And the only source of this true essence is the vital energy produced by the human body each day. Aside from that, whenever people clear blockages in their meridians or strengthen and expand them, they must also rely on its power. In a sense, it can be said to be the foundation of all cultivation techniques, and it is an extremely scarce resource.

At this moment, what Olivia Smith carefully took out from his bosom was a ‘Peiyuan Pill’, given to him by his mother. It was one of the compensations from the clan for his father’s death in battle, given several years ago.

As for its effect, as the name suggests, it nourishes the body’s vital energy. It cannot have a permanent effect; at most, it can only increase the amount of vital energy produced for one or two days. Yet even so, it is regarded as a treasure by the people in Yue Family City. Even at the sky-high price of fifty taels, it is impossible to obtain one on the market.

In fact, the original thirty ‘Peiyuan Pills’ distributed back then were never used by The Smith-Bolton Family, who kept them hidden in a secret compartment under her bed for years.

However, there are actually quite a few of these pills within the clan. Whether they are made by the clan itself, Olivia Smith is not sure, but every month, the higher-ups distribute one or two pills to the clan’s martial master-level experts and some exceptionally talented juniors. All in all, the quantity is quite considerable.

Now, Olivia Smith intends to use this pill as his starting point.

—Without a doubt, with his current knowledge of pharmacology, creating a brand-new medicine himself is unrealistic and would take far too long. Therefore, the first step Olivia Smith chose for himself was to imitate an existing product.

He channeled his true energy through his fingertips, thoroughly permeating the white jade-like pill, about the size of a longan, held between his three fingers. Then, an incredibly detailed three-dimensional structural diagram of the substance gradually appeared in Olivia Smith’s mind.

In fact, Olivia Smith had already completed an analysis of the ‘Peiyuan Pill’ more than a month ago; this time was just a re-examination. Most of the substances inside can be easily found in various medicines. But there is one element, which he named ‘Bijing’, that makes up nearly half of the pill’s composition, and he had never been able to find it. It was only today, in the bones of those winged rats, that he discovered a small amount.

According to Olivia Smith’s analysis, this ‘Bijing’ should be the most crucial part of the Peiyuan Pill. The other medicinal ingredients are likely there to trigger the medicinal effects and to neutralize the toxicity of the Bijing.

Although he has already analyzed the substances and their properties, whether he can actually refine the pill remains unknown. In his previous life, Olivia Smith’s study of medicinal blood was limited to theoretical knowledge and a few superficial experiments. In this world, Henry Smith guards the process strictly; not to mention the refining of Peiyuan Pills, he has never even witnessed the making of ordinary tonic pills or healing medicines.

Now, after much thought, Olivia Smith could only use the most basic method. He put away the ‘Peiyuan Pill’ in his hand, then placed more than ten small clay pots for decocting medicine side by side next to the bronze cauldron. Next, he ground the medicinal herbs he had brought into powder, sorted them, and placed them into the pots. Finally, he added enough stream water and started a fire to begin decocting.

Next came controlling the heat and waiting. However, after only two minutes, Olivia Smith heard a sharp whooshing sound by his ear. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw William Parker suddenly swinging his hatchet with great vigor, glancing over from time to time.

Olivia Smith chuckled, knowing that this guy was indirectly reminding him to keep the promise he made that morning. But since this experiment wasn’t finished, he had no intention of doing anything else. He ignored it, withdrew his gaze, and closed his eyes to begin correcting and contemplating the basic sword forms.

Although the auxiliary parasitic intelligent system could integrate his brain cells to perform calculations related to sword forms, there was one thing this tool could not do. Just as Olivia Smith could never analyze what kind of substance the true energy in his body and the world’s vital force actually were, the auxiliary computing power also found it difficult to include his own internal breath as a calculation factor. He could only rely on himself to ‘manually’ record the physical data when using true energy. And the results calculated were often highly inaccurate.

Speaking of this, Olivia Smith felt extremely stifled. If he were still in the twenty-third century, he could have used countless free supercomputers capable of trillions of calculations per second, and would have solved everything in at most ten days. But here, the only help he could get was the limited spare resources in his own brain.

Moreover, these deductions could only serve as an aid. Since it was impossible to complete detailed calculations, if he wanted to put these basic sword techniques into actual combat, in the end, he could only rely on his own understanding of swordsmanship and martial arts.

Now, the only thing Olivia Smith could hope for was that his personal auxiliary parasitic intelligent system could evolve again. Ever since this thing inexplicably followed him into this body, apart from its analytical ability, everything else had reverted to the state it was in when first implanted. Although its maximum level is only three, each time it levels up, it can to some extent enhance the integration of bodily resources and improve computing power. Although not by much, it’s still better than nothing.