Chapter 127: The Alchemy Experiment

Soon after, Liu Yuxuan returned with the items Ye Xingchen had requested. Ye Xingchen meticulously inspected the alchemy furnace before him, tapping his knuckles lightly against its wall. A crisp metallic resonance echoed back, bringing a faint smile to his lips. ‘The quality of this furnace surpasses even my expectations,’ he mused. ‘It seems this lad truly has some connections.’

“Draw the curtains,” Ye Xingchen instructed in a low voice, simultaneously activating his Qimen Plate in secret. The power of Taiyin subtly flowed, diminishing the room’s presence to its bare minimum, ensuring no one would notice the activity within.

“Brother Xingchen, what exactly do you plan to do with this furnace?” Liu Yuxuan inquired, his head craning in curiosity as he helped draw the curtains.

“Alchemy,” Ye Xingchen replied succinctly.

“Alchemy?” Liu Yuxuan was stunned. In his mind, he pictured the scenes from his magic potions class, where instructors demonstrated refining medicinal herbs into crystalline liquids, then precisely measuring and mixing them in test tubes. Yet, judging by Ye Xingchen’s posture, it was clear he intended to toss the herbs directly into the furnace to burn them. This was entirely different from the potion-making techniques he had learned!

Ye Xingchen gazed thoughtfully at the medicinal herbs before him, then suddenly spoke, “Little Xuanzi.”

“What is it, Brother Xingchen?” Liu Yuxuan asked, looking up from where he had been fiddling with a magic storage bottle.

“Tell me… which type of potion sells well and commands a good price in the market?” Over the past three years, Ye Xingchen had barely focused on such matters, and his understanding of this world’s market was clearly insufficient. While his experience from the cultivation world offered some insights, he knew that essential market research was indispensable. After all, rarity dictates value; he had no desire to painstakingly refine a pile of pills only for them to fetch a low price and waste precious ingredients.

Liu Yuxuan immediately began listing them off, like a connoisseur reciting treasured items: “When it comes to volume sales, recovery potions are undoubtedly the best! High-quality mana recovery potions and healing potions, in particular, are practically hard currency…”

‘Recovery potions?’ Ye Xingchen considered. ‘High-quality mana recovery and healing potions certainly don’t lack for buyers, but they’re far too common. Every major faction has established supply channels, making it unwise for a newcomer to try and carve out a share.’

“Next are auxiliary potions,” Liu Yuxuan continued, “such as those that temporarily boost combat power or provide specific enhancements. Their prices are quite attractive, but sales are limited. After all, they’re typically used as last-resort life-savers, and regardless of potential side effects, their primary customers are adventurers.”

“As for life-saving and cultivation-boosting potions… those are the true hot commodities. Unfortunately, such potions are incredibly rare, and the market has long been monopolized by powerful families. Unless… you could concoct such uncommon elixirs. But then again, a potion master with that kind of skill would likely have been recruited by a major power already, wouldn’t they?”

‘Life-saving and cultivation-boosting potions…’ Ye Xingchen nodded thoughtfully. ‘This is indeed identical to the cultivation world.’ Having undergone systematic study at the Starfall Magic Academy for three years, he had gained considerable insight into alchemy and potion concoction. Not only did these types of potions have a low success rate in refinement, but their raw materials were also exceedingly rare. Herbs for cultivation enhancement were in high demand, yet most were cultivated under the monopoly of major powers. Even so, production still lagged far behind market demand.

As for wild collection? Ye Xingchen couldn’t help but shake his head. Outside the city, magical beasts ran rampant; unless they were specialized adventurers, ordinary people wouldn’t risk gathering such dangerous and unstable herbs. This perpetual scarcity kept these potions in high demand, naturally driving their prices skyward.

