Chapter 26: Chapter 26 - Undetectable Quality Assurance and the Stealth Pill

In the standard cultivation market, medicinal pills were graded strictly by their Purity.

The market was divided into four distinct tiers:

• Low-Grade (30% Purity): The mass-market standard. They were cloudy, ugly, and eating too many would clog a cultivator’s meridians with toxic sludge.

• Mid-Grade (60% Purity): Smooth and brightly colored. The premium retail standard for Inner Sect disciples.

• High-Grade (80% Purity): They glowed faintly and emitted a beautiful, sweet fragrance. These were luxury assets reserved for elites.

• Perfect Grade (99% Purity): The absolute peak of orthodox alchemy. These pills naturally formed "Pill Veins." They shone like tiny suns.

And absolutely none of those descriptions matched the object on Su Bai’s palm.

His creation was too beautiful and crystalline to be Low or Mid-grade. It didn’t emit a single trace of scent to be High-grade. And instead of golden Pill Veins, it had silver, jagged "Frost Veins" trapped deep inside the translucent core.

"Can you let me try that one, Junior Brother Su?" Ji Ruyue asked again. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Su Bai immediately pulled his hand back.

"I apologize, Senior Sister Ji, but I must respectfully decline," Su Bai said. "This pill was forged using a completely untested and highly unorthodox flame technique. I cannot allow a fellow disciple to consume it until its stability has been properly appraised by the Elders. If an unknown pill damages your foundation, the Law Enforcement Hall will hold me strictly liable."

Ji Ruyue didn’t press the issue. She simply nodded.

The three of them stood in silence, staring at the freezing sphere.

"Could it be... a Perfect Grade?" Liu Meng muttered.

She quickly shook her head. "No. Whenever a Perfect Grade pill is born, it triggers a Heavenly Phenomenon. The Heavens get jealous of something so perfect, so they summon a massive, booming Lightning Tribulation to try and destroy the pill. At the very least, a glowing ’Pill Cloud’ should have formed over Verdant Peak. But the sky is completely clear."

If the Heavens didn’t care about it, it couldn’t be a Perfect Grade.

"Senior Brother," Liu Meng pointed to a glowing stone pedestal nearby. "Why don’t we use the Qi-Testing Array."

"A logical step," Su Bai agreed.

He walked over to the pedestal and carefully placed the semi-translucent pill onto the center of the array. The array lit up, scanning the internal structure of the pill.

A moment later, the results flashed above the stone in glowing spiritual text:

[0% Efficacy. Dead Matter.]

Liu Meng’s face instantly paled. "That... that shouldn’t be possible!" she stammered. "I saw the entire process! You perfectly preserved the medicinal essence! It can’t be zero!"

Su Bai let out a disappointed sigh. ’So, the freeze-drying process completely killed the payload. Just another failed batch.’

It was then that Ji Ruyue, who had been staring intently at the array, spoke up.

"The Qi-Testing Array measures the emission of Yang life-force," Ji Ruyue stated flatly. "Junior Brother Su’s pill is flash-frozen with Extreme Yin energy. Because the energy is entirely sealed and perfectly static, the array reads it as ’Dead.’ The reading is a false negative."

Liu Meng gasped. A sudden dawn of understanding rushed over her. The logic made perfect sense.

"The only accurate way to verify its true grade," Ji Ruyue continued, turning her emotionless gaze back to Su Bai, "is to test its efficacy personally. May I try it now?"

Su Bai scratched his head. He was still hesitant about the liability, but Ji Ruyue has a strong cultivation base. Surely a botched Lesser Qi-Gathering Pill couldn’t do any permanent damage to her foundation.

"Very well," Su Bai sighed. He handed over the freezing pill.

Ji Ruyue nodded. Without a moment’s hesitation, she popped the freezing pill into her mouth and swallowed.

Instantly, her stoic eyes widened by a microscopic fraction.

A wave of frost erupted from her body. It instantly coated the floorboards around her in a thin layer of ice. She immediately dropped into a cross-legged meditative stance on the floor. Her hands formed rapid hand seals as she tried to frantically digest the sudden wave of Qi.

