Chapter 2  : Work Manual

In front of his eyes, a transparent illusory panel floated in the void.

The text within the panel was light red and the font was small, but miraculously, he understood all the information just by scanning it.

Han Yi was slightly startled.

“Isn’t this… my work manual?”

The model and font color of this panel were exactly the same as the work manual he had written in Python to record his work progress in his previous life.

The difference was:

In his previous life, the small tool he programmed recorded the progress of various projects at work.

But, the illusory semi-transparent panel floating in front of him now was a three-dimensional presentation of his current situation.

“Life span of 87 years, at the Middle Stage of Qi Cultivating realm, cultivated the basic cultivation skill ‘Fire Profound Skill’ as an outer disciple of Xuandan Sect.

Skills include Alchemy Skill and Spirit Void Finger.

Alchemy Skill has been practiced for three years, but still only at the initial stage.

Spirit Void Finger was the magic skill he learned when he first joined Little Lingxu Peak, but he only learned the basics.

The term ‘entry-level’ is used for cultivation skills, and ‘just started learning’ is used for abilities. Does this mean that they belong to different progression routes?”

Han Yi’s eyes brightened, and at that moment, he didn’t feel sleepy at all.

Subconsciously, he felt that the panel that came with him through the process of crossing over was the key to breaking the current predicament.

Unfortunately,

Half an hour later, Han Yi exhaled a long breath, his brows furrowed, and his expression unwilling.

“It’s just a data panel that records the current life span, cultivation skills, and abilities. There are no other functions.”

“It can’t communicate, and there is no manual.”

“This is unscientific.”

Han Yi returned to his meditation room.

On the wall of the meditation room, a landscape painting was hung. In the painting, a sword immortal with immortal wind and Dao bones was controlling a sword.

From his memory, this was purchased when he discovered his own spiritual root and joined the Xuandan Sect, in a market at the outer peak.

It was said that the sword immortal in the painting was the current sect leader of Xuandan Sect.

At that time, when he had just set foot on the Immortal Path, he had a surge of ambition and spent five taels of Spirit Sand to buy it, only to later discover that it was just an ordinary painting with no divine wonders, and Zheng Hai had made fun of him for a long time about it.

Spirit Sand is a smaller unit than Spirit Stone. Although both are excavated from spirit stone veins, spirit stones are in block form, while spirit sands are in granular form, like quicksand, and contain less pure spiritual energy than spirit stones.

One standard-quality low-grade Spirit Stone is equivalent to 10 taels, or one catty of Spirit Sand.

From his memory, the original owner had spent countless days and nights in cultivation, facing this painting as a goal to motivate himself.

At this moment, Han Yi instinctively sat on his cultivation cushion, facing the painting. He took a deep breath and calmed down.

“Work manual, work manual, how can I use this manual to solve the current predicament?”

Although Han Yi’s face was calm, seemingly unconcerned,

His inner heart was not calm at all. He just understood that panic could not solve the predicament, but only make the situation worse. In any situation, staying composed was the way to find the optimal solution.

Moreover, he didn’t want to be expelled from the mountain immediately after crossing over.

The Cultivation World was not peaceful. Cultivation focused on ‘wealth’, ‘partnership’, ‘techniques’, and ‘place.’.

Among them, wealth was divided into internal and external wealth. External wealth referred to the resources for cultivation, such as Spirit Stone, pill, and natural treasures. Internal wealth referred to the aptitude for cultivation, including Spiritual Root, comprehension, and talent.

Partnership refers to Dao partners. Dao partners are those who protect the Dao. There are broad and narrow meanings in Dao partners. Broadly speaking, Dao partners refer to fellow practitioners, including sect brothers, masters, and disciples. Narrowly speaking, Dao partners are male and female cultivators who support each other on the way of cultivation.

Techniques refer to the ‘Dao’ and the ‘Techniques’ themselves. Dao is the core principle of cultivation, the root of cultivation, and the Techniques refer to the ways of Dao, such as talismans, alchemy, Sword Way, etc.

