Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 29 - Chapter 29 – Good Person Li Yu

Li Yu sat in the courtyard, letting out a long sigh.

He finally understood the regretful look Elder Sun had given him back then.

He also finally understood why so few people in the cultivation world practiced multiple spiritual veins. The Meridian Clearing Pills opened acupoints at random. Without being a top genius, and without the saturated training from a sect, cultivating an extra spiritual vein would double the difficulty of foundation establishment. Who would dare to do that?

After moping for a while, Li Yu took a deep breath and forced a smile.

What’s done is done; there’s no point in sighing endlessly.

Whether in life or cultivation, one must look forward.

Suppressing his thoughts, Li Yu returned to his room and began to close his eyes and meditate.

But soon, he opened them again.

At this moment, he simply had no heart for cultivation.

The main reason was that breaking through by taking the Meridian Clearing Pill was just too smooth.

So smooth that Li Yu hardly dared to believe it.

He had painstakingly cultivated for four months, yet it couldn’t compare to this thumb-sized pill that took only seconds. Anyone with such an experience would inevitably feel a sense of gap.

No wonder alchemists held such high status in the cultivation world. If he had a dedicated second-rank alchemist to make pills for him, he wouldn’t even need to cultivate during the Qi Refinement stage—just by taking pills, he could jump all the way to the ninth layer of Qi Refinement.

He started cultivating late, and on top of that, he had two extra spiritual veins, doubling the difficulty of foundation establishment. To catch up with geniuses, he had to get enough Meridian Clearing Pills.

…

After a while…

In a grand hall somewhere on Danding Peak, Li Yu returned the booklet to Elder Han and then said, “Elder Han, I’ve successfully refined the hemostasis pills. May I continue to refine other pills?”

Han Tiancheng smiled and replied, “Of course.”

Li Yu clearly possessed a remarkable talent for alchemy. And as a first tier alchemist of the sect, Han Tiancheng enjoyed access to sect resources—but he also had monthly alchemy quotas to fulfill.

Every month, Han Tiancheng had to provide the sect with a large amount of pills, including low-rank and first-rank ones. For some of the low-rank pills, he wouldn’t refine them himself but assigned the tasks to his disciples.

Every month, he was required to provide the sect with a range of pills, from low-grade to tier one. The low-grade ones he generally delegated to his disciples, as he didn’t bother refining them himself.

Fifteen minutes later, Li Yu returned to his residence carrying a large pile of medicinal materials.

He had just accepted a pill-refining assignment from Elder Han.

This time, he was to refine detox pills—a low-rank, unremarkable pill with difficulty similar to the hemostasis pill. Elder Han gave him five sets of materials.

He needed to use these five sets to refine ten or more medium-grade detox pills.

Theoretically, one set of materials could produce up to ten pills, but that was only in theory. In practice, a small mistake could cause failure, or one batch might only yield a few qualified pills.

Being able to produce ten medium-grade detox pills with five sets of materials already qualified him as a decent alchemy apprentice.

Li Yu prepared the materials according to the proper pill-refining sequence and began the process.

This time, he concentrated fully, holding his breath and focusing his mind—surprisingly, he didn’t get distracted again.

After about half an hour, Li Yu opened the pill furnace. Inside lay eight white pills.

One of them bore four pill markings, while the other seven had three markings each.

Although only eight pills came out of the furnace, and none were top-grade, Li Yu was already very satisfied. After all, these were pills he had personally refined. It was only during the refining process that Li Yu realized that having three spiritual meridians really did make the pill-refining smoother.

From what he knew, a typical alchemy apprentice might only manage to produce a single pill with one marking on their first attempt, which was already considered quite good.

Li Yu’s success rate was even much higher than some sect disciples who had been at Danding Peak for several years.

Perhaps this was a case of “losing the mulberry tree but gaining the locust tree”—he simply put all his cultivation skill into alchemy.

For the remaining four sets of materials, Li Yu insisted on refining the pills himself and never drifted into distraction again. As the number of batches increased, his refining technique became more skilled. From the second batch onward, he could produce ten pills per furnace, all of high-grade quality, with occasional rare superior-grade pills bearing four markings.

As for top-grade pills, he had never produced one.

No wonder Elder Han was so unsettled when he saw that top-grade hemostasis pill. It also made Li Yu very curious about the pill furnace mark on his chest. He had never heard of a pill furnace that could refine pills by itself, much less all top-grade ones.

Li Yu decided in his heart that from now on, whenever possible, he would refine pills himself. Previously, when refining and selling the hemostasis pills, he hadn’t thought things through. Top-grade pills are too eye-catching. It’s fine if they appear occasionally, but if every pill was top-grade, it might attract unwanted attention.

The next day at noon, Li Yu took the eight detox pills from his first batch to Elder Han.

He handed over the pills and said apologetically, “Sorry, Elder Han, I only managed to refine eight pills, two short.”

