Ninety-ninth Revision:

Main Ingredients: One liang of Ginseng, six qian of Yellow Essence, Atractylodes, five qian of Poria...

Support Ingredients: Eight qian of Dragon Snake Venom Grass, Fuyin Grass, three qian of Earth Rhinoceros Horn Powder...

Adjuvant Ingredients: Three liang of processed glutinous rice, Rehmannia root, Chuanxiong, and prepared licorice root, one liang each...

Guiding Ingredients: ...

As dusk settled, a piece of paper covered in black and white characters lay spread out on the desk.

Chu Mu sat alone at the desk, his gaze fixed on the formula before him, silent for a long time.

His gaze shifted, and the Light Curtain Panel appeared in his vision.

[Name: Chu Mu]

[Skill: Basic Blade Technique (Entering the Hall and the Room) 98/2000]

[Body Refining Technique (53/1000)]

[Alchemy: Ninety-ninth Revision Essence Qi Powder: Entering the Hall and the Room (358/1000)]

[Spiritual Radiance Value: 82.3%]

Half a month of work, a thick accumulation finally leading to a breakthrough!

He had revised the Essence Qi Powder ninety-nine times. Even though he had taken many detours and had to start over multiple times, in just half a month, he had leaped from Beginner’s Practice directly to the current level of Entering the Hall and the Room.

He was even a third of the way through the stage of Entering the Hall and the Room.

’It wasn’t easy!’

Chu Mu let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair, the exhaustion on his face impossible to hide.

So tired. So very tired.

Although his progress with the Essence Qi Powder was countless times faster than his Basic Blade Technique or Qi and Blood Cultivation, those pursuits were about methodical, day-after-day physical labor.

This, on the other hand, was a confluence of theory and practice—a mentally taxing affair.

For half a month, he had turned day into night, racking his brains over the combination of the twenty-odd medicinal ingredients in this formula.

He couldn’t count how many brain cells he’d sacrificed for every tiny fraction of an ingredient.

It wasn’t physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue.

Chu Mu felt that if this kind of mental exertion could temper the legendary Spirit, then his practice over the past half-month had certainly been one hell of a tempering.

Looking at the formula before him, Chu Mu glanced at the other side of his desk.

A stack of manuscripts about two feet high contained the records of nearly a hundred experiments.

And this ninety-ninth revision of the formula laid out before him...

’There’s nothing left to change!’

The names of the herbs flashed through his mind. The wellspring of inspiration he’d felt before had been completely exhausted by this ninety-ninth version.

His several months of accumulated knowledge had supported him until the creation of this ninety-ninth revision of the Essence Qi Powder, pushing its progress to Entering the Hall and the Room. It seemed he had reached his limit.

To advance further wasn’t simply a matter of the Essence Qi Powder anymore. It would require expanding his foundational knowledge of Alchemy as a whole—of understanding both people and medicine.

’Forget it...’

Chu Mu felt a little melancholic. After all, the ninety-ninth revision of the Essence Qi Powder before him was already approaching perfection, according to his current understanding.

During the fiftieth experiment, he had already solved the problem of the formula’s negative side effects that had long plagued him.

He even utilized the residual toxins, employing a strategy where extremes beget their opposites. He made the toxicity flare up to catalyze a second sublimation of the medicinal properties, enhancing the formula’s overall potency while avoiding the harm of the poison.

Strictly speaking, the fiftieth revision of the Essence Qi Powder was already an excellent Qi and Blood Cultivation Assistance Formula.

Its potency was about 1.5 times greater than the original Essence Qi Powder formula, and it didn’t have the original’s flaw of requiring several days between uses due to side effects.

The only reason he had continued researching all the way to the ninety-ninth revision was that he felt he hadn’t yet reached his own limit.

Now, with the ninety-ninth revision of the Essence Qi Powder, the Light Curtain Panel displayed the realm of Entering the Hall and the Room!

In reality, the formula’s potency was nearly triple that of the original, with almost no side effects. Most importantly, there were no usage time limits.

It seemed that, no matter how he looked at it, this round of research on the formula had been a great success.

