Alchemy

Chen Xian returned to his dwelling carrying a heavy load of medicinal herbs on a shoulder pole, the sun already climbing past the treetops.

He wiped the clammy sweat from his forehead, feeling as if his old bones were about to fall apart. "The custom Flying Boat isn't ready yet. I need to hurry up and cultivate to Dao Disciple Seventh Layer so I can learn the Sword Control Technique... walking everywhere on foot really isn't cutting it."

He tossed the pole down in the courtyard with a dull thud. Looking at the baskets full of herbs, he chuckled to himself. "That kid Tang Yu is still too young. When it comes to pill refining, sure, it's my first time at the wheel, but I've got a cheat code backing me up."

Still, Chen Xian didn't rush to start refining. The morning hours are the best for cultivation—he needed to prioritize training first.

He pushed open the door and entered the house, sitting cross-legged on the bed. From the Jade Ring, he took out the box containing the Consciousness Returning Pills, pulled out a bottle, and poured one out.

The pill was a pale purple, emitting a refreshing, cool fragrance that cleared the mind and sharpened focus just from the scent alone. "No wonder it's a second-grade pill. Even the smell has medicinal effects," Chen Xian remarked, taking a deep sniff and nodding slightly.

This pill was specifically refined to nourish Dao Consciousness and protect the Sea of Consciousness, already surpassing the category of first-grade pills. The price was triple that of a Qi Induction Pill, which cost only ten Contribution Points, while the Consciousness Returning Pill cost thirty. Ten pills per bottle—three hundred Contribution Points!

He bought ten bottles in one go. Even with the Inner Sect's twenty percent discount, that was still two thousand four hundred Contribution Points. Adding the five percent handling fee for converting Dao Silver into Contribution Points, he spent over two thousand five hundred Dao Silver in total. Ordinary cultivators simply couldn't afford to use Consciousness Returning Pills; they gritted their teeth and slowly advanced through the Dao Consciousness stage of the Dao Disciple realm the hard way. Only someone as flush with cash as he was now could be so extravagant.

"Thanks to the Qian Family Head's generosity," Chen Xian said with a shake of his head and a smile. Qian Yue really was a gift-bearing child. He needed to convert this five hundred thousand Dao Silver into cultivation strength as quickly as possible, then give the Qian Family Head a big surprise!

Setting aside stray thoughts, he began to cultivate. As the Consciousness Returning Pill entered his mouth, a cool medicinal force surged straight to his spiritual platform. Chen Xian felt his Sea of Consciousness turn refreshingly cool, his entire being calming down as he formally entered a cultivation state.

He closed his eyes in meditation, drawing all his perception inward. He looked inward at his Sword Bone, refining his Dao Consciousness. For ordinary Dao Disciples cultivating Dao Consciousness, it was like forcibly widening a dry riverbed—every step forward came with tearing pain in the Sea of Consciousness. In the past, after cultivating for half an hour, his brain would ache so badly he had to rest for a quarter-hour.

But with the help of the Consciousness Returning Pill, Chen Xian felt as if a handful of ice-cold spring water had been splashed into his parched, aching Sea of Consciousness, greatly offsetting the pain. His originally sluggish and heavy Dao Consciousness became light and agile, wrapped in the pill's medicinal power.

Time flew by in silence. One hour, two hours... His Dao Consciousness traveled through his meridians and flesh like a long dragon, probing every gap within his body. Now, examining the Xuanyun Sword Bone was no longer as difficult as before.

Only when an entire bottle of Consciousness Returning Pills was depleted did Chen Xian suddenly open his eyes. A sharp gleam flashed and vanished in the darkness. "Three hundred and eighty breaths!"

Chen Xian slapped his thigh in excitement. Double! His cultivation speed had nearly doubled! Before today's training, he could barely maintain inner vision for a quarter-hour. Now, he could sustain it for half an hour and still have energy left. At this rate, in at most three or four more days, his Dao Consciousness would be refined enough to maintain inner vision for a thousand breaths without dispersing, breaking through the bottleneck of Dao Disciple Seventh Layer in one go.

"Seventh Layer... once I reach Seventh Layer, I can learn my first Dao Art—Sword Control Flight." This cultivation session had stretched from morning to night. Chen Xian looked up at the moon outside the window, his eyes full of longing. Being a Grandmaster in the Sword Sect who couldn't control a flying sword would inevitably invite quiet ridicule from others.

Cultivation was over, and it was time to sleep. But Chen Xian looked at the pile of medicinal herbs in the courtyard, and an itch like hundreds of monkeys scratching at his heart took hold. "Sleep? At eighty years old, this is the age to push hard!"

