Immortal Mortal
chapter-508

"What's wro…" The other pill refiner didn't even finish his sentence, before he immediately stood up in disbelief. He also stared straight at the display screen in astonishment.

On that large array display screen, a row of gold words appeared, "Congratulations Chang Luo Pill Master Mo Wuji for passing the Pill Dao Pagoda's Tier 4 Pill Monarch assessment. Concocted 12 Grand Yi True Pills which are all unique grade, earning the recognition as the Pill Dao Immortal Alliance's honored grade Tier 4 Immortal Pill King."

"Honored grade, honored grade, it's actually the honored grade…"

After muttering to themselves in disbelief for some time, the two of them finally returned to their countenance. Almost at the same time, they asked, "Who's Mo Wuji?"

This display screen only showed messages of congratulations when one successfully became a pill king. Moreover, it only showed the pill refiners that came from their Sharphorn Immortal Ruins branch.

"Today, there were only three people that went in for the assessment. One of them had already failed and was transferred out. There are still two people; one of them is Wang He. His standards are roughly the same as mine, he should be in the Tier 2 Pill Monarch level, and there's that…" The pill refiner, that was the first to stand up, muttered to himself. He suddenly stopped in his words.

The two of them glanced at each other, seemingly understanding something. At the same time, the two of them started to flip the record books in front of them. Instants later, the two lifted their heads back up and gave each other meaningful glances, "It's the last one that entered…"

Even without speaking any further, the two knew who the last person to enter was. It was the young man that they believed to be vain and overambitious.

"How could this be? He did not enter for a long period of time, but he actually reached the fourth level?" The pill refiner, that was the first to stand up, was in a daze.

Just like him, the other pill refiner also hadn't regained his countenance, as he mumbled, "It isn't about the time, he's actually honored grade… an honored grade pill king…"

The two of them were very clear what honored grade meant. They knew that while two pill kings might be of the same tier, there was a huge difference between the honored grade one and an average one.

The number of honored grade pill kings was extremely small. Some times, a honored grade Tier 4 Pill King might even be better than a Tier 6 one. This was because to become a honored grade Tier 4 Pill King, one must concoct unique grade pills for all the levels of the assessment.

It could be said that only honored grade pill kings have the chance to become a true pill emperor.

...

Mo Wuji happily kept his pills. A full batch of Grand Yi True Pills contained 12 pills. Not only was he able to create a full batch, the entire batch was unique grade.

Mo Wuji did not hesitate to keep two of the unique grade pills for himself, while he sent the rest off in the transfer array rune.

After ten breaths of time, a faint gold light appeared within the pill room. Thereafter, a pleasing voice sounded, and a row of words appeared within the gold light, "Congratulations Chang Luo Pill Master Mo Wuji for passing the Pill Dao Pagoda's Tier 4 Pill Monarch assessment. Concocted 12 Grand Yi True Pills which are all unique grade, earning the recognition as the Pill Dao Immortal Alliance's honored grade Tier 4 Immortal Pill King."

This row of words floated within the pill room for a long time without dispersing. Moreover, the gold staircase at the end of the room became clear; the fifth level of the Pill Dao Pagoda had opened.

Mo Wuji was slightly lost; he didn't immediately go to the fifth level, but stared at the row of words. Honored grade Tier 4 Pill King? Why was there two additional words?

Instants later, Mo Wuji came to an understanding. It should be because he concocted a batch of unique grade Grand Yi True Pills, which was how he got the honored grade.

Regardless, the honored grade was definitely better than being an average one.

As he thought of this, the joy within Mo Wuji's heart expanded. Thereafter, he grabbed his jade token and headed to the fifth level's gold staircase.

The fifth level's layout was roughly the same as the fourth level. Mo Wuji walked up to the pill furnace and hesitated briefly. But he still inserted his own jade token into the groove.

He knew that he definitely wasn't able to concoct Tier 5 Immortal Pills, but there was nothing wrong with that; he was already very satisfied with the acknowledgement as a Tier 4 Pill King. The reason why he inserted his jade token was because he really wanted to see what Tier 5 pills there were. If there were some pill formulas that did not require compensation, then he could try it out and get a simple pill formula. However, if compensation was required, then he definitely wouldn't try it; he was really afraid that he wasn't able to afford it. The price of Tier 5 immortal herbs was no joke; he did not want to go bankrupt.

Immediately after Mo Wuji placed the jade token into the groove, an array display screen appeared. The rules shown on the screen immediately left Mo Wuji excited: for the fifth level of the assessment, pill refiners would not need to pay any immortal crystals for failed attempts. Moreover, if they succeed, pill refiners could take away 50% of the pills.

Mo Wuji didn’t really care about successfully concocting the pill; he mainly wanted to get a pill formula. Since he did not need to pay for any failure, he could choose the pill formula he wanted; even if he failed, he could still record the pill formula down. Even though this pill formula was the simplest of pill formulas that only contained the names of the immortal herbs and nothing else, it was already enough for Mo Wuji. He believed that with his pill standards, he could quickly perfect the pill formula then concoct the pill.

The screen flashed and Mo Wuji saw 20 to 30 pill formulas.

