'Just as I thought.'
Fang Yun was very pleased with the results of this refining session.
He had finally produced an Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pill. One, to be exact. Of the other four pills, two were Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills and two were Middle Grade.
Unlike his previous refining attempts, this time he had paid special attention to one particular pill toward the end of the process.
This pill was the sole Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pill now in his hand.
'The further I progress, the more the quality of the refining materials limits me...'
As usual, Fang Yun began to summarize his experience. At his current level, however, there wasn't much left to summarize.
For a single batch of Qi Nourishing Pills, the best possible outcome was naturally for all five pills to be Upper Grade. Due to the limitations of his Spirit Medicines, however, there was no way Fang Yun could achieve this. To refine five Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills, one had to use superior-quality Spirit Medicines.
Fang Yun estimated that with the materials he was currently using, even if his Alchemy skills continued to improve, three Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills would be his absolute limit.
And that would likely require sacrificing the other two pills in the batch.
After putting away the single Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pill, he began to count the number of Lower Grade and Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills he had.
Eighty-three Lower Grade and sixty-one Middle Grade in total.
The cost of the materials for refining the Qi Nourishing Pills was eighty-three Lower Grade Spirit Stones in total. The cost of renting the Alchemy Room was eleven Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
That was ninety-four Lower Grade Spirit Stones all together.
Fang Yun still hadn't factored in the cost of renting "Preliminary Understanding of Alchemy" or purchasing the Qi Nourishing Pill Formula.
The next step was to sell all the Middle and Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills.
After cleaning up the medicinal dregs, Fang Yun left the number five Lower-Grade Alchemy Room.
"Steward Zhou, here is the Token."
Steward Zhou took the Token, made a note, and then asked, "Fang Yun, how did the refining go this time?"
"Not bad this time, either. Better than the day before yesterday."
"Sigh, it's such a shame you don't have Three Spirit Roots," Steward Zhou said with a hint of regret upon hearing this.
The two chatted briefly before Fang Yun left.
Some time ago, Fang Yun had noticed that this Steward Zhou enjoyed sipping a few cups of Spirit Wine while on duty. After learning of his hobby, Fang Yun had spent two Lower Grade Spirit Stones to give him a jar of Spirit Wine.
Naturally, the gift had a purpose.
He needed more information about Dan Cloud Peak within the Celestial Cloud Sect.
If you want someone's help, how can you not show a little consideration?
Song Qiaoqiao was an exception to this, in Fang Yun's mind.
'She's a special case, so she doesn't count.'
Whether or not you get a return on a gift depends on the person.
This Steward Zhou had left a good overall impression on Fang Yun. The first time he came here to rent an Alchemy Room, the man had even kindly given him a reminder.
Oftentimes, you can clearly see a person's character through such small details.
This was also the reason Fang Yun had gifted him the Spirit Wine.
In return for the gifted Spirit Wine, Fang Yun received the payback he wanted: he gathered more information, which would help him plan his future path.
This month, he had also gone to see Steward Song and had gotten more detailed information about the sect from him as well.
With the Light Spirit Shoes increasing his speed, he had even found the time yesterday to check in on that little girl, Huang Mengzhu, and briefly learned about her recent situation.
'For the first three years after joining the sect, there's normally nothing to worry about.'
Ascending the stone steps, Fang Yun headed in the direction of the Dan Cloud Pavilion.
Selling the Lower and Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills at a stall would take too much time, so he decided to have the Dan Cloud Pavilion buy them.
The Dan Cloud Pavilion's purchase price was ninety percent of the normal market price.
Compared to the time he would waste, this was completely acceptable to Fang Yun.
Upon entering the Dan Cloud Pavilion, Fang Yun's gaze was instantly drawn to a particular figure. Exhausted from refining three batches of Qi Nourishing Pills, his concentration seemed to have weakened considerably.
Averting his gaze, Fang Yun greeted her.
"Senior Sister Song."
"Oh, it's Junior Brother Fang. What brings you to the Dan Cloud Pavilion?" After noticing Fang Yun, Song Qiaoqiao set aside what she was doing. She came over to greet him while also asking his reason for being there.
"To sell Qi Nourishing Pills."
"Oh, I see. To sell Qi Nourishing Pills, you can see Junior Sister Wang."
Today at the counter on this floor of the Dan Cloud Pavilion, it was once again Wang Yourong handling matters.
As Fang Yun walked toward Wang Yourong, Song Qiaoqiao followed behind him.
Seeing this, Fang Yun turned and looked quizzically at Song Qiaoqiao, who had followed him.
"Um, Junior Brother Fang, I'm quite curious how many Qi Nourishing Pills you refined," Song Qiaoqiao confessed. She was genuinely curious.
After returning from her great-grandfather's place less than half a month ago, she had done some calculations for Fang Yun.
She had lent him one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones. If Fang Yun used up all those Spirit Stones, refined pills, and sold them all, he would ideally make a profit of fifty Lower Grade Spirit Stones. Only then would it be possible for him to repay her one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones within a year.
Originally, she hadn't cared much about it; it wouldn't have mattered even if Fang Yun returned the Spirit Stones a little late.
But on that day, her great-grandfather had specifically instructed her to tell him in a year's time whether or not Junior Brother Fang had returned the one hundred Spirit Stones she'd lent him. Since then, she had become rather concerned about the matter.
At the same time, she was also quite curious about Fang Yun's Alchemy Talent.
The fact that he was now here to sell Qi Nourishing Pills showed that Fang Yun possessed a certain degree of Alchemy Talent.
This Alchemy Talent must have at least met the standard Fang Yun had set for himself. Otherwise, based on his own words, he wouldn't have continued to spend so many resources on Alchemy.
"Oh, is that it? You should have just said so, Senior Sister. No need to follow me so sneakily."
Song Qiaoqiao had been walking cautiously behind him, which gave him the impression that she was being sneaky.
Looking at Song Qiaoqiao's expression, Fang Yun, who had been about to say something else, thought better of it and held his tongue.
"Come now, Junior Brother Fang, let your Senior Sister here see the fruits of your labor over the past two months." Wang Yourong, who had been listening in from behind the counter with a cocked ear, had heard the entire conversation between Fang Yun and Song Qiaoqiao clearly.
Fang Yun walked up to the counter, nodded, and then took out a pile of small porcelain vials, each containing five pills.
"Senior Sister Wang, please count them. There are eighty Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills and sixty Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills."
"So many!" The first person to exclaim in surprise was Song Qiaoqiao, who was standing next to Fang Yun.
At this very moment, as she stared at the small porcelain vials one by one, her mind was buzzing.
According to the Dan Cloud Pavilion's purchase price...
Eighty Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills would be seventy-two Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
Sixty Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills would be one hundred and eight Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
That's a total of one hundred and eighty Lower Grade Spirit Stones!
Just moments ago, she had been thinking it would be fine if Fang Yun could just sell pills worth fifty Lower Grade Spirit Stones. This didn't just exceed her expectations; it completely blew her mind.
One had to remember that Junior Brother Fang was self-taught from a Pill Formula; he hadn't taken on any missions or served as an apothecary's apprentice to learn Alchemy.
His Alchemy Talent was truly high.
Wang Yourong didn't know what had happened to Fang Yun over these past two months, but she thought the Qi Nourishing Pills spread out before her were telling enough.
When Fang Yun came here to buy the Qi Nourishing Pill Formula at the beginning of November, he was definitely a Cultivator who hadn't been practicing Alchemy for very long.
"Ah, okay... Junior Brother, wait a moment. I'll count them."