Terran Guardian - Chapter 3753

Chapter 3729 Perfect Pill Achievement

Having gained experience from his first successful refinement of the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill,

Shen Changqing became much more adept at refining it later.

Although many pills he refined were still destroyed during his tribulations, the success rate gradually increased.

Eventually,

Shen Changqing was able to break even by selling his Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pills. Of course, he still wasn’t making

a   fortune.

Any   top-tier alchemist had to invest heavily in resources.   For someone like Shen Changqing, who had only recently reached the peak of the seventh rank, earning immortal stones by refining pills of the same rank was quite difficult.   However, for him,   maintaining a break-even point was enough.   After all, alchemy experience is a process of continuous accumulation.   As long as he could achieve a break-even point, making money later was only a matter of time.   Furthermore,   Shen Changqing’s goal wasn’t to earn immortal stones through alchemy.   What he wanted to do was to eventually break through to the eighth-rank Grandmaster of Alchemy.   During this period, any pill refining was merely accumulating experience and preparing for a breakthrough.   A single piece of seventh-grade top-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal material was extremely valuable. If he continued to be unable to make ends meet, even with his deep foundation, Shen Changqing would eventually succumb.   Achieving a balance now was considered overcoming the most difficult hurdle.   …   The battles in Heavenly Dao Immortal City continued.   On the Immortal Dao Platform,   prodigies shed blood.   As the only place in Heavenly Dao Immortal City where fighting was possible, many cultivators settled their grudges on the Immortal Dao Platform, while prodigies competed fiercely.   However,   these matters   were irrelevant to Shen Changqing.   He was now completely focused on refining pills. Ten   thousand years in the outside world   was equivalent to a million years in the first layer of space.   In those million years,   Shen Changqing had mastered the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill to a point where it was second nature. He refined the same pill tirelessly, day and night, and coupled with his excellent comprehension of pill refining, the results were astonishing.   At this moment,   the furnace lid was lifted, and   nine immortal pills fell into Shen Changqing’s hands.   ”Nine pills made, all of them high-quality, not bad at all!”   Looking at the nine immortal pills in his hand, Shen Changqing nodded to himself.   Although the number of pills produced in each batch varies from three to nine,   truly top-tier alchemists can control the number.   For Shen Changqing, if he wanted to make nine pills, he could succeed at least six out of ten times.   Furthermore,   the quality of most of his Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pills would surpass the ordinary, reaching the level of high-quality.   However, he couldn’t yet achieve perfect pills.   As for pills that could be considered Creation Immortal Pills, that was even more beyond his reach.   Creation Immortal Pills!   Shen Changqing had been refining pills for many years without ever truly creating one.   To refine such Creation Immortal Pills required either absolutely top-tier alchemy skills or sheer luck.   Unfortunately,   while Shen Changqing was confident in his alchemy skills, he knew he hadn’t yet reached the level to refine Creation Immortal Pills.   Nevertheless,   even so,   making high-quality pills was still quite good.   After all, refining a high-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill meant that his cultivation in alchemy was becoming increasingly refined. As long as he continued to accumulate experience, achieving perfect pill formation was only a matter of time.   Then,   the pill underwent tribulation.   Other cultivators were used to this.   It was just a pill tribulation. Pill tribulations   frequently occurred outside the Heavenly Dao Immortal City.   After all, high-grade immortal pills had to undergo pill tribulations to be truly worthy of the title “immortal pill.”   However   , in the past ten thousand years, the frequency of seventh-order pill tribulations had increased.   Shen Changqing’s pill-refining frequency alarmed many cultivators.   For a normal cultivator, refining a batch of immortal pills took a considerable amount of time—three to five months at best, three to five years at worst, and even more than ten years was common.   If failures and self-recovery were included, the time to successfully refine a batch of immortal pills would be even longer.   But   Shen Changqing seemed to need no rest.   Pill tribulations occurred frequently, and many immortal pills underwent tribulations.   Such high productivity was astonishing.   Many cultivators suspected that Shen Changqing possessed some secrets. After all, the Nine Heavens Immortal Realm offered numerous opportunities, including methods that allowed cultivators to quickly form their cores.   However, such methods were rare. If an ordinary cultivator possessed such a method, others would have already acted.   But with Shen Changqing, it was different.   Shen Changqing already had some reputation; the name of the Xuan Tian Sword Master was widely known. No one wanted to offend such a powerful figure, comparable to a half-saint, for a mere opportunity.   Moreover,   such core-forming methods were of little significance to ordinary cultivators.   Only some top-tier alchemy grandmasters might need them.   But the problem was that   top-tier alchemy grandmasters, if backed by powerful forces, wouldn’t lack such methods.   If they didn’t have powerful backing, they weren’t confident in offending the Xuan Tian Sword Master.   Therefore,   other cultivators naturally turned a blind eye to Shen Changqing’s existence.   …   The seasons changed.   Time changes.   Soon another ten thousand years will have passed.

