Luo Chen's eyes turned bloodshot, and his face was ashen as he stared at the pitch-black lump in the pot and smelled the burnt scent,

Pfft! I have failed! Failed again! This is the sixth pot!

This was the sixth day he had been refining the Myriad Wonders pill, steadily making one pot per day. But the final result left him deeply hurt.

There was not a single success!

The best he had achieved was a pot of light red mush.

He was certain the prescription stated that the final product should be deep red, redder than a patriotic heart!

Looking slightly despondent, he picked up the pot and dumped the blackened lump across the stream.

Then, by the stream, he absentmindedly scrubbed the pot with a gourd sponge.

In his mind, he kept replaying the refining process.

The proportions were certainly correct, I used scales to measure them to utmost precision.

The order of adding ingredients was also correct, each addition was timed precisely as symptoms appeared.

Was it a problem with the heat? Or maybe the firewood wasn't right? But the prescription stated that peach wood would do, for a mere first-tier pill, the requirements shouldn't be that high

Or was it my technique that was wrong?

These repeated failures led Luo Chen to begin doubting himself.

He even wondered if he lacked the talent for alchemy, and his success with the fasting concoction was only because the original Luo Chen had talent and led him to the door.

He was merely taking over someone else's well-leveled game account, briskly walking down an already paved path.

Splash!

Water splashed across his face.

A large carp swam by, leaping as it passed and splashing water all over his face.

Recently, there were more fish in the stream, probably swept over from the rising waters of the Lancang River!

He looked at the fish swimming away and felt a surge of anger.

Bam bam, energy! Fireball!

A lump of charcoal floated up from the water's surface, drifting further downstream.

Looking down at the thoroughly cleaned iron pot in his hands, Luo Chen muttered to himself, "Could it be an issue with the tools?"

He couldn't help but show a classic wry smile, like a web novel protagonist; he was all too aware of his dire situation in alchemy.

He had no mentor to guide him and no family to support him. He didn't even have the proper alchemy tools.

Others used high-quality alchemical furnaces, fueled by heavenly fire, while he simmered his ingredients in an iron pot.

A good alchemical furnace cost ten times as much as a flying sword of the same tier!

Even the defensive artifacts most favored by rogue cultivators couldn't match the value of an alchemical furnace.

Gathering enough ingredients for ten portions of the Myriad Wonders pill had nearly bankrupted him; buying a furnace was out of the question.

Even the lowest-grade furnace couldn't be fueled by ordinary firewood.

It required first-tier spirit wood as fuel and a cultivator constantly adjusting the flame with spirit power.

He couldn't afford first-tier spirit wood, nor did he have the cultivation level to adjust the flame continuously.

Sometimes, he fantasized about being like the famed alchemists who could produce ten or so pills in one go, rather than molding them by hand when the paste was scalding hot.

Everyone knew that stuff was hot! Some pastes even had adverse effects on flesh! But he just didn't have the resources!

After a bout of self-pity, Luo Chen put the pot back on the stove, untied his apron, and sat at the doorway.

As he faced the evening sun, he gave himself two slaps.

"What's the point of thinking about all that! I've staked everything I have; even if I hit a dead end, I'll break through it! Tomorrow, I'll take a break from refining and adjust my mindset."

Everyone knew the principle of how haste makes waste.

But when the moment came, it often took hitting one's head repeatedly to realize impatience had taken over.

With nothing to do that night, a smoldering anger churned within Luo Chen.

He needed to vent!

And so...

"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"

The stream suffered, and the fish in it lamented their fate.

Nine fully cast Fireballs drained all his spirit power.

After gaining nine points of proficiency, Luo Chen returned to his room, sat cross-legged, and began practicing the Long Spring Art Technique.

One full circulation of energy restored a fifth of his spirit power.

Another circulation restored another fifth.

Yes, that would do.

For low-tier cultivators, their physical bodies and souls hadn't transformed; two or three rounds of practice a night was about the limit.

He drifted off to sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day, he awoke with less than half his spirit power restored.

This limited amount of spirit power was the real reason he couldn't push his proficiency to break through and earn achievement points.

Practicing Fireball all day required five days to recover!

Even the low-energy Cleansing Technique required sufficient time to restore.

Luo Chen didn't live in a particularly safe area, so he always needed to keep some enchanting power reserved for escape.

When he woke up, he felt a little fearful.

He had truly gone crazy last night, exhausting all his spirit power; if a demonic beast had wandered over, he would have had little ability to resist.

"I can't do that again. Remember, remember!"

Muttering to himself, he sat cross-legged and completed a round of Long Spring Art Technique.

His spirit power restored another fifth.

Then, he opened his status panel.

[Status Panel]

Name: Luo Chen

Lifespan: 27/75 Spirit Roots: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth

Realm: Qi-Refining Realm Stage Three (75/100)

Achievement Points: 1 (Can be used to unlock cultivation techniques, spells, or skills)

[Technique]

Long Spring Art: Proficient (249/300)

[Spells]

Cleanse: Beginner (51/100)

Entangle: Skilled (176/200)

Fireball: Perfection (304/500)

[Skills]

First-tier Alchemist

Staring at the status panel, Luo Chen was momentarily dazed.

The lifespan was, unsurprisingly, his own lifespan before transmigration, the original Luo Chen had long been dead, and the lifespan should have been zero.

The reason he desperately wanted to earn spirit stones was ultimately for cultivation and for longevity.

As he reflected on it, it saddened him to know he would have only lived 75 years on Earth.

He wouldn't even be able to celebrate an eighty-year-old celebratory funeral[1] nor would there be descendants dancing at his service—not that he would’ve had any, given the fact that he had been single before the transmigration.

So in this life, he was determined to climb step by step, to reach the pinnacle of cultivation and to live the longest!

And then, he was slapped hard by reality.

Half a month had passed, even as he had kept up with his Long Spring Art Technique practice twice every day, his current state remained stagnant.

Even with balanced five-element roots, he couldn't be this talentless!

How had the original Luo Chen reached the third stage of Qi-Refining? The deceased owner couldn't have left him a stash of qi-nourishing pills!

After the sting of reality came the gratitude for transmigrator benefits.

His proficiency in the Long Spring Art Technique had increased by 26 points, though he didn't feel much of a difference.

In the Spells section, Cleanse had gained two points, once for cleaning his robes, and once for scrubbing the iron pot clean of the fasting concoction's remnants.

Entangle hadn't changed much, and he didn't plan to use Blue-Silver Vines to leap stages and take on a Golden Core cultivator.

As for Fireball, with the maximum of two casts per day, plus last night's indulgence, its proficiency had surged by 36 points.

Now it had surged past the Proficiency level to Perfection level which granted him a breakthrough achievement point.

Hehe, what would a Perfection level Fireball Technique feel like?

But with his spirit power not yet fully restored, he suppressed his excitement, along with his eager hands.

Thinking this, Luo Chen closed the status panel.

But just before he closed it, his eyes lingered on the achievement points, and he blinked, hurriedly reopening the panel.

"Wait!"

[Skills]

First-tier Alchemist

He remembered clearly; when he had used an achievement point to unlock Myriad Wonders pill, his proficiency had only been at 1 point, yet now it was at 3.

But he had never successfully refined a single Myriad Wonders pill!

"Proficiency can be increased through failure?"

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

1. In Chinese culture, if an elderly passed away after the age of eighty, they would celebrate a joyous funeral ☜