The Eternal Farmer: I Trade My Harvest for Immortality

Chapter 296: Top Grade Warm Sun Pill

Jiang Chen washed the freshly harvested Piercing Sun Lingzhi and Warm Sun Mushrooms in a basin of chilled spring water. Selecting a jade knife with a blade as thin as a cicada’s wing, he meticulously sliced the fungi into wafer-thin strips.

Moving on to the supplementary ingredients, he rinsed the Jade Dew Grass and placed it into a heavy stone mortar. He pounded it gently with the pestle, keeping a steady rhythm until the crushing sound of the fibrous stalks ceased entirely.

The grass had been reduced to a pulpy slurry, rich with medicinal juice but heavy with impurities. Taking a fine silk sieve, Jiang Chen carefully filtered the mixture. He repeated the straining process three times until the liquid ran perfectly clear, leaving behind only a pale green, slightly viscous essence.

Finally, he tackled the most tedious ingredient: the Soul Condensing Flowers.

He placed the dried petals into a grinding trough and began pushing the heavy stone wheel back and forth. It was a monotonous, grinding repetition that required patience and steady force. He didn’t stop until the petals were reduced to an incredibly fine, dust-like powder.

Yet, all of this meticulous preparation was merely the first step in refining the Warm Sun Pill. The true test of skill lay in the actual forging process.

Jiang Chen shifted his attention to the Starfall Mystic Gold Cauldron. He checked the thermal gauge. The Northern Pig, Western Monkey, and Southern Snake constellations had already dimmed, leaving only the Eastern Tail Fire Tiger glowing with a faint, steady light.

The temperature had settled into a gentle, simmering heat—perfect for the initial extraction phase of the Warm Sun Pill.

Without hesitation, he dropped the sliced Piercing Sun Lingzhi into the cauldron.

The moment the chilled, water-soaked slices hit the heated mystic gold, the cauldron reacted. A sharp, violent sizzle echoed through the room, sounding exactly like raw meat hitting a skillet of boiling oil.

A moment later, a faint, deeply refreshing fragrance of grass and wood began to permeate the air.

Jiang Chen didn’t react. He knew this was merely the superficial moisture evaporating. Instead, he blanketed the interior of the cauldron with his Divine Sense, establishing a perfect, omniscient view of the reaction. With his mind maintaining the temperature, he physically turned his attention to prepping the raw materials for his next batch: the Thunder Marrow Pills.

He had refined hundreds of pills by this point. The entire process—the timing, the heat control, the precise order of operations—was burned into his muscle memory. He knew exactly when to act, and more importantly, when to leave the cauldron alone.

By the time he finished measuring out the Thunder Pattern Stones and Mystic Iron Filings, his Divine Sense picked up a critical shift inside the cauldron.

Walking back over, he peered inside. The Piercing Sun Lingzhi slices had shriveled dramatically, their moisture gone, replaced by a rich seepage of golden-yellow medicinal oil.

The timing was perfect. Jiang Chen immediately poured in the pale green Jade Dew Grass essence.

The instant the cool essence met the boiling golden oil, a brilliant flash of crimson light erupted within the cauldron. The internal temperature naturally spiked, growing significantly more volatile.

Under his watchful Divine Sense, the two liquids violently clashed before finally beginning to fuse. The initial mixture turned a muddy, brownish-green. But as the heat broke down the cellular walls of the Lingzhi, the liquid clarified, settling into a rich, translucent amber.

The grassy fragrance in the room instantly intensified. Breathing it in felt less like standing in a stone alchemy lab and more like lying in the middle of a sun-drenched, vibrant meadow.

He maintained this simmering equilibrium for roughly the time it took to brew a cup of tea. Once the amber liquid completely stabilized, he added the sliced Warm Sun Mushrooms.

Simultaneously, he cycled the Nine Flames Mystic Art. Roaring Fire Qi surged from his dantian and flooded the spiritual flame beneath the Starfall Mystic Gold Cauldron.

The temperature skyrocketed.

What had been a simmering heat instantly transformed into a localized inferno, radiating aggressive waves of thermal energy. It was a good thing Jiang Chen had specifically reinforced this alchemy room during its construction; a lesser stone structure might have genuinely begun to crack and melt under the sheer thermal output. It would be a tragedy to lose an entire batch of pills and a premium cauldron to structural failure.

On the exterior of the cauldron, the three dormant star mansions flared back to life, blazing with intense light alongside the Eastern Tiger. The temperature had reached the absolute maximum: a fierce, roaring heat.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The violent reaction resumed inside the cauldron. It was impossible to tell if the sound was the mushrooms rapidly releasing their oils or the toxic, excess gasses venting from the fusion.

