Burst Qi Realm

Chapter 48: Burst Qi Realm

"Ah, Pharmacist Lin, you're back." The young pharmacist bowed respectfully when he saw the newcomer. But when he heard what Pharmacist Lin wanted, he immediately looked troubled. "You came at a bad time, Pharmacist Lin. Alchemical Chamber A has just been taken."

"What?" Pharmacist Lin glared. "Someone's using Alchemical Chamber A? Is Old Mo back?" As he spoke, his gaze shifted toward the chamber. Zhang He's figure had just slipped inside.

Pharmacist Lin's face immediately darkened. "You said someone's using it. You don't mean that young man, do you? Hmph, you've got some nerve. You actually dared to let a pharmacist who doesn't meet the requirements use Alchemical Chamber A. Do you not want to work at the Pharmacist Association anymore?"

Pharmacist Lin knew that the people in charge of assigning alchemy chambers often took bribes and secretly let others use Chambers A and B when they were unoccupied. Normally, he turned a blind eye. But now he was in a hurry to use a chamber to process the medicinal ingredients he had just picked. And this kid actually dared to stand in his way!

Damn it!

"Ah, Pharmacist Lin, you've got me all wrong. Even if I had a hundred times more nerve, I wouldn't dare offend you. It's just that... he's a Bronze-Rank pharmacist too!" the young pharmacist said with a wry smile.

"What? He's a Bronze-Rank pharmacist too?" Pharmacist Lin's first reaction was to sneer. "I've never heard of such a young Bronze-Rank pharmacist at the Pharmacist Association. You've really got some nerve. Not only do you refuse to admit your mistake, you're trying to deceive me as well. I don't think you'll be working at the Pharmacist Association much longer!"

"How would I dare deceive you, Pharmacist Lin?" The young pharmacist was frantic. "He really is a Bronze-Rank pharmacist. Master Lu Tiao personally told me to bring him here. If you don't believe me, you can go ask Master Lu Tiao yourself. I'd never dare lie about this!"

What! Pharmacist Lin's expression changed at once. He looked toward Alchemical Chamber A, but its door was already shut, and he couldn't see inside. Still, judging by the young pharmacist's reaction, he believed that the man was telling the truth!

That back and profile he had seen belonged to someone very young! He looked to be under twenty. And he... was a Bronze-Rank pharmacist at the Pharmacist Association?

Pharmacist Lin knew from experience how hard it was to become a Bronze-Rank pharmacist.

"Could he be from one of the higher-ups? So young, yet already a Bronze-Rank pharmacist... Tsk." Pharmacist Lin thought in shock. Otherwise, why would Lu Tiao have personally arranged it?

For a moment, Pharmacist Lin's thoughts raced. After a while, he came back to himself. Seeing the young pharmacist still waiting there, he gave a cold snort. "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and prepare Alchemical Chamber B!"

Inside Alchemical Chamber A, Zhang He looked at the complete set of alchemy tools and couldn't help exclaiming, "The Pharmacist Association really is loaded. This set of alchemy tools alone must be worth a fortune."

He even saw a strainer woven from pure gold wire. In ordinary alchemy chambers, strainers were made from fine bamboo strips. When separating medicinal liquid, a bamboo strainer could contaminate the liquid, and its filtering effect was weak. A strainer woven from pure gold wire, however, not only prevented contamination but filtered several times better than one made of bamboo.

Zhang He also had a set of alchemy tools, which he had gotten from Wu Xuan. But that set was designed to be portable, so it was somewhat lacking in performance. The tools here were undoubtedly top of the line.

Using these tools posed no difficulty for Zhang He. He had experience with Wu Xuan's set, so he was already familiar with how to use them.

There was nothing difficult about refining the Mind-Clearing Pill for Zhang He. He had personally refined these pills in his previous life and had plenty of experience! He only needed to control each step and make good use of the relationship between the primary and supplementary ingredients, ensuring that each step both supported and counteracted the next. That would allow the two primary ingredients, whose properties were diametrically opposed, to balance each other and produce a successful refinement.

Zhang He first processed the medicinal ingredients. Then he began the actual refinement!

More than half a day passed, and Zhang He's expression had grown rather grim.

"Damn it, what's going on? I followed every step in the proper order. How could I still fail at the very end?"

Zhang He had already failed twice in a row. He glanced at the few ingredients he had left. The supplementary ingredients weren't a problem, but the two primary ingredients had been hard to come by. If he failed this time, he had no idea when he'd be able to gather them again.

"There's only enough left to refine one more batch. If I don't succeed, all my previous effort will have gone to waste!"

Zhang He looked at the few remaining pills, his brows slightly furrowed. Beside them lay two kinds of pills that were clearly different in color.

