For a month, Ma Yuehao didn’t bother him. That was good, and so, he spent this time focusing on his new materials. He wasn’t sure why he inherited his past lives’ obsession with materials, alchemy and forging.

Alchemy is not exactly complicated. It’s quite like any other process, there’s a method to it, and following it properly will result in a better outcome than not following. Like cooking, there are many different ways to cook a fish. Same here.

He poked at the 3-star Gator Core. As it is, it’s inedible, but it’s base quality for a 3-star is about 400 Qi, but he had seen high quality 3-star raw materials that go up to 3,000 Qi per day.

Alchemy can be broken down into two main processes.

One, the process of pill concentration. Which is, a raw material like the 3-star gator Core is concentrated into a pill. This alone would push the pill’s benefit to about 1.5-2 times, so about 600-800 Qi per day. With a good cauldron, and masterful control, it’s possible to push this to 2-3 times, so 800-1,200 per day.

The next main process is pill refining. This is where a 3-star item is pushed to a higher tier, transformed into a 4-star pill. Again, there’s a multiplier at this stage. A poor alchemy can get about 4 times multiplier, so a base 3-star gator would be pushed to 1,600 Qi per day. A master can get up to 8 times, which would do 3,200 Qi per day.

From what Mingwei had understood from this world’s processes, such as that of Elder Qing, she utilised a kind of high-waste process, which increases the multiplier to almost 6 x, but wastes 75% of the materials used. It’s a shortcut, really.

2nd refining, is essentially, then taking that 4-star pill made from a 3-star raw material, and transforming it into a 5-star pill. Again, there’s another multiplier. So, a 4-star Gator Refined Pill that produced 3,200 pill, can be further pushed to gather 20,000-22,000Qi per day.

Again, it depends on wastage. Given this world’s methods, that would mean 4 4-star Redmaw Gator Core refined Pills would only produce 1 5-star Gator Core 2nd-Refined Pills.

Why would they do that?

Well, time, for one. A cultivator can only benefit from one Qi-gathering pill at any one point, unless they have some special constitution or meridians, or practices some unique cultivation methods that allow for multi-pill use. As such, if one wants to rise up the ranks quickly, it is better to use 1 5-star pill, than 4 4-star pills, over a long stretch of time.

Back in Mingwei’s old world, where materials are scarce, they never would’ve used such a wasteful method. The same Gator Core which made 5 3-star Gator Concentrated Pill using this world’s method would instead yield 10 3-star pills. When they performed pill refining, their loss was only 20%. That meant, 10 3-star pills would yield 8 4-star pills, and 6 5-star pills. As such, their world developed up to 5th refinement, in which that same 10 3-star pill would yield 2 7-star Gator 5th Refined Pills, which could gather a lot more Qi per day, almost 150,000 to 300,000 Qi per day.

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A drawback, of their lower material loss, is that the multiples when they moved up a star is lower. A 4-star gator pill from this world using a perfected version of Elder Qing’s methods would yield perhaps 3,200 Qi. Back home, the perfect version would be only about 2,500 Qi, which is 20% weaker.

What Mingwei would like to achieve, is a fusion of both methods. High refinement multiples, and also lower loss of raw materials.

On one hand, he understood why this world did what they did. They didn’t have an issue with resource scarcity, and why focus on concentrating and refining 3-star materials to such a high level, when 6-7 star materials are so common? 6-7 star materials in this world naturally yield higher QI per day. A 6-star raw material can differ significantly in quality, some as low as 100,000 Qi per day, and some, naturally occurring, can go up to 2,000,000 Qi per day.

“Young Mingwei, you’ve been stoning for some time.” Elder Qing spoke, she had just stepped into his workshop.

“Ah. Young disciple greets Elder Qing.” Mingwei clasped his hands together and did their regular salute. “I did not notice you enter.”

“I picked up the faint scent of a brew, and yet I don’t see anything.”

“I was just boiling water.” Mingwei nodded. He really was just boiling water, to just ‘cook’ the Gator Core before progressing. He had dipped some leaves into it to give the water the qualities he wanted.

“Strange. Most of us would just put the Gator Core into our cauldron.” Elder Qing said. Indeed, doing so does in fact increase the multiples, but also more waste! “And I see you’ve managed to do some repairs to the cauldron!”

“Ah... uh.. The spirit in the brush told me how to do it.”

“I see, I see. So what’s next to your process.”

“Once the gator core is fully cooked I’m going to grind it into a powder. Then only I’m going to start my Pill Concentration and Refining.” The powder form allows for more even heating of the materials, and so, less waste. He could also do so with lower heat, without needing to rely on the Firepowder.

“The spirit’s methods are quite... traditional.”

Mingwei paused. Ah, that’s true, Did he just expose his otherworldly origins.

“I think it’s probably a southern continent spirit, where they still practice a more traditional form of alchemy. The yield’s quite low, though, that’s why it fell out of favor. I heard they’ve come to adopt our more modern methods too.”

MIngwei wanted to roll his eyes, of course. His old world’s methods are lower in yield, but only by 20-30%!

“I too, should go back to refining my midheaven pills.” Elder Qing turned and left. Mingwei started to grind his cooked Gator Cores into powder. There was enough to make 70 pills with the powder, even without touching the Greenduck Liver.

He paused, and examined the powders again. It was still a bit rough and chunky. If he had a proper Qi-enchanted pestle and mortar, he could make the powder even more fine, and that would increase the yield by 20-30%.

Oh well.

The young master wanted 30 pills.

He poured the Gator Core powder into his Qi Cauldron, and started to circulate Qi inside. It would cost about 2,000 Qi to cook the pills, but the good thing about Qi-Cauldrons is that Qi accumulated in it, so it’s not constrained by the QI-output limit.

The powder started to glow. He used his circulation Qi to form them into pills. It spun, and spun.

Ah. He performed his pill concentration successfully! Now for first refinement! He poured another 2,000 Qi into the cauldron, condensing the pills even further. Some of the materials melted and fused with the remaining pills. He paused, and he sweated. He kept at it.

It took three days of constant work at this stage. Splitting and joining the pills together, while the heat melted whatever impurities away. He had to be careful, and whenever he spotted a burning chunk he would use his Qi to separate it away. The burning chunks are the wasted, failed pills.

And he was done.

52 4-star Gator Core Refined Pills. He examined it briefly, only 1,980 Qi per day for a week. Hmm, that meant he only did 1,800, and the cauldron added an extra 10%. He sighed. He was out of practice. 18 wasted pills meant an efficiency of only 74%, below the normal 80%. 

The best of his past memories should be able to push it to almost 2,500 QI and make 63 pills at 90% preservation. 

Still, this isn’t the end. He could add runes to the pills, but he decided not to. Not yet, at least.