He flipped off the bed, grabbed the Standard Bronze Pill Furnace he'd wheedled out of Tang Yu, and carried it into the courtyard. He didn't dare try refining inside the house. If the furnace exploded and blew the roof off, he'd become a laughingstock. The courtyard was open, so even if it exploded, the force would be somewhat diminished.

He set the furnace and herbs together. Chen Xian first unrolled a yellowed sheet of paper—the Spirit-Guiding Pill Recipe he'd also asked for. The Spirit-Guiding Pill, though the most basic first-grade pill, was still hard currency in the cultivation world. This realm had no spirit stones; the Spirit-Guiding Pill served a similar function.

This thing can both assist daily cultivation and speed up qi induction into the body—it's essentially the blue potion for restoring Dao Power during a cultivator's battle.

So almost every alchemist's first-ever first-grade pill learned to refine is the Qi Induction Pill.

Chen Xian had no master, so naturally he followed the standard procedure step by step.

He matched the recipe and picked out the medicinal herbs one by one.

As the main ingredients, he needed five Origin Spirit Leaves and five Bitter Cold Grasses each, plus one Sweet Blood Vine as a neutralizing auxiliary.

He was seeing the first two for the first time, but the derivative of Sweet Blood Vine he knew well!

This stuff was the raw material for the Rattan Blood Sugar he used to boil for his candied hawthorns.

"No wonder the Qi Induction Pill powder can blend with syrup—the auxiliary shares the same origin. I stumbled into that by accident," Chen Xian muttered.

He pressed one hand onto the formation groove on the side of the pill furnace, slowly channeling in his Dao Power.

"Huum—"

When he felt he couldn't push any more Dao Power in, Chen Xian withdrew his hand. The Bronze Pill Furnace gave a slight tremor, and the red formation engraved on the furnace floor instantly lit up with crimson light.

The pill furnace had its own internal fire formation, needing no wood or charcoal—it ran entirely on Dao Power as fuel, with Dao Consciousness controlling the flame intensity.

In no time, a dark red flame rose inside the furnace, ethereal and hazy, as if not truly solid, yet undeniably scorching hot.

Following the recipe instructions, Chen Xian preheated the furnace for a quarter-hour.

Curious, he reached out and pressed his hand against the furnace wall.

Strangely, the outer wall only felt faintly warm, but peering through the gap at the furnace mouth, the air inside was already warped and distorted from the heat.

"So this thing's basically a pressure cooker, trapping all the heat inside," Chen Xian thought to himself, his movements growing more cautious. "No wonder it can explode—if the furnace can't take it, it's no different from a bomb."

When the dark red flame inside gradually shifted to orange-red, Chen Xian began tossing in the herbs one by one, following the recipe.

First, he put in an Origin Spirit Leaf.

In his Dao Consciousness perception, the emerald leaf rapidly withered under the high heat.

Then, strands of translucent, faintly glowing emerald-green medicinal liquid were "squeezed" out from the leaf veins, suspended at the center of the furnace flame.

As time passed, those strands of liquid slowly drew together and coalesced into a single mass.

The original withered leaf completely turned to ash and fell into the ash chamber.

"Incredible," Chen Xian watched, unable to keep up with the sight.

According to the orthodox procedure, each herb had to be repeatedly refined for a quarter-hour, thoroughly removing impurities before the essential essence could be obtained.

A quarter-hour, two quarter-hours...

What had been a fresh process grew tedious. Chen Xian counted on his fingers, yawning through the wait.

"Refining them one by one—when will this ever end?"

Chen Xian tugged at his beard. "Since all the medicinal liquids have to be kneaded together in the end anyway, why not just toss them all in at once and save the trouble?"

Looking at the remaining six herbs not yet in the furnace, his unorthodox instincts started stirring again.

Thought into action.

Chen Xian scooped up all six remaining herbs in one go and stuffed them all into the furnace mouth.

The herbs slid down the opening into the furnace, crackling and popping under the flame's roasting—but it wasn't the furnace itself making the noise.

Chen Xian felt smug. Sure enough, no furnace explosion!

But the originally smooth flow of firepower was blocked by the mass of leaves and stems.

Not only did the furnace flame fail to refine the essence liquid, it was even dimmed and suppressed a bit.

"Not enough kick? Then I'll turn up the heat!"

Chen Xian's eyes widened. He pressed his hand onto the furnace, and his Dao Power surged like a breached dam into the furnace formation.

"Boom!"

The flame inside the furnace instantly shifted from orange-red to a blinding bright white, its intensity skyrocketing.

But the next second, Chen Xian's face changed.