Alchemy

A month later.

Deep within Tiger Hill Mountain, Zhang Ping's cave dwelling.

The dark green demonic snake at the outer cave remained lazily coiled beneath the cliff.

It was naturally unaware that deep within the cave guarded by its massive body, there was a hidden stone chamber protected by a concealment formation.

Anyone wishing to force their way in from the front would first have to get past this ferocious "gatekeeper."

Xia Dong, meanwhile, had silently slipped into the secret chamber through the hidden underwater passage.

In the center of the chamber now stood a bronze alchemy furnace, a zhang tall with three legs and two ears.

Xia Dong had exhausted every ounce of his strength to move this behemoth inside.

This was a low-grade Dharma artifact furnace; while its rank was not high, it was a specialized auxiliary tool and thus quite expensive.

Its greatest drawback was that it could not shrink or expand at will like the legendary immortal treasures.

In the common knowledge of the cultivation world, only top-grade Dharma artifacts could be resized at will. As for "Spirit Artifacts" above the level of Dharma artifacts, they could only be forged by great cultivators who had successfully opened their "Purple Mansion."

According to the cultivation knowledge Xia Dong had acquired so far, opening the Purple Mansion was the entry ticket to the "Spirit Transformation" realm.

Without successfully opening the Purple Mansion, even if one managed to form a golden core, the end of one's life would be the Nascent Soul Realm.

Xia Dong looked at the giant furnace and sighed inwardly. The Storage Pouch he had obtained from Zhang Ping's remains had an internal space of only three feet square and could not possibly fit the furnace.

The size of a furnace had nothing to do with its rank.

On the contrary, because its rank was low, it had to be built larger to remain functional.

In truth, Storage Pouchs were extremely precious items in the resource-scarce cultivation world of today; ordinary rogue cultivators dared not even dream of them, and they were generally only possessed by cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining.

However, the Qixia Immortal Sect had a deep foundation, and with fewer inner disciples being recruited, Qin Wan had only just broken through to the fourth level of Qi Refining when True Person Lone Moon bestowed upon her a Storage Pouch with over a zhang and two feet of space, which was just enough to hold this furnace.

Xia Dong naturally would not expose the secret that he had already cultivated spiritual power and divine sense in front of Qin Wan. After receiving the furnace from her, he relied on his astonishing physical strength and the Wind-Riding Technique to bring it to Tiger Hill Mountain, dragging it bit by bit through the underwater passage into the secret chamber.

Fortunately, everything was finally prepared.

Over the past month, Xia Dong had quietly collected most of the auxiliary herbs needed for the "Qi-Gathering Pill" through the He Family's medicinal channels, while the few main ingredients that truly contained spiritual energy were obtained by asking Qin Wan to procure them from the Immortal Sect's Marketplace.

With everything ready, Xia Dong took a deep breath and began the first alchemy attempt of his life.

He threw the purchased "Spirit Firewood" into the bottom of the furnace and rubbed his hands using the Dragon-Capturing Hand, igniting the wood.

Whoosh!

A dark blue flame instantly flared up, and the temperature in the secret chamber rose sharply.

Only after truly beginning to refine pills did Xia Dong deeply understand what the Basic Alchemy Sutra meant by "fire control is the soul of the alchemy path."

The difficulty involved was simply outrageous.

The first challenge was the precise control of the heat.

Xia Dong not only had to sense the furnace temperature with his divine sense but also had to multitask, using his spiritual power to manipulate the vents beneath the furnace to precisely control the airflow and regulate the fire.

If the wind was a fraction too strong, the Spirit Firewood would burn too fiercely, and the herbs would instantly turn to ash; if the wind was a hair too weak, the heat would be insufficient, and the medicinal properties of the herbs could not be fully activated.

Xia Dong's divine sense was like an invisible, dense net, completely enveloping the inside and outside of the entire furnace.

"First ingredient, Purple Orchid Leaf."

