Since the Yellow Heaven Cult's turmoil in Jin'an Prefecture half a year ago, another event had occurred there that shocked the entire Great Gan.
Fang Yaoyang, the Supreme Elder of the Divine Fist Sect, had joined forces with Ying Tianqing, president of the Demon Extermination Society, and Long Hanwen, a traitor to the imperial court, to attack Jin'an City, which had already been occupied by the Yellow Heaven Cult.
It was worth mentioning that Long Hanwen, who had reappeared in Jin'an Prefecture this time, had broken through from the early stage of the Condensing Gang Realm to the mid-stage.
Yet Jin'an Prefecture actually had four Condensing Gang Realm experts—the Yellow Heaven Cult's left and right guardians, the Vermilion Bird Envoy, and the Azure Dragon Envoy. The two guardians were at the mid-stage of the Condensing Gang Realm, while the Vermilion Bird Envoy and Azure Dragon Envoy were at the early stage.
Although they held the advantage in numbers, among the three opponents, Fang Yaoyang and Ying Tianqing were both peerless martial artists at the late stage of the Condensing Gang Realm. Thus, the outcome could be imagined.
The Yellow Heaven Cult's four experts were forcefully defeated by Fang Yaoyang and the others. The Vermilion Bird Envoy was even forced by Fang Yaoyang to self-detonate and die, while the other three were also gravely wounded and fled in defeat. The Yellow Heaven Cult's rule over Jin'an Prefecture collapsed overnight.
Because seven Condensing Gang Realm experts had gathered in this incident, and because the Yellow Heaven Cult's Vermilion Bird Envoy, a Condensing Gang Realm expert, had fallen, the news immediately spread like wildfire and shocked the entire Great Gan.
Bi Changsheng naturally heard the news as well. Although he was startled by the Divine Fist Sect's grand undertaking, he did not take it too much to heart and continued carrying out his cultivation plans in an orderly manner.
After arriving at the spacious room specially set aside for alchemy, Bi Changsheng prepared to attempt alchemy for the first time.
On the way to Ningyun City, Bi Changsheng had basically digested the Alchemy Legacy left behind by Cen Xiuqi. All he lacked was practical experience. Thus, after making every preparation, Bi Changsheng officially began.
With a wave of his hand, a triangular Alchemy Furnace as tall as a person appeared atop the pile of firewood that had been prepared in advance. This Alchemy Furnace had also been left behind by Cen Xiuqi. It had been forged by Cen Xiuqi from several extraordinary metals, and its quality was among the finest alchemy furnaces available to martial artists. It could save the alchemist's energy and slightly increase the chances of success during fire control, extraction, and pill condensation.
Although martial artists' alchemy techniques had been inherited from immortal cultivators' alchemy techniques, there were still many differences between the two. One was that immortal cultivators used spirit fire for alchemy, while martial artists used Mortal Fire. Thus, martial artists could not refine immortal cultivators' pills, whereas immortal cultivators could refine martial artists' pills.
Another difference was that martial artists' pills were unlike those of immortal cultivators and did not have such clearly defined grades.
After taking out the Alchemy Furnace, Bi Changsheng began building the fire. Once the flames ignited, he started using true qi to control them and drive up their temperature. Otherwise, ordinary Mortal Fire alone could not meet the requirements for alchemy.
This step also raised the threshold for martial artists to practice alchemy to the Qi and Blood Realm. Only after reaching the Qi and Blood Realm could one project energy outward and fulfill the requirement of controlling fire.
As the flames continued to grow hotter and reached the temperature required for alchemy, Bi Changsheng used true qi to open the Alchemy Furnace's lid. With another thought, the prepared medicinal ingredients flew out of the Storage Ring and into the furnace, after which the lid closed again.
This time, Bi Changsheng had prepared to refine a Bone Forging Pill, a pill considered relatively low in difficulty among martial artists' pills. Its name alone made its purpose clear: it assisted Bone Forging Realm martial artists in their cultivation and could effectively increase their cultivation speed.
There were quite a few Bone Forging Pills in his Storage Ring, looted from the three great forces of Lin'an City.
The next step was the most difficult part of the entire alchemy process—extraction. The optimal temperature required to extract each medicinal ingredient was different. If it was too low, the medicinal properties extracted would be affected, resulting in a low-quality pill. If the temperature was too high, the ingredients might be burned outright, causing all his efforts to end in failure.
