The repeated failures in refining Trauma Powder were like a basin of cold water, dousing the inflated confidence Xu Qian had gained from successfully making Grain Abstinence Pills. He realized that alchemy was no easy task. Theoretical improvements and crude heating with true qi weren't enough. Those seven or eight batches of charred sludge and strange-smelling muck were proof enough.
He wasn't discouraged. Instead, he focused even more intently on reviewing and analyzing his attempts. He replayed every failure in his mind—the results, the signs, every detail of his technique—and guided the Longevity Dao Fruit through deep deductions, searching for the subtle key.
The Dao Fruit's clear light flowed as it combined the mass of "failure data," and the feedback gradually became clearer: the heart of the problem seemed to lie in the precision and consistency of his heat control.
Alchemy, especially low-grade pills that involved fusing several ingredients and transforming their medicinal properties, demanded extremely precise heat. Different stages required different temperatures; even tiny fluctuations within a single stage could determine whether the medicinal properties fused successfully. His crude "true qi heating" was like carving flowers with a giant iron hammer. No matter how well he controlled his strength, he couldn't reach that level of precision.
I need to control my true qi with finer micro-adjustments... Xu Qian seemed to realize.
He remembered how, when drawing talismans, he had to guide his true qi along specific paths at a particular frequency and channel it into the tip of his brush. That kind of control demanded precision and consistency. Could he apply the same technique to controlling "pill fire"?
Once the thought appeared, it grew like wild grass.
He stopped rushing into new attempts at refining pills and began specialized training instead.
No medicinal ingredients, no pill furnace—just him and