As the minutes ticked by, the violent sizzling began to subside, growing fainter and fainter. Even the heavy, meadow-like fragrance began to thin out.

The precise second the fragrance vanished entirely, Jiang Chen acted. He seamlessly switched his internal cultivation, pulling Wood Qi from his dantian. Coating the finely ground Soul Condensing Flower powder in a protective layer of Wood Qi, he gently scattered the dust over the bubbling amber liquid, ensuring a perfectly even distribution.

This was the final, critical step.

Jiang Chen remained entirely unbothered, his movements fluid and unhurried. While his Divine Sense managed the final fusion, his hands were already busy prepping the ingredients for the third batch: the Piercing Sun Pills.

An hour later, a soft, pure white light suddenly blossomed from within the cauldron.

Jiang Chen immediately cut the flow of Fire Qi, ruthlessly suppressing the spiritual flame. As the heat plummeted, the white light surged upward, transforming into a thick, billowing cloud of medicinal steam that rapidly dispersed into the room.

Once the steam cleared, Jiang Chen used the Nine Flames Mystic Art in reverse, carefully siphoning off the residual, ambient heat from the mystic gold, forcefully cooling the cauldron to prevent the delicate mixture from burning.

All that remained inside was a shallow pool of rapidly congealing, perfectly clear amber liquid.

Channeling his Wood Qi one last time, Jiang Chen manipulated the liquid. He divided the pool into exact, equal proportions, rolling the semi-solid amber into perfect spheres.

The Warm Sun Pills were complete.

Five pills rested at the bottom of the cauldron, each roughly the size of a broad bean. Their surfaces were flawlessly smooth, gleaming with a translucent, dewdrop-like luster.

In the realm of alchemy, that specific luster was the universal hallmark of absolute, perfectly balanced medicinal properties. It was the undeniable signature of a Top Grade pill.

Despite this being his very first attempt at forging the Warm Sun Pill, Jiang Chen had hit the absolute ceiling of quality on his first try—and he had done it entirely without spending Lifespan to have the System perfect the recipe for him.

It proved a fundamental truth: for standard, non-esoteric pills, his raw mechanical skill, heat control, and situational experience had genuinely reached the level of a seasoned master.

This hyper-competence stemmed from two factors. First, the sheer, grinding volume of pills he had manually forged over the years. Second, the cumulative effect of the System’s ‘Masterful’ recipes.

Although Jiang Chen still lacked a unified, recognized ‘Alchemy’ skill block on his interface—technically leaving him at the ‘Novice’ tier in the eyes of the System—every single time he successfully forged a new pill, the System permanently elevated that specific recipe to the ‘Masterful’ tier.

A ‘Masterful’ recipe meant a guaranteed 100% success rate for forging Top Grade pills, provided the materials were sufficient.

That was an utterly terrifying advantage. Even highly respected, advanced alchemists—or legendary grandmasters—could never guarantee a 100% success rate on any batch. There were simply too many volatile variables in alchemy.

By stacking the raw, mechanical experience of executing dozens of flawless, Masterful-tier recipes, Jiang Chen had essentially bypassed the traditional learning curve. He might not have the official title of an Alchemist, but his practical output was indistinguishable from a true master. In certain aspects of heat control, he could likely out-forge a grandmaster.

Suddenly, the System interface flickered to life.

Warm Sun Pill Recipe: Masterful

Effect 1: Rapidly alleviates all physical pain and joint stiffness caused by cold/Yin stagnation.

Effect 2: Long-term consumption permanently enriches internal Yang energy and dramatically boosts physical stamina.

Effect 3: Significantly improves ailments stemming from Qi and blood deficiency.

Special Effect 1: Grants moderate resistance to Yin-attribute damage, debuffs, and environmental hazards.

Special Effect 2: Accelerates the cultivation speed of all Yang-attribute arts.

Special Effect 3: Highly effective in treating severe frostbite and purging localized cold poison.

Negative Effect: Overconsumption leads to severe Yang-overload, causing internal spontaneous combustion and critical Yin-deficiency.

Jiang Chen read the panel, a deeply satisfied smile spreading across his face. “This is the first time I’ve forged a brand-new Top Grade pill entirely on my own merit, without burning Lifespan to force the System’s hand. And the recipe instantly locked in at the Masterful tier.”

He clenched his fist, feeling the steady thrum of his Qi. “The System isn’t holding me back. It’s just waiting. As I continue to grind out successful batches, my cumulative, practical experience will eventually force the true ‘Alchemy’ skill to Awaken!”

Jiang Chen nodded slightly. “This is the first time I have not relied on the system and have personally refined a top-grade pill, and the recipe has reached the Masterful level.”

“It seems that as the number of pill refinements increases, accumulated over time, it will automatically enhance my pill refining skills!”