Chapter 135: Pharmaceutical Formulation

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The gathering skill was below standard, with a fifty percent chance of failure. Yun Qing followed the method taught by Duan Mengrou and Zhang He for gathering Qi-Condensing Grass, using her spiritual awareness to assist. She carefully dug without damaging the roots embedded in the rich soil.

After a while, a delightful system prompt appeared:

Gathering experience +410;
Obtained intact Qi-Condensing Grass *1;

Seeing this, Yun Qing breathed a sigh of relief. She had succeeded—it wasn’t too difficult, just required spiritual awareness assistance. Choosing to venture deeper into the forest was the right decision; even the lowest-grade medicinal herb here was worth as much as several hours of her hard work.

However, the deeper she went, the denser the spiritual energy and toxic fumes became. Occasionally, she encountered herbs rarely seen before. She had already come across Snakeberry, Polluted Spirit Berry, Prunella, Spirit Tangerine Leaves, Polluted Benzoin, Water Chestnut, Little Rockgrass, Blood Vine, and Sanling Grass, among others.

Most required a gathering skill above level 41 to harvest. Yun Qing carefully collected them, with a success rate of about seventy percent.

The more valuable the herbs, the greater the dangers. She had encountered several unknown creatures with red names above level 40, mostly unfamiliar demonic beasts.

After upgrading her crouching skill to include invisibility, she used it without sparing spiritual energy. If a red-named monster was near the herbs, she usually gave up.

In this spirit-rich forest, many trees had grown for hundreds or even thousands of years, some surrounded by spiritual energy, others by toxic miasma. Many required gathering skills above level 41 to harvest.

Yun Qing had only felled two trees so far. Although the wood was valuable and yielded much experience, they were extremely difficult to chop down. The noise attracted red-named monsters.

On the first day, mostly spent traveling, she still managed to gather over ten herbs and chop down a level 41 tree. Some grants more experience than others. At this pace, her gathering skill would reach level 41 in three to five days.

As dusk fell, Yun Qing stopped searching for herbs. Instead, while there was still light and no red-named creatures around, she dug up wild grasses and shrubs rich in spiritual energy.

These also granted some gathering experience due to their spiritual power; she collected them mainly for energy.

Night came swiftly in the forest. Soon it became too dark to see. Her spiritual awareness had limited range, so she no longer chased after distant treasures.

Back in her cave dwelling, she first rested on a simple wooden bed to replenish her energy.

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After two hours of rest, fully recharged, she turned to manual alchemy in her medicine room to gain crafting experience.

Yun Qing had once successfully crafted a Qi-Boosting Pill manually, without spiritual awareness. Now, with spiritual awareness, it was even easier.

Qi-Boosting Pills, used by postnatal martial artists, were relatively simple to craft. They required no formation arrays or secret hand seals to draw in the world’s spiritual energy. As long as the procedure was followed correctly, the pill could be made.

First, she prepared all the herbs, cleaned them, and selected the needed parts.

Herbs gathered through her skill were relatively clean, usually needing no washing—only the relevant parts were taken. For example, purified Qi-Ginseng required sliced root pieces.

Yun Qing lit the fine charcoal under the alchemy stove and placed the herbs inside to dry out their moisture.

With spiritual awareness, she could clearly perceive the herbs’ condition, ensuring only water evaporated. This step was crucial for Qi-Ginseng; once properly dried, half the alchemy was considered successful.

After drying, she crushed the herbs, extracted their essence while removing impurities, then added honey needed for pill formation. Mixing the herbal essence, she rolled it into a pill. One Qi-Boosting Pill was thus completed.

Crafting experience +100;
Obtained Qi-Boosting Pill *1;

With spiritual awareness assisting, Yun Qing easily made a pill.

“Wow, spiritual awareness really is invaluable!” she thought. The last time she made a Qi-Boosting Pill, it was quite difficult.

“Almost level 41 now—there’s a surprise waiting!”

Reaching level 41 would indeed bring surprises; being able to cultivate spiritual power was a huge boon.

Her success boosted her confidence. For the second batch, she added an extra portion of herbs to craft two Qi-Boosting Pills at once.

As Yun Qing grew more skilled, her manual pill-making speed increased, and she made more pills per batch.

However, after successfully crafting 100 Qi-Boosting Pills, the experience gained per pill dropped to 50, and her spiritual awareness felt somewhat fatigued.

After another 100 pills, crafting gave her no experience at all.

Mastery of Qi-Boosting Pill crafting progressed from novice to ordinary, then to skilled. Once skilled, such low-level pills no longer granted experience.

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Looking at her current crafting experience and remaining materials, Yun Qing felt concerned. After making 200 Body-Refining Pills and more than ten Mosquito-Toxin-Detoxifying Pills, her crafting skill still hadn’t reached level 41.

Curious about how much experience Body-Refining Pills would grant, she prepared the materials to try again. But overuse of spiritual awareness caused a dull ache, forcing her to rest on the simple wooden bed.

When she woke again before dawn, she did not alchemize. Having stayed two days in the ruined villa, she found it rather shabby and decided to manually repair it.

Using wood walls, floors, fences, and roofs produced over the two days, she barely restored the villa and constructed level-one reinforcements to strengthen it quickly.

By the time she finished, daylight had come. Energized, Yun Qing left the cave dwelling, ready to gather herbs again.

Herbs rich in spiritual energy were also loved by demonic beasts. The deeper she ventured, the fewer ownerless herbs remained, and the higher the level of red-named monsters.

After half a day gathering, her haul was mediocre.

Just as she considered turning back, she heard the sound of flowing water. Following it, she discovered a shimmering lake with crystal-clear water, seemingly unpolluted.

Her spiritual awareness detected nearby spiritual energy unlike the usual attributeless air spirit energy. This was water-elemental spiritual energy. The lake’s water was imbued with spiritual energy as well.

Xiao Jingzi had once said that in areas rich with spiritual energy, environments nourished by the five elements caused the spiritual energy to mutate.

Yun Qing’s knowledge was limited; she wasn’t sure if the “Encyclopedia” Xiao Jingzi mentioned was accurate.

Staring at rows of empty water flasks in her backpack, she wanted to fill them all with this spiritually rich water.

Not far from the lake’s edge, after observing for over an hour, she saw three groups of animals come to drink—levels ranged from 35 to 45. None encountered danger while drinking.

After confirming no demonic beasts nearby, Yun Qing cloaked herself in invisibility, approached the lakeshore, and took out her empty flasks. Holding two at a time, she dipped them in and filled them with the sparkling water.

The noise of filling diminished the effectiveness of invisibility, but the lakeside was safe. While alert, she noticed many fish swimming in the clear water:

Polluted Carp, level 38;
Polluted Catfish, level 39;
Unknown, level 41;
Unknown, level 42;
Unknown, level 36...

1 second memorize 114 Chinese:

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