Place refers to the Daoist site. Some people dwell in the deep mountains to understand the secrets of eternal life; some establish sects and accept large numbers of disciples. No matter if it’s the deep mountains or sects, both are Daoist sites.

In the Xuandan Sect, Han Yi’s most intuitive understanding of ‘place’ was the Spirit Vein.

If he were expelled from the mountain and lost the Second-stage Spiritual Vein, his future cultivation would become even more challenging, and it would be challenging to re-enter the peak.

Han Yi closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts, and after a quarter of an hour, reopened his eyes.

“Let’s put aside the panel for now and get familiar with the current skills first.”

Han Yi did not directly start cultivating because he only had a low-grade Fire Spirit Root.

After joining the Xuandan Sect for three years, he had only cultivated from the Early Qi Cultivation stage to the Middle Stage of Qi Cultivating. It was understandably challenging for him to walk the path of cultivation.

In fact, it wasn’t just him. Out of the 100,000 outer disciples of the Xuandan Sect, at least 80,000 were in the Early Qi Cultivating stage. The higher the stage, the more the pyramid structure appeared.

For Han Yi, breaking through to the third stage of Qi Cultivating wouldn’t be possible in a short period.

To break the deadlock, he had to focus on his skills.

There were several mainstream skills in the world of cultivation, such as alchemy, weapon refining, formations, and talismans.

Fortunately, Han Yi was an Alchemist. Although his Alchemy Skill only seemed to be at the novice stage according to the panel, it was still a skill nonetheless.

Just like in his previous life as an engineer, having a skill made him fearless wherever he went.

However, when Han Yi entered the Alchemy Room and took out the storage bag tied to his waist, infusing it with his mana, and seeing what was inside, his face froze.

He gently waved his hand to take out everything from the storage bag.

The largest item was an ancient bronze six-sided pill furnace.

Although it was a lower-grade pill furnace, it was the most valuable item on his person.

There were more than a dozen transparent jade boxes containing spiritual grass and medicine.

Piles of neatly stacked Spirit Coal, which was needed by low-level Alchemists during pill refining.

About twenty taels of Spirit Sand and three low-grade Spirit Stones.

A large bottle of Grain Avoiding Pills.

Besides those, there were some miscellaneous items for daily living.

“What an unfavorable starting situation.”

Han Yi sighed.

From his memory, he had used up several precious herbs in refining Nurturing Qi Pills a few days ago.

He could refine only four types of pills, the highest quality of which was the Nurturing Qi Pill, but unfortunately, he had only succeeded in refining it once in the past three years.

Nurturing Qi Pills were useful for cultivators at the Middle Stage of Qi Cultivating, and they were popular in the Xuandan Sect.

Refining a single Nurturing Qi Pill could earn him ten sect points. A furnace of Nurturing Qi Pills contained about ten pills, which would be enough to complete the sect’s task.

The original owner gambled heavily on Nurturing Qi Pills, but unfortunately, he failed in the end.

Aside from Nurturing Qi Pills, the other three types of pills he could refine were Rejuvenation Pills, Expel the Epidemic Powder, and Nourishing Beast Pills.

Rejuvenation Pill, as the name implies, can boost one’s spirit. For cultivators at the Early Qi Cultivation stage, taking a Rejuvenation Pill during cultivation can slightly increase the efficiency, even though the effect is not very significant, but it’s better than nothing.

Unfortunately, once one reaches the Middle Stage of Qi Cultivating, the Rejuvenation Pill’s effectiveness wears off.

A single Rejuvenation Pill can be exchanged for five sect points, and a furnace can refine anywhere from two to four Rejuvenation Pills.

As for the Expel the Epidemic Powder, it’s a medicinal pill for treating illnesses. In the secular world, it is considered a miraculous pill, but in the cultivation world, it is barely useful. A bottle of Expel the Epidemic Powder can only get one sect point, making it almost worthless.

The Nourishing Beast Pill, on the other hand, is a medicinal pill used to feed spiritual beasts, and can be supplemented with various flavors and ingredients to boost their appetite.

