92%.
If anyone was here to witness such a feat, shock would be the least exaggerated reaction that they could give. To do this on one's first try was unheard of, so much so that maybe in the history of alchemy, it had never happened before.
If this Common Grade pill appeared in the market, there would be countless clans with toddlers on the rise that would fight tooth and nail to make certain that it was their son or daughter that got the chance to consume it. This would be the case even within the Seventh Heaven, maybe even the Eighth. The value of this pill was that exaggerated.
Of course, value was still a relative term. They would pay an exorbitant amount in comparison to the worth of a Common Grade item. However, it would still be greatly lacking in comparison to an Earth Grade treasure, for example. Though it might dwarf many Black Grade pills of far lesser quality.
However, Ryu looked toward the pill with disdain, his blind eyes even filled with a sense of derision and dissatisfaction. He had been certain that on his first attempt, he could concoct a Runed Pill, but he had actually failed.
The only reason Ryu didn't directly crush the pill was because he knew that he needed to analyze his mistakes. If it wasn't for this, he would have probably already ground it powder beneath his clenched fist.
Failure wasn't something that Ryu was used to. No, it was more accurate to say that failure was something he abhorred. He could remember failing before, even as recently as his battle with Elena's father, but that sort of failure was always directly branded on his heart.
The only good news was that Ryu had two methods others didn't have to rectify this failure.
The first was his Origin Flame. Replaying the exact process without missing a single detail in his mind would help him greatly.
The second was his Dao. By using his Dao to analyze his self-created pill, he could see through its flaws and measure out what needed to be fixed.
Just now, Ryu had only used his fire and he had yet to use his Yin Water. He had been planning to perfect one path and then perfect another before fusing them into one for a better result. If he fused them right from the very beginning, it would be easy to miss small flaws that might stack up into the future and become a detriment to his advancement. By the time he reached that point, it would already be much too late for him to even consider fixing it.
However, rather than following that initial plan, Ryu changed his mind and proceeded with his potion concoction directly, his thoughts unknown.
The recipe for lower level pills and potions tended to be almost identical. In fact, most recipes were identical. The main difference was their preparation.
Because of Yin Water's attributes, forming higher purity concoctions was much easier in potion making. The reason for this was simple. The fires used in pill making burnt away what was useless and left behind what was important. The waters of potion making, though, extracted what was important instead, ignoring what was not.
When fire was used, not only was it far easier to accidentally burn away what was important, but burnt materials were toxic in and of themselves. Even in food making, burnt food was considered carcinogenic, and this was increased manifold when pills were in the equation.
So, when Ryu went through the very same process once again, he wasn't surprised by the result, though he was still unsatisfied.
99%.
Ryu took out a potion bottle and all the clear liquid that almost looked like water to settle inside.
If the Heavens would wage a bidding war over the first, there might be small scuffles to win the second. A 99% pure potion was among the rarest items in all of existence. There were even some alchemy organizations who wouldn't dare to touch it, putting it on display for future generations instead in preservation treasures of far higher grade than even it.
Of course, these were lower class alchemy organizations. The highest class would only deign to do this for potions or pills of the Runed grade.
Ryu placed the pill and potion side by side, falling into silence.
The reason his potion making was so much better on the first try wasn't just due to the inherent advantage of potion making, it was also because Ryu had learned from his first attempt at pill making, shifting some of the mistakes away and making up for it. The result was this.
'I accounted for everything but the environment. No matter how dialed in my understanding of the pill and potion recipe is, or how well I can grasp the unique quirks of the ingredients, if my environment screws everything up, then there's nothing I can do.'
There were several problems.
First, this wasn't an alchemy room, it was a normal cultivation room. Rather than minimizing variables and errors, it actually invited them. After all, a cultivation room was designed to absorb and multiply the qi in the surroundings, thus making the potential variations during the concoction process far more difficult to manage.
Second, Ryu had skipped a process he hadn't thought was important. He didn't wash his Spiritual Herbs.
Usually, this would be left up to an apprentice or alchemist in training, but the main point was to clear away any outside impurities the Spiritual Herb might have faced.
Ryu didn't think it was very important to do this since he had his Dao, but upon further thought, that was a foolish decision. He had been so focused on the Spiritual Herb during the initial stages, if he wanted to account for all the impurities on its surface, there might be trillions to go through before he could finally start. How could he account for all those tiny particles?
He would either have to wash them, or add another step to his refinement process where he burnt them first before continuing.
The last was maybe the largest: his cauldron. Much like high class cooking ware, cauldrons had to be seasoned before their use, especially Embryonic Cauldrons. This would wash away any impurities left behind by their refinement process and prime the cauldron for alchemy. But once again, Ryu hadn't done that.
Ryu, though, felt that there was a solution to all of this.