Alchemy

At this moment Xiao Yu's soul had already entered the Mysterious Space. Arriving at a corner, Xiao Yu looked at the dozens of Jade Boxes before him, and his heart surged with an irrepressible excitement.

These Jade Boxes were filled entirely with Spirit Medicine he had harvested from the Forbidden Grounds; some were mature and could be used directly for alchemy, while others were immature Spirit Medicine seedlings.

With the Spirit Medicine he had picked himself plus those obtained from slaying others, the total had unknowingly grown to be this massive. If these Spirit Medicine were taken outside, even Golden Core cultivators would fight over them and desperately try to seize them.

What he needed to do next was naturally to quickly force-ripen the three main types of Spirit Medicine among them for the Foundation Establishment Pill, so he could start a furnace and practice alchemy.

During the spare time of his cultivation over the previous three years, Xiao Yu had long since force-ripened enough of the thirty-one supplementary herbs to yield quantities sufficient for refining over a hundred pills.

Thus this time he only needed to force-ripen the three main herbs, and he also had several plants of each of the mature Spirit Medicine. Thinking about force-ripening the remaining amount, it shouldn't take all that much time.

Thinking thus, after checking the other spare items, Xiao Yu exited the space and began the daily process of force-ripening Spirit Medicine and drawing Talisman.

Just like that, three months' time passed day by day very quickly.

During this period, Xiao Yu learned the Blood Refining Secret Art acquired in the Forbidden Grounds, and then used the mysterious Heavenly Book to optimize it into a new Blood Refining Secret Art. After mastering the new secret art, he simply waited to perform blood refining on his magic tools after reaching Foundation Establishment.

On this day, after dealing with the matter of the patrolling deacon's routine inspection of the Medicinal Garden, Xiao Yu gathered all the force-ripened Spirit Medicine and headed toward the Earthfire Hall!

The disciples responsible for reception and registration in the Earthfire Hall were still those few from a few months ago.

Among them, a youth with sharp eyes spotted Xiao Yu at a single glance and recognized him. Immediately he hurried up to greet him, speaking enthusiastically:

"Hello, Senior Brother! You've come again. Are you doing alchemy this time as well?"

Xiao Yu smiled and said, "Yes, I've accumulated some materials again this time, and plan to open a furnace to see if I can get some results. Right, are there still any upper-grade Earthfire Rooms empty?"

"Yes, there are! Senior Brother, please wait a moment. Alchemy requires choosing an upper-grade Earthfire Room, especially for beginners; the assistance is even more immense. Presumably, Senior Brother, you already experienced the wondrous utility of this kind of Earthfire Room last time."

While searching for a token, this youth chattered on endlessly:

"Mn, found it. The current available upper-grade Earthfire Room is only Number Twenty-Three. Senior Brother, this is the token, please keep it safe!"

Xiao Yu smiled as he took the token, paid the deposit, and after uttering words of thanks, walked toward a passageway inside the hall.

After walking for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Xiao Yu arrived at a huge underground space.

Passing by those rooms obscured by giant boulders, he arrived outside a room with a plaque hanging on the wall that read Number Twenty-Three.

Flickering the wooden plaque in his hand past the giant stone door, the giant stone door immediately rumbled and slowly opened.

Xiao Yu lifted his foot and walked into the giant stone door. Entering past the door revealed layers of cyan stone steps. Walking down the stone steps layer by layer, a moment later he arrived in a stone chamber five or six zhang wide.

In the middle of the stone chamber stood a three-chi-high stone platform. Around the platform were eight thick pillars, and cast on each pillar was a crimson dragon head about two chi in size. The dragon mouths were aimed at the platform, baring their fangs and looking very lifelike!

The layout of this Number Twenty-Three Earthfire Room was similar to the Number Twenty one used last time; it seemed that upper-grade Earthfire Rooms were much of a muchness.

Xiao Yu walked to the straw mat placed on one side of the stone chamber, sat cross-legged in meditation, and built up his energy.

This sitting lasted for half a day. When he felt that his spirit and physical strength were both at their optimal state, he opened his eyes and stood up, preparing to begin alchemy.

From his storage bag, Xiao Yu fished out the Silver Thread Cauldron, and cast a Floating Spell on its body, causing it to suspend in mid-air directly above the stone platform.

Next he struck eight red rays toward the dragon heads, spurting out the purple Earthfire from within the dragon heads.

