Chapter 7
Even though he already had the Elementary Pill Refinement Technique, Lu Yuan didn’t think that he could already successfully refine the elementary cultivation pill by himself.
Previously, when he observed the pill-refining process of his senior brothers, Lu Yuan realized that it was not as easy as he had imagined.
After all, the existence of the proficiency interface only allowed Lu Yuan to have a visual standard for his current skills.
For example, when a person without a proficiency interface learned a skill, it was like moving forward in the dark. He wouldn’t know if the direction he was heading in was correct, nor would he know how far he was from the finish line.
Lu Yuan, who had the proficiency interface, was like holding a flashlight and a map as he advanced. Not only did he have a clear direction, but he also knew how far he was from the finish line.
These two uses were not to be underestimated.
As the old saying went, the closer one was to success, the more difficult the matter would become, and the more carefully one had to approach the matter. If those people who stopped knew that they would reach the finish line in ten more steps, would they continue?
There was a huge difference between seeing hope and not seeing hope!
And the current Lu Yuan was filled with hope for his future.
After finishing his preparation work, Lu Yuan began his first pill refinement.
The first step of pill refinement was to start a fire.
Using Fire Manipulation, Lu Yuan began to control the temperature of the flames in the pill furnace.
As his Fire Manipulation was only at Level 5, his control of fire was not perfect.
And because of his cultivation, he could only control Qi Cultivation Stage flames in the pill furnace.
Even though such a temperature could only be used to refine Qi Cultivation Stage pills, it was enough to make the elementary cultivation pill.
However, just as Lu Yuan was about to start the second step of the pill refinement, refining the medicinal ingredients, he suddenly stopped.
This was because a delicate system interface had suddenly appeared in front of him.
[Elementary Cultivation Pill]
[Flame Temperature: 70%]
[Degree of Refinement: 0%]
[Degree of Fusion: 0% ”
[Luck Value: 0 (+)]
[Current Success Rate: 17.5%]
Looking at this interface, Lu Yuan recalled the pill-refining process back when he played the Tale of Immortal.
At that time, the same interface would appear when he refined pills.
If Lu Yuan’s guess was right, as long as the success rate of each step was raised to 100%, his ultimate success rate of refining the elementary cultivation pill would increase by a lot.
Other than that, Lu Yuan also noticed an [luck value] option at the end of the interface, as well as a “+” sign behind the option.
If his thoughts were right, the “+” sign should be related to his luck talent, Destined Lucky Star.
After all, one of the effects of Destined Lucky Star was that he could freely distribute his luck.
It was clear that he could add his luck to the pill refinement this time.
Without any hesitation, Lu Yuan started to tap the “+” sign.
When the luck value on the pill refinement interface reached 100 points, he realized that he could not distribute any more luck. Only then did Lu Yuan stop.
As his luck value changed, the success rate of Lu Yuan’s pill refinement also changed.
[Current Success Rate: 42.5%]
Seeing that his success rate had increased to 40%, Lu Yuan was instantly excited.
Following this, he began to adjust the temperature of the fire in the pill furnace, trying to increase the success rate of the pill refinement.
Unfortunately, after Lu Yuan busied himself for an hour, the completion rate of the flame’s temperature only reached 75%. He was unable to go any further.
Lu Yuan analyzed the reason.
The main reason why he was unable to increase the completion rate of his flame’s temperature was that the level of his Fire Manipulation was not high enough.
Level 5 Fire Manipulation could only make the completion rate of the flame’s temperature stay at 75% at most.
If he wanted to increase it further, he could only practice Fire Manipulation more to improve his proficiency in the skill.
Seeing that he could no longer increase the flame’s temperature, Lu Yuan began the next step of his operation.
Just like before, the second step of pill refinement, which was medicinal ingredient refining, also had a completion rate.
The only difference was that the temperature of the flame could be adjusted throughout the process, but multiple adjustments couldn’t be made during the medicinal ingredient refinement process.
This was because the essence of medicinal ingredient refinement was to extract the essence of the medicinal ingredient, which was an irreversible process.
After all, the medicinal ingredients would have been burnt to a crisp by the pill refinement fire at the end of the process. Unless one had the ability to turn back time, the results of the refinement would stay as what one had obtained.
In the end, Lu Yuan’s “refinement” completion rate only reached a pitiful 20%.
In other words, after Lu Yuan’s series of operations on his medicinal ingredients, only 20% of the medicinal essence was left.
Furthermore, he also discovered that he had to constantly adjust the flame’s temperature during the refining process.
If the temperature did not reach a suitable standard, the completion rate of the flame’s temperature would also drop.
After the refinement of the medicinal ingredients was completed, the temperature of Lu Yuan’s flames dropped from the initial 75% to 65%, hence further lowering the overall success rate of the pill refinement.
However, at this point, other than continuing, Lu Yuan had no other means to salvage the situation.
