William Parker let out another muffled groan in protest. But he probably also knew that Olivia Smith was doing something very important at the moment, so he just glanced curiously at the pots and jars over here once more. Then, losing interest, he found a spot to sit down and began circulating his Dust Transformation True Power.

William Parker's internal energy had already reached the peak of a level-six warrior. When he started cultivating, each breath in and out sounded almost like thunder. About half an inch of red and yellow energy flickered faintly in front of his nose and mouth. Olivia Smith knew this was the spiritual power of fire and earth attributes, and only when it gathered to a certain density would such a phenomenon appear. In his analytical perception, he could indeed sense that some of the spiritual energy around them was rapidly flowing toward William Parker.

But this place truly deserved to be called a spiritual land—the replenishment was astonishingly fast. Even though William Parker was consuming a lot, it didn’t affect the surrounding spiritual energy concentration in the slightest. Unfortunately, all Olivia Smith possessed was the ability to analyze things he touched himself; otherwise, he would have liked to investigate the source of this spiritual energy replenishment.

With William Parker temporarily focused on cultivating his Dust Transformation True Power, Matthew Harris was happy to enjoy the peace and quiet. He waited until the water in the clay pots gradually came to a boil, and then, after about another hour, under the steady simmer, even the bones of the winged rat had been boiled to mush.

Chapter 0011: Brewing the Pills

William Parker spent a bit more time cultivating than Olivia Smith, but after about an hour, he too reached his limit. Instead of practicing with his big axe, he walked over to Olivia Smith with a strange expression and quietly watched.

Olivia Smith, on the other hand, waited until most of the water in the clay pot had boiled away, leaving behind a substance resembling medicinal paste, before extinguishing the fire. Next, he needed to extract the specific medicinal components he required from the mixture.

By this point, the medicinal ingredients had already been mostly broken down by the high-temperature boiling water, and most of the minerals and plant molecules had dissolved out. However, Olivia Smith only needed a very small portion of these, and extracting them one by one from the mass of other substances was no easy task.

—In his previous life, he had all kinds of high-tech instruments and chemical reagents to help. But here, he had almost no tools at hand.

Fortunately, he still had his analytical ability, and in this world, there was also true energy. Olivia Smith picked up a clay pot, infused it with his internal power, absorbed the medicinal components one by one, extracted them, and tossed them into the bronze cauldron.

This was even more exhausting than analyzing the medicines in the pharmacy that morning. Luckily, this was Olivia Smith's first time refining medicine, and lacking confidence, he had only bought about twenty portions of ingredients. At least by the end of this step, he hadn’t completely drained his true energy. More than once, Olivia Smith was tempted to use William Parker as manual labor. But first, he worried that the latter’s control over true energy was insufficient, and second, the five-attribute internal energy cultivated from his own Great Primal Round Skill naturally had a slight attraction to various substances. This was something that a level-six warrior like William Parker did not possess. So, in the end, Olivia Smith had no choice but to give up on that idea.

Next came the final stage of simmering, and by this point, Olivia Smith looked even more cautious. He ladled a few more scoops of stream water into the bronze cauldron and simmered it over a low flame.

Actually, at this stage, adding distilled water would have been ideal. But given the lack of tools and the environment, he had to make do. Fortunately, the stream water was clear and contained few impurities. Olivia Smith had previously observed that the alchemy workshop at the top of the city always drew water from here. The minerals in it roughly matched those in the ‘Essence-Nourishing Pill’ he had, so there shouldn’t be any problem.

Once the water boiled again, Olivia Smith used a medicinal spoon to stir the contents of the cauldron with force, making sure all the medicinal components were thoroughly mixed before covering it with the lid.

This time, since less water was added, it boiled dry again in no time. When Olivia Smith opened the bronze cauldron, a medicinal fragrance similar to that of the ‘Essence-Nourishing Pill’ wafted out. Leaning over to look inside, he saw a layer of white jade-colored medicinal paste settled at the bottom. According to what he knew, the next step was to knead this paste into pill shapes and dry them completely, and the process would be finished.

At this point, William Parker beside him already had eyes shining with excitement. By now, he more or less understood what Olivia Smith was doing. As one of the most talented young people in the Yue family city, he got his hands on quite a few ‘Essence-Nourishing Pills’ every year, so he naturally recognized what the white paste in the cauldron was.

"Young master, is this medicine edible?" William Parker swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. Although the aroma was tempting, he was still a bit hesitant about the safety of the medicine.

"I don’t know. How about you try it first?"