Chương 23: The First Recipe of His Own Pill

Reaching the gate leading to the Earth Sector of the grounds, he saw three people standing under a wooden structure, arguing loudly.

"Unbelievable... another drama..." An exhaled and positioned himself at the edge of the path, trying to distance himself from this situation as much as possible. But the path was only about ten meters wide. No matter what he did, he couldn't just slip past unnoticed under people's noses.

"Senior Brother Mo, you're wrong! We should follow the unwritten rules of the group! Everything gets split equally!" One of the three, a girl around sixteen or seventeen, objected loudly. Squinting her golden eyes, she tucked back the locks of her white wavy hair with irritation, revealing her perfect, symmetrical face. Even her angry expression added extra charm.

"Sister Tu Shai is right! How can you, Senior Brother Mo, change the rules however you want? Hm?!" The little loli standing next to her, flat-chested and looking about sixteen, bored a hole through Brother Mo with her huge, angry golden eyes, slightly trembling with rage. Her beige hair fell out from under her strange hat. Pushing her flat chest forward and crossing her arms, she huffed and snorted.

"What do you mean ' change the rules however I want'? Tu Shai, Li Pai, after what happened in the Treacherous Ant's lair, you want the loot split equally? Are you serious?!" Senior Brother Mo, his face red, clenched his fists, trying to restrain himself from doing something he might regret. Just then, the loli noticed An trying to walk past quickly, hoping to go unnoticed. Her eyes lit up, and she glanced at Tu Shai. They exchanged looks and nodded at each other.

"Little brother! Little brother! Wait! Judge our dispute!" The loli started shouting loudly and waving her hands at An, even though he was only about ten meters away from them.

"Damn it..." An muttered. Exhaling, he stopped and turned to face the three. Reading their Qi, he understood that the two girls were at the fourth layer, and the guy was at the fifth. Their emotions were different: the guy felt mostly sadness, the feeling of being used and cheated. The girl felt confusion, pride, and a bit of dislike, probably from the humiliation she had received in this situation.

The loli was soaked in cunning, hope at the sight of An, and hatred toward the guy standing next to her and her sister. Standing there watching all three, An tensed up slightly and thought. His cultivation was higher than theirs. He could just activate Qi Legs and blast away from them. Just as he decided that was a good idea, he heard the loli's voice.

"Little brother, you heard our argument, and now you have to judge us! Who's right in your opinion? Hmm? Answer!" The loli didn't back down, trying to pressure An. At the same time, she put on an innocent, wronged face. Anyone else in his position would look at that innocent face and, without hesitation, want to defend her, no matter the cost.

"Even though I only heard part of your argument, all I can say is that Brother Mo is right..." An exhaled and said in a neutral, tired voice.

"Judging by your conversation and your appearance, especially the many wounds and scratches on his clothes, you left him alone to fight the Treacherous Ant," Hearing all this, both the loli and Tu Shai frowned. Tu Shai especially twisted her face, feeling both anger and deep shame.

"But! You don't know..." Tu Shai began, trying to object and make excuses. Suddenly, without any reason, the spiritual pressure of the fifth layer washed over all three. Even Brother Mo went pale, not to mention the loli and Tu Shai.

"Enough! I gave my opinion! Besides, this doesn't concern me in the first place!" From the outside, it looked strange, first, An decided to involve himself in their conflict, then a moment later he did a 180-degree turn. The truth was, An realized that someone among the three had successfully manipulated him with some kind of technique. Someone had gotten into his head, and that infuriated him.

All he wanted in the first place was to activate Qi Legs and get away from them, but for no reason at all, he had decided to interfere and become a third party in a matter that had nothing to do with him. Realizing something was wrong, An activated his Qi to its fullest, dispelling the technique. But because of the rage that flared up inside him, he didn't think to track the source of the technique first, he just destroyed it. As a result, he had no idea who had done it.

Feeling the pressure of his energy and even a faint killing intent coming from the child in front of them, all three unanimously took a step back. Seeing this, An activated Qi Legs and shot forward at tremendous speed toward the exit from the Peak.

"Even inside the Sect, there are so many dangers, not to mention the outside world! I just left my Peak, and I've already found trouble... And the scariest part is, I can't even trust myself!" He twisted his face in irritation, feeling a shiver run through his entire body. Not sparing his Qi, An wanted to get back home as fast as possible. A few hours later, he made it to the base of the Peak of Sacred Beasts and exhaled.

After resting a bit and allowing his Qi to recover, he shot toward the Outer Platform of Hope Peak. Arriving at the Outer Hall and entering, he immediately noticed Old Man Jo sitting at his usual table. Using Qi, he pulled the assignment sheet off the massive board and walked straight to the old man.

"Senior Brother Jo, I've completed the sect's assignment," An greeted Old Man Jo with a slight smile and laid out ten spirit cores and the assignment sheet he had just taken from the board. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Oh! Junior Brother An... Good, Good! Give it here!" Old Man Jo waved his hand with a smile and scooped everything toward himself. After checking everything and making sure it was in order, he nodded and extended his hand, mentioning that he needed An's plaque. An nodded and handed it over.

"For completing a first-rank, medium-difficulty assignment, the reward is 150 contribution points. Congratulations, Junior Brother An. Your mandatory mission is complete. Now you can relax for another six months... Ahaha!" The old man immediately saw right through An, he wasn't the only one who came to do mandatory assignments at the last moment.

"Oh... a full 150, thank you, Senior Brother Jo," An just nodded and smiled. Getting his plaque back, without thinking twice, An spent all 150 points he had just earned on spirit plants, various sets, not only for pills he had practical experience with but also new types he had never even held in his hands before. Putting everything in his pouch, An heard Old Man Jo speak.

