Chapter 231 - 213: Is This Talent Even Reasonable?

Chapter 231: Chapter 213: Is This Talent Even Reasonable?

"Senior Brother Chen, here are your three sets of ingredients for the Nourishing Spirit Pill."

Chen Yue took the ingredients, checking each one before turning and walking over to his usual Pill Furnace in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion.

Yao Jin beamed as he watched Chen Yue approach. "Senior Brother Chen, you’re incredible!"

He had, of course, heard about Chen Yue’s amazing feat at the Liuyun Sword Sect yesterday. Now, seeing Chen Yue in person, his excitement was written all over his face.

Chen Yue turned to Yao Jin, smiled, and patted his shoulder without saying much.

Then, he turned away and began the preparations for concocting the Nourishing Spirit Pill.

Yao Jin leaned in curiously, his gaze falling upon the three packets of herbs in front of Chen Yue. As he carefully identified the types and quantities of the ingredients, his eyes widened in astonishment.

Ingredients for the Nourishing Spirit Pill!

’Senior Brother Chen is actually going to try concocting the Nourishing Spirit Pill today?’

Chen Yue lined up the three sets of ingredients in front of him. He closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the entire process for concocting the Nourishing Spirit Pill from start to finish.

This was indeed his first attempt at concocting the Nourishing Spirit Pill, but it was also the only Elixir he planned on making for the foreseeable future.

This was because his proficiency with the Nourishing Spirit Pill’s Pill Formula had already reached the threshold for the Perfection Realm.

Ever since his Cultivation broke through to the Refining Organ Realm, his daily proficiency gain—whether for Cultivation Techniques or Pill Formulas—had reached just over a thousand.

This had pushed the once slowly progressing Nourishing Spirit Pill Formula to its current level.

Chen Yue slowly opened his eyes. He reached out, lifted the lid of the Pill Furnace, and lit the firewood. Flames surged from the bottom, licking the furnace walls as the surrounding temperature began to climb.

He waited for the furnace to reach the right temperature before starting to add the ingredients, one by one, following a strict sequence and at precise intervals.

Chen Yue moved without the slightest hesitation. The timing for adding each ingredient, the adjustments to the heat, the frequency of opening and closing the lid—everything was executed with perfect precision.

It was as if he had concocted the Nourishing Spirit Pill hundreds, even thousands, of times before.

As time went on, a unique medicinal fragrance began to waft through the air.

Unlike the rich, pungent scent of ordinary elixirs, this was a crisp, lingering aroma that was instantly revitalizing.

In the main hall of the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, many of the busy disciples involuntarily paused. They raised their heads, sniffed the air, and looked toward the source of the fragrance.

"This is... the fragrance of a Nourishing Spirit Pill?" a slightly older disciple said in a low voice, a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

"That’s right, it’s the Nourishing Spirit Pill! I’ve smelled this before when Martial Qian was concocting them. This is the exact scent!" a disciple next to him said with certainty.

"Senior Brother Chen has already started concocting Nourishing Spirit Pills?"

Whispers spread through the Hundred Herbs Pavilion as the disciples exchanged astonished glances.

Zhao Weiyuan also stared in Chen Yue’s direction, filled with disbelief. He was all too familiar with the scent of the Nourishing Spirit Pill, and judging from the aroma’s purity and concentration, the quality of the finished pill would be quite high.

’He’s already started on Nourishing Spirit Pills? And he’s already succeeded?’

’This kind of talent is just absurd!’

In less than an hour, the medicinal fragrance reached its peak and then began to slowly recede.

Chen Yue reached out and lifted the Pill Furnace’s lid. An even richer fragrance, mixed with scalding steam, billowed out.

He looked down into the furnace. Two round, plump Elixirs lay quietly at the bottom, emitting a soft glow.

Two Nourishing Spirit Pills in a single batch.

When Chen Yue retrieved the two Nourishing Spirit Pills from the furnace and placed them on a Jade Plate, the eyes of the disciples who had been watching him instantly went wide.

’Two pills in one batch, just like that?’

’Even if he succeeded, shouldn’t he have started with one pill per batch?’

’So... do prodigies not even need to practice Alchemy for real? Can they just run through it in their minds?’

’You can train a Cultivation Technique like that, but can you do the same with Alchemy?’

The disciples exchanged glances, feeling as if their entire understanding of the world had been turned upside down.

However, Chen Yue looked at the two Nourishing Spirit Pills in his palm, and his brow furrowed slightly.

He didn’t put the Elixirs away immediately. Instead, he held them up to examine them for a moment before mentally reviewing every detail of the process.

’The steps were correct. My control over the heat was fine, and the timing for adding each ingredient was perfect.’

’But there are always subtle differences between individual ingredients, which can cause slight deviations in their medicinal properties.’

’Such deviations don’t matter much when concocting low-level elixirs, but they become magnified when making something on the level of a Nourishing Spirit Pill.’

’Often, the window of opportunity is fleeting. If you fail to make the most precise micro-adjustments based on the ingredients’ actual properties at that exact moment, it will affect the final pill yield.’

’During that last attempt, I hesitated for a split second when judging the ingredients’ properties at two critical junctures.’

’While it didn’t cause the Pill Formation to fail, it did affect the yield.’

Chen Yue placed the two Nourishing Spirit Pills into a Jade Bottle. Then, without resting, he immediately began preparing for the second batch.

Chen Yue cleaned the residue from inside the Pill Furnace, rinsed the furnace walls with clean water, then used a clean cloth to wipe the inside of the furnace dry.

Only after completing all this did he reignite the firewood.

With the experience from the first time, Chen Yue had a more intuitive understanding of the ingredients’ properties.

He maintained the heat on one ingredient for about ten breaths longer than before. He added another ingredient a fraction of a second earlier.

The adjustments were minor, but with the perception of his Heart Spirit, they made the entire process flow much more smoothly.

Time flowed by as the Pill Fire danced. The crisp, lingering fragrance filled the air once more, even richer than before.

Although the disciples of the Hundred Herbs Pavilion were still busy with their tasks, their attention had all converged on him. They were all waiting, waiting for the result of Chen Yue’s second attempt.

In less than an hour, the fragrance reached its peak. Then, Chen Yue reached out and lifted the Pill Furnace’s lid once more.

Every disciple in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion focused their gaze on him. They watched as Chen Yue lowered his head to look into the furnace, then reached in and retrieved the Elixirs.

One.

Two.

Three.

Three Nourishing Spirit Pills lay quietly on the Jade Plate in Chen Yue’s palm. Each was perfectly round and plump, radiating a soft glow and a rich, medicinal aroma.

Many disciples couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.