Every Golden Crown Cloud Crane possessed only a single Golden Crown Cloud Crane heart, and the cranes themselves were extraordinarily rare spirit birds.
As such, the Pine Crane Pill was exceedingly scarce in any material plane — hardly ever passed down through the ages.
Of course, one Golden Crown Cloud Crane heart was enough to forge a batch of Pine Crane Pills, provided there were sufficient Thousand Phantom Hidden Cloud Pine cones.
And a single batch of Pine Crane Pills, if fortune was kind, could yield somewhere between six and ten pills.
Whether refining a single pill or a whole batch, the process was the same.
Now that Jiang Chen had no trouble controlling the Pine Crane Pill's refinement, he naturally intended to forge an entire batch and aim for as many finished pills as possible.
These quasi-Heaven Grade pills would surely prove useful one day.
The world was vast, and imperial-realm powerhouses whose lifespans were running out numbered in the legions. What was more, the Pine Crane Pill was not merely effective for imperial-realm experts — even emperor-realm powerhouses could benefit from it.
A single superior-grade Pine Crane Pill could effortlessly extend an imperial-realm expert's life by a full thousand years. Even for emperor-realm powerhouses, consuming a Pine Crane Pill could prolong their lifespan by six hundred to eight hundred years.
Perhaps emperor-realm experts already enjoyed naturally long lifespans — thousands or even tens of thousands of years. But when an emperor-realm powerhouse approached the final moments of his existence, he would cling to life just the same, hoping to extend his years, hoping to live a little longer.
In that light, securing one more Pine Crane Pill meant gaining one more asset. When the day came that it was truly needed, the power behind a single Pine Crane Pill could be enough to make even imperial-realm or emperor-realm experts willingly lay down their lives for him.
Although the years inside the Glazed King Tower had left Jiang Chen with virtually no time for alchemy, that did not mean he had grown rusty in the art.
In his previous life, spanning a million years, he had devoted nearly half of that time to the Dao of Alchemy. The path of pill refinement had long since become the thing he knew best across both his lifetimes.
The moment he brought out the pill furnace, Jiang Chen immediately found his rhythm. He spent several hours in meditation, mentally running through the Pine Crane Pill's refinement process over and over, iteratively projecting every step, before he finally began.
Controlling the flames, heating the cauldron…
Every step was etched into his mind.
With his Seven Apertures Spiritual Resonance fully activated, Jiang Chen held mastery over every last detail.
Once Jiang Chen had found his groove, everything became effortless.
Half a month later, Jiang Chen traced a hand seal and withdrew the pill fire.
The Heaven-Stealing Pill Cauldron let out a resounding hum like a dragon's roar. After a moment, the lingering wisps of smoke gradually dispersed, and waves of faint fragrance wafted out from within the cauldron.
From the seams of the furnace, dazzling streams of radiance seemed to press outward, as though they could not be held back.
Jiang Chen's spirits lifted at the sight.
Every sign pointed to a thoroughly successful refinement — and throughout the process, he had encountered almost no difficulty whatsoever.
It could almost be called a seamless, one-breath accomplishment.
The cauldron opened, and nine Pine Crane Pills of impeccable purity, as flawless and lustrous as nine pigeon eggs, were laid out before Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen's heart swelled with delight. "Nine pills — what an unexpected windfall."
He had originally hoped for five or six pills and would have considered that a more than satisfactory outcome. He had never expected a full nine from a single batch.
Moreover, the quality of these nine Pine Crane Pills was remarkably uniform. Three were of mid-grade caliber, while the remaining six had achieved superior-grade status.
These were quasi-Heaven Grade pills. Achieving mid-grade quality alone was already a remarkable feat. As a general rule, any pill that reached low-grade quality was considered properly usable. Mid-grade was already decidedly good. Superior-grade elevated a pill to the rank of excellence.
As for supreme-grade pills — that represented the great perfection, a flawless product without blemish. To pursue supreme-grade quality with top-tier pills typically required sacrificing some of the final count.
Jiang Chen had prioritized a higher yield with this batch, which inevitably meant a minor compromise on purity. In truth, while supreme-grade Pine Crane Pills were undoubtedly impressive, he felt there was no pressing need to chase that standard.
Rather than refining three supreme-grade Pine Crane Pills, it was far more practical to produce nine mid-to-superior-grade ones as he had done.
A single supreme-grade Pine Crane Pill might well extend one's lifespan even further. A standard qualifying Pine Crane Pill could grant an imperial-realm expert an additional thousand years. A supreme-grade version might exceed fifteen hundred years — possibly even more.
That said, most of the pills in Jiang Chen's batch were superior-grade. A superior-grade Pine Crane Pill could extend one's lifespan by no less than twelve hundred years. Even the mid-grade ones would certainly surpass a thousand, and with good fortune, might approach twelve hundred as well.