Chapter 78: Alchemy

Liu Liu had once told her that her energy converter used to be of a rather low grade; when purifying contaminated resources, she could only extract first-level energy, unable to convert what could have been second-level energy.

Yun Qing smiled and said, “Liu Liu, if I purify contaminated resources now, will I be able to get level 2 energy?”

Liu Liu rolled his dog eyes in disdain and replied, “Just try it and you’ll see.”

She knew that trying would answer her question, but this black dog rolling his eyes was so obvious—it was really unseemly.

If she had chosen Liu Liu’s skill for being cute and playful to comfort her, would Liu Liu now be acting adorably, sticking out his tongue and saying, “My dearest master, go on and try! Liu Liu really wants to see you get level 2 energy!”

Imagining Liu Liu acting spoiled and cute, Yun Qing sighed: her own dog’s whites of the eyes really were rather large.

Had she chosen poorly? Picking up dropped items wasn’t something that happened all the time, but the skill of being cute and playful could always be on display.

Yun Qing mused: whether man or woman, everyone likes when others act spoiled and cute; you can get what you want without giving anything, no wonder it’s considered a skill.

She wondered when she might draw this ability.

Imagining herself acting spoiled to get cultivation resources, she was instantly covered in goosebumps. It was too difficult. Rather than acting spoiled and cute, she’d rather go to a combat zone and have a fight.

Yun Qing placed the contaminated resources she’d gathered along the way into the energy converter. Different items could be converted into different amounts of energy.

The quantity of energy depended on how many years the contaminated resource had and how much toxic gas it had absorbed, not the type of item.

Outside, contaminated herbs like ginseng for replenishing qi or hemostatic grass were quite valuable, so Yun Qing kept those, tossing only the low-value wild grass and vegetables into the converter.

Since she was short on supplementary herbs for alchemy, and hunting for them herself was bothersome, the easiest way would be to visit a pharmacy.

Before dawn, Yun Qing was in a deserted area outside the city, practicing physical cultivation techniques.

With the system’s assistance, she finished a full set of body refinement exercises.

After completing the set, aside from sore bones and muscles, she gained no experience at all.

As far as she knew, the postnatal martial artists of Leaf Family Village advanced their levels through circulating internal energy and practicing martial arts—so why was it that for her, neither practicing her internal techniques nor her body refinement produced any experience?

Yun Qing refused to give up and tried combining the two, then practiced the body technique again.

With each move, she circulated her internal energy to the corresponding area as per the Heaven and Earth Circulation Technique. After one complete set, her dantian was nearly depleted of energy, but then she saw a system prompt:

Combat experience +20.

“Liu Liu, it turns out practicing internal techniques alone gives no experience, neither does practicing the body refinement technique alone—they have to be combined.”

Liu Liu lay on the ground, not even lifting his eyes. There were no monsters, no item drops, no work for him; and since she wasn’t asking a question, the all-knowing dog didn’t need to answer.

Liu Liu remained silent; Yun Qing didn’t mind. She was calculating: with 20 points of combat experience per set, and needing 12,000 to level up, it would take her three months of nonstop practice—allowing only brief breaks for eating and sleep—to reach the second level of the postnatal stage.

Getting into the postnatal stage was difficult, but surely the villagers of Leaf Family Village didn’t spend three months advancing from the first to the second level.

“Liu Liu, how can I gain more combat experience?”

This was within his scope for answering. Liu Liu replied, “At your current level, there are several methods: one, take a body refinement pill during practice; two, perform the exercises more precisely and with greater strength; three, increase the capacity of your meridians and dantian for storing internal energy; four, fight.”

Just as she expected. Yun Qing raised her brows and praised, “Well summarized.”

With her internal energy depleted, she practiced the Heaven and Earth Circulation Technique twice, and soon her newly opened dantian was full.

At this time, the energy converter was still working, but some level 2 and level 1 energy had already been processed. After collecting them, Yun Qing could finally begin alchemy.

Unlike the production machine, alchemy allowed for manual or automatic operation. Creating a first-level body refinement pill, she found her current proficiency was “unskilled.”

Reading the instructions, Yun Qing saw that proficiency in making first-level body refinement pills came in three stages: unskilled, ordinary, and skilled.

Each pill made increased proficiency by one point; after crafting 100, “unskilled” became “ordinary,” and after another 100, she would reach “skilled.”

The higher her proficiency, the less time alchemy would take, and the better the pill’s quality.

These instructions triggered her mild perfectionism—she wanted to master every single pill recipe to the highest level.

Besides, as Liu Liu had mentioned, the quality of the pharmacy and the alchemy table would affect both the time and quantity of pills produced.

Currently, Yun Qing was using the worst alchemy room and the free equipment provided by the system, with no idea how long each attempt would take.

She chose to make a single first-level body refinement pill, using purified chicken meat that Liu Liu disliked.

Perhaps because the pill was too low-level or for other reasons, Yun Qing thought her first alchemy attempt would take a good half-day, but the alchemy table was efficient: after ten minutes, it was done.

Crafting experience +50.

Obtained: First-level body refinement pill x1.

First-level body refinement pill: mid-grade; increases effectiveness of body refinement exercises, suitable for levels 31–40, tradable.

Yun Qing had produced a pill effortlessly; looking at the single slot it occupied in her bag, she felt as if she could see a fortune flowing her way.

Excited, she shared her joy with her dog, “Liu Liu! Hahaha, I did it! I can finally make pills!”

Liu Liu replied, “If you want achievements, skill points, or more experience, it’s best to make the pills by hand.”

Yun Qing agreed, “You’re right!”

Even without considering crafting experience, achievements, or skill points, if she wanted to sell pills across the Central Continent in the future, it would be best to be an alchemist herself.

She could sell the pills made automatically at the alchemy table, but only if she knew how to make them herself.

Leaving the cave, Yun Qing took out the brown pill, about the size of a peanut, and examined it in her palm. She had put quite a lot of ingredients into the alchemy table, including a big chunk of purified chicken, but the result was just this tiny pill, and it didn’t increase fullness at all.

Alchemy could wait; first, she wanted to test the effect of the pill.

As soon as she swallowed the body refinement pill, Yun Qing felt a warm current surge from her stomach, circulating through her twelve main meridians. She quickly began practicing her body refinement technique.

After a full set, she felt clear-headed and invigorated; the medicinal power of the pill had not yet been fully expended when she saw the system notification:

Combat experience +40.

But now her internal energy was depleted again. She repeated the body refinement set, this time with more precise movements, but gained no experience.

She felt it was a bit of a waste to use the pill this way. So many good ingredients, for only 20 extra combat experience points—she might as well throw a pebble at a soul corpse.

No wonder the wealthy advanced so much faster than ordinary people; taking pills while cultivating made experience come more quickly and in greater amounts.

But Yun Qing was poor—she couldn’t afford to rely on pills for cultivation.

Qi replenishment pills were reserved for battle, to rapidly recover internal energy and keep fighting when depleted.