The side hall opened, and Chen Che hurried over to find an incredibly luxurious Alchemy Chamber:

This side hall was enormous, with a layout like an Eight Trigrams Array. In the center stood a half-man-high Pill Furnace, and opposite it lay a cyan Pumpon. Niches carved into the surrounding walls were filled with Jade Bottles, Gourds, and Bamboo Slips.

In front of one of the niches, the fragments of a broken Array Disc were scattered across the floor.

There was no dust.

Apparently, the Cleaning Array inside this Alchemy Chamber was still operational.

Chen Che glanced at the tightly sealed Pill Furnace, suppressing the urge to rush in and inspect it. Instead, he took a palm-sized Eight Trigrams Mirror from his Storage Pouch, infused it with True Essence, and tossed it directly into the Alchemy Chamber.

HUMMM!

After the Array Disc landed, a pillar of light immediately shot up.

Then, the pillar of light transformed into a waterfall-like cyan screen. It rapidly swept downwards, covering the Pill Furnace, the niches, and all the bottles and jars, leaving no blind spots as it scanned the entire Alchemy Chamber up and down like radar.

This was an Array Detection Device.

Its only function was to detect Arrays.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

「Three minutes later.」

The cyan light screen retracted, turned back into a pillar of light, and silently vanished.

’Safe!’

After confirming there were no hidden dangers in the side hall, Chen Che finally walked in, relieved.

He went to the Pill Furnace first.

This Pill Furnace had a wide belly, a round mouth, and three legs. Its body was carved with many strange and peculiar patterns. It was grayish-cyan in color, as if forged from bronze, giving it an ancient and desolate air. He reached out to lift the lid, but to his surprise, he couldn’t open it with one hand and had to use both.

Unfortunately, when he opened it, the inside was completely empty, with only a layer of ash at the bottom.

The inner wall of the Pill Furnace was caked with a thick layer of pill dregs. He scraped at it with his finger; the layer was as thick as a fingernail.

’This Pill Furnace must have been used for at least a few hundred years! And they didn’t even bother to clean it...’

「During his first year of high school.」

The school had organized a trip to a museum, and Chen Che had seen another Pill Furnace that had also been used for several hundred years. The pill dregs on that one weren’t even half as thick as this.

At the time, Ding Dawei had explained to them:

"Before the Calamity of Heaven’s Fall, Alchemy Masters regarded pill dregs as a treasure, believing they could effectively enhance the fragrance of Pills. The thicker the dregs, the more mellow, rich, and aromatic the refined Pills would be."

"But research has shown that pill dregs are a complex compound formed from long-term Alchemy. Pills refined in such conditions are affected by the dregs, which can harm a Cultivator’s health when consumed. So, students, remember to clean your Pill Furnaces regularly."

He circled the Pill Furnace again and tapped it with his hand.

It was heavy. There was no echo.

Clearly, the material was extraordinary.

The Pill Furnace he’d bought at the second-hand market was a joke compared to this one—like a grandson standing before his grandfather.

’This is no ordinary Pill Furnace! I wonder if it’s Tier Two or Tier Three? If I sold it, it’d be worth at least several thousand, maybe even tens of thousands of Spirit Stones!’

He took a few pictures, intending to look up the Grade of this Pill Furnace online when he got back.

Next, he moved to the niches and started examining the various bottles and jars.

However, they were all empty.

Chen Che wasn’t surprised.

After all, to achieve his breakthrough, the previous Cave Master had sold off everything of value in the mansion long ago. Naturally, no Pills would be left behind. As for why this Pill Furnace wasn’t sold, perhaps the Cave Master had hoped to use it to make a comeback. Or maybe its value was so high that he didn’t dare take it out, fearing it would attract disaster.

Of course.

He might have had both concerns.

As he pondered this, he casually took a set of Bamboo Slips from a niche.

He opened it and froze for a moment.

Qi Gathering Pill:

Accelerates Cultivation and replenishes True Essence.

A Tier One Middle-grade Elixir.

Refine with two qian of Blue Silver Grass, three liang of Moon White Ginger Flower, six qian of Living Root Flower, one Silver Core Fruit, and half a slice of Celestial Ancient Mushroom... It can be completed by refining over a low flame for one hour.

