Research on Spirit Refining Methods

Azure Cloud Sect, Sunlit Cloud Peak, inside a Cave Mansion.

Although he was responsible for the herb garden, medicinal herbs only needed to be transported once a month over a period of Three Months. The higher-ups required him to remain on duty the rest of the time, but no cultivators came to inspect attendance. So, slacking off—you know how it is.

Jobs that are lucrative and easygoing are hard to come by these days...

Lin Chen sighed, then turned his attention to what lay before him.

Before him, a bronze cauldron had been placed in the center of the room. Beside it was a miniature formation, with three Low-grade Spirit Stones placed at the junctions of several lines.

This was a fire-control formation recorded in Alchemy Fundamentals. Through a special technique, it could activate the spiritual power within the Spirit Stones and transform it into a high-temperature flame. It could shorten the time required for alchemy, and the formation's flames burned with exceptional stability, helping improve the success rate of pill refinement.

Although Lin Chen was not refining pills, he was still refining Spiritual Herbs. Fire was likewise one of the deciding factors for success, so its importance needed no explanation.

He could ignite flames with his own true qi, but the consumption was too great and the flames were unstable, which would affect his success rate.

Whether alchemists or medicine refiners, they generally used earthfire to refine pills. Earthfire had a high temperature, was relatively stable, and lasted an extremely long time. It was truly an excellent choice.

But after estimating the Spirit Stones in his purse, Lin Chen suddenly felt that using a formation to refine medicine was not such a bad choice.

"Over a thousand Spirit Stones burned away just like that..." Lin Chen's cheek twitched.

Even though he had reduced every kind of waste as much as possible, the consumption was still astonishing.

Scientific research really burns through money... Lin Chen could not help gritting his teeth.

He had merely replaced and altered ingredients in basic medicinal formulas.

Just several dozen repeated experiments had burned through at least two thousand Spirit Stones. And that was with him secretly skimming quite a few herbs from the Spiritual Herb Garden; otherwise, the consumption would have been even more terrifying.

In his previous life, Lin Chen had Heard Of how expensive scientific laboratories were, and had thought there was some shady trick behind it. Now it seemed that he had misunderstood.

Lin Chen shook his head, clearing the chaotic thoughts from his mind and focusing on what was before him.

Ignite the fire, preheat, add the Spiritual Herbs, extract the essences, fuse the essences... Soon, a familiar medicinal fragrance wafted out from the bronze cauldron.

It worked?

Lin Chen's face showed neither joy nor sorrow, and the movements of his hands did not slow in the slightest. Yet just as he was preparing to proceed to the next step, the medicinal fragrance changed, giving off a burnt smell.

Failed again. Looks like the fire control went too far... It's fine, it was only nearly a hundred Spirit Stones. I've got plenty of money.

Lin Chen's face remained calm, but veins bulged on his hands.

Ignite the fire, preheat, add the Spiritual Herbs, extract the essences, fuse the essences... The small cauldron once again emitted that familiar medicinal fragrance.

Yet after a while, Lin Chen numbly poured the medicinal dregs out of the cauldron.

Continue...

The third medicine refinement failed. The fourth succeeded. The fifth...

Three quarters of an hour later, Lin Chen's slightly pale face looked somewhat haggard, his long hair spilling over his shoulders. Yet his eyes were exceptionally bright, his pitch-black pupils deep and distant.

Lin Chen mixed the refined medicinal powder with spiritual liquid, making it into sticks of incense that he arranged before him.

The revised 3.0 version of Soul Nurturing Incense is finally complete...

Even Lin Chen's face, usually as still as an ancient well, rarely revealed a trace of a smile.

In This Side World, if the fleshly body was the treasured vessel that carried one across the world, then the soul was the foundation for becoming immortal!

A sufficiently powerful soul could not only accelerate one's cultivation speed and make up for innate deficiencies in aptitude, but also possessed all manner of abilities Unpredictable as Gods and Ghosts.

