Chapter 21: First Alchemy Attempt

After returning to his room!

Ye Qingxuan activated the formation of his small courtyard to prevent anyone from disturbing him again.

Although his exchange with Su Daobin had provided him with a significant amount of information, it did not affect the path Ye Qingxuan had already planned for himself.

The turmoil of the outside world had nothing to do with him; he only needed to absorb the information useful to him and integrate it into his planned path.

He would not change his course because of others.

In the end, the path must be walked by oneself, and the only one one can trust is oneself; the experiences of others can only serve as a reference!

With his heart returning to a state of calm, Ye Qingxuan took out the newly purchased alchemy furnace and began to refine it.

By the time he had finished refining and mastering the mid-grade Dharma tool level furnace, it was already late at night.

Ye Qingxuan did not rush into alchemy. Instead, he sat cross-legged to meditate and recover his depleted spiritual power and divine sense!

It was not until the following morning, after a night of regulating his breath, that Ye Qingxuan had adjusted his state back to its peak. Only then did he take out the furnace to begin alchemy.

Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage have too low a cultivation level to condense Dao Fire.

Therefore, for low-level cultivators like Ye Qingxuan, the base of a Dharma tool-level alchemy furnace is equipped with a fire seed, and the inner walls are inscribed with auxiliary control formations.

When in use, one only needs to inject spiritual power to activate it, which triggers the Dao Fire to assist in alchemy.

Ye Qingxuan placed a set of spiritual herbs for Qi-Inducing Pills beside him, then mobilized his spiritual power to activate the furnace's Dao Fire. Finally, he employed the Fire Control Technique, which he had only recently mastered, to slowly regulate the flame.

He did not rush to put the herbs in for refinement; instead, he used the Fire Control Technique to slowly maintain the Dao Fire, warming the furnace!

The recipe for the Qi-Inducing Pill was already etched into Ye Qingxuan's mind, so although this was his first time refining pills, he remained incredibly calm!

Once the furnace was sufficiently warmed, Ye Qingxuan used his spiritual power to draw the herbs for the Qi-Inducing Pill into the furnace one by one.

Simultaneously, Ye Qingxuan's divine sense probed into the furnace to observe the entire process of the herbs melting.

Ordinary cultivators below the late stage of Qi Refining do not possess divine sense; they must rely on spiritual power perception and experience to control the heat.

Thus, even if a cultivator below the late stage of Qi Refining has great talent for alchemy, they cannot avoid making multiple mistakes.

The early emergence of his divine sense was Ye Qingxuan's advantage, and one of the reasons he had the confidence to attempt alchemy so early.

Heavenly Azure Flower, Purple Spirit Grass, and Spirit-Inducing Flower—the three herbs used to refine Qi-Inducing Pills had different heat tolerances, making the order and timing of their introduction into the furnace crucial.

After all, with Ye Qingxuan's current realm, he could not precisely create different temperature zones within the furnace.

Under the observation of Ye Qingxuan's divine sense, the three herbs were slowly refined by the Dao Fire. Impurities were expelled one after another, leaving only the essence of the three herbs undulating within the Dao Fire.

Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan felt a surge of joy!

Seeing that the timing was ripe, Ye Qingxuan utilized dual-tasking: while one part of his mind controlled the three streams of herbal essence to slowly approach and merge, the other part increased the input of spiritual power and used the Fire Control Technique to slowly raise the temperature of the Dao Fire.

As time passed bit by bit, the three streams of essence began to intertwine and merge. The entire furnace also began to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy, pouring it into the merging essences.

"It looks like it's almost done!"

Just as the Qi-Inducing Pill was about to take shape and Ye Qingxuan thought he was on the verge of success, the Dao Fire under his control flickered slightly, causing the temperature inside the furnace to change instantly.

Affected by this fluctuation, the internal balance of the nearly formed pill was suddenly broken, and the herbal essence began to riot.

Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan hurriedly increased the intensity of his Fire Control Technique in an attempt to salvage the situation.

However, as he exerted the technique, he realized he could no longer control the Dao Fire within the furnace.

Realizing that the situation was beyond repair, Ye Qingxuan stopped forcing it and calmly watched as the herbal essence was incinerated by the Dao Fire.

