Translator: Anubis Translations
Yan Xixi also needed to cultivate, so it wasn't appropriate for her to keep him company all the time.
Thus, Gu Feng asked her to find him an alchemy room where he could seclude himself and focus on his research.
For more than ten days, Gu Feng lived and ate in that room, experiencing dozens of furnace explosions daily. If it weren't for his robust physique, he might not have survived.
Alchemy was not only a technical skill but also a dual test of both the body and the will.
At this moment, his eye sockets were slightly sunken, his hair disheveled, his robe tattered, and his body covered in soot. Yet, his eyes were bright and focused, intently staring at the pill furnace.
He had never been so tense before. After enduring five to six hundred failures, he finally saw the light of success.
Buzz—
With a faint metallic hum, the lid of the furnace flew open. Gu Feng leaped high, catching several mysterious lights in his hand.
"Hahaha, I've succeeded, I've succeeded!!"
He shouted excitedly and hurriedly ran out of the alchemy room.
Bang!
He collided head-on with a disciple from the Alchemy Hall.
"Who are you?" the disciple asked, clutching his forehead in pain.
"You may call me the God of Pills!" Gu Feng declared proudly, leaving the disciple dumbfounded as he quickly moved away.
"Great, another one gone mad. This is already the seventh disciple to lose it this year, isn't it?"
"Xixi, I've succeeded!" he shouted as he went straight to the place where Yan Xixi usually studied pill formulas.
"What? You've succeeded?" Yan Xixi quickly put down the book in her hand and hurried over, her eyes wide with surprise as she looked at the pills in Gu Feng's hand.
"Nine… nine pills?
You refined nine pills in one furnace?" Seeing the nine plump pills in Gu Feng's hand, Yan Xixi was utterly shocked.
The Bone Cleansing Pill was notoriously difficult to refine. Even the elders of the Alchemy Hall rarely managed to produce nine pills in one furnace, yet Gu Feng had succeeded!
The aroma was unmistakably authentic, and the quality was impressive. The pills even bore six runes, clearly reaching the peak of the Mortal Grade mid-tier!
"Could it be… you're actually a genius in alchemy?"
"Hahaha, you flatter me, you flatter me!" Gu Feng laughed triumphantly.
"Let's test the efficacy!" As she spoke, Yan Xixi pulled Gu Feng to a device resembling a compass and placed one of the pills into a groove.
In the next moment, the compass vibrated slightly, accompanied by a faint glow, and the needle on it trembled.
"So? How's the pill?" Gu Feng asked in a low voice.
Yan Xixi frowned, her eyes filled with confusion.
The pill had six runes, a strong medicinal aroma, and was plump in appearance, yet its efficacy was only about a third of a standard Bone Cleansing Pill of the same grade.
"How long did it take you to refine this pill?" Yan Xixi asked, turning to him.
"One hour!"
"What? You refined it in just one hour?" Gu Feng's answer shocked Yan Xixi, her lively eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
Then, she muttered to herself, "How is it possible to refine it in just one hour? This doesn't make sense!"
"Why not? I improved the refining method, reduced the cost, and sped up the process. Is the efficacy really that bad?"
Gu Feng asked nervously. After studying in the alchemy room for a few days, he realized that without innate talent, it was nearly impossible for him to refine a proper Bone Cleansing Pill.
So—
He took a different approach, modifying the pill by adjusting the ratios and sequence of adding the spirit herbs.
The result was a success. Not only did he refine a furnace in just one hour, but he also produced nine pills at once.
"What? You modified the formula and the refining method?" Yan Xixi's pupils constricted sharply. The formula for the Bone Cleansing Pill had been refined over countless trials and was considered perfect, with no room for improvement.
"Let's find a spirit beast and test the pill's efficacy!"
If this was a new refining method, the testing device might not be accurate. Only by having a spirit beast consume the pill could they truly judge its effectiveness.
Soon, Yan Xixi brought over a snow-white spirit beast that resembled a large mouse, dozens of times bigger than a regular one. This was a spirit beast specifically used by the Alchemy Hall for testing pills.
"Feed it one pill!"
"Alright!" Gu Feng placed a pill into the beast's mouth. Not long after, the beast showed an expression of enjoyment.
Yan Xixi watched the spirit beast intently, occasionally placing her finger on its forehead to sense the changes inside its body.
"So? Is it effective?" Gu Feng asked nervously.
