Heaven-Defying Effect

Ning Fa's eyes widened as he carefully examined the few spiritual herbs and recognized them with ease.

"Wood Bell Flower, Water Heart Grass, Cold Jade Leaf..."

"These are all... materials for refining Essence Replenishing Pills!?"

Ning Fa cried out in surprise. His predecessor had refined Essence Replenishing Pills countless times, so the memories ran deep. He recognized them at a glance.

He frowned tightly at the patterns on the Mysterious Scroll. Above were five Failed Essence Replenishing Pills, while below were illustrations of seven kinds of spiritual herbs connected by white lines.

A bold idea gradually took shape in Ning Fa's mind, making his heart pound violently.

With that thought, he held his breath and lightly touched the illustrations of the seven spiritual herbs below.

The herb patterns abruptly turned into a mass of white light, then shot into Ning Fa's hand and wrapped around the five Failed Pills.

Ning Fa hastily withdrew his hand. Only that ball of white light remained, floating in the air, countless tiny runes faintly flashing within it without pause.

Three breaths later, the white light dispersed. The five Essence Replenishing Pills in the air had vanished, replaced by several spiritual herbs of varying forms floating quietly in midair.

They were precisely the seven spiritual herbs needed to refine Essence Replenishing Pills—not one more, not one less.

Ning Fa swallowed, then pinched himself. He cried out in pain, yet his face broke into wild joy.

His guess had actually been right. This Mysterious Scroll could truly restore Failed Essence Replenishing Pills into the materials used to refine them!

Though Ning Fa had only just arrived here, after merging with his predecessor's memories, he knew that restoring Failed Pills into spiritual materials—

—even in this unfathomable Cultivation World, was absolutely beyond belief, something that fundamentally violated cultivators' common sense.

Yet it had happened right before Ning Fa's eyes, as real as life itself. He had no choice but to believe it.

And the use of this restoration was obvious: it allowed him to use these spiritual materials again to refine pills anew.

And if he made an even bolder guess—once he refined these materials into Failed Essence Replenishing Pills again, could he use the Mysterious Scroll to restore those Failed Pills back into these materials once more?

Wouldn't that mean that a single set of Essence Replenishing Pill materials could be used repeatedly, allowing him to keep refining pills forever?

One had to know that becoming an alchemist was difficult not merely because pill refinement required talent.

In truth, it was even more a matter of practice making perfect, one that demanded vast quantities of spiritual materials for training.

The materials for refining pills were generally precious spiritual herbs that needed a certain number of years to mature, and their value was no small matter. Thus, ordinary cultivators found it difficult to obtain enough materials to learn pill refinement.

Even a Foundation Establishment Family of considerable size like the Ning Clan could barely support the material needs of only a handful of alchemists.

This made the heaven-defying effect of the Mysterious Scroll's ability to restore spiritual materials all the more apparent. It was equivalent to saving Ning Fa countless expenses on purchasing pill-refining materials.

At that thought, Ning Fa's heart grew blazing hot. With the help of this Mysterious Scroll, he saw hope of truly refining Essence Replenishing Pills successfully.

If that happened, he would have a chance to become the clan's alchemist—and then he could win his wager with Ning Huarong!

Ning Fa suppressed his excitement and studied the Mysterious Scroll before him again.

The scroll was now completely blank. The mysterious White Runes no longer flickered, leaving only those enigmatic patterns behind.

Ning Fa tried touching the scroll. It immediately turned into a mass of white light and sank back into his right arm, becoming that long white mark.

When Ning Fa touched the white mark again, it transformed back into the Mysterious Scroll.

Ning Fa let out a soft breath. It seemed that the Mysterious Scroll could be used repeatedly.

But he no longer had any extra Failed Pills in hand, so he could not test it again.

His predecessor had refined quite a few Failed Pills before, but he had sold them all.

Though Failed Pills were far less effective than successfully refined pills and carried certain side effects, they were correspondingly cheap and remained quite popular among low-level cultivators with empty pockets.

Although he could not test it again for now, the ready-made spiritual materials were right here. He only needed to refine more Failed Essence Replenishing Pills.

Ning Fa chuckled, his confidence soaring.

Time waited for no one. Ning Fa immediately began preparing to refine pills again.

He first tidied up the pill room, returned the small pill furnace to its original place, then sat before it and pondered quietly for a moment.

He did not rush to begin. Instead, he closed his eyes and searched through his predecessor's memories of pill refinement, carefully experiencing them. After all, he possessed only the memories and had never truly done it himself.

Three hours later, Ning Fa was certain that he had committed every step of refining Essence Replenishing Pills to heart.

Then he took a deep breath. His hand seals shifted as incantations flowed continuously from his mouth. He was somewhat unfamiliar with them at first, but he soon managed to correctly cast one hand seal after another in various colors, sending them onto the spiritual herbs floating in the air.

Enveloped by the light produced by the hand seals, the herbs gradually began to change shape, slowly turning into clumps of liquid.

Joy flashed across Ning Fa's face. The first step of pill refinement, extracting the spiritual materials, appeared to be proceeding smoothly.

Next, he struck another hand seal at several pitch-black stones beneath the pill furnace. The black stones immediately released blue flames that blazed fiercely.

These were Black Nitre Stones. They could burn for a long time and served as a source of fire when refining low-grade pills.

After all, Qi Refining Cultivators were too low in cultivation to produce Innate Spiritual Fire within their bodies for pill refinement.

Ning Fa's hand seals did not stop. One moment he sent them toward the spiritual materials floating in the air, the next toward the pill furnace.

Throughout the process, his movements gradually became more practiced.

About half an hour later, the spiritual materials had finally been fully extracted, and the pill furnace had finished preheating.

Ning Fa's eyes lit up. He took a deep breath and pointed from afar at the liquid spiritual materials suspended in the air. A mass of green spiritual liquid immediately flew straight into the pill furnace.

Ning Fa hurriedly cast a hand seal into the pill furnace. Without even bothering to wipe the sweat from his face, he counted the time in his heart. At the tenth breath, he hastily added the second spiritual liquid, then waited another sixty breaths before adding the third.

In this manner, Ning Fa gradually added all the spiritual liquids into the pill furnace, while the hand seals in his hands never ceased.

Yet unease stirred faintly in his heart, because he felt that the intervals between adding the last few spiritual materials seemed to have become a little too long.

Distracted by this thought, he even cast the final hand seal incorrectly. A muffled bang sounded from within the pill furnace, followed by a burnt smell.

Ning Fa's expression froze. He knew that this pill refinement attempt had most likely failed.

He opened the pill furnace and waited for the heat to dissipate. Inside lay only a charred black mass. It had not even taken the shape of pills, falling far short of even becoming Failed Pills.

Ning Fa sighed, but he was not too disappointed. After all, this was his first time refining pills. Even with the memories, mistakes were still unavoidable.