Watching the black smoke rise from the furnace, Ye Qingxuan was neither discouraged nor regretful of the loss of herbs; instead, he began to reflect on himself.

This failure was not caused by Ye Qingxuan's failure to fully master the refinement process of the Qi-Inducing Pill.

On the contrary, through this attempt, Ye Qingxuan knew that with his incredible comprehension, there was no issue with the refinement process he had memorized and understood!

The main reason for this failure was his own conceit.

He had assumed that with his early-developed divine sense and the extraordinary comprehension brought by the transformation of his soul origin, he could easily refine pills.

But Ye Qingxuan had overlooked his own control over the Fire Control Technique and his spiritual power!

The Fire Control Technique was a spell within the alchemy inheritance; Ye Qingxuan had only practiced it a few times. After reaching the introductory level, he had rushed out to buy a furnace to prepare for alchemy.

Furthermore, his control over his spiritual power was equally crude.

During his five years of secluded cultivation, he had mostly focused on meditating to increase his cultivation level, and had not spent much time tempering his spiritual power or strengthening his control over it.

This was the primary cause of the failure

An error in the delivery of spiritual power caused the Dao Fire to fluctuate, causing it to break free from his control and gradually riot.

The introductory-level Fire Control Technique was insufficient to restrain the raging Dao Fire, making it impossible for him to regain control!

After identifying his problem, Ye Qingxuan reflected

"Sharpening the knife does not delay the woodcutting. It seems I must plan before I act in the future! I shall proceed steadily!"

A lesson learned is a lesson earned. Although the problem exposed this time was small, it served as a vital warning.

Otherwise, this time it was just a loss of a batch of herbs; next time, there was no telling what might be lost.

Storing the alchemy furnace in his storage ring, Ye Qingxuan did not attempt a second batch immediately.

Since he knew the cause of his failure, what he needed to do now was naturally to compensate for his shortcomings!

Thus, for the next month, Ye Qingxuan did not attempt alchemy again.

Aside from his daily meditation and cultivation, he spent all his remaining time practicing the Fire Control Technique, the Sword Kinesis Technique, and the Spring Breeze Rain-Transforming Technique!

The Fire Control Technique and the Sword Kinesis Technique were spells he needed to use immediately, so they were his top priority.

The Spring Breeze Rain-Transforming Technique was something he had prepared for the future development of a blessed land; since he had no immediate use for it, he only performed it a few times a day without spending much time practicing it.

While practicing his spells, Ye Qingxuan's control over his spiritual power also continuously improved.

In this manner, over the following month, Ye Qingxuan was either in his room meditating and practicing the Fire Control Technique, or on the surrounding mountain peaks practicing the Sword Kinesis Technique and the Spring Breeze Rain-Transforming Technique!

The Xuantian Mountain Range was vast, and there were no other dwellings built around the Fuxiu Academy, so Ye Qingxuan did not worry about disturbing anyone.

In just one short month, the proficiency levels of the three low-level spells Ye Qingxuan mastered progressed rapidly.

The Sword Kinesis Technique and the Fire Control Technique had reached the state of perfection, while the Spring Breeze Rain-Transforming Technique had reached the stage of minor mastery.

It had to be said that although Ye Qingxuan was constrained by his spiritual roots, which made his cultivation speed very slow, his comprehension was indeed astonishing!

One month later!

Ye Qingxuan opened his furnace to refine pills once more.

This time, the refinement of the Qi-Inducing Pills went very smoothly. Under his perfected Fire Control Technique, success came almost as naturally as water flowing downhill.

From the first batch, Ye Qingxuan produced five pills!

From the second batch, he produced six!

From the third batch, he produced six!

However, because alchemy was extremely taxing on spiritual power, Ye Qingxuan only refined three batches of Qi-Inducing Pills a day to avoid affecting his cultivation.

After ten days, Ye Qingxuan finally refined the twenty-nine sets of spiritual herbs into pills.

In total, he had produced 230 Qi-Inducing Pills!

The reason he produced so many was that as his alchemy proficiency continued to rise, he had stabilized his output to ten pills per batch in the final few days!

With this, Ye Qingxuan's great alchemy endeavor had finally stepped across its first threshold!

(End of Chapter)