"Who are you calling a broken bowl!"

A voice both childish yet ancient came from the cracked vessel.

Su Yuan stared at the bowl in astonishment. "You have sentience? You're a spiritual treasure?"

"At least you have some knowledge!" The bowl snorted.

Xiao Li curiously approached to examine the bowl.

"Oh? You actually possess another spiritual treasure, and not a low-grade one at that! You're full of surprises, no wonder I ended up in your hands!" The bowl exclaimed in surprise.

"Tell me then, what kind of spiritual treasure are you? And how much power do you still possess?" Su Yuan asked with great interest.

The bowl immediately puffed up with pride. "I am the [Ten Thousand Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron], capable of gathering the effects of countless treasures into one! Whenever you forge a treasure, I can absorb its essence, allowing me to replicate its function. The more treasures you create, the stronger I become, with effects that can stack together to increase my power exponentially!"

"Hold on!" Su Yuan suddenly interrupted with a strange expression. "What's your current grade?"

"Seventh grade! I'm a seventh-grade spiritual treasure, impressive isn't it?" The bowl boasted.

"But what level of power can you currently manifest?" Su Yuan pressed.

After a brief silence, the bowl admitted, "About... lower first grade. But that just means I have tremendous room for improvement!"

Su Yuan nearly choked. "Why does it have to be personally crafted by me?"

"When you create treasures for me to absorb essence from, you're simultaneously refining me. Otherwise, with your current cultivation, refining me would be impossible! Once the refinement process begins, I can only absorb essence from your creations," the bowl explained.

"But I don't know how to craft anything!" Su Yuan spread his hands helplessly.

"How is that possible? What cultivator doesn't have some specialty? You must already be a master in some field!" The bowl refused to believe him.

Su Yuan smiled wryly. "I'm not lying, but I can learn."

"What? You really don't know? Then I'm doomed! My condition is too poor right now—without substantial essence replenishment, I might dissipate completely! This can't be! My divination clearly showed that whoever obtained me would be the most suitable master in this era! How could you not possess any crafting skills?"

The bowl seemed utterly confounded, its divination completely contradicted by reality, sending it into an existential crisis.

"Then quickly find me another master! Someone who can craft fifth-grade treasures, preferably at the Divine Transformation realm or above! Hurry up, don't dawdle!" The bowl screeched impatiently.

"Calm down!" Su Yuan waved his hand. "What's your name?"

It sighed. "My past life is gone, no need to mention former names."

"Then I'll call you Su Qian."

"That name is acceptable," the bowl's sentience conceded.

"Do you have any crafting techniques to pass down?" Su Yuan asked hopefully.

"...You can't expect a spiritual treasure to know how to craft treasures, can you? I've witnessed many forging processes, but only as an observer..." the bowl admitted.

Su Yuan was speechless. This damn bowl!

After some thought, he said, "I understand! Do pills, magical tools, and talismans all count?"

"Basically anything physical, and the more precious the better," Little Qian replied.

"Got it!"

Su Yuan left the pocket dimension treasure and flew by sword toward Pill Extremes Peak.

Peak Master's Hall.

Tao Yaoyao was surprised to receive Su Yuan.

"What an unexpected guest! I heard you resigned as Peak Master?" Tao Yaoyao asked with a smile.

"Indeed. Being Peak Master was too exhausting, and since someone wanted the position, I naturally stepped aside," Su Yuan replied.

"What brings you here today?" Tao Yaoyao inquired curiously.

"I want to learn alchemy from you!" Su Yuan stated bluntly.

"You want to learn alchemy?" Tao Yaoyao was shocked. "But your legendary techniques include many alchemical methods, don't they?"

"Those were all made up!" Su Yuan waved his hand. "I've never actually practiced them, which is why I've come to seek your guidance. When I start refining, I'd appreciate your pointers. If you're too busy, having an elder supervise would suffice."

"I have time, of course I have time." Tao Yaoyao still couldn't believe it. "Those writings of yours were truly fabricated? Impossible—I couldn't find any flaws..."

Su Yuan explained, "I have some understanding of deduction techniques, so they appeared flawless on paper. Whether they'd actually work, I couldn't guarantee."

Tao Yaoyao's lips twitched. "If you've truly never refined pills before, you should prepare yourself mentally. Alchemy isn't simple—the refinement and fusion of ingredients, ratio control, heat regulation, timing precision, and pill-forming techniques. Be ready for failure on your first attempt."

"I'm well aware!"

Su Yuan nodded firmly.

"Then follow me. I'll arrange a refining chamber for you."

Su Yuan followed Tao Yaoyao to an exceptionally high-end refining chamber.

He curiously examined the central cauldron, carefully observing every detail.

"This is a third-grade cauldron with multiple refining enhancements. Familiarize yourself with it." Tao Yaoyao barely maintained her composure seeing Su Yuan's awestruck expression—he was clearly a complete novice!

Tao Yaoyao prepared one hundred sets of Fasting Pill ingredients along with the pill formula.

"Start with Fasting Pills—they're among the simplest pills to refine."

