Yang Ji walked deeper into the cave and soon ca across a pair of stone doors.
As soon as he pushed them open, a wave of heat hit him.
The air inside was distorted by the high temperature, and the red waves of heat were clearly visible.
This was a sealed stone chamber, only as big as a single room.
The source of the high temperature was the cluster of red flas in the middle of the stone chamber, as large as a millstone, rising half a yard high, burning fiercely without a whiff of black smoke, the flas very pure.
Yang Ji cast his gaze over them, "Heart of Earth Fire, containing a trace of spiritual power."
Spiritual power!
Yang Ji's eyes lit up. Although it was not a Spiritual Fire, this trace of spiritual power was much stronger than the flas produced by low-level fire attribute techniques.
"If that's the case, then let's begin refining," he said.
With a touch to his Storage Bag, a palm-sized pill furnace of ancient design appeared in his hand.
Once spiritual power was injected, it quickly grew to half a yard tall and landed with a boom on top of the Earth Fire, enveloping all the flas within the furnace.
"You have begun Alchemy, preheating the furnace."
Seeing this ssage, Yang Ji's heart thrilled and he imdiately felt steadier.
Indeed, alchemy was like cultivation, also accompanied by information display.
The first step was to preheat the furnace, and as soon as the entire furnace was heated up, the refinent could begin.
Alchemic refinent is a patience-requiring task. While waiting, Yang Ji took out a thin Pill Recipe and studied it.
The Pill Recipe for Spirit Enhancing Pill recorded the required amount of each Spiritual dicine, the order of adding them, and the temperature needed for refining the dicines.
The correct ratio of each Spiritual dicine is needed to form a pill.
And the temperature is key to refining the dicines. Too fierce or too gentle a heat won't do; it has to be just right.
Yang Ji studied it for a long while.
A stick of incense passed quickly by.
According to the Pill Recipe, after preheating the furnace for the duration of one incense stick, he could start the refining process.
Yang Ji put away the Pill Recipe and with a slap on the furnace lid, opened a small aperture and swiftly added a stalk of Spirit Enhancing Herb.
A hissing sound, and a scent of charring spread out; the Spirit Enhancing Herb was destroyed, the temperature too high, preheat failed.
Huh?
Too high a temperature?
Wasn't it supposed to be the duration of one incense stick?
Yang Ji's mind raced, and he instantly thought of a possibility.
Could it be because he was using a different type of fla than the one used by the writer of the Pill Recipe? Maybe the recipe's author hadn't used Earth Fire?
At this mont, staring at the inside of the furnace, "The temperature is too high, 300℃."
If 300℃ doesn't work, then try again and find the right temperature.
Yang Ji was not discouraged and prepared to attempt again.
Outside the stone chamber, Huo Yuan, who peeped through a crack, slled a scent of burning and imdiately felt secretly thrilled, thinking:
"I thought he had so skill, but he can't even manage the preheat."
"Heh heh, does he really think alchemy is that easy just by copying others?">
"The Pill Recipe only describes the general process, but there are countless minor details in actual practice. Any small mistake could ruin the dicine."
"This kid thinks he can beco an Alchemist just by recognizing a few Spiritual dicines? He still has much to learn."
Huo Yuan's small eyes glead with smugness, and with his hands behind his back, he returned outside the cave with a proud deanor.
Clearly, he believed the young man inside the stone chamber was no longer worth his attention.
Inside the stone chamber, Yang Ji continued to try.
"Furnace temperature 250℃, hiss~ Spirit Enhancing Herb destroyed, preheat failed, temperature too high."
"Furnace temperature 200℃, Spirit Enhancing Herb begins to slowly lt, preheat successful, optimal temperature."
"So the optimal preheat temperature for refining Spirit Enhancing Pills is 200℃. Rather than preheating, it's more accurate to say the temperature needed for lting the first Spirit Enhancing Herb is 200℃," he realized.
Yang Ji was delighted. After destroying two Spiritual dicines, he had finally taken the first step, and he had also made preliminary improvents to the Pill Recipe.
He then controlled the fla through the secret door at the bottom of the furnace, keeping it steady at 200℃.
Because the temperature of "200℃" would be clearly displayed upon a glance, as soon as the temperature rose or dropped even slightly, he could imdiately make fine adjustnts through the secret door.
With the temperature constant, the Spirit Enhancing Herb lted slowly without evaporating its potency.
Once it was all lted, Yang Ji slapped the lid of the furnace and added another Spiritual dicine.
As soon as he added it, a ssage displayed, "Green Leaf Herb rapidly lting, 2% potency evaporated."
Seeing this, Yang Ji hurriedly lowered the furnace fire until it stabilized at 180℃, and the lting of the Green Leaf Herb beca stable and gentle.
At this point, Yang Ji made further modifications to the Pill Recipe, recording the lting point of Green Leaf Herb.
Refining the Spirit Enhancing Pill, a lower grade Spirit Pill, wasn't too complicated.
There was no need to fuse two or three types together to form new dicinal liquids.
It was simply a matter of lting down each Spiritual dicine completely and then, based on a specific proportion, conducting a fusion reaction before condensing and dividing the pills.
