It didn't take long for Ryu to notice something quite curious. Each one of these spatial rings contained at least three sets of ingredients. Some included four or five, some even had as many as ten.
Of course, these weren't attempts at bribing Ryu, nor were they asking for more than one pill to be formed. Rather, it was simply common practice.
When asking for an alchemist's work, not only would materials be provided, but several sets of them would be, in fact. Depending on the difficulty, more or less ingredients would be provided and if the minimum number wasn't met, then the commissioner would have to accept the possibility of failure.
If the minimum threshold was met, then the risk would be on the alchemists shoulders. If the alchemist failed, they would have to procure more materials themselves to complete it at no extra cost.
However, to Ryu, all he saw was free money.
He didn't need more than a single set to succeed at all. His Dao was too powerful. In addition, when he spoke about struggling with Earth Grade pills, that was in relation to his self-created pill-potion recipe which embodied the characteristics of his eight trigram diagram.
When it came to normal Earth Grade pills, Ryu was more than just a little confident. In fact, he was 100% that there was no pill beneath the Heaven Grade that he wouldn't be able to concoct. The power of a Hegemonic Dao wasn't to be trifled with.
Ryu began to work immediately. His mind was fresh and his body was fed, energy was practically brimming out of him.
He had no plans to store the extra Spiritual Herbs away. Instead, he directly used them to season his Embryonic Cauldron.
By this point, Ryu's Embryonic Cauldron radiated the light of a natural treasure. Most alchemy cauldrons wouldn't experience the tempering of even a single tribulation in their lifetime, but Ryu's own had already experienced four. In addition to that, it had been seasoned by 64 99% percent pure pills and potions.
Currently, it gave off the aura of a Black Grade Embryonic Cauldron, but its presence was so dense and whole that it would suppress any Earth Grade cauldron it was in the presence of, being already comparable to Heaven grade treasures after just a single long session.
Of course, this wasn't solely due to the tribulations and seasoning, another huge reason for this great growth were Ryu's Yin Water and Alchemy Flame.
After absorbing the Flowing Frost Yin Water, known to carry that absolute cold of a Perfect Sky God level existence, Ryu's Ice Phoenix Talent had catalyzed just as much Life Qi, making what was once a powerful enough natural treasure to be used as a weapon to also become just as potent of a life saving treasure.
Even though Ryu was forced to seal most of the power of the Flowing Frost within his Yin Water Seed as its full strength would freeze him to death, just the small portion he could used was filled with so much life and vitality that if one didn't know better, it would be possible to mistake Ryu's cauldron from a breathing entity.
Between every stage of improvement, Ryu would always make sure to infuse his Yin Waters and Alchemy Flame into his Embryonic Cauldron, causing it to gain faint traces of their abilities and also expanding its ability to deal with both extreme high and low temperatures.
The vibrant Life Qi that the walls of the Embryonic Cauldron held were not only already strong enough to increase the purity of the pills Ryu concocted with no effort on his part, but it also breathed life into the medicinal seasonings Ryu used, making their effects even more potent.
But this was just the effect of one side, there was still Ryu's Alchemy Flames.
Being entangled with so many Phoenix Flames made Ryu's cauldron which was already designed for growth and advancement to soak it all up like a dry sponge. Its walls were slowly beginning to gain a deeper and deeper dark gold light that held a hint of the power of Rebirth along with Life.
When these two came together, it was simply impossible to find a stronger combination for alchemy.
If Ryu were to give up on this cauldron right now and hand it off to an Awakening Realm youth just starting on their journey, they might gain as much as 20% of purity in concocting Common Grade pills without any additional effort on their part!
Such a huge leap's value didn't need to be explained. And yet Ryu didn't seem to care about it at all.
The only reason he was so diligently prepping his cauldron wasn't to make the task of concocting easier, but rather so that he could continue to concoct higher level pills in the future. Very soon, he would need a cauldron that could withstand much greater heat and much more frigid cold. If his cauldron wasn't prepared for this, it would crack and shatter beneath the pressure, ruining his ingredients, potentially injuring him, and limiting his progress.
Only this way could Ryu ensure that he would always have a cauldron that would keep up with him.
