The air in the room grew thick with spiritual energy and the rich, herbal aroma of the concocting pill. Lin Yun's entire being was focused on the cauldron. He could feel the energy within coalescing, condensing.
This was the most critical phase. A single misstep in energy control, a fraction of a degree in temperature fluctuation, and the fusion would fail, resulting in a pile of useless slag.
His spiritual energy drained rapidly. His dantian, still only at the 3rd Level of Qi Condensation, protested the sustained output. But his control, honed by his unique mindset and the system's guidance, held firm.
The swirling energies in the cauldron suddenly tightened, spinning rapidly towards the center. A faint, pill-shaped glow began to form.
"Go!"
Lin Yun poured the last of his energy into a final, stabilizing pulse.
The light in the cauldron flared brightly for an instant, then subsided.
The flame from the fire crystal flickered and died, its energy spent.
Silence returned to the room, broken only by Lin Yun's ragged breaths. He was drenched in sweat and utterly drained, but his eyes were fixed on the cauldron.
He leaned forward, his heart pounding with a mix of exhaustion and anticipation. Peering inside, he saw it.
Resting in the center of the cauldron was a single, milky-white pill. It was perfectly round and emitted a gentle, warm spiritual aura. It was a complete, successful Qi Gathering Pill.
But more importantly, golden text floated above it, visible only to him.
[Qi Gathering Pill - Quality: High-Grade]
"Hehe!"
A triumphant laugh, hoarse from exertion, escaped his lips. High-Grade! On his very first attempt! The system's recipe and his precise execution had yielded a result far beyond what should have been possible for a beginner.
[Ding! Successfully concocted a pill: Qi Gathering Pill (High-Grade). Alchemy Proficiency (Qi Gathering Pill) +50. Gained 10 EXP.]
[Ding! Daily Quest (D-Rank) Completed!]
[Reward: 25 EXP.]
[Ding! Mission: First Concoction - Qi Gathering Pill - Completed!]
[Reward: 50 EXP, 10 Spirit Stones have been placed in your inventory.]
A wider, more relieved grin spread across his tired face. The beginner mission was finally complete! The 50 EXP was a significant boost, and the 10 Spirit Stones were a welcome addition to his dwindling funds.
He quickly pulled up his status screen to review his gains from this single, intensive session.
[Current EXP: 280/1000 to Level 2.]
A solid jump. He was over a quarter of the way to his next system level.
[Alchemy Proficiency - Qi Gathering Pill: Level 1 (98/100)]
[Alchemy Art Knowledge: Level 1 (305/1000)]
The triumphant feeling of success was intoxicating, but it was immediately followed by a wave of profound exhaustion.
Lin Yun slumped forward, bracing himself on his hands as he took deep, ragged breaths. His spiritual energy was completely spent, his dantian feeling hollow and sore. His muscles ached from the sustained, precise effort of controlling the energy flow.
He sat there for a long moment, simply recovering, the faint, medicinal scent of the successful pill filling his senses. It was a smell of accomplishment.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve, he finally pushed himself upright and peered into the cauldron again. The single, milky-white, high-grade pill rested serenely in the center. But as he looked closer, his eyes widened slightly.
Nestled around the main pill were four smaller, similarly formed pills. They were slightly less lustrous, their spiritual aura a little fainter, but they were undoubtedly complete Qi Gathering Pills.
He had not refined just one pill. With the amount of purified ingredients he had used, following the system's supremely efficient recipe, he had produced a total of five.
He carefully reached in and picked them up one by one. The golden text of his Heavenly Eyes identified each one.
The first was the [High-Grade] pill from the center.
The other four were all [Middle-Grade].
A yield of five pills from one batch was exceptionally high for a beginner. The standard Lin Clan recipe might yield two or three, often of low or middling quality. This was another testament to the system's superiority.
He carefully stored the four Middle-Grade pills in a separate jade bottle. These would be perfect for his own use, to aid his cultivation.
The single, pristine High-Grade pill, however, he kept apart. This was the centerpiece of his gift, the undeniable proof of his recipe's power.
He cleaned his cauldron and put away his equipment, his movements slow but deliberate. The room still hummed with residual spiritual energy.
"Heh."
A low, satisfied chuckle escaped Lin Yun's lips as he finally sat on the edge of his bed, the last of his equipment stored away. The sound was tired but filled with a genuine, burgeoning passion.
"Refining pills... is actually much more fun than I thought," he murmured to himself, the words hanging in the quiet, herb-scented air.
The realization was a profound one. Back on Earth, playing Alchemy to Immortality, the process had been a simple, mindless click. A button press, a progress bar, a success or failure notification. It was abstract, a means to an end for power-leveling his character.
But here, it was visceral. It was art and science combined. It was the feel of the raw herbs, the heat of the cauldron on his face, the strain in his dantian as he channeled energy, and the intense, all-consuming focus required to guide the chaotic spiritual energies into a stable, potent form.
The thrill of success wasn't just about a +10 EXP notification; it was a physical, tangible thing he could hold in his hand—a pill that hummed with power he had personally wrested from nature.
He was also beginning to understand the sheer, daunting difficulty of the art. The original Lin Yun's pitiful proficiency of 48/100 now made perfect sense.
Without his unique advantages, the chance of failure was astronomically high. A single moment of distraction, a slight miscalculation in energy, and everything would be lost.
His thoughts turned to his greatest asset.
"I'm certain," he whispered into the stillness, "that without the Heavenly Eyes skill, it would be absolutely impossible for me to refine a single pill, let alone a high-grade one on my first try."