Upgraded Soul Ascension Pill

Opening another book, Xiao Yi began to read carefully from beginning to end.

This book was also left behind by that predecessor from 4,000 years ago, describing his attempts at alchemy in great detail.

He had first discovered this by pure chance: after placing a medicinal herb into the Ultimate Fire of his Martial Soul to sear it, he found that the herb did not vanish; as long as he controlled it consciously, it could be transformed into pure medicinal liquid.

This discovery allowed him to uncover the possibilities within.

Yet, problems soon arose; he found that simple high temperatures sometimes failed to purify the herbs, instead burning them to ash directly.

After countless attempts, he finally fumbled his way to a method of refinement, which required the use of spiritual power to control the flame temperature to ensure the herbs would not be scorched into slag.

Subsequently, he discovered a very regrettable fact: although he had created four things that could truly be called medicinal pills, no one could inherit his alchemy skills.

Three of them were already lost, as without Ultimate Fire, it was impossible to purify certain herbs, making them impossible to refine.

Feeling somewhat speechless, he realized the reason why the Douluo Continent had not developed a clear alchemy profession for so many years was actually because the fire wasn't good enough...

The only remaining legacy that could be refined was the Soul Ascension Pill, and Xiao Yi had finally found what he truly wanted.

A method of pill condensation unique to the Douluo Continent.

After finishing it, Xiao Yi remained silent for a long time, a feeling of speechlessness spreading from the bottom of his heart.

This so-called pill condensation method of the Limit Douluo was actually to use spatial abilities to forcibly construct an extremely weak spatial structure to solidify the pill into shape.

Are you kidding me? Then where did the Soul Ascension Pills of later generations come from?

Xiao Yi had no choice but to put down the book left by the Limit Douluo; clearly, what he wanted was not here, and he did not believe that all later Soul Ascension Pills had to be refined this way.

Time flowed slowly as Xiao Yi continuously searched through the archives...

One month later, in a spacious residence in Shrek City.

This was a quiet courtyard Xiao Yi had purchased, and the academy had also provided some discounts and assistance.

At this moment, Xiao Yi was sitting cross-legged in the center of the courtyard, with medicinal herbs hovering in his hands.

He had spent almost all his time in the Library Pavilion during this period, finally finding the detailed process and description for refining the Soul Ascension Pill, and only after finding the Pavilion Elder in charge of such matters at the academy did he finally clarify the key points.

This so-called alchemy process was not complicated; at its core, it was still a fire-attribute Soul Master using flames to burn herbs to extract medicinal liquid, and finally using spiritual power to control the liquid to split into threads.

These threads would swirl and circle like the patterns of a Soul Tool array, and required continuous control of their trajectory via spiritual power, allowing different medicinal liquids to intertwine and reach a balance point, eventually condensing into a pill.

Xiao Yi also discovered the reason why widely circulated pills were so scarce.

Soul Masters on the original Douluo Continent focused more on their own cultivation, so they only dared to use pills that left no major hidden dangers after impurities were removed.

It wasn't that pills with other effects couldn't be refined, but that most Soul Masters' flames could not completely remove the harmful impurities in the herbs, causing the pills to cause irreversible effects on the Soul Master's later cultivation.

The same was true for pills from the Sun Moon Continent, except they had Soul Tools to assist in refinement, which removed impurities more effectively than on the original Douluo Continent, allowing for a wider variety of pills—as for the side effects, well.

Xiao Yi was somewhat silent and speechless; it wasn't that the original Douluo Continent lacked things related to alchemy, but that there were problems with the refinement of medicinal liquid, and Soul Tool technology was insufficient, let alone researching Soul Tools to assist in refining pills.

Although he was crossing the river by feeling the stones of his predecessors, why were these stones so slippery?

Xiao Yi held his breath and focused his mind on the spot, his soul power surging. The Fallen Heart Flame ignited in an instant. As his hand seals shifted, his spiritual power and soul power merged, lifting the herbs one by one into the Fallen Heart Flame.

Controlling the flames was as natural as moving his own limbs for Xiao Yi; he did not need to divert his spiritual power to control the flame temperature.

After all, for people on the Douluo Continent, a Martial Soul was almost like another organ, so Xiao Yi only needed to control the blending of the herbs.

