Published: January 1, 2025
Qin Chen furrowed his brows, adopting a mindset of "since I'm here, I'll make the best of it" as he slowly ascended the stone platform.
Looking around, Qin Chen couldn't help but let out a quiet gasp.
Because on this refining stone platform, there was no formation this time; instead, many grooves had appeared.
Inside those grooves lay various kinds of medicinal herbs.
These herbs were preserved using special techniques, astonishingly remaining intact for countless years without decaying, and their medicinal properties were still potent, looking as if they had just been freshly picked.
No, it should be that they were just freshly picked.
Qin Chen could even feel a hint of fresh vitality from them. Unless the other party had treasures like the Qian Kun Transformation Jade Dish, it was impossible for any herb to remain so fresh regardless of how it was preserved.
Realizing that this secret realm was likely a medicinal valley belonging to a great power, Qin Chen also understood that these herbs might indeed be freshly picked from the medicinal fields of that great being's consciousness.
"Could it really be for refining pills?"
Qin Chen took a closer look, carefully discerning these medicinal herbs, but was unexpectedly surprised to find that many of them were quite obscure; he could only recognize about fifty to sixty percent of them, while the rest were entirely unfamiliar.
The first reaction in Qin Chen's heart was disbelief. In terms of pill refining skills, he was indeed far from qualified. Although he had received the entire legacy of the Tianhuo Venerable, possessing the legacy did not mean he was truly a Venerable-level alchemist like Tianhuo Venerable.
To become a Venerable-level alchemist, Qin Chen still needed to expend a substantial amount of energy to refine, learn, and comprehend.
This was akin to Qin Chen obtaining a book detailing all the capabilities of a Venerable-level alchemist, but truly mastering all the knowledge contained within required Qin Chen to study and comprehend it bit by bit.
However, there was one thing that Qin Chen did not need to comprehend or learn, and that was identifying spiritual herbs.
Having received the legacy of the Tianhuo Venerable, he should have gained mastery over all spiritual herbs, and since Tianhuo Venerable was a Venerable alchemist, Qin Chen should be able to recognize the vast majority of spiritual herbs in the Celestial Realm. Even if there were a few he couldn't recognize, it should be an extremely small number.
The mastery of spiritual herbs by a Venerable-level alchemist was not to be underestimated.
But now, Qin Chen could only recognize about half of all the spiritual herbs in front of him—around sixty percent— which was quite exaggerated, meaning at least forty percent of the spiritual herbs were unfamiliar even to Tianhuo Venerable.
Hiss!
Qin Chen couldn't help but take a sharp breath. This indicated two situations.
The first possibility was that the alchemy expert in this secret realm surpassed Tianhuo Venerable in terms of alchemy skills. The second possibility was that the other party had intentionally collected numerous obscure spiritual herbs and placed them here.
One must understand that the Celestial Realm was vast, and its history was incredibly long, with countless spiritual herbs being birthed. Even if Tianhuo Venerable was a Venerable-level alchemist, there were still many spiritual herbs he was unaware of or had never seen before, which was very normal.
In fact, each Venerable-level alchemist mastered different schools of pill refining, had different methods, different experiences, and different branches of specialization. Thus, their perspectives could vary greatly. It was not only that this alchemy expert could identify many spiritual herbs unknown to Tianhuo Venerable, but Tianhuo Venerable could likely also identify many herbs he was familiar with but the other party did not know—this was entirely normal.
Among these, Qin Chen leaned more towards the second possibility.