Chapter 137 – Pill Refining Part 2

  The room was quiet, except for the crackle of flames beneath the bronze cauldron that Jun De was standing in front of. The air smelled strongly of crushed herbs and medicinal pills that had been previously refined.

  Elder Wen Hailin stood a short distance away with his arms crossed as he watched Jun De prepare the ingredients.

  “Fasting pills are simple in theory, but control is what separates a novice from a true alchemist. You have twelve sets of ingredients; expect more than half of them to fail. That is, if you are lucky. Three to four pills can be refined per batch, depending on how steady your flames are.” Elder Wen advised.

  Jun De nodded while taking slow, deep breaths.

  He placed the first set of herbs into the furnace in the order the Recipe indicated, then formed a hand seal. The Dawnheart Flame burned brighter beneath the furnace, its light golden and sharp.

  As Jun De guided the flames beneath the furnace, the metal warmed and hummed in response. Jun De closed his eyes and focused his spiritual sense on the furnace to ensure that the heat was spread evenly and not concentrated on a single spot.

  Satisfied with the guidance of his flame, Jun De placed the first set of ingredients into the furnace. The herbs began to melt, their essences mingling together under the direction of Jun De’s Qi and limited Spiritual sense.

  He was careful not to allow the herbs to mix too fast; otherwise, the mixture would have too many impurities. But if he was too slow, the medicinal properties of the herbs would disperse and render the pill inert.

  Jun De adjusted the heat with fine precision, and sweat covered his forehead as more of his Qi was drained in the process.

  The first attempt failed with a dull crack. The cauldron rattled, and the mixture burned into a black, sludge-like mess. Jun De’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t let his disappointment show. He removed the remains with a flick of his hand and prepared the next batch of ingredients.

  The second and third attempts fared a little better, and although they were failures, he could smell the faint fragrance of pills mixed in with the smoke.

  When Jun De lifted the lid of the furnace on his fourth try, three small, round little pills rolled to one side. Their surface was smooth, but slightly uneven.

  Elder Wen leaned forward to inspect them.

  “Acceptable quality. Your flame control just requires more practice, and you will improve. Your flame is well-suited to pill refinement; it refines impurities as it burns.” Elder Wen observed.

  Jun De didn’t respond as he was already moving onto the next set of ingredients. His focus was entirely on the task at hand, and he ignored all other distractions.

  By the time Jun De reached the last set of ingredients, the fragrance of pills had become rich and clear throughout the room. When he opened the lid this time, four bright pills rested at the bottom of the furnace.

  The pills glowed faintly with spiritual energy, and Jun De was relieved when Elder Wen declared them to be ‘Superior’ grade.

  “Very good, you have exceeded my expectations. Twelve attempts, seven successes. Thirty pills in total, but only the last batch were better than ‘Acceptable.’”

  Jun De bowed lightly, but his eyes lingered on the pill furnace in front of him. The act of refining pills, studying and dedicating himself to a project gave him a renewed sense of purpose and a connection to his past on Earth. He was glad that he had pursued it.

  When he returned to his residence at the end of the day, the fatigue in his limbs ran as deeply as it had when he had trained with Shen Weifeng. While it wasn’t as physical as his previous training, controlling his Qi and the Dawnheart Flame was mentally demanding.

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  His robes smell strongly of herbs and the smoke from the ruined batches of pills. Before he had left the Alchemy Hall, Jun De had purchased a hundred sets of ingredients for the Fasting Pill in order to practice on his own.

  Elder Wen had told him that until he could consistently produce ‘Superior’ or higher pills with each batch, he shouldn’t come back to bother him for new Recipes.

  Over the next week, Jun De’s courtyard filled with the strong smell of pills and medicinal herbs. Each morning, he would rise at dawn, prepare the ingredients for the day, and begin refining again.

  His technique grew smoother with every batch; the steady rhythm of pill refining became a form of meditation, a way to calm his emotions and thoughts.

  When he finally succeeded in producing batches of ‘Superior’ grade Fasting pills with every attempt, Jun De cleaned his furnace and made the trip back to the Alchemy Hall. He exchanged the pills for contribution points, and after some calculation, spent all of them on more herbs.

