Rise of the Alchemy God

Chapter 65: A Spark of Hope.

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After discussing the branding issue with Da Shu, Ethan got to work on creating one.

For now, his main distributor would remain Da Shu, as he had done a good job so far, and Ethan saw no need to look for new ones.

He spent quite some time thinking about his brand, specifically its design.

Marking a product with a brand was simple, and anyone with minimal experience could imprint it during the final stage of pill refinement.

The advantage of having a brand was that not only could you stand out from the competition, but you could also prevent others from using your name to sell their own pills.

Imprinting the brand requires the alchemist to use their own spiritual energy signature, allowing others to recognize it.

If the spiritual energy signature is different but the brand is the same, the buyer will be cautious about purchasing that product, preventing anyone from taking advantage of his brand.

This also prevented others from buying his pills and reselling them at higher prices, though this wasn't a concern at the moment since he mostly produced mid-grade pills.

Ethan hadn't yet elevated any other recipe to high-grade and didn't intend to do so before raising the basic recovery recipe to the next level.

Elevating even a single recipe to high-grade cost 100 points, and he didn't have enough to elevate all the new recipes he had worked on to that level.

For now, he was content to keep them at mid-grade, as they seemed to sell well enough even at that level.

Ethan finally decided on his brand design.

At the moment, he was in his spiritual sea, standing in front of a painting setup.

He looked ahead with pride, admiring the design he had spent hours creating.

Initially, he had remained in his bedroom pondering the brand design, but he eventually decided to move to his spiritual sea, where he had a bit more artistic freedom.

Here, he only needed to think to generate what he wanted, as long as it was an inanimate object and preferably not too large.

For example, after several tests, he realized he could easily conjure small objects like a fridge, a soda can, or some food, but if he tried to conjure larger objects like a house or a car, he couldn't do it.

According to what Bai Yu had told him, the manifestation of these objects required a certain amount of mental power.

Ethan's mental power was still insufficient to conjure too many things or objects that were too large, but following this logic, he might be able to do so in the future.

Now, it's not that he cared much about being able to conjure these objects, but it was reassuring to know that he might be able to do it in the future.

Ethan thought he could practice his martial arts here, using imaginary tools of all kinds, since he couldn't always do it outside, as the training area provided to the outer disciples was very limited both in size and tools.

After admiring his masterpiece sufficiently, Ethan turned his gaze to his right, where a few meters away stood an elegant woman, and asked:

"So, what do you think? You have to admit it didn't turn out too bad this time."

Bai Yu, who had been assisting Ethan for the past few hours, approached to take a closer look.

The brand consisted of a black ring with golden lines engraved on it, with a stylized cauldron in the center.

Noticing that the cauldron's figure seemed somewhat familiar, she couldn't help but ask.

"So you decided to use the Seven Sages' Amphora as your brand?"

"Yeah, I needed something unique that represents me, and what better object than the Seven Sages' Amphora to identify me?" Ethan said, convinced of his design.

"The design itself isn't bad, but it's not very original. If you release this kind of brand in the upper heavens, you can be sure many people will pay you a 'friendly' visit," Bai Yu said, shaking her head.

"Well, it doesn't matter. I'm not even sure I'll ever go to the upper heavens," Ethan said, shrugging.

Bai Yu, who had returned to her cloud chair, spoke calmly.

"If you maintain this cultivation speed, it won't take many years for you to reach the peak of the mortal realm." she said.

"And once you do, you'll have little choice in the matter.

After all, the heavens don't allow beings who surpass a certain threshold to continue residing in the lower plane, as it would disturb the balance between the two planes."

Hearing this, Ethan couldn't help but reflect on it for a moment.

It's not that he didn't understand what she meant by these words.

It was normal for the heavens to prevent beings who had reached a certain level, to remain in the lower heavens.

After all, it was like putting a lion and a rabbit in the same cage. The result would have been predictable.

And, It was just as she had said. If he intended to continue pursuing the path of cultivation, he would eventually have to leave this plane.

He was still determined to find a way back home.

After all, he had left many matters unresolved in his previous world, and he would never feel completely at ease knowing there might be a way to return, and he hadn't taken it.

That said, Ethan also knew that this desire of his wouldn't be fulfilled in just a few years.

In fact, he was sure he would remain here for quite some time, assuming there was indeed a way to go back.

After returning to his room, Ethan decided to create some pills before going to bed, so he could imprint his brand on them and see how it looked.

He pulled out all the materials and started refining.

In just a few minutes, the process was complete, and he now held in his hand three high-grade Level 1 basic recovery pills.

Unlike his previous ones, though, these had something different, a small black mark on the almost smooth surface, similar to the design Ethan had created in his sea of consciousness.

The mark wasn't very large, covering only a small part of the pill's total surface.

Although it was small, its details were still very visible, making it quite distinguishable to anyone.

Ethan had to admit that he didn't expect it to turn out this well on the first try.

Nodding in satisfaction, Ethan placed the three pills in a small rectangular container, which also had his brand on the front, centered.

He had decided that this would be the design of the container for his future high-level pills.

This would be given to Da Shu for examination and to get his approval.

Ethan wasn't worried that he would reject the brand because he had had the chance to examine some famous brands of well-known masters and could say that his brand was just fine.

Da Shu had provided him with an agenda depicting various famous brands, so he could study them and take inspiration, which he had done.

Now that he had finished sorting this matter out, it was time for him to go to bed and then resume his usual routine tomorrow.

According to Ethan's calculations, if he kept up this pace, then in less than two weeks, he would have enough system points to upgrade his recipe.

Ethan couldn't wait to do it.

Just the thought of having a Level 2 recipe at his current alchemist level excited him.

Ethan didn't know if he would be able to easily produce Level 2 pills, after all, he had never had the chance to make them, so he wasn't sure if his current refining skills were high enough to do so.

In the last few days, the system had only given him daily missions with rewards consisting mainly of Qi and refining materials.

Yes, after the first week of refining, the system had also started providing him with materials.

Although they were still of low quality, just the fact that such a thing was possible reignited a spark of hope in Ethan.

This was because if, in the future, he needed certain materials that were too rare to obtain, then there was a possibility that the system would provide them in exchange for missions.

Ethan really hoped this turned out to be true, as it would mean that even his material problem for future breakthroughs to higher stages might not be entirely hopeless.

Ethan had no idea how much he would have to bleed to nurture his special physique in the future, but according to what Bai Yu had said, it wouldn't be a walk in the park.

Ethan didn't doubt her words, so he sincerely hoped that his assumption would not be wrong.

'Haa, at least not all is lost yet.'

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

And here's today's chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.

As you may have noticed, the chapter is slightly longer than usual.

I'm trying to see if this length is okay or if it's better to just write two chapters. I don't know, let me know what you think.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

See you tomorrow.