Having made up his mind, Lu Li wasted no more time.
Including the ten he had refined previously, Lu Li had produced a total of forty Piercing Acupoint Pills over this period.
Only ten Scarlet Flame Fruits remained.
Although the Scarlet Flame Fruit plants in the medicine garden had already borne fruit, they were still far from ripe.
He planned to leave this place after refining these last ten Scarlet Flame Fruits, returning to the Lightning Fire Mountain Range to seek out Wu De.
It was worth mentioning that when Lu Li was harvesting herbs from the medicine garden earlier, he was struck by a sudden idea. He harvested the herbs but left their root systems-the roots of the Emerald Bamboo Grass and Lightning Fire Orchids-intact within the soil.
After a month had passed, Lu Li was astonished to discover that those remaining roots had actually begun to sprout tender new shoots.
He just did not know how long it would take for them to mature into first-grade spirit herbs.
The standard criterion for a first-grade spirit herb was one hundred spiritual rings, equivalent to a century in the outside world. However, the growth rate of spirit herbs in the medicine garden far exceeded that of the outside world, so Lu Li had no clear idea of exactly how long it would take for them to become first-grade spirit herbs again.
Regardless, this was a good thing. Even if they could not be used in times of urgent need, they could still be sold for Spirit Stones in the future, could they not?
Refined normally, ten Scarlet Flame Fruits could only yield ten Piercing Acupoint Pills.
But this time, Lu Li did not plan to follow the normal method.
He had once heard Xiao Jue mention that some alchemists would choose to throw in several sets of spirit herbs at once during refinement, granting them a chance to produce multiple pills in a single furnace.
Of course, it was also entirely possible that several sets of spirit herbs might only yield a single pill.
Lu Li now intended to throw in three sets of materials at once, testing to see exactly how many Piercing Acupoint Pills he could refine in one batch.
That meant three stalks of Emerald Bamboo Grass, three Lightning Fire Orchids, three drops of Earth Milk Essence, and three Scarlet Flame Fruits.
Naturally, "refining together" did not mean throwing all the materials in at once to create a muddled stew. Rather, it meant increasing the quantity when extracting the essence of a single type of herb.
For example, when extracting the Emerald Bamboo Grass, he would throw in three stalks to extract simultaneously. The same applied to the other medicinal materials, refining them in batches of three.
Finally, they would be fused together to form pills, offering a chance to yield more than three pills in one go.
Though... it was also possible to end up with fewer than three.
The primary factors dictating the final pill yield were the spiritual essence of the spirit herbs and the alchemist's own skill.
After a flurry of careful work.
Lu Li was pleasantly surprised to find that extracting three sets of spirit herbs at once was not much different from extracting a single set. It only required a bit more attention to the furnace fire, and as the Alchemy Notes stated, the spirit herbs tossed in together needed to be of similar maturity.
The older a spirit herb was, the stronger its medicinal properties were, and thus the longer it took to extract its essence.
If the ages of three spirit herbs varied too greatly, it would result in some finishing their extraction while others were still processing. The medicinal liquid extracted first could then be scorched by the furnace temperature, damaging its medicinal properties.
Lu Li had long since memorized the Alchemy Notes backward and forward. When selecting the spirit herbs, he had already screened them by age, which was why this refinement process felt so smooth and familiar.
About an hour or so passed.
Lu Li reached the final step: extracting the Scarlet Flame Fruits.
At this moment, five emerald-green, crystalline pill clusters had formed at the bottom of the alchemy furnace. It appeared that as long as he did not fail the final step, these three sets of materials would actually yield five Piercing Acupoint Pills.
Seeing this, Lu Li could not help but feel a pang of regret. Why had he not done this before? He had wasted quite a few spirit herbs in vain.
Despite his thoughts, Lu Li still carefully controlled the earth fire.
Because the three Scarlet Flame Fruits were all from the same season, their maturity was identical, making it much easier for Lu Li to manage the heat.
Before long, drops of spirit liquid oozed from the skins of the three Scarlet Flame Fruits, slowly dripping down onto those round, rolling pill clusters at the bottom of the furnace.
