstand it.

“Phew… But at least I didn’t straight-up explode this time — I died from my meridians rupturing instead. That means I’m on the right track! It’s just that the Organ Tempering Pill’s medicinal properties are still too strong for my body to handle!”

Su Xing took the lesson to heart and refused to let a single failure discourage him. After all, his cultivation had been stuck at the fifth level of Body Tempering for three whole years before this. Now that he was trying to break through to the Organ Tempering realm, he had to keep pushing forward no matter how difficult it got.

“It’s just one more week of waiting… no big deal!”

Su Xing consoled himself, then turned his attention to this simulation’s rewards.

【Flash of Inspiration】: Green talent, costs 10,000 energy points.

【Bone-Forging Great Perfection】: Cultivation level, costs 11,000 energy points.

【Beginner-level Separation Fire Alchemy Art】: Beginner-level alchemy experience, includes refinement insights for Strength Pill (Mastery-level), Healing Pill (Mastery-level), Qi-Gathering Powder (Mastery-level), Breath-Holding Pill (Mastery-level), Swiftness Pill (Mastery-level), and Organ Tempering Pill (Minor Mastery-level). Costs 100,000 energy points.

“The Flash of Inspiration talent is a must-have… It’s just like the tenacity talent from before — incredibly useful during simulations!”

Su Xing first spent 10,000 energy points to redeem the Flash of Inspiration talent, then turned his gaze to the other two options.

“Huh? The Separation Fire Alchemy Art actually reached Beginner-level? And it only costs a hundred thousand energy points?”

Su Xing was surprised. The previous rudimentary-level Separation Fire Alchemy Art had cost 130,000 energy points.

But he quickly realized the reason — his Separation Fire Alchemy Art must have already been close to Beginner-level before this simulation.

After all, he had previously mastered three types of ungraded pill refinement plus an introductory understanding of one low-grade pill, and had memorized the refinement procedures for all three hundred and sixty types of pills.

In this simulation, he had additionally mastered several more ungraded pill refinement methods, building further upon his existing foundation.

“When I think about it that way… the average experience for refining a single ungraded pill is only around ten thousand energy points, while a low-grade pill like the Organ Tempering Pill is probably much more expensive — just reaching Minor Mastery-level likely costs tens of thousands of energy points.”

Su Xing stroked his chin in thought.

But the Beginner-level alchemy art was also a must-pick. After all, it would save him a tremendous amount of energy in his next simulation.

“What a shame — the Bone-Forging Great Perfection body cultivation will have to wait until next time.”

Su Xing shook his head lightly. His current situation was relatively safe, so improving his body cultivation wasn’t particularly urgent.

On the contrary, what Su Xing urgently needed to improve was his Qi Refinement cultivation.

The stronger his Qi Refinement cultivation, the more spiritual energy he would have within his body, allowing him to better study alchemy.

“Looks like my next simulation needs to focus on improving my Qi Refinement cultivation.”

With that thought, Su Xing silently declared:

“I choose to bring back the Beginner-level Separation Fire Alchemy Art!”

【Ding! You have chosen to bring out the green talent “Flash of Inspiration,” costing 10,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 133,000 points.】

【Ding! You have chosen to bring out the Beginner-level Separation Fire Alchemy Art insights, costing 100,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 33,000 points.】

The Flash of Inspiration talent brought considerable changes to Su Xing. He felt his thinking become noticeably more active, with new ideas occasionally popping into his mind.

The improvement in alchemy was even more pronounced. Su Xing felt new alchemy knowledge flooding into his mind, and all those pills felt as if he had refined them countless times before — he could produce them with effortless ease.

“Impressive — truly worthy of Beginner-level alchemy. I can feel my understanding of the Dao of Pills has grown significantly stronger.”

After the simulation ended, Su Xing began preparing to refine budget Beauty-Preserving Pills.

After all, as his simulations grew more numerous, he would need more and more energy, which meant Su Xing would have to spend even more money.

And Su Xing’s primary source of income right now was selling budget Beauty-Preserving Pills.

The efficiency of making money through alchemy was at least ten times faster than farming equipment in dungeons!

Over the following week, Su Xing refined another ten furnaces of Beauty-Preserving Pills.

Thanks to his improved alchemy skills, his efficiency and success rate had risen considerably compared to before.

In just three days, the ten furnaces yielded a full ninety finished pills, and among them were even seven or eight supreme-quality Beauty-Preserving Pills.

Outside of pill refinement, Su Xing stopped taking the new female students through dungeons for leveling every day.

However, he would occasionally take Wang Qingxuan through dungeons to farm equipment and level up.

After all, Wang Qingxuan was connected to clues about the Advent Cult, so it was important to maintain a good relationship with her.

Another week passed quickly, and on this day, Jin Congxue came knocking.

“Su Xing, you lucky bastard — you’ve really struck it rich! Guess how much your last batch of pills sold for?”

Jin Congxue was wearing a qipao today that accentuated her curves exquisitely, her allure off the charts.

Su Xing blinked and said:

“My guess — a hundred million!”

Jin Congxue’s eyes widened at his words.

“You really are something! How’d you know it sold for a hundred million? Here — this is the remaining eighty million of the payment. But since I knew you’d want to buy white-quality equipment, I’ve already converted it all into gear for you!”

With that, Jin Congxue handed over a storage ring.

Su Xing’s eyes lit up as he took the ring.

Jin Congxue converting the money into equipment ahead of time had indeed saved him a lot of trouble.

“Thanks! From now on, just pay me in white-quality equipment for every transaction… saves me a ton of hassle!”

“Oh, and here — these are the Sugar Mama Bliss Pills I refined this week. Ninety in total. Help me sell them this week!”

Su Xing pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket and handed it over.

Jin Congxue took the bottle and blinked in surprise.

“Good grief, you can refine this many in a single week? That works out to over a hundred million per week! With that kind of money, why don’t you just forget me being your Sugar Mama—keep me as your sugar baby!”

Jin Congxue flashed a playful grin as she spoke.