Xia Dong focused his mind, using his divine sense to wrap a purple spirit herb and toss it into the furnace. Under the meticulous control of his divine sense, the flames instantly engulfed it. Xia Dong had to wait for the exact moment before the leaf turned to ash to use his divine sense to forcibly strip away the drop of deep purple medicinal essence, suspending it in mid-air within the furnace while discarding all impurities and waste.

Refining just this one main ingredient consumed a great deal of Xia Dong's mental energy.

Next came the second, the third... the auxiliary herbs.

As more and more medicinal liquid floated within the furnace, the most dangerous and difficult step, "pill fusion," arrived.

Different herbs had vastly different properties; some were fire-aspected, others water-aspected. Forcing them to blend together was extremely difficult.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

As the two drops of medicinal liquid touched under the pressure of his divine sense, a violent repulsive force erupted from within the furnace, and the wild fluctuations of spiritual energy nearly broke through Xia Dong's divine sense blockade.

"Hold it down!"

Xia Dong gritted his teeth. His divine sense acted like two invisible hands, gripping the volatile medicinal liquids tightly. While using the flames to search for their equilibrium point, he forcibly kneaded and fused them together.

A sharp pain radiated through his brain. This level of micro-manipulation and tension on his divine sense was ten times more intense than when he was crafting talismans.

Just as the medicinal liquid was about to fuse into the shape of a pill, a small spark suddenly burst from the Spirit Firewood at the bottom of the furnace, causing a tiny, localized fluctuation in temperature.

Because of this single fluctuation, the medicinal liquid, which had been barely maintaining its balance, instantly spiraled out of control.

Bang!

A dull explosion echoed from within the furnace.

A pungent, burnt odor spewed out through the furnace's exhaust vents, filling the entire secret chamber.

He had failed.

Xia Dong looked as if he had been fished out of water, leaning exhaustedly against the cold stone wall to steady his breathing.

Looking at the charred pile of waste at the bottom of the furnace, Xia Dong offered a bitter smile, yet a sense of realization stirred within him.

If not for the fortuitous circumstance that allowed him to cultivate his divine sense early, reaching the strength of the fifth level of Qi Refining, and further tempering that sense through talisman-making to enhance its resilience, he would have failed.

Otherwise, for such highly demanding, delicate work, even if an ordinary martial artist or low-level cultivator were given ten thousand years, they would never be able to refine a single batch of pills.

No wonder the cultivation world often says, "Of the hundred arts of immortality, all are based on divine sense."

Whether it is drawing talismans, setting arrays, forging artifacts, or refining pills, without the precise control of divine sense, everything is but empty talk.

"Again!"

Xia Dong was not discouraged. After resting briefly to recover, he grabbed another handful of Spirit Firewood and resolutely tossed it into the massive bronze pill furnace.

Inside the secret chamber, the acrid smell of burning had become so thick it was almost suffocating.

He had lost count of how many times he had failed.

Xia Dong sat cross-legged before the giant bronze pill furnace, his eyes bloodshot. Days of sleepless, relentless effort had left his expression etched with deep fatigue.

The consumption required for alchemy was far more terrifying than he had anticipated.

The main ingredients Qin Wan had obtained for him, along with the auxiliary ingredients gathered by the He Family, had vanished like flowing water over this past month, ending up as waste at the bottom of the furnace.

The Spirit Firewood was also down to its last few pieces.

Every "furnace explosion" or failure caused by conflicting medicinal properties pushed his mana and divine sense to their absolute limits.

If not for the innate "Qi" condensed by the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art constantly protecting his internal organs and nourishing his mind, he would have long since suffered a mental breakdown or fallen into a state of cultivation deviation.

"Only enough materials left for three more attempts."

Xia Dong took a deep breath, not rushing to act.

He closed his eyes and circulated the Evergreen Qi-Circulation Art, allowing the boiling blood and mana within his body to settle completely, entering a state of "embryonic breathing" as still as an ancient well.

