The furnace ignited once more, orange flames rising under his command. Fire Qi flowed through his fingertips, cleaner and more responsive than before. The flame moved with quiet obedience, its behavior reflecting the refinement of his control.
Everything changed. The heat levels were adjusted more precisely. The timing between stages tightened. His Spiritual Sense became more focused, more efficient. Even the angle at which the ingredients entered the furnace was refined. Each motion carried intent.
Each adjustment built upon the last.
The process unfolded more smoothly than before. The essences stabilized faster, their interaction was less volatile, and their fusion was more cooperative. The furnace emitted a steady, controlled hum as the pill began to take shape.
When the last step of refinement was complete, Li Yan retrieved it without delay and placed it into the tester, stopping the stopwatch in the same motion.
"Thirty-six minutes." His voice was calm, analytical. "To produce a Tier-1 Low-Level pill."
The numbers rose again within the tester.
…and stopped.
49%.
Li Yan's gaze remained steady. "Progress." A trace of satisfaction surfaced, restrained but present. "But far from peak."
He stored the pill and immediately began the third attempt.
This time, he pushed further.
The purification process became more aggressive. His flame burned hotter—precisely controlled at the threshold where impurities could be erased without damaging the essence. The margin for error narrowed, but his control held firm.
The pill emerged with a faint sheen, its surface more refined than before.
63%.
33 minutes.
A slight smirk appeared. "Now we're getting somewhere."
He did not slow down.
Each attempt refined more than the pill—it refined his method. Cleaner. Faster. More precise.
The fourth reached 71%. The fifth rose to 77%. The sixth climbed to 84%—and the time had fallen to twenty-six minutes.
The room carried the faint scent of scorched herbs and lingering heat, yet nothing felt chaotic. Every movement remained deliberate, every adjustment controlled.
Li Yan's breathing was steady, his posture unchanged. There was no sign of strain in his expression—only focus, deep and unwavering.
Like a veteran alchemist immersed in his craft.
As the sixth pill drifted into the bottle, he finally leaned back slightly, and a slow exhale escaped his lips. Fatigue crept in—subtle, but undeniable.
Refining six pills in consecutive refinements had drawn heavily on his Qi reserves.
But his gaze remained clear.
Calm.
Calculating.
This… was only the beginning.
Li Yan summoned the Tier-3 meat he had purchased earlier and cut off a small portion. He ate slowly, unhurried, allowing the energy within it to settle naturally before guiding it.
As the meat slid down his throat, a steady wave of Qi spread through his body—dense, warm, and remarkably stable. He immediately circulated it with practiced ease, directing the flow through his meridians as it replenished what he had expended during refinement.
The energy did not surge violently like a pill. Instead, it spread evenly, nourishing his body from within. Even the faint ambient energy lingering in the room was drawn into him, absorbed as naturally as breath—like dry earth receiving rain after a long drought.
Within the next few minutes, stability returned, but he continued till his Qi reserves were fully replenished.
Li Yan exhaled and opened his eyes.
"My flame control has improved more than expected," he reflected, his thoughts calm and measured. "Not just precision… efficiency as well."
His gaze lowered slightly. "Without it, I wouldn't have sustained six consecutive attempts without exhausting my Qi reserves."
He closed his eyes briefly, sensing the balance within his dantian. The flow of Qi was smooth, stable, and responsive—exactly as he required.
When he opened them again, a quiet intensity flickered beneath his composed gaze.
He reached for another set of ingredients.
The furnace reignited.
This time, the process unfolded with greater ease. His control had deepened, his adjustments more intuitive. Each movement aligned naturally with the next, as though the act of refinement itself had begun to yield to his will.
The seventh pill reached eighty-eight percent in twenty-five minutes.
The eighth rose to eighty-nine percent.
The ninth stays the same, eighty-nine percent.
The tenth—
Ninety percent in just twenty-one minutes.
Li Yan's hand stilled slightly as he observed the result. A faint flicker of surprise crossed his expression before settling into thought. "Ninety percent?"
According to every alchemical text he had studied, this was the upper limit—the absolute peak quality. Even the most renowned alchemists across the continent struggled to reach such a level with consistency.
And yet, he had touched it within a single day.
He studied the pill in silence, his brows knitting slightly.
"This is considered peak quality on this planet?" he murmured. "Then why is ninety percent so rare?"
A brief pause followed.
"If I can reach it in a few hours of practice… then it will not be the limit. There was surely someone who reached beyond this."
The thought lingered, persistent and sharp, refusing to fade. There was no doubt. It was a question demanding an answer. And questions like this are worth investing time to find their answers.
Curiosity alone was reason enough—but ambition made it inevitable. Li Yan did not ignore it. Instead, he chose to test it. So, he continued to refine the next pill with more control.
But the results stayed the same; he refined another one, but still nothing changed. "Is the 90% really the peak?"
Then, his mind raced. "No, I have to try harder."
This time, he altered the process entirely.
Rather than refining the ingredients one by one, he guided both into the furnace at once, initiating simultaneous essence extraction.
This was no standard method, rarely used. The manuals mentioned it only briefly—an ancient technique abandoned by most due to its complexity and instability. It demanded split focus, layered control, and absolute precision.
Most deemed it impractical.
Li Yan disagreed. Not only did he know about this method from an ancient book, but also from his previous life; he had read many cultivation novels.
In most of them, main characters or top-tier figures can create pills using this method to produce more than one flawless-quality pill at the same time by adding all the ingredients simultaneously.
His Spiritual Sense expanded instantly, dividing into multiple layers as it enveloped both ingredients. At the same time, his flame shifted, separating into controlled tiers within the furnace—two distinct heat zones, each tailored to the nature of the herb it refined.
