Ye Cang vowed silently that he would never attempt such a reckless stunt again.

After resting for a few minutes, he turned his gaze towards Mu Qianxue. With his mastery of medical skills now at the highest level, he could perceive every injury on her body. Her internal organs had been shaken, but it was not a grave concern; a Tier 3 recovery pill would suffice to heal those wounds. However, her state of unconsciousness remained the primary issue. If left unresolved, any physical healing would prove ineffective.

Ye Cang studied her with a solemn expression, placing his hand upon her wrist as he probed her body with spiritual energy. It was fortunate that she remained unconscious, as a conscious state would have resulted in backlash. After several moments, he exclaimed, "It's her soul...no wonder there are no obvious symptoms...no wonder she fainted...her soul is injured...But how do I treat this?"

Closing his eyes, Ye Cang began sifting through his vast knowledge, hoping to uncover a solution. A few minutes later, he reopened his eyes, his face beaming with joy. "She can recover with a Tier-5 Soul Recovery Pill. Fortunately, during this time, I acquired the necessary ingredients for this pill; otherwise, even possessing the recipe would have been futile. Now, I need only prepare the pill..."

He continued, "To concoct this pill, I will require approximately three hours...that should be sufficient time."

Ye Cang retrieved all the necessary herbs and the alchemy furnace provided by the system. He knew that alchemy required a specialized fire, but he was not concerned, as the system had supplied him with an alchemy fire as a task tool for this mission.

Rather than starting directly with the soul pill, Ye Cang decided to practice using Tier 4 spiritual herbs first. Any other alchemist would have scolded him harshly for such an extravagant use of high-tier ingredients, but Ye Cang had no choice; all the spiritual herbs he collected were Tier 4 or above.

Although the system had imparted him with knowledge ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 6 alchemy, his thoughts and physical movements needed to be synchronized, or failure would be inevitable.

He poured the flame into the alchemical furnace, baking the spiritual herbs inside and drying them out. However, some residual Spirit Qi remained within the dried herbs, causing his first attempt to fail. Undeterred, Ye Cang recognized that he had learned valuable lessons about the formidable nature of his flames and the need to increase his control over them.

For the next set of herbs, Ye Cang paid special attention to manipulating the flames correctly, carefully baking the spiritual herbs inside the furnace. Yet, this attempt also ended in failure.

After three consecutive failures, Ye Cang had begun to accumulate experience. His knowledge regarding flame control had increased with each previous attempt.

On the fourth try, Ye Cang finally succeeded in extracting all the Spirit Qi, allowing him to progress to the next phase of alchemy.

While injecting his spiritual power into the alchemical furnace, he peered inside, observing the various colors of Spirit Qi emitted by the spiritual herbs. He then began manipulating these Spirit Qi, rotating them to form a vibrant rainbow whirlpool. The already dried spiritual herbs slowly disintegrated into gray ash.

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After the spiritual herbs had completely transformed, Ye Cang manipulated the emitted Spirit Qi and combined it with the "Herbal Powder."

Though Ye Cang had reached the 5th level of the Qi Condensation Realm and possessed a substantial amount of spiritual power, he was nearing his limit while crafting the Tier 4 pill. This was because he had never practiced alchemy before, wasting spiritual energy in various areas. Creating a Tier 4 pill would not have been problematic under normal circumstances, but attempting a Tier 5 pill would prove challenging.

As he formed the whirlpool, Ye Cang's brows furrowed, and sweat beaded his forehead. Although he had used Qi to generate his flames, he also had to control the formed flames while simultaneously compressing the pills, forcing him to expend vast amounts of spiritual power.

Despite his exhaustion and profuse sweating, Ye Cang's face beamed with joy, for he knew he had successfully crafted a pill.

"I finally succeeded, but it took me five hours to refine a Tier 4 pill. Alchemy demands a significant amount of time!" Ye Cang sighed. Had other alchemists heard his complaint, they would have spat out blood. Even for a skilled alchemist, crafting a Tier 4 pill would typically require eight hours, yet Ye Cang had accomplished the feat in four hours and still deemed it too slow.

Ye Cang opened the pill furnace, retrieved the pill, and inspected it, nodding in satisfaction at its quality.

Now, he would attempt to create the soul recovery pill. He gathered all the necessary spiritual herbs and sat down, contemplating the process. After a moment's thought, he said, "System, use experience card."

Yes, he intended to upgrade his cultivation to compensate for the spiritual energy loss during alchemy. While he could craft the pill without doing so, it would consume significantly more time, a luxury he did not possess.

“Ding… Congratulations on upgrading to the 6th level of QI condensation.”

“Ding… Congratulations on upgrading to the 7th level of QI condensation.”

“Ding… Congratulations on upgrading to the 8th level of QI condensation.”

“Ding… Congratulations on upgrading to the 9th level of QI condensation.”

“Ding… Congratulations on upgrading to the 10th level of QI condensation.”

Upon using 10 experience cards, Ye Cang's cultivation advanced to the 10th level of the Qi Condensation Realm, a respectable achievement. He could now proceed with crafting the soul recovery pill. Placing all the necessary herbs into the pill furnace, he devoted himself to the task. This time, it took him five grueling hours to refine the Tier 5 pill, exhausting every ounce of Qi within his body.

Gasping for air like a winded hound, Ye Cang collapsed to the floor, utterly spent. Mustering his strength, he sat upright, retrieved the soul recovery pill, and approached Mu Qianxue's unconscious form. "Hope you will wake up soon," he muttered, "as I will have someone to converse with."

A mischievous grin spread across his face as he placed the pill into her mouth. In the process, his finger accidentally grazed her soft lips, and a fleeting thought crossed his mind – he wondered how they would taste. Immediately, he recoiled, admonishing himself. "No, no, no, absolutely not. How could a law-abiding citizen entertain such notions?"

With a reluctant expression, Ye Cang washed his hand, banishing the improper thoughts from his mind.