Chapter 469 - 341: Steady Progress
When refining this batch of Five Qi Chao Ling Pills, Fang Yun’s goal was merely to produce one Upper Grade pill and five Middle Grade ones.
’By the time I refine the fourth batch of Five Qi Chao Ling Pills, I should be able to achieve perfect refinement.’
Fang Yun recalculated. His previous estimate had been around the seventh batch.
After summarizing his experience from this round of alchemy, Fang Yun began refining the second batch of Five Qi Chao Ling Pills.
Back when he was in the Foundation Establishment Stage, he couldn’t continuously refine two batches of Third Tier pills.
If he didn’t rest, his condition would deteriorate while refining the second batch, which would easily affect the outcome.
But now that he had reached Core Formation, he could refine two or even three consecutive batches without it affecting his condition at all.
The mental and spiritual fortitude of a Core Formation cultivator was far greater than that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Someone at the Foundation Establishment Stage might run into issues after cultivating nonstop for a month, but a Core Formation Stage cultivator could do so for an entire year without any problems.
Due to other commitments on his schedule, Fang Yun generally wouldn’t spend half a month straight refining Five Qi Chao Ling Pills.
Two consecutive batches was about right.
Just as Fang Yun had expected, by the time he got to the fourth batch, he was able to achieve perfect refinement of the Five Qi Chao Ling Pills.
「Less than half a year later.」
Ten batches of Five Qi Chao Ling Pills were refined one after another.
The final result was that out of sixty Five Qi Chao Ling Pills, forty-one were Upper Grade, and the remaining nineteen were Middle Grade.
The distribution of the Five Qi Chao Ling Pills among the sect’s Core Formation higher-ups had long been decided.
Fang Yun’s share consisted entirely of Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pills.
However, the number of Upper Grade pills he would be allocated depended on his refining results.
If the total yield of sixty pills contained between forty and forty-four Upper Grade pills, he would be allocated twenty of them.
If the count was between thirty-five and thirty-nine, his share would be nineteen. If it was between thirty and thirty-four, he would only receive seventeen.
If the count of Upper Grade pills fell below thirty, the arrangement would change slightly; he would receive some Middle Grade pills to ensure his total share was no less than sixteen pills.
Now that he could perfectly refine the pills, as long as the quality of the Spirit Medicine wasn’t too poor, he was unlikely to ever produce fewer than thirty Upper Grade pills.
Twenty Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pills were in his hands.
Even the sect’s higher-ups had to follow the rules, so the required Sect Contribution Points had to be paid.
Fang Yun wasn’t short on Sect Contribution Points. The points he earned from refining these ten batches were enough to pay for fifteen of the Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pills.
At the Core Formation Stage, the rate at which he earned Sect Contribution Points was even more terrifying. Now, when he refined Primordial Spirit Pills, he received pure rewards, unlike before when his "reward" was simply a portion of the pills he produced.
In the Cultivation Room.
An Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill materialized in Fang Yun’s hand. He was about to use a pill for cultivation for the first time since reaching the Core Formation Stage.
The moment he consumed the Five Qi Chao Ling Pill, Fang Yun felt its potent medicinal energy surge within him.
He immediately began refining and absorbing the medicinal energy, converting it into his own cultivation.
Upper Grade pills were absorbed quickly and provided a greater increase in cultivation.
However, "quickly" was a relative term; it still took five days to completely absorb and refine the medicinal energy of a single Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill.
A Middle Grade pill required around thirteen days, and a Lower Grade one took about a month.
’Absorbing one Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill is roughly equivalent to fifteen months of my own bitter cultivation.’ After finishing his session, Fang Yun assessed the improvement in his cultivation and made a quick calculation.
The medicinal energy of an Upper Grade pill was more than double that of a Middle Grade, and a Middle Grade was more than double that of a Lower Grade.
When comparing an Upper Grade to a Lower Grade, the former was roughly five times more potent than the latter.
’...If I absorb a Lower Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill, it would advance my cultivation by about three months, but it would take a full month to absorb.’
An Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill was five times as potent as a Lower Grade one, but the price difference was about tenfold.
The extra cost was for the time saved.
The amount of time saved could be viewed from different angles, leading to vastly different conclusions.
For example, using a Lower Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pill saves two months of cultivation time. By contrast, using an Upper Grade pill—even if you round the five-day absorption period up to a full month—saves fourteen months of cultivation time. That’s a difference of more than sevenfold.
From a pill seller’s perspective, it should be viewed like this:
Using a Lower Grade pill is like turning one day into three, whereas using an Upper Grade pill is like turning one day into ninety.
That’s clearly a thirty-fold difference!
If you wanted to be even more extreme, you could say a Lower Grade pill saves you double the time invested, while an Upper Grade pill saves you eighty-nine times the time invested. That’s a difference of nearly forty-five-fold!
Fang Yun preferred to look at things objectively.
To achieve the same amount of cultivation increase, using an Upper Grade pill would take five days, whereas using Lower Grade pills would take five months. The time saved was over one hundred and forty days.
Those 140-odd days represented the time value that made the Upper Grade pills so expensive.
’In another sixty or seventy years, I should be able to reach the peak of the Early-stage Core Formation. Ideally, I’ll break through to the mid-stage before I turn two hundred.’
Fang Yun was already setting his future cultivation goals.
Without using the Cultivation Room’s Gathering Spirit Array or other aids, his current Spirit Root Talent would require about one hundred and fifty years of arduous cultivation to go from the entry-level to the peak of the Early-stage Core Formation.
Twenty Upper Grade Five Qi Chao Ling Pills were equivalent to twenty-five years of his own arduous cultivation.
The primary ingredient for the Five Qi Chao Ling Pill, the Spirit-towarding Root, took one hundred and eight years to mature. The sect cultivated its Spirit-towarding Roots in three separate batches.
This meant that over the next sixty to seventy years, they could likely refine the pills twice. Barring any mishaps, he would be allocated twenty Upper Grade pills each time.
He needed to break through the Core Formation Stage quickly to have any chance of reaching the Nascent Soul Stage later on.
Simply reaching the Core Formation Stage was not Fang Yun’s ultimate goal.
The first step of the plan he had proposed in the leadership meeting was for his own future as well as the sect’s.
In the Qionglin Domain, the rise of a new, orthodox Nascent Soul Influence was definitely not something the other Evil Dao Nascent Soul Influences wanted to see.
Therefore, the further his plan progressed, the greater the obstacles would become, and each obstacle represented a risk.
So far, the first step of his plan was unfolding smoothly.
The Celestial Demon Sect was now aware that Spirit Refiners from the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Battle Peak would be appearing in their territory.
The Celestial Demon Sect, however, had not reacted strongly—at least not on the surface.
This was within Fang Yun’s expectations.
His plan was designed for steady advancement. Not many Elders were being sent to the Celestial Demon Sect’s territory to carry out missions. If too many had gone at once, the Celestial Demon Sect’s reaction might have been completely different.
After Fang Yun left the Cultivation Room.
He saw Song Qiaoqiao in the main hall of his cave residence, sipping Spirit Tea.
"Husband, you’ve finished your cultivation. Perfect timing, I have some news for you."
"What is it?"
Fang Yun walked over, sat down beside Song Qiaoqiao, and casually wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Your plan is now also underway in the territories of the Demon Spirit Sect and the Black Ghost Cave. It’s progressing very smoothly so far." Song Qiaoqiao was paying close attention to the plan Fang Yun had proposed.
She made sure to inform him of any new developments as soon as she saw him.
"Smooth is good," Fang Yun nodded gently. "Once the Celestial Demon Sect, Demon Spirit Sect, and Black Ghost Cave grow accustomed to our movements, we can begin the second step of the plan."
A steady, stable advancement of the plan was exactly what Fang Yun wanted.
The ultimate goal of this plan was to deal with the Celestial Demon Sect.
As for the Demon Spirit Sect and the Black Ghost Cave, they would require a separate plan.