After settling in, Leo took out the alchemy furnace again, cleaned out the impurities and waste inside the cauldron, and started refining pills anew.

  The hardest aspects of pill refining to grasp were the fire intensity and the precise timing for opening the furnace. Typically, refining one batch of Qi Gathering Pills took nearly two hours. Leo had to maintain constant attention on the fire's strength, removing a bit of spirit wood charcoal when the fire was too strong and adding charcoal when it was too weak.

  However, mastering both points relied entirely on the alchemist's experience; one couldn't easily produce pills with just a recipe.

  Even a novice alchemist was quite welcomed in Moonwatch Immortal City precisely because refining was not only difficult but also a profession that consumed a great deal of spirit stones. Beginners often had abysmally low success rates; they might fail several, even over a dozen, batches before succeeding once. Improving the success rate required long-term practice and accumulated experience.

  Ordinary loose cultivators simply couldn't bear such a heavy burden in the early stages. Most alchemists in Moonwatch Immortal City were trained by the families controlling the pill workshops, using family resources.

  Once trained, these alchemists had to serve the family pill workshops. Usually, the pills sold publicly were low-grade, while the better-quality mid-grade or even high-grade pills were taken by talented members of the cultivation families or appeared in auctions, fetching astonishing prices. That's why people from cultivation families were often stronger than ordinary loose cultivators.

  Aside from his daily cultivation time, Leo spent nearly ten consecutive days in the courtyard refining pills. He failed seventeen batches in a row, and his remaining spirit stones were almost depleted. Such a high failure rate was quite disheartening. If it weren't for the ability to cultivate Purple Spirit Grass within the boundary space, he wouldn't have been able to sustain such intensive refining.

  Just the value of seventeen Purple Spirit Grass plants in Moonwatch Immortal City was close to forty spirit stones. Adding the auxiliary herbs, the amount of spirit stones Leo wasted in nearly ten days was staggering for a Qi Refining cultivator.

  However, through so many failures, Leo had summarized a set method for refining Qi Gathering Pills. He also gained some understanding of fire control and opening timing. Leo was now fully focused, watching the blazing charcoal fire beneath the cauldron.

  He wasn't like when he first started, removing spirit wood charcoal when the fire was too high. His past failures gave him a rough idea of how much charcoal to add for a given fire intensity. This was the experience alchemists gained through long-term practice.

  Nearly two hours later, the familiar fragrance wafted over again. Leo's heart tightened. If he failed this time, he'd have to sell all the remaining twenty spirit talismans in his possession to continue refining.

  Focusing his mind and calming his breath, he opened the furnace!

  As he lifted the cauldron lid, a warm, familiar pill aroma greeted him. Inside the small cauldron lay two milky-yellow pills. One of them had an exceptionally strong fragrance, its milky-yellow surface bearing two fine pill lines.

  "I actually refined a mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill!" Leo was overjoyed. Over ten days of hard work had finally paid off. The satisfaction of reaping rewards after such hardship far outweighed the mere significance of the two pills.

  After the heat dissipated from the two perfectly round, plump spirit pills, Leo stored them separately in small bottles.

  Strike while the iron is hot. Capitalizing on his successful refinement of a batch of Qi Gathering Pills, he decided to refine a few more times today.

  With enough seeds on hand, Leo refined seven more times consecutively, using up all the Purple Spirit Grass within the boundary. He succeeded three times, each yielding only one pill, unlike the previous batch which had two.

  Nevertheless, he was quite satisfied with this result. Even among seasoned veterans with decades of refining experience in Moonwatch Immortal City's family alchemists, succeeding three or four times out of ten was considered a very good performance.

  Pill refining was a craft that heavily emphasized skill and state. Fire control and opening timing weren't fixed. Different Purple Spirit Grass plants varied in growth stage and condition.

  Skilled alchemists would make a preliminary judgment about the herbs in hand, estimating the required fire intensity. This judgment could also have errors, so alchemists would make slight adjustments to the fire and opening time during the refining process based on changes. But even the most skilled alchemist couldn't guarantee a 100% correct judgment; the slightest mistake could ruin the entire batch.

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  So, even experienced veterans could only maintain a certain success rate.

  The reason Leo achieved such a high success rate in such a short time was not only due to his own improving skills but, more importantly, he had continuously refined the same type of pill for so many attempts—something other alchemists didn't have. Additionally, the Purple Spirit Grass grown within the boundary wasn't subjected to external disturbances like wind and rain, resulting in more consistent growth. This also improved his success rate.

  After refining the last Purple Spirit Grass plant, Leo contentedly put away the small cauldron. He took out that mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill. Naturally, good pills were reserved for his own use. Now was the time to test the pill's effect.

  Leo sat directly on a stone chair in the small courtyard and swallowed the mid-grade Qi Gathering Pill. The pill slowly dissolved inside his body, transforming into a gentle, warm current that flowed through his limbs and bones.

