[You had already reviewed Xie Huide's pill refining notes in advance]

[These pill refining notes were rather fragmented]

[Unlike Xie Huide's True Explanation of Pill Refining which was systematic]

[But these scattered notes were more targeted and detailed]

[They provided you with great inspiration]

[Especially several entries specifically explaining the practical refining of internal spirit pills]

[You studied them repeatedly for several days]

[You felt you had absorbed enough knowledge]

[You lit the pill furnace with a windproof lighter]

[After calming your mind, you officially began your first refining attempt]

[After two hours of complete concentration]

[The first batch of internal spirit pills steamed fresh from the furnace]

[You calmly opened the furnace]

[Thin-skinned with generous filling, eighteen folds]

[Ten failed pills lay quietly in the furnace]

[Without changing expression, you immediately began the second refining attempt]

[Your heart remained utterly calm]

[As long as your expectations were low enough, your mentality wouldn't be affected]

[Three days later]

[You produced another ten failed pills]

[You closed your eyes to rest, summarizing your failure experiences]

[You hadn't slept for three days and nights]

[Coupled with the extreme energy consumption of pill refining, you were utterly exhausted]

[You needed to sleep like the dead]

[Just as you were about to go inside to rest]

[The second-grade pill refiner under you found you]

[He said your group had run out of third-grade Golden Sore Pills]

[Only you could refine third-grade pills]

[So you had to work overtime]

[Forcing yourself to stay alert, you set up the furnace to refine Golden Sore Pills]

[Your usual yield for Golden Sore Pills was eight]

[But today your state was peculiar]

[Although half-asleep]

[You could clearly perceive the refining process]

[Every detail was infinitely magnified in your perception]

[In the end, this batch yielded ten Golden Sore Pills]

[Your third-grade pill refining technique had reached perfection]

[You were pleasantly surprised]

[But you steadied your mind, careful not to break this peculiar state]

[Maintaining this state, you refined three more batches of Golden Sore Pills]

[The second-grade refiner hurried away with the pills]

[You didn't stop refining]

[Keeping this state, you began refining internal spirit pills]

[This time you already had a premonition]

[When opened, the furnace revealed two successfully refined internal spirit pills]

["Hahaha, as expected of me!"]

[You picked up the two pills, unable to put them down]

[Your fourth-grade pill refining technique had begun]

[These days of effort hadn't been wasted]

[Simultaneously, you exited that mysterious state]

[No matter how you tried, you couldn't re-enter it]

[Instead, endless weakness washed over you]

[Your legs went weak as if you'd fought for seven days and nights]

[You hurried back to your room and collapsed into sleep]

[After two days and one night, you slowly awoke]

[Upon waking, Hu Zhongxuan happened to come looking for you]

[Having not seen you for days, he thought you'd deserted]

[Glancing at your furnace and seeing internal spirit pills]

[He was utterly shocked]

[Your progress speed was terrifying]

[Reaching fourth-grade pill refining in mere days]

[But you knew it was only because of accidentally entering that mysterious state]

[You noticed Hu Zhongxuan seemed knowledgeable about refining too]

[Since he recognized these as internal spirit pills just from the failed ones]

[Hu Zhongxuan offered to provide ample materials for refining internal spirit pills]

[But half the yield would go to the military]

[You indeed didn't have many materials for internal spirit pills]

[This damned Yajiangkou near Cangwang Desert had nowhere to buy more]

[Hu Zhongxuan's offer solved your problem]

[But half was too much]

[After bargaining, you settled on giving three-tenths to the military]

[Hu Zhongxuan considered and agreed]

[Given your current low success rate]

[Even giving half wouldn't make you lose]

[Now only giving three-tenths was pure profit]

[You rarely went to the medical corps now]

[You stayed safely in the rear]

[Diligently refining internal spirit pills]

[Only going to help when third-grade pills were needed]

[Hu Zhongxuan didn't force you to the medical corps either]

[You thought Hu Zhongxuan was quite decent]

[Year Eleven]

[Great Qian and Jin Yue Nation fought fiercely]

[Neither yielding to the other]

[Even Ultimate Grandmasters began joining the fray]

[But neither side gained clear advantage]

[In Ultimate Grandmaster numbers, Jin Yue held superiority]

[Great Qian's Li imperial clan had fifty-six Ultimate Grandmasters]

[Jin Yue Nation had sixty-eight Ultimate Grandmasters]

[But most of Jin Yue's belonged to Mizhen Sect]

[Mizhen Sect was Jin Yue's state-protecting sect]

[Unlike Great Qian with its many sects]

[Jin Yue had only Mizhen Sect]

[Mizhen Sect's leader held immense power, even above Jin Yue's ruler]

[Jin Yue's ruler had to affectionately call him "beloved father"]

[So Jin Yue's military could mobilize few Ultimate Grandmasters]

[Great Qian wouldn't deploy all its Ultimate Grandmasters either]

[Thus the stalemate continued]

[This year, through constant practice]

[Your internal spirit pill refining reached Initial Achievement]

[You could produce four pills per batch]

[Enough for your daily cultivation needs]

[And all materials were provided by Hu Zhongxuan]

[The freeloading feeling was delightful]

[But you never re-entered that mysterious state from the first refining]

[You tried staying awake for days]

[Tried nonstop refining until mind-numb and disoriented]

[All useless]

[You gave up, planning to ask Xie Huide later]

[With nobody paying attention]

[You didn't hide your cultivation, practicing openly]

[One day while condensing true qi]

[You suddenly felt the world expand]

[You completed the ninth qi condensation]

[The surrounding world seemed changed]

[Clearer somehow]

[Yet upon closer inspection, no different]

[You'd vaguely felt this at the eighth condensation]

[Now the feeling intensified]

[You grew puzzled]

["Did compressing too much qi damage me?"]

[But you felt no discomfort]

[No immediate risk of exploding like a pressure cooker]

[Besides, worrying was pointless]

[You had no precedents to reference]

[Since Miao Liwu, creator of Nine Condensations Profound Skill, wasn't even born yet]

[Miao Liwu wouldn't be born until Year Sixteen]

[And you suspected he might never be born]

[Many events differed from last simulation]

[Like this war between nations that hadn't occurred before]

[But you decided to visit Willow Tree Village in Year Fourteen]

[That year's drought might starve Wei Xia and Miao Jiayao without your aid]

[Ensuring Miao Liwu would never be born]

[You'd been at Yajiangkou for two years]

[During which combat intensity remained moderate]

[But recently, casualties surged dramatically]

[Hu Zhongxuan reassigned you to the medical corps]

[Many arriving wounded were gravely injured]

[Numerous missing limbs, high mortality]

[Hu Zhongxuan explained higher-grade martial artists were now extensively deployed]

[War intensity was escalating]

[Before this conflict, Great Qian and Jin Yue only skirmished]

[Like stealing dogs or chickens]

[You didn't know why they now fought so fiercely]

[Asked Hu Zhongxuan]

[He gazed skyward at forty-five degrees, mysteriously saying: "You'll know when you should know."]

[You nearly slapped his damn face then]

[You hated such pretentious riddlers]

[Clenching your restless right hand]

[You suppressed the urge and continued conversing]

[Learned Bai Chen had been conscripted]

[Arriving at Yajiangkou tomorrow]

[Apparently when conscripted, Bai Chen reacted swiftly]

[Fleeing straight from the clinic's backyard]

[But his martial arts were too weak, caught quickly and forcibly returned]

[You sighed in relief: "Close call, almost let that old bastard live comfortably."]