Because no raw materials had been placed inside the cauldron yet, Xiao Yu controlled the Earthfire so that it was extremely fine and thin,

only as thick as a thread. Then he let the Silver Thread Cauldron begin to slowly rotate in mid-air under the roasting of the eight fire lines. Having had the experience of refining the Spirit-Restoring Pill last time, Xiao Yu's manipulation of the Earthfire was obviously much more proficient this time. As for the thickness of the fire lines and the spray angle, he was already able to achieve precise control without a single hair's deviation.

After the space of a quarter of an hour, the Silver Thread Cauldron had already grown burning hot, emitting an astonishingly high temperature.

Seeing this, Xiao Yu pointed at the small cauldron, whereupon the lid of the Silver Thread Cauldron immediately flew up, exposing the cauldron's mouth.

Flipping his right hand, a jade bottle appeared in his hand. What the bottle contained was the precisely portioned Spirit Medicine powder he had prepared.

To prevent failure and accumulate experience, before coming here Xiao Yu had long since divided all the Spirit Medicine according to proportions, portioning it into quantities to be refined one pill at a time. Refining only a single pill each time, it was fully enough for him to practice refining a hundred times.

He believed that amidst a hundred consecutive and uninterrupted refinements, he would surely succeed a few times!

One month after Xiao Yu returned to the sect from the Forbidden Grounds, the sect had sent him rewards, which included one Foundation Establishment Pill and hundreds of Spirit Stones.

Opening the furnace for alchemy this time, he only needed to succeed two or three times to obtain three Foundation Establishment Pills. By then, coupled with the rewarded pill and with his three-spiritual-root aptitude, relying on three or four Foundation Establishment Pills should be enough for him to succeed in Foundation Establishment.

Controlling the jade bottle, Xiao Yu poured all the medicinal powder from the bottle into the Silver Thread Cauldron, and then took out another bottle from the storage bag, continuing to repeat the exact same action.

Next, Xiao Yu poured all the dozens of required types of Spirit Medicine powder into the Silver Thread Cauldron, and finally put the lid back on.

Under Xiao Yu's manipulation, the purple fire spewed by the eight dragons changed from thin to thick, while the rotation speed of the Silver Thread Cauldron gradually slowed down, beginning to tremble slightly amidst the flames.

As time passed bit by bit, wisps of medicinal fragrance drifted out from the small cauldron, causing anyone who smelled it to feel spiritually refreshed.

However, Xiao Yu knew that forming the pills was still far off at this moment; he needed to use even fiercer Earthfire to carry out instantaneous pill condensation before pills could possibly be formed.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yu controlled the Earthfire to increase its might. Very quickly, the purple fire grew thicker and more dazzling, even reaching the thickness of a rice bowl, enveloping the entire Silver Thread Cauldron within it.

Looking from afar, one could only see a massive fireball existing in the air while the true appearance of the small cauldron could no longer be seen, and at this time the medicinal fragrance grew increasingly rich.

Xiao Yu knew that this was when the medicinal powder began to condense into pills, and thus he paid even closer attention.

Yet just a moment later, a muffled bursting sound came from within the cauldron. Although the sound was not loud, it still caused Xiao Yu's heart to sink and his complexion to look somewhat unsightly.

Sighing, he stopped the Earthfire. Then with a beckoning of his hand, he opened the lid of the still-scalding small cauldron and craned his neck to take a look.

The medicinal powder inside the cauldron had not condensed into pills; there were only a few fractured light-blue solids.

Shaking his head, Xiao Yu took out a Jade Box and placed it on the ground, then controlled the Silver Thread Cauldron to flip, pouring these waste pills into the box before storing them away properly.

Although these were shattered waste pills, he still kept them properly; perhaps they would play a role somewhere in the future.

After finishing all this, Xiao Yu returned to the straw mat to meditate until the Silver Thread Cauldron had cooled down completely, before starting alchemy once again.

The same steps, the same raw material powder, the same fire-control technique, but this time it still failed.

This time Xiao Yu's face was expressionless. After his state was adjusted, he silently began the next round...

After twenty alchemy sessions, pill condensation succeeded, but it failed when opening the furnace to retrieve the pills...

Until after forty sessions, Xiao Yu finally successfully refined a single Foundation Establishment Pill.

This Foundation Establishment Pill was identical to the one rewarded by the sect, which greatly boosted Xiao Yu's spirits!

Having this successful experience, the probability of Xiao Yu's subsequent pill condensation immediately increased, succeeding in condensing pills once out of every four refinements. As for opening the furnace, he also had close to a fifty percent chance of success.

Just like that, over two months later, when the raw materials in Xiao Yu's hands were completely exhausted, he had successfully refined fourteen Foundation Establishment Pills.