This is also a low-cost pill, and like the Expel the Epidemic Powder, a bottle of Nourishing Beast Pill can only get one sect point.

Of course, the pills mentioned above are all of average quality. If the quality increases, the points will change accordingly.

From what Han Yi remembered, in this world, pill quality is divided into ordinary, standard, flawless, perfect, pill rune, and immortal pill.

For the outer disciples of the Xuandan Sect, the pills they refine are of average quality.

Only inner disciples or alchemists at the Foundation Establishment stage can refine standard quality pills.

As for the higher quality, Han Yi does not have the knowledge to understand.

Moreover, in terms of success rate, Han Yi’s alchemy skill is just beginning, refining the most ordinary Expel the Epidemic Powder and Nourishing Beast Pill only has a 50% success rate, and the Rejuvenation Pill has only a 30% success rate.

As for refining Nurturing Qi Pills, he has only succeeded once, so it’s hard to say what his success rate is.

“Forget it, let’s start by getting familiar with alchemy first, starting with the simplest Expel the Epidemic Powder.”

Even though he inherited the memories, he was worried that his original skills might not transfer to his new body.

As expected, bad luck followed him.

An hour later.

Bang!

The bronze pill furnace shook violently, with a wisp of black smoke slowly emerging from the exhaust vent at the top.

A few spirit coals underneath the furnace were also shattered and splattered onto Han Yi’s face, leaving a few solid black lines on it.

The black lines were darker than his inner heart.

“Damn, even this can cause an explosion.”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain composed.

“The output of spiritual energy was interrupted for a moment during the process.”

“The spirit fire from the spirit coal burned too fiercely, causing the furnace to overheat and explode.”

“Let’s try again, I refuse to believe I can’t even refine Expel the Epidemic Powder.”

Han Yi wiped his face, stood up, took new materials, and continued to refine the pills.

Another hour later.

Bang.

The furnace exploded again.

Two hours later.

Bang.

Another explosion.

Three hours later.

With a whiff of medicinal aroma wafting out from the pill furnace, black sand-like ‘Expel the Epidemic Powder’ was poured into a jade bottle he had prepared earlier through Han Yi’s spiritual energy guidance.

Whew!

Han Yi exhaled a breath and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

“That wasn’t easy, it took four attempts to succeed.”

“However, with this success rate or even a 50% success rate recovery, I won’t be able to refine a hundred bottles of Expel the Epidemic Powder in a month.”

“Not to mention, I don’t have enough materials to refine that many.”

“I need to figure out another way.”

Han Yi’s thoughts flickered, as a virtual panel appeared before his eyes.

He glanced at the second skill unconsciously, the Spirit Void Finger.

What could the Spirit Void Finger do, he couldn’t help but wonder.

Just then.

He had a thought and shifted his gaze back to the panel, focusing on the first skill.

[Alchemy Skill (Novice 84/100)]

“84% progress?

No, my memory can’t be wrong. The progress was clearly 82% before.”

What happened?

Calm down.

Extract the phenomenon and analyze the essence.

The phenomenon is that after refining four furnaces of pills, my alchemy skill at the novice stage has increased from 82% to 84%.

Just looking at this phenomenon alone,

this is definitely not a normal rate of progress. Otherwise, with the many furnaces I refined in the past three years, why am I still at the novice stage?

There’s a problem.

So, what’s the essence of it?”

Han Yi furrowed his brows, his eyes calm, and his mind racing.

A moment later, he emptied his thoughts once again, and then refilled them with the phenomenon he had just experienced.

“The dataset is too small; forcing an analysis might lead to an incorrect or biased conclusion.”

“Nevermind, I’ll just focus on the phenomenon for now.”

With 84% progress, I’m not far from 100%.”

If I can cross 100%, that means my alchemy skill will advance to a new level.”

At that point, refining Rejuvenation Pills, or even Nurturing Qi Pills will definitely increase my success rate.”

At this thought,

Han Yi’s eyes lit up.

“There is always a way out.”

“This is the key to breaking the deadlock.”