Five days later.
In the dead of night, Luo Chen was still busy at work.
He cleaned the Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace and swept the alchemy room.
After shoveling the ashes from the fire pit into a large bucket, he set it outside the door. Someone would come collect it the next day—after all, he paid a night soil fee of one spirit stone a month.
The person who collected the night soil would naturally haul away garbage as well.
Once everything was thoroughly cleaned, Luo Chen took advantage of the quiet while everyone was asleep to head into the courtyard and rinse off with cold water.
Along the way, he brought the potted plants Fu Xiuxiu had entrusted to his care inside, lest someone steal them.
Though most were ornamental flowers and foliage, there was also a first-order spiritual herb: the moonlight grass.
With everything finished, Luo Chen felt completely refreshed.
Only then did he return to his bed and sit cross-legged.
Taking out a jade vial, he tipped it and poured out a longan-sized pill.
"The last Qi-Nourishing Pill."
Calm as an unruffled well, Luo Chen swallowed it in a single gulp, then circulated the Eternal Spring Art. As he refined its medicinal power, he did his best to absorb the stray spiritual energy in the air.
Half an hour later, Luo Chen slowly opened his eyes.
A slight swelling sensation in his lower abdomen and dantian indicated his cultivation had progressed once more.
He opened his attribute panel.
[Name: Luo Chen]
[Lifespan: 27/75]
[Spiritual Root: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth]
[Realm: Fourth Layer of Qi Refining: 61/100]
[Cultivation Method: Eternal Spring Art (Perfection): 490/500]
[Spells: Fireball Art (Grandmaster) 630/1000, Carefree Wandering (Perfection) 451/500, Entangling Art (Mastery) 278/300, Cleansing Art (Proficiency) 120/200, Attraction Art (Perfection) 310/500, Spiritual Eye Art (Mastery) 237/300, Wind Riding Technique (Entry) 56/100]
[Skills: Tier 1 Alchemist: Fasting Powder (Grandmaster) 790/1000, Myriad Wonders Pill (Mastery) 211/300]
[Achievement Points: 11]
Luo Chen stared blankly at the panel, a sudden surge of mixed emotions welling within him.
It had changed. Aside from his fixed lifespan and spiritual roots, everything had changed.
Compared to the blank slate of attributes he had started with when he first crossed over, he had undergone a truly earth-shaking transformation.
First was the change in his realm. There was little to say about this—a full five hundred spirit stones' worth of Qi-Nourishing Pills, paired with a first-order spirit vein, the perfected Eternal Spring Art, and the past half month of assistance from the moonlight grass, had pushed his progress bar up to 61.
With enough Qi-Nourishing Pills, breaking through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining was just around the corner.
Next was his cultivation method.
Through his persistent efforts, the proficiency level of the Eternal Spring Art was edging closer step by step to Grandmaster.
It was only ten points away—a matter of three or four days at most.
Luo Chen was in no hurry. Although he was eager to see what changes a Grandmaster-level Eternal Spring Art would bring, he had plenty of patience.
Having endured through far harsher days, this brief wait was nothing more than the solitary quiet before dawn.
And then, there were the spells!
In fact, this was the category with the most numerous and drastic changes.
So much had changed that he hardly knew where to begin taking stock.
All he knew was that ever since he took a page from Gu Caiyi's book and began integrating these spells into daily life, his proficiency had shot up at an astonishing rate.
With Carefree Wandering at Perfection combined with the newly learned Wind Riding Technique, Luo Chen's speed already far outstripped that of flying artifacts.
He had tested it yesterday against his lotus leaf flying disc, and it was indeed slower than running on foot.
As for the rest, the Entangling Art and Cleansing Art were just part of his routine practice, worked in incidentally; currently useful in daily life, though not of much combat utility.
Spiritual Eye Art had risen especially fast over the past half month, likely because he kept it active constantly while monitoring his alchemy.
In just a short time, it had reached Mastery.
Attraction Art was even faster, already at Perfection. He could now manipulate that set of Jasper Sabers with great skill.