The reaction was immediate.
Unstable.
The essences fluctuated violently as they formed, their rhythms clashing, their structures threatening collapse with every passing moment. Heat surged unevenly, and the internal balance wavered on the edge of failure.
It was delicate.
Messy.
Draining.
Yet Li Yan remained composed.
His focus sharpened rather than faltered, each fluctuation met with a precise correction. He adjusted angles, refined Qi flow, and regulated the furnace's heat in measured pulses, maintaining control over a process that resisted it at every turn.
Gradually, the chaos began to lessen.
Not fully. Not perfectly. But enough.
The essences merged. A pill took shape.
When it emerged, its flaws were evident. The color was slightly dull, the glow subdued, its structure lacking the clean refinement of his previous results.
"Even though this pill does not have a nice quality, it's proven that this method works." Li Yan muttered as he placed it into the tester.
…54%.
He exhaled softly, then nodded. "So the purity decreased a lot."
There was no frustration in his tone—only confirmation. "As expected… synchronization is the issue."
A brief pause. Then—
His gaze sharpened, thoughtful. "But this method… holds greater potential."
With a flick of his fingers, another set of ingredients rose from the floor. The flame at his fingertips reignited, steadier than before, more responsive to his control.
"No shortcuts," he murmured. "Mastery is earned through refinement, practice, and time."
He began again. Refine pill one after another.
Each attempt brought new insight. Subtle adjustments to flame intensity, timing, and Qi infusion gradually reduced instability. The process, once chaotic, began to take on structure under his control.
Failure refined into progress.
Progress sharpened into understanding.
And then—
A breakthrough. The next pill formed faster, cleaner, and more stable than before.
Li Yan placed it into the tester.
Ninety-one percent in just fifteen minutes.
Silence settled over the room.
Li Yan looked at the result, his expression calm, but his eyes sharp with understanding. A faint smile surfaced. Not wide. Not triumphant. But certain.
The so-called peak limit—
Had already been surpassed. And this time, it was not a coincidence.
Encouraged, Li Yan did not pause after his breakthrough.
The momentum of progress carried him forward, his focus sharpening rather than fading as he continued refining one batch after another with unwavering precision.
By the time his Qi reserves were depleted for the third time, more pills had been completed. Among them, one stood distinctly apart, its surface carrying a refined luster that subtly reflected the furnace light, while a dense medicinal fragrance lingered in the air around it.
When placed into the Pill Tester, the numbers rose steadily before stabilizing at—
…Ninety-two percent.
Li Yan's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint smile forming as he observed the result. "From thirty-two percent… to ninety-two. And from over thirty-six minutes… to twelve."
He held the pill between his fingers, feeling the faint pulse of medicinal energy resonating with his Qi. Its structure was flawless to the eye, each curve smooth, each layer balanced with near-perfect stability.
His expression remained composed, yet beneath that calm surface burned a quiet, undeniable satisfaction.
"Progress like this isn't luck," he murmured. "It's precision, control, and understanding. And even this… is only the beginning."
Seated before the furnace, he glanced at the results surrounding him. Twenty pills already created, each one marking a step in his rapid evolution. The difference between the earliest and the latest was unmistakable—not just in quality, but in presence.
The final pills carried a subtle brilliance, their aura more refined, their energy more cohesive.
Nearly eight hours had passed.
Eight hours of continuous refinement, broken only by an interval of Qi recovery.
Li Yan exhaled slowly before beginning to organize the results. Nineteen pills were placed into a single bottle, which he labeled as the Swift Movement Pill. The remaining one—the first he had ever created—was stored and labeled separately.
First Pill.
After placing both bottles neatly on the shelf, he returned to his seat without hesitation.
He consumed another portion of Tier-3 meat, guiding the Qi through his meridians as it spread through his body. The recovery was smooth, the energy settling quickly under his control, restoring balance to his reserves.
When his Qi stabilized, his attention shifted immediately.
A new challenge awaited.
Pain-Suppressing Pill.
The ingredients differed in nature, their properties less harmonious than the previous set, yet Li Yan showed no sign of hesitation. His hands moved with quiet confidence as the furnace reignited, orange flames dancing steadily under his control.
His Spiritual Sense expanded once more, wrapping around every stage of the process. Each movement was deliberate, each adjustment refined through prior experience.
Refine. Observe. Adjust. Repeat.
Time passed unnoticed.
The alchemy room gradually transformed, not in appearance, but in presence. The air grew heavier with residual heat and herbal fragrance, while the faint hum of Qi circulation lingered like an undercurrent beneath the silence.
Li Yan no longer followed recipes.
He understood them.
Each ingredient revealed its rhythm, its response to heat, its interaction with Qi. Subtle changes in flame altered not only the structure of the pill, but its color, texture, and internal stability.
Nothing was wasted.
Nothing was ignored.
The cycle continued relentlessly.
He refined until his Qi was exhausted, then recovered, then resumed again without interruption. Day blurred into night, and night into day, the passage of time losing relevance within the sealed chamber.
By the morning of the third day, the results spoke for themselves.
All eleven Tier-1 Low-Level pills had been mastered.
All nine Tier-1 Mid-Level pills had followed.
Not only could Li Yan refine them consistently, but he could do so with speed and precision that defied the established limits of the craft. His highest-quality pills now reached ninety-three percent—a territory most alchemists would only dream to approach in their lifetime.
Four hundred pills.
Twenty types.
One cultivator.
Li Yan held a pill between his fingers, its surface shimmering faintly as its refined essence pulsed within. His gaze lingered on it for a brief moment before a faint scoff escaped him.
"The ninety percent barrier…"
His eyes narrowed slightly. "If this is the limit here… then it isn't the true limit."