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Saving energy for a long journey, Xu Miao didn't summon anyone to dual-cultivate. He spent all 80 hours concocting low-grade healing pills.
Out of 700 attempts, Xu Miao botched 250 pills. 200 of the completed pills were ash balls with little medical effect, 150 of them barely passed the mark, and the rest of them was of average quality.
The key to making these low-grade healing pills lied in temperature control. As the recipe said, the fire temperature had to be as warm as the autumn wind. Or else, the ginseng roots wouldn't be able to contain the yang energy and disintegrate into ash.
Alchemists could merge and maintain their yang fire energy with the ingredients, evolving the pills and increasing its efficiency. The quality of pills relied heavily on alchemist's yang essence manipulation skills, cultivation base, ingredient quality, and experience.
In Xu Miao's case, the ingredient was at the lowest quality, which could hardly contain yang energy from the yang fire. He barely managed to compress and bake ginsengs into fried, crispy yellowish balls with a tinge of yang energy and medical properties.
Xu Miao stared at the completed pills on the floor. He wasn't satisfied with the result, "I'll take the completed pills. As for the rest, you can eat them."
"Alright!"
In glee, White Album poured the pills into her mouth and chewed as if they were candies. She even ate the botched pills and ginseng ashes.
While White Album was busy eating, Xu Miao checked his alchemy menu.
Now, the menu had unlocked the auto-pill-making menu for pills that Xu Miao had successfully made. Ten empty slots lined in two rows, and one large box showed the percentage number of the auto-pill-making success chance.
As long as Xu Miao had enough ingredients, he could put all items in the system inventory, transfer them into the alchemy item slots, and press a button. Then, the pills would be completed automatically.
However, the system never gave Xu Miao free goods. The success chance depended on Xu Miao's alchemy mastery. Unless Xu Miao could make the pills by himself without relying on the system's help, the success chance would be zero.
_ _
Alchemy Mastery
Low-Grade Healing Pill – 8.5%
_ _
Despite having successfully concocted 450 pills out of 700 attempts, the system graded Xu Miao's skill as 8.5%, which translated into an 8.5% success chance of auto-mode.
Although he had expected it to be abysmal, he didn't believe that his abilities should be this bad.
"How is my alchemy mastery calculated, system?"
When Xu Miao heard the keyword, [Perfect-Grade], he had a bad feeling about the evaluation and his future.
"So, why is my score so low?"
\u003c\u003cOnly average or higher quality pills are accounted for the score. Other than that, they are evaluated as failure products.\u003e\u003e
"Ah, figured as much," Xu Miao groaned as he had guessed it, "Can you tell me how my score is calculated?"
\u003c\u003cYour current success chance is 14.2% for low-grade healing pills. However, all pills are of average quality, so you get a deduction penalty to your scores.\u003e\u003e
In alchemy, each type of pills was categorized in multiple qualities and grades. Aside from ranking healing pills as low-grade, medium-grade, or high-grade, sub-ranks existed.
For example, if a low-grade healing pill could heal 100 points of HP, the perfect-ranked would heal 100 HP. However, an average-ranked pill would only heal 60 HP
Sub-ranks were categorized as the followings;
Trash, 10-19% pill efficiency.
Terrible, 20-29%
Very Poor, 30-39%
Poor, 40-49%
Below Average, 50-59%
Average, 60-69%
Above Average, 70-79%
Good, 80-89%
Excellent, 90-99%
Perfect, 100%
There were higher sub-ranks, but they were out of Xu Miao's reach.
"I see. So you calculated by having my success chance multiplied by the pill efficiency."
\u003c\u003cCorrect. 60% of 14.2 is 8.52.\u003e\u003e
Xu Miao scratched his head. He already had a lot of things to do in the Isolation Space, such as dual-cultivating, sparring, practicing core skills, and race-change quest. Now, he had to practice alchemy to complete Kunwu's quest.
"80 Hours a night isn't enough anymore."
Had other cultivators heard Xu Miao, they would have yelled, "Who asked you to do everything!?"
Xu Miao stared at the ITS menu and reread the upgrade conditions.
_ _
[Isolation Training] (Lv. 4/10)
Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:10
Upgrade Cost: 10,000 Yang Essence, Complete all tutorial quests
Next Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:20
After you've fallen asleep, your consciousness will be sent to System's isolated space for special training sessions that you can design for yourself.
Inside this space, you can choose to fight against illusions of fighters that you had once encountered in the past, or you can spend your time practicing various arts that you haven't mastered.
The Conversion Ratio is the time in the real world and the time you can spend in space. Currently, ten hours in the isolation space is one hour in real life. You can upgrade the conversion rate by spending the yang essence.
_ _
If it weren't for the nasty upgrade condition, Xu Miao could have focused on upgrading this feature. He could have over 5,000 hours a night to spend and do everything he wanted at the max level.
"In the end, that bastard is on the way. I should have made a deal with Xu Xiuying and chased after that girl!"