The medicinal liquid was purified and rotated within the flames, forming countless water spheres of different colors in the air. Threads began to split from the water spheres, heading toward the point where Xiao Yi's spiritual power converged.

The central flame formed a vortex, and the different colored medicinal liquids flowed into it, rotating into a circle. If someone were to probe it with spiritual power, they would find that these threads were all rotating around the center along special trajectories.

Compared to the original, this operation could be called earth-shattering. By blending according to the patterns on the cross-sectional plane of the circle, the effects of herbs with complementary properties could be fused better, turning addition into multiplication.

Finally, the vortex sphere shrank rapidly, and Xiao Yi took it into his palm. The Fallen Heart Flame also circled around the pill, eventually forming a green medicinal pill.

Xiao Yi let out a long breath.

"No wonder it requires at least a fire-attribute Soul King to attempt refining the most basic pills; the requirements for spiritual power are truly not low."

If Xiao Yi hadn't benefited from the naturally strong soul of a transmigrator and his eye-type Martial Soul, it would have been quite difficult to attempt this at the Soul Ancestor stage.

His current spiritual power had reached the level of a Soul Saint, which in later generations was known as the Spirit Sea Realm.

Moreover, his operation was more complex than the original Douluo Continent's methods, which was exactly what Xiao Yi needed. It was like playing a game; it wasn't just about having good computer peripherals, you still needed the skill.

Utilizing the power of the Heavenly Flame, the purification effect was incomparable to ordinary flames. Herbs that other Soul Masters were helpless against were almost putty in Xiao Yi's hands. The so-called harmful substances that affected potential? They didn't exist; they absolutely did not exist.

Looking at the high-grade Soul Ascension Pill in his hand, Xiao Yi was satisfied. He didn't rush to research new pill formulas; his current knowledge reserves and wealth could not support him in such research.

This Soul Ascension Pill was refined purely by replacing the herbs with ones of higher age. Originally, these herbs could not have their impurities completely removed by ordinary flames, so they could not be refined.

The effect of a standard Soul Ascension Pill was that one could only take one; taking more would affect one's potential, and the soul power provided could only raise one level below the Soul Elder rank.

Xiao Yi's version was completely different. It had no side effects that affected potential, though the medicinal potency was stronger and it could not be used below the Soul Elder rank. It could provide a fixed increase of one level below the Soul King rank. This was currently the most potent pill Xiao Yi had refined; the reason he didn't go higher was simply because he lacked herbs of even greater age.

He had also refined versions that provided a fixed increase of one level below the Soul Ancestor rank, and of course, the original no-side-effect version. Although this version had no side effects, it became useless if taken too much; taking more than two of each would lead to drug resistance, making any further consumption a waste—though, of course, this was still an incredibly heaven-defying item.

He had created a simple classification based on the amount of soul power increased: low, medium, and high, with the current one being the highest.

He had squandered quite a few herbs of other ages during this time, and he didn't succeed every time. Furthermore, he didn't even know the uses of some of the rare herbs in the White Tiger Duke Mansion—did the people of the Douluo Continent just eat them raw?

Xiao Yi was quite satisfied with the results. The Soul Ascension Pill was not the point; the point was that he had figured out the refinement process and researched a more perfect method of alchemy. From now on, he only needed to study the specialty herbs of the Douluo Continent, and thus, more pills would appear in this world.

Xiao Yi slowly stood up, placed the high-grade Soul Ascension Pill into a jade vial, and tucked it away into his storage Soul Tool.

During this period, he had refined several batches of Soul Ascension Pills ranging from low to high grade; aside from practicing his craft, both he and those around him could consume them, with some having mild medicinal properties and others being quite potent.

Stretching his back, Xiao Yi walked toward the house, intending to rest for a while; his life had been extremely regimented over the past month.

Every day was spent immersed in the Library Pavilion, followed by guidance from Mu En in the afternoon, and evenings were dedicated to researching the properties of medicinal herbs or refining pills here, with Tang Ya and the other occasionally dropping by so the three of them could share a meal and enjoy a brief moment of warmth.

Although Jiang Nannan was still a bit awkward, she had grown accustomed to Xiao Yi's occasional intimate gestures, and their feelings for each other were gradually heating up.

Just as he was preparing to sleep, a knock sounded at the gate of the courtyard.