Right at the front, was the Immortal Cleansing Grand Zhi Pill. Then was the Alioth Gold Pill, the Purple Void Clear Pill, the Two Lives Reincarnation Pill…

Mo Wuji’s eyes then landed on the Zhi Desolate Pill. He had saw this pill on a worn out jade letter before; it was a pill that simply couldn’t be bought anywhere. Even though it didn’t contain any ‘spirit’ in its name, this pill was primarily used to improve the spiritual will. Not only could it strengthen the spiritual will, it could nourish the primordial spirit; this pill was extremely valuable. This pill formula was absolutely compatible with a spiritual will tempering method.

Moreover, the Zhi Desolate Pill had a sister pill, it was called the Zhi Nature Pill. It was even more valuable than the Zhi Desolate Pill. Even though the Zhi Nature Pill couldn’t strengthen spiritual will, it could heal damaged spiritual will, and recover depleted spiritual will. At the same time, it could even heal damaged primordial spirits. It was extremely rare to find pills that could heal both the spiritual will and primordial spirit; it was clear that the Zhi Nature Pill was extremely valuable.

Mo Wuji anxiously scrolled downwards. Unfortunately, within these 20 over pills, there wasn’t the Zhi Nature Pill. This left Mo Wuji slightly disappointed; if there was the Zhi Nature Pill, he would not hesitate to pick it.

Since there wasn’t the Zhi Nature Pill, Mo Wuji’s first choice would be the Zhi Desolate Pill.

To an average person, perhaps the Immortal Cleansing Grand Zhi Pill might be more valuable, because this pill was able to help a Grand Yi Immortal advance into the Grand Zhi Immortal Stage. However to Mo Wuji, this Immortal Cleansing Grand Zhi Pill was simply too distant. He was only in the intermediate Golden Immortal Stage; it was unknown when he would even reach the Grand Zhi Immortal Stage. At least, he could use the Zhi Desolate Pill now; many of his sacred arts and skills depended largely on his spiritual will. This sort of spiritual will pill was akin to sending him charcoal in snowy weather.

The Zhi Desolate Pill it would be. Mo Wuji did not hesitate to press the Zhi Desolate Pill.

Instants later, a pile of immortal herbs appeared in front of him.

Dust Washing Immortal Bamboo Shoot, Heavenly Pearl Marrow, Flowerless Buddha Fruit, Heavenly Desolate Grass…

Heavenly Desolate Grass? Mo Wuji picked up this ordinary looking piece of grass; it looked no different from an ordinary weed. The only special point was that this grass didn’t have roots. The introduction to the Heavenly Desolate Grass in the "Grass, Wood, Stone" was very clear: this grass only grew in void places free of human activity. These void places refered to places without any life energy, five elemental essence, nor elemental eergy. It could be a void, it could be space, or it could even be in a certain corner of the planet.

Among the pill formulas that Mo Wuji knew of, none of them used the Heavenly Desolate Grass. The introduction to the Heavenly Desolate Grass was very clear that it was very hard to purify. This was because the essence and impurities within the grass were completely mixed together; it was extremely hard to separate. ‘Grass, Wood, Stone’ even said that it was exactly because of this that the Heavenly Desolate Grass had such a name: the impurities and essence would forever be together till the heavens turn desolate. That’s why this grass couldn’t be consumed, nor could it be used for pills.

He never expected that the Heavenly Desolate Grass would be an ingredient in the Zhi Desolate Pill. Unfortunately, he did not know the specific function of the Heavenly Desolate Grass in the Zhi Desolate Pill.

After recording down the ingredients for the Zhi Desolate Pill, Mo Wuji immediately started.

The Zhi Desolate Pill was a Tier 5 immortal pill, and according to Mo Wuji’s experience, it was definitely one of the most difficult Tier 5 pills to concoct.

After igniting the pill fire to clean the pill furnace, Mo Wuji sent the immortal herbs, one by one, into the pill furnace. He did not know the specific order so he could only sent them in a random manner.

Fortunately, Mo Wuji’s purification was top notch. He easily refined most of the immortal herbs to 98% purity, but he gave up on refining the Heavenly Desolate Pill.

The moment he sent the Heavenly Desolate Pill into the pill furnace, Mo Wuji was instantly dumbfounded. The impurities in the grass instantly mixed with the essence that he had already purified; his pill techniques was completely unable to stop it. Moreover, the impurities and the essences were completed melded together. Even with Mo Wuji’s purification methods, he was still clueless on what he should do to get rid of the impurities.

If he forcefully tried to purify the essence, he would disrupt the entire structure of the medicinal essence, causing this batch to fail.

Fortunately, Mo Wuji never intended to succeed in concocting a Tier 5 immortal pill. The reason why he even tried was because he wanted to get a pill formula.

Mo Wuji’s spirit storage channel spiritual will penetrated into every part of the medicinal essence, then it started to intricately separate the impurities.

Time passed. Whole hours passed but Mo Wuji wasn’t even able to remove one-ten thousandth of the impurities. Every time he cut out a bit of the impurities, another part of the Heavenly Desolate Grass’s impurities would penetrate in, causing the medicinal essence to be impure again.

Three days passed and with a "Pff!" sound, a charred smell wafted out of the pill furnace. Mo Wuji knew that he had failed in this concoction, and it was a complete failure at that.

Previously when Mo Wuji was practising pills, he had never failed in the purification stage. This was the first time he failed at the very first step.