The reason is simple: in the cultivation world, alchemy is an extremely skill-intensive task. Even for experienced experts, the success rate is not high—typically, out of every three batches of pills, one will be ruined. Because waste pills contain too many impurities, taking them not only fails to benefit one’s cultivation, but can actually harm the body, so they are usually discarded with regret.

All kinds of spiritual herbs and medicinal materials are already scarce, and with the difficulty of refining and low success rates, pills become even rarer.

This gives cultivators endless headaches, especially for small sects like Piaoyun Valley, where alchemists have limited skills and an even higher failure rate—reportedly only fifty percent. As a result, even the most common and lowest-grade pill in the cultivation world, the Bone-Washing Pill, can only be distributed in a meager amount of two pills per disciple each month.

The rarity of pills and the high demand are precisely the factors that limit cultivators’ progress. Even those with excellent spiritual roots and diligence cannot do without the aid of pills.

However, for William Clark, this is a tremendous opportunity.

Because the mysterious light spots within his body can defy the heavens and turn waste into treasure...

Take Piaoyun Valley as an example: there are about three hundred disciples at the Spirit Movement stage, each receiving two Bone-Washing Pills per month, totaling over six hundred pills. But due to failed refinement, the number of waste pills produced is about the same.

Waste pills are harmful and useless—pure garbage. This has been the consensus in the cultivation world for tens of thousands of years. Although failed pills are not discarded carelessly, their management is chaotic and no one pays attention to them. Thus, William Clark set his sights on these waste pills.

If he could get his hands on six hundred waste pills each month and use the blue light spots to turn them into useful spiritual medicine...

He could treat pills like candy. Even without spiritual roots, his cultivation speed would surpass his peers.

The prospects were very promising, but William Clark did not get carried away. Even at this moment, he remained perfectly clear-headed and began to plan his next steps.

First was to investigate the reason: how did a waste pill turn into a precious spiritual medicine? He had to figure out the cause, what conditions were needed, and how to control the blue light spots—he needed to understand the process. Otherwise, his wonderful idea would be nothing but an illusion, visible but untouchable. In short, he needed to master the use of the blue light spots.

With his goal set, William Clark placed the spiritual pill before his eyes and examined it carefully.

The color and aroma were both correct. Aside from the time he was troubled by Elder Mason, William Clark had previously taken lower-grade Bone-Washing Pills, so he would not mistake it.

To be sure, he took out a genuine Bone-Washing Pill from his storage bracelet—this pill had been taken from Emily Carter. He compared the two.

Compared to the authentic Bone-Washing Pill, the only difference was that the pill transformed from waste was slightly smaller in size. Beside it was a pile of black, sticky powder emitting an unpleasant odor, which caught William Clark’s attention.

Impurities?

Of course, William Clark would not overlook such an important detail, and he accurately identified its origin. The reason why spiritual pills refined from rare medicinal materials are ruined is precisely because waste pills contain too many impurities.

In other words, the essence within waste pills is not lacking; it’s just that the high impurity content affects it, rendering it useless for cultivation.

If the impurities in waste pills could be removed and the essence purified, waste pills could also become spiritual medicine. However, this is only theoretical—easy to say, but harder than ascending to the heavens in practice. For tens of thousands of years, countless sects and rogue cultivators have tried, but not a single successful case exists.

After countless failures, cultivators gave up and could only discard waste pills with regret. Over tens of thousands of years, the cultivation world has come to believe that impurities in waste pills cannot be removed.

Yet right before his eyes, that pile of black, sticky powder was clearly the impurities!

William Clark pondered for a moment and began to make a bold guess: could the function of the blue star sea within his body be to purify, remove impurities, and concentrate the essence, thus turning waste into treasure?

Of course, this was only speculation. The actual situation needed to be confirmed through further action.

Once he thought of it, William Clark acted. He poured out another waste pill from the jade bottle, held it in his hand, and sat cross-legged. After resting just now, his star sea had recovered. He once again mobilized the blue light spots and began a major circulation.

The process was extremely difficult, but William Clark was long accustomed to it. When the light spots reached his wrist, he focused his spiritual sense, carefully observing, striving not to miss a single detail.

Under the effect of his spiritual sense, the scene before him was magnified several times, clearly imprinted in his mind. One by one, the light spots passed through the skin of his palm, overflowed outside his body, some entering the waste pill, others dissipating into the air.

As more light spots entered the waste pill, some black powder separated and detached from the pill—these were the impurities.

At the same time, the color of the pill gradually lightened, turning from black to gray, then to white...

William Clark carefully noted every detail, watching the pill’s transformation. It seemed his guess was almost certainly correct.