180: Writing alchemical formulas is more tiring than body cultivation.

Elder Mo Xuan stood at the doorway, scratching his head, then suddenly turned around, an expression of having almost forgotten something important appearing on his face, and chuckled.

“Oh, Stinky Kid, now that you mention it, I just remembered something I need you to do.”

Jiang Donghua’s heart sank when he heard this, and he instinctively wanted to slip away.

“Master, you’re not thinking of having me be an examiner, are you? Your disciple has been busy cultivating recently, and I’m afraid I won’t have time…”

As he spoke, he quietly retreated half a step, ready to use his movement technique to escape at any moment.

Elder Mo Xuan’s eyes widened, his beard bristled, and he grumbled angrily.

“Nonsense! Who said I’m making you an examiner? With your lazy nature, if I let you proctor, you’d probably just fall asleep!”

Jiang Donghua breathed a sigh of relief, but then immediately became wary again; this old fellow was smiling so brightly, it couldn’t be for anything good!

Sure enough, Elder Mo Xuan rubbed his hands together and said with a smile.

“What I mean is, I want you to create a first-grade Pill Formula.”

“What?!”

Jiang Donghua nearly jumped up.

“Master, you’re not joking, are you?”

A first-grade Pill Formula, that was the core content of the Alchemist assessment!

Generally speaking, Pill Formulas were formulated by the academy elders or senior Alchemists to ensure the difficulty was appropriate, testing the students’ basic skills without being overly difficult.

But to have a student formulate a Pill Formula?

This was simply unprecedented!

Seeing his reaction, Elder Mo Xuan proudly stroked his beard and slowly said.

“What? Scared? You’re given a task, and you chicken out instead?”

Jiang Donghua’s mouth twitched; this old fellow was clearly provoking him!

Jiang Donghua looked at his Master, Elder Mo Xuan, who was beaming, and a bad premonition immediately arose in his heart.

Sure enough, before he could even open his mouth to decline, Elder Mo Xuan had already happily pulled out a stack of yellowish parchment from his storage ring with a rustle, slapped it onto the table with a thud, and said with a smile.

“Come, come, come, since you’re so straightforward, I can’t treat you shabbily. Here are more than a dozen pill formulas; you just need to write ten or eight sheets for each one!”

“Ten or eight sheets?!”

Jiang Donghua nearly jumped up.

“Master, didn’t you say it was just one copy?!”

Elder Mo Xuan stroked his beard, looking completely justified.

“That’s right, divided among the ten elders of our Alchemy Department, isn’t that one copy each!”

Jiang Donghua’s mouth twitched; this old fellow was clearly being unreasonable!

“Master, you’re exploiting your disciple!”

He said with a bitter face.

Elder Mo Xuan chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

“The capable do more work! Besides, you are my most proud disciple; a mere few dozen or even a hundred first-grade Pill Formulas are nothing to you, are they?”

Jiang Donghua sighed helplessly, knowing that he couldn’t escape today, and could only resignedly pick up a blank scroll, dip his brush in ink, and begin to ponder.

“A first-grade Pill Formula must test basic skills, but not be too tricky.”

He muttered to himself as he wrote down the first Pill Formula, the windwalk pill, on the paper.

“windwalk pill, main ingredients: wind spirit grass, light spirit flower, first-tier wind element demonic core…”

“Refining key points: Wind-attributed medicinal materials are volatile and need to be slowly refined over low heat, finally forming the pill with the wind-condensation technique.”

After writing one, Jiang Donghua rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

“One is enough to exhaust me, and I have to write ten?!”

Jiang Donghua rubbed his throbbing temples, looking at the many blank Pill Formula scrolls spread out on the table, and took a deep breath.

“Master, that Old Fox, truly doesn’t feel an ounce of pity for his disciple.”

He gave a bitter smile, and a wisp of light blue Soul Power condensed on his fingertips, slowly injecting into the tip of the brush.

In the Medicine World, creating a Pill Formula was far from simple writing and recording.

A true Pill Formula must be created by an Alchemist using Soul Power as ink and the brush as a guide, imprinting every detail of the pill refining process—the ratio of medicinal materials, control of heat, timing of fusion, and pill-forming techniques—into the scroll.

Only in this way could other Alchemists, when using the Pill Formula, read the hidden key information through the Soul Power.

Otherwise, even with the Pill Formula, it would just be a piece of waste paper!

“Hoo…”

Jiang Donghua held his breath, concentrating, as Soul Power flowed like a trickle into the tip of his brush. The brush tip descended, slowly outlining mysterious patterns on the scroll.

As the brush moved, his Soul Power also left an invisible imprint on the scroll, recording every subtle change in the refining process.

With each stroke, Jiang Donghua felt a wisp of his Soul Power being drawn away, and his brain felt as if countless fine needles were piercing it, sending waves of sharp pain.

“Hiss…”

He gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat already seeping from his forehead.

“No wonder Alchemists generally don’t like to create pill formulas; this is even more tormenting than cultivating physical techniques!”

Creating a Pill Formula not only required extremely high Soul Power control but also the endurance of constant pain from the Soul Power being drawn away.

If Soul Power was insufficient, at best the Pill Formula would be incomplete, and at worst, the soul would be damaged!

Jiang Donghua endured the discomfort and continued writing.

