The total simmering time for the entire set of Body Tempering Liquid ingredients was close to four hours. The induction cooker wouldn't break down, would it? Shuhang felt a little worried.
Through the reinforced glass lid of the hot pot, he could see the Ginseng slices tumbling up and down in the water. An inexplicable surge of excitement rose in his heart—was this alchemy?
Yes, this was alchemy.
But why did it always feel like there wasn't much difference between this and his usual noodle cooking?
Was it because his style was wrong?
His phone was set to stopwatch mode. Song Shuhang watched the Ginseng slices in the pot while keeping an eye on the time.
Five minutes later...
He immediately opened the lid and added the second ingredient, Goji Berry.
The two ingredients rolled in the boiling water, quietly staining it a faint yellow.
Heat and timing both required accumulated experience.
And as for experience, Mr. Song had none at all.
So, all he could do was watch the time, opening the lid to add ingredients every time five minutes passed. As for the heat—the induction cooker could burn as hard as it liked.
"This isn't much different from brewing Chinese medicine."
What kind of mood would he be in if, after three hours, what he had simmered out was merely a bowl of ordinary medicinal soup?
Would this "Simplified Copyright Body Tempering Liquid" pill formula completely shatter his eighteen years of understanding of the world? Or would the cultivation chat dream he had encountered over the past few days be extinguished once again?
As the heat in the hot pot rose, the temperature in the kitchen climbed.
At that moment, waves of coolness came from the Ice Pearl around Shuhang's neck, leaving him refreshed all over. Not only that, the Ice Pearl also cleared his mind. Before he knew it, he had entered a state of extreme concentration.
He gently squeezed the Ice Pearl on his chest.
This wondrous Ice Pearl gave him a little more confidence in the Body Tempering Liquid.
"Don't disappoint me. If possible, even if refining the medicine fails, at least let me witness the true existence of 'Cultivation'."
As Song Shuhang held the third ingredient, the calm in his heart stirred slightly. This third ingredient was something he hadn't even managed to find online. Its name was "Morning Dew Mystic Herb"!
In shape, the Morning Dew Mystic Herb was not much different from ordinary grass. Both were green, slender plants. However, upon closer inspection, one could see water vapor condensed on the Morning Dew Mystic Herb without dispersing, like morning dew appearing and vanishing on the blades of grass.
The numbers on the phone's stopwatch raced onward. Five minutes had passed!
Song Shuhang lifted the lid, dropped the Morning Dew Mystic Herb held between his fingers into the pot, and quickly covered it again.
He felt a little expectant. After all, this was a special ingredient. Perhaps it could cause some unusual change in the ingredients inside the pot.
Just like the previous two ingredients, the Morning Dew Mystic Herb rolled and bobbed in the boiling water.
Song Shuhang's eyes remained fixed on the Morning Dew Mystic Herb. The Ice Pearl on his chest sent out threads of coolness, making his mental power more concentrated than ever!
Gradually, the three ingredients in the pot magnified in his eyes!
At this moment, his world contained only the ingredients and nothing else.
Whether because his concentration had reached its limit or because of the Ice Pearl's special effect, Song Shuhang gradually became able to sense every minute change in the three ingredients within the boiling water.
With each roll, pale-yellow medicinal properties were boiled out of the ingredients and infused into the medicinal broth. As the Ginseng slices released their medicinal properties, they swelled slightly after absorbing the water.
What a wondrous feeling!
"The heat seems a little insufficient?" Song Shuhang suddenly had this feeling.
He sensed that the ingredients in the pot needed greater heat—especially the Morning Dew Mystic Herb, which needed a higher temperature to stimulate it!
Thus, he placed his finger on the induction cooker's temperature controls and increased the temperature without hesitation.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~
The water in the pot boiled even more fiercely, and the lid began to tremble under the push of the steam.
Song Shuhang's eyes widened further—after the temperature increased, the Morning Dew Mystic Herb truly underwent a change!
