Refining a Ball

"Crackle, pop!"

Another burst of splitting sounds like a string of firecrackers came from inside the furnace, the medicinal herbs instantly scorched to dry grass by the bright white flame.

Two different types of concentrated essence liquid rapidly separated out, then turned into medicinal mist under the high heat.

The mist clumped together but couldn't condense into liquid, and the heavy bronze lid began to bounce up and down erratically.

Wave after wave of violent, chaotic Dao Power fluctuations slammed against the furnace walls, rattling Chen Xian's hands numb.

"Damn, it's not really going to explode, is it!"

Chen Xian yelped, pulling his hands back and instinctively jumping two steps away.

He stared at the furnace, which was shaking violently under the moonlight and giving off a dangerous red glow, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

He fished out the jade slip Lei Qingyang had given him from the Jade Ring and held it in front of him for protection.

This pill formula never said tossing everything in at once would turn it into a double-banger!

The sudden surge in heat had caused herbs with different properties to clash violently in a short time.

The cold nature of the Bitter Cold Grass and the dry nature of the Origin Spirit Leaf rampaged against each other in the cramped furnace chamber, like ice meeting hot oil—neither willing to back down.

"Steady! Steady!"

A stubborn, unyielding look flashed across Chen Xian's face. He let out a low shout, stepped forward again, and pressed his hand against the now-scalding furnace wall.

Gritting his teeth against the burn, he tried to use his Dao Consciousness to lower the heat.

The flame calmed slightly, but the medicinal mist inside the furnace kept colliding. The moment it started to coalesce, it would violently burst apart again, shaking the furnace with it.

"Merge!"

Chen Xian's murky old eyes snapped wide open, the veins on the back of his hands bulging like twisted vines, as if he was trying to force his strength through the furnace and forcibly knead that mass of mist together.

Using the furnace as a medium, his Dao Consciousness wrapped around the medicinal mist to stop the collisions, but the rapid consumption sent sharp pain through his sea of consciousness.

Chen Xian freed one hand and took out a bottle of Consciousness Returning Pills.

One bottle of Consciousness Returning Pills cost three hundred taels, far more than the value of this batch of herbs.

But Chen Xian didn't hesitate, pouring the entire bottle into his mouth.

"I don't believe I can't even refine a first-grade pill!"

The surging medicinal power instantly flooded his spiritual platform, and his Dao Consciousness swelled.

The "great hand" holding the mist inside the furnace suddenly grew dozens of times stronger, and the two different types of medicinal mist actually began to frantically merge and condense...

Along with the few drops of liquid essence already refined earlier, they all fused into one.

Feeling the mass of liquid in the furnace, about the size of a fist, Chen Xian's eyes hardened: "To hell with it!"

He threw in the last herb, the Sweet Blood Vine.

The fierce flame instantly burned the Sweet Blood Vine to ash, leaving behind only a large glob of blood-red liquid.

Now completely focused, Chen Xian suddenly felt an incredibly strong control over the furnace.

It was like a second pair of hands extending from himself—he could control the heat and the liquid inside however he wanted.

The two large masses of different liquid slowly approached each other, and surprisingly, they didn't resist.

They merged into a single milky-white liquid!

The furnace, which had been shaking constantly, fell silent, with only the flame flickering.

"Take shape!" With a clear mind, Chen Xian instinctively knew this was the final step.

He followed his intuition to control the temperature inside the furnace. The white flame gradually turned orange-yellow, then deep red... while the temperature steadily dropped.

That milky-white liquid shrank in volume under the licking flames, gradually becoming denser.

"Phew... I knew alchemy wasn't that hard!"

Feeling the calm furnace and the gentle heat simmering the pill liquid, Chen Xian let out a long breath, relieved.

Close call—it almost really blew up.

He pulled back his reddened palm and stared quietly at the pill liquid slowly rotating in the flame.

Suddenly, he frowned, his expression turning strange.

