The original repairer

The sect's major assessment means that after three years of joining the sect, one's cultivation must reach the third level of Qi Refining, otherwise one will be dispatched out of the sect and stationed in the market or fairy city within the sect's territory.

If Shi Chen cannot pass the assessment based on his cultivation level and wants to stay in the sect, he can only apply to the sect to plant thirty acres of spiritual fields like Song Yu and postpone the assessment for one year.

After one year, if one fails to complete the sect's thirty-acre spiritual farm output task, or if one's cultivation fails to reach the third level of Qi Refining, he will be sent to a station outside the sect, perhaps to serve as a deacon in a marginal area, or as a handyman in a branch building under a hall.

Once you are sent out of the sect, you will have very little time to practice. More importantly, there is the problem of insufficient spiritual energy. Some places have no spiritual veins at all, and no spiritual energy is generated. The sect throws you there and only gives you a small amount of practice resources every year. You also have to maintain your contribution to the sect, and in the end you can only become the sect's cattle and horses.

With Shi Chen's current progress in cultivation, if he leaves the sect, he will not be able to reach the middle stage of Qi Refining in ten years, and it may even be difficult for him to reach the third level of Qi Refining.

If you can become a disciple of a high-ranking alchemist, then things will be different.

Becoming an entry-level alchemy apprentice allows you to follow your master in refining pills, helping him clean the furnace, washing utensils, controlling the fire, purifying spiritual medicines, etc. You can also receive guidance from the alchemy master, and the sect will distribute ten low-grade spirit stones every month.

Shi Chen was eager to become Wu Xin's disciple, but unfortunately he had no chance.

Various books on alchemy only record a few superficial experiences in the recipes, mentioning things like "be careful here" and "use this technique skillfully" and so on.

There is only a vague description, without much explanation about the changes and contingency measures.

In the last quarter of this year, I am still unable to become a first-level alchemist, so I can only apply to increase the planting of 30 acres of spiritual fields.

It’s not that Shi Chen can’t cultivate the thirty acres of spiritual fields, but it takes too much time to look after them. He has to spend more than three or four hours a day looking after the spiritual fields, which leaves him with little time to practice, learn magic, and refine pills.

The progress of all things will be delayed. The time it originally took two years to reach the third level of Qi Refining will become three, four, or even five years.

Since entering the first level of Qi Refining, Shi Chen was pleasantly surprised to discover that the spiritual energy flowing through his body had greatly enhanced his memory and thinking abilities. He was already intelligent, but now his memory was even more remarkable. Previously complex problems could now be easily solved with just a little thought.

He knew that according to his current cultivation progress, it would take at least one and a half years to advance from the second level of Qi Refining to the third level.

With only a quarter left until the final assessment, he knew that he had to make a breakthrough in his cultivation, otherwise he would face the risk of being transferred out of the sect.

If you can't make up for it through cultivation, you can only make up for it through skills.

Improving his alchemy skills is the only way to continue staying in the sect, and passing the first-level alchemist certification at the end of the year is also his only way out.

This season, the harvest of spiritual rice was very impressive, with an output of 415 kilograms per mu.

Even if all of this spiritual rice were refined into fasting pills, the spiritual stones gained would still be a drop in the bucket. To achieve a break-even point, the success rate of the Qi-nourishing Pills had to reach 50%.

For newly advanced alchemists, the success rate of making Qi-nourishing Pills is only about 30% to 40%, and there is no guarantee that every furnace will be full of pills.

A first-level alchemist refines Qi-nourishing pills, and the profit is meager.

The main source of income for a first-level alchemist is elixirs that are more advanced than the Qi-nourishing Pill, such as the Soul-Nourishing Pill, the Marrow-Cleansing Pill, the Qi-Condensing Pill, the Poison-Quitting Pill, and the Foundation-Building Pill.

To obtain the recipe for the pill, and then refine it to maturity and make a profit, the amount of spirit stones required is extremely huge.

The elixir for a Qi-nourishing Pill requires two spirit stones. After the pill is made, a bottle of Qi-nourishing Pill starts selling for three spirit stones. Even in the market outside the sect, the price is at most five spirit stones. Compared with other first-level pills, the profit is too little.

However, there are a large number of cultivators at the beginner and intermediate levels of Qi training, and the sales of Qi-nourishing Pills have always been very good.

