Rise of the Alchemy God

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Ethan was beginning to develop a kind of tolerance for the constant surprises he kept encountering in this short period of time.

First, the fact that he hardly needed to do anything to advance to the next stage, then the fact that the amount of Qi required for the next advancements was much higher than he had anticipated.

And now this...

"..."

"..."

For a moment, neither of them spoke, just looking at each other.

Then, as if to break the ice, Bai Yu said with a mischievous expression,

"You know, you shouldn't stare at a woman so intensely," she said with a small, playful smile.

Ethan almost coughed up blood at Bai Yu's sudden statement.

Recovering a bit from his latest shock, he managed to say a single word,

"How?"

Bai Yu, hearing this, furrowed her brow slightly and asked,

"How what?"

"I mean, how is it possible that you're here?

Shouldn't you still be sealed in my sea of consciousness?" Ethan finally blurted out everything that had been running through his mind.

"Oh."

Understanding what he meant, Bai Yu simply said,

"Well, it's obviously because you've made a breakthrough in cultivation," as if this should answer all questions.

And in a way, it did, but for Ethan, who was still a bit confused, the meaning wasn't immediately clear.

Seeing that Ethan didn't seem to understand, Bai Yu said, shaking her head a little,

"As you know, the further you advance, the more the seal holding me back weakens.

Just like when you reached halfway through the first stage of cultivation, now that you've broken through, the seal has loosened a bit more."

At these words, Ethan seemed to finally understand.

"Although it's a bit unexpected that I can already leave your spiritual sea, it's not exactly something unbelievable, considering that only a part of me managed to do so.

What you see is my spiritual body, somewhat like the one I had when I appeared in my human form in your sea of consciousness," she explained, furrowing her brow slightly as she began to look around again.

It seemed she could also perceive smells, and Ethan's room, still covered in the black liquid, certainly had a strong, nauseating odor.

Bai Yu, sensing this smell, lost the desire to explore the world outside of Ethan's sea of consciousness.

"Well, it seems you have some work to do," she said before disappearing from sight.

For a moment, Ethan didn't understand this sudden retreat, but he soon realized what the problem was.

"Right, I still need to clean up this mess."

He quickly set to work cleaning the room.

Unlike the last two times, this time it was quicker because he had already made the necessary preparations for such eventualities.

In about ten minutes, the room returned to its normal state.

Ethan had opened his room's window at the start, so while he cleaned, the smell inside gradually dissipated. He also cleaned himself up.

He didn't intend to break through naked just to avoid dirtying his clothes, so he had to wash them too.

There were no washing machines or anything like that here, nor were there proper cleaning products like detergents, so he had to put in the effort to do everything by hand.

Afterward, he made himself comfortable on his bed and began to explore the system a bit.

He remembered receiving other notifications after his breakthrough, but hadn't been able to check them at the time due to the unusual and unexpected situation he found himself in.

Now that he had some free time, he decided to take a look at the notifications.

Opening the system screen, Ethan was bombarded by several messages that began to appear one after another.

[Congratulations to the host for successfully breaking through to the Qi Refining cultivation stage.]

[You have unlocked a new function in the shop.]

[Function: Alchemy Lab]

[Congratulations, you have unlocked a feature in the dimensional space.]

[Function: Minor Dimension]

Ethan thought that after his sudden advancement to the next stage, nothing would surprise him for a while, but seeing these system notifications, he had to admit he was now a bit curious about what he had received.

He wasn't sure what the Alchemy Lab would do, but just the second notification alone had managed to capture his interest.

A Minor Dimension?

Ethan wasn't sure how this dimension differed from his dimensional space, where he stored things, but he had a feeling it was definitely something good.

Just thinking about how many times the system had amazed him lately made Ethan realize that whatever it was, it wouldn't be anything bad.

From helping him unlock his special physique to pushing him into the Qi Refining stage in exchange for some SP, the system had never let him down, so he was eager to check out the information on these new features.

