Chapter 459: Jump In Performance
Chapter 459: Jump In Performance
Yi Chen crushed a bunch of Crane Feathers into pieces before putting them into a glass beaker.
With that done, he poured 100 millilitres of Toad Skin Oil over them, ensuring that the oil evenly coated the feather pieces.
Satisfied, he placed the beaker on top of the burner and kept adding a few more ingredients in a familiar manner while waiting for the first concoction to finally be ready.
With that done, he immediately began preparing the second concoction, not wasting a single moment of time.
By now, Yi Chen had repeated these steps for more than one hundred and eighty times over the last month and a half, creating more than one thousand pills.
As a result, his way of handling and processing the herbs had become extremely skilful and had also contributed greatly to reducing the time it took him to refine a batch of Sleeping Crane Pills.
While the entire refinement process had initially taken him three full hours, his repeated attempts had reduced that time to just over two hours.
Step
Step
Step
While the invigilators were moving around with sharp eyes to ensure that everything was going in order, Elder Tao was leisurely making rounds, approaching one candidate at a time and asking them a few questions with regard to the pill they were making.
Now, his figure had just arrived in front of Yi Chen, who had been so immersed in his work that he hadn’t even noticed his presence.
’This disciple... I just wonder how well he’ll be able to refine his pill after showing me that excellently written paper,’ Elder Tao thought to himself while carefully observing Yi Chen’s actions.
Amongst the sixty-six candidates who had cleared the written test, Yi Chen had scored the highest, and thus Elder Tao’s expectations of him were naturally a lot higher.
"Young Disciple, which Pill are you refining?"
Seeing that Yi Chen had just finished creating a concoction, Elder Tao asked him the very next moment.
"Ah... I’m creating Sleeping Crane Pills for the test." Yi Chen responded the moment he noticed Elder Tao standing in front of his work table.
"A low-grade mortal pill, I see." Elder Tao nodded to himself when he heard this, though he felt a little disappointed in his heart.
Given how proficiently Yi Chen had answered the written-test questions, Elder Tao had expected him to choose a higher-grade pill to challenge himself.
’But still... since it’s a test, it’s best to go with a lower grade one,’ he thought to himself while asking Yi Chen the very next moment, "How confident are you in being able to refine it successfully?"
’Extremely confident...’ Yi Chen was about to blurt out his true thoughts, but remembering that it was best to be humble in front of an elder, he toned down his response, "I’ve successfully refined these pills a few times while practising by myself, so I’m moderately confident in being able to refine it successfully."
"I see... good luck then." Elder Tao subtly nodded, hearing Yi Chen’s response before moving on to the next candidate.
’He didn’t seem very confident... could he be one of those who are skilled in theory but only average in execution?’ Elder Tao wondered, feeling a little disappointed.
Meanwhile, not caring even a little about what Elder Tao’s impression of him had been, Yi Chen resumed processing the ingredients one after another and, in just forty-five minutes, had all twelve concoctions prepared in front of him.
’Now comes the final refining process...’ Yi Chen thought, excitement evident on his face, as he put the first concoction into the boiling hot water. He slowly observed the changes that were taking place inside the cauldron, using not only his eyes but also his spiritual sense.
After successfully crossing the 30% threshold, using his spiritual energy, Yi Chen had been constantly repeating the process again and again.
Initially, he could monitor only one set of ingredients at a time, adjusting the flame to suit their requirements before moving on to the next set. With practice, however, the number of ingredients he could monitor simultaneously increased substantially.
As a result, his pill efficacy had continued to increase during that period and had reached around 45% a week ago.
However, thanks to what Elder Ru Qi had just said in order to provoke him, he had been doing as many as five sessions of pill refining in the last five days, which wouldn’t have been possible if not for him constantly buying the Mystical Pond Water from the system store.
Although it had cost him a lot of experience points, it had helped him reach a point he was finally satisfied with.
By now, all the concoctions had already been mixed into the final mixture inside the cauldron and were constantly being stirred by Yi Chen while he was constantly monitoring the changes in several parts of the solution that was slowly solidifying into a precipitate.
The solution’s green colour, which was neither too dark nor too light, clearly indicated that the pills formed were going to cross the 30% threshold, so his only focus now was to increase the efficacy rate of his pills as high as possible.
’...I did it!’ Yi Chen exclaimed inwardly, seeing the status of the green precipitate inside the cauldron as he soon started forming it into pills.
Seeing those actions, Elder Tao, who had been observing from the side, nodded in an impressed manner, ’In only two hours’ time? Looks like I know why he went for only a basic grade pill now...’
He thought in an amused manner and told Yi Chen to patiently wait at his table so that all the successful pills could be evaluated together at the end.
’If I’d known that would happen, I would’ve taken my sweet time...’ Yi Chen thought regretfully as he took a seat beside his workstation and waited for the others to finish refining their pills.
’But still...to think that under the pressure of the exam my efficacy rate ended up jumping by such a large margin...’
He thought with a gleeful smile while observing his pill’s status panel once again.
===== STATUS =====
Name: Sleeping Crane Pill
Type: Sleep-Inducing Pill
Rank: Basic Unranked Pill [Mortal Pill]
Remark: 55% Efficacy Rate [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]
==================
’It really jumped from 51% to 55% right at the end...’ Letting out a soft chuckle, he busied himself with observing the refining process of other cultivators.