There were even rumors that in ancient times, High Order Cultivators who specialized in the path of the soul had discarded their fleshly bodies and used their [Primordial Spirit] to attain Eternal Existence in this world. Not only could they roam the Northern Sea at dawn and reach Cangwu by dusk, they also possessed Spells and Divine Abilities that inspired tremendous dread—Soul Seizing, calling a name to make one fall from their horse, Seven Arrows Nail Head, and more.

Even in today's cultivation world, where the path of qi refinement flourished, the soul remained an exceedingly important existence.

Whether it was the Golden Core Realm of "When the Top Three Flowers gather above, the Golden Core is born from this," or the Spirit Transformation realm of "No thought stirs within, no image enters from without; I alone govern myself, without the slightest thought or awareness. Seeing that the five aggregates are all empty and the four limbs all false, yet I possess a True Self," the soul was Closely Related to them. It could even be said to be the foundation of everything!

But in the resource-starved Lingnan Cultivation World, which could only produce Golden Core cultivators, cultivation techniques and pills that strengthened the soul were exceptionally precious.

As far as Lin Chen knew, he had never even Heard Of a cultivation technique for the soul. Though he believed Azure Cloud Sect should possess such things, they were ultimately not something someone at his level could access.

As for pills that strengthened the soul, from what he understood, there was only one at the Qi Refining Stage so far: the [Soul Nurturing Pill]. Moreover, it was the sort of thing with a price but no market. Even if he could afford it, he had no way of finding a source!

Yet every one of Lin Chen's cultivation experiments pointed to the importance of the soul in cultivation.

If he continued to neglect it and fell behind other cultivators in this regard, then one misstep would lead to countless more. One day, it would affect his path to immortality.

Thus, this issue had troubled Lin Chen for quite some time.

After slaughtering nearly a hundred Evil Cultivators, looting the corpses of numerous cultivators, and combing through the Treasure Hunt Streets of all four Marketplaces in Azure Cloud Sect, only to come up empty-handed, Lin Chen finally realized that he truly did not have the treatment of a Protagonist.

After pondering bitterly for a long time, Lin Chen felt that instead of relying on luck to search for it, he might as well make it himself!

Soul Nurturing Incense was one of the results of Lin Chen's research into the divine soul.

Lin Chen discovered that soul-nourishing medicines from the mortal world worked on mortals, and a sudden idea struck him: if the ordinary medicinal ingredients in mortal soul-nourishing prescriptions were replaced with Spiritual Herbs, could they affect cultivators?

At first, Lin Chen believed that other cultivators could not possibly have failed to think of such a simple method. Yet since nothing of the sort existed in the cultivation world, perhaps there was some problem with it.

If mortals could use this prescription to nourish their souls, there was no reason that replacing the ingredients with Spiritual Herbs of greater medicinal efficacy would make it useless to cultivators instead.

After hesitating for some time, Lin Chen decided that true knowledge came from experiments. So he got straight to work.

He then spent a great deal of time on development and experimentation, and at last, the first version of Soul Nurturing Incense was successfully produced.

Tests showed that its effect was only one-thousandth that of the Qi Refining Stage pill Soul Nurturing Pill. Without comparative observation experiments, one simply could not perceive the subtle difference.

Lin Chen guessed that this subtle medicinal effect, so faint it was difficult to detect, was likely why cultivators had failed to persist in further improving mortal medicinal formulas.

But to him, no matter how weak the effect was, as long as it worked, that was enough. Let alone the fact that it could be used in large quantities.

Lin Chen lit at least nine sticks of Soul Nurturing Incense every day, their effect comparable to one percent of a Soul Nurturing Pill's medicinal potency.

Over time, this was equivalent to Lin Chen taking one Soul Nurturing Pill every three-odd months!

It might seem rather pathetic, taking only one every three months, but in the cultivation resources-starved Lingnan Cultivation World, pills capable of strengthening the soul were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

Being able to take one every three months was already treatment reserved for a sect's core disciples and the direct descendants of great clans.

Let alone the fact that Lin Chen could upgrade the Soul Nurturing Incense to a version with even stronger medicinal effects.

Soul Nurturing Incense Version 2.0 was an advanced version Lin Chen had developed by finding mortal formulas that required all manner of precious medicinal ingredients, then replacing them with various spiritual materials!