Thus, Bi Changsheng became even more cautious. Fortunately, there were no dangerous surprises. Under his meticulous control, the medicinal ingredients completed the extraction process one by one.
Finally came pill condensation. Although this stage was somewhat easier, it still allowed no distraction whatsoever. Bi Changsheng had to mix the extracted medicinal properties together in a certain order and proportion before condensing them into a pill.
Although there had been a few minor mishaps during the process, Bi Changsheng still completed every step of the alchemy smoothly.
When Bi Changsheng opened the Alchemy Furnace again, a pill still wafting a faint medicinal fragrance was floating inside, supported by true qi. Bi Changsheng beckoned, and the pill flew into his hand.
"Success!"
Looking at the pill in his hand, Bi Changsheng secretly rejoiced.
Although the Bone Forging Pill in Bi Changsheng's hand looked to be of poor quality, it was still a genuine pill.
Bi Changsheng had succeeded on his first attempt at alchemy, which surprised even him. Although he had always been rather confident in his own talent and comprehension, he had still underestimated himself. He had originally thought he would need to fail several times before succeeding, but he had unexpectedly succeeded in one stroke.
It had to be known that the legacy left behind by Cen Xiuqi mentioned that even a genius like him had needed more than half a year of attempts before successfully refining a pill for the first time. Even counting from when Bi Changsheng had obtained Cen Xiuqi's Alchemy Legacy, he had taken only a little over a month at most.
Although he had now become an alchemist, Bi Changsheng did not intend to open his shop just yet. First, his alchemy was still unpracticed. Second, he intended for the pill shop he would open to be a mid-to-high-end establishment.
After all, low-end goods usually meant small profits and high sales volume. With only Bi Changsheng as the alchemist, alchemy would inevitably consume much of his time, putting the cart before the horse.
Thus, after some consideration, Bi Changsheng set his main clientele as Qi and Blood Realm martial artists. For one thing, Ningyun City did not have many True Qi Realm martial artists, and there were no Condensing Gang Realm martial artists at all.
For another, Bi Changsheng had discovered a modified pill formula targeting the Qi and Blood Realm in Cen Xiuqi's Alchemy Legacy: the Crimson Blood Pill. Compared with the commonly used cultivation pill for Qi and Blood Realm martial artists on the market, the Qi and Blood Pill, the Crimson Blood Pill was nearly three times as effective, while the cost of the medicinal ingredients needed to refine it was about the same.
The only drawback was that the Crimson Blood Pill was somewhat difficult to refine. Ordinary alchemists would find it hard to produce, but this difficulty was not enough to stump Bi Changsheng.
After discovering the Crimson Blood Pill, Bi Changsheng decided to make Qi and Blood Realm martial artists his main clientele.
In the blink of an eye, two months passed. By then, half a year had passed since Bi Changsheng came to this world.
During those two months, Bi Changsheng had continued cultivating step by step. After two months of Life-Spending Cultivation, his cultivation had reached the mid-stage of the True Qi Realm and was close to breaking through to the late stage.
His Killing Sword Art had also broken through from Minor Accomplishment to the Great Accomplishment Realm. This was because he had devoted most of his energy to alchemy during this period. Otherwise, his Killing Sword Art might already have broken through to the Perfection Realm.
Bi Changsheng's gains in alchemy, which had received most of his attention during this period, were naturally extraordinary as well. Aside from special pills such as the Condensing Gang Pill, which he still could not refine, he had completely mastered every other pill.
He had put especially great effort into the Crimson Blood Pill he planned to promote as the shop's main product and could now achieve an almost ten-in-ten success rate.
The only thing that pained Bi Changsheng was that after he used up his Foundation Nurturing Pills during this period, he had gone to Dan Cao Hall and bought ten more, along with a batch of medicinal ingredients for alchemy. Altogether, it had cost him two hundred thousand taels, leaving him with only six hundred and sixty thousand taels of silver.
Fortunately, Bi Changsheng could now refine Foundation Nurturing Pills himself, which would save him a large sum of silver in the future.
Once everything was ready, Bi Changsheng did not delay. After tidying up and arranging the shopfront, his pill shop officially opened.
Bi Changsheng had also chosen an extremely simple and blunt name for the shop: the Crimson Blood Pill Pavilion.
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