Alchemy
I never imagined alchemy would be so resource-intensive! There's no such factory in Ink Bamboo Mountain, is there? And speaking of factories, this whole thing is absurd! Isn't this clearly something those legion's apostles created?! You're going too far by bringing that cutthroat, competitive world of immortals to your struggle for supremacy! Ugh!
But upon closer reflection, something seems off. According to Zhou Chengxue, this pill factory should have been built many years ago to meet Yuntai Peak's monthly order of three hundred Donghua Changchun Pill, right? Could it be that before this, other apostles helped Penglai achieve industrial modernization? Moreover, this whole thing is wrong; it's clearly not from the same civilization system. Didn't the Dao Lords of the Nine Truth Sect even ask a single question about these bizarre things the proposer came up with?
After thinking for a moment, Li Fan returned to Zhou Chengxue's alchemy workshop with a pile of materials. He casually inquired, pretending to be chatting, "Speaking of which, that workshop looks really strange. I wonder which senior came up with the idea to design it like that?"
Unexpectedly, Zhou Chengxue suddenly turned his head, looked at Li Fan with a wary expression, and asked, "Why are you asking about this!"
Li Fan was also taken aback, unsure why he was reacting so strongly, or if he had given himself away again. "No, no, I was just asking. It's obviously different from other Daoist palaces, and I didn't even see the statue of the Profound Maiden when I entered..."
Zhou Chengxue stared at Li Fan for a while, then sighed, "Brother Li, that workshop is a very important place within our sect. Don't pry into things like that. Let's focus on refining pills first."
Huh? That's strange. What's with this reaction? Is it because my friendship level isn't high enough to unlock new story content? It seems there really is a big problem within Penglai...
However, Zhou Chengxue made it clear that he didn't want to discuss this topic further and instructed Li Fan to start setting up the alchemy process directly.
Since all the semi-finished ingredients are already prepared, theoretically it's like stewing a dish—just put them all in one pot and cook. As for whether it will succeed and how many pills will be produced, besides the recipe, it also depends on the chef's feel for it. A little of this, a little of that, and then the right amount—in short, you have to calculate while refining, adjust the heat at any time, and judge the color and texture based on experience before taking it out of the pot.
Li Fan's task was simple: he was just a servant, following the alchemist's instructions to arrange the material jade boxes according to their positions, set up the magic array, clean the alchemy furnace, move things around and rearrange them for the alchemy workshop, and mix and match the basic alchemy ingredients with firewood, charcoal, and other fuel, then put them into layers inside the furnace. Once the preliminary work was done, there wasn't much else for him to do.
Zhou Chengxue was responsible for the specific process of refining pills after closing the furnace and starting the fire. He sat cross-legged at the center of the formation, making hand seals with one hand while secretly calculating with the other. He held a whisk in his other hand, sweeping and waving it from time to time to control the fire and wind, adding various materials in sequence.
Zhou Chengxue was unaware that Li Fan possessed a photographic memory. He was completely focused on alchemy, his Divine Sense immersed in the furnace, leaving Zhou Chengxue to watch. Li Fan actually understood a bit of it; in a way, you could say that the principles of alchemy and oil refining are quite similar.
Oil refining is something everyone is familiar with, so there's no need to go into details. Simply put, it involves separating the components of petroleum through distillation, then converting it into fuel oil through chemical processes such as thermal cracking and catalytic cracking, and finally refining it using processes such as hydrogenation.
The process of alchemy is roughly the same: first, impurities are separated from the raw materials; then, various auxiliary materials obtained from the factory are added, acting as catalysts and secret formulas. Depending on the time and heat, various spiritual energies are continuously injected, and the Dao fire is adjusted accordingly. If the formula and process are followed correctly, and the materials are also in good condition, as long as the beginner isn't too inexperienced, the first stage of alchemy can usually produce a pill. After this first stage, theoretically, it can be called the Donghua Changchun Pill. Of course, its effects can only be described as 'virtually negligible'. In game terms, it's like adding a continuous health regeneration buff, but the amount of health regeneration is extremely low, possibly only effective for those in the Qi Refining Stage. However, the pill's toxicity might be even more potent than that health regeneration...
