Dao Chapter 18: Trying Alchemy for the First Time

He cultivated dedicatedly in silence the whole night. On the second day, Shiao Chen raised his head which was slightly swollen and tired. He shook it helplessly. The tactical formation was extensive, profound and all-embracing, and it could not be learned overnight. Fortunately, he only chose some simple ones that were psychedelic to block out the sight. After a night’s study, he learned to lay out two tactical formations that were comparatively of low class.

Mirage Formation, the consumption of which was quite low, was able to automatically generate light white fog to block out one’s sight after being carried out.

Forewarning Formation, as its name suggested, did not have any offensive or defensive function, but it could give an early warning in a timely manner.

After three hours and seven or eight failures, Shiao Chen managed to deploy the two tactical formations outside the valley. After installing two spars, a white mist was rising. Not until now did Shiao Chen looked satisfied.

After returning to the stone house and leaving most of his belongings behind to give the illusion that he lived here, Shiao Chen entered the medicinal garden in the depth of the mountain.

Putting Alchemy Basics aside, Shiao Chen deliberated it over several times in his heart. After making sure that there were no mistakes, he started his alchemy trials. In his first attempt, he chose the Spirits-gathering Pill, a kind of spirit pill suitable to be used during the Qi Refining period. It was of first level, low grade, and the materials used were comparatively simple.

"Go!"

Casting a spell with his hand, Shiao Chen channeled a little spiritual power into the furnace, where a heat wave immediately rose.

He carefully put the materials into the furnace in sequence as recorded. Soon, a faint medicinal fragrance was released. Shiao Chen felt quite happy, but then a muffled noise from the furnace made him stupefied.

Opening the medicine furnace, Shiao Chen sighed helplessly at the dark brown powder.

No doubt, the first trying of alchemy ended in failure.

Lifting his spirit, Shiao Chen soon cleaned up all the herb residues and began the second attempt.

He put the Hygrophila Polysperma in first. When the grass-blade turned into liquid he put in the Dry-stern Flower, and finally the Heather.

This time, Shiao Chen was very careful. The fragrance of the medicine in the furnace became more and more intense. Now it was the time finalize the pills. If this period went smoothly, the pills would be refined well. Then again, a muffled noise came out of the furnace. Shiao Chen's look changed with it.

The second alchemy failed.

Shiao Chen looked a little somber. He calmly cleaned up the residues before starting the third trial.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure!

After eleven consecutive failures, Shiao Chen sat on the ground somewhat dispirited. Maybe he did not have much talent in alchemy refining.

There was still the last copy of herbs. Shiao Chen had planned to give up, but still threw the herbs into the furnace and perfunctorily directed some spiritual power into it. Then he closed his eyes to meditate. As he was now at the peak of the first level of Qi Refining, his many attempts of making Spirits-gathering Pill had consumed most of his spiritual power.

He operated the Plants Growing Scripture, and the rich nimbus from the outside immediately flooded into his body. Shiao Chen sighed and turned his attention to the gold seal that emanated dots of light.

What material was the gold seal made of was unknown. Unexpectedly it could blend directly into the soul of the cultivators. Shiao Chen had never heard of such a thing before. He extended his divine sense carefully around the gold seal, without noticing anything unusual.

"This gold seal is in my soul, it should not be harmful to me. I just might as well integrate my divine sense into it to see if anything would happen." Any other cultivators would not be so presumptuous before thoroughly mastering the gold seal. For if the divine sense was hurt, it would have been a hundred times more difficult to recover than a physical wound, and the process would be most painful. But Shiao Chen had just stepped in immortality cultivation for a short period, so naturally he did not think so much about it.

Just like mingling of water and lotion, Shiao Chen's divine sense went into the gold seal without any obstacles at all.

Every movement of wind and grass within a radius of 166 meters around him was visible in his mind. Every floating micron-spot fluttered in the air like a feather.

That should be nimbus.

Shiao Chen became a bit excited. After his divine sense entered the gold seal, it was magnified for five times. This might be a kind of unparalleled ability of the gold seal!

The divine sense was taken back slowly from all around. Shiao Chen scanned the furnace with his divine sense. Suddenly, his eyes became focused and brightened. Now, with divine sense, he could see clearly all the changes in the medicine furnace. In his eyes, it was no longer a fusion of drugs, but a more essential being – medicinal efficacy!

Alchemy was created by cultivators who continuously tried and probed via many years of trial and experiment. By combining the power contained in various kinds of spirit herbs, they refined various effective elixirs. But even the best alchemist in the world, or the man whose cultivation achieved Mastery, would never notice the changes of medicinal efficacy in spiritual pills. The ability Shiao Chen owned now already exceeded the understanding of the cultivation world!

From now on, any spiritual pill was no longer a challenge in front of Shiao Chen. As long as he had seen the finished product, knowing how to combine the medicinal efficacy, he was able to formulate his own materials and have them refined according to the example!

"Tong!" A noise came out of the furnace. With no one in control, alchemy failed as expected.

