Battle Frenzy

“No, no. You are the friend of the daughter of the Heavenly Shell Crown Prince. From what you have said, I have failed to recognize a famous person! It will be 1,000 Silver Star Stones for a day. I will even give you a 10% discount!”

He placed one hand on the half of his red face that was extremely swollen while he used the other hand to open the door of the pill house with a key. Then, he handed a gold card to Wang Zhong.

“If you insert this into the array at the entrance of the room, you can activate the pill room. Furthermore, this will start the timer. When you come out, the fees will be calculated based on the duration…”

Lao Wang felt that the feeling of walking into a pill room while a large group of people fixed their gaze on him was not bad. He had strength and friends, which allowed him to avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble. Even though this was simply a small matter, he did not mind having some help.

At that moment, he walked into the pill house and inserted the gold card into the rune array beside the stone door. He heard a rustling sound that resembled the sound of water flowing. Then, the door closed and countless lights slowly lit up in the pitch-black pill room. In the end, these lights became extremely bright and dazzling, lighting up the entire pill-refinery room as if it were day.

This house was much bigger than it seemed on the outside. It was 100 square meters in area but did not seem very empty. There was a copper pill furnace that was as tall as a person in the center of the room. It had three legs, and its surface was covered in green marks and spots. However, it was not rusty, as if it had not been used for a long time. Instead, it was a strange green color. When he touched it with his hand, it felt extremely smooth and seemed cool and refreshing.

On the left of the pill furnace were many long stone tables. Various instruments that were used to handle medicinal ingredients — such as medicinal knives, grinders, jadeware, boxes, a pounder, and other instruments — were found on the tables. Meanwhile, there was a wide and long platform at the back, which was used for the various preparation work before handling medicinal ingredients. On the right was a small spiritual field that took up a few dozen square meters. It was covered in the best Heavenly River[a]. The sand glowed with a faint yellow, and seemed soft and moist while containing rich spiritual influence. Some alchemists could easily take a few days or even a few months to refine a batch of high-quality pills. Not every medicinal ingredient could be chopped up in advance in preparation for refinery, especially some special spiritual medicines. Once they left the spiritual field, they would immediately wither. Thus, the spiritual field inside the pill house was specially prepared for this kind of spiritual medicine.

Lao Wang was feeling rather sentimental to see the house so well-equipped. If Celeste had not appeared, he might not have been able to rent this pill house.

This was already the second time. The daughter of the Heavenly Shell Crown Prince frequently expressed goodwill towards him. Of course, Lao Wang knew very well what she wanted. He was rather curious about this. Just what about him attracted Nini?

When Nini appeared, she immediately threw herself at him. This seemed to be her favorite thing to do. Whenever she appeared, she would throw herself at her owner. However, even though it was very comfortable to stay in Master’s pocket, she still had to do her job.

While Lao Wang took out the medicinal ingredients from the fragment world and prepared to work, he conveniently asked his question. It would be best if he could return the daughter of the Heavenly Shell Crown Prince a favor.

He thought that this girl would give a rather rational explanation, but Nini smiled mysteriously. “Master, you have a smell that attracts us. Yummy.”

“Us?” Wang Zhong was dumbfounded.

“Of course, those other bitch—Sisters! They all want to compete with Nini. However, Master, you have good eyes and immediately chose Nini.” Nini started to act spoiled again. She hugged Wang Zhong’s neck and used all her strength to sniff him without letting go.

You were the one who threw yourself at me… Lao Wang was speechless. However, Nini’s answer made him even more uncertain.

Smell? What smell?

Lao Wang smelled his own hand before smelling his armpit… There was no smell!

He could not understand this small fellow. However, there seemed to be no way to return the favor to Celeste. He could not allow her to sniff him and determine whether he had a unique smell, right?

Lao Wang shook his head. He would not care about this. Time for pill refinery!

The level-9 Vitality Supplement Pill.

It could speed up the replenishment of spiritual power and vitality for its user. The effects and speed of replenishment determined the quality of the refined pill. Vitality Supplement Pills that achieved full effects would fully supplement an expert with a Spiritual Energy Value of 200,000 in three to five breaths. Even if the results were the worst, as long as the pill was formed, it could fully supplement fellows like Lao Wang who only had a Spiritual Energy Value of over 100,000 in over 10 minutes… on the condition that there were many Vitality Supplement Pills.

