Successful Refinement

"All right, I've explained the key points. The rest is up to you." Yao Chen waved his hand, and the hundreds of medicine boxes and jade bottles on the ground, containing all kinds of medicinal powder and refined liquid essence, opened at once.

"Begin. It's only a Rank 1 Healing Pill, nothing difficult," Yao Chen encouraged. Xiao Yan watched intently from the side; this was his first time seeing someone other than Yao Chen refine pills.

"Okay!" After taking a deep breath, Feng Wu lit the fire port. Once the temperature rose to a certain level, he poured the pure white Blood Coagulation Grass powder directly into the flames of the medicinal cauldron.

Feng Wu had purified more than a hundred Blood Coagulation Grass plants. He had practically mastered the temperature range it could withstand.

Now, when he poured in the white Blood Coagulation Grass powder, it caused no great reaction. Before long, Feng Wu's flames roasted it until it turned reddish.

This was about enough. Seeing that the heat was right, Feng Wu crushed a jade bottle beside him and wrapped the pale red medicinal liquid inside with Dou Qi before tossing it into the medicinal cauldron.

He controlled the flames, urging the medicinal liquid to envelop and merge with the white powder, combining the two into one. This was the hardest stage of alchemy!

One careless mistake, and the different temperature tolerances of the ingredients could cause them to turn into a pile of ash in the flames!

In worse cases, cauldrons exploded, medicine was ruined, and people died. Such incidents were far from rare!

Fortunately, merging the Blood Coagulation Powder with the Poppy Flower medicinal liquid was not too difficult. The refined essences of these two ingredients required similar flame temperatures, making them relatively easier to control during fusion.

Before long, Feng Wu roasted the pale red viscous liquid formed from the fused powder and medicinal liquid into a dark red paste.

At this point, all that remained was to merge the Vitality Fruit granules he had just added to the medicinal cauldron. He was already halfway there!

However, the real difficulty had only just begun. For an Alchemist, as long as the refinement was not complete, even ninety-nine percent progress amounted to nothing!

The last ten percent is the hardest! Keep going! Feng Wu encouraged himself inwardly.

Yet fusing the black Vitality Fruit granules was also the most crucial and difficult step!

They required a far higher flame temperature than the other two ingredients!

If the temperature was too low, they would not fuse.

If it was too high, the product formed from the other two ingredients would be burned to waste!

After sending the Vitality Fruit granules into the cauldron, Feng Wu did not dare recklessly raise the flame temperature. He could only carefully maintain a balance, doing his best to keep the flames from becoming too hot and ruining the other two ingredients.

But because the flame temperature was too low, no matter how the black Vitality Fruit granules rolled and bounced around, they refused to merge into the other red viscous liquid.

The moment he raised the temperature slightly, not only did he fail to deal with the Vitality Fruit granules, but with one lick from the fire serpent, half the red paste was burned away first!

Feng Wu had a headache.

"Different materials have different temperature requirements. You need to be able to distribute your power freely to any part of the cauldron and control all of it!

"Try using Soul Power. Attach it separately to each wisp of flame and control them individually."

Seeing Feng Wu's difficulty, Yao Chen instructed him from the side.

Following his advice, Feng Wu hurriedly divided his Soul Power into many tiny strands, spreading them throughout every flame formed by his Dou Qi and controlling them separately.

At first, this method of splitting his attention in multiple directions left him unable to keep track of everything. He would watch the front and neglect the back, and it truly kept Feng Wu scrambling!

Twice, he nearly ruined the ingredients.

However, Feng Wu possessed astonishing Soul Power and exceptionally strong perception. He could always patch things up in time and turn danger into safety.

After several close calls, Feng Wu finally adapted to the rhythm.

Part of the flames in the cauldron remained at a low temperature, wrapping around the dark red medicinal paste and forming a protective layer.

The remaining majority of the flames, meanwhile, surged in temperature as Feng Wu increased his Dou Qi output!

As Feng Wu continuously raised the flame temperature, the black granules in the medicinal cauldron finally could not endure any longer and burst apart, forming clumps of inky black powder.

He controlled the powder as it slowly drifted down into the dark red paste, dyeing its color even deeper and darker!

"It's done!" Delight appeared in Feng Wu's eyes, but his hands did not slow.

The instant the flames withdrew from the fire port, Feng Wu fiercely struck the cauldron with his open palm, sending the heavy lid flying high into the air!

With a pull of the Absorption Palm in his hand, Feng Wu drew out the dark red medicinal paste from the cauldron and flung it directly into the jade bottle in his hand!

Rank 1 Healing Medicine: Blood Coagulation Powder
A practice product made by a novice Alchemist. It can be called Rank 1, but its effects are average.

Fill the bottle to the brim. Alchemists who know how to make money sell it in several separate portions.

The system had provided an item description. The medicine had been successfully refined!

"Senior, please take a look!" Feng Wu handed the jade bottle to Yao Chen for inspection.

Feng Wu handed the jade bottle, filled to the brim, to Yao Chen. Yao Chen waved his hand. "Do not be too pleased with yourself. Until you can form pills, you cannot be considered a true Rank 1 Alchemist.

"You still need to practice diligently!"

Yao Chen admonished him, telling Feng Wu not to become complacent.

"Yes!" Feng Wu replied.

Over the next few days, Feng Wu stayed crouched beside the alchemy furnace, repeatedly refining medicine.

His success rate in refining Blood Coagulation Powder grew higher and higher.

After three days, his success rate exceeded fifty percent. After five days, it reached sixty percent. After seven days, seventy percent. By the tenth day, Feng Wu's success rate for refining Rank 1 Blood Coagulation Powder had even surpassed eighty percent!

Even some Second Grade Alchemists could not achieve such a success rate!

Feng Wu even dug a pit beside the medicinal cauldron whenever he needed to relieve himself!

It was for no other reason than what Yao Chen had said:

"If Feng Wu can raise his success rate in refining Blood Coagulation Powder above fifty percent within half a month, Yao Chen will give him a new formula!"

For every additional ten percent, he would give Feng Wu one more Rank 1 Pill formula!

Once the success rate reached eighty percent or above, including eighty percent, every further increase of ten percent in his refining success rate would earn Feng Wu a Rank 2 Pill formula from Yao Chen!

By the end of the half-month deadline, Feng Wu was more than ninety percent confident that he could successfully refine Blood Coagulation Powder.

Yao Chen kept his word. Half as a reward and half as a gesture of goodwill, he gave Feng Wu three more Rank 1 Pill formulas and two Rank 2 Pill formulas.

Together with the Blood Coagulation Powder formula and the Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid recipe Feng Wu had obtained earlier, this was no small gain!

These formulas were all from Yao Chen's personal collection. They were not the sort of formulas already circulating on the market, available to anyone with enough money and ability.

These formulas alone were worth a great deal.

Exchanging pills across two grades would not be difficult!

"Little Er Ha, let's go home." After half a month of instruction, Feng Wu had learned most of the basics of alchemy from Yao Chen.

Feng Wu reached out and dragged up Little Er Ha, who had been lazily basking in the sun outside the cave. "You're really heavy! You've gotten fat!"

Over the past half month, Feng Wu had refined medicine day after day. It consumed enormous amounts of Heart's Blood and energy, and he had grown thinner.

Little Er Ha, meanwhile, had been eating Feng Wu's medicinal dregs every day, growing plump and sturdy. Even its fur had become sleek and glossy!

It had grown noticeably taller again!

It was likely one step closer to becoming a Second Rank Soul Beast.