As the tribulation dissipated, Shen Changqing looked at the five pills in his palm. They were shrouded in a purple aura, their Daoist essence transforming into wisps of mist that swirled like dragon shadows, utterly mysterious and unfathomable.

“Perfect quality! Finally, it’s done!”

Shen Changqing smiled.

For over two million years, he had devoted himself to refining the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill, and now he had finally created a pill of perfect quality.

Just by observing the Daoist power within the pill, one could understand how powerful such a perfect pill was.

Shen Changqing immediately swallowed a Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill. His surging immortal power flowed like a mighty river, instantly merging into the nine directions of the universe. The profound Daoist power surged, and the immortal energy of heaven and earth around him was inexplicably drawn towards his body.

This immortal energy, upon entering his body, was instantly refined and purified by the Daoist essence, transforming into extremely pure immortal power that merged into the universe.

A moment later,

all the Daoist essence and immortal power subsided.

Shen Changqing silently sensed the changes within himself.

“The potency of a perfect-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill is roughly three times that of a regular-quality one, but it contains less toxicity. If an ordinary Immortal Emperor were to take it, it would be enough to restore their strength in a short time!”

He was satisfied with this result.

At least among pills of the same tier, this quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill was already top-tier.

But to say it satisfied his needs was still insufficient.

After all,

if one compared the immortal power of his Nine Universes to a pond, and a regular-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill to a bucket of water, then one bucket of water and three buckets of water were essentially the same.

Although more immortal power was restored, that was all.

Putting away the remaining four pills, Shen Changqing continued refining pills.

But unfortunately,

he didn’t refine a single perfect-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill in the subsequent dozen or so batches.

This result was within his expectations.

As he said before,

perfect-quality pills were not so easy to refine.

Shen Changqing knew that while his previous few perfect-quality elixirs had some merit, luck played a larger role.

Therefore,

he wasn’t discouraged by his failure to refine the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill again, but instead focused his mind and continued refining.

The thirty-second batch of elixirs was born; after undergoing the pill tribulation, perfect-quality elixirs reappeared.

This time,

nine pills were successfully refined.

All nine were perfect.

With the experience of refining pills a second time, Shen Changqing seemed to have found the key to refining perfect-quality elixirs, and his understanding of the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill had reached a transcendent level.

The forty-second batch of elixirs again achieved perfect quality.

The forty-third batch was a fine-quality pill!

The forty-fourth batch was a fine-quality pill!

…

The forty-ninth batch was perfect!

…

The fifty-third batch was perfect!

…

Later on, every time Shen Changqing refined the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill, it was guaranteed to be of excellent quality. On average, about one out of every five batches was perfect.   He was naturally satisfied

with this result.   Although he couldn’t achieve perfect results in every batch, even the powerful figure who created the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill might not be able to achieve this level of alchemy.   After all,   creating a pill formula doesn’t guarantee a perfect result.   Even if the creator has a profound understanding of this type of pill, it’s still the same.   In Shen Changqing’s view, his ability to achieve perfect results in one out of five batches meant that among the many top-tier seventh-level alchemy masters, few could surpass him in experience with the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill.   Of course,   this only applies to the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill.   If it were any other pill of the same level, it would be hard to say.   When another batch of perfect-quality Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pills was refined, Shen Changqing looked at the nine pills in his hand and easily put them away.   ”Having refined it to this point, my mastery of the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill is nearing its limit. Further in-depth research would be pointless.   A seventh-tier Grandmaster cannot possibly refine a perfect seventh-tier immortal pill with every batch being of perfect quality…”   Shen Changqing understood this perfectly.   Continuing to refine the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill might increase the probability of producing a perfect batch every five times to four or even three times.   However, that would take much longer and wouldn’t significantly improve his alchemy cultivation.   Now,   Shen Changqing planned to stop refining the Purple Cloud Gathering Immortal Pill and instead refine other immortal pills of the same tier.   However—   just as he was preparing to head to the Heavenly Pavilion to collect new alchemical ingredients, the previously silent communication jade talisman finally vibrated.   Shen Changqing’s divine sense entered it, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.   ”The timing is perfect!”   The message from the jade talisman clearly came from the Heavenly Pavilion.   Immediately…   Without hesitation, Shen Changqing headed straight for Tongtian Pavilion.