So, like this, Ryu continued on to concoct hundreds of pills a day. In fact, he concocted several at a time, not feeling that it was very difficult at all. The wide ranging temperatures were easily controlled by him using a combination of methods unique to himself.
The only time he rested was to devour the food he had gained in return for his services and rest his mind.
The more orders Ryu completed, the less it was possible for people to believe that it was a fluke and the more red-eyed the elders of various powers.
If you had a complete set of Ryu's 99% pure pills for the Common and Blade Grade, you could have your most talented children complete the first and second Realms of Qi Cultivation in quite literally a week or two. Once they entered the Qi Refinement Realm, things would slow, but it would still be possible to complete within a month! And the same was true of the Spiritual Severing Realm which might only take a few months more.
The results were that exaggerated!
Very quickly, this became less about helping promising young geniuses gain a leg up, and more like an arms race. In as little as a decade, the Clans and Sects that were stingy now would find their youths wholly lacking. It was as though Ryu was single-handedly shifting the talent of an entire generation upward just on his merits alone.
The treasures soon came in faster and faster, and the lists became longer and longer. Even the Radiant Star Sect quickly realized that Ryu wouldn't be taking any time out of his day to concoct for them. If they wanted something, they had to get in line like everyone else.
But what left the likes of the Radiant Star Sect aching was the fact that even Ryu's Earth Grade pills wouldn't be very useful to them. They usually admitted from the Immortal Ring Realm up, what good were Earth Grade pills in such a situation?
Ryu didn't really care very much for the Radiant Star Sect, though. He had only come here to erase the annoyance in his heart and because he speculated that there might be something special about this place since Galemar had come here despite being from a Two Star Clan.
In truth, Ryu had stumbled upon something quite special, that being Old Wan and Selheira who both seemed to have odd and unexplainable origins. In addition, he had managed to get his hands on the [Refinement Sutra].
But, ultimately, what did the specialness of Old Wan and Selheira have to do with him? In addition, [Refinement Sutra] was such a low level technique that it could have been found in Sects and Clans that couldn't even be considered One Star, so Ryu could have gone anywhere to find it.
There just wasn't very much enticing about this place.
As the days passed, though, Ryu began to become a bit frustrated.
The first Body Realm was the Pulse Tempering Realm and the second was the Vessel Tempering Realm. Both relied on suturing his Bloodlines to a certain point and using their momentum to open key points in his body, namely, his Body Pulses and Body Vessels.
Ryu was very much interested in strengthening his body now because how strong his body was would dictate how well he could use his greatest trump card: his Perfect Blackbody Soul.
He could expand his Spiritual Sea endlessly so long as his body was also endlessly powerful. This was an amazing tool to take advantage of, especially in battle.
After recultivating the first four Qi Realms, Ryu already found that his soul was lagging behind again. But this shouldn't be the case. After all, he had an Ancestral Grade soul, he knew he had far more potential to squeeze out.
The main issue was that while he was at the Peak of the Soul Birth Realm, he already couldn't expand his Spiritual Sea much further due to him sensing the limit of his body.
He devoured as much Earth Grade meat as he could get his hands on, only handing over the Ice Qi ones to Little Silk, but the progress was so slow he could only be unsatisfied.
His alchemy was getting him exactly what he wanted, but it wasn't working. It had only been a few days, but Ryu knew enough to know that there wouldn't be any sudden shifts coming.
'If only I could use [Refinement Sutra] for my body as well… And maybe even my soul…'
If Ryu could do it, he would. The trouble was that the circulation method for [Refinement Sutra] wasn't designed to be used in this way. The circulation method was already tied to the meridians from the very beginning.
He had changed the name to [Refinement Sutra] from [Pill Refinement Sutra] since technically any Heavenly Favor could be swallowed up so long as you had this method. But that didn't mean that this Heavenly Favor could be absorbed as you pleased. It was unfortunate.
Ryu fell into deep thoughts, but he unfortunately didn't get to think for long before he felt Selheira who had been silently sitting by his side all the while shift.
He looked up only to find a familiar annoying face walking toward them. Hadn't he already taught this woman a lesson?