After slightly adjusting his state of mind, Lu Yuan began the last step of refining the elementary cultivation pill, fusion, which was also the so-called “pill condensation”.
Just as Lu Yuan was fully focused on refining the elementary cultivation pill, an old man in the Pill Refinement Technique Hall seemed to have noticed his pill refinement methods and walked over curiously.
At this moment, Lu Yuan was focused on refining pills. Therefore, he did not notice the old man behind him.
Lu Yuan used Fire Manipulation to control the temperature of the flames in the pill furnace while looking at the system interface at the side.
Every time the flame’s temperature dropped, he would immediately adjust the flame’s temperature to maintain it at a decent level.
Similarly, Lu Yuan paid attention to the “fusion” aspect.
The key to fusion was to let the essence of the various medicinal ingredients perfectly fuse.
The timing of the fusion, the temperature of the flame during the fusion, the proportion of the fusion… All of these would affect the success of the fusion process.
This step was the most difficult of all.
This was because while Lu Yuan was using Item Manipulation to control the medicinal herb essences to fuse, he also had to split his attention controlling the flame’s temperature. He had to multitask.
This made him mentally and physically exhausted in a short time. He was sweating profusely.
Damn it, to think refining pills was so difficult!
Lu Yuan grumbled in his heart as he gritted his teeth and persevered. He worked hard to maintain the overall success rate of this pill refinement at above 50%.
In the end, after a series of hard work, the liquid medicinal essence in the pill furnace gradually fused and condensed into a cultivation pill.
At this point, Lu Yuan had already done everything he could.
The remaining was all up to luck.
This was because at this point whether the pill could be formed or not depended on the fusion of the medicinal theories inside the embryo pill. Outsiders could not interfere.
This was the same for any pharmacist.
There was a saying that the success of pill refinement was 80% human effort and 20% fate.
The 20% of fate was the final waiting process.
Although Lu Yuan’s pill refinement process this time had many mistakes, he was still very satisfied with his first attempt on the whole.
Lu Yuan looked at the ten embryo pills that were condensing and cooling in the pill furnace, waiting nervously.
[Elementary Cultivation Pill]
[Flame Temperature: 60%]
[Degree of Refinement: 20%]
[Degree of Fusion: 30%]
[Luck Value: 100 (+)]
[Current Success Rate: 52.5%]
After a while, the ten embryo pills finally lost the fiery red on their surface and emitted some luster.
Success!
With an excited heart, Lu Yuan used Item Manipulation to control the ten embryo pills to fly out of the pill furnace.
When the ten embryo pills landed in the wooden box in Lu Yuan’s hands, the surface of the five pills began to crack for some unknown reason before turning into powder.
At the same time, cracks appeared on the surface of two embryo pills, but they still maintained the appearance of medicinal pills and could thus be considered semi-finished products.
In the end, only three of the ten embryo pills maintained their round and plump appearance.
Although only three pills were successful, Lu Yuan could not hide the excitement in his heart.
He clearly remembered the requirements in the manual for one to become the Pharmacist Valley’s outer disciple.
He had to refine more than five elementary cultivation pills all at once.
In other words, this was his first time refining pills, and he was almost at the standard of passing.
Looking at the three elementary cultivation pills in the wooden box, Lu Yuan was quite delighted.
Not bad, not bad. He was very satisfied with the results of his first attempt.
Other than these three completed pills, Lu Yuan had gained quite a lot from this round of pill refinement.
[You have been seriously controlling fire. Fire Manipulation proficiency +3.]
[You have performed item manipulation seriously. Item Manipulation proficiency +5.]
[You have refined a pill seriously. Pill Refinement Technique proficiency +10.]
…
A series of system notifications appeared in Lu Yuan’s system interface.
This information appeared during the process of his pill refinement.
[Item Manipulation (level 3): 260/300]
[Fire Manipulation (level 5): 370/500]
[Pill Refinement Technique (level 1): 20/100]
Overall, Lu Yuan obtained 50 points of proficiency for Item Manipulation, 60 points for Fire Manipulation, and 20 points for Pill Refinement Technique from this round of refining.
If he could keep this up, it wouldn’t be long before he could cultivate these skills to the maximum level of 10.
At that time, he should be able to trigger the advanced effect of the skill.
Such growth that could be seen with the naked eye immediately filled Lu Yuan with a sense of achievement.
Who didn’t want to see a visible reward for every effort they put in?
As for his special pill refinement method that relied on the system, Lu Yuan called it probability-based pill refinement.
He was referring to the fact that he could see the success rate of pill refinement!
With the probability-based Pill Refinement Technique, Lu Yuan felt that the days when he could get rid of the demoness Meng Ruyan were just around the corner!
Just wait, he would prove to that demoness one day that he was not the type to live off a woman!
He, Celestial Master Lu, was very talented!