Even the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had moments when it was unreliable.
For his second round of pill refining, Wei Yuan adopted all of the suggestions from the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, only to yield a mere nine pills—and just a single one-veined spirit pill among them. Compared to his first attempt, the drop in performance was so abysmal it left Wei Yuan in disbelief.
Considering the celestial spiritual qi and karmic luck poured in, which were easily worth over a hundred thousand ounces of immortal silver, this cauldron had not even yielded a threefold return.
Wei Yuan immediately began to reflect: why had he swallowed whole the advice of a bunch of people who had never once refined a pill in their lives?
Although their advice was correct most of the time, that did not rule out mistakes. This time, errors dominated, accumulating from small blunders into major blunders until the final result went absurdly astray.
The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was also conducting its own self-reflection and produced several reports. The conclusions included incomplete reference materials, faulty data, medicinal herb quality variations exceeding normal thresholds, insufficient frequency of cauldron inspections, inaccurate test readings, and the complete inaction of the Creation Immortal Venerable, among others.
Looking it over again and again, Wei Yuan discovered that the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World did not acknowledge a single fault of its own. It had shirked every bit of blame clean away—with that final line serving as the crowning touch.
Speechless, Wei Yuan ordered a reevaluation, but the conclusion remained unchanged. He ordered yet another, and it was still the same.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and modified the task, directing it to optimize the alchemy process instead. This time, the task proceeded extraordinarily smoothly, identifying over a hundred shortcomings in the blink of an eye.
This time, Wei Yuan compared them item by item and thought it through carefully. Ultimately, he realized the primary cause was that they had over-modified the original alchemy procedure, going so far as tampering with the pill formula itself.
Every pill formula Xu Henshui produced was the culmination of hundreds or thousands of years of meticulous refinement by the Monastery of Creation; there was virtually no room for improvement left.
The reason Wei Yuan had repeatedly achieved results beyond imagination was twofold: first, he exerted minute, real-time control across the entire process, achieving microscopic precision in his alchemy—a capability that no ordinary Manifestation alchemist should possess. Second, he infused karmic luck into the refining, and his own karmic luck was extraordinary to begin with, allowing him to seize the fortune of heaven and earth.
Yet this time, they had taken innovation too far, even meddling with the formula itself. It was hardly surprising that the results turned out as they did.
Only in an endeavor like alchemy—one that seized natural fortune, demanded microscopic subtlety, and held strictly defined standards—could Wei Yuan uncover the flaws of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. It was not omnipotent.
Having identified the core issue, Wei Yuan reversed every change to the pill formula and focused instead on tightening and optimizing the alchemy process. Along the way, he would explore the specific effects of each medicinal ingredient. Only once the underlying principles were thoroughly understood would he revisit modifying the formula.
Working through all this, more than a day slipped past in the blink of an eye. Xu Henshui somehow caught wind of the news and rushed back at full speed, arriving just in time before Wei Yuan started his third cauldron.
Xu Henshui grasped Wei Yuan's hands and offered earnest comfort, speaking sincerely about how bad luck was the norm for alchemists, while striking dumb luck was rare. He then announced that he had brought back enough herbs from the main mountain for four more cauldrons, eager to strive forward together with Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan gladly agreed, and once more the two stood side by side to refine pills.
Seven days later, Xu Henshui unsealed his cauldron without a hitch. This batch yielded one two-veined pill and one one-veined pill, making nine pills in total. Bathed in the shocked gazes of his sect fellows, Xu Henshui felt he had grasped the true essence of the immortal path. As expected, an unburdened mind could produce immortal pills.
Wei Yuan's side, however, remained completely silent. This round lasted a full twenty-plus days before he quietly unsealed the cauldron and gathered his pills. Sensing the medicinal vapor, Xu Henshui rushed over to wait outside the alchemy chamber. He saw Wei Yuan push open the door as a balanced, serene pill aroma drifted out.
Wei Yuan walked out empty-handed, looking thoughtful, and muttered to himself, "I understand now..."
Though Xu Henshui knew better than to ask, he simply could not keep his mouth shut. "What do you understand?"
Wei Yuan said solemnly, "This pill formula is truly profound. If one truly masters it, every normal pill produced should be a one-veined spirit pill. To think I still have one that failed to form a pill vein... My skills are sorely lacking; I've disgraced Martial Uncle's formula!"
As he spoke, Wei Yuan stepped aside to clear the doorway. Through the chamber doors, a tray could be seen resting on the table inside. Neatly arranged in a circle upon it were twelve spirit pills: six two-veined and six one-veined, all surrounding a plain, bald pill with no veins at the center.
Xu Henshui wished he could slap himself in the face. Why did he have to run his big mouth and ask?
Although Wei Yuan had not produced another heaven-defying three-veined mystic pill this time, the overall quality and stability of the yield had clearly risen to a new plateau. As far as the Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill was concerned, only a few Scenery Command alchemists in the Monastery of Creation could match this caliber.
Yet Wei Yuan felt there was still untapped potential—after all, he hadn't even begun tweaking the pill formula yet.
And so Xu Henshui returned to the main mountain once more. Before he left, Wei Yuan asked if he could get a few more batches of ingredients, but Xu Henshui replied expressionlessly that all materials were exhausted and the main mountain had no stock remaining. If he wanted to keep refining, he would have to grow sunlight grass himself.
Helpless, Wei Yuan had no choice but to start his fourth cauldron alone. Before lighting the furnace, Wei Yuan sent out word: any cultivator of the Palace of Grand Beginning who had worked in Qingming for a full three years could purchase one Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill at half price, up to a one-veined spirit pill. To purchase a spirit pill would cost a mere sixty thousand ounces of immortal silver—equivalent to forty percent of market price.
