Wait… I’m a Druid in a Cultivation World?! - Chapter 67

After the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee began producing honey using the fifty combinations of spiritual herbs that Qi Ping had set up, Qi Ping turned his attention to researching how to create a liquid version of the Fire Spirit Body Tempering Pill.

Without any delay, once he had adjusted his condition, Qi Ping began extracting the essences from the spiritual herbs according to the formula.

However, shortly after starting the extraction process, he noticed something different from before.

“Extracting the herbal essences seems easier now, and it’s also faster…”

After extracting the essences from several more herbs, Qi Ping was certain: when it came to extracting herbal essences, the spiritual energy of the Wood Flame Art was more effective than that of the Wood Shield Art. Not only was the process easier and quicker, but it also consumed less spiritual energy.

Gradually, he began to notice the different effects that various types of spiritual energy had during the extraction process.

“Wood-attribute spiritual energy improves the precision of herbal essence extraction…”

“Fire-attribute spiritual energy increases the speed of extraction and reduces the difficulty…”

“No wonder wood and fire dual spiritual roots are said to be the most ideal constitution for alchemists. Just in the extraction of herbal essences alone, these attributes offer so many advantages—let alone during the more challenging stages of liquid fusion, fire refinement, and pill formation.”

“Those with other spiritual roots who wish to pursue alchemy must put in much more effort, while wood and fire spiritual roots inherently possess significant advantages.”

“It’s no surprise that there are specialized cultivation techniques for alchemists, as well as methods for fire refinement, fusion, and countless other alchemy-related practices.”

However, Qi Ping wasn’t particularly interested in techniques created solely for alchemy. He cared more about strengthening his own cultivation foundation.

Only by building a solid, stable foundation and rapidly improving his cultivation could he have a greater chance of reaching higher realms.

“I won’t aim for advanced alchemy techniques. As long as I have methods for herbal fusion and more pill formulas, I can determine more suitable combinations for the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee to test.”

Thanks to the reduced difficulty of extracting herbal essences, Qi Ping quickly completed the extraction process for all twenty sets of spiritual herbs.

But the next step—fusing the herbal essences—was the most challenging.

Since the fusion process for fire-refined pill formation was vastly different from ordinary herbal essence fusion, Qi Ping had to rely on his limited knowledge and brainstorm multiple fusion plans.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side this time.

In the subsequent fusion attempts:
First attempt… Failure!
Second attempt… Failure!
…
Fifteenth attempt… Failure!
Sixteenth attempt… Success!
…
Twentieth attempt… Failure!

After the twentieth failure, Qi Ping’s face was as dark as coal.

“*****!”

Although he hadn’t failed all twenty times, it was almost the same.

The only successfully fused liquid, which Qi Ping had eagerly tested, turned out to have less than 20% of the efficacy of a standard Fire Spirit Body Tempering Pill!

He had been willing to accept even 40-50% efficacy, but what use was 20%?
It wasn’t even as effective as directly refining Fire Spirit Grass!

“Sigh… I overestimated myself.”

After this experience, Qi Ping realized how difficult it was to create a herbal liquid formula. It was simply beyond the capabilities of an alchemy novice like him—even with the shared talent of a Master Brewer.

In fact, he felt that the only reason he had succeeded once was due to the Master Brewer talent enhancing his sensitivity to herbal fusion. Otherwise, he likely wouldn’t have succeeded at all.

“But thinking about it… almost every pill formula and herbal liquid recipe is the result of countless experiments and efforts by many alchemists and pharmacists. How could I easily modify them?”

“This was a case of ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’! I need to be more cautious from now on and not be overconfident—especially when it comes to matters affecting my safety. I can’t just assume things will work out!”

“The world of cultivation is full of mysterious and powerful things. I’m probably still far from being able to fully protect myself. Being careful and cautious is the only way to survive…”

This experience served as a wake-up call for Qi Ping.

After this attempt, any trace of complacency he had felt was thoroughly suppressed.

Losing twenty sets of spiritual herbs was a small matter—each set was small in quantity, so the loss wasn’t significant.

What Qi Ping truly feared was risking his life in the future by overestimating his abilities!

So, in the following days, Qi readjusted his mindset. He no longer focused on modifying pill formulas but instead redirected his energy toward cultivating Fire Spirit Grass and practicing the Wood Flame Art.

His priorities were to nurture the Fire Spirit Grass to a hundred-year potency and to improve his cultivation level as quickly as possible.

As his cultivation improved, the simultaneous enhancement of his spiritual energy and soul would allow him to use the Plant Growth skill more frequently, speeding up the cultivation of spiritual herbs.

As for herbal fusion experiments, Qi Ping decided to leave them to the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee.

“Leave specialized tasks to specialized experts—or in this case, to a specialized bee!”

The honey produced by ordinary Golden Marrow Bees was already quite good. For example, honey made from Blood Ginseng was more effective than directly refining Blood Ginseng, and fusing multiple spiritual substances through honey production often resulted in larger quantities.

Moreover, the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee was an enhanced version of the Golden Marrow Bee, with significantly superior honey-producing capabilities.

Using the same ingredients, the honey made by the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee could sometimes be several dozen percent more effective than that produced by Golden Marrow Bees.

Considering that Golden Marrow Bee honey already offered notable improvements, the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee’s honey—being even more effective—demonstrated just how powerful its abilities were.

Thus, Qi Ping had considerable confidence in the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee. Even in the worst-case scenario, the results would likely be much better than directly refining Fire Spirit Grass.

And so, with anticipation for the final results from the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee, Qi Ping patiently spent the next week focusing on cultivating Fire Spirit Grass and practicing the Wood Flame Art. His cultivation level steadily improved during this time.

……

Over a week later, the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee finally finished turning all fifty of Qi Ping’s spiritual herb combinations into honey!

“It’s finally done!”

Looking at the hundred neatly arranged portions of honey in the honeycomb, Qi Ping couldn’t help but feel excited. This was the moment when the true honey-producing capabilities of the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee would be revealed.

It was also the first real test of the Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bee’s abilities.

“A hundred portions of honey—perfect!”

For the test, Qi Ping had prepared fifty sets of spiritual herb combinations. Each set was attempted by two Master Brewer Big-Bellied Bees to minimize individual variations.

From the looks of it, every set had been successfully produced—a remarkable achievement.

This success rate was undoubtedly far higher than that of most alchemists.

But while success was one thing, the next step was to evaluate the overall effectiveness.

“Yaya.”

Hearing Qi Ping’s call, the Flame Crow swiftly flew down from its perch in the sunlight to land in front of him, looking curious.

Its master rarely called for it without reason—if he was summoning it now, there must be something important.

“Try these hundred portions of honey and see how they differ!”

As he spoke, Qi Ping divided all hundred portions in half and placed them in front of the Flame Crow.

“Honey?”

The Flame Crow’s eyes showed confusion.

Since when do crows love eating honey?

Nevertheless, it obediently began to taste the honey.

But after trying just a few portions, its eyes suddenly lit up.

“Caw caw! (How is there such intense fire-attribute spiritual energy in this?!)”