He sliced exactly six taels of Eight-corner Root—not a fraction more, not a fraction less.
He used the device to control the Earth Fire's intensity, maintaining the furnace at a suitable temperature. Then, Fang Yun enveloped the yellowish Eight-corner Root with his Spiritual Power and tossed it into the Alchemy Furnace.
The Alchemy Furnace in this Lower-grade Alchemy Room was a Lower Grade Magical Artifact.
Fang Yun found that controlling an Alchemy Furnace of this level was perfectly manageable, requiring no extra effort.
'Semi-solid, semi-liquid. This is the exact state I need.'
Beads of sweat formed on Fang Yun's forehead as he injected a burst of Spiritual Power into the Alchemy Furnace. The semi-solid, semi-liquid Eight-corner Root was moved to the furnace's sealed medicine port and temporarily stored there.
The Eight-corner Root would be needed again for the reaction in the fourth step.
Compared to cultivating Spirit Medicine, Alchemy was truly a technical skill.
'Good thing this Outer Sect disciple uniform has decent heat insulation.'
Fang Yun noted his current condition, then immediately picked up half a stalk of Wind-facing Grass.
Next was the second step of refining the Qi Nourishing Pill.
...
Refining a Qi Nourishing Pill involved nine major steps, each containing many smaller sub-steps.
And this was for one of the simplest pills.
After nearly three two-hour periods of refining, Fang Yun finally managed to separate the medicinal dregs.
Next was the final part of the last step.
Fusing the medicine into pills.
The five medicinal pellets inside the Alchemy Furnace had already begun to take shape.
Solidify!
Relying on his instincts, Fang Yun exerted all his strength to begin the Solidifying Pill process.
The Solidifying Pill process was also crucial; he couldn't let too much of the medicinal efficacy escape.
Only by accumulating enough medicinal efficacy could the pills form properly.
Fang Yun withdrew his Spiritual Power. The moment the five pills fell into the Pill Output Port, he shut off the Earth Fire switch.
The Alchemy Furnace's temperature began to drop.
From the Pill Output Port, Fang Yun retrieved the piping hot pills.
Four had failed to form, but one was a success.
The pills that failed to form are also called Wasted Pills.
"One Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pill," Fang Yun said with a satisfied smile.
This was his first time refining a Qi Nourishing Pill, and also his first time performing Alchemy at all.
The strength of his two-star Alchemy Talent met his expectations.
For his first attempt at Alchemy, he had relied entirely on instinct.
He couldn't continue like this, though. He needed to summarize his experience from this session. From now on, he would have to combine experience with instinct, until eventually, only accumulated experience remained.
After storing the dregs, Wasted Pills, and the Qi Nourishing Pill separately, Fang Yun began to recall the entire three-two-hour-period Alchemy process and summarize his experience.
Dregs and Wasted Pills each had their own uses. Once a certain amount was accumulated, they could also be sold.
Dregs, for example, could be used to make fertilizer. Some delicate Spirit Medicine were very heavy feeders. Among Spirit Medicine, Spirit Rice Plants were the ones that required almost no fertilizer; this was true for most varieties.
Half a two-hour period later, he began refining his second batch of Qi Nourishing Pills.
This batch took a little over three two-hour periods. With the experience from his first attempt, this second batch yielded two Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills.
He summarized his experience again, but this time he also had to recover his Spiritual Power.
Right now, Fang Yun's Spiritual Power was at the standard level for a Cultivator who had just entered the third layer of Qi Refining. After refining two batches of Qi Nourishing Pills, only ten percent of the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea remained.
The concentration of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in the Alchemy Room was higher than in his own residence, allowing him to recover his Spiritual Power more quickly.
After a two-hour period, Fang Yun started on his third batch of Qi Nourishing Pills.
This time, it took exactly three two-hour periods, and he successfully refined three Qi Nourishing Pills.
"Three pills! Excellent!"