The Bamboo Slips even included an illustration for every Spirit Grass to aid in identification.

’It’s actually a Pill Formula?’

Chen Che simply took down all the Bamboo Slips, sat in front of the niche, and began to unroll and read them one by one.

He discovered that these Bamboo Slips contained nothing but Pill Formulas.

There were several thousand Pill Formulas in total, a voluminous collection covering Pills of Tier One, Tier Two, and even Tier Three.

Besides the Pill Formulas,

there were also many strange and unusual Alchemy Techniques, such as the Water and Fire Alchemy Method and the Three Tripod Alchemy Method.

...

After looking through everything, Chen Che became even more certain that the first owner of this Cave Mansion was, without a doubt, a Golden Core expert.

An Early-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator could not possibly possess such a rich collection of resources.

Of course.

To any Cultivator in Yunzhou, this Alchemy Chamber was a priceless treasure.

But when he thought about how the previous Cave Master had sold off everything of value just to break through in his Cultivation, Chen Che felt his heart bleed.

’All of that should have been mine!’

’Good thing he at least left an Alchemy Chamber for me!’

Chen Che looked back.

However, as far as he was concerned, the most valuable item in this side hall was probably the Pill Furnace.

As for the Pill Formulas and Alchemy Techniques, their value was in the eye of the beholder.

Looking at the huge pile of Bamboo Slips, Chen Che felt a headache coming on.

Because since the establishment of the Immortal Sect and the popularization of Cultivation for all, the Cultivation system had undergone several consolidations. The Hundred Skills of Cultivation were also constantly being improved. Take Alchemy, for example; some inherited Pill Formulas had been modified countless times.

Some modified versions were vastly different from the original Pill Formulas.

In class just a few days ago, Ding Dawei had clearly explained the differences in Pill Formulas from different eras.

For example:

The Blue Silver Grass used in the Qi Gathering Pill was originally used by Pill Masters as a ’catalyst’. However, it was later discovered that Qi Gathering Pills with added Blue Silver Grass contained a large amount of impurities, so its use was subsequently forbidden.

Of course.

It wasn’t that everything from the past was better than the present. After all, most modern techniques were simply improvements on ancient ones.

In ancient times, many Pill Masters possessed their own exclusive refining techniques and rare, obscure Pill Formulas. But after the Calamity of Heaven’s Fall, a massive number of Cultivators perished, leading to a cultural disconnect between the two eras.

Therefore, in the nearly five-hundred-year history of the Immortal Sect, many techniques remained lost and unreproducible.

Within the Immortal Sect, there was a group of Cultivators who spent their days buried deep in mountain ranges and earth veins, searching for relics left by Ancient Cultivators. After studying them, they would then promote their findings.

’Maybe I can pan for gold in all this and find something valuable...’

’I haven’t done my homework.’

He glanced at his phone and saw that it was getting late.

Chen Che’s expression changed instantly. Not doing his homework meant he would have to stand in class as punishment.

So, he quickly used the new Pill Furnace in the Alchemy Chamber to refine a batch of Qi Gathering Pills for himself. A High-tier Pill Furnace really was different. The performance gap was like the difference between a bicycle and a sports car; the refining process for this batch of Pills was incredibly smooth.

Moreover, after opening the Furnace Cauldron, he found a total of ten finished Pills, and the quality of each one was outstanding.

’This Pill Furnace is freaking awesome!’

He usually only ended up with three finished Pills when he performed Alchemy.

He packed up the Pills, grabbed a volume on Alchemy Techniques from a niche, and hurried back to Earth Element Star.

「Before class.」

Ignoring the desperate pleas of several classmates, he wrote their names down in the "homework not completed" column. Then, he delivered the Pills his classmates had refined the previous night to the office.

「In class.」

Chen Che’s mind wandered, his thoughts completely consumed by those Bamboo Slips.

’If I can find a few lost Ancient Alchemy Methods, master them completely, enter the Immortal Sect competition, take first place, and get directly admitted into one of the Four Top Daoist Schools... why would I even need to attend high school? What’s the point of studying?’

’I will become the Pill King!’

’I will become the Pill Immortal!’

And then,

he was summoned to the office by Ding Dawei.