Chapter 62: Spiritual Essence

Vial Alchemy Workshop.

Chen Mobai looked at the sign at the entrance, took out the access card Qing Nü had given him, and the guard swiped it, letting him in.

“You’ve come at just the right time. This is the successful batch of Spirit Water; you just need to bottle and seal it,” Qing Nü said. As one of Danxia City’s top pharmacies, the rented Vial Alchemy Workshop was very well-equipped. Dressed in a white lab coat, Qing Nü handed Chen Mobai a pot of qi-replenishing spirit water that met the standards, then pointed to a dozen glass tubes sitting in the grooves of a rack on the adjacent table.

“What about the rest?” Chen Mobai asked, as he put down the three large bags of medicinal ingredients he was carrying. He took the spouted pot and began bottling, then glanced at the other half of the liquid medicine that had precipitated in the basin.

“The excess dandu in these raw liquids exceeds the standard. After collection, they need to be placed in special sealed bags and handed over to the Vial Pharmacy’s recycling staff before you leave. They will collect and destroy them,” Qing Nü explained. As she spoke, Qing Nü took a rolled-up plastic sealed bag from a cabinet on the wall. When she infused it with spiritual power, it immediately expanded into a perfectly square sealed bag.

“This batch yielded 20 tubes; your craftsmanship has improved,” Chen Mobai noted. He steadily poured the diluted spirit water from the spouted pot into the standardized glass tubes, then stoppered and sealed each one.

“It’s because the equipment here in the alchemy room is better than my teacher’s old one. Plus, having practical experience once certainly leads to more progress. If I weren’t using this alchemy room’s equipment for the first time and was a bit unfamiliar, I should have been able to get 25 tubes, nearly a 50% success rate,” Qing Nü replied. As she spoke, she had already sealed the non-standard raw liquids and placed them in a specially marked "Poison" waste bin.

“Are these the ingredients for the next batch? Let me see,” Qing Nü said. She opened the three main medicinal ingredients Chen Mobai had brought from the Tianhe Realm, picked one up, and gently sniffed it, her eyes lighting up. “The age and potency of these herbs are much greater than those from the previous two online purchases. Next time we refine, we might even get 30 tubes.”

Chen Mobai smiled upon hearing this. He had been worried that items from the Tianhe Realm might not meet the standards here.

“However, these ingredients weren't stored very well, and some of their potency has been lost, so they need to be used quickly,” Qing Nü said after inspecting all three ingredients, delivering a piece of less-than-ideal news to Chen Mobai.

This was understandable, as alchemy techniques on Earth Star had reached their peak. There were different preservation methods tailored to the various properties of medicinal ingredients, with some even having specialized storage rooms with controlled temperatures, all to preserve the ingredients' potency as best as possible. In contrast, the Tianhe Realm likely only managed dry, ventilated, and cool storage at best. The fact that most of the medicinal properties were still preserved was already the result of hard work by those cultivation families.

“By the way, how does your teacher usually charge for selling this qi-replenishing spirit water to Vial Pharmacy?” Chen Mobai asked again. He recently planned to buy a powerful talisman to break through the Ren Water Thunder Art within a water manor, but he was short on contribution points.

“My teacher only charges a processing fee. The ingredients are provided by the client, and for each refining attempt, regardless of the final yield, they charge 1,000 contribution points,” Qing Nü explained.

“1,000 for one attempt? That’s too easy money,” Chen Mobai remarked.

Hearing Chen Mobai, Qing Nü pulled out a calculator and did some calculations for him. “Vial Pharmacy has its own medicinal fields and factories, so the cost of main and auxiliary ingredients is probably at most 2,000. My teacher's success rate for refining Tier 1 Mid-Grade qi-replenishing spirit water is usually above 95%. Each time, they hand over 40 tubes, which at a market price of 200 contribution points per tube, sells for 8,000 contribution points. Deducting the 1,000 processing fee, 2,000 for ingredients, plus miscellaneous channel fees and the like, Vial Pharmacy earns a profit of at least 4,000 contribution points per refining session.”

After hearing this, Chen Mobai couldn't help but exclaim, “Selling medicine really makes money!”

“However, you can’t overlook the costs for Vial Pharmacy to maintain such a large scale, like the salaries at the medicinal fields and factories. But regardless, selling medicine is widely acknowledged as the easiest way to get rich quickly within the Immortal Sect.”

The Immortal Sect has four major fields: Arts, Pills, Tools, and Formations. Among them, talismans representing magical arts are only profitable for daily life applications, and due to low barriers to entry and intense competition, they generally yield only a meager ten percent profit. Magic tools follow a similar logic; those used for combat rarely fetch high prices. Only tools for cooking and transportation like airships and cars are profitable. Formations are even more high-end products, mostly custom-made for entire residences, emphasizing brand. There are very few manufacturers in this area. Only the field of pills has matured considerably. Pills are indispensable for every cultivator's practice and breakthrough, yet the Immortal Sect strictly controls entry barriers and constantly raises standards. After thousands of years of intense internal competition, Vial Pharmacy emerged as one of the six major pharmaceutical giants. These giant pharmaceutical factories are essentially monopolies. If the Immortal Sect didn't strictly control prices, ordinary cultivators like Chen Mobai might not even be able to afford them, even if they managed to procure them.

“It’s a shame we’re not refining qi-replenishing spirit water for Vial Pharmacy directly; otherwise, they would provide ‘Spirit Essence,’ which would ensure a pill formation rate of at least 80% every time,” Qing Nü sighed, looking at the raw liquids in the waste bin that needed disposal.

“Spirit Essence? What is that? Is it also an auxiliary ingredient?” Chen Mobai asked.

“Yes, something like that. It’s an auxiliary ingredient that large pharmacies specifically use to filter out dandu. My teacher's ability to achieve a pill formation rate of over 95% each time, besides her exceptional skill, is also due to the ‘Spirit Essence’ provided by Vial Pharmacy.”

“Can this ‘Spirit Essence’ be bought?”

“You're thinking too simply. This ‘Spirit Essence’ is the fundamental reason those giant pharmaceutical factories stood out during thousands of years of commercial competition within the Immortal Sect. Even if an ordinary pharmacy produces a Tier 4 alchemist, without Spirit Essence, they might only flourish for a century at most; they simply cannot compete with the giants.”

Chen Mobai recalled that countless alchemists of all ranks existed within the Immortal Sect, but to advance further, these alchemists would eventually join one of the six major pharmaceutical giants.

“Is this ‘Spirit Essence’ exclusive to the six major pharmacies?”

“Not entirely. ‘Spirit Essence’ is made from crushed spirit stones that have become depleted of spiritual energy after use. You can collect a small amount from various channels, but only the six major pharmacies, backed by either the Immortal Sect or the Four Great Daoist Academies, possess massive reserves of spirit stones.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Mobai froze instantly. “What did you say?”

“What?” Qing Nü responded, confused.

“Spirit Essence is depleted spirit stones! That stuff can be reused like this!” Chen Mobai was once again deeply impressed by the frugality of Earth Star cultivators.