"Tch... something's not right. Doesn't it say alchemists usually get several pills per batch? Why do I only have one?"

Chen Xian tugged at his beard, staring at the liquid that had shrunk to the size of a fist and stopped, a bad feeling creeping up on him.

The moon in the sky crept slowly until it was directly overhead.

The flame inside the furnace went out completely, leaving only residual heat to warm the pill.

"I have to wait another quarter-hour, or it'll crack?"

Chen Xian glanced at the pill formula instructions, suppressing his urge to grab the pill immediately, and waited patiently.

Finally, a quarter-hour passed.

He opened the furnace lid, reached inside, and immediately touched the Qi Induction Pill.

"Sigh... it's over."

The feel was completely off, and Chen Xian sucked in another sharp breath of cold air.

"I dare not open my eyes; I hope this is just my imagination..."

He closed his eyes and took the pill out.

In appearance, it was no different from an ordinary Qi Induction Pill—except for its size... it was at least ten to twenty times larger than a normal one.

You see, a standard Qi Induction Pill was only the size of a pinky finger joint, yet the one in his palm was a full fist-sized lump!

"What the hell, I spent three hundred taels to forge a billiard ball?"

Chen Xian pressed his forehead, unable to believe this was the final product.

But facts were facts.

He just didn't know if it still retained the medicinal effects of a Qi Induction Pill. After studying it for a while, he didn't dare try it himself.

The effect of the Consciousness Returning Pill had worn off, and he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his mind.

Rummaging through his home, he found a large wooden box, packed the Qi Induction Pill Plus version inside, then dove straight into his bed, burying his head to sleep.

The next morning.

Normally, Chen Xian would attend Elder Wu's lectures, listening to his explanations of the Dao Disciple realm's cultivation methods.

But this morning, Chen Xian didn't go.

"The outer sect still has a disciple this old?"

Qiu Daowen, the elder of the outer sect's Pill Hall, rubbed his eyes, unable to believe that an old man with graying hair was sitting in the back row after today's morning lesson.

He looked closer—bah!

He thought it was someone else; turns out it was the uncle-master.

Usually, the uncle-master went to Elder Wu's lectures; he had no idea why he'd come to his today.

Could it be that the uncle-master, restarting his cultivation, wanted to switch to the pill path?

Qiu Daowen couldn't figure it out, but the morning bell had already rung with a "Clang! Clang! Clang!", so he had to start his lecture.

Because there was an overseer today, he taught with exceptional care, breaking down the basic knowledge he'd already explained dozens or hundreds of times into even finer details.

Chen Xian sat in the back row, nodding along continuously.

He finally understood why the Qi Induction Pill he'd refined had turned out so huge.

It was because he'd skipped the liquid separation step.

The reason the Qi Induction Pill recipe called for five portions of Origin Spirit Leaf and five portions of Bitter Cold Grass was that one Sweet Blood Vine could exactly neutralize that much medicinal power.

These ingredients could yield ten to fifteen Qi Induction Pills per furnace.

He hadn't separated the liquid in advance and had forcibly combined the pill, so naturally, he only got a billiard ball that size.

"I really need to attend more lectures..." Chen Xian sighed inwardly.

If it hadn't been for his Masterful Pill Crafting talent assisting him at the time, he'd have been lucky just to avoid a furnace explosion, let alone form a pill!

The morning lesson lasted only one hour.

After the disciples finished listening, they each went their separate ways.

Qiu Daowen was tidying up his lecture notes on the podium when suddenly someone handed him a wooden box.

His face stiffened: "This elder has said it many times—I don't accept gifts."

Yet when the box opened, a massive white ball burst into his view.

"This... what is this?"

Elder Qiu frowned deeply, feeling that the white ball before him looked very familiar.

Standing beside him, Chen Xian grinned: "Elder Qiu, how about taking a look for this old man and telling me what grade this Qi Induction Pill is?"

Elder Qiu was shocked: "Uncle-master, why did you refine a ball?"