The higher the level of one’s spiritual power, the slower the effects would be. This level-9 pill was primarily targeted at Foundational Stage fellows. In particular, the results would be extremely good for some ordinary residents of the divine territory.

The prescription that Celeste had given him seemed to have more instructions compared to Uncle Sea’s prescription. However, in reality, these additional instructions were used to stabilize the medicinal properties of the pill and even neutralize any discrepancies. He could include many medicinal ingredients in the same step and simplify the steps of adding ingredients while refining the pill. However, Lao Wang definitely did not dare to let his guard down.

As a newbie, regardless of how much he had heard and seen about pill-refinery theories, they were not personal experiences. Whatever he had witnessed could be considered as useless and could only guide him in the right direction.

He recalled the knowledge he had read from books and combined them with the steps he had witnessed Uncle Sea carry out. Lao Wang had drafted a rather detailed explanation of the pill-refinery steps. At that moment, when he followed his own explanation, he was not confused at all.

The first step was to examine the pill furnace.

This was a rather standard copper furnace. It was round and had three legs, with handles on two sides. There was a large lid on top, which was only opened when one was placing medicinal ingredients or taking out the completed pills. It was closed for the rest of the time.

When Lao Wang checked the lid, he casually raised it but felt slightly awkward. The lid of the pill furnace did not even move. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there was an unknown adhesive where the lid was closed. It had extremely strong sticky and sealing properties, keeping the furnace closed tightly without any gaps at all. This time, he was mentally prepared. He used his arm strength and pulled the lid with all his strength. There was the sound of something collapsing, and the lid was pulled open, producing a sound that resembled that of an air gun. The massive backlash almost caused Lao Wang to let go. The round lid that only seemed to have an area of one square meter was extremely heavy in his hands.

He was rather dumbstruck. Did pill refinery involve such manual work? Pill refinery in the Heavenly Gates was truly not prepared for ordinary people. Lao Wang felt that people of the same level as Uncle Sea would not even be able to lift up the lid of this furnace. That would be very amusing.

However, this made an outsider like Lao Wang feel that the quality of this pill furnace was not bad. At least, it felt like it.

Lao Wang was excited. He closed the lid and continued to check. There were 27 small holes that were arranged into three rows on the upper half of the furnace. Meanwhile, there were nine slightly larger holes on the bottom half of the furnace.

In technical terms, the small holes on top were called “empty holes”. Based on the different positions of the holes, as well as some special arrangements and assistance from runes inside the furnace, one could determine the change in medicinal properties of the pill by looking at the strength of the light that these 27 holes produced during pill refinery. A pill furnace with 27 holes was considered the most basic kind as the information that could be derived was actually very limited. It was said that some high-quality pill furnaces had hundreds of “empty holes”. One could use their eyes and immediately observe even more information from inside the furnace.

Meanwhile, the nine larger holes below were called “earth holes”. They had complementary covers, and were used to adjust and let out atmospheric pressure from within the pill furnace.

These holes formed the basic observation and operation functions that a pill furnace needed. Of course, the changes in these could only serve as prompts during emergencies. Some of the drastic operations in the process of pill refinery were rather crude. Thus, if one only stared at these holes, even if the pills were formed, they would only be passable goods that only provided 10% of the full effects.

An experienced alchemist would definitely not just stare at these small holes. Most of the time, they would rely on their hands to control the handles of the furnace and use their consciousness to sense the situation in the furnace to determine the finer changes in medicinal properties while the pill was being formed. Only then would they be able to refine a pill “with a soul”.

At the bottom of the pill furnace was a square cabinet that could be opened and closed. The door for the cabinet was made out of a thick heat-resistant material. This was the place that provided heat to the pill furnace. Typically, Fire Quartz was used. Fire Quartz contained extremely powerful fire abilities. This kind of fire did not take the form of ordinary flames, but fire abilities. It could be called living fire and was a precious mineral resource. However, any resources that could be used in the divine territory were high-leveled goods.