However, just as long-term use of the same medicine could produce drug resistance, even though Lin Chen had made it into Soul Nurturing Incense to avoid ingesting it directly, his body still gradually developed resistance. In the end, it became completely ineffective.

Thus, Lin Chen had no choice but to continue developing new generations of Soul Nurturing Incense. Even though the process was extremely troublesome, the results were also remarkably apparent.

With the help of Soul Nurturing Incense, Lin Chen's soul now far surpassed that of cultivators of the same rank.

Not only that, Lin Chen had also developed a simple method of Spirit Refining.

Although Lin Chen did not know what the essence of the soul truly was, observation and research had revealed that, like the body, the soul would grow stronger as long as it was trained sufficiently.

Based on this concept and drawing upon Daoist methods from his previous life, he exhausted his divine soul until it was weary, then calmed his heart, stilled his mind, and sat in meditation to nurture his spirit.

At such times, just as one promptly replenished nutrition after physical training, Lin Chen would light Soul Nurturing Incense to nourish his soul. Bolstered by both, he progressed at a staggering pace in matters of the soul.

By combining this simple method of Spirit Refining with the method of making Soul Nurturing Incense, Lin Chen had created what was, to his knowledge, the only openly known Spirit Refining method of Azure Cloud Sect, one of the Three Major Powers of the Lingnan Cultivation World—

[Spirit Incense Soul Nurturing Scripture]!

At this thought, a trace of a smile flashed across Lin Chen's face.

If something did not exist, creating it yourself—that was what true ability meant!

[Spirit Incense Soul Nurturing Scripture] was part of the [Spirit Nourishing Art], the path of spirit among his three paths of Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

It was also a Spirit Refining method belonging solely to him, developed over ten years with existing resources, without peerless cultivation arts or spiritual medicines from an immortal estate.

This method was extraordinarily precious. Lin Chen was certain that if he revealed even the slightest piece of information related to it, it would undoubtedly stir up Sky-High Giant Waves across the Lingnan Cultivation World. Even the lofty Golden Core True Persons would personally enter the fray to fight over it.

Perhaps it would be of no use to high-level cultivators, but compared with Soul Nurturing Pills, it had lower costs and greater safety. It could greatly alter the strength and potential of the lower-level cultivators within a power, thereby profoundly influencing the entire situation in Lingnan.

Alas, what a pity. If I had sufficient strength, I could completely bear the backlash of revealing this scripture and reap enough benefits from it...

People feared fame as pigs feared growing fat. If Lin Chen revealed this scripture, it would absolutely push him onto the crest of the waves and invite endless trouble.

Even though Azure Cloud Sect would do its utmost to protect him, Lin Chen truly had no desire to experience the feeling of placing his fate in someone else's hands.

Besides, even within Azure Cloud Sect, it was not necessarily safe.

Handing over this scripture would certainly earn him generous rewards, but without strength to match, how could he keep them?

Let alone the fact that in this cultivation world, once one possessed enormous benefits that did not match one's strength, it was exceedingly easy to invite a calamity that took one's life!

Forget it. Before my strength becomes sufficiently powerful, I shouldn't even think about these things... Lin Chen shook his head, then looked at the Soul Nurturing Incense on the table and fell into deep thought.

This revised Soul Nurturing Incense 3.0 has only just been developed. It still needs experiments to determine its medicinal effect and whether it contains any hidden dangers. And there are also the experiments concerning the soul during breakthroughs into the Foundation Establishment Realm...

As if he had thought of something, Lin Chen's gaze shifted slightly.

He had originally believed that, having lived two lives, his soul should far surpass others', and his cultivation efficiency should be higher as well. Yet in practice, his cultivation speed was no different from that of those with equal talent.

From this, it seemed that the soul spoken of in this world was not merely the consciousness, memories, and other things recorded in his previous life. It probably represented something else as well.

And interestingly, in my previous life, Daoists referred to it as [hun and po] or [divine soul], while [soul] was a Western term. Yet this world calls it [soul]...

Combined with the Spiritual Energy Law I summarized—that all things in the world are composed of spiritual energy—does the word "soul" merely differ in name, or does the "spirit" in soul refer to... spiritual energy?