  Fasting Pills didn’t provide a lot of contribution points, so he needed to add hundreds of spirit stones from his storage ring to purchase the ingredients for the next pill Elder Wen recommended her to learn, the Qi Gathering Pill.

  The Qi Gathering Pill was more complicated than the Fasting Pills, but both were foundational Recipes for those seeking to learn Pill Refining. Qi Gathering Pills were only useful for cultivators in the 1st to 3rd Level of Qi Condensation, and Jun De recalled taking a bottle of them when he was in the Outer Sect.

  When Jun De returned him, he repeated the process of laying out the ingredients and reviewing the Recipe and technique for refining these new pills.

  Unlike the Fasting Pill, the Qi Gathering Pill required even more precise control of the spiritual essence infusion of the herbs, and specific timing for each to be added in order.

  After meditating on the process for over an hour, Jun De felt that he was ready for his attempt.

  Just as before, Jun De guided the Dawnheart flame beneath the furnace and spread it out in a thin, even layer. The metal took on a soft glow, and warmth rippled outward in perfect balance so that no section was hotter or colder than another.

  While the furnace heated, Jun De prepared the ingredients. The Azure Flame Grass was crushed between his fingers to release the energy within, and the Lunar Essence Fruit was stripped of its peel and cut into small pieces. The Petals of a vermillion Orchid were plucked from its stem, while Crimson Coral was ground into a fine dust.

  When everything was prepared, Jun De adjusted the flame again and wrapped the furnace in his spiritual senses. He then began adding the ingredients one by one in the precise sequence prescribed by the formula given to him by Elder Wen.

  Each herb entered the furnace with a faint hiss, its essence merging in ribbons of light while the air around him filled with their scent. The energy in the furnace was chaotic at first, but gradually settled as he applied more of his Qi.

  As the last herb entered the furnace, Jun De wrapped the forming pill embryo in his spiritual sense. His Qi flowed gently to maintain the shape, control the heat, and retain the delicate balance of the interacting herbs within.

  Time slipped away, and Jun De’s robes were soaked in sweat. At last, a faint chime sounded fro the furnace and a strong pill smell permeated his residence.

  When he lifted the lid, a single Qi Gathering Pill rested on the bottom.

  Months passed quietly, and Jun De’s life fell into a rhythm of refining pills and trips to the Alchemy Hall for more ingredients and to deposit the pills he had made.

  His skill improved with every attempt, and now out of every three sets of Qi Gathering Pill ingredients, one batch would emerge from his furnace.

  While Jun De had been disappointed by his low success rate, Elder Wen had been pleased with him. For a novice Alchemist, it was an achievement to reach such a level in a few short months. It helped that Jun De had the resources to spend on practicing, as most Disciples would need to take time to complete Sect Tasks for contribution Points or rely on their Clan or backers to pay for their ingredients.

  Jun De was intelligent and dedicated, but he was also capable of burning through spirit stones to propel his progress forward.

  Eventually, Jun De was making enough off his successful Qi Gathering Pills to purchase the ingredients for more and even make a profit.

  It was an endless cycle of creation and tempering, where his growing success allowed him to practice even more without having to rely on the storage ring full of spirit stones.

  But the true benefit of his time spent refining pills wasn’t just from his growing control of the Dawnheart Flame, or the contribution points he was earning, but from the process itself.

  Each time he refined a pill, it required him to pour every ounce of Qi into maintaining the balance within the furnace. He would strain his spiritual sense to its limit to wrap the growing pill and guide its formation.

  When Jun De’s reserves would run dry, he would sit in meditation in his residence and draw in the strong spiritual essence of the Inner Sect to replenish himself. Over time, this constant depletion and restoration polished his cultivation, strengthening the flow of Qi and the amount his Dantian could hold.

  Jun De could now feel the faint trembling in his cultivation base that was a sign that he was nearing the peak of the 9th Level of Qi Condensation. When he had last met Shen Weifeng, his mentor had congratulated him and told him that the transition would likely be smooth, as there was no bottleneck to the 10th Level.

  Eventually, Jun De was able to produce a ‘Superior’ Grade Qi Gathering Pill on nearly every attempt, and Elder Wen congratulated him with a new assignment.