But after racking his brains for half a month, this sudden emptiness left Chu Mu feeling inexplicably melancholic. His mind felt hollow, as if there was something he had forgotten to do.

After slumping in his chair for a long time, Chu Mu slowly got up. He glanced at the formula on the desk, picked up the Centimeter Scale, and walked over to the medicine cabinet.

As the names of the herbs flashed in his mind, drawers opened one by one. Over the past half-month, the drawers of the medicine cabinet had cycled between full and empty, and now, they were nearly bare once more.

In a little over half a month, he had spent nearly all his money. Including the few hundred silver he borrowed from Xu Yuan, he had invested almost seven or eight hundred silver into this one formula.

If he added the money spent on his studies before this, he’d easily spent over a thousand silver.

In an era where one copper could buy a full meal, a thousand silver...

Chu Mu let out a self-deprecating laugh. ’In my past life, I can’t imagine I would have ever spent the equivalent of several houses to invest in myself.’

Not to mention, he was currently up to his eyeballs in debt!

Chu Mu let out a soft breath, too lazy to dwell on it. He began sorting the ingredients for the Essence Qi Powder according to the formula in his mind.

As he was weighing the Earth Rhinoceros Horn Powder, Chu Mu seemed to think of something, and his raised hand paused.

He then shook his head, suppressing the unrealistic thought in his mind.

Earth Rhinoceros Horn Powder has a spirit-calming effect!

Before, he had certainly entertained ideas about the existence of the Spirit.

’Just as I figured out this Essence Qi Powder, couldn’t I figure out a formula that targets the Spirit?’

He’d had many ideas before, but now, after half a month of researching the Essence Qi Powder and deepening his understanding of people and medicine, Chu Mu had long since cast this incredibly tempting idea aside.

The reason was simple. The prerequisite for his repeated experiments and research on the Essence Qi Powder was his knowledge of medicine and his own Qi and Blood.

Both were within the scope of his understanding, which was why he could research and improve it time and again.

But what about the Spirit?

Aside from the conceptual theory of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, he had almost no frame of reference for understanding the Spirit itself.

Without even the most basic understanding, there was no point in even thinking about experimental research targeting the Spirit. There was simply no place to start.

’If I can’t even start, what can I do?’

He could only honestly cultivate his Qi and Blood and hope for the synergistic development of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

That was indeed Chu Mu’s plan for now.

The successful results of his Essence Qi Powder experiments had also given him more confidence in his Qi and Blood Cultivation.

’I’ll use medicine to brute-force my way to Qi and Blood Great Success if I have to!’

The furnace fire blazed. Inside the pot, the various ingredients of the Essence Qi Powder formula tumbled in the boiling decoction.

Chu Mu sat before the stove, stoking the firewood as usual to control the heat.

As he inhaled the wafting medicinal aroma, even the Qi and Blood in his body seemed to stir with agitation. This alone was enough to prove the efficacy of the ninety-ninth revision of the Essence Qi Powder.

’Maybe I can’t even call it Essence Qi Powder anymore...’

Gazing at the words "Ninety-ninth Revision" on the Light Curtain Panel, Chu Mu couldn’t help but purse his lips.

The current formula no longer bore any resemblance to the original version of the Essence Qi Powder. They could be considered two completely different formulas.

From the very beginning, he had even consciously changed its function from a primarily external medicinal bath to an oral concoction.

After all, an external bath was not conducive to his research and experiments, and the absorption of the medicinal effects through the skin made it difficult for him to control its potency.

And after countless experiments, reversals, and fresh starts, the original formula was now utterly unrecognizable.

"Huh?"

As Chu Mu was mulling this over, he clearly saw the conspicuous words "Ninety-ninth Revision Essence Qi Powder" on the Light Curtain Panel slowly blur and flicker before his eyes.

’I can change it?’

With a thought, the original "Ninety-ninth Revision Essence Qi Powder" turned into the three words "Essence Qi Powder".

Suddenly, Chu Mu was stumped. He was absolutely terrible at naming things. In his past life, he would agonize for ages just trying to name a character in a game!

Agonizing...

...