Rinne’s self-loathing mood didn’t last long.

She knew better than to waste time on useless thoughts. Doing something productive was always the better option. The pain in her spiritual root had been pushed back through self-hypnotism, but that didn’t change the fact that it was unstable and unusable for now.

Still, there was no reason for her to stop practicing the Hibiscus Rebirth Tempering Art.

"Well then, what should I do..."

Her mind wandered back to her second life, when she became a Gu cultivator.

At that time, she had shared her perception with her Gu, including her spiritual sense, using it to practice. After killing the Gu, however, her spiritual sense also wiped out altogether. She could no longer sense spiritual energy, but that didn’t mean it was gone. The energy was still there, flowing through the meridians. It was just a matter of her being unable to sense it.

Her answer at the time was to use formations and runes.

She had drawn lines and runes all over her body to control the movement of spiritual energy once it entered her. This allowed the energy to follow the proper cycle, just as if she could sense it. Her inspiration had come from a journal describing ancient tribal warriors who covered their bodies with tattoos of lines and symbols. She realized those tattoos were a primitive form of formation work.

After a bit of experimentation, she had found unexpected success. The problem was that the energy was unfiltered, and practicing like that brought incredible discomfort. The difference was like drinking mineral water compared to sewage.

This time, she wasn’t about to put herself through that again.

Tattooing her body wasn’t just painful, it was also unsightly. Instead of inscribing the runes on herself, she considered inscribing them into a pill, something like a Spirit Gathering Pill. If the pill could carry the runes, it could act as a guide, automatically controlling the flow of energy through her meridians to complete the Hibiscus Rebirth Tempering Art.

“It’s quite troublesome, but I have no choice,”

Of course, the idea was unheard of.

No cultivator would think to inscribe a formation on something as small and fragile as a pill. It was next to impossible to do by hand. Besides, a pill was consumable, so any inscribed formation would vanish once the pill was used.

This was where the Array Automatic Creation Formation came in. By using this, Rinne didn't have to bother inscribing the runes into each pill manually. She only had to print them into each pill with high precision.

Rinne immediately pushed her thoughts aside and started refining a batch of Spirit Gathering Pills. As usual, she didn’t bother following any of the conventional recipes. Instead, she worked with the materials she had on hand, trusting her instincts and experience. While the composition differed from the traditional formula, the resulting effects were nearly identical.

The refinement process took close to an hour, and by the end of it, ten top-grade pills sat in her palm, their surfaces smooth and gleaming.

Satisfied with the results, Rinne shifted her focus to the next phase: designing the inscription. She delved into her Soul Library once more, and began sketching the blueprint in her mind.

“Rather than a formation, it’s closer to a talisman inscription,”

The difference between formations and talismans wasn’t significant. Both relied on runes fueled by spiritual energy, but their applications varied. Formations were large-scale and long-lasting, usually engraved on solid surfaces that could withstand the energy flow for extended periods. Talismans, on the other hand, were small and consumable, typically painted on paper, disintegrating after use.

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“But since it’s a pill, it should be called a pill inscription.”

It seemed that the concept of pill inscription was never proposed by anyone in this world. Even though this concept appeared in some Xianxia novels that she read in her first life.

Maybe if there was a chance, she could write a thesis book to submit to the Alchemy Association. The rewards she could get would perhaps be hefty enough to support her until Core Formation stage. But it didn't take too long for her to dismiss the thought.

Rinne shook her head in denial.

"Forget it, that's too troublesome."

She didn't even have the courage to interact with others, let alone perform in front of a crowd.

Designing the pill inscription proved to be a meticulous task. It had to fit the small surface of a pill while functioning as intended. The main goal was to guide spiritual energy at a certain rate into specific areas within the body, ensuring the energy was processed in precise ways upon consumption.

Although she could have designed the inscription to direct energy straight into the dantian, which would normally accelerate cultivation, that option was off the table. Her dantian was in a delicate state, occupied by her unstable spiritual root, and exposing it to spiritual energy would only invite trouble. For now, she had to avoid that area entirely.

Time slipped by unnoticed as she immersed herself in the task, but eventually, she completed the design. The inscription was complex, but every line and curve served its purpose.

“Okay then, it’s time for the real test,”

Her consciousness pulled away from the Soul Library, and she returned to the real world with a sharp, familiar headache.

♠♠♠

Ignoring the pain in her head, Rinne made her way to the core of the house formation.

Upon arrival, she activated the Array Automatic Creation Formation, allowing it to scan her mind and project the inscription design with precision. The projection was compact, much smaller than when she originally crafted it.

At first glance, it appeared as a thin, transparent bluish ring, with the runes so densely packed that they looked almost like a smooth, flat surface. The ring’s diameter matched the exact size of the Spirit Gathering Pill resting in her hand. Without hesitation, Rinne inserted the pill into the ring. The imprinting process began immediately, finishing in less than ten seconds.

"This looks good..."

She carefully inspected the now-inscribed pill in her hand. The subtle glow of spiritual energy within the ring confirmed that the pill inscription was functioning as intended.

Rinne sat down cross-legged, popped the pill into her mouth, and waited for the effects to kick in.

As the pill dissolved, spiritual energy flowed smoothly through her meridians, spreading warmth throughout her body. There was no need for her to manually guide the flow, everything proceeded automatically just as she had designed. She allowed herself to relax, savoring the soothing sensation.

The energy from the top-grade Spirit Gathering Pill was well-refined, much purer than the coarse spiritual energy that felt like sewage water she remembered from her second life.

After a few cycles, the energy coursing through her meridians dispersed, nourishing her body in line with the Hibiscus Rebirth Tempering Art. Seeing the progress, Rinne took out a second pill and repeated the process. As the energy flowed once more, she began to feel bloated.

There was a natural limit to how much spiritual energy the body could absorb in one session, influenced by factors such as age, physical state, and cultivation stage. At seven years old, two pills were her current threshold. Pushing beyond that would only be harmful to her body.

Once the second pill’s energy finished its cycles, Rinne noticed a subtle improvement. The stagnation in her meridians had loosened slightly, and she felt an unpleasant dampness on her skin. A thin layer of black mud, carrying an indescribable stench, seeped from her pores.

“So, this is the poison inside me? It really stinks.”

The result confirmed that her newly crafted technique could expel toxins from her body. With more practice, the accumulated poison would continue to clear, reducing the need for the Marrow Cleansing Pill. She found this promising, though it would take time and repeated effort to cleanse her system entirely.

Once her spiritual root stabilized, she would modify the pill inscription to guide the end goal of the spiritual energy to her dantian. That way, instead of the energy dissipating from her pores, it would be stored to enhance her cultivation base.

For now, Rinne was satisfied with her progress.

The only regret was that her digestive ability wasn’t high enough to absorb more than two pills at a time. Worse still, she needed to wait a few days before her body could fully digest the energy and resume practice.

“There are techniques to improve digestion, but I’ll hold off on those until I have a stable income.”

With nothing else to do for the time being, Rinne shifted her focus back to alchemy. She began processing the remaining materials she had, intent on refining them into something useful.