The Morning Dew Mystic Herb, which had been floating on the water, melted in an instant!
Song Shuhang didn't know how much time or heat it took to boil an ordinary blade of grass until it became mush. But in less than five minutes, even with his small induction cooker running at full power, it was impossible for him to boil the Morning Dew Mystic Herb until it melted.
This was a special property of the Morning Dew Mystic Herb itself.
As the Mystic Herb dissolved, the medicinal broth became tinged with a layer of emerald-green liquid. The emerald-green liquid seemed to possess a spirit of its own as it wrapped around the Ginseng slices and Goji Berry in the pot.
After being wrapped up, the two ingredients likewise began to melt slowly, blending into the emerald-green liquid.
Song Shuhang's heartbeat quickened slightly.
What a miraculous change!
At the same time, he vaguely realized that the Body Tempering Liquid might not need water at the beginning. Instead, the Ginseng and Goji Berry should be heated in a special way. Then, the instant the Morning Dew Mystic Herb was added, it would melt into medicinal liquid.
He had no idea whether this pot of medicinal liquid had already failed.
Fortunately, he had prepared himself for failure long ago. His main purpose in refining the medicine this time was to familiarize himself with the process and record the problems that arose during refinement.
Another five minutes had passed.
This time, Song Shuhang calmly took out the fourth ingredient and dropped it into the pot.
The fourth ingredient was likewise wrapped in the emerald-green liquid, melting bit by bit into the medicinal liquid.
"With this level of heat, it takes about five minutes for the fourth ingredient to completely fuse with the medicinal liquid. This is probably the reason Medicine Master said 'about' five minutes. Differences in the ingredients' size, shape, and age, as well as variations in the heat, temperature, and quality of the alchemy furnace, will all cause the time of 'five minutes' to fluctuate." Song Shuhang's eyes remained fixed on the ingredients in the pot, and his understanding grew clearer.
He was gaining an increasingly thorough understanding of Medicine Master's pill formula.
His progress was first and foremost due to the Ice Pearl around his neck. It made Song Shuhang's heart calm as still water, focused his mind, and sharpened his thoughts.
On the other hand, Song Shuhang seemed to possess an innate sensitivity toward alchemy. This was a gift he had been born with. If he changed classes to become an alchemist in the future, this talent would let him accomplish twice the result with half the effort.
As his understanding of Medicine Master's pill formula grew more thorough, Song Shuhang began to stop being bound by the fixed limit of "five minutes."
He began deciding when to add the next ingredient based on how thoroughly the medicinal liquid in the pot had fused. Sometimes, he would add the next ingredient after about four and a half minutes. At other times, he would extend the interval beyond five minutes.
Before he knew it, forty-six minutes had passed.
When Shuhang began adding the tenth ingredient, he had already tried controlling the heat and temperature. Based on the degree of fusion in the medicinal liquid, his finger would increase or decrease the induction cooker's temperature.
He was no longer clinging rigidly to the time. His whole person had become busy.
After the Sixteenth ingredient fused, the Morning Dew Mystic Herb in the pot reached its limit for fusing ingredients. At that moment, following the record in the pill formula, Song Shuhang added another special ingredient, the "Three Lives Fruit Core."
As expected, just like the Morning Dew Mystic Herb, the Three Lives Fruit Core took up the responsibility of "fusing ingredients" anew.
After the initial ladle of water, Shuhang had not added any more. Yet after the medicinal liquid in the hot pot had burned for more than an hour, it had not dried up. Instead, it had increased slightly.
Add the ingredients, watch the degree of fusion in the medicinal liquid, wait—and then continue adding ingredients. It was a dry, unbearably tedious process, yet it allowed no room for the slightest carelessness.
This was Medicine Master. This was an alchemist! A profession that demanded perfection with hair-splitting severity. Even among cultivators, it was one in ten thousand—a profession only someone truly capable of enduring loneliness could take on.
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