Chapter 43: Alchemy via Water Method

“A bit of showing off is not worthy of praise in front of Senior Brother.”

Lin Donglai looked quite embarrassed. “The Spirit Plant Hall is a gathering place for experts. The sect is so vast, yet the number of trained alchemists is scarce. I believe that for someone like me, a mere farmer, there will certainly be no shortage of work. I think this kind of land requires not talent, but diligence, a thirst for learning, and hard work.”

“Good, then I shall decide. All of you have passed. Just go back and report to Master,” Liu Jinyang said. “Your respective techniques have all reached the minor success stage; what you need to be tested on next is knowledge. However, this stretch of Spirit Field Valley is already the best answer possible. We in the Spirit Plant Hall do not deal in superficialities.”

“Now that you have harvested these Summer-Born Flowers, come with me to the Spirit Plant Hall to register. All of you can be admitted into the Spirit Plant Hall as outer disciples ahead of schedule.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother Liu!” Lin Donglai finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the heavy weight in the hearts of the other members of the Spirit Field Mutual Aid Society finally settled.

Xiao Yi also revealed a sincere smile and said, “Congratulations, Junior Brother! You are much more capable than I am.”

“Among the four arts of cultivation, formation is widely recognized as the most difficult, and alchemy the second. Senior Brother, your talent is not lacking; you have merely wasted time due to other reasons. I estimate these Myriad Wonders Flowers will mature within ten days, and likely yield one hundred and eight blooms—a lucky number. I believe in you, Senior Brother; this time, you will surely become an alchemist.”

“Then I shall take your good words to heart, Junior Brother Lin.” Xiao Yi finally felt as though he might see the day his hardships ended. It felt as if a sense of relief had unlocked a mental shackle, or as if a sweet rain had fallen upon a parched land that had already surrendered to life.

The group of ten proceeded to the Spirit Plant Hall to register, but Lin Donglai began to ask, “What must one do to become a Tier 1 Mid-Grade Spirit Plant Farmer? After the Immortal Sprout assessment, we must choose a cave dwelling. Besides completing the sect's spirit plant tasks, how do we go about renting our own spirit fields to grow our own things?”

“To become a Tier 1 Mid-Grade Spirit Plant Farmer, one must successfully grow three types of Tier 1 Mid-Grade spiritual herbs, master the cultivation methods of five types of Tier 1 Low-Grade spirit plants, or grow one type of Tier 1 High-Grade spiritual grain and three types of Tier 1 Mid-Grade spiritual grain. Additionally, one must master either one Great Success spirit planting technique or two Minor Success spirit planting techniques.”

“For these plants, you must have cultivated over one hundred of them with proficiency, maintaining a survival rate of over eighty percent. As for the spirit fields, you need at least one acre, with a yield of at least 300 catties per acre.”

“As for choosing a cave dwelling, that is harder to say. The various outer peaks of the sect have cave dwellings carved out, mostly left behind by former outer disciples. When these disciples retire to their hometowns or go out to establish families and marry, these dwellings become available.”

“When the time comes, I will inquire with the Construction Hall, which is responsible for the maintenance and building of cave dwellings. Given your qualifications, Junior Brother, although you will be ranked behind the combat disciples, you should still be able to obtain a decent cave dwelling.”

Cave dwellings are built upon spirit veins, situated at the nodes of these veins.

Mount Misty possesses one Tier 3 spirit vein, which houses the dwellings of the three Supreme Elders. There are nine Tier 2 branch spirit veins, which correspond to the nine inner sect peaks. Furthermore, the various outer peaks possess Tier 1 High-Grade or even Peak-Grade spirit veins, and even some places that originally lacked spirit veins have had spirit veins constructed by Earth Masters for practice.

In the Azure Wood Sect, cave dwellings are not in short supply, but they are rented from the sect and must be maintained through the payment of merit points; the price is only one-third of what it would be in the outside world.

However, the concentration of spiritual energy inevitably varies, so the geographical location must be chosen carefully.

“When the time comes, you can directly choose the dwellings left behind by deacons or outer elders of our Spirit Plant Hall. They love carving out spirit fields, so you can start managing them immediately.”

