章 86: Highest Level Supreme Tier Pill

Lan Xiang smiled as he mixed and matched the various solutions inside the cauldrons with each other. Some, he needed to inject his qi, and some, he needed to let simmer for a few minutes. In any case, he was getting closer and closer to his goal.

The spectators took out their phones and recorded the footage. They needed to preserve this mind-blowing scene, and also brag about it to their friends who weren't here to witness it personally.

Soon, Lan Xiang felt that it was time for the last phase of the pill refining. Using multiple cauldrons had saved him much time, but in the end, he needed all of the ingredients in one cauldron to finalize the process.

And so, as he twirled his finger, all of the substances in each cauldron flew out and merged in the sky, before being poured into his main cauldron.

He put the lid on and closed his eyes. This needed his utmost attention, more so than when he controlled multiple streams at the same time.

This was because he intended to fine-tune the catalyzation and formation of his pill. He had spotted multiple errors in the recipe, just from scanning it himself.

'With the knowledge from my pill refining technique, as well as my own intellect, I can upgrade the technique on my own, without the help of the system!'

Of course, should he have used the system, an upgrade would have much more noticeable effects than the little corrections he could make here and there.

'I need to brush up my knowledge on pill refining. That way, I don't need the system to improve pill recipes. Jian'er should be able to help me, she's a genius,' Lan Xiang thought as he made a mental note.

'Come to think of it, this recipe is already a Gold level technique, yet it has errors clearly noticeable even by a noob pill refiner like me. Can it be... are there rarity levels past Red?'

Lan Xiang contemplated for a while.

'...I'll think about this later. For now, I need to focus on the problem at hand.'

The cauldron in front of him shook slightly. Lan Xiang shot strands of his qi through the pores of the cauldron. He controlled the formation of the pill with his qi like strings on a puppet, just with ten times more strings.

From time to time, as the pill solidified, deformities appeared and impurities surfaced, both of which Lan Xiang had to correct.

As he arrived closer to the end, more and more of these errors showed up, putting Lan Xiang under more stress than before.

Steam blew out of the lid. The black, unpleasant-smelling smoke rose to the atmosphere.

"Err, that's not a good sign, is it?" The assistant, who came back beside Ning Muqin, scratched his head. Although he knew as much about pill refining as a pig, he could still tell that the smoke coming out of a cauldron, especially one hosting a Supreme tier pill, should not be as thick and dark as the one he could see.

Ning Muqin clicked her tongue. From the looks of it, the pill's level was the lowest of the low, maybe even garbage. However, given the time restraints, it was already a miracle that Miss X had managed to even make the pill. How could she expect more...?

Meanwhile, Lan Xiang, who could see the current state of affairs inside the cauldron, knew that the smoke coming out was not representative of the quality of the pill, but rather, it was the result of the build-up of impurities he had taken out of the ingredients.

As such, it indicated the opposite-- because the pill had been so well-refined that the coagulation of impurities was that thick, it should be expected that the final product was as clean and pure as water from the spring of heavens.

"Whew, it's done." Lan Xiang opened his eyes and stood up. "Ah, my legs ache... for how long have I been sitting here stationary?"

He looked at the sky. "--! It's already dusk? Err..."

Lan Xiang looked at the crowd surrounding his stall. It became as crowded as it was before, mostly because they found out that with Miss X at the helm, no harm would come to them from incidents such as a furnace explosion, toxic smog, and everything else.

However, unlike before, when they just admired him as a pretty good pill refiner, Lan Xiang could see in their eyes something intense... "worship".

'Why are they looking at me like that?? I just refined pills like usual.'

Of course, Lan Xiang had no idea that using multiple cauldrons to refine a pill was something that even pill refining gods could not do. He brushed off their unnatural gazes and placed the cauldrons he borrowed from Xie Jian back into his storage ring one by one. Soon enough, there was only one cauldron left.

Ning Muqin gulped as Lan Xiang slowly took the lid off the cauldron.

She took a step back in shock as whiffs of steam emerged from the cauldron. Unlike the dense and dark smoke from earlier, the steam was transparent and clean. As she inched closer, she caught a sniff of the steam and flushed red.

It was unbelievably fragrant! And salivating...

As she wiped the drool off her face, she approached Miss X.

Lan Xiang peeked inside the cauldron and was satisfied by the sight. There were 4 pills in total, all of which were as smooth as a marble, free from any visible flaws. Although he thought that there were still errors that needed to be smoothed out, he could not do so as it was already nearing nighttime, and it would intrude on both his and the customer's interests.

He grabbed the pills and placed the rug and the cauldron back inside his storage ring.

"Here, Body Reconstruction Pills, made within the day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be going home now."

Before the crowd could react, Lan Xiang ran to the alleyway and opened a portal, leaving no trace of his presence behind.

"What! What happened!" "Miss X bailed, she ran away again!" "Sh*t! We were too caught up in her skills!"

The crowd lamented the fact that the mysterious pill refiner got away from their grasp once more. What's more was that they didn't know whether she'd be back, as she stated earlier that this day would be the last.

Ning Muqin, pills in her hand, breathed rapidly. The pills she was given weren't low level nor crude at all. In fact, Ning Muqin suspected that they were of the highest level... and yet, how was that possible? Not only did Miss X somehow refine a Supreme tier pill within half a day, but she also managed to make it a high level!

A pill's quality was separated into two: its tier and its level. The tier represented the difficulty of refining the pill, while the level represented the final quality that the pill ended up with. Naturally, it was a piece of cake to refine a low tier pill with the lowest level, and vice versa.

The Supreme tier was the second-highest tier a pill recipe could get, and therefore, was the second hardest as well. To refine a pill of such tier to a high level was akin to hammering diamonds into tools. And yet, Miss X had done so effortlessly, so much so that she made Ning Muqin think that it wasn't a big deal.

She tapped her assistant, who was staring at the pills in her hand. "Make sure to inform me if she comes back here tomorrow. Not granting her any reward will leave a big gap in my heart... Ah, and get me a pill bottle. I can't possibly hold these precious pills in my hand."

The assistant nodded as he went to one of the fake pill shops, absent of vendors. He discreetly took a pill bottle and threw the contents to the ground before placing a few bills on the counter.

As soon as Ning Muqin got the bottle, she carefully dropped the Body Reconstruction Pills one by one inside the bottle, feeling hopeful.

"This should work..." A tear ran down her cheek.