Han Tiancheng took the pill bottle and examined it with appreciation. “Not bad. Seven high-grade pills and one superior-grade, and not a single one below high-grade. This far exceeds my expectations. It seems that not only have you cultivated three spiritual veins, but your soul power also far surpasses that of an ordinary alchemist…”

Mentioning the three spiritual veins made Li Yu feel a little prick in his heart.

But the latter part of Elder Han’s words made him think of something. Since the pill furnace returns some spiritual power to him when absorbing medicinal herbs, could it also have returned some soul power when absorbing ghosts?

Next time he encounters a ghost, he would have to pay close attention.

Elder Han was very satisfied with Li Yu’s results and rewarded him with ten spirit coins.

He didn’t ask how many sets of materials Li Yu had used. Producing eight high-quality pills from five sets of materials was already far above the average level of an alchemy apprentice and could even be considered excellent. Some of his disciples had been practicing for over a decade and still hadn’t done as well as Li Yu.

The three spiritual veins—water, fire, and wood—indeed gave him a natural advantage in alchemy. Unfortunately, his cultivation progress wasn’t as smooth.

After some reflection, Han Tiancheng gave Li Yu another ten sets of materials. With Li Yu sharing the workload, he himself could free up time and energy to prepare for the second-rank alchemist assessment. Once he became a second-tier alchemist, his status in the sect would improve, and the Golden Core breakthrough would be within reach in this lifetime.

Liu Dong stood behind him, watching Li Yu’s departing figure, and sighed, “I didn’t expect Li Yu’s alchemy talent to be this high…”

Han Tiancheng glanced at him and said, “Everyone has their own destiny. No need to envy others. You’re by my side, so study alchemy well. It’s still possible for you to establish your foundation this lifetime. Your family has already put in a lot of effort to get you into Kunlun…”

…

Li Yu held the alchemy materials in his hands, expressionless on the outside but quietly delighted in his heart.

He only had to hand over twenty pills in total to Elder Han. That meant he could keep eight sets for himself. Combined with the pills he had already made, he’d be able to trade for another Meridian Clearing Pill.

If things went this well every day, he would succeed in establishing his foundation within three years.

Just as Li Yu was thinking about this good fortune, a figure approached from beside him, put an arm around his shoulder, and whispered, “Li Yu, Li Yu, how’s your success rate with refining hemostasis pills?”

It was Senior Brother Zhao, the sect disciple who taught Li Yu and the other new disciples alchemy.

Li Yu thought for a moment and said, “Not bad. From one set of materials, I can refine about two high-grade pills.”

Hearing this, Senior Brother Zhao felt ashamed. He could also make two pills from one set of materials, but his were only medium-grade, and sometimes low-grade if luck was bad. He couldn’t complete the monthly alchemy tasks Elder Han assigned and always lost spirit coins as penalty.

One month ago, he was teaching Li Yu alchemy; now, Li Yu had far surpassed him.

Some people are just born for this.

Thinking this, he became even friendlier with Li Yu, putting his arm around his shoulder and smilingly asking, “Junior Brother Li, what do you think of me?”

Li Yu replied, “Not bad.”

Senior Brother Zhao treated him just like other disciples—nothing special.

Zhao gave an awkward smile and said, “From the first time I met you, I knew you were different from the others. Junior Brother, can I ask you a favor? Could you help me refine a few batches of pills?”

Li Yu was momentarily stunned: “Huh?”

Zhao quickly added, “Don’t worry, I won’t make you work for free. Ten hemostasis pills, and I’ll pay you fifteen spirit coins, even more than Elder Han gave you. How about that?”

This was like finding a pillow when just about to nap. Li Yu had been worried about not having enough materials, and now someone came knocking.

Fifteen spirit coins wasn’t much, but one set of materials was worth a hundred spirit coins to him. Even without payment, he would have jumped at the chance.

Already feeling secretly pleased, Li Yu still pretended to hesitate and said quietly, “But I still have cultivation to do; I’m afraid I won’t have much time…”

Senior Brother Zhao said, “Junior Brother Li, you don’t understand. Spirit coins are the most important in the sect. If your cultivation is slow, it’s better to save spirit coins and exchange them for Meridian Clearing Pills. One pill can open one acupoint—it’s worth months of hard cultivation…”

Li Yu seemed persuaded and hesitated, “Fifteen spirit coins…”

Zhao replied, “Twenty. Twenty spirit coins. Junior Brother Li, you have to agree to this.”

He had his own plan. Even though twenty spirit coins hurt his pocket a bit, failing to complete the monthly alchemy task would cost him fifty spirit coins deducted by Elder Han. No matter how you look at it, this was a gain.

Li Yu thought for a long time, seemingly finally moved by the spirit coins, and nodded, “…Alright then.”

Zhao gripped Li Yu’s hand, moved, and said, “Junior Brother Li, you’re truly a good person. From now on at Danding Peak, I’ve got your back. If anyone bullies you, just tell them to mention my name…”