“As for spirit fields, Tengshe Peak is the best location within the outer sect. It was originally a Tier 2 Low-Grade spirit vein, but after being dissipated, it dropped to a Tier 1 Peak-Grade.”

“Furthermore, three hundred and sixty Tier 1 High-Grade Vermilion Fruit trees were used to set up a Heavenly Cycle Spirit Gathering Array. Not only is the spiritual energy abundant, but it also draws in more of the light from the sun, moon, and stars to nourish the plants.”

“However, because Tengshe Peak is so good, most of it has naturally been occupied.”

“If you insist on being there, I am afraid the eight of you will have to split up.”

“If you do not wish to be separated, I remember that the Spirit Plant Hall deacon who leased the fifty acres of spirit fields at Tianquan Village retired to his hometown just last year. It should be just enough for the eight of you to rent and manage together.”

“Sect rules state that if the land is used to grow the spiritual grains and herbs required by the sect, as long as the quantity is sufficient, the land rent can be waived, and there are even subsidies for seeds and spiritual fertilizer.”

“I wonder where Tianquan Village is?”

“Tianquan Village is at the foot of Tianquan Mountain. Tianquan Mountain is a Tier 2 Low-Grade spirit vein, and there is a Tier 2 spiritual spring on the mountain. The spring water is clear and temperate. The alchemists of the sect's Water-Method Alchemy lineage collect water from the spring on the mountain and have constructed seven medicinal pools, two of which are Tier 2 Low-Grade and five of which are Tier 1 Peak-Grade.”

“Medicinal pools are generally used for the large-scale refinement of a single type of spiritual herb. Each refinement session can involve hundreds of batches of materials, and requires several Water-Method alchemists to work in coordination to temper the medicinal properties and configure the medicinal liquids. A single session can produce thousands of pills.”

“The cultivation pills exchanged by sect disciples, or the large quantities of pills purchased by other sects, all come from the medicinal pools of Tianquan Mountain.”

“To avoid residual medicinal properties, pill toxins, or other impurities contaminating the medicine, once a pool of spiritual herbs has been refined, it is drained, and the pool is refilled with fresh spring water.”

“Tianquan Village was originally a place for processing waste liquids. It has a formation that can purify the water and absorb pill toxins to prevent contamination of the spirit vein and damage to the feng shui.”

“But later, the disciples stationed at Tianquan Village discovered that the spring water, after having the pill toxins purified, caused the vegetation at the discharge site to grow exceptionally lush. Thus, they invited our Spirit Plant Hall to investigate.”

“Upon testing by our Spirit Plant Hall elders, it was discovered that although the spring water had the pill toxins purified, it still contained faint medicinal properties from various spiritual herbs and plants. It is certainly not suitable for human consumption, but plants can easily absorb the nutrients they need. Anything they cannot absorb is converted by the earth itself. Over time, the discharge site turned into spirit fields.”

“So, our Spirit Plant Hall simply set up a Spirit Gathering Array there and reclaimed fifty acres of spirit fields, so that the purified medicinal spring water from the pools would not go to waste and could be used to irrigate the fields.”

“Although there is no spirit vein there, there are forty acres of Mid-Grade spirit fields and ten acres of Tier 1 High-Grade spirit fields.”

Hearing this, Lin Donglai became very curious about Water-Method Alchemy: “I have only heard of Fire-Method Alchemy; why is there also Water-Method Alchemy?”

“Water-Method Alchemy is only found in great powers; it is normal that you haven't heard of it. Water-Method Alchemy is conducted on a large scale and takes a long time; often, a single refinement session requires ten to fifteen days.”

“But Water-Method Alchemy has many advantages: the medicinal properties are gentle, pill toxins are minimal, and the yield is high.”

“Besides Water-Method Alchemy, there are many other alchemy methods.”

“For example, Tree-Pill Alchemy, where spiritual fruits replace pills, growing directly on trees. However, the medicinal properties are identical to those of similar pills, and they may even be completely free of pill toxins.”

“But that takes even longer. The higher the grade of the spiritual tree, the longer it takes for it to bear fruit. Our Azure Wood Sect has such a legacy; only by practicing the 'Qionglin Qingyu Precious Tree Manual' can one concurrently study Tree-Pill Alchemy.”