Pill refining

After a night had passed, dawn was approaching.

As usual, Lin Yun finished refining a wisp of great sun purple qi, then strolled over to the Dew-Catching Plate.

A faint, hazy layer of clear light shimmered over the Dew-Catching Plate, and a shallow pool of dew lay within it.

Seeing the specks of golden and silver starlight shimmering in the dew, Lin Yun clapped his hands and laughed. "It worked!"

He immediately took out a jade vial and formed a hand seal to draw the dew toward it. The Yin-Yang Dew in the Dew-Catching Plate turned into a silver thread and flowed into the vial.

After putting away the Dew-Catching Plate, Lin Yun immediately returned to his cave abode to begin refining pills.

He took out an alchemy furnace half as tall as a person and several medicinal herbs, then drew a strand of solar true fire from the golden lamp and placed it in the furnace to warm it in preparation for the actual refining.

The pill-refining art Lin Yun had learned came from the Pure Yang Alchemy Canon passed down by the Pure Yang Perfected One, Lü Dongbin. On the surface, this canon was a Daoist scripture explaining the mysteries of the Zhong-Lü inner alchemy way, but within the Danding Lineage, internal and external alchemy had never been separate.

As a patriarch of the Danding Lineage who had carried forward the past and opened the way for the future, the Pure Yang Perfected One had written his canon solely about the practice of internal alchemy. Yet with careful contemplation, the wonders of External Pill alchemy also revealed themselves within its pages.

Lin Yun had inherited the entirety of the Pure Yang Alchemy Dao tradition, so although this was his first time firing up a furnace to refine pills, his techniques were exceptionally practiced.

After warming the furnace, Lin Yun placed the golden lamp beneath it to provide the true fire for refining. He then added the herbs one by one, his hands constantly forming seals as he alternated between controlling the solar true fire, the furnace, and the herbs inside.

Under his careful control, the herbs in the furnace melted completely into separate masses of medicinal liquid in less than an hour.

Observing the medicinal liquid in the furnace through his spiritual sense, Lin Yun suddenly pondered for a moment. A gleam of understanding flashed in his eyes, and he murmured thoughtfully, "So that was what the canon meant!"

"Internal and External Pill alchemy both imitate the opening of heaven and earth and the evolution of primordial qi. These herbs, too, were created by the primordial qi of heaven and earth. In the Dao of primordial qi, heaven attains the One and becomes clear, earth attains the One and becomes tranquil, valleys attain the One and become full, and people attain the One and gain everlasting life. This is the fundamental principle of qi refinement. It applies to refining qi, and it applies to refining pills. Refining pills is refining qi! In that case..."

At this thought, Lin Yun hesitated no longer. He sent a stream of pure true qi into the furnace and used a qi-refining method to draw a wisp of the surrounding primordial qi of heaven and earth inside.

As the primordial qi of heaven and earth merged with the medicinal liquid, the liquid rapidly transformed into wisps of vital qi with only subtle differences in color.

These wisps of medicinal vital qi then began combining in orderly patterns, some gathering into masses alone, others joining in pairs, and still others in threes...

Once all the vital qi in the furnace had gathered into masses, Lin Yun took out the jade vial containing the Yin-Yang Dew, his expression unchanged. Under his control, the Yin-Yang Dew swooped into the furnace like a young swallow flying into an embrace.

The moment the dew entered the furnace, the strand of solar true fire inside rushed into it. Water and fire, Kan and Li, joined in mutual harmony. They swiftly transformed into wisps of vital qi that carried the specks of golden and silver starlight from the dew and wrapped around the masses of vital qi in the furnace.

As the qi of Kan and Li enveloped the masses of vital qi together with the essences of the sun and moon, the masses immediately spun, absorbing all the surrounding qi of Kan and Li and the solar and lunar essences. They then transformed into pills of various colors and sizes, lustrous as jade.

At this point, the spirit pills were already complete, and every single one was of the finest quality.

But Lin Yun was not satisfied. Having grasped the wonders of the Alchemy Dao, he eagerly began trying another alchemical method-the Reversion Elixir Technique!

