My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse-Chapter 981 - 979 Rest After Pill Refinement
Just as before, she added Scarlet Honey and Spiritual Spring Water, carefully repeating every step from her earlier refinement. Once everything was in place, she extended her spiritual senses into the furnace, allowing her consciousness to sink once more into that familiar, star-filled void.
Time slipped by unnoticed.
When Kisha finally withdrew her senses, five hours had passed.
The refinement was complete.
She opened her eyes and checked the results: thirty-five pills, every single one of them glowing with the unmistakable aura of a Divine Tier Ascension Pill.
Her heart skipped a beat. Not only had the quality remained flawless, but the refinement speed had increased.
Previously, a single batch had taken her two full hours. Now, after growing familiar with the furnace's rhythm and fully grasping the refining process, she had completed five batches in five hours, effectively reducing the time to one hour per batch.
Her efficiency had doubled. Satisfied, Kisha opened the Alchemy Furnace's panel once more.
...
[Alchemy Furnace – Recipe List]
[Ascension Pill]
[Successful Attempts: 1
Mastery Level: 0.1%
Quality: Divine Tier
Yield: 7 Pills]
[Successful Attempts: 5
Mastery Level: 0.6%
Quality: Divine Tier
Yield: 35 Pills]
...
Seeing the results, Kisha was now fully confident that she could operate the Alchemy Furnace without a hitch, and it was all thanks to the Spiritual Spring Water and Scarlet Honey. Without these two ingredients, she would have had to rely solely on her Spiritual Energy and innate ability for Alchemy.
Since this was her first attempt, there had been a real possibility that her spiritual energy alone wouldn't have been enough to run the furnace successfully.
With the experiment complete, she continued refining more pills over the next few hours, aiming to unlock the automatic pill refinement for the Ascension Pill. So focused was she on this goal that she lost track of time entirely, until Duke returned a dozen hours later.
He was planning to go out of the territory space to meet Engineer Steel, to discuss the Biogas Project and the remaining steps needed to begin the full-scale production.
He came over to check on Kisha, only to be completely dumbstruck by the enormous Alchemy Furnace. At first, he couldn't even tell what it was; it looked like a massive, round water tank or chamber. But then the scent of the herb wafted through the air, and he realized what she was doing. A few pills then floated out from the furnace's mouth, and he was stunned all over again.
He had believed that refining pills was entirely different from concocting potions. The equipment alone was different, and the ingredients came from another world; surely the process had to be distinct. Yet here was Kisha, refining pills flawlessly on her very first day. It was nothing short of amazing.
Not wanting to disrupt her concentration, he held back as she carefully retrieved a few batches of pills from the furnace. Then, almost as if racing against time, she threw in a new batch, intent on producing as many as she could.
In fact, once she grew accustomed to the process, her pill refinement speed increased dramatically. It wasn't just because of her high success rate, exceptional luck, or superior ingredients. More importantly, she had long trained her consciousness, giving her an unusually high level of control, exactly what an alchemist needed most.
On top of that, she was using Spiritual Flame, a level far beyond the True Flame most alchemists relied on. Her Spiritual Silver Flame was also unique, with the potential to develop its own spiritual form in the future. It was a growth-type flame, meaning its power and capabilities would only continue to evolve alongside her.
With all these factors combined, Kisha could already be considered unstoppable. So absorbed was she in her work that she didn't even notice Duke approaching. Her focus remained fixed on the mastery interface as her proficiency climbed steadily, reaching 7%, a result of completing several dozen batches in succession.
Through this process, she also gained a clear understanding of her limits. With her current level of control over the Spiritual Silver Flame, she could refine up to fifteen batches at most. Beyond that point, her flame could no longer keep up, forcing her Spiritual Energy to compensate instead. While this allowed her to continue, it inevitably lowered the success rate.
Still, it wasn't a flaw, just a bottleneck. As long as she continued to refine and train her Spiritual Silver Flame, that limit would rise, and the number of batches she could produce in one session would increase accordingly.
'Don't be impatient and push the batches just for the sake of increasing the mastery proficiency…' Kisha reminded herself as she finally paused. Only then did she realize how hungry she was; she had spent far too long refining pills without a break.
With no concept of night or day inside the territory space, where the sun was always shining, she had completely lost track of time.
'Let's forget about this for now and cook something first.'
Just as she was about to move, she glanced around and realized Duke wasn't there. Curious, she opened the territory interface and checked the map, wondering if he was still working with Hugo and the others. But Duke wasn't seen at the Biogas Project site either.
Only then did she remember that he had mentioned meeting Engineer Steel. That meant he must have already left the territory.
Now that Duke had left the territory space, it would take dozens more hours before he returned. She couldn't wait for him. After storing the Alchemy Furnace and her tools back into her inventory, Kisha headed toward their small cabin.
As she walked, her thoughts drifted to food. After refining pills for so long, the hunger hit her all at once, so intense that she felt like she could eat an entire cow by herself. By the time she entered the cabin, she was starving.
Without hesitation, she took out a whole chicken and set it aside. She even pulled out a packet of fried chicken ready-mix, but after a moment's thought, she changed her mind.
'Let's make Spiritual Cuisine instead.'
She put the mix away and retrieved some Spiritual Flour she had processed long ago. She combined it with salt infused with spiritual energy from her territory, then added ground pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cornstarch, and paprika. This would be the coating. She stirred carefully, making sure the ingredients were evenly distributed, every movement practiced and precise.
She set the coating aside and cut the chicken into pieces before preparing the marinade. Into the bowl went salt, garlic powder, onion powder, a splash of hot sauce for a hint of heat, soy sauce, and buttermilk. She mixed everything thoroughly, making sure each piece of chicken was evenly coated and fully submerged. Every ingredient, even the condiments, spiritual energy that came from her territory space, ensuring the final dish would carry Additional effects as a true Spiritual Cuisine.
Once done, she placed the marinated chicken in the refrigerator to rest for two hours.
While waiting, she moved on to preparing other dishes. She started on a sweet-and-sour spareribs dish. She also prepped a stir-fried vegetable which contains cabbage, carrots, string beans, and baby corn, adding baby octopus for extra flavor and texture. After all, she couldn't live on meat alone.
She cooked the spareribs first, taking her time to ensure the meat was tender and falling off the bone. While that simmered, she cooked two cups of white rice in a clay pot since rice cooked in a pot always had a deeper, richer flavor.
Once the ribs were done, she fried the chicken, achieving a perfect balance: crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Only then did she stir-fry the vegetables, finishing everything while the dishes were still fresh and fragrant.
As she cooked, Kisha couldn't help but drool over her own food. Her stomach growled incessantly, each rumble louder than the last, stirred on by the mouthwatering aroma filling the air. Being a Spiritual Cuisine, the fragrance was even more intoxicating, rich, layered, almost divine, and it traveled far beyond the cabin, drifting all the way to Hugo's position. Even they couldn't help but swallow hard at the scent alone.
The dishes looked just as extraordinary. The colors were unusually vivid, as if enhanced by some unseen camera lens to make it look more appetizing, each plate glowing faintly as though bathed in a spotlight. The aroma was so tempting that once Kisha finished cooking, she didn't even bother transferring the food into proper bowls.
She laid a mat on the counter, set down the clay pot of rice, the pot of sweet-and-sour spareribs, and left the fried chicken resting right on the strainer. Perching herself at the counter, she scooped up a generous portion of rice and started eating immediately. At that moment, she didn't care how she looked; she was far too hungry to care about anything else.
Crunch.
"Oh god, this really hits the spot!"
"What does?!"