One pill from the first batch, two from the second, and three from the third. Even though they were all Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills, this result was absolutely worthy of his two-star Alchemy Talent.
"Ingredients are eight Lower Grade Spirit Stones, plus the rental fee... my average cost per batch of Qi Nourishing Pills works out to three Lower Grade Spirit Stones. This third batch barely broke even."
Looking at the six Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills in his hand, Fang Yun made a rough calculation.
And that wasn't even factoring in the cost of his time.
Given his current standing, his time wasn't worth much, but as he continued to improve, the value of his time would also increase.
In Fang Yun's own eyes, time was precious, something he rarely put a price on.
If he had to put a price on it, he would look at how many Spirit Stones he could earn in a month and calculate the daily cost of his time from there.
When Fang Yun emerged from the Lower-grade Alchemy Room, he looked exhausted.
The process of refining pills was mentally draining; this was the most tired he had been in this life.
In his previous life, he'd been even more exhausted on many occasions. Pulling all-nighters to write strategy guides was routine for him, and eventually, his body just couldn't take it anymore.
In this life, Fang Yun had been actively avoiding that problem, but a Cultivator's body was, in any case, far superior to that of an ordinary person.
He had spent a total of more than ten and a half two-hour periods in the Lower-grade Alchemy Room.
After returning the Token for the Alchemy Room, Fang Yun quickly left Dan Cloud Peak.
It wasn't time to rest yet. He still had to tend to his Purple Corn.
「Afternoon.」
Fang Yun finally appeared at his Spirit Field.
"Junior Brother Fang, you're here very late today."
Tian Ruifeng greeted him upon his arrival. Seeing Fang Yun's exhausted state, he could roughly guess what he had been doing since yesterday.
"Something came up, so I'm late."
"Alchemy?"
"Yes." As he replied, Fang Yun entered the Spirit Field and began tending to the Purple Corn.
A long interval between tending would surely affect the yield, and thus affect the final number of Talent Points he would receive.
Any Talent Points lost here could easily be made up for through Alchemy.
Fang Yun wasn't worried about that.
With his two-star Planting Talent, he could tend to three mu of Purple Corn. Even if he only tended to it once every two days, he could still guarantee a yield of over one hundred jin per mu.
Three days, however, would be pushing it. At that point, it would come down to luck—the more pests and weeds that appeared during those three days, and the longer they harmed the Purple Corn, the lower the harvest yield would be.
"Junior Brother Fang, how did the Alchemy go?"
Tian Ruifeng eagerly awaited Fang Yun's answer. He himself had no talent in that area and had no choice but to give up on it, focusing solely on planting in the future.
In Tian Ruifeng's opinion, with Fang Yun's talent for planting, he would surely become a Spirit Plant Master at a younger age than him. It was even highly likely he could achieve that status by the time he was half of Tian Ruifeng's current age.
"My talent is acceptable," Fang Yun replied with a smile.
"Is that so... Congratulations, Junior Brother Fang, on achieving your wish."
Tian Ruifeng was happy for Fang Yun with this result, but it fell far short of what he had hoped to hear.
'What a shame,' Tian Ruifeng thought to himself.
Compared to Planting Talent, Cultivators with Alchemy Talent were far rarer. Even just testing for the talent involved a world of difference in resource consumption.
Testing for Planting Talent undoubtedly consumed the fewest resources. Just have a Cultivator try planting for a year or two, and you could get a rough idea of their aptitude.
He finished tending to the three mu of Purple Corn.
Fang Yun immediately returned home, cooked and ate three taels of Clear Water Rice, and then fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.
When he awoke, the night was already deep.
"Ah, this feeling is so nostalgic," Fang Yun remarked, gazing at the night sky outside his window.
It was the feeling of having his days and nights reversed.
Returning to his bedside, Fang Yun began to review.
'My commute is too long. This can't continue. I happened to borrow one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones from Senior Sister Song, so I can buy a Lower Grade foot-type Magical Artifact first to increase my speed and reduce the time wasted on commuting...'