Pills, like the ranks of alchemists and artifact forgers, are also divided into Mortal, Spirit, Earth, Heaven, and Divine levels.

Mortal Pills, Spirit Pills, Earth Pills, Heaven Pills, and Divine Pills—each level is further divided into nine grades.

Generally speaking, alchemists use their own flames to refine pills, and most can only produce the two lower-level types: Mortal and Spirit pills.

Earth, Heaven, and Divine level spirit pills often require the aid of flame crystals, underground fire sources, or various kinds of heavenly fire.

The Brooks Family has relatively few types of spirit herbs, and their quality is also low. What Ethan Brooks refined was merely the lowest grade “Vein Expanding Pill.”

The “Vein Expanding Pill” is a third-grade Mortal Pill. Its greatest—and only—function is to help cultivators at the Meridian Unblocking stage open their meridians more quickly and pass through the bottleneck sooner.

On the Tianyuan Continent and the Extinction Continent, the “Vein Expanding Pill” is not rare. When powerful sects nurture their core disciples, the elders will bestow this pill to help them break through rapidly.

Of course, this is limited to those core disciples with potential and background; ordinary sect disciples have no right to freely enjoy the “Vein Expanding Pill.”

As for the Qianxuan Continent, probably only deeply rooted noble families or the royal families of the great empires might provide the “Vein Expanding Pill” to exceptionally talented juniors.

After all, although the “Vein Expanding Pill” is only the lowest grade of Mortal Pill, due to the extreme shortage and high demand for alchemists, ordinary clans on the Qianxuan Continent have no chance of recruiting one.

On the Tianyuan Continent and the Extinction Continent, alchemists are symbols of noble status and are treated as honored guests by all major sects.

On the Qianxuan Continent, if there is an alchemist capable of refining second-level Spirit Pills, they will naturally be heavily invited by sects from the Tianyuan and Extinction Continents to live and cultivate there.

Water flows to lower places, people strive for higher ground. Those alchemists, in pursuit of the Dao of alchemy, will gladly accept such invitations.

Over time, this has made alchemists on the Qianxuan Continent increasingly rare.

The few remaining alchemists who have not left are all supported by financial giants like The Parker Family, pillars of the nation, or are directly served by the imperial royal family.

“If this batch of Vein Expanding Pills succeeds, perhaps it can change the current situation of The Brooks Family.” Ethan Brooks murmured softly, “On the Qianxuan Continent, alchemists are even rarer than cultivators! The Brooks Family is a family of medicinal herbs—if an alchemist emerges, even at the lowest level, it could alarm The Brooks Family’s superior—The Parker Family.”

“Huh!”

Ethan Brooks suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with a strange light.

The place he was in was a secret chamber three meters underground, specially arranged by the old master Cameron Brooks.

This secret chamber was also Cameron Brooks’s cultivation place in earlier years. It could block out sound and prevent disturbances from the outside world.

In the secret chamber three meters underground, Ethan Brooks clearly sensed a warm current quietly sweeping past the chamber’s dome.

The “Vein Expanding Pill” had not yet been started, and the “Flame Crystal” had long since gone out. By all rights, there should be no warm current forming in this underground chamber.

“A Qi Refiner at the Subtle Realm has patrolled with spiritual sense—their cultivation should be a flame-based spiritual art!”

After pondering for a moment, he realized that when he ignited the “Flame Crystal” at the final moment of pill formation, the flame power released by the “Flame Crystal” resonated with the crude array carved on the pill furnace, instantly creating intense heat that surged back into the furnace, which must have alerted a cultivator in Darkmoon City.

That cultivator, who practiced a flame-based spiritual art, was likely in seclusion, then keenly sensed an unusual burst of fiery energy in the city and used spiritual sense to investigate.

At the Subtle Realm, the upper dantian is opened and spiritual sense is formed.

Cultivators at this level can use spiritual sense to observe themselves in great detail, seeing their own flesh, bones, and organs, perceiving even the most minute aspects, and can truly sense the existence of the Earth Soul, Heaven Soul, and Human Soul.

However, if they extend their spiritual sense outward to perceive changes in the environment, its effectiveness is greatly reduced.

Using spiritual sense to probe the outside world is like a blind man feeling an elephant—they can only sense hot or cold, general shapes, and whether something is a living creature or a hard stone.

Even if a Subtle Realm cultivator’s spiritual sense detects a living being, they may not be able to tell whether it is a human, a beast, or a monster.

But once one steps from the Subtle Realm into the Yin Spirit Realm, everything becomes clear—they can send out their Yin Spirit to clearly discern the outside world, as if opening their eyes wide to see all reality.

Moreover, the Yin Spirit can move silently, leaving no trace.

Unlike this Subtle Realm cultivator in Darkmoon City, who used spiritual sense to probe the secret chamber where Ethan Brooks was, and was actually detected by Ethan Brooks, allowing him to realize that his secret pill refining had inadvertently alerted an outsider.

After a short while, that warm current disappeared.

However, with the experience of his previous life, Ethan Brooks had already seen through everything and guessed almost exactly what had happened.

“It’s not that elder from the Cold Yin Sect. The spiritual art cultivated by this person is completely opposite to the Cold Yin Sect’s and is definitely not the same path!”

“The Subtle Realm may only be a middle-tier force on the Tianyuan and Extinction Continents. But on the Qianxuan Continent, in a small place like Darkmoon City, it’s probably already top-tier!”

“Someone in the city has cultivated a flame-based spiritual art and reached the Subtle Realm—who could it be?”