Once his essence, energy, and spirit climbed back to their peak, he snapped his eyes open. The force of his Dragon-Capturing Hand flickered out, and the dark blue pill fire roared to life at the bottom of the furnace once more.

His fifth-level Qi Refining divine sense acted like an airtight net, instantly seizing absolute control over every minute corner inside the pill furnace.

"Purple Orchid Leaf, go!"

"Century Blood Ginseng, go!"

"Silver Moon Grass..."

Xia Dong methodically tossed the medicinal herbs into the furnace one by one.

Having failed so many times before, he could now pinpoint the melting point and the exact moment to strip away the impurities of each herb even with his eyes closed.

Purification, impurity removal, suspension.

Soon, over a dozen droplets of various colors, radiating pure medicinal fragrance, floated in the center of the furnace.

The most difficult step, "pill fusion," had arrived once again.

Xia Dong held his breath, his divine sense transforming into countless microscopic tentacles, cautiously guiding the conflicting medicinal liquids toward one another.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

The moment the liquids touched, a violent repulsive force erupted. The spiritual energy inside the furnace instantly turned volatile, threatening an explosion at any moment.

"Suppress it!"

Xia Dong gritted his teeth, pouring every ounce of soul power from his sea of consciousness into the effort.

While using his divine sense to forcibly knead the volatile liquids together, he controlled the fire at the bottom of the furnace with extreme precision—sometimes using a fierce martial fire, other times a gentle civil fire—searching for that subtle point of balance amidst the extreme conflict.

Sweat rolled down his cheeks, evaporating the instant it hit the scorching stone floor.

One incense stick of time, half an hour, an hour...

As the last piece of Spirit Firewood turned to ash, the mass of twisting, struggling medicinal liquid inside the furnace finally ceased its agitation under the dual tempering of his divine sense and the fire, merging into a uniform clump.

"Condense!"

Xia Dong's hands abruptly formed a seal, and the last of the Mysterious Yin Mana in his dantian was poured into the furnace.

Hum.

Accompanied by a dull, strange vibration from within the furnace, the previously violent spiritual energy instantly retracted.

A rich, mellow pill fragrance, distinct from the raw scent of herbs, surged out from the furnace's vents, sweeping away the acrid smell of burning in the chamber.

It was a success!

Xia Dong didn't bother wiping the sweat from his forehead. He stood up abruptly, flicked his sleeve, and the heavy bronze lid moved aside with a boom.

He leaned in to look.

There, resting quietly at the bottom of the massive furnace, were three pills the size of soybeans.

These three Qi-Gathering Pills were not as smooth, translucent, or cloud-patterned as the ones Qin Wan had given him. Their color was somewhat dull, their surfaces were pitted, and the spiritual energy fluctuations they emitted were rather impure.

"The quality is very mediocre; it can barely be considered a success, not even reaching the standard of a decent low-grade pill..."

Xia Dong pinched one between his fingers and examined it closely, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward, eventually breaking into a burst of genuinely joyful laughter.

He had done it!

He had forcibly crossed the threshold of alchemy, the most difficult of the hundred arts of cultivation.

Whether these few pills were ugly or what their quality might be was completely irrelevant to Xia Dong right now. Because, at the very moment the pills formed:

"CLANG!"

Deep within his sea of consciousness, that long-dormant, mottled Bronze Ancient Bell let out a clear, resonant chime that struck directly at his soul.

Talent: One Proof Eternal Proof.

Throughout the hours-long alchemy process just now, every minute adjustment of the heat, every fraction of divine sense used for precise suppression, every perfect opportunity for the fusion of medicinal properties... were forcibly branded into the deepest parts of Xia Dong's soul and muscle memory, as if carved by blade and axe.

From this moment on, refining a Qi-Gathering Pill was no longer a matter of groping in the dark and relying on luck for him.

As long as he had the materials, this entire alchemy process would be perfectly replicated by him.

Immediately, Xia Dong placed these three "inferior" Qi-Gathering Pills, which held such extraordinary significance, into a jade bottle.