"These are Fasting Pill ingredients?"

Su Yuan examined the materials in surprise: spiritual grains, common ginseng, and spiritual spring water—just three components.

"Correct." Tao Yaoyao nodded.

Pointing at the ginseng, Su Yuan asked, "Is the bitter taste of Fasting Pills from the ginseng? Wait, that doesn't make sense! These three ingredients combined shouldn't taste that bad!"

Tao Yaoyao coughed awkwardly. "That's not important."

"Flavor is important too!" Su Yuan insisted. "Couldn't we add some sweetening ingredients during refinement?"

Tao Yaoyao fell silent.

"I've never seen anyone critique the Fasting Pill formula before," she said, massaging her temples. "Beginners should minimize ingredient types—adding even one more could multiply the difficulty several times over! First succeed with this basic formula."

"Fair point." Su Yuan conceded.

"Then I'll begin refining!" Su Yuan declared seriously.

Tao Yaoyao nodded and stood aside, extremely curious whether Su Yuan could succeed. This was the legendary founder of the Open Meridians technique—if he failed, it would make for excellent unofficial historical records.

Su Yuan channeled his true essence into the cauldron, activating an earth flame that emerged from below.

Controlling the flame with his spiritual sense, Su Yuan manipulated it effortlessly thanks to his comprehension of fire principles.

After glancing at the absurdly simple formula, Su Yuan couldn't help but feel exasperated.

[Add one portion spiritual grains, extract essence;

add one portion ginseng, extract essence;

mix with small amount spring water;

condense into pill form]

That was the entire formula—stunningly vague.

What constituted "one portion"? How much was "small amount"? What size should the pills be? Everything was undefined.

Fortunately, Tao Yaoyao had pre-portioned the materials—though Su Yuan noticed the portions weren't uniform, with some grain portions containing fifty extra seeds and some water portions being double others.

Suspecting intentional mischief but lacking evidence, Su Yuan recalled that this was typical alchemist behavior according to texts.

"Beginning now!"

Without hesitation, Su Yuan tossed in about 120 grains.

With a gentle sweep of flame, all husks were incinerated, leaving white rice that gradually melted under precise heat control.

Adding the ginseng next, Su Yuan directed part of the flame to refine it into medicinal liquid while the rice became semi-liquid essence.

Introducing the spring water, Su Yuan first warmed it before combining all three components, using his spiritual sense to thoroughly mix them.

As the flame continued its work, the mixture gradually solidified.

With a precise spiritual sense division, Su Yuan separated the mass into ten equal parts, shaping each into spherical pills.

Almost effortlessly, the pills formed!

Removing the cauldron lid, ten pills flew out onto a jade plate.

Simultaneously, an imperceptible wisp of essence energy flowed into the hidden bowl against Su Yuan's chest.

At this moment, Su Yuan established a faint connection with the bowl—no, the Ten Thousand Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron—completing a crude refinement!

"Finally! I've tasted essence again!" Little Qian's voice held deep emotion before accusing, "You lied earlier! Producing nine superior-grade pills and one supreme-grade pill on your first attempt—even if they're just Fasting Pills—is impossible for a beginner!"

Little Qian spoke with absolute certainty.

Tao Yaoyao was equally astonished. "You succeeded on your first try!"

Examining the supreme-grade pill, she marveled, "Perfectly balanced medicinal properties, exceptionally smooth texture. This quality suggests you've refined thousands of batches! Are you truly a beginner?"

Su Yuan sighed. "My cultivation records in the sect should be easy to verify. When would I have had time to study alchemy?"

Tao Yaoyao fell silent.

"Peak Master Tao, where should I focus on improving?" Su Yuan inquired.

Tao Yaoyao coughed. "Just... keep practicing. Others' advice can't replace personal comprehension."

Understanding her meaning, Su Yuan noticed various common medicinal herbs stored nearby.

Selecting a fragrant leaf herb, he returned to the cauldron.

"What are you doing?" Tao Yaoyao asked suspiciously.

"Refining more Fasting Pills, of course!"

Su Yuan replied while privately communicating with Little Qian: "Does your cauldron stop absorbing essence from identical items?"

"Correct!" Little Qian confirmed.

"But if I modify the Fasting Pill formula, can you absorb essence again?"

"Technically yes, but the effect diminishes each time. Ultimately, they're still Fasting Pills. And low-grade pills aren't worth excessive absorption—a single high-grade pill equals ten low-grade ones!" Little Qian advised.

"On the contrary, I believe maximizing low-grade essence absorption first will optimize high-grade gains later!"

Su Yuan countered. "Consider—everyone hits bottlenecks where advancing becomes impossible. When you can't craft higher-grade items, you'll need essence from same-grade creations, which will also be difficult. By then, low-grade items might no longer satisfy the cauldron's needs, leaving you essence-starved for prolonged periods."

Little Qian seemed persuaded.

"But how many varieties of low-grade items exist?"

"Have you heard of Hundred Flavors Fasting Pills?" Su Yuan asked meaningfully.