Without wasting time, he pressed the [Shop] button and opened the screen to see what had changed.

The screen opened instantly, showing him the usual list of items he could buy,in other words, he saw the usual list of pill recipes ready to be upgraded.

Now that he had seen how far he could take each recipe, he decided he would check with Da Shu which pills were more popular and had a better chance of bringing him more profit.

Upgrading all the recipes to a high grade was still a bit out of Ethan's reach, but doing so for one or two recipes wasn't difficult.

Even more so now that the Basic Recovery Pill recipe had been upgraded to perfect grade, Ethan wanted to see if he could now level it up or not.

He had initially thought it was possible because he hadn't considered that the system could elevate recipes to perfect grade, but seeing that it could improve his high-grade recipe, he immediately thought of the next level.

But now that he had discovered that it wasn't about leveling up, but rather that there was still one more grade to reach, Ethan wanted to check if it was still possible to improve it.

He was sure there was no other grade beyond perfect, because that would then render any usefulness of higher-level pills meaningless.

Already at its current grade, Ethan thought the pill could be compared to a level 2 pill. So, as soon as the list appeared, he immediately searched for the Recovery Pill recipe.

He vaguely remembered the recipe information when he last checked it after the upgrade to the perfect grade.

He wasn't sure, but he believed he had seen the [Upgrade] button still available at the bottom.

Back then, he had been a bit overwhelmed by the perfect grade recipe, so aside from checking its effects, he hadn't looked into anything else.

He was uncertain if further upgrades were still possible.

He didn't take long to find it and identified it right away.

Apparently, the recipe was still at the top of the items list, retaining its usual appearance.

This reassured Ethan.

He had expected to see it grayed out or something similar, like when an item in a video game is depleted or unavailable, losing its color or brightness.

Ethan subconsciously treated the system like something similar to what he had seen in those video games from his previous world, so he couldn't help but make this comparison.

Without wasting any time, he clicked on the recipe option, and a new screen opened in front of him.

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[---------------------------------

[Basic Recovery Pill Recipe]

Level: 1

Grade:Perfect (MAX)

Description: A pill capable of restoring fatigue after intense physical exertion and accelerating the healing of minor superficial wounds.

Purity: 100%

NOTE: You have reached the maximum grade for this level. You can upgrade to the next level.

[Upgrade] (1000 SP)

----------------------------------]

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Seeing the familiar screen, Ethan reviewed the information.

For the most part, it was identical to what he remembered from the last time he saw it.

The only difference was the note next to the pill's grade that read "MAX."

It didn't take Ethan long to understand what this meant.

'It seems that the perfect grade is indeed the highest a pill can reach.'

Confirming one of his doubts, Ethan proceeded. Looking at the bottom of the screen where the upgrade cost was usually listed, Ethan was briefly confused.

'It seems the cost for the next upgrade hasn't increased.'

Ethan wasn't sure if this was a system bug or something like that, nor did he know who to consult about it, but seeing that it was still possible to improve the recipe, Ethan was pleased.

Especially after noticing the system note that appeared above the [Upgrade] button.

Reading it, Ethan understood that he did indeed have the opportunity to advance it to the next level.

With a calm mind, he closed the system screen.

Now that he had cleared this from his thoughts, he no longer needed to worry about it.

1000 SP was still a somewhat high amount for Ethan, but it was nothing he couldn't earn.

He just had to spend his time as he usually did, and in a week or two, he would have earned that amount.

Now that he had checked off one of the things on his list, Ethan proceeded to examine the feature that he had initially come to the shop for.

.

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here's today's chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

A big thank you to: @Firas_Safa, @Trexiz, @Conquistadore, and @Solomon_Akinlaja for contributing with golden tokens this month.

Even though, I haven't started the system for more chapters yet, but given the support I've received recently, I'll aim to write a few extra chapters this week, just like I did yesterday.

See you tomorrow.