After lting two Spiritual dicines, Yang Ji realized that finding the optimal lting point was all that was needed for the so-called mastery of lting ingredients.
At this mont, he looked directly at the remaining five Spiritual dicines [Luoyun Herb, lting point 160℃... Flowing Cloud Flower, lting point 155℃. Ziye Vine, lting point 100℃.]
Knowing all the lting points like the back of his hand, Yang Ji began to lt them one by one.
In the end, he obtained seven pools of dicinal liquid.
Yang Ji then followed the Pill Recipe, keeping a certain proportion.
But in the end, these seven pools of dicinal liquid just wouldn't fuse together.
Yang Ji was perplexed and looked closely [The proportion of the dicinal liquid is incorrect and cannot be fused. The proportion of Luoyun Herb liquid is too low.]
The proportion of the dicinal liquid is too low? But I had divided it according to the Pill Recipe...
Suddenly, he slapped his forehead and had a revelation.
Of course! The Luoyun Herb recorded in the Pill Recipe was fifty years old, but the one he had lted was forty-nine years old.
Even a one-year difference ant the contained dicinal strength was completely different. Following the proportions in the Pill Recipe was definitely not going to work.
Even the fruits on the sa tree aren't all equally sweet or sour, let alone Spiritual dicines of the sa age differing in strength due to various growth conditions.
No wonder they say alchemy is difficult.
The first difficulty lies in lting. If it weren't for the Golden Finger assisting, allowing to see the temperature inside the furnace and the lting points of the Spiritual dicines at a glance, how could I control the fla so handily for lting?
If it weren't for the assistance of the Golden Finger, any slight discrepancy between the age of the Spiritual dicine being lted and that recorded in the Pill Recipe would render the so-called optimal degree of heat useless.
If the forging followed the heat stated in the Pill Recipe, the heat would either be too fierce or too weak, and it would require fine-tuning throughout the process.
No wonder they say it takes three to five days to forge pills; it seems that ti is spent adjusting.
The second difficulty is the proportion of dicinal liquids.
Although the Pill Recipe cos from countless trials and the proportions are based on experience, the strength contained in each Spiritual dicine is different. Adhering rigidly to the recipe's recorded proportions certainly won't work.
Similarly, this requires continual attempts to fine-tune the proportions, which is also ti-consuming.
Who knows how much Spiritual dicine will be lost in the process.
After this round of forging, Yang Ji had an enlightening experience.
The Pill Recipe is just a rough guide; it seems that actual practice requires flexibility.
At this mont, he prepared to lt more Luoyun Herb and place it into the Pill Furnace, but just then, the information display changed [Due to incorrect proportions, the seven dicinal liquids started to react adversely, the dicinal properties changed, and the liquids were ruined.]
With a bang, a white smoke suddenly rose from the Pill Furnace as all of the dicinal liquids combusted at once.
Seeing this scene, Yang Ji shook his head and sighed. What a pity; that was more than two hundred Spirit Stones wasted just like that.
However, he quickly recovered, cleared the Pill Furnace, and began to forge again.
With the first trial under his belt, the second attempt was much faster.
After a series of movents as smooth as the flowing of clouds and water, he lted all seven Spiritual dicines in the ti it takes an incense stick to burn.
This ti, he disregarded the Pill Recipe and looked directly at the dicinal liquid [Optimal fusion ratio, Spirit Enhancing Herb 100%, Luoyun Herb 95.2%, Green Leaf Herb 94.02%... Ziye Vine 50.01%.]
Seeing this, Yang Ji couldn't help but exclaim in his heart, what a fine job! How could such precision to the thousandth decimal be possible without the intervention of a Nascent Soul True Monarch, who else has such formidable Divine Sense to split the ratios so finely?
Even with Yang Ji's Golden Finger, which allowed him to see the proportional data in real-ti, he had to be extrely careful to remove the excess dicinal liquids to achieve such accuracy.
The operation consud quite a bit of his ntal energy.
It's no wonder alchemy requires a strong soul awareness; he now understood this point.
Although the process was complex, the result was very satisfying to him.
The seven kinds of dicinal liquids had fused into a new pool of blue liquid and had begun to react.
The next step was to cultivate the warmth until the liquid's reaction beca sufficiently viscous, at which point it could be divided into ten equal portions by size.
The final step was to turn the pills.
By channeling Spiritual Power into the Pill Furnace, the divided Pill Embryos would slowly begin to rotate along the walls of the Pill Furnace, and only then could a smooth, well-ford dicine Pill be obtained.
Ti slowly passed.
Once the ten pills inside were fully ford, Yang Ji slapped the Pill Furnace.
Boom!
A soft boom echoed, and a thick Pill Fragrance imdiately wafted up.
Just as he opened the furnace, Huo Yuan outside the cave perked up his ears, looking surprised and wondering,
"This... this seems to be the sound of Pill Qi rushing through the furnace?"
Soon after, a Pill Fragrance shot into his nostrils, and in an instant, his eyes widened.
In disbelief, he said,
"Is this... Pill Fragrance? He succeeded?"
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