One, two, three… By the eighth sheet, his face was already somewhat pale, and the hand holding the brush began to tremble slightly.

“No, if this continues, my Soul Power will probably be overdrawn.”

He took a deep breath, took out a Soul Nurturing Pill from his storage ring to restore Soul Power, and swallowed it, slightly alleviating the stinging pain in his brain.

“Master, this old fellow, really treats me like a laborer.”

Jiang Donghua cursed inwardly, but his hands dared not stop.

Finally, after consuming an entire Soul Nurturing Pill, all ten Pill Formulas were completed!

He let out a long sigh of relief, slumping into the chair, feeling as if all his strength had been drained, unable to even move a finger.

“Finally done!”

The ten Pill Formulas on the table now emitted faint Soul Power fluctuations, each recording complete refining information.

Jiang Donghua looked at his achievement, finally feeling a sense of comfort.

“Although the process was a bit painful, at least I didn’t embarrass myself.”

After two days of frantic writing, Jiang Donghua had lost a size, his eye sockets were slightly sunken, but his gaze was sharper than ever.

His brush strokes were ceaseless, Soul Power poured out like flowing water, carving the last pill pattern on the scroll—the Exploding Fire Pill, a relatively violent first-grade elixir that could cause an explosion if not refined carefully, but its power was considerable if successful.

“Hoo—”

Jiang Donghua let out a long breath, and just as he put down his brush, the door to the alchemy room was pushed open, and Elder Mo Xuan walked in, chuckling.

“Stinky Kid, are you finished yet?”

Jiang Donghua looked up, weakly pointing to the mountain of Pill Formula scrolls piled on the table, and said.

“Master, see for yourself.”

Elder Mo Xuan walked closer and immediately widened his eyes.

“Over a hundred sheets?!”

He had originally only wanted Jiang Donghua to write a few dozen sheets to cope with the assessment, but he hadn’t expected this Stinky Kid to write over a hundred in one go!

“Did you write down all the first-grade Pill Formulas?”

Elder Mo Xuan picked up a few sheets and flipped through them, finding that each one was extremely complete, and some even included Jiang Donghua’s own insights.

Jiang Donghua rubbed his throbbing temples and said with a bitter smile.

“Master, you asked me to write Pill Formulas, how could your disciple dare to be negligent? These past two days, besides meditating to restore my Soul Power, I’ve been buried in writing, barely sleeping.”

Hearing this, a hint of satisfaction flashed in Elder Mo Xuan’s eyes, but his words remained sharp.

“Hmph, Stinky Kid, stop trying to gain sympathy here!”

He paused, then suddenly grinned.

“Your Pill Formulas are indeed well-written; there are some places even I hadn’t thought of. It seems these two days of hard work weren’t in vain!”

Jiang Donghua’s spirits lifted immediately upon hearing this.

“Master, are you praising me?”

Elder Mo Xuan’s beard bristled.

“What? I praise you, and you get all cocky?”

Jiang Donghua chuckled, not refuting.

These two days of frantic writing, though exhausting, had also brought immense rewards.

Previously, when he refined elixirs, he mostly followed existing Pill Formulas, rarely pondering the underlying principles.

But this time, personally creating Pill Formulas gave him a deeper understanding of the characteristics of each medicinal material, the control of heat, and even the application of Soul Power.

“Master, your disciple finally understands now why high-level Alchemists attach so much importance to Pill Formula creation.”

Jiang Donghua said with emotion.

Elder Mo Xuan nodded.

“Pill Formulas are the foundation of an Alchemist; only by personally creating them can one truly understand the essence of elixirs. You, Stinky Kid, have turned misfortune into a blessing this time; your Soul Power has probably advanced quite a bit, hasn’t it?”

Jiang Donghua closed his eyes and sensed, and indeed found that his Soul Power was more condensed than before, and controlling it was as smooth as moving an arm, incredibly fluid.

“Indeed it is!”

He said, surprised.

Elder Mo Xuan stroked his beard with satisfaction, then suddenly took out a jade box from his storage ring and threw it to Jiang Donghua.

“Here, your reward!”

Jiang Donghua took the jade box, opened it, and immediately widened his eyes.

“fifth-grade pill—Soul Condensing Pill!”

This was a top-grade elixir for nourishing the soul, worth a fortune!

“Master, this is…?”

Jiang Donghua was somewhat disbelieving.

Elder Mo Xuan snorted.

“What? Don’t want it? Then give it back to me!”

Jiang Donghua quickly tucked the jade box into his arms and chuckled.

“Want it! Of course, I want it! Thank you, Master!”

Seeing this, Elder Mo Xuan couldn’t help but laugh and scold.

“Stinky Kid, you take advantage and still act innocent!”

With that, he turned and walked out the door. Before leaving, he glanced back at Jiang Donghua, saying meaningfully.

“Get some good rest. The assessment starts tomorrow; don’t you dare embarrass me!”

Jiang Donghua was stunned.

“Assessment? Haven’t I already finished writing the Pill Formulas?”

Elder Mo Xuan’s mouth curved into a smile.

“Who told you that finishing the Pill Formulas means you’re done? Tomorrow, you’re personally going to proctor the exam!”

He suddenly felt as if he had been tricked by his Master again.