Immortal Mortal

Mo Wuji did not guess wrongly; he was allowed to exchange spiritual herbs. Moreover the disciple at the spiritual herbs warehouse was startled when he saw Mo Wuji, so Mo Wuji was easily able to exchange for the herbs he wanted. In addition to what he already had, Mo Wuji had gathered a total of spiritual herbs enough for 11 batches of Spirit Strengthening Pills.

With 11 batches at hand, Mo Wuji did not immediately rush into concocted pills. Instead, he went to accept a large amounts of Tier 2 Pill Refinement Tasks. After all, he was only a Tier 2 pill refiner, and his experience with concocting Tier 2 spiritual pills was limited. If he wanted to concoct Tier 3 pills, he needed to move one step at a time. Through concocting Tier 2 spiritual pills, he would be able to improve his capabilities in the shortest period of time.

Yan Qianyin had told him before, the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition would take place half a year later. In this mere half a year, he would need to advance to a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner. That’s when he could have the opportunity to qualify to enter the pill competition and meet Granny Linglong.

Previously, Mo Wuji was wholeheartedly cultivating and opening his meridians. Even though he had to perform duties for the sect, he wasn’t very active in them.

Now, however, after accepting the various pill refinement tasks, he knew how wonderful it was to be a pill refiner. There was no danger in helping the sect concoct pills, but the amount of sect contribution points he could earn was sky high. But this was not the most pleasant surprise he received. The most pleasant surprise was that he would be allocated 13 batches of ingredients to concoct 10 batches of pills. At the same time, he would only need to give the sect 80% of the maximum batch size.

A batch of pills usually had a maximum batch size of 12, 9 or 6. Very few had a maximum batch size of 18.

Regardless of the batch size, concocting pills under these conditions, it’s hard not to get rich.

If Mo Wuji had known earlier the benefits of concocting pills for the sect, he would have accepted these tasks sooner. Not only could he obtain various pills, he can earn a whole pile of spiritual herbs and contribution points. At this point, Mo Wuji understood why Yan Qianyin wanted him to accept some of these pill refinement tasks. It was because she meant well for him.

Especially the sect contribution points; they had so many uses and could be used to exchange for all sorts of stuff. At this moment, Mo Wuji needed large amounts of Tier 3 spiritual herbs, and he could use the sect contribution points to exchange for that.

Actually, all this was a misunderstanding on Mo Wuji’s part. For an average pill refiner, being able to have a success rate of 80% was already extremely exceptional. Furthermore, when concocting pills, it would not always produce at maximum batch size. So it wasn’t the sect’s intention for the pill refiners to retain many pills and spiritual herbs.

However, Mo Wuji did not know all this. After all, he had the wordless pill manual which taught him to concoct pills using hand and pill techniques. When he was at Formless Blade Mountain, he had a 100% success rate when concocting Tier 1 pills. In reality, how many pill refiners had success rates as high as his?

After accepting the various pill refinement tasks, Mo Wuji chose to go to Pharmacy 19. It was rumoured that concocting at Pharmacy 19 would lower the success rates, but Mo Wuji did not care. He was now a Tier 2 pill refiner, he should be able to concoct Tier 2 pills. Moreover, using a more difficult pill furnace could help improve his standards.

Mo Wuji did not call Fei Bingzhu, but asked Wu Kai to arrange him an ingredient boy.

In the entire month, besides the brief, daily visits to Yan’Er daily, Mo Wuji spent the rest of the time concocting pills.

In this month, Mo Wuji didn’t know the exact number of Tier 2 pills he concocted, but he had already accumulated a whole stockpile of pills. Towards the end, he did not even bother cleaning the pill furnace and directly started purifying the spiritual ingredients. Every batch of pills still flowed out smoothly without a hiccup. At the same time, all the pills he concocted were of high quality.

The leftover spiritual herbs and expensive pills were all exchanged for Tier 3 spiritual herbs as Mo Wuji started to prepare to concoct Tier 3 pills.

