Time was a priceless consumable. Whether you wanted or not, it was always being consumed.

　　As they were busy on pill refining, the time passed. It was close to 3:30 p.m when Song Shuhang was about to finish refining of body tempering liquid.

　　Just like yesterday, when they put the forty-first medicinal herb in, the body tempering liquid in the hot pot changed.

　　With the experience from the last time, this time, Song Shuhang added the water calmly. After a short while, he threw Fresh Overlord Branch, sliced Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo, Deep Sea Cold Crystal, and Core of Snow Demon into the pot in one go.

　　When the medicinal liquid in the pot was divided into two, Song Shuhang directly turned the temperature to the maximum.

　　With all of these done, Song Shuhang breathed a sigh of relief.

　　Everything went well. It was all coming down to the last few minutes!

　　Oh, yes, he still had to be prepared for the ‘mixture of all bad smells in the world’ that would be coming soon.

　　Four minutes later.

　　“Boom…!”

　　The lid of the hot pot was pushed off by high pressure once again, and black smoke squirted out of the hot pot. Soon, an unutterable stench filled the room.

　　Already prepared for it, Song Shuhang held his breath ahead of time—although the stench still somehow invaded his sense of smell from different parts of his body, he could alleviate the stench to a certain extent by holding his breath ahead of time.

　　“Yuck? What’s this smell?” With great strength, Medicine Master already had his five senses greatly improved. In particular, his sense of smell was about three hundred times keener than that of ordinary people.

　　This strange stench poured into his mouth and nose, and Medicine Master felt he was not himself anymore.

　　Fu*k, this smell was as lethal as a biological weapon! Smelling this, an ordinary person would turn pale, vomit with nausea, fall to the ground, and froth at the mouth!

　　If he were not strong enough, or didn’t frequently suffer from the bad odors from failure of pill refining, he would be forced onto his knees when the stench came.

　　“If the smell is extracted, it will be a nightmare for First Stage cultivators who had opened nose aperture and Second Stage True Masters who can’t control their sense of smell yet,” muttered Medicine Master. He clapped his hands, raised a gust of wind, and drove away the stinking black mist.

　　“Even if I’ve smelled it once, I still can’t get used to it. I feel like I won’t have any appetite in the next few days.” Song Shuhang also complained.

　　“Have you succeeded?” Medicine Master asked.

　　“Since the stench has come out, I think it should’ve been a success?” Song Shuhang picked up the hot pot lid. Every time, the lid got pushed off. Even if it was made of reinforced glass, it would be broken sooner or later.

　　Medicine Master pinched his nose, came to the hot pot and observed the situation inside. At the bottom of the hot pot, there was a thin layer of black medicinal paste, transparent and with a strong odor.

　　He crooked a finger, and a drop of medicinal liquid flew off and fell into his mouth.

　　Sensing the medicinal properties of the body tempering liquid in his mouth, Medicine Master smiled with satisfaction, “Just as I expected.”

　　As estimated by him, the medicinal effect of this body tempering liquid was half as weak as his simplified version.

　　Normally, the stronger effect a pill had, the better it would be for cultivators. However, the simplest body tempering liquid would show some unexpected special effect after its medicinal effect was reduced to a certain extent!

　　The old version of the body tempering liquid had a strong medicinal effect. Even the elite disciples enrolled by sects who wanted to take it had to prepare for it several months or half a year in advance. They had to stimulate their own qi and blood to the limit and adjust their physical state to the best before taking it.

　　Even if any elite disciple of sects wanted to take the body tempering liquid simplified by Medicine Master, they still had to prepare for it at least one month in advance before taking it.

　　However, if the effect of body tempering liquid was further reduced, the disciples of sects would only need to adjust their physical state slightly before taking it.

　　And then, as their bodies were strengthened after they took the body tempering liquid, they could take another version of body tempering liquid of higher quality, which would greatly reduce the time that sects spent on fostering disciples.

　　After all, every minute counted for disciples’ Foundation Establishment. The two years between the age of four and six was the best time for Foundation Establishment. The sooner a disciple took body tempering liquid, the better.

　　More importantly, Song Shuhang’s refining method of body tempering liquid didn’t require the alchemist doing anything deliberately. They just needed to immediately change the refining step when something got wrong in the forty-first step for refining the ‘simplified body tempering liquid’.

　　This method was simply a patch for Medicine Master’s simplified body tempering liquid. It could further improve the formula of ‘simplified body tempering liquid’, and also greatly reduce the expenditure of medicinal herbs.

　　Seeing the satisfied smile on Medicine Master’s face, Song Shuhang breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “Will it help you improve the formula of simplified body tempering liquid?”

　　“It’s not that easy. Your success just proved that it’s feasible for me to perfect the formula. I’ll still need your cooperation in the next few days, because I need to make some improvements on your refining method. Great, this trip is worth it.” Medicine Master seemed in a good mood.

　　“I will try my best to cooperate with you, Senior,” Song Shuhang nodded.

　　Medicine Master nodded satisfactorily, produced a thick notebook from his pocket, and quickly recorded all the data and details of the experiment in it.

　　Called a genius alchemist, he was well-known among cultivators. But it was impossible for him to gain the title and fame by doing nothing. From the thick notebook, one could see how much effort and time he had spent on pill refining. And… there were as many as thirty bookshelves in his cultivation cave, which were all stuffed with thick notebooks like this one.

　　Behind every successful genius, there was an incredible amount of sweat shed by that very genius.

　　Song Shuhang looked at Medicine Master, wishing to speak but stopping on a second thought.

　　Finally, he couldn’t hold it back. “Senior Medicine Master, you mentioned that the flying sword of Great Master Profound Principle would arrive in about four or five hours; it should be about the time, shouldn’t it?”

　　❮Basic Buddhist Fist Technique❯ and ❮True Self Meditation Scripture❯! The Foundation Establishment techniques that could genuinely guide him to the world of cultivators!

　　Thinking of these introductory techniques for cultivators, Song Shuhang felt so restless and excited that he wished he could get the books right away.

　　“Haha, take it easy. The flying sword of Great Master Profound Principle takes me as the positioning coordinate, so I will feel it when it’s going to arrive. Well, let’s just go back to your dorm. The positioning coordinate was set in your dorm, so the flying sword will reach there if everything goes well,” Medicine Master laughed.

　　“Shall we go back now?” Song Shuhang asked expectantly.

　　“No hurry, I’ve verified the feasibility of a lot of ideas in my mind when I was watching you refining the body tempering liquid. I need to take them down. Well, if you’re in a hurry, you can go back first, and I’ll follow you later,” said Medicine Master.

　　Song Shuhang nodded.

　　“Then, Senior, I’ll return to the dorm first to wait for the books.”

　　“Go ahead~ young men always lack patience.” As he spoke, Medicine Master reached out and threw a bunch of keys to Song Shuhang.

　　It was the key to the house.

　　“Here you are. There are five floors in this house, and I don’t need that much, so I’ll lend the top floor to you. Then, you won’t need to rent a house anymore,” said Medicine Master without looking up.

　　Anyway, he had bought the house. It was better to do Song Shuhang a favor than just leave the rooms empty.

　　Song Shuhang took over the key without any false pretenses ¹ . “Thank you, Senior!”

　　He really needed a house free from any disturbances, and… he had no spare money. It was great that Medicine Master could lend him a room to solve this urgent need, so he would just take it.

　　“Remember to lock the door!” Medicine Master waved and continued to write in the thick notebook.

　　Song Shuhang walked off at a brisk pace.

　　Of course, he didn’t forget to take his induction cooker and hot pot with him, which should be taken back so as not to let his roommates feel suspicious.