Therefore, after this, it needs to be refined through one, two, three... seven or eight cycles to remove impurities, concentrate and enhance the medicinal power, add various high-grade medicinal materials to neutralize the toxicity of the pill, and refine it to increase the efficacy of the pill. As mentioned before, this nine-cycle refining process is what is called the art of alchemy. Each refining process will inevitably lose some pills, and in the end, the whole pot may explode. If you can get one pill, it is considered a success.
For those skilled alchemists of ancient times, if a thousand pills were produced in one batch, and only one pill was produced after refining them to the ninth or even seventeenth or eighteenth stage, it would be considered a great success.
However, the pharmaceutical factories in Penglai prioritize production volume, ensuring that they refine 100 pills to the ninth level to complete the task. In other words, even if you refine them to the eighth or tenth level, the efficacy may not differ much, but it would be meaningless because the standard is the ninth level.
This time, Zhou Chengxue had already discussed it with Li Fan beforehand. He had collected a lot of rare ingredients and used ancient methods to refine pills, so he wouldn't stop after the ninth revolution and would try to continue refining them to ensure that he could produce about ten high-quality pills. Li Fan didn't care about these 'high-quality' pills at all, and he also wanted to see Zhou Chengxue's skills and compare them with the pills given by the abbot, so he readily agreed.
Now that the alchemy process has begun, Li Fan can clearly see that the auspicious beast reliefs beside the nine-tiered alchemy furnace seem to have come to life, perched on the furnace looking left and right, occasionally opening and closing their mouths to spew out smoke and mist of seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple.
Looking from bottom to top, the bottom two Baxia and Chiwen usually keep their mouths closed. Of course, not opening their mouths is a good thing. According to Zhou Chengxue, usually when they open their mouths, it means the pot is about to explode. Chiwen is for extinguishing fires; it will spit out smoke and ash to relieve pressure and prevent explosions. If luck is really bad, then the whole pot will explode, and naturally only the Baxia at the bottom of the pot will spit out the dregs.
The third level is the Vermilion Bird, which, needless to say, is surrounded by blazing crimson flames. Generally, the ingredients for pills are made with Crimson Fiend True Fire, which is crimson when the furnace is first heated. Different Dao Fires are used as needed, and the color naturally changes with the temperature. This step requires profound fire control techniques. True Masters of the Xuanmen sect certainly have no problem with it, but as for other rogue cultivators... well...
The fourth layer of Suanni will also occasionally spew orange-red flames from its mouth and nostrils. This serves as an auxiliary valve, used to regulate temperature and pressure.
The White Tiger toads on the fifth or sixth floor will spray golden metallic liquid or green elixir from their mouths to remove impurities that have melted into liquid.
The Black Tortoise Dragon Azure Dragon Tortoise, and Qilin on the seventh, eighth, and ninth floors will respectively spew out green smoke, blue mist, and purple clouds, all of which are vaporized and filled with impurities and poison.
The ash and mist spewed from the beast's mouth, enveloped by spiritual energy, steamed and sprayed away from the carved mouth like a rice cooker. Then, it was sucked in by the magic array on the roof, which was probably acting as a range hood. Without much processing, it was simply swept away by a gentle breeze and sprayed outdoors.
Well, okay, it seems the immortals don't really care much about environmental protection. After all, even the residue from alchemy is a high concentration of 'spiritual material,' so it'll probably settle naturally in the environment of Penglai Grotto-heaven, who knows?
Li Fan could only observe the changes in the alchemy furnace from the outer layer of the protective array, but he couldn't directly penetrate it with his Divine Sense to see the actual state of the pills inside. After all, it was a renowned secret formula from Penglai, so even if he could forcibly memorize the order of adding the ingredients, he wouldn't know what specific changes were taking place inside the furnace, or what judgments Zhou Chengxue had made before performing his actions. He could only see Zhou Chengxue sometimes calculating, sometimes adding ingredients, sometimes lighting the fire, and sometimes removing impurities, without knowing the true secrets.
