24: Spirit Tempering

Zhang Sheng had already raised his gold spirit rice planting skill to the Transcendent stage.

The optimal number of gold spirit rice to plant per mu of spiritual field is around 6,000 plants. Zhang Sheng replanted five mu of land with seeds, consuming a total of 600 kilograms, and then cast the Thick Earth Art and the Spring Breeze Turning into Rain Technique.

However, what happened next stunned Zhang Sheng.

"Pop! Pop! Pop pop pop!"

The gold spirit rice broke through their shells and sprouted at an incredible speed—twice as fast as before!

At this rate, the gold spirit rice, which originally took three days to mature, might now only take a day and a half.

Could this be the power of the Perfected State Spring Breeze Turning into Rain Technique?

Marvelous!

But being good at farming still couldn't be converted into strength. The top priority was still to get a large number of essence food pills.

Zhang Sheng excitedly opened his phone and logged into the mall. He figured essence food pills would be for sale there.

"Holy crap!"

"One academic credit per pill? You guys at the Alchemy College, why don't you just go rob someone!"

"Fine, it seems like robbing academic credits isn't as fast as what you're doing anyway!"

No, I still have to refine them myself. With the "Once Certified, Forever Certified" Talent, I don't believe I can't learn it.

Returning to the school, Zhang Sheng walked straight toward the Spiritual Plant College building, where there was specialized Alchemy equipment.

"Zhang Sheng, why did you come to the Spiritual Plant College?" Tian Xingxing happened to walk out of a Pill Room and asked Zhang Sheng with a smile, though she couldn't hide her exhaustion.

"Uh! If I said I wanted to try Alchemy, would you believe me?" Zhang Sheng said calmly.

"I believe you! Why wouldn't I? You're not the first. Many students have come to try Alchemy, but unfortunately, they didn't refine any pills; instead, quite a few exploded their furnaces."

In fact, Tian Xingxing was implying that Zhang Sheng shouldn't waste his time.

"I'm just here to give it a try. If I can't do it, then forget it," Zhang Sheng said.

Tian Xingxing said helplessly, "Fine, this young lady will show some mercy and tell you what to look out for."

"Right now, we actually have very few true Spiritual Artifact Pill Furnaces. Only a few people in our school with top-tier Alchemist Talents are using them to refine some First-Tier Pills. Even someone like me with an A-rank Alchemist Talent can only use these Pill Furnaces built with modern technology."

"Spiritual Artifact Pill Furnaces and Alchemists with Advanced Talents are all protected by the school. Everything in this building is made with modern technology, using electromagnetic processes. You can manually adjust the temperature, use robotic arms for automated feeding, and it has automatic opening. The overall shape mimics a Spiritual Artifact Pill Furnace."

"Once the internal temperature or pressure gets too high, there's a risk of the furnace exploding. The Pill Furnace's monitoring device will sound an alarm. You must stop then; otherwise, if the furnace explodes, a large number of academic credits will be deducted."

"Bang!"

An explosion sounded.

"Look! Which stubborn one was that? They forced the Alchemy even after the alarm went off. Do they really think they're some gifted Genius? At least ten academic credits are gone now." Tian Xingxing was already used to this.

Zhang Sheng secretly felt lucky. Fortunately, he ran into Tian Xingxing; otherwise, he might have exploded a furnace too. Although he had 283 academic credits now, he couldn't afford to squander them.

"Thank you, Xingxing! I really envy your Alchemist Talent. Doesn't that mean your Alchemy is 100% successful? One essence food pill can be exchanged for one academic credit. Accumulating academic credits is just too easy." Zhang Sheng said enviously.

"It's not that easy!" Tian Xingxing said somewhat excitedly.

"Actually, you guys have a misunderstanding of our Talent. The Alchemist Talent doesn't mean 100% success in Alchemy. It means we learn quickly and aren't as likely to explode the furnace. Combined with a lot of Alchemy practice, we get better and better!"

"And Alchemy consumes Qi. We still have to Cultivate. We're not much better off than you guys."

From this perspective, the Alchemist Talent seemed to have a characteristic similar to "Once Certified, Forever Certified," but limited to Alchemy.

