The Difficulty of Alchemy

Inside the Red Medicine Cauldron, silver-white flames reflected off the surrounding walls, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws like ghosts.

Ye Chen's expression was solemn, and he felt a little nervous...

There was no helping it. After all, this was his first time personally trying it. Even though he had already memorized everything by heart, and the Old Ancestor was beside him to remind him at any time, he still got nervous when it was time to be nervous.

"Don't rush. Take it slow. First, get familiar with this medicine cauldron..." the Old Ancestor's gentle voice sounded by his ear, easing much of the tension in Ye Chen's heart.

Under Ye Chen's control, the flame circled once inside the medicine cauldron, evenly raising the temperature within, then hovered at the center of the cauldron, waiting for medicinal materials to be added.

For Ye Chen, who possessed Starfire, he had already gained a huge advantage in this first step of alchemy.

One had to know that even after reaching the Dou Master level, many people still could not condense real fire out of thin air, and needed to rely on the medicine cauldron's special structure to spur flames with their own Dou Qi...

Leaving aside the temperature of such Dou Qi flames, the fact that they required large amounts of Dou Qi to produce meant they were destined to consume a great deal.

Watching Ye Chen complete the preparations so easily, the Ye Family Old Ancestor nodded in satisfaction, the smile in his eyes impossible to hide.

"Control the flame. Keep its temperature from changing drastically, and gradually raise the temperature inside the medicine cauldron..."

After hearing the reminder, Ye Chen merely nodded slightly and controlled the flame to keep it steady.

This showed the crucial importance of those 2 points he had added to fire control...

One had to know that for a novice alchemist, of the two great hurdles he first had to face, the first was being able to stably control his own flame.

After all, the temperature of the flames inside a medicine cauldron was extremely high, and many medicinal materials had very strict temperature requirements. The slightest tiny difference could very likely damage the materials, and when that happened, the refining would naturally fail.

Besides that, the remaining second hurdle was naturally control over Soul Power...

Seeing that Ye Chen's preparation steps had all gone very smoothly, the smile on the Ye Family Old Ancestor's face deepened...

He took out a gray scroll and said softly, "This is a prescription for a First Grade Healing Medicine. It lists the names of the required medicinal materials, the heat needed for refining, and the components that must be extracted. Try it first."

Ye Chen took the scroll and read it carefully...

It was only a First Grade Healing Medicine, considered among the simplest kind, so it did not require many medicinal materials either, only three.

"Blood Coagulation Powder requires one stalk of Blood Coagulation Grass, two stalks of Flesh Regeneration Grass, and one Moon Lotus Flower."

Blood Coagulation Powder was a very common general term for a type of healing medicine, all named after the main ingredient, Blood Coagulation Grass.

But because each family's prescription was different, the required auxiliary medicines were also different. This resulted in the quality of Blood Coagulation Powder produced by different alchemists being different as well.

The Ye Family's Blood Coagulation Powder counted as one of the top-tier kinds. After all, Flesh Regeneration Grass and Moon Lotus Flower were both quite valuable, and their Medicinal Effect was also very strong.

Likewise, this meant the difficulty of refining the medicinal materials would also increase.

Generally speaking, only someone who had reached the peak of a First Grade Alchemist, or else a Second Grade Alchemist, could guarantee a Pill Formation Rate above seventy percent.

Of course, Ye Chen only needed to successfully extract the medicinal materials right now. He did not need to consider the later work of fusing and preparing the Medicinal Effects.

After carefully memorizing the requirements and key points on the prescription, Ye Chen took a deep breath and began his first Refining Medicinal Materials.

He picked up a somewhat dark-red stalk of Blood Coagulation Grass that had already been placed beside him. Without hesitation, he directly tossed it through the ferocious beast mouth at the top of the medicine cauldron...

As soon as the Blood Coagulation Grass entered the medicine cauldron, before Ye Chen could react, the silver Star Fire surged, wanting to pounce on it.

This startled Ye Chen. In his panic, he worked hard to pacify his flame.

Looking at the Starfire that had already calmed down, Ye Chen finally let out a breath of relief...

He had thought his first attempt was going to end after just a few short seconds.

Seeing this from the side, the Ye Family Old Ancestor nodded in satisfaction as well. "Not bad. Your reaction was very quick, and your control over the flame is acceptable."

This situation had originally been within his expectations.

The reason he had not reminded Ye Chen in advance was also because he wanted him to experience it personally, then deepen his memory of it...

He just had not expected Ye Chen's performance to be even better than he had anticipated.

Hearing the Old Ancestor's praise, Ye Chen felt a tiny bit pleased with himself, but with just that moment of relaxation, the temperature of the Starfire inside the medicine cauldron instantly went out of control for one second...

Although it was only one second, when he looked inside the medicine cauldron again, a stalk of Blood Coagulation Grass had already turned into black ash, and was finally expelled from the cauldron by the special setup inside.

Ye Chen's face darkened. Did this count as getting slapped in the face by himself?

Sure enough, this thing did not allow even the slightest slackening.

Seeing this, the Ye Family Old Ancestor only smiled faintly and showed no other expression. Instead, he comforted him, "It's fine. It's your first time, after all. Accidents are inevitable. Just try again..."

In any case, the Ye Family Old Ancestor had prepared more than enough medicinal materials this time, precisely so this Kid could wreck them to his heart's content. He would keep making him practice until he could successfully refine them even with his eyes closed, and only then would they begin Medicine Combination.

Ye Chen naturally did not know his Old Ancestor's terrifying idea. Otherwise, he would have found a way to run right then and there.

This first failure instead ignited his competitive spirit. After only slightly calming himself, he once again picked up a stalk of Blood Coagulation Grass and threw it into the medicine cauldron.

Of course, alchemy really was not an easy thing...

Although Ye Chen possessed an Innate Flame and powerful Soul Power, these were only the prerequisites that could allow him to become a high-level alchemist. If he wanted to truly become a qualified alchemist, having these talents alone was still not enough.

"The temperature is too high. When Refining Medicinal Materials, the greatest taboo is being impatient and impetuous. Even a tiny difference in temperature can destroy the materials..."

Looking at the Blood Coagulation Grass that had been burned up again, the Ye Family Old Ancestor's expression remained calm, and his tone remained gentle.

But at this moment, Ye Chen had started to grow somewhat anxious.

After all, he had refined them more than ten times in a row, but only four or five had succeeded. Most of the medicinal materials had been ruined either because the temperature was too high or too low, and the vast majority had been destroyed because the temperature had gone out of control.

Seeing that Ye Chen's mood had already begun to grow restless, the Ye Family Old Ancestor did not push him any further. Instead, he offered a few pointers, then let Ye Chen go out and rest for a while.

After all, the current Ye Chen was not even a Dou Zhe yet. Although he had Starfire to help him, refining four or five times would pretty much exhaust his Dou Qi, and after that he needed to rely on medicinal pills to recover before continuing.

This kind of high-intensity refining was indeed somewhat too much to ask of a child only five or six years old.

After Ye Chen left, Ye Zhong walked out from the shadows.

Clearly, while Ye Chen had been refining medicinal materials earlier, his status as both the Ye Family Patriarch and Ye Chen's grandpa had made him unable to resist coming over to take a look.