This Junior Sister is a bit Introverted

With the problem of the house solved, and suddenly, Rinne started to feel a bit hungry. It seemed the effects of the fasting pill she had consumed before the second trial were about to wear off.

The timing was perfect, though—she now had the right conditions to practice alchemy.

"Okay then, I should refine some fasting pills."

Normally, the sect’s cafeteria would provide daily portions of free meals to all disciples. The food was simple and modest—not particularly delicious, but sufficient to stave off hunger. Of course, for anyone wanting a more luxurious dining experience, they would have to pay extra. Right now, the new disciples were likely having their lunch after a few hours of introductory classes.

But Rinne had no desire to join them.

The thought of sitting among them, engaging in meaningless conversations and small talk, made her sigh in irritation. She simply wasn’t in the mood for socializing, especially not with strangers.

'I’ll pass on that, socializing is not my forte.'

Refining fasting pills seemed like a much more productive use of her time. These pills would keep her nourished for days without the need to eat any actual food, allowing her to focus entirely on her tasks without interruption.

Typically, fasting pills were made from spiritual grains, a few kilograms worth of which would be condensed into a handful of pills. These pills could sustain someone for several days, mimicking the effects of consuming multiple meals. However, Rinne knew that spiritual grains weren’t the only option.

'Spiritual grains cannot grow in this place, but that doesn't matter.'

In fact, any edible substance could be refined into fasting pills.

The concept was similar to extracting glucose—it wasn’t exclusive to sugarcane; any plant could yield it with the right technique. The same principle applied to fasting pills. Whether it was meat, roots, or even common herbs, as long as the ingredients had nutritional value, they could be used to create the pill.

The effectiveness might vary depending on the materials used, but with the right process, anything could be made to serve the purpose of nourishment. But Rinne was confident in her alchemy knowledge, especially after the insights she had gained from the memories of numerous alchemists.

For her, substituting ingredients or creating a new recipe wasn’t difficult, it only required different steps and methods.

She gathered the ingredients she had collected from Eldergrove Forest and put them into her stone cauldron—some leftover rootstalk from a mountain root ginseng, a handful of Mossy Cap Fungus, and a few slices of snail meat. These ingredients, while unconventional, had a nutritional value comparable to the typical recipe for fasting pills.

'I'll use these leftover ingredients first, before they go bad.'

The ingredients dissolved quickly with the help of Solution B, then Rinne pressed the stir symbol etched onto the side of the cauldron, stood back and watched the process in silence. The cauldron stirred the mixture on its own, evenly distributing the dissolved ingredients. 

As the ingredients simmered inside the cauldron, Rinne’s spiritual sense flared to life. Ever since awakening her spiritual root, her perception had sharpened, allowing her to sense things she couldn’t before. Now, as the spiritual power inside the cauldron flowed and interacted with the ingredients, she could detect subtle fluctuations in energy.

Her newfound abilities enabled her to manually adjust the spiritual power within the cauldron with precision. With each stir and adjustment, the pill refinement process became smoother. She fine-tuned the energy flow, ensuring that the ingredients dissolved perfectly and merged into the pill base.

In a few hours, the mixture condensed and solidified into ten gleaming pills. Rinne picked one up and examined it.

The pills were of top grade, far superior to the typical fasting pills distributed by the sect. Only, the color was a bit wrong, instead of the usual white color, the pills had a somewhat murky appearance, but it was not a major issue.

"This should last me for quite a while."

Satisfied with her work, she popped one of the pills into her mouth and stored the rest in a bamboo bottle. The hunger that had gnawed at her moments before quickly faded, replaced by the sensation of fullness.

♠♠♠

With her hunger satisfied, Rinne sat cross-legged, her gaze steady as she pondered her next steps.

"Well then, what should I do next..."

The problem of her stomach was resolved, but now came the more critical matters. Her body was still riddled with harmful substances—the aftermath of the Verdant Meridian Pill she had consumed before. This required urgent attention.

Her personal tasks stacked themselves neatly in her mind:

1. 1. Purging the harmful substances caused by the Verdant Meridian Pill.
   2. Preparing the medicinal bath to enhance the purity of her newly awakened spiritual root.
   3. Practice body tempering to prepare for the sect’s annual assessment in a year.

Clearing the toxins from the Verdant Meridian Pill would require the Marrow Cleansing Pill, an essential step for both detoxification and establishing a stronger foundation.

'I need to start preparing the ingredients for Marrow Cleansing Pill...'

Some of the necessary ingredients could be collected from the wilderness surrounding the Frostfire Sect, but a few rare materials required contribution points.

These points were needed to access sect-cultivated herbs, rare minerals, or the waters of the Glacial Spirit Lake, which lay deep within the inner sect’s territory—out of reach for an outer disciple like her.

'Those ingredients I can't get... Well, I can simply exchange them.'

Rinne had already devised a plan during the boat trip to refine Fasting Pills and Qi Gathering Pills using the materials she had collected as many as possible, intending to trade them for contribution points. These 1st-grade pills were simple to produce and could be crafted by any apprentice alchemist. Selling or exchanging them was unlikely to raise any suspicion.

While it might seem odd for a 7-year-old child at the 1st-level of Qi Gathering to possess the skill to perform alchemy, Rinne could easily brush off inquiries by attributing the pills to her mysterious father. That explanation was usually enough to stop most people from asking further questions.

However, the more she thought it over, the more she realized it wouldn't work.

'No, this is still too slow.'

The reason was simple.

The three tasks were essentially having something in common, which was involving the exchange of resources through contribution points. When combined, they accumulated, and the profits from trading fasting pills and qi gathering pills were insufficient.

In addition to the ingredients of the Marrow Cleansing Pill, Rinne also needed another set of specific ingredients for her medicinal bath. Some of them originated from Middle Realm, which was far from her reach. But using Roran’s memories as a foundation, she had deduced the closest available substitutes that theoretically produces similar results.

These substitute ingredients were available within the Frostfire Sect, but of course they were expensive.

Additionally, if she wanted to practice body tempering, she also needed to supply substantial nourishment for it to be effective. This type of nutrition could only be derived from food and medicine made from rare ingredients, most of which were accessible only through perilous missions or from the limited supplies of the inner sect.

Simply selling first-grade pills would not provide the points she needed in a reasonable amount of time. Gathering the required contribution points could take years, far longer than she was willing to wait.

'The medicated bath only works until I'm 10 years old, and that's less than 3 years.'

Meanwhile, refining higher-grade pills—has its own risks. 

While selling 1st grade pills are not a problem, things would not be so simple for 2nd-grade pills or higher. Pills of that caliber required a certain level of expertise, and alchemists capable of refining them were officially recognized as second-grade alchemists, valuable individuals whom others actively sought to befriend or establish connections with.

If Rinne produced such pills, it would certainly draw attention, and the sect elders or other curious individuals would undoubtedly want to know the identity of the refiner. She couldn’t just invent a random name as people might investigate further, and any inconsistency would arouse suspicion.

This could jeopardize her position as an inconspicuous disciple.

"Such a dilemma. This requires a more careful approach."

Rinne exhaled slowly and shook her head, postponing the thought.

She closed her eyes and delved into her Soul Library, accessing the collection of knowledge she had stored. This time, she tried to find a solution to the problem from a different aspect.