“Some poisons are concocted the same way as pills, and others aren’t,” Qiuqiu replied. “The difference between spiritual pills and poisons is solely in the shape of the final product. Pills are round and solid, but poisons come in all sorts of different forms: solid, liquid, powder, or even gas.”

Just like spiritual pills, poisons needed their own specialized receptacles. Purchasing these vessels took a large toll on Yun Ruoyan’s finances, but Qiuqiu reassured her, “The more expensive the materials, the more valuable the product. Mistress, I promise you won’t lack for money.”

Under Qiuqiu’s guidance, Yun Ruoyan began concocting poison for the first time.

The two-feet tall cauldron stood in the middle of the room, smaller than the furnace in the Lin family’s pillmaking chambers, but larger than her own top-grade furnace.

“When I refined spiritual pills, I had to drop a drop of blood into the furnace to familiarize it with my scent. Do I have to do the same thing with this cauldron?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“No, you don’t. Whereas refining high-grade pills requires a large reservoir of spiritual energy, concocting high-grade poisons is more a matter of technique and ingredients. A yellow flame would be sufficient for even the deadliest of poisons.”

This was partially why some pillmasters had decided to become poisoners instead. If someone with latent talent in pillmaking couldn’t become a seventh-rank blademaster, then becoming a poisoner would be a clear shortcut to power.

And there were also those pillmasters who couldn’t raise their cultivation and refine high-grade spiritual pills. Without the ability to back up their reputation, such pillmasters would often receive challenges, lose, and tarnish their name. In defeat, many of them would turn to poison.

High-ranking poisoners could kill without a trace, and were existences to be feared by even ninth-rank blademasters.

“Qiuqiu, there’s something I don’t quite understand.”

“What is it, Mistress?”

“If poisoners don’t need to have a deep well of spiritual energy, then why won’t you let me read that tome of poisons that you have?”

Yun Ruoyan had always thought that it was because her cultivation wasn’t advanced enough, but Qiuqiu had stated that poisoners didn’t require too deep a level of cultivation. In that case, couldn’t she begin learning how to concoct those high-grade poisons immediately?

Qiuqiu’s response shocked her. Apparently, the poisons stated in the tome were so powerful that she would hardly have a match in the entire continent were she to master the tome.

The meteoric rise to power was tempting, but came with a dreadful downside: if making these poisons were enough to be strong, then why would anyone bother spending so much time cultivating? Almost all who had learned from the tome had given up other aspects of cultivation and had ultimately become crippled by their dependence on poison.

Qiuqiu was unwilling to see Yun Ruoyan devolve to such a state, so before she became strong on her own, it wouldn’t impart her with the secrets to the tome.

The reason Qiuqiu was teaching Yun Ruoyan how to concoct poison wasn’t so she could use it as a quick route to advancement, but rather to allow her to concoct the corresponding antidotes as a safeguard against poison. At the same time, it would also provide her with another safety precaution against individuals currently too powerful for her.

Qiuqiu simply wanted Yun Ruoyan to be able to live peacefully before she had the power to defend herself.

The first poison Qiuqiu would teach Yun Ruoyan was relatively simple. It instructed her to toss the ingredients that she’d bought into the cauldron before lighting a fire at its base. Once the cauldron reached a certain temperature, its opening would automatically form a smoky, translucent seal.

As the flames continued to meld the ingredients together, that smoky barrier would slowly turn more and more transparent, until the smoke vanished completely to reveal a viscous, liquid poison.

At that time, she would be able to further refine the poison into its desired form. Liquid poison required no further refinement. Solid poison required another round of spiritual energy infusion, whereas gaseous poison required two rounds.

Because Yun Ruoyan only had proper receptacles for solid poison pills, she stoked the flames once more until the viscous liquid coagulated.

From the heart of the cauldron, she removed an ink-green pill. Contrary to her expectations, the pill gave off a medicinal fragrance rather than the stench she was expecting. An unwary cultivator might even have thought the poison a regular spiritual pill.