The Soul-Enriching Pill costs only five lower-grade spirit stones for one portion. After being refined into a pill, a bottle starts at thirty lower-grade spirit stones. In the market outside the sect, it can even be sold for fifty lower-grade spirit stones.

The profit of Qi-nourishing Pills ranges from half to twice, while the profit of other pills with the same capital can reach five to ten times.

The profit margins of elixirs were enormous, and the initial investment was difficult to cover on one person. High-level alchemists were trained with spiritual medicines supplied by their families and clans, and ultimately, the majority of the profits went into the pockets of the clans and families. The alchemist was nothing more than a high-level hired hand.

Refining two batches of fasting pills every day is the basis for ensuring the resources for cultivation.

After deducting the costs last month, I made a net profit of 141 spirit stones.

The refined Qi-nourishing Pill was worth thirty-eight spirit stones. He kept two bottles for himself and sold the rest.

The total assets are one hundred and seventy-eight low-grade spirit stones.

Twenty spirit stones can be used to purchase spiritual rice for next month, and the remaining one hundred and fifty-eight spirit stones can be used to purchase seventy-nine spiritual medicines such as Qi-nourishing Pills.

In the Dantang Medicine Pavilion, Shi Chen took out a list of spiritual medicines and said to the errand boy who worked in the medicine pavilion, "Please fetch the following spiritual medicines for me."

"Wait a moment," the deacon sitting in the inner hall said, "I'll take care of Junior Brother Shi. You can go and do your own thing."

"Hello, Deacon Zhu," Shi Chen bowed and said, "Please, Deacon Zhu, bring these spiritual medicines." After that, Shi Chen handed over the list of spiritual medicines.

"Junior Brother Shi, this is the third time you've purchased the formula for the Qi-Nourishing Pill. I wonder if you've managed to refine the Qi-Nourishing Pill yet?"

"Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission and have successfully refined the Qi-nourishing Pill. However, it is too difficult to make the pill, and I only managed to refine one batch by chance."

"Oh, Junior Brother, you have such an understanding of the Dao of Alchemy. Congratulations, Junior Brother Shi!"

"I'm ashamed!" Shi Chen said modestly, "I'm afraid Deacon Zhu will laugh at me if I tell you this. I've been studying alchemy for half a year and am already familiar with the recipe for nourishing qi pills. However, when I first started refining them, I still made mistakes frequently. After practicing with seventy spiritual herbs, I finally managed to make three pills in a furnace, just meeting the entry-level standard."

"Giving Junior Brother the Qi-nourishing Pill is already an entry-level skill. As long as you give Junior Brother one or two hundred spiritual herbs to practice with, your chances of achieving success will definitely increase significantly. Congratulations, Junior Brother, you'll be a first-level alchemist in no time."

"Hey! Deacon Zhu, I don't know. It's hard to explain. The sect's grand assessment will be in three months. With my cultivation aptitude, I can't meet the sect's requirements. I don't know what to do then."

"Don't worry, there are still three months left. Maybe your chance will come right before your eyes."

"Deacon Zhu, what's this?" Shi Chen sensed something was hidden in Deacon Zhu's words. "Does Deacon Zhu have anything to introduce?"

"Our Zhu family has a second-level alchemist who is currently serving in the sect's alchemy hall. You can get a recommendation from our Zhu family and become his disciple. Do you have any ideas?"

"I wonder what I need to pay to become the apprentice of your family's second-rank alchemist?"

"It's very simple. Take a Taoist oath and dedicate yourself to refining elixirs for the Zhu family for ten years. The Zhu family will guarantee that you will become a first-class alchemist within the sect within five years. You can choose five first-class elixir recipes of your choice, and all other benefits will be the same as those provided by the sect. In other words, you can receive spirit stones from both the sect and the Zhu family. In the sect, such conditions are already very good apprentice treatment."

In the end, Shi Chen politely declined, saying that he would consider it after the sect's major examination.

After Shi Chen left the medicine pavilion, Deacon Zhu said contemptuously, "Every year there are dragons fighting for pearls, and you don't know whether you are a dragon or a worm. After the sect's major examination, the conditions will not be the same as they are now. By then, I'm afraid even if you come to beg me, you may not be able to enter the Zhu family."