Senior alchemists who have received systematic training possess supporting skills, allowing them to shape the pill mud as they extract it. Brian Clark had none of these, so he could only roll it into balls by hand.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a big problem. The Slacker Alchemy Room had tools—ones that looked like the ice cube trays in a fridge, and the usage was pretty much the same.

Eleven Qi-Ling Pills went into the bottle. Due to losses during molding, he was one short of the standard twelve.

[You have completed an alchemy session. Based on the pill’s grade and quality, you gain 100 experience points. For your first true alchemy, you receive an additional 2,000 experience points.]

“Wonderful!”

Brian Clark’s eyes lit up, and he used the 2,100 experience points to upgrade his overall level.

Level: 4

Experience: 1450/1800

Leveling up does not directly increase attributes. Information prompt: Free attribute points +1, skill points +50.

“Very good, a nice start. I’ll save the 50 skill points for now and wait until I have 100 before learning the basics of alchemy.” Brian Clark rubbed his hands together and reached for the white-quality alchemy furnace.

An hour later, five bottles of Qi-Ling Pills were lined up on the coffee table. Brian Clark admired his handiwork for a moment, then impatiently began leveling up.

Level: 5

Experience: 50/3200

Information prompt: Accumulated 4 free attribute points, 110 skill points.

Brian Clark washed his hands, found John Wood who was drinking tea, and said he wanted to learn advanced alchemy knowledge. The latter didn’t think much of it, pulled out a bunch of keys, and led him to the storeroom containing the basics of alchemy.

Since it was elementary knowledge, there was no secrecy involved. Maybe it was a treasure for the struggling folks of Jiuzhu Mountain, but for the wealthy and resource-rich Huangji Sect, it was just a popular science textbook circulated at the grassroots level.

Brian Clark ran his hands over the bookshelves in the storeroom and chose a book that required 80 skill points to learn: 【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials】.

How do you judge the quality of a cultivation technique?

Players usually check how many skill points are needed to start learning it—the more it costs, the higher its potential.

But there are exceptions. After all, cultivators come in all types, and there’s no shortage of authors who dig pits—grand and profound at first, but later devolving into nonsense.

Some players, relying on experience, fall into these traps and end up cursing the author’s ancestors. Others get lucky and find hidden gems, joyfully thanking the author’s forebears.

Overall, techniques that require a lot of skill points and experience early on are generally pretty good.

【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials Lv1 (0/100)】

Brian Clark spent 80 skill points and learned 【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials】 in a second, but in John Wood’s eyes, he just flipped through a couple of pages and was done.

Truly a young master from a wealthy family—they’re all equally arrogant.

John Wood shook his head secretly, locked the storeroom door, and went back to drinking tea.

Learning the Pill Nurturing Essentials was mainly for the experience boost. Brian Clark was addicted to alchemy and quickly bid farewell to John Wood, returning to the Slacker Alchemy Room to start his experience-grinding journey.

Later on, the experience gained from making Qi-Ling Pills is a drop in the bucket for players, but in the early stages—especially before entering the cultivation ranks—every bit of experience is hard-earned.

Brian Clark vaguely remembered his LSP boss mentioning that when the server first opened, players realized the pill rooms were basically experience rooms, so they all flocked to the various Huangji Sect outposts, willing to work for free without even asking for food or lodging.

As a result, they were treated as troublemakers—half were thrown into the “little black room,” and the other half were beaten and sent running.

【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials Lv2 (500/500)】

【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials Lv3 (2000/2000)】

【Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials Lv4 (0/8000)】

Spirit +1, Endurance +1, Spirit +1, Endu...

Except for a short delay at noon when Anna Reed dragged him off for lunch, Brian Clark spent the whole day making Qi-Ling Pills and grinding experience, successfully raising the Huangji Pill Nurturing Essentials skill to level 4 and unlocking a new sub-profession.

Alchemist Lv1 (0/100)

Alchemist, like Farmer, is a basic sub-profession. It can be upgraded or transformed.

Unlike Farmers, who can branch into animal husbandry, fishing, mining, etc., Alchemists are more closely tied to the cultivation system. After maxing out, they can advance to Senior Alchemist, Master, or Grandmaster.

The same goes for Forging and Array Crafting.

These three are sub-professions highly valued by both NPCs and players, and they accompany almost everyone throughout their lives.

Because these three sub-professions have huge potential and the greatest impact on main professions, they almost determine roles like healer, controller, attacker, tank, etc., and are thus listed separately. When players do quests, they can form temporary teams based on each member’s main focus and specialties, increasing the game’s diversity.

Incidentally, thanks to teammates, beautiful C language has also become a profound subject.

Speaking of sub-professions, one must mention the three most basic ones—Scholar, Farmer, Artisan, and Merchant.

The Merchant sub-profession is just there to make up the numbers; only big guilds can really play it, and ordinary players can just dream. The other three have many branches and can also affect main professions, even providing bonuses to pills, equipment, arrays, and special techniques.

For example, the Farmer’s branch Apothecary, the Artisan’s branches Blacksmith and Painter, the Scholar’s branches Spy and General, etc.—after maxing out, all can unlock hidden sub-professions.