  Previously, it took nearly six hours to refine the medicinal power of a Qi Gathering Pill. But now at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, it took less than two hours.

  The spiritual energy his meridians couldn't accommodate, as usual, appeared within the boundary. After absorbing the medicinal power from his meridians, Leo's soul chased and consumed the energy within the boundary. Then, he scattered Purple Spirit Grass seeds again, crushing a spirit stone into powder and sprinkling it on the soil near the seeds.

  Previously, when he ran out of Purple Spirit Grass while cultivating, he was frantic because the spiritual energy drifting in the air was hard to directly land on the seeds for absorption. Later, out of desperation, he used spirit stones. He also discovered he could control these stones with his will and crush them.

  Using spirit stones also had its specifics. After all, he had all five elements of spirit stones on hand: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Only the rare ice, wind, and thunder types he didn't have. Water was the source of life, but using too much wasn't good; overly moist soil was detrimental to Purple Spirit Grass growth.

  Earth-element spirit stones could enhance the land's spiritual energy. Wood-element stones, being of the same element as Purple Spirit Grass, could also be used as fertilizer. Overall, wood-element stones corresponding to the grass worked best, earth-element stones next, and water-element stones after that.

  He also tested metal and fire elements. They were completely ineffective. After absorbing metal-element spiritual energy, the Purple Spirit Grass quickly withered. Fire-element stones directly burned the grass into black ash.

  Generally, one spirit stone could cultivate about three Purple Spirit Grass plants. Based on his previous success rate, nearing forty percent, it meant that apart from the failed batches, once sold at Qi Gathering Pill prices, one spirit stone could yield a return of four.

  Although Qi Gathering Pills had a lesser effect on middle-stage Qi Refining cultivators, their advantage lay in quantity. With sufficient pills, his cultivation speed skyrocketed, several times faster than relying on meditation alone. Within half a year, having just entered the fifth layer of Qi Refining, the energy accumulated at this layer was already close to half.

  By now, Leo, dressed in cyan robes, had grown noticeably taller than before. His frame remained slightly slender, and while not exceptionally handsome, his somewhat delicate features, combined with long periods of solitude and the life-and-death trials of recent years, gave him an air of cool detachment and quiet depth.

  Roar! The leopard's senses were more acute than an ordinary cultivator's. It quickly detected unusual movement outside the courtyard. The leopard, which had been lazily sunbathing in the yard, suddenly stood up.

  Knock, knock! A knocking sound came from the door.

  "Is Brother Leo in?" Morana's voice called out sweetly from outside.

  Hearing the visitor's voice, the leopard lay back down in its original spot. Over the past half year, the Sasha siblings had visited occasionally, and after a couple of times, the leopard remembered them.

  "Hmm, this Qi Gathering Pill scent is different from usual." Morana said as soon as she entered, sniffing the air intently.

  "Why are you here so early today?"

  Leo smiled at the question, sidestepping the matter of the pills. He had been lucky earlier and refined a high-grade Qi Gathering Pill. Over the past half year, he had continuously refined Qi Gathering Pills; the number of times he opened the furnace likely surpassed what other alchemists did in decades combined. After all, even cultivating Purple Spirit Grass in spirit fields took a year per harvest. One couldn't continuously harvest herbs just by having spirit stones like he could.

  Sasha said, "It's like this. In another four months, the major immortal sects will begin their annual disciple recruitment. My sister, I, and a few other close friends plan to enter the Moonwatch Mountain Range to search for spiritual materials. With good luck, we might even encounter items from other sects' missions. Brother Leo, your strength is good. I'd like to invite you to join our team. With one more person, we'll be a bit safer in the Moonwatch Mountain Range."

  "Oh? Is the Moonwatch Mountain Range very dangerous?" Leo asked, surprised.

  "Brother Leo, you might not know. The Moonwatch Mountain Range isn't just teeming with demon beasts; the greater danger comes from other cultivators. I've been into the mountain range several times. More teammates have died from ambushes by other cultivator teams than from demon beast attacks." Sasha said solemnly.

  Leo was startled. Having stayed in the small courtyard refining pills for half a year, he had somewhat forgotten the bloody conflicts among cultivators.

  "Who else is in the team you're inviting? Who has the highest cultivation?" Leo asked, not agreeing directly.

  "Including us siblings, there are five others. The one with the highest cultivation is the same as me, at the sixth layer of Qi Refining. However, Brother Leo is a highly skilled alchemist. If you join our team, you'll have some priority rights over the spiritual herbs we obtain." Morana said with an expectant look.

  Over the past half year, they had gotten to know Leo a bit. In their eyes, being able to afford renting such a large courtyard solely through pill refining and maintain his daily cultivation was already quite impressive.