However, he did not manage to gather enough spiritual herbs for a 12th batch of Spirit Strengthening Pills no matter how he exchanged. Virtually all the herbs needed for the Spirit Strengthening Pills in the sect were owned by him. Moreover, going out of the sect to exchange for herbs would require too much time, and this was not what Mo Wuji wanted. Time was too precious for him.

Still, Mo Wuji did not mind. The Spirit Strengthening Pill was just one of his aims; he had a more important aim, which was to become a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner.

Mo Wuji first practised with the Tier 3 Mortality Transcending Pill. This pill could help increase a Spirit Building Stage cultivator’s chances at advancing into the Transcending Mortality Stage. It was relatively simple to concoct, and its value was not low.

As he started to concoct a Tier 3 pill, Mo Wuji was no longer as casual as he had been with the Tier 2 pills. He cautiously ignited the earth fire and started to clean the pill furnace. It was only after cleaning the pill furnace thrice before he sent the spiritual herbs in for purification. The Mortality Transcending Pill required a total of 20 pills, of which there were eight varieties of Tier 3 spiritual herbs. This was even more than the Spirit Strengthening Pill. The rest were either Tier 1 or Tier 2 spiritual herbs.

Mo Wuji spent a whole two hours on purifying the herbs, most of which were spent on the Tier 3 spiritual herbs. Even though it seemed like a simple and small increase in tier level, the difficulty in purifying a Tier 3 spiritual herb was multiple times higher than a Tier 2 one.

These few strains of Tier 3 spiritual herbs already expended so much of his energy. Mo Wuji could only imagine how difficult it would be to become an Earth Pill Refiner.

Purifying the herbs was merely an opening act; the real show came in the fusing of the medicinal essences and the condensing of the pills.

As Mo Wuji just started to fuse the medicinal essences, he felt a tumble within the pill furnace followed by the a pungent scent.

Mo Wuji’s heart sank; he knew that his fusion had failed. He just started on his first batch of Tier 3 pills but he was immediately met with failure.

Mo Wuji did not continue to attempt on a second batch, as he was clear that this was not a problem with his hand and pill techniques, but a matter with his cultivation. He did not have enough spiritual energy to control the proper fusion of the essences.

Perhaps with a few more batches, his experience might prolong the fusion process, but it would still ultimately end in failure. If he did not improve his cultivation, and merely depended on his techniques, he might only be able to advance to a Tier 3 pill refiner a few years later. Moreover, this would require countless Tier 3 spiritual herbs for practice.

Yan Qianyin was not lying to him; if he did not increase his cultivation, it would be difficult to surpass Tier 2. It would be same no matter how good his techniques were.

To become a Tier 3 pill refiner in the shortest period of time, he would need to raise his cultivation. To do that, he must continue to open more meridians. Mo Wuji sighed dispiritedly as he packed up his herbs and stopped his pill concocting session.

…

“Big sis Xiong, where’s Bingzhu?” When he returned to Lotus Sword Summit, the first thing Mo Wuji did was to find Fei Bingzhu. Over the past month, he was too engrossed with his pills, and was unaware of Fei Bingzhu’s progress with the Treasured Blood Lotus.

Now that he needed to open more meridians, he wanted to ask Fei Bingzhu about the probabilities of finding the Treasured Blood Lotus at the Lotus Sword Summit. If it was really impossible to find the Treasured Blood Lotus at the Lotus Sword Summit, he will not continue to stay here and waste time.

“Deacon Fei has gone to the Blood Lotus Lake. He told me to inform you, the moment you come back, to find him there,” Xiong Xiuzhu hurriedly replied.

When Mo Wuji heard that, his spirits immediately got enlivened. He did not even give a reply to Xiong Xiuzhu as he rushed towards the Blood Lotus Lake.

“Pill Master Meng, brother Fei is a friend of the Lotus Sword Summit Lord Mo. Now that you already have the lotus, please let him go.” Before he even reached the Blood Lotus Lake, Mo Wuji could hear Wu Kai’s pleading voice from afar.

“Fei Bingzhu, what’s going on?” With a few steps, Mo Wuji landed in a pool of blood, right by Fei Bingzhu.