"It's effective, but the efficacy is only about a third. It's not a true Bone Cleansing Pill," Yan Xixi said, pursing her lips.
"Only a third? That's not bad. If we sell it at a lower price, people might still buy it, right?" Gu Feng said uncertainly.
"If there are no side effects, definitely! By the way, what's your cost?"
"Only one-tenth of the original cost per furnace," Gu Feng answered truthfully.
"Let's observe it for a while longer. If there are no side effects, we can start selling it!"
Since cultivators could immediately detect if a pill had side effects upon consumption, there was no need for lengthy clinical trials.
However, just as Yan Xixi finished speaking, the spirit beast's face twisted in pain. Its legs tightened, and its eyes darted around as if searching for something.
In the next moment, it darted off, grabbed an unknown object, and placed it under its rear.
Splash… plop… sounds followed, accompanied by a nauseating odor.
Yan Xixi and Gu Feng exchanged glances, both seeing embarrassment in each other's eyes.
"This pill has no other side effects… except for causing diarrhea," Yan Xixi said in a low voice.
Such a pill, no matter how cheap, would be hard to sell.
However, Gu Feng thought differently. After all, the pill's effects were real, and diarrhea wasn't fatal. As long as the price was attractive enough, people would buy it.
After all, the true Bone Cleansing Pill was a rare and hard-to-obtain pill.
At worst, people could just practice cultivation while sitting on a toilet. In a world where strength was paramount, such a minor drawback was insignificant.
With this in mind, Gu Feng said solemnly to Yan Xixi, "I'm going to mass-produce this pill and sell it!"
He named this pill the "Modified Bone Cleansing Pill."
"You're so sneaky! If I hadn't looked closely, I wouldn't have noticed the difference between 'Modified' and 'Bone'!" Yan Xixi chuckled, covering her mouth as she watched the busy Gu Feng.
Not only had Gu Feng changed the word "Bone" to "Modified," but he also made the packaging nearly identical to that of the authentic Bone Cleansing Pill. It was only after Gu Feng pointed it out that she noticed the subtle difference.
"Hehe, it's a marketing strategy!" Gu Feng laughed.
"How much are you planning to sell it for?"
"How much does a real Bone Cleansing Pill cost?"
"A bottle of nine pills costs around twenty thousand spirit stones. A single pill can sell for twenty-five hundred spirit stones," Yan Xixi thought for a moment and said.
"Alright, let's price it based on that!"
"Isn't that a bit… unethical?" Yan Xixi asked with some concern. If outer sect disciples bought the fake pills at the price of the real ones, they'd probably come looking for trouble the next day.
"I've thought about the after-sales service too. Look at this!" Gu Feng took out a small wooden board from his storage pouch, on which were written the words, "Fake? Refund threefold—honest and fair!"
"At worst, I'll just give them four bottles. If anyone dares to cause trouble, I'll throw a fit!"
Hearing this, Yan Xixi was utterly stunned.
"Xixi, take these spirit stones and buy me four million spirit stones' worth of medicinal herbs.
Then, help me find a large alchemy room with at least ten furnaces. I'm going to focus on refining pills for a while!"
"Alright—"
Just as Gu Feng was immersing himself in alchemy, the outer sect issued a ban towards the end of the month.
To be precise, this ban had a significant impact on the Jade Maiden Sect but barely affected ordinary disciples.
"That damned Gu Feng! Where is he? I'm going to chop him into pieces!"
Tearing the ban notice in her hands, Chu Youhuan grew angrier the more she thought about it. No wonder the brat had so easily sold the Robbery Guide to them earlier—he must have known this day would come.
Furious, her black hair whirling wildly, she hoisted a forty-meter-long blade and led the members of the Jade Maiden Sect in a grand march toward Gu Feng's courtyard.
She was truly livid. The outer sect's ban had directly cost her four million spirit stones, pushing her and the already struggling Jade Maiden Sect to the brink of bankruptcy.
Over the past month, the disciples of the Jade Maiden Sect had become increasingly lax in hunting demon beasts.
What's more, Chu Youhuan, thinking she had acquired a golden goose, had indulged in early spending.
Now, she was completely broke and buried in debt.
She had been counting on making a big profit at the end of the month to repay her debts, but things had turned out like this.
"Gu Feng, you scammer, come out here!"
TL/N: To be honest, that's bad planning on your part, why blame him?
(End of the Chapter)
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