Evan Yang’s pill-refining skills all originate from the Dan Classic. When the old beggar first gave it to him, he could only see the first half; as for why the latter part was missing, he never investigated.
Now, after hearing the old beggar’s words, Evan Yang was determined to study the Dan Classic first before anything else.
He planned to finish his research before attempting to refine that pill. Evan was mentally prepared, but the old beggar remained vivid in his memory. He had once wanted to call him ‘master,’ but the beggar wouldn’t allow it and insisted on another form of address. So, in his heart, Evan regarded him as a master, but outwardly always called him ‘senior.’
Thinking about the past, Evan felt a bit guilty toward this elder. Ever since that period, he hadn’t studied the Dan Classic again. Now, as he took it out, Evan felt a complicated mix of emotions.
At first, he was annoyed with himself, but after settling in, he quickly entered the right state of mind and began a fresh study of the Dan Classic. To study it more thoroughly, he started again from the very beginning, including some annotations left by unknown predecessors, slowly working through them.
Evan specifically chose a spot and entered the tower to study. During this period, he told everyone not to disturb him and devoted himself completely to research.
To be even more undisturbed, Evan went to the base of the tower and created an independent space for himself, then brought out some commonly used materials and ordinary cauldrons.
While studying, he would occasionally refine a batch of ordinary pills to gradually regain his touch.
Without realizing it, he spent five years immersed in research—just on the first half of the Dan Classic. When he reached the end of the upper section, he paused and muttered, “Why is there nothing after this?”
Puzzled, Evan continued to study the Dan Classic. As he researched it over and over, faint characters began to appear at the end.
"So the second half only appears once you’ve truly mastered the first." Evan was overjoyed.
He quickly scanned through the second half and found that it mainly covered Profound-grade pills and celestial pills (Immortal-grade), though it seemed even this section wasn’t fully finished.
"Is there more after the celestial pills?" Evan muttered, seeing that the section seemed unfinished.
If there’s more beyond Immortal pills, what could it be? Evan wondered for a while, then calmed himself and began carefully studying the newly revealed methods and examples for refining Profound-grade and Immortal-grade pills.
The higher the pill grade, the harder it is to refine, and the failure rate is much higher. For example, an Immortal pill might require a hundred attempts without a single success, because both the materials and the process demand extreme precision.
As for materials, Evan was confident he could always get the best. For technique and process, he tried incorporating Ever‑Changing Thousandfold Strikes.
If artifact forging could use Ever‑Changing Thousandfold Strikes, then pill-refining could too. His ability to control the details of pill formation was now far stronger than before he learned the technique.
At this point, he had nearly two thousand threads of divine sense—a new change after entering the Spirit‑God Realm with Ever‑Changing Thousandfold Strikes.
Normally, you could refine at most ten supreme-grade pills per batch, but Evan was different. Without relying on the Heavenfire Cauldron, even using ordinary cauldrons, he could refine fifty pills at once, with four hundred threads of divine sense dedicated to each pill—as if four hundred people were refining one pill. If not for the limitation of material volume, fifty pills would already be the maximum, but Evan could have refined even more.
Even so, Evan was excited. Ordinary cauldrons couldn’t compare to the Heavenfire Cauldron, which had the ability to preserve medicinal properties and prevent excess essence from dissipating. With the Heavenfire Cauldron, both the fire control and preservation allowed him to extract more from each batch.
He spent another five years letting Ever‑Changing Thousandfold Strikes fully merge into pill-refining, so he refined many Profound-grade pills. As for Immortal pills, none—since each required extremely rare materials, and none of the examples in the Dan Classic were ones Evan possessed.
So Evan could only use Profound-grade pill refining as practice, and after five years, he was fully proficient.
"Ten years have passed. Outside, it’s probably only been two or three months." Evan muttered, then took out the Heavenfire Cauldron. After warming up with ordinary materials, he began preparing to refine the pseudo‑Immortal pill.
This pseudo‑Immortal pill, the Hidden Dragon Elixir—Evan carefully studied the formula and memorized the required ratios, then brought out the prepared herbs.
“Let’s hope it succeeds,” Evan thought to himself, steeling his resolve.
To be sure, Evan double-checked the herbs, then inspected the Heavenfire Cauldron. His divine sense revealed two layers inside: one with six statues, the other the pill-refining chamber.
There was nothing unusual in the pill-refining chamber, but the six statues had changed again.
Their smiles were even wider now, and the corners of their mouths seemed to curl up almost like real people—strange and unsettling.
“Seriously, are you alive or dead? Every time I look at you, you’re different—it’s creepy.” Evan had long since gotten used to their changing expressions, but every time he saw them change, he had to say something.
He exited the space with a sigh, set the herbs aside, and then used the Heaven‑Cold Seed’s unique ability to identify medicinal properties, scanning each herb one by one. The best ones were quickly picked out; the rest were left aside.