More importantly, the Fire Quartz could be controlled by spiritual power. Alchemists could use their spiritual power to control the size of the flame immediately and in a relatively precise manner, making Fire Quartz even more precious. Using spiritual power to control the Fire Quartz was an indispensable operation in pill refinery. There were no other methods that could replace this as well.

However, this kind of manipulation was not as one would expect. The activation of Fire Quartz was related to the eruption of an alchemist’s spiritual power. A trash alchemist would not be able to stimulate the energy from a Fire Quartz, even if they were given the best Fire Quartz. Thus, pill-refinery experts were usually experts in the sphere of cultivation. The eruption of spiritual power, fine control of spiritual power, and other skills were definitely peak techniques in the system of cultivation. They relied on these for a living, so how could they be weak in this aspect? If they had a fire-type assistant to help them, they would be invincible…

This was the lowest-leveled pill house, which contained the most basic and elementary pill furnace with 27 holes, but whether it was the distribution of the empty and earth holes, the level of detail in the carvings or runes, the material of the furnace, or its density — this furnace was still many times better than the one found at Uncle Sea’s store. It was like how the emperor’s toilets were all made of gold.

Wang Zhong was unable to tear himself away. He stretched out his hand and touched the surface of the pill furnace, and a cooling sensation seeped into his heart. There was a peaceful and cool feeling of connecting with the pill furnace. This “connection” was relatively natural. This might seem very ordinary to Lao Wang as he was a newbie. However, established alchemists with some pill refinery experience would definitely sigh. He was able to sense the inside of the pill furnace and its refreshing coolness so easily. This characteristic and affinity with the pill furnace was pure and natural. He definitely had good natural endowments for alchemy.

He played with the pill furnace to corroborate and confirm his knowledge with the actual item. The feeling that the entire pill furnace was under his control imperceptibly increased Wang Zhong’s confidence towards successfully refining a pill. Preparations, knowledge, and natural endowments were very important, but the hardware was also very important. In particular, to a newbie, a good start was the battle half won.

Every minute and every second he spent here cost money. After Wang Zhong finished checking the pill furnace, he did not stop and immediately started the preparation work officially.

There were many Fire Quartzes placed into neat piles. There were several thousand quartzes that were divided into six piles based on their quality. These items could not be used for free. One could bring their own, but if one wanted to use the Fire Quartzes here, they would have to pay a utility fee when they paid for the pill house rent. As compared to the Fire Quartzes in the outside markets, one could definitely be assured of the quality of these, even if they were slightly more expensive than the market price outside. However, the prices were not exorbitant. After all, the Heavenly Gates was not making money from this and was simply providing convenience to their pupils.

Among the ingredients for the level-9 Vitality Supplement Pill, there were no special medicinal ingredients that needed extremely high temperatures before they could be mixed together. Thus, Lao Wang chose the lowest quality Fire Quartz. A Fire Quartz that was as large as his palm cost 50 Silver Star Stones. Under normal conditions, it could be used for about two hours, and would only last for at most half an hour when it was used at its limit. This was the most ideal number. Refining a batch of pills could easily take a few hours, and there had to be frequent eruptions of firepower. Furthermore, he was still a newbie and would definitely waste firepower. He could not calculate this consumption carefully as the cost would definitely be relatively high in the end. Luckily, Old Cow had sent over 5,000 Silver Star Stones. If not, Lao Wang would worry whether he had enough money to pay for the rent after stepping out.

It was not easy to handle the medicinal ingredients either. Some medicinal ingredients had to be ground into powder, while some had to be cut into slices. Meanwhile, others had to be soaked in special medicinal liquids, while some had to be planted in the spiritual field to maintain the greatest vitality and only be plucked when it was needed. To save time, Lao Wang had dealt with a portion of the medicinal ingredients and brought them in. However, there were a few ingredients that had to be dealt with here. Other alchemists were most frustrated by this step. For example, the crow vine from Los Heya, which was one of the main ingredients in the Vitality Supplement Pill, was relatively hard. Not only was it an ingredient for pills, it was also used to refine weapons. One vine was as thick as a thumb and was extremely difficult to break, even if one used a divine weapon, let alone to cut into neat strips. Many alchemists were extremely frustrated at the crow vine when they refined the Vitality Supplement Pill. However, to Lao Wang, it was nothing…

A medicinal knife from the pill house appeared in his hand. He casually weighed it and estimated its length with his eyes. It felt relatively sharp. He concentrated and flung the crow vine in his hand into the air.