"By the way, junior brother, are you ready for The Four Nights Festival?" Old Man Jo asked with a smile." The Four Nights Festival?" An asked again, raising an eyebrow and looking up from his pouch.

"Heh, I knew you wouldn't know anything about it... Eh, you need to socialize more, interact with your peers..." Old Man Jo suddenly exhaled and shook his head, looking at the slightly disheveled young man." The Four Nights Festival is an event held every year at one of the sects in our alliance. Each year, one of the four Sects becomes the host. So...

the sects: our Heavenly Soul Sect and three Sects that are our true friends, the Sect of Primordial Purity, the Sect of Five Sacred Lives, and the White Dragon Sect," Old Man Jo began explaining, constantly folding his fingers to make sure he didn't miss anything. An listened carefully, trying to expand his understanding of this world.

"The first two nights are friendly tournaments between outer disciples. You might ask, why only outer disciples? It's all about secrets. As long as you're an outer disciple, no one pays attention to you. Only after you achieve the status of an inner disciple do people start noticing you, even watching you. And every secret, even a small one, can save your life," Hearing this, An nodded seriously, understanding the logic behind Old Man Jo's words.

"The next two nights are the essence of the festival. Merchants and craftsmen from all the sects of the alliance gather under the host sect's roof and sell everything you can imagine, a frenzy for both buyers and sellers... In essence, it's more of a holiday for traders from different sects than for disciples... Hahaha! Still, you'll get to try dishes you wouldn't find here, and see lights burning every night in the sky.

They're called fireworks, by the way," Old Man Jo's face lit up just thinking about the variety of food at such festivals, he got lost in memories of past events.

"Oh... sounds great. And when is this festival?" An pretended to be interested. In truth, he couldn't care less about the festival. Buy something? He had no money. Participate in competitions and win a prize? And create a thousand problems for himself? No, thank you. Maybe just wander around and broaden his horizons, but An was afraid the situation on the path at the Peak of Sacred Beasts might repeat itself.

"Just over a month from now. The sect will make an announcement, so even if you want to skip it, you won't be able to, they won't let you! Hehe!" Old Man Jo laughed and answered with a sly smile, as if reading An's thoughts. After a few more minutes of conversation, An thanked Old Man Jo, said goodbye, and left the Outer Hall. Looking around, he decided there was no point in checking the trading stalls this time. He headed straight home. Arriving home and opening the gate, he was horrified.

Less than a week had passed, and his plot had turned into a disaster zone. Fish bones were everywhere, and the ground was completely torn up. Angry, An released his Qi, directed it into the burrow, grabbed the screaming, frightened rooster, and lifted him into the air.

"I was gone for less than a week! And look what you've done!" An pulled Baldi closer and started scolding him. The rooster, with his increased intelligence, understood he was being yelled at. He tucked his head closer to his body and started clucking softly, as if crying.

"I'm giving you two hours to clean this up! If you're not done, no pills or fruits for two months!" Hearing this, Baldi started screaming hysterically and struggling. An let him go, and the bird crashed to the ground. He jumped up immediately and started cleaning up. After about an hour, the plot was in somewhat decent shape. After removing all the bones and filling all the holes, Baldi lay on the ground, gasping with exhaustion.

An, standing by the shore, waved his hand and used his Qi to heal all the gouges and torn patches of grass. After a few minutes of Qi manipulation, the entire plot looked like a decent lawn again. Surveying the results, he nodded with satisfaction and sat down in front of the stove. He took out all the spirit plants he had in his spatial pouch. Sitting like that for several minutes, examining each plant laid out before him, he came to a decision: he would finally try to make his own pill.

And he would use the Kavana fruit as its foundation. Sketching out several imaginary pills using the fruit, An closed his eyes and began a cultivation cycle. Two weeks later. An's face was grim. For all this time, he still hadn't been able to come up with his own pill with an effect better than the Golden Body Qi pill. The problem was that due to the similarity in effects, An had decided to benchmark his first pill against the Golden Body Qi pill.

In the end, he had managed to achieve results very close to his most successful Golden Body Qi, with a 12% potency loss. After much thought and head-scratching, An found several new approaches that might improve his success. Buried in his work, another huge stretch of time passed. Another two weeks later.

"Ha! Who's the genius here? Baldi! Look! Who's the alchemy genius here!" Baldi glanced at An, let out a tired cry, and hid in his burrow. An sat there, holding two pills in his hand. Both were from the same batch, with a 19% potency loss, but their effect was almost twice as strong as the Golden Body Qi pill at 12% loss. An had finally achieved high results with his own pill recipe.' So much time I spent on you! So much effort! But in the end, you lived up to my expectations... What name should I give you?'

Rolling the pill in his palm, he thought.

"What about Beginning of the Body Qi Path... Hmm, I think that name works!" An finally came up with a name, simultaneously nodding as if praising himself. The first part of the name was from An himself, the beginning of his path in alchemy, his first real pill, invented entirely on his own without any recipes. The last part was the essence of the pill's effect. Just as An was about to start refining a new batch of his pills, his plaque vibrated.

Taking it out, he saw that he needed to go immediately to the Alchemy Hall, to meet Elder Shoa. Seeing this, An was surprised. He hadn't known that he could receive messages not only officially from the Outer Hall but also from individuals, such as Elder Shoa in this case. Seeing the message, he gathered everything he needed and cleaned up his plot. Approaching the gate, he turned around and took from his pouch a few fruits, some Qi Enlightenment pills, Golden Body Qi pills, and Beginning of the Body Qi Path pills.

He used Qi to move them to the stove and placed them there for Baldi. Exiting his plot and closing the gate behind him, he activated Qi Legs and rushed straight to the Alchemy Hall.