He pointed at the golden lamp beneath the furnace, and the mung-bean-sized solar true fire within it suddenly swelled to the size of a small ball. At the same time, the pills in the furnace began trembling. Lin Yun clapped his hands again and sent another stream of pure true qi into the furnace.

The pills immediately burst apart, turning once more into wisps of medicinal vital qi with differing properties. The clear rose and the turbid sank, with the clear qi ascending to the top of the furnace and the turbid qi descending to its bottom, like the opening of heaven and earth.

The seals in Lin Yun's hands began changing again. The clear qi transformed into raindrops and descended, while the turbid qi began to rise. When the two met in the middle of the furnace, the subtle streams of vital qi began combining of their own accord, turning into pills once more.

Unlike the previous batch, although these pills still varied in color and size, each was translucent and flawless, without a trace of extraneous color, like gemstones of different hues. Their number also exceeded that of the previous batch.

Seeing this, Lin Yun immediately drew the solar true fire back into the golden lamp, lest the fiery qi surge upward and ruin the spirit pills. Only after putting away the lamp did he open the furnace.

"Open!"

As the furnace opened, a stream of cloudy qi rose from within, bearing the pills into the air and gathering into an auspicious white cloud shaped like a lingzhi mushroom.

Lin Yun laughed heartily and took out several pill bottles. He reached out, grasped the mushroom's stem, and gave it a gentle shake. The cloud mushroom dispersed, becoming a translucent film around the pills. This pill coating, formed from the cloudy qi produced by the herbs' impurities, would keep the pills' qi from dissipating. After a pill was swallowed, the coating would turn into a breath of impure qi and be expelled from the body through breathing.

With a series of crisp, pleasant clinks, the pills of different colors fell into their respective bottles.

As he sorted the pills into bottles, Lin Yun silently concluded, Using the Reversion Elixir Technique to refine pills of this grade serves no purpose beyond wasting true qi. There's no need to do this when refining pills in the future.

After putting away all the pill bottles, Lin Yun picked up a red pill and swallowed it. Drawing on its medicinal power, he assumed a strange pose resembling an ape scooping up the moon and began practicing the White Yang Diagram.

A good while later, Lin Yun slowly finished his practice. A satisfied smile appeared on his face, and he could not help saying, "All those twists and turns and all that hard work weren't in vain. At last, I can continue cultivating."

Thinking of how all his efforts from beginning to end had taken nearly five months just to produce one furnace of pills, Lin Yun shook his head and said, "It's time to return to Yellow Maple Valley."

Low-ranking disciples of Yellow Maple Valley had to complete one assignment issued by the Hundred Mechanisms Hall every month. Before leaving Yellow Maple Valley, Lin Yun had used a medicinal herb nearly a hundred years old to bribe Elder Ye's grandnephew, who was at the qi refining stage, asking him to help postpone his assignments for half a year. With that deadline now approaching, it was time to return to Yellow Maple Valley.

After calculating the time, Lin Yun delayed no further. He immediately summoned the Five-Metal Sword Embryo, merged his body with its sword light, and became a streak of clear, cold sword light, flying toward Yellow Maple Valley with the sword-escape technique.

Although the Five-Metal Sword Embryo was only an embryo, it was a flying sword embryo Lin Yun had forged using the sword-refining methods of the Zu Mountain world. It possessed all the basic functions of a flying sword and now counted as a high-grade dharma artifact.

For instance, this sword-riding method of merging his body

with the sword light to fly was faster than the Leaf-Shaped Dharma Artifact by who knew how many times.

Trying sword-riding flight for the first time, Lin Yun practiced the sword-control art along the way, progressing from scattered sword light to tightly contained sword light.

Only when he reached a point three hundred li outside Yellow Maple Valley did he disperse the sword light and switch back to his original Leaf-Shaped Dharma Artifact, flying leisurely back to Yellow Maple Valley.

After returning to Yellow Maple Valley, Lin Yun did not rush to the Hundred Mechanisms Hall to return his travel token. Instead, he first returned to his cave abode on Mystic Kun Mountain and casually refined another furnace of pills for Strengthening the Foundation and Nourishing the Origin, using several herbs that were not particularly old. Only then did he make his unhurried way to the Hundred Mechanisms Hall.