The Extreme Alchemist of the Mighty Cauldron

Chapter 1550: Chapter 1648: The Perfect Fanghua Pill

The setting sun sinks in the west, nearly dusk.

In the midst of the evening glow, Heavenly Fragrance Valley presents a unique beauty. Standing atop the Apricot Forest Medicine Platform, Fang Lin gazes at the medicine fields and flower seas suffused with the afterglow of the sunset, feeling an extraordinary peace of mind and a sense of bodily ease.

“Staying in such a place is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures,” Fang Lin couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

The Heavenly Fragrance female disciples present, upon hearing Fang Lin’s words, all showed varying degrees of pride on their faces. After all, Heavenly Fragrance Valley was their home, and Fang Lin’s praise for Heavenly Fragrance Valley was a comfort to their hearts.

The only one not comforted was Tang Qingling. While other female disciples were carefully sneaking glances at Fang Lin, this girl had been staring at the Pill Furnace, fixating on it for a good half of the day.

Finally, at dusk, a puff of white smoke rose from the Pill Furnace, followed by a rich and fragrant pill aroma.

Upon seeing the white smoke and smelling the pill fragrance, Tang Qingling’s face was full of disbelief, never expecting that Fang Lin could truly succeed in refining the Fanghua Pill.

Not only her, but Lu Wenjin and Shen Xingzhu also exchanged glances, seeing the shock in each other’s eyes.

Not following the standard Pill Formula, disrupting the order of herbal ingredients, and even reducing the flame intensity, how could Fang Lin still successfully refine the Fanghua Pill?

Fang Lin walked over to the Pill Furnace, saw Tang Qingling’s conflicted expression, let out a gentle laugh, and then opened the Furnace lid.

A richer plume of white smoke shot straight into the sky; the pill fragrance almost instantly filled the entire Apricot Forest Medicine Platform, and the Heavenly Fragrance female disciples couldn’t help but take a whiff.

“It smells so good, but the Fanghua Pill is just a basic third-grade pill – it shouldn’t be this aromatic,” someone remarked.

“That’s because you don’t understand. He is a Master of Alchemy,” another said.

“But Master Fang’s refining method should have been incorrect, so how could he produce the Fanghua Pill?”

“That’s exactly his brilliance; after all, he is a Five Cauldrons Pill Refiner, not someone we can speculate about.”

···

The many Heavenly Fragrance female disciples discussed among themselves, their faces wearing expressions of surprise, confusion, and admiration.

Lu Wenjin and Shen Xingzhu approached the Pill Furnace and peered inside.

At this look, Lu Wenjin’s expression changed, while Shen Xingzhu’s face revealed a smile.

“Master Fang truly lives up to his name. To think that a mere third-grade Fanghua Pill could be refined to the extremely rare perfect quality, I am truly impressed,” Shen Xingzhu saluted towards Fang Lin with his fist, showing even greater respect.

Originally doubting that Fang Lin could refine the Fanghua Pill at all, Lu Wenjin now saw Fang Lin not only succeed but also achieve a stunning perfect quality, which was somewhat hard for her to accept.

Tang Qingling was the same, standing dazedly beside the Pill Furnace, speechless as she looked at the five round and lustrous pills inside.

Perfect quality? Tang Qingling rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was seeing things. But no matter how she looked at it, these five Fanghua Pills indeed reached perfect quality—flawless, immaculate, and a perfect embodiment of using resources to their fullest, sparing no waste of the medicinal properties of all the herbs, thoroughly integrated into the pills.

In the Alchemy Tao World, all Pill Refiners tacitly agree that pills have only three quality tiers: low, medium, and high.

During the process of pill refining, the potency of the ingredients inevitably diminishes, resulting in some imperfections within the successfully refined pills.

Skilled Pill Refiners will try to minimize the loss of potency and make the imperfections as inconspicuous as possible.

High-quality pills are those that manage to control the loss of potency to a very small extent, a sign of exceptional skill.

Perfect quality pills, on the other hand, are extremely rare.

Perfect quality means that the potency of all ingredients is completely retained within the pills without any loss.

Generally speaking, it’s possible for an experienced and highly skilled Pill Refiner to craft low-level pills, such as first or Second Cauldron pills, into perfect quality.

However, this also depends on the quality of the ingredients, as well as the Pill Furnace, flame, and other various factors.

And what about Fang Lin?

The Fanghua Pills he refined are of a basic third-level grade, a relatively foundational pill that many Second Cauldron Pill Refiners could produce with sufficient practice.

But to say that he refined Fanghua Pills to perfect quality, and that all five of them achieved this standard, is quite impressive.

Because the Pill Furnace and flame that Fang Lin used were common ones provided by Heavenly Fragrance Valley for lower-tier Pill Refiners, and the main ingredients used were also of standard quality.

Moreover, Fang Lin did not employ any special refining techniques but followed the prescribed steps, indistinguishable from an ordinary Pill Refiner.

The only difference might have been his rearrangement of the order in which the ingredients were added according to the Pill Formula, and the reduction of the flame’s intensity during the mid-stage when the pills began to take shape.

Shen Xingzhu and Lu Wenjin, the two most senior Pill Refiners in Heavenly Fragrance Valley, despite their years of experience and countless attempts at crafting Fanghua Pills, have never once achieved perfect quality; the best they have managed is high quality.

“Master Fang, could you enlighten us?” Shen Xingzhu asked respectfully.

Fang Lin smiled and said, “There’s really not much to tell. Although Fanghua Pills are relatively low-tier introductory pills, there are several Pill Formulas for them. The formulas inherited by your Heavenly Fragrance Valley ancestors are not wrong, but the method I used not only increases the success rate but also ensures at least a decent quality.”

This revelation surprised everyone from Heavenly Fragrance Valley. There are several Pill Formulas for Fanghua Pills?

Fang Lin looked at Tang Qingling, who seemed somewhat distracted, and said, “Miss Tang was also refining Fanghua Pills when I arrived, naturally following the formula from Heavenly Fragrance Valley. However, it seems Miss Tang hasn’t practiced enough, hence the high failure rate. If she were to use my method, as long as there are no mistakes, success should be guaranteed on the first attempt.”

“Does Master Fang mean to say that while our Heavenly Fragrance Valley’s formula is correct, there is still room for improvement?” Shen Xingzhu said.

Fang Lin nodded, confirming that this was indeed his message. However, out of respect for the Heavenly Fragrance Valley ancestors who created the formula, he refrained from being too blunt.

“Master Fang truly lives up to his title. However, I still have a question which I hope Master Fang could answer. Is Master Fang willing?” Lu Wenjin, feeling somewhat dissatisfied, thought of a challenging question to confront Fang Lin and spoke up.

ps: The first update is here, continuing to write. Got up late, started typing even before putting on pants.

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