A flicker of insight crossed Ye Xingchen’s eyes. He vaguely recalled that the Ye family and the Su family had arranged the marriage between him and Su Liyue not merely out of long-standing friendship, but more crucially, due to their complementary roles in the medicinal herb supply chain. The Ye family controlled vast spirit fields, specializing in cultivating rare spiritual herbs, while the Su family managed the sales channels, handling processing and distribution. This integration of resources, with profits divided as agreed, was truly a match made in heaven.

Ye Xingchen had already made his decision. What he possessed was authentic alchemy, utterly distinct from the cumbersome potion concoction of this magic world. There was no need to first extract medicinal liquids, nor to precisely calculate ratios. The mere act of directly fusing herbs into pills was far more sophisticated than mixing potions, especially with the dual blessings of the Lihuo Palace and the Chaos Flames. Not to mention ordinary herbs, even those precious spiritual treasures deemed difficult to refine were utterly effortless in his hands.

“Bang!” The lid of the alchemy furnace clanged shut with a heavy thud. Ye Xingchen extended his hands, and the eerie white Chaos Flames instantly enveloped the furnace body. He decided to conduct a comparative experiment: first, refining a batch of Spirit-Connecting Pills using traditional cultivation world methods, then refining another batch using the precise proportioning techniques of potionology.

As the furnace fire reached its peak, two pills, shimmering with a moist luster, had already taken shape. Ye Xingchen carefully placed them into separate jade bottles, his fingertips gathering spiritual energy to meticulously sense their properties. The alchemy furnace hummed, and the eerie white flames surged. Ye Xingchen first refined a batch of Spirit-Connecting Pills using the methods of his previous life—the most fundamental elixir in the cultivation world, designed to clear spiritual meridians and improve the physique of nascent cultivators. Following this, he deliberately concocted an improved version, precisely controlling the fusion of herbs according to this world’s potion ratios. Though this second batch required significantly more effort than the first, it was still well within Ye Xingchen’s capabilities.

‘Interesting…’ The first, traditional pill possessed a balanced and gentle efficacy, proving particularly effective in improving physical constitution. The second, improved version, however, showed outstanding results in clearing magical blockages, though its enhancement direction was somewhat singular. This precisely affirmed the characteristic of potionology: the pursuit of extreme specialization in specific effects. The Spirit-Connecting Pill, originally intended in the cultivation world to solidify the foundations for new disciples, had, unexpectedly, become a potent remedy for magical stagnation in this world after its ratios were adjusted. The Chaos Flames danced at the bottom of the furnace, casting flickering light and shadow across his pupils. ‘Perhaps… this is the opportunity for the fusion of the two worlds’ medicinal arts?’

“Brother Xingchen, it’s… already done?” Liu Yuxuan’s eyes widened, staring at the two bottles of perfectly round pills in Ye Xingchen’s hand. “Why are they spheres? They’re completely different from the potions taught at the academy!” What shocked him even more was that Ye Xingchen was widely known as an attribute-less individual, wasn’t he? What was the deal with that eerie, pale white flame he had just conjured?

“This is my improved alchemy,” Ye Xingchen said, casually shaking the jade bottles. “It’s merely solidifying liquid potions into pill form.”

With that, he handed over the two porcelain bottles. “Give them a try. Both bottles have different focuses in their effects, but they are greatly beneficial for improving one’s physique and enhancing magic cultivation.”

Liu Yuxuan’s hands trembled slightly. Even for seasoned potion masters, the success rate of concocting medicines that could improve physique and enhance magic cultivation was less than thirty percent. Yet, Ye Xingchen had just achieved it with such apparent ease…

“Brother Xingchen, could it be that you… come from a family of potion masters?” The more he considered this conjecture, the more reasonable it seemed. Without a profound family legacy, how could an ordinary mage possess such mastery? And then there was the thought of how Ye Xingchen had spent almost all his time over the past three years dedicated to alchemical research…

Ye Xingchen, with a half-smile, patted his shoulder. “Some things, it’s safer not to know too much about.”