If they lacked sufficient immortal silver, they could buy on credit and pay it off after five years. Though no interest would be charged, they would have to continue working in Qingming for those five years. Furthermore, the purchased spirit pills could not be resold and were strictly for personal use.
Upon hearing the news, Ren Suxing, who was buried in manufacturing cannon barrels, had a sharp light flare in his eyes; his entire presence was transformed.
It was the same for the disciples from the Hall of Jianmu, the Hall of Heavenly Craft, and the Hall of Xuanming who were among the earliest batch to arrive in Qingming. Tallying the days, many of them were approaching the three-year mark. Their prospects of reaching Manifestation had been rather dim, but now, hope had abruptly flared alive.
The Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill could be taken repeatedly, once every three years. No matter how poor their aptitudes were, these Palace of Grand Beginning disciples had at least a twenty percent chance of advancing to Manifestation. If each attempt was aided by a one-veined spirit pill over three consecutive tries, the chance of advancing to Manifestation would exceed sixty percent.
If an attempt to break through to Manifestation failed, each failure inflicted substantial damage on the body, and subsequent heavenly tribulations grew increasingly ferocious. An ordinary cultivator could attempt it four or five times at most, with the final attempt usually reserved for just before the natural end of their lifespan.
Word spread swiftly through Qingming. Soon, all the Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators knew that Wei Yuan had over a dozen one-veined spirit pills on hand, and even two-veined ones.
They dared not dream of two-veined spirit pills, but anyone with decent family backing wrote home immediately, begging their clans to pool immortal silver with all their might so they could apply for a Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill the moment their term of service was up. Those whose families had the means even prepared to purchase three pills in one go, securing their lifetime quota upfront.
Amid their joyful surprise, the cultivators inquired among one another. Learning that Wei Yuan was still actively refining and that the Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill would not be out of stock anytime soon, their minds settled considerably.
Those who arrived in Qingming earliest—Sun Yu and Yu Zhizhuo—were geniuses in the Palace of Grand Beginning, as was Xu Henshui, who came later. Old Daoist Chuhe was only mediocre in combat; in other areas, he was not lacking in the slightest. If nothing else, keeping several great spirit beasts perpetually content was something ordinary people could never accomplish.
Yet besides them, there were dozens of Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators from the early days who had worked quietly and without recognition across Qingming. As Qingming stabilized and figures like Xu Henshui arrived, dozens more disciples trickled in.
Later, after True Monarch Huangyun passed away here, over a dozen disciples from the Hall of Jianmu also came to Qingming.
Now, over a hundred Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators resided in Qingming. Yet even among Palace disciples, the vast majority remained obscure; only a tiny minority ever shone brilliantly.
Wei Yuan was finally able to do something for these ordinary cultivators, offering their Dao journeys a glimmer of hope.
Over the next month and more, Wei Yuan ran two cauldrons in succession, refining all the medicinal ingredients Xu Henshui had left behind, before finally breathing a sigh of relief.
By now, he had recalibrated the refining process. The standard duration per batch was extended from seven days to twenty-one, the standard yield increased from eight pills to twelve, and even an ordinary alchemist had a strong likelihood of producing one or two veined spirit pills.
After collecting the pills, Wei Yuan spent three full days organizing all the empirical data from this period. He finally compiled an exhaustive alchemy treatise that comprehensively optimized the refinement process of the Great Sun Morning Splendor Pill without altering its original formula.
Having done so, Wei Yuan submitted the alchemy treatise through the Hall of Merits. Barring the unexpected, the entire Palace of Grand Beginning would benefit from this methodology for the next thousand years, likely producing who knew how many new Real Persons.
Stepping out of the alchemy chamber, Wei Yuan felt thoroughly refreshed. Time truly held no meaning inside an alchemy room; three months had passed before he even realized it.
During the alchemy sessions, Wei Yuan had hardly been idle either, keeping track of Qingming's progress through the Dao Foundation warriors roaming about.
In the eyes of certain uninformed cultivators, Wei Yuan's eyes and ears seemed everywhere, giving them a constant sense that Big Brother was watching. And indeed, Big Brother was watching them at all times.
Wei Yuan had Cui Yu organize several thousand scouting cavalry. Normally dressed in the garb of the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang, they patrolled randomly within a thousand li of Qingming in squads of several dozen riders, driving away shamans as well as minor factions seeking to settle in the area.
In Wei Yuan's eyes, the land within a thousand li around Qingming would soon be his own territory, and this was an imminent reality; naturally, he would not permit anyone else to gain a foothold.
The shamans were relatively simple to handle; it was the petty human factions that proved the most troublesome—seizing every opening and harboring endless schemes. Those capable of surviving all the way out in the Western Regions were rebels and scoundrels to a man, without exception.
Wei Yuan did not even need to speak with them to know what they were thinking: they figured Wei Yuan's Qingming was bound to expand into this territory sooner or later. If they could endure the hardship of the first decade or two, the moment the boundary domain expanded over them, the land would instantly turn into rich, fertile soil.
Having developed the area for decades, they would then have the leverage to negotiate terms with Wei Yuan. Ideally, they would establish a state within a state and live carefree ever after.
More than half a year ago, before the Land of Rain attacked, Wei Yuan would have welcomed people like this. Back then, he had grasped at every drifting straw that floated by.
Now, however, after crushing the Land of Rain head-on at the cost of a million casualties, Wei Yuan had no tolerance for such people swooping in to reap the harvest.
With a name like the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang, its conduct naturally followed a simple rule: submit and prosper, resist and perish—and then perish again. When encountering small clans and factions, there were only three choices: get out, join up, or die.
Under all the heavens, where was there any land without a master?
Chapter 603