Whoosh!

A spinning silver light flashed past. Lao Wang raised his arm. Then, his knife slashed downwards.

Zeng!

In the blink of an eye, it was complete. The medicinal knife had stabbed the table at an angle, while the crow vine fell to the table at the same time with a patter. It seemed virtually unharmed. Lao Wang gradually inhaled and let out a long sigh, as if he had succeeded. Meanwhile, Nini, who was watching on the side, was slightly dumbfounded.

That… Was that a failure? The crow vine still seemed to be fine.

“Oh… Master, how handsome you are!” It was definitely impossible to attack her master. Nini racked her brains before coming up with this sentence as she simply could not find any other way to praise him. In general, elemental spirits were similar to living creatures that also coexisted with the divine territory. Simply said, they were a headstrong group. They did not need to rush about to fulfill their destiny and only had to exist. The divine territory would naturally protect their existence and benefits.

However, the next second, Nini’s awkward expression was frozen.

She watched as Lao Wang pressed against the crow vine with one hand and pushed it outwards with the other hand…

Whoosh… The extremely hard crow vine spread out like a piece of paper. The vine, which had been as thick as a thumb, stretched over one meter after spreading out! It was as thin as a piece of paper and was almost transparent.

Lao Wang was very satisfied. It had been a long time since he touched a sword, but his skills had not dropped. The crow vine was very hard, and although the medicinal knife that the pill house had prepared was not an ordinary item, it was still very difficult to cut the crow vine directly. Just now, he had used Sword Two. There were no terrifying rules like when he was back on Earth. The divine territory was too stable and would not bring about the effects of his path. However, the basics of his sword techniques and sword prowess were still present! It would be very difficult for him to cause the entire world to spin or to separate black and white, but it was very easy for him to peel off the skin of the crow vine under the circumstances that his spiritual power was fully activated.

He had used several killing techniques that could determine life and death. This was really a bit…

The stem of the crow vines was very hard, but it had been cut into thin pieces and was thus very easy to chop. The most troublesome part had been resolved. Lao Wang spread out the thin layer and did not even look at it. There was only the sound of the medicinal knife chopping. There were flashes of light on the table. In the short span of seven to eight seconds, the crow vine had been chopped into strands that were as thick as hair.

Beside him, Nini’s eyes were already full of stars as she watched him.

“Too handsome, too handsome! Master is too handsome!” She was about to go crazy. She had learned about pill refinery in the Messenger Department and watched many chop medicinal ingredients, but none of them were as handsome as Master! Furthermore, this efficiency was just too high. He had spent a total of 10 seconds cutting the crow vines. “Master, you are simply the number one pill-refinery genius in the world. No, no, no, you are number one even in the Heaven!”

Nini flew towards Wang Zhong’s face and did not stop fawning on him. She was not willing to get down. Lao Wang did not know whether to laugh or to cry. “Don’t delay. Hurry up and get to work!”

Everything had been prepared properly. Firstly, they had to light the empty furnace. He placed the Fire Quartz in the small box below the pill furnace and closed the box.

Lao Wang closed his eyes and gripped the handles of the pill furnace. His spiritual power seeped into the furnace with the guidance of the runic array. Very quickly, he sensed the Fire Quartz that was quietly placed in the furnace and the surrounding runic array.

Boom!

His spiritual power spun, and the runic array was activated. The Fire Quartz started to burn and release its fire abilities. At first, he was rather unfamiliar with this. His spiritual power would be transmitted to the Fire Quartz through the runic array. If there was a process, there would be wastage. Thus, this gave Wang Zhong the feeling that this operation was sluggish and unsatisfactory. But who was Lao Wang? He was considered a Great Master in his manipulation of spiritual power on Earth. After he cultivated his divine cells, his manipulation became even more detailed in every single way. Furthermore, peculiarly, when he held the pill furnace and started to control the fire, this should have been an extremely foreign thing. However, Lao Wang felt a sense of familiarity, like a dragon entering the ocean.

[a]?