If he encountered an enemy in the future, he would have yet another means of combat at his disposal.
A cause for celebration indeed!
Yet what gave Luo Chen the greatest pleasant surprise was the Fireball Art.
From its initial Mastery level to its current Grandmaster rank, he had poured an immense amount of effort into this spell.
The spiritual energy he had expended was beyond count.
However, the ultimate fruit of his labor was well worth every ounce of effort.
With a mere thought!
Within a single breath, ten sparks of flame materialized over his palm, hovering like dazzling fireflies.
This was the qualitative leap of the Fireball Art reaching Grandmaster level.
No hand incantations were required, only a supply of spiritual energy. Though casting speed had not changed drastically, the quantity had undergone an earth-shattering shift.
Instead of the standard one fireball at a time, he could now release ten all at once.
If he was willing to pour in enough spiritual energy, each of these ten fireballs would be no weaker than one cast individually.
From now on, Luo Chen's mobile turret fighting style had advanced to a whole new level.
Namely: concentrated area fire!
Ten full-power fireballs hurled simultaneously—an enemy would have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Luo Chen had even renamed this move. "Fireball Art" sounded too plain; he would call it Dancing Fireflies!
With a flick of his wrist, the ten sparks landed on the floor tiles, hissing and sizzling.
After taking stock of the spells, only the skills column remained.
He was still a Tier 1 Alchemist. Until he refined a second-order pill, that likely wouldn't change.
Fasting Pills were still at Grandmaster level. He continued refining them regularly to diversify his product line.
The biggest change lay in the Myriad Wonders Pill.
Reflecting on his journey, advancing from Entry to Proficiency had taken him a full four months.
During that time, he had failed over a hundred times, sinking as much as four to five hundred spirit stones in capital. For a while, he had faced zero profit, relying entirely on the meager income from Fasting Pills to stay afloat.
Back then, his heart had been in his throat every day, terrified of taking a loss.
Only last month had he barely scraped through into Proficiency.
Yet now, everything had changed.
Much like capital, the initial accumulation stage was always the hardest.
Once you secured your first bucket of gold and tasted your first success, subsequent development truly felt like playing with cheats turned on.
How much capital in the world had ballooned into a monstrous titan in just a few short years?
Luo Chen was in that exact situation now!
A year of preparation, four months of grinding proficiency, and starting this month, he had taken off like a rocket.
In half a month, he had refined thirty batches in total, succeeding in six, yielding sixty Myriad Wonders Pills.
Adding sixty proficiency points, combined with his final five successes from the previous month, his proficiency had jumped straight from Proficiency to Mastery.
Luo Chen hadn't yet had the chance to test what effects the Mastery-level Myriad Wonders Pill alchemy would bring.
All he knew was that he was in the snowballing phase now: the better his skill, the more spirit stones he made, and grinding proficiency would only accelerate from here on out.
Grandmaster was well within reach!
What was more, the surprises didn't end there.
[Achievement Points: 11 (can be used to attain Entry level in cultivation methods, spells, and skills corresponding to your realm)]
His points had recharged past ten once again, which meant he had another chance to upgrade himself.
Whether in cultivation methods, spells, or skills!
However, Luo Chen hadn't yet decided how to spend these eleven achievement points.
Aside from an unlearned Healing Art, all he had on hand was a damaged recipe for Jade Dew Pills.
The Healing Art wasn't difficult; he was confident he could reach Entry level on his own in the future.
The Jade Dew Pill recipe was also unsuitable. As a second-order pill, not only did it not correspond to his current realm, but the primary ingredients involved were second-order materials.
Those were pegged to Foundation Establishment cultivators and second-order demon beasts.
"I'll save them for now. They'll come in handy sooner or later."
"As for what comes next, there's no rush to refine pills. I need to recoup a batch of funds first."
Luo Chen glanced at the empty jade vial of Qi-Nourishing Pills, missing the exhilaration of cultivating with pills and rocketing upward.
Chapter 43