Both kinds of pills were red and blue. But one was mostly blue, while the other was mostly red.

"I need to think carefully about what went wrong the first two times." Zhang He quickly went over every possible mistake. The first time, the Drunken Immortal Peach's poison had overwhelmed the Six-Leaf Heart-Extinguishing Flower's poison. If someone took the pill, it would make them deliriously excited until they literally wore themselves to death. The second time, the result had been the exact opposite: the Six-Leaf Heart-Extinguishing Flower's poison had overwhelmed the Drunken Immortal Peach's. Taking that pill would immediately rob someone of all awareness, and in severe cases, leave them in a vegetative state!

"I followed the steps exactly both times. And yet... I still failed. That means the mistake couldn't have been in the process. The problem must be the amounts of the ingredients."

Zhang He's gaze fell on the two primary ingredients. After the first failure, he had assumed he'd used too much Drunken Immortal Peach, so the second time he had deliberately reduced the amount. But he had still failed.

Still, Zhang He was puzzled. He had used about the same amounts as before, so why had the results been different?

"Could the poison in these two primary ingredients be stronger than in the ones I used before?" Zhang He thought of a possible explanation.

A thought struck him. He immediately took up a cutting knife and chopped the two primary ingredients into smaller pieces. That way, their poison would be released more quickly during refinement. He was doing this to prevent the ingredients from continuing to release poison while in the mixture and ruining the refinement.

Zhang He took a deep breath. After confirming that he hadn't overlooked anything, he began the third refinement.

He added the ingredients one by one as the liquid in the furnace changed color. Once the color stabilized, it would be time to add the last ingredient, the Six-Leaf Heart-Extinguishing Flower.

A thought came to Zhang He. He didn't toss the Six-Leaf Heart-Extinguishing Flower in as he had before. Instead, he used the strainer to hold it, then lowered the flower and the strainer together into the furnace. He gently shook the strainer, which would help the liquid mix more evenly.

As Zhang He gently shook the strainer, he watched the color inside the furnace closely. When the liquid turned red and blue in roughly equal amounts, he added the last supplementary ingredient. In an instant, the liquid in the furnace turned milky white.

Zhang He held his breath and kept shaking the strainer. This was the final step, the crucial moment! The milky-white liquid churned. Suddenly, a splash of red and blue bloomed like a flower, bursting into view from within the white.

Zhang He immediately lifted the strainer without hesitation!

"It worked!" In front of Zhang He lay five brightly colored pills. Red and blue were mixed evenly throughout, giving them a distinctive beauty.

This refinement had nearly ended in complete failure. If Zhang He hadn't come up with a countermeasure at the last moment, this final attempt could very well have failed too.

"I refined the Mind-Clearing Pill successfully. I have a good chance of breaking through to the fourth stage of the True Martial Realm, the Burst Qi Realm!" Zhang He was so excited that he could no longer suppress his burning desire to break through right away.

"Why not break through right here!" Zhang He picked up a pill and swallowed it.

The true qi inside his body circulated slowly, gradually spreading through most of his meridians.

As soon as the pill entered his stomach, Zhang He felt a strange force spread out, quickly enveloping his entire body. At that moment, his mind became incredibly sharp and more powerful.

He could clearly feel the true qi circulating through his meridians.

"To reach the fourth stage, the Burst Qi Realm, I need to 'fuse' my mind with my true qi." Zhang He knew exactly how to control his mind and true qi and make them "fuse." Now that he had taken the Mind-Clearing Pill, he could control his mental power with even greater precision, making it easy to guide.

Zhang He had plenty of experience in bringing his mind and true qi together. Once all the conditions were met, the rest would come naturally.

Zhang He's awareness kept brushing against his true qi.

Gradually, a strange sensation rose in his heart.

His eyes were closed, yet he felt an image of his internal organs appear before him. He could clearly see every powerful beat of his heart.

"Inner vision! This is what it looks like when the mind and true qi fuse!" Zhang He couldn't help feeling excited. He had succeeded! Being able to see inside himself meant his mind had fused with his true qi.

The true qi in his body sped up, surging toward the surface.

Whoosh!

The air around him suddenly stirred. Three inches from Zhang He's skin, a thick layer of blood-red qi appeared.

True qi had burst from his body!

Zhang He opened his eyes and focused on the floor three feet in front of him. He flicked a finger. Swoosh! A faint haze of dust rose from the hard bluestone floor. A small hole, as wide as a finger, had clearly appeared there, its edges smooth and its interior pitch-black. No one could tell how deep it went.

A true-qi attack from a distance! This was the power of the Burst Qi Realm!