It was too late to regret his decision. Xu Miao exited the space world.
.
Morning, Xu Miao, Jia Shan, and all girls gathered and planned for their next journey.
"Where to, Xu Miao?"
The girls and Wei Yuan treated him as the party leader. However, the guy glanced at Jia Shan, who had the most experience.
"If we keep going west, we'll find Mi County. We can get more supplies there if we don't run into troublemakers again."
Wei Yuan clapped her hands, "I know a few people in the Mi County. They are working for the Wei Clan!"
Xu Miao didn't like the sound of that. He shook his head, "I doubt it's a good idea to contact the Wei clansmen. Don't forget that we've eloped. Wei Huang and your father should have already notified all clansmen, so they will probably capture us on sight."
Wei Yuan sulked. Xu Miao was right, "Ai, I forgot about that."
"We also shouldn't stop at Mi County since it's the territory of the Wei Clan. To be safe, we should head to another port to the west," Xu Miao turned to Jia Shan, "Master, do you know where the nearest port is? Of course, we won't go back to the Rooster Port."
Jia Shan drew a map on the ground. He wrote a long river, an X mark, which represented their location, and a mountain range to the west. Between the mountain range, Jia Shan drew another square, which linked the mountain range and Crimson River together.
"This place is called Tiger Cage Pass. Beyond this place, it's the capital city, Red Sun City. But a bit further north of the capital, there's another port. If we can cross the river from here, we will be out of Xu Xiuying or Wei Huang's grasp."
Jia Shan drew two more squares beyond the Tiger Cage Pass. They were the Red Sun City and another port, Red Sun Port.
"Do we need a specific token to get through this [Tiger Cage Pass]? It sounds intimidating."
Xu Miao had a feeling that this map was similar to ancient Zhongyuan. The Tiger Cage Pass was literally the translation of Hulao Gate, the famous battle site during the Late Han Period. As for Red Sun City, it was at the same location as Luoyang.
"Is there a prefecture capital with the name, Xiangyang, Chengdu, Beijing, or Shanghai?"
Curious, Xu Miao asked Jia Shan if they existed.
"I don't know Beijing and Shanghai, but Xiangyang and Chengdu locate far southwest from here. Do you know those cities?"
'Bingo!'
Xu Miao confirmed another critical information. Somehow, Aves Continent's geography might be the same as China's but they had different names. With this discovery, his life would be a lot easier.
"After we've crossed the river, what next?"
Jia Shan grinned, "My brother is currently working as an elder in an alchemy sect in Yeet City. I'm planning to bring you all there to hide for the time being. Maybe, you can start a new life there."
"Yeet City?" Xu Miao's face twitched. The city names in this world were hilariously goofy, "Where is this place?"
"It's the prefecture capital city, north of here. It's a large city, but it's more peaceful than Mountain Goose City."
Jia Shan wrote more cities on the ground. Then, he pointed at the [Yeet City], "Here."
"Oh, it's Handan."
From Xu Miao's perspective, the city was a major prefecture, located southwest of Beijing. C
"Handan?"
"Err, never mind. I'm talking to myself."
"…"
.
After they made their decisions, Xu Miao carried Jia Shan and ran like yesterday. The girls also had to keep up the pace.
After 4 hours of running without rest, Xu Miao's group reached the Tiger Cage Pass. However, he was dead tired. His clothes were soaked with sweat.
The 13 girls were in better condition since they cheated by using body strengthening techniques. Their breathing was unchanged.
The Tiger Cage Pass was a checkpoint, which separated the Red Sun City from eastern cities. The Crimson River protected the capital city to the north while the long mountain range guarded the south. In conclusion, no one from the north, south, or east could get to Red Sun City without crossing the checkpoint.
The sight of a 50-meter height wall impressed everyone, including Xu Miao. This brick wall was a lot taller than ancient walls in the modern world, and the defensive arrays and magic formations flickered everywhere, warning the visitors not to try something stupid.
Before the tall wall, a long line of merchants, caravans, and cultivators was queuing for inspection. A crowd of several thousand people buzzed and murmured, talking among themselves and ignoring Xu Miao's group.
Wei Yuan, Jiang Lan, and Kang Yan were skeptical about the checkpoint. They didn't want to go through with it again.
Jia Shan looked at everyone, "Don't hide your face. Just cover your faces with veils. As for you, Xu Miao, pretend to be my slave."
"Excuse me?"
"We'll go in together. Let me lead."
"… Okay."
"Also, I need new clothes. Do you have anything clean? I'm kinda sweaty. I want the best white robes that you have. Oh, girls, can you make me a make-shift palanquin real fast? I'll hire a few men from other caravans for me, and I'll use them as the palanquin carriers while I will sit on the palanquin. As for you girls, you act as my bodyguards."
"…"
As everyone didn't have a better idea, they followed Jia Shan's instructions. Within 30 minutes, a wooden palanquin was completed.
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