"It's already very impressive. Thanks, Xingxing. I'll treat you to a meal later."

"Really! I'm holding you to that, so you'd better keep your word," Tian Xingxing said happily, her fair face like a blooming peony.

At the registration desk on the first floor.

Zhang Sheng discovered that the Pill Furnaces here were divided into three sizes: small, medium, and large. Small ones were the most common, and large ones were the rarest.

A small Pill Furnace had a volume of one cubic meter, while a large Pill Furnace had a volume of ten cubic meters.

Zhang Sheng booked a small Pill Furnace. Renting it for a day only cost one academic credit, but if it exploded, ten academic credits would be deducted. If it were a large Pill Furnace, an explosion would result in a direct deduction of one hundred academic credits.

Entering the Alchemy room, there was a refined Pill Furnace in the center, surrounded by a mechanical arm, an intelligent auxiliary loading cart, fire extinguishing equipment, monitoring devices, and so on.

After familiarizing himself with the precautions for Alchemy, Zhang Sheng opened his phone and transferred one hundred kilograms of gold spirit rice from his warehouse. Soon, the school's intelligent transport vehicle delivered the gold spirit rice he needed to the Alchemy room.

Next was familiarizing himself with the operation of the mechanical arm and the Pill Furnace's temperature control System.

After simulating the Alchemy steps in his mind a few times, Zhang Sheng officially opened the furnace to begin Alchemy.

Then, nine kilograms of gold spirit rice were poured into the Pill Furnace at once and began to heat... When the timing was right, Zhang Sheng's hands formed a hand seal, and the Qi in his body turned into a thread that entered the Pill Furnace.

The Qi thread passed through each grain of gold spirit rice, attempting to extract the internal essence... Unconsciously, fine beads of sweat appeared on Zhang Sheng's forehead.

"Beep! Beep!"

"Warning! Warning! Internal pressure of the Pill Furnace is too high. Please stop immediately!"

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"

Zhang Sheng hurriedly stopped the power output, causing the Pill Furnace to quickly cool down and depressurize. Otherwise, if the furnace exploded, ten academic credits would be gone.

Without a doubt, the Alchemy had failed, and the talent panel did not show any prompt to learn Alchemy.

The inside of the Pill Furnace was a blackened mess, but fortunately, the Pill Furnace had an automatic cleaning function.

However, there were still gains!

"Spell: Spirit Tempering (Beginner 5/10)"

Although the Medicinal Pill was not successfully refined, wasting 9 kilograms of golden spirit rice and half an hour of time, the talent panel had recognized the Spirit Tempering process during the refining as a Spell.

Zhang Sheng had a sudden inspiration.

Since Spirit Tempering was an important step in refining the essence food pill, if I first raise this Spell to Proficient, would it increase the success rate?

Furthermore, the process of Spirit Tempering was not complicated and could quickly increase proficiency.

Zhang Sheng felt it was very likely, so he began the second Alchemy attempt.

The Qi thread continuously moved through the gold spirit rice inside the Pill Furnace.

"Spirit Tempering (Beginner 6/10)"

"Spirit Tempering (Beginner 7/10)"

... "Spirit Tempering (Proficient 12/1000)"

This time, Zhang Sheng did not strictly follow the Pill Formula for Alchemy. He kept the temperature very low and instead focused on practicing the Spirit Tempering process.

The result was obvious: the Alchemy failed again, but Spirit Tempering reached the Proficient level.

The third official Alchemy attempt began.

Half an hour later, a fresh fragrance wafted from the Pill Furnace, and Zhang Sheng was overjoyed.

As the robotic arm opened the lid, nine black essence food pills were emitting heat.

It worked!

"Detected castable skill—Refining Essence Food Pill. Learn?"

"Yes!"

"Skill: Refining Essence Food Pill (Beginner: 9/10)"

Nine pills were formed, increasing his proficiency by 9 points in one go, and it only took half an hour.

Zhang Sheng knew that according to the Pill Formula, the first successful refining would take at least an hour, even for those with Alchemist Talents like Tian Xingxing.

For his first time, it actually worked in just half an hour.