This is the old-school, traditional alchemical refining process.
When Li Fan saw Zhou Chengxue begin to repeat certain material cycles, he roughly guessed that a 'turn' had been completed.
Zhou Chengxue should also have a solid foundation. Although the process time doubled with each additional round and the flame color increased by one level, he refined it very quickly and without any mistakes. By the seventh round, it slowed down significantly, not only because additional materials were needed, such as adding red coral, but also because he had to calculate repeatedly. Perhaps the probability of producing a high-grade pill was indeed quite low.
At this moment, Li Fan noticed that Zhou Chengxue had started rapidly forming hand seals.
When the seventh stage of cultivation reached a crucial point, a sudden wind began to blow. Or, to use a common expression in cultivation novels, it meant the elixir was about to begin absorbing the essence of heaven and earth to create a superior-grade immortal pill.
Li Fan certainly couldn't miss such a memorable scene. Luckily, he had a Bagua Mirror given to him by the system that could see the 'vortex of Qi,' so he took it out to observe it secretly.
As expected, the surrounding array gates opened one by one as Zhou Chengxue made hand seals. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was drawn into the pill furnace in the eye of the storm like a huge vortex. The Divine Beast carvings on the pill furnace also slowly absorbed the filtered spiritual energy, just like a cultivator breathing. Occasionally, if the proportions were slightly off and the spiritual energy was insufficient, Zhou Chengxue would exhale a breath of pure Dao Breath to make up for the shortfall in the pill refining.
One or two times is fine, but refining a pill to nine revolutions takes a month. If it's refined to seventeen or eighteen revolutions, who knows how much internal energy it would consume? It seems that without some skill, a pill refiner really can't refine the pill to such a high number of revolutions.
Li Fan, an outsider watching the spectacle, suddenly noticed something discordant: around the vortex of spiritual energy converging towards the alchemy furnace like a storm, there were many turbid air masses. Upon closer inspection, they were tiny vortices, like small tornadoes mixed in with a great storm.
These turbulent currents may be due to the mixing of conflicting spiritual energy, or they may be due to the lack of filtering by the outer array. More or less, some of them, along with the gathering of spiritual energy around the alchemy furnace, are swept up by the spiritual energy and drawn into the furnace.
Although it hasn't directly affected much yet, because Zhou Chengxue naturally anticipated and dispersed the obvious turbulence and discordant impurities with a flick of his whisk, thus smoothing out the energy, and the auspicious beast on the alchemy furnace also seemed to act as a filter, these vortices are themselves cyclones of spiritual energy, which alchemists cannot perceive. Being swept up and drawn into them for a long time will inevitably affect the quality of the alchemy.
Just then, when Li Fan had studied system items before, he discovered a jade ring that could solve a similar problem. Although no one had taught him alchemy, firsthand evidence was more convincing than any experiential teaching. So Li Fan pretended to be restless and stood up to walk around the outer array, stretching his muscles. In reality, he used the jade pendant hanging from his waist to regulate the vortexes on the outside and help to harmonize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Zhou Chengxue probably couldn't figure out what Li Fan was doing, but it was obvious that he was using fewer hand seals and less frequently waving his whisk. As expected, the seventh-stage refined elixir was successfully completed without incident. The entire cauldron began to emit a hazy, precious light, surrounded by immortal energy, flashing with rosy light, and producing a unique fragrance.
"... What a smooth day! Have my skills not become rusty at all?" After the alchemy furnace stabilized, Zhou Chengxue opened his eyes and was astonished by the auspicious signs surrounding the cauldron.
Li Fan stretched and yawned, "Oh, is it finished? Wow, that was fast! You finished it in just one day? Brother Zhou is truly amazing!"