While they waited for the clinical trial to finish, Su Bai leaned over to Liu Meng.

"By the way," Su Bai whispered, "why is Senior Sister Ji here?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Senior Brother!" Liu Meng whispered back. "Many elites from the other peaks come to Verdant Peak to learn basic alchemy. Senior Sister Ji always comes on the first day of the week."

Liu Meng gestured around the relatively empty front section of the hall. "Actually, this entire front area is just the training floor. The real production line is deeper. That is where my senior brothers and sisters are currently manufacturing the sect’s monthly quotas."

"Wait," Su Bai frowned. "If they are back there working, why are you out here to teach me? Shouldn’t you be helping them meet the quota?"

"I have already completed my sect contributions," Liu Meng smiled brightly. "I refined my entire monthly allocation of pills on the first day, so I am exempt from hall duties for the rest of the month! Master will only summon me if there is an urgent requisition."

Su Bai stared at the sweet, smiling girl in absolute awe.

She had automated her entire workflow, crushed her monthly KPIs in a single afternoon, and now spent the rest of her paid time chilling in the training area. This girl wasn’t just a prodigy alchemist, she was a corporate god.

’I completely approve of your work ethic, Junior Sister Meng,’ Su Bai thought. His respect for her skyrocketed.

Just then, the freezing aura in the room slowly receded.

Ji Ruyue opened her eyes and stood up.

Su Bai and Liu Meng instantly turned their attention to her, holding their breath. Ji Ruyue’s face was a mask of absolute, terrifyingly blank emotion. It was completely unreadable.

Su Bai started to grow nervous under her silent stare. ’Did I poison her?’

Finally, Ji Ruyue spoke.

"The pill contains zero impurities," Ji Ruyue said. Her voice was completely flat, though a slight tremor of profound shock betrayed her calm exterior. "There is absolutely no pill poison. I absorbed the Qi perfectly and cleanly. It is a flawless execution."

Liu Meng’s jaw dropped in sheer disbelief. "Zero impurities?! Even a Perfect Grade pill has 1% residual ash! Senior Brother Su... you just broke the alchemy ceiling!"

Su Bai, who was internally celebrating the massive success of his new manufacturing process, was suddenly brought back to reality by Liu Meng’s next question.

"But wait," Liu Meng frowned, deeply confused. "If it is utterly flawless... why didn’t a Heavenly Phenomenon occur? Why didn’t the lightning strike?"

That was a very valid point. If the Heavens were supposed to get jealous of perfection, why hadn’t they set off the alarm system?

Ji Ruyue was silent for a long time. Her sharp analytical mind worked through the logic.

"I can only deduce one reason," Ji Ruyue finally said. "The Heavens only strike objects that radiate explosive, world-defying Life energy. Because Junior Brother Su utilized extreme Yin to flash-freeze the essence, the pill emits absolutely zero radiation. The Heavens didn’t strike the pill..."

Ji Ruyue looked at Su Bai with her usual emotionless expression. "...because the Heavens didn’t even notice it was forged."

Su Bai’s eyes lit up. He was absolutely thrilled by this explanation.

’It’s a Stealth Pill!’ he cheered internally.

If the Heavens threw a noisy, booming lightning tantrum every time he successfully manufactured a product, it would be incredibly irritating, terrible for his concentration, and absolutely ruin his desire to keep a low profile.

But Cold-Forging acted as a perfect, undetectable stealth technology! He could mass-produce flawless pills without ever triggering the sect’s (or the Heavens’) security alarms!

Meanwhile, Liu Meng’s eyes widened as she remembered a highly obscure, theoretical teaching from her Master.

There was supposedly a tier higher than the Perfect Grade. A mythical, impossible state of alchemy where a pill was so utterly flawless it transcended the laws of the mortal world entirely. All records of it had been lost to time.

It was called the legendary "Transcendent Grade." And her Senior Brother Su, a man who didn’t even possess a Fire Root, had just casually manufactured one.

Liu Meng looked at Su Bai. Her face beamed with an unconcealed, utterly radiant smile.

’Senior Brother Su really is a Saint!’