I arrived at the imperial city soon after my departure, with the increase of my cultivation level, it took me less than half a day to return to the capital and I walked through the gates. The last thing I'd want is for people to take notice of me for once again breaking the no-flying rule.
Once I arrived at the house gifted by Zei Fen, I walked inside and into the secluded room. I began by inspecting Xi Son's pouch. There were tons of spiritual herbs in it, far more than I had, not to mention several high-grade spirit stones and numerous medium-grade ones. Not to mention the countless low-grade ones.
He was filthy rich, and that was only natural, he was a noble and had a chain of stores that spread all over the capital, with power and his nobility status, acquiring money was not a big deal, and now it all belonged to me.
As for his soul strand, the Poison God's book just took it inside it and kept it there hovering in the pocket dimension. I looked through the rest of Xi Son's belongings, and most were documents for estates he owned, weapons and some ores, good quality stuff. I immediately pocketed everything of value inside the Poison God's book and pulled out a furnace that was inside his holding bag.
After a careful inspection, I deduced that the furnace would do well enough to make some pills, nothing higher than the sixth grade though. But that wasn't a problem. I also have a huge problem right now. As much as I want to explore all the information that the poison God's Book has on herbs and spiritual plants, I cannot. Because most of the plants that are mentioned in the book only exist in exotic places, where the spiritual Qi goes through world-shaking events. Take the Violet Poison Flower. It's the best ingredient to make a sixth-grade poison pill, which can act both as a cultivation material to increase my cultivation and at the same time act as an offensive expendable weapon.
The poison will call down a sea of violet smoke that can assault anything alongside a mile radius, once a cultivator is in the area of effect, they'll suffer hallucinations and will enter an enraged state where their cultivation will go haywire if they didn't have a calm mind they will literally go into cultivation deviation and kill themselves. The pill made from the Violet Poison Flower is potent enough and it's a better match to me than the Ice destruction poison that the Purple Cloud Sect Sect-Master had. Though the Ice Destruction Poison was of a higher grade than the Violet Poison Flower, the difference lay in this grade, because I couldn't consume the entirety of the Ice Destruction Poison and had to recycle but a fraction of it so I won't blow up while rendering the majority of the poison into useless digested Qi. As for the Violet Poison Flower, I can consume it and use it in its entirety, not just because it's less potent, but also because it will enhance my poison skills.
Sadly, the Violet Poison Pill doesn't grow on trees, well, it does grow on a tree but not your regular one. The conditions needed for this flower to sprout are rather rare. It needs to be grown in an area full of Death Qi, a graveyard, and not for mortals.
Mortals don't release Qi so it's impossible to have the plant grow there, nor would it be from cultivators because the bodies of cultivators turn to pure Qi soon after they die, and they only leave their skeletons, but their organs will all melt into spiritual QI and be reclaimed by the heavens.
I need a monster graveyard. A graveyard where monsters go to when they know they will die of old age, and those are rare beyond rare because most monsters will instinctively think about preserving their own bodies and not die in a place where their bodies will be desecrated.
Finding a Monster Graveyard is almost as hard as finding a treasure. So, this is one problem I have with the Violet Poison Flower, and there are even more conditions about the rest of the poison herbs, many of them exist in places that I currently cannot access, places where qi is so thick that only Soul Formation Cultivators can go to, or places so dangerous that it would be utterly stupid to go with my current level.
I have so much information but so little power to obtain it, thus I'm going to start alchemy with the herbs I have. I pulled out the furnace and the herbs I needed for a pill, I won't start with something of high grade, because I'm not sure I'll be able to succeed even following the poison God's Instructions. There is something about alchemy that isn't for everyone. Timing, skill, patience, and instinct, a lot of factors that come in mind when doing alchemy, though the poison god can teach me how to make a pill, only by trial and error will I learn how to make one.
There was a section on the Poison God's book where it taught me how to begin alchemy, or Receptarism, though that's something of a higher level and can only be done by using Saint Qi, for now, let's stick with the well-known term, Alchemy.
***
Pill-making is a challenge to heaven's will. Heaven makes ingredients and we cultivators take these ingredients and change them to fit our needs, yet no matter how skilled an alchemist is, there is no way they'll be able to create something better than what heaven creates. Thus, impurities are always found within pills.
For you disciple of mine, the existence of Impurities is of no consequence, as they will be rejected by your own body the moment a sufficient amount has gathered as you follow my cultivation method. But for the many denizens of the world, the impurities of a pill will affect its power, potency, and value.
There are several factors to decide on the purity of a pill.
First off, cracks, if a pill is cracked once it has been produced, then it is a failed product, even if it has spiritual Qi, it will not benefit the user, and the impurities in it far outweigh the benefits.
Dim coloration, a Spiritual Pill is blessed by the heavens, and the brighter its colors the higher the grade. A dim-lit pill cannot be called a failure but is most definitely not a success. However, if you are attempting a new pill and end up with a dim-lit pill, then you'll know that you're improving and take no discontent from such achievements as experience is king.
A bright-colored pill means that the pill had reached beyond sixty percent purity. It can be considered a good pill to consume. For regular cultivators, pills of this level are considered good pills and are worth paying fortunes for.
Pill Vein, once a pill reaches beyond eighty percent purity, it will create pill veins, making the pill give off greater spiritual Qi, there are some powerful ascendant pills that are so powerful and give off enough Saint Qi, that people can actually cultivate near them. A pill vein is rare, no matter if it is a ninth-grade pill, a first-grade pill, or even a saint pills. Any pill with pill veins is a pill that had touched upon the essence of Dao.
Cloud Vein, a cloud vein pill is a pill that reached ninety-nine percent purity, this pill is not only a treasure, one would believe consuming them to be a waste unless if it's in a most urgent situation. A Cloud Vein Pill is as closest as one could come to fully challenge the authority of heaven, and the moment such a pill is created, the heavens will send a warning to the creator, it can also be deemed the greatest honor a cultivator could ever have if they summon the Heaven's Will to witness their creation.
Finally, Spirit Pill, now this, I only saw one, and it was the most frightening thing I had ever seen. A Spirit Pill is a pill that has reached perfection, enabling it to not only contain the Qi of Heaven but actually dare and wrench it from it, the Spirit Pill is a quasi-sentient being and can consume Saint Qi from the world to keep itself from deteriorating, it will only grow stronger and more potent.
The pill I saw of this level was in a sub-dimension, where the laws of heavens were obscured away by a powerful cultivator, he used it as a treasure to be gained, but none of us ever managed to even lay our hands on it, I have the map to the dungeon and if it is still not claimed, I have ways for you reach there and try your luck obtaining it.
***
The poison God's information continued on, and how to make pills and the subtle difference in each stage, though he mentioned the major stages, each stage of them have different and subtle variances that would affect the level of each pill, blemishes, tarnishes, spotlessness and other things that could decide the value of a pill and its potency.
I consumed the information like a sponge does to water and continued reading.
Then I arrived at the important part, how to make a pill.
Now, this is interesting I said as I grasped the book tightly and began reading the knowledge of the Poison God.