Shiao Chen opened his eyes, paying no attention to it. He was excited in some way. He took a few deep breathes to calm down. In an instant he took out a Spirits-gathering Pill from the storage bag. Then he scanned the pill with his divine sense and instantly he understood the combination of the medicinal efficacy. After carefully scrutinizing it for several times, Shiao Chen slowly withdrew his divine sense.

The herb residues inside the furnace was quickly cleaned up. Shiao Chen waved his hand to input a bit of spiritual power, then the furnace again sent out bursts of heat. Shiao Chen opened the furnace and threw in all the materials needed for making Spirits-gathering Pills. Since he was able to perceive the change of the medicinal efficacy, he could made some change later. Naturally, he did not have to worry about the sequence of placing the herbs any more.

When herbs entered the furnace, they soon turned into traces of medicine juices and blended together. Shiao Chen did not dare to be careless, and his divine sense was wholly integrated in. Then he began to rearrange the herbal potency according to the combination of medicinal efficacy of the Spirits-gathering Pill he just saw a moment ago.

Faint fragrance of pills came out of the furnace, and at this moment, it became more intense. Suddenly, Shiao Chen, whose eyes were originally closed, suddenly opened his eyes and shouted in a low voice, "Complete!"

In an instant, the fragrance of pills in the furnace suddenly became so strong. Shiao Chen opened the furnace carefully and several round pills were lying quietly in the furnace.

He made it!

Ecstasy burst out of Shiao Chen’s heart suddenly. He took out a pill from the furnace and held it in his hand. After carefully comparing it with the finished one for quite a while, he was sure that indeed it was exactly the same as the one owned by him.

With the help of gold seal, the alchemy of elixir was no longer difficult for Shiao Chen. What’s more, there was such a wonderful secret garden here, in which grew all kinds of spiritual herbs..

With all these opportunities, Shiao Chen's cultivation in the future was immeasurable!

Gold Core...or even Nascent Soul was not impossible as long as he was given the time.

Thinking of this, Shiao Chen was trembling with excitement.

Half a day later, Shiao Chen calmed down and looked meditatively at the Spirits-gathering Pill in his hands.

"Although the Spirits-gathering Pill has been successfully refined, there are still some error combinations of medicinal efficacy when scanning with divine sense. Are they necessary for refining pills?"

"Or it means that this is a flaw in the pill? If it can be corrected, what will it be like? Will the grade of the pill be promoted?”

Any kind of pill was divided into three grades of high, middle and low as well as the top grade existed only in legends. But in today's cultivation world, cultivators mostly took pills of low grade. The middle grade pills were extremely scarce, since the rate of successfully refining them was extremely low. As to the high grade and top grade, he had never heard of their existence.

Anyhow, the materials for refining Spirits-gathering Pill were not unusual, so Shiao Chen soon collected several copies and put them in front of him before he started to refine pills again.

This time when combining the medicinal efficacy, after completing the fixed part, Shiao Chen began to decompose and recombine the garbled medicinal efficacy.

As time passed, Shiao Chen's face became a little pale. He closed his eyes, with fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Tong!" There came a noise from the furnace. Shiao Chen opened his eyes at the same time, his face looking gloomy.

The divine sense needed for separating the garbled medicinal efficacy was several times more than that needed for simply combining it. A moment ago, Shiao Chen had carefully decomposed the most part, but because the divine sense was consumed too much, some mistakes took place, messing up the medicinal efficacy. Naturally the refining failed!

"It seems that I am still too rash and impatient. With the present strength of my divine sense, if I want to clean up the deranged efficacy in the pill at one time, it would be like reaching for what is beyond my grasp.” Shiao Chen forced a smile and then sat on the cushion with his legs crossed. The experiment could only be continued tomorrow since his divine sense had been consumed too much today.

The next day, Shiao Chen opened his eyes and resumed his energy. After a night’s meditation, the spiritual power in his body became more replete. It seemed that his breakthrough to phase two of Qi Refining would not be far.

Cleaning up the herb residues in the furnace, Shiao Chen again put in a copy of materials needed for refining Spirits-gathering Pills.

When the pills were ready, Shiao Chen began to decompose the medicinal efficacy again. However, this time, he kept a close eye out for his divine sense and withdrew immediately when he decomposed nearly a half. Opening the furnace, he saw the dozens of Spirits-gathering Pills whose color, fragrance and appearance were greatly enhanced. Shiao Chen beamed with delight.

Middle grade Spirits-gathering Pills!

Sure enough, his conjecture was correct. If he continued to decompose the deranged combination of medicinal efficacy, then the high-grade and even the top-grade pills would no longer be difficult for Shiao Chen.

Shiao Chen carefully put a dozen of middle-grade Spirits-gathering Pills into a jade bottle and stored it in a storage bag. There was a bit rumination on Shiao Chen's face. With the help of gold seal, his cultivation speed had become extremely amazing. At this moment, together with the almost rigged alchemy means, his cultivation pace would certainly increase at quite a leap with the help of the spiritual pills he refined.

For quite some time after that, Shiao Chen had been refining spiritual pills.

When his spiritual force and divine sense were used up, he swallowed pills and meditated for cultivation. In this way, his cultivation pace quickened by leaps and bounds, progressing extremely fast.

Chapter end