Tao Wan returned to Green Pill Valley. Before she departed, she left Luo Chen ten bottles of mid-grade Ascending Dragon pills and two bottles of top-grade ones. Of course, they were not gifts. Luo Chen paid twenty thousand spirit stones and accepted a task in return. Namely, the task was to instruct Tao Yisheng in alchemy. Luo Chen accepted with pleasure. He understood that this was Tao Wan’s way of compensating him after significant concessions. If Tao Yisheng improved into a proper second-tier alchemist, the Tao family would benefit regardless of whether Tao Wan claimed the Dao Scion title. Naturally, if she wanted to compensate, Luo Chen wasn’t about to suffer a loss in silence. Even though Tao Yisheng constantly addressed him as “Senior Brother”, there was no formal master-disciple bond between them. So Luo Chen devised a practical arrangement. “Yisheng, do you know where my alchemy skill comes from? It does not come from reading all day. It comes from constant, hands-on practice built up over time. I understand your situation. Disciples in major sects are many, and geniuses are even more. Resources are plentiful, yet chances to practice personally are scarce. I have a method that combines theory and practice. Within one or two years, you can become a true-blue second-tier alchemist.” When Luo Chen spoke , especially on alchemy, Tao Yisheng started to treat his words as a divine scripture. And so, Luo Chen assigned him to the Luo Tian Society's Alchemy Palace. There were no flowery speeches and no elaborate instructions, only a single command. "Refine pills like your life depends on it!" Luo Chen had ordered. "Whatever you’re good at, focus on that and refine it to perfection!" Resources were naturally plentiful. The Luo Tian Society provided herbs, purchased raw materials, handled sorting, and supplied assistants and fire-handlers. Tao Yisheng needed only to refine everything he could. A solid foundation, combined with theory, would make advancement to second-tier flow as naturally as water. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵 At first, Tao Yisheng didn’t quite believe it. But once he actually began mass-producing first-tier pills at the Alchemy Palace, his techniques grew smoother day by day. Even if his improvement wasn’t as monstrous as Luo Chen's, there was real progress. Eventually, even without Luo Chen's urging, he went to the Alchemy Palace each day with eager anticipation. Meanwhile, Luo Chen quietly instructed Qu Lingjun, Ma Shoupu, and others to befriend Tao Yisheng and seek his advice in their spare time. He came from a major sect, and his theoretical knowledge, whether basic or advanced, was thoroughly structured and complete. Even a little pinch of that knowledge could benefit these self-taught rogue alchemists immensely. In this way, Qu Lingjun and the others gradually filled in their theoretical gaps and steadily improved. At the same time, all the first-tier pills that Tao Yisheng refined were claimed by the Luo Tian Society. After all, the ingredients, logistics, and support cultivators were all provided by the Luo Tian Society. He gained alchemy experience, whereas the Luo Tian Society gained pills and improved alchemists. Everyone moved forward together. Things could not be more perfect! Sima Huiniang leaned against the wooden pillar, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. “He’s not exactly young, but he is still a little naive. You have him dancing in the palm of your hand, President.” Luo Chen shook his head. “It is not manipulation at all. I am being very serious in this respect. These tedious, repetitive tasks are the very cornerstone of the foundation for any great alchemist. However great your talent is, it still needs effort to become competence.” Hearing this, something clicked for Sima Huiniang. She had always known she was not the hands-on type; her strengths lay in administration rather than technique. She had never thought deeply about the road behind alchemical mastery. Now that she heard Luo Chen speak with such conviction, the logic fell into place. Whatever others thought, the fact of the matter was that Luo Chen had not stopped refining pills daily for years, except during major events. In earlier years, he had supported the entire Luo Tian Society’s finances with his own hands. That was something those pampered second-tier alchemists from major sects could never match. It was precisely through this relentless grind that Luo Chen’s skill had caught the eye of the Golden Core Adepts