Immediately, the pill clusters began to rapidly solidify after absorbing the Scarlet Flame Fruit's spirit liquid.
After roughly half a quarter-hour, the three Scarlet Flame Fruits were completely extracted, and the remaining dregs were directly expelled from the furnace.
At this point, the five Piercing Acupoint Pills had also reached the final stage of solidification.
After another dozen or so breaths, Lu Li finally let out a long exhale.
"A complete success!"
Refining five Piercing Acupoint Pills from three sets of materials-could he be considered an alchemy master now?
After a brief rest.
Lu Li threw himself back into pill refinement. Just like before, the next three sets of materials also yielded five Piercing Acupoint Pills.
Only four sets of materials remained at the end. Lu Li pondered for a moment before deciding to simply refine all four sets together.
Another hour or so passed.
The results this time were merely average: four sets of materials yielded six pills.
Lu Li collected all the Piercing Acupoint Pills and tallied them up. Counting from his very first attempt at refining the Piercing Acupoint Pill, he had used fifty sets of materials over the past month to produce fifty-six Piercing Acupoint Pills.
Subtracting the one he had consumed himself, he now had fifty-five pills left.
If he consumed all of them, he could directly push through a minor cultivation realm, which was a fairly impressive prospect.
However, because the side effects of this thing were far too severe, Lu Li decided to play it safe. He would wait until he obtained the Meridian-Nourishing Pill from Wu De before taking any more.
Finally allowing himself to relax, Lu Li stood at the doorway of the main hall, staring blankly at the courtyard below.
A long time passed.
He sighed and rummaged beneath the offering table, digging out some incense, candles, and spirit money.
He then walked to the corpse pit outside the small western door of the courtyard, lit the offerings, and bowed his head in a moment of silence. "Everyone..." he murmured, "Zhang Song is dead. You can all rest in peace now."
Over the past few days, he had felt as though vengeful spirits were howling within the wind outside-likely the lingering resentment of these victims. Thus, he had decided to offer sacrifices before his departure, hoping to help them find peace and transcend sooner.
As his words fell, a sudden gust of wind swept up from the flat ground of the corpse pit. A buzzing, creaking sound filled the air, making his scalp tingle.
"Brother Lu Li..."
Amidst the noise, there seemed to be the cry of a child. Listening closely, the voice sounded faintly familiar. A pang of sorrow gripped Lu Li's heart. "Xiangyun, go in peace. Your father and mother... I will visit them on your behalf."
"Thank you... Brother Lu Li."
This time, the voice suddenly became distinct, as if shouted with the last vestiges of strength. At the same time... the howling wind faded, and the corpse pit returned to complete stillness, as if all the vengeful spirits had dissipated into the void.
Lu Li felt an intense ache in his chest. After shoveling soil to level the pit, he returned to the main hall with his head bowed.
He scrubbed the alchemy furnace clean, stored it away, and concealed the alchemy platform. Qingliang Mountain was too far from the Lightning Fire Mountain Range and too close to the Qingyang Sect; he would likely never return to this place.
It was already past midday.
Lu Li walked out of the courtyard gate, retrieved his large black horse from the mountainside, and led it slowly down the slope.
Upon reaching the official road at the foot of the mountain, Lu Li opened his map for a brief look. He then flipped himself onto the horse's back and rode straight south.
......
Dashi Village.
It was backed by a desolate stone mountain, its jagged, grotesque boulders riddled with holes from countless years of wind and frost.
At the foot of this stone mountain, just over twenty households sat facing south. The villagers eked out a meager existence, relying entirely on the small patch of flat land in front of the village to grow crops, or venturing into the vast forest to the east to hunt wild beasts.
It was the ninth month. The biting north wind scraped against the grotesque rocks on the mountain behind the village, producing a mournful, howling wail.
A young man stood on the mountainside, silently gazing at the two inconspicuous grave mounds before him, too overwhelmed to speak. The tombstones standing before the graves were heavily eroded, the inscriptions upon them blurred and utterly illegible...
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