Yun Ruoyan placed the pill into a sandalwood box.

“Qiuqiu, what’s the name of this poison?”

“A soul-stealing pill. One who consumes such a pill will find his senses disoriented and completely under the control of another.”

“Qiuqiu, this pill’s that strong?” Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help but widen her eyes.

“Of course!” Qiuqiu fluffed up as it bragged, “I can even make poisons a hundred, a thousand times more powerful than this pill! This one isn’t anything special. In fact, you were lacking a particularly potent ingredient, so this pill will only be usable against weaker cultivators.”

Yun Ruoyan kept the pill in her silver bracelet.

Initially, Yun Ruoyan had planned on keeping the cauldron in the silver bracelet and returning the storage ring to Li Mo. However, Qiuqiu reminded her that she couldn’t let anyone find out about the silver bracelet, so it would be difficult for Yun Ruoyan to use the storage function in plain sight. The ring that Li Mo had given to her would solve this problem, and Qiuqiu highly recommended that she keep it for the moment.

“Oh, alright! I’m already beholden to Li Mo, anyway, and a little more won’t matter.”

After storing the cauldron in the storage ring instead, Yun Ruoyan quickly retrieved her top-grade furnace. She’d had quite a large stockpile of medicinal herbs in her silver bracelet, and she had been training by making at least one pill a day lately.

“Mistress,” Qiuqiu continued, “I saw that your spiritual flames seemed to be taking on a green tinge during your refining session yesterday. I think you might be on the verge of reaching another breakthrough!”

Spiritual flames could take on all seven colors of the rainbow. The red flame was the most basic and essential of all flames, indicative of a first-rank pillmaster.

Pillmasters who developed an orange and yellow flame would be second- and third-rank respectively, and it was only with such flames that they could refine low-grade spiritual pills.

Next were the green and blue flames, corresponding to fourth- through sixth-rank pillmasters and giving access to mid-grade spiritual pills.

And, in the same vein, seventh- through ninth-rank pillmasters were those who had developed indigo and violet flames, and were hence able to refine high-grade pills.

Of course, there weren’t many such apex pillmasters on the entire Chenyuan continent.

“Qiuqiu, are you certain?” Yun Ruoyan could barely believe its words—no, she could barely believe that she could cultivate so quickly.

In fewer than two months, she’d gone from a complete novice to a third-rank pillmaster, and almost seemed to be on the verge of becoming a fourth-rank. This pace of advancement was completely unheard of, even among the noble families. All cultivation-type professions faced a significant bottleneck in advancement every three ranks, as well as a minor bottleneck almost every rank.

Yun Ruoyan had been stalled as a third-rank blademaster for three years, but that was solely because of her poison. That had been the hardest advancement; since then, Yun Ruoyan didn’t feel like she’d plateaued at all.

This was especially true for her pillmaster cultivation: Lin Zainan had only become a fourth-rank pillmaster as he neared his thirties, and this was already considered rapid advancement. On the other hand, Yun Ruoyan had managed in two months what a regular cultivator would take ten years to accomplish.

Ignorant as she was of the many factors that played a role in her remarkable speed, she truly felt as if the heavens were favoring her in this life.

First, her rapid advancement in blademaster cultivation had provided her with the requisite spiritual energy for refining pills. Next, the silver bracelet’s pocket dimension had a hidden, imperceptible influence on the evolution of her spiritual flame. Finally, Yun Ruoyan’s unique constitution as a human furnace had obviated all bottlenecks in her cultivation.

Qiuqiu knew of all three reasons, but was unable to openly reveal them to Yun Ruoyan. All it could say was that cultivation was a mysterious affair, and some people were far more favored than others.

Qiuqiu even warned that what usually came after such rapid bursts of advancement were lengthy periods of stalling, so Yun Ruoyan couldn’t grow complacent with her current progress. This warning strengthened Yun Ruoyan’s focus on advancement.

“Mistress, let’s make an antidote next. Are you prepared?”