Zhou Chengxue shook his head, "No, it's just been refined to the seventh level. The pill furnace has reached the Taiji realm. Next, it will be left to rest for three days to nurture it for a cycle and see how it goes. But I think this time it went quite smoothly. Perhaps quite a few spirit pills will reach the top grade."
In other words, you just need to keep simmering it for a few days, then refine it for the eighth stage. This way, it usually takes a month to complete nine stages. Well, while the elixir tastes good, honestly, refining it is quite boring. It's like everyone knows that cooking is cost-effective and delicious, but nobody wants to buy groceries, wash vegetables, cook, and wash dishes themselves...
"Alright, alright, Brother Zhou, let's go for a drink. Or maybe we can do some quests together?" Li Fan hadn't done any fighting for a day and was feeling bored.
To everyone's surprise, Zhou Chengxue stared intently at his alchemy furnace, a peaceful and happy smile on his face. "Oh, never mind for today. I suddenly feel that my experience with alchemy has given me some enlightenment. While these insights are still fresh in my mind, I'll go into seclusion and work on a few practice problems."
Li Fan stared at him with a look of utter disbelief, "..."
"Thank you so much, Brother Li, for bringing these medicinal materials. They have given me some inspiration... By the way, I heard that you recently took a concubine. I recently acquired some rare gemstones, which I think would make excellent jewelry. I'm giving them to you, Brother Li. They're nothing valuable, just a small token of my appreciation."
"Uh... oh, oh, it does look quite nice when it's sparkly. Thank you for your kindness, Brother Zhou."
Li Fan was speechless as he looked at the ore that Zhou Chengxue had casually handed over. He had been planning to scheme against Zhou Chengxue, but it had ended up in his hands so easily.
Besides, when Zhou Chengxue first came to him, wasn't he asking what materials he'd obtained at sea? Could it be that he originally wanted to exchange this 'useless junk' for the 'random trash' Li Fan had picked up...?
Oh well, it's just exchanging junk for trash anyway. Everyone's getting a free ride, so let's just say we each get what we need.
So Li Fan didn't disturb Zhou Chengxue's evening self-study. He went back to find Xiao Yushi to see how her memorization of "Xiao Clan Ling Shu" was going. If she had finished, perhaps he could use it to practice and study it.
But when he arrived at the entrance of the Shenzhen Palace, he was stopped by someone.
The newcomer was a young man with a pointed chin, narrow eyes, white hair, and a crane-crowned hat, dressed in the immortal robes of Penglai. Of course, he was no longer a young man; this person possessed the cultivation of Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, and seemed to be a notch above Zhou Chengxue's lackluster performance. He was probably either a reincarnation who had undergone physical transformation or someone who possessed the art of preserving youth.
"But it is Li Tang, a guest elder of the outer sect of Shenzhen Palace." The other party bowed and said, "Liu Chengzong of Taishang Taizhen Palace."
"Nice to meet you." Although Li Fan greeted him politely with a fist and palm salute, he was already on guard.
He checked carefully and, sure enough, the man's figure and appearance matched those of one of the three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators who had been killed by the Huan family, as seen in the drone footage.
This time, it was the True Person of the Taizhen Palace who led the fleet to bring the remaining female members of the Huan family, the 'remnants of the Demonic Cult,' to Penglai. However, that very night in the warehouse, Li Fan and another man in black came to rescue them and fought a battle. Judging from the fact that this guy was still fully armed, his opponent at the time was not Liu Chengzong at all.
But that night, all the Yingzhou disciples he brought with him died, and the 'remnants' were almost taken away. It was strange that Liu Chengzong never showed up.
"I failed in my duty of guarding the area, resulting in the loss of our disciples. Therefore, I have been reprimanded by the sect leader and am now responsible for investigating the conflict that occurred a few days ago..."
So that's why they came...
"Elder Li was nearby at the time, wasn't he? There are some details I'd like to ask him. I wonder if Elder Li would do me the honor of attending a banquet at my humble abode?"