from the Ice Fortress. Now, even a True Inheritor from Green Pill Valley, a sect famed for alchemy, had come knocking at his door. Luo Chen glanced over at her as he toyed casually with a lock of her dark hair, its faint fragrance drifting gently in the air. “You didn’t come here just to talk about that trivial matter of Tao Yisheng, did you?” Without a word, Sima Huiniang took out a storage pouch and placed it in his hand. "This is the Luo Tian Society’s profit for the year. I left some in the internal vault. The rest is here." Luo Chen's brow arched as he swept his spirit consciousness through the pouch. It wasn’t a huge sum, just a few tens of thousands of spirit stones, but... that, in and of itself, was a shocking feat. “We’re already turning a profit?” he asked, genuinely surprised. Almost three years had passed since the brutal war ended. The Luo Tian Society had taken up many new industries and territories, and he had expected a much longer period of consolidation. He had not anticipated profit so soon, especially since he hadn’t refined many Jade Essence pills in recent years. In other words, most of these earnings came from the society’s own sustainable operations. Sima Huiniang’s voice grew wistful. “It’s all thanks to the restructuring and the creation of the Nine Palaces. Once each palace reached full capacity, everything fell into place.” Unconsciously, Sima Huiniang’s way of speaking had begun to resemble Luo Chen’s. Even her choice of words had become straightforward and grounded. “Right now, the Artifact Palace is handling plenty of orders. It has taken enough contracts to support itself without aid. As for our main revenue streams, they come from the Agriculture Palace, the Beast Palace, the Alchemy Palace, and the Medicine Palace.” She paused, then added with a light smile, “Oh, and the profits from the Li family of Qinhua River have been added to the mix as well. They’ve helped quite a bit.” As she spoke, Sima Huiniang looked at Luo Chen with deep admiration. She knew very well that Luo Chen had invested the most effort into these departments. He had promoted Yuan Dongsheng, recruited Xu Haizhen, and even fought a major battle for the sake of the Li family of Qinhua River. Now that returns were finally coming in, even if only a few tens of thousands of spirit stones in profit, it was clear that Luo Chen’s decisions back then had been entirely sound. He truly was visionary! "Give me a little more time, and I’ll make the Luo Tian Society earn even more spirit stones. By then, President, you won’t ever lack funds again." "You really are my virtuous wife!" Luo Chen said with emotion. The sense of earning spirit stones while lying back felt deeply satisfying. Back when he was just a rogue cultivator, he wouldn’t have dared to dream of such a thing. After they chatted a while longer, Sima Huiniang took her leave. This time, Luo Chen did not ask her to stay the night. To her surprise, he handed her ten bottles of top-grade Jade Dew pills and reminded her to keep them secret. She understood the implication at once. After she left, Luo Chen swept his sleeve and entered the secluded chamber. There could be no slackening in the days ahead. The batch of pills Tao Wan had left behind, combined with his own supply of low-grade qi-consolidation pills, could last a year or two. The timing matched the interim period before the Dao Scion competition in Green Pill Valley and aligned with the time he estimated he needed to break through to the fifth stage of Foundation Establishment. "Let’s hope these top-grade Ascending Dragon pills won’t let me down!" Inside the chamber, Luo Chen took out the bottle of top-grade Ascending Dragon pills with anticipation and swallowed one. As he refined it, a storm of medicinal power surged violently through his body. Unlike the balanced and gentle qi-consolidation pills, Ascending Dragon pills were known for their explosive potency and for containing far more energy. If the cultivation art was lacking, it could take several days to absorb the energy of a single top-grade pill. Fortunately, Luo Chen’s proficiency with the Eternal Youth Evergreen Sutra had already reached Grandmaster level. With one full cycle, he refined the energy in the pill and drew it into his sea of qi. It had been three years since he advanced to the fourth stage of Foundation Establishment. Due to his continuous efforts, his cultivation speed had transformed dramatically. "With this batch of pills, I may break through to the fifth stage in one go!"