《Dao: Journey to the Top of the Universe》18. Trying Alchemy for the First Time
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
- In Serial827 Chapters
Mark of the Fool: A Progression Fantasy
After his parents died, Alex Roth had a plan: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the world’s greatest university of wizardry—but fate had another plan. On his eighteenth, he is marked as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the land’s great enemy. But his brand is 'The Fool', worst of the marks. Rather than die or serve the other Heroes like Fools in the past, he packs up his little sister, his childhood friend and her cerberus, then flees for the university in hope of refuge, magic and to unravel the truth about his land’s evil. There’s one small problem: The Mark tries to ruin magic while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat and spellcraft.… …that is, unless he can learn to exploit the hell out of it.*****This the first time I am writing a web novel type story, and I hope you like it. I like progression stories and I've always wanted to try and write one like a few of the web novels that inspired me.Updates Tues-Wed-Thur-Fri-Sat.There are currently 20 advanced chapters on my patreon as a thank you to patrons.Join us on discord! https://discord.gg/A4M3CzfWBnChapters will be roughly 2000-2500 words.[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]***Rating: This story is kind of like a PG-13 movie. There'll be gore and some swearing but not much beyond that. If that changes, I'll warn you. Tone: Tone will be a mix of some action-adventure with excitement, comedy, slice of life elements and mystery. I won't be going too dark with this story. There will be mentions of war, some death, grief and violence.MC: MC is analytical/rational with emotions. He is mostly in control of those emotions. MC will progress in power, eventually becoming very strong. When that happens, I'll add the Strong Lead tag.Fights: Fights will be detailed.***Stuff this story won't have:- Extreme grimdark content - Murderhobo plots - Edgy, anti-hero MC - Pacifist MC - Harems
8 929 - In Serial13 Chapters
The Realm Reborn: Small Closed Demo (LitRPG)
One of the world’s top competitive gamers, Theo Robinson, has been invited to demo The Realm Online, Radical Interactive’s second attempt to delve into the VRMMORPG industry. Their first attempt had critics cringing at blocky graphics and less than realistic NPC interactions. Now, after over twenty years of marrying virtual reality and medical technology, Radical Interactive is ready to try again, and they have something really big in store.But Theo Robinson has no interest in The Realm Online. A MOBA player, RPGs have never been his thing. The only reason he accepted the invitation was because of another secret project that Radical Interactive has been working on. Word has it they have been trapping people with brain injuries inside of The Realm Online. When Nancy Shelton, YouTube's most famous female Let's Player (and Theo's best friend online), got into a car accident and ended up in a coma, it was suspected that her consciousness had been ported into the game. Theo's quest isn't to demo The Realm Online but to try to find his friend. But will he even be able to look for her when the immersion is so intense that he forgets who he is?
8 211 - In Serial10 Chapters
R-Suit
The R-Suit, the pinnacle of engineering in the current world. A type of giant mech whose presence is able to single-handedly start, prevent, or end wars. On one end of Iltzik, the capital of Huitzli, the young Tzilpapali has just ascended to the ranks of the very few engineers able to create an R-Suit by herself. But what will happen to her when its existence becomes a defining factor in an upcoming war against a foreign nation? Follow this Aztec and Prehispanic-inspired mecha sci-fi story to find out!
8 98 - In Serial21 Chapters
GCSE Descriptive Writing
🚨 PIECES THAT GOT ME AN A*🚨 This is a compilation of descriptive pieces that I wrote during my GCSE course, including loads of great tips for creative writing. Maybe you won't enjoy reading these pieces as much as I enjoyed writing them. But if you're here to get inspiration for creative writing in GCSEs, I'm telling you now that these pieces got me grade 9s. Feel free to steal a metaphor or two and point out any mistakes.Please vote :)
8 50 - In Serial37 Chapters
The Alpha
Book #1 in the Soulmate Series7 years ago, Ellie was rejected by her mate. Under the threat of death, she was forced to flee with her mate's child still growing inside her. Left heartbroken and hunted, she ran from the world she was forced out of and created a new one. But, when an attack on her new pack threatens the lives of both her and her child, she has to turn to the one man she swore she would never come back to. Will her mate be her savior, or will he kill her on sight?Axton is the Alpha of the Black Stone Pack. 7 years ago, he found his soulmate, the one that was supposed to be with him forever. After months of being together, she is taken from him without a trace of who did it. Left heartbroken, he searched every corner of the world for his lost mate, but she was no where to be found. Now, he has become cold and distant from everyone in his pack, feared by all for his ruthlessness. His heart broke the day his mate disappeared, but could it be mended when she finds her way back to him with the child he didn't know about.7 years ago, something happened that changed the lives of these two mates. Both not knowing the true treachery of those who want them apart, what will they do to finally be together?*****All Rights reserved to me. Characters are my own. The picture on the cover belongs to whoever posted it on google (i.e. Not mine)Read, Comment, Vote, and Follow.Highest Ranking In Werewolf: #39 (If it goes any lower, tell me!)
8 393 - In Serial15 Chapters
Eureka
⥏ Scream - Billy Loomis X Reader X Stu Macher ⥑ (Y/n) is a hardworking 17 year old girl. She manages to stay at the top of her class and works the night-shift at the video store down the road from her home to help take care of herself and sister. Her teachers adore her determination and high grades, as well as her overall wholesome view on life. Classmates admire her ability to light up a room and make any conversation just a little bit better. However, nobody seems to notice how she doesn't have any close friends- nor realize that very few really know anything about her. Well, nobody, expect for two problematic boys who really enjoy people watching. ⚌⚍⚎⚏⚌⚍⚎⚏⚏⚎⚍⚌⚏⚎⚍⚌Highest Rankings:#1 in Scream#2 in horror#15 in Wattys#2 in Slashers#1 in BillyLoomis#1 in StuMacherThis book will have a polyamorous relationship! Not two dudes fighting over a snacc- if that's what you wanted I'm sorry! I'm here for that good poly shit.Also, as a slasher fic, it's probably going to have blood and gore, mentions of murder- you know, all that jazz.***Ghostface art on cover is by wrennnch on tumblr!!! Please check them out, they are so talented!***
8 186

