The bag of flour came from the wheat that he had nurtured himself. There was a considerable amount of them inside his storage ring. Bringing out a bag of flour, he formed a mixture with clean water and then turned the flour into a dough.
"???"
Chen Xiaoyue and alchemist Ming Yu were both stunned once again.
Chopping wood, kneading dough…
Are you sure you're here to refine pills?
Why does it feel like the more you do, the more your actions seem to deviate from what you were supposed to do here in the first place?
"I have never studied Alchemy. I have no idea how to control pill aura, so I can only make the 'pill' in advance to see if it would work." Seeing their expressions, Su Yin felt extremely embarrassed.
He truly had no idea how to proceed with the final step of forming the pill—however—kneading flour into balls that could possibly serve as pill casings to carry the pill aura in the final step of medicine refinement might work.
In just a few moments, he had made ten balls of dough that were the size of glutinous rice balls.
"Let's begin!"
The tripod furnace had long cooled down. Su Yin picked up a block of wood and kindled a flame.
Blaze!
Flames immediately enveloped the tripod furnace. Although the flames weren't as scorching as those of charcoal fire, the size of the flames was uniform, and the temperature was consistent.
"This…"
Witnessing that the other party truly did use firewood to refine pills, Alchemist Ming Yu's brows were tightly knitted. His countenance changed when he saw the flames covering the tripod furnace, and his fists involuntarily clenched.
He was an alchemist. Someone who was sensitive to flames. He could clearly sense that the temperature of the flame that Su Yin had kindled was uniform in all places as it burned around the tripod furnace.
May it be to the side or to the bottom, there was nary a difference!
The flames from the kindle a flame part in the process of medicine refinement had three portions.
Outer Flame, Inner Flame, Flame Core.
Among the three, the Outer Flame has the highest temperature. But its strength decreases progressively as it goes deeper into the furnace.
However, in theory…
So long as this was controlled well, it was possible that the temperature throughout the entire surface area that the flame was covering would be consistent and even.
But a theory was still a theory in the end. The tripod furnace has such a large surface area that even a slight breeze could affect the temperature of the flames that enveloped it. This was why every alchemist had always thought that such a feat was impossible.
As such, they would consider it sufficient if the temperature on the surface area of the tripod furnace that was being covered by the flames didn't exceed 200 degrees Celsius.
Alchemist Ming Yu held the same belief.
But this young man…
He was really using firewood whose flames were notoriously harder to control to maintain a completely even temperature… How exactly did he do that?
Alchemist Ming Yu had observed everything personally with his own two eyes, but he could hardly believe what he was seeing!
Setting other things aside, this young man had already reached the Grand Master level in just this process of kindling a flame… even Teacher cannot compare to him!
Earlier, he had thought that the other party was insulting him by saying that his method of kindling a flame was terrible. But now, he had understood that not only were the other party's words spot on, he had also been thinking highly of him. Clearly, he was even worse than what he had described.
He continued to watch.
The flames burned for a while, the temperatures surrounding the tripod furnace rose once again. The youth picked up the medicinal herbs beside him that he had matched and sorted beforehand. Then, he placed them inside the furnace—one by one—stalk by stalk.
He had specially handled these medicinal herbs in a way that they would easily dissolve which would also make them easy to refine. Furthermore, the sequence of putting them into the furnace and the time intervals between doing so would allow them to blend with each other in a more efficient way.
As the number of medicinal herbs in the furnace increased, the medicinal fragrance in the area also became increasingly richer. Three minutes later, all 20 stalks of medicinal herbs were now in the furnace.
Buzz!
With a light hum, the amalgamation of medicinal fragrances caused the appearance of a ring above the tripod furnace. Like a pure white cloud—it hung quietly.
"This is… this is Pill Fragrance Cloud! How?! How is this possible?"
Alchemist Ming Yu's body trembled.
He was too shocked by this turn of events that he somewhat lost control of his own body.
"Pill Fragrance Cloud?" Chen Xiaoyue looked over at him in confusion.
With his lips quivering, Alchemist Ming Yu painstakingly explained, "Pills are not just divided into three grades of Ordinary, Pure, and Master. There is a grade above that, and it is the so-called Perfection!"
"Medicines of that grade are extremely rare…"
"Even the top alchemist of the Great Qian Prefecture and the Great Source Prefecture would find it difficult to produce them, let alone the alchemists in Dayan City!"
"Are you saying that… that the pills he is refining right now are in that grade?" Chen Xiaoyue shivered.
"I am only making a guess. According to the books that I have read, whenever Perfect-Grade pills are born, there would always be a Pill Fragrance Cloud. Its appearance is like a circular ring that would not disperse for a long time!"
"Perhaps… perhaps what we are seeing right now is the Pill Fragrance Cloud?" Alchemist Ming Yu said.
The books that he had read told him about this Pill Fragrance Cloud but he hadn't seen them personally. However, this cloud before their eyes seemed to be similar to the description that he had read beforehand, so he couldn't help but blurt out.
"This…" Chen Xiaoyue was speechless.
She had thought that the other party was a Bronze, but she never expected that he was actually a king among the
Boom!
As all the medicinal herbs were placed into the tripod furnace, the Pill Fragrance Cloud also became increasingly strong. Su Yin turned his wrist and then tossed all the dough that he had prepared beforehand into the furnace.
The white cloud abruptly contracted.
The tripod furnace shook and opened with a thud!
Swoosh!
Ten pills flew out and hung quietly in the air.
Each of them was golden yellow in color. Clouds lingered around them, and they remained suspended in the air as if they had grown wings.
"Perfect-Grade…" Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Alchemist Ming Yu's teeth chattered.
If he was doubtful earlier, he was now certain…
He had the ability to refine Master-Grade pills himself, and he had done it so many times…
And they absolutely didn't look like this!
The other party used a fifth of the medicinal herbs that he had used, kindled a flame with firewood, and even incorporated flour into the mixture. Yet, he was able to produce Perfect-Grade pills? What exactly was going on?
"Saying that he's incapable, and his so-called lack of cultivation base…"
"He must be pretending!"
Alchemist Ming Yu thought.
How could a person with no cultivation base and had never refined pills before—notice so many mistakes from my medicine refinement process?
Furthermore, if he was really incapable as he had said… How was he able to produce Perfect-Grade pills?
You've got to be kidding me!
It was obvious that this person had a habit of keeping a low profile.
He pretended to be incapable to catch me by surprise!
Most experts had a habit of doing this.
For example, Teacher was already a Level Five Alchemist, yet he was still insisting on personally going out to gather herbs. He claimed that other people weren't able to properly preserve the medicinal properties of herbs that they picked up from the wild…
Perhaps, it was the same for this person!
He was actually a powerhouse, but he acted as if he had no cultivation base.
Otherwise, how could that strict Teacher of his possibly give away his jade token to someone that wasn't capable enough?
It was laughable that I actually believed his pretense! What's more, I even mocked this young man in my speech!
Disgraceful!
Just as he was trying to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, the youth's voice resounded.
"Is… is this considered a success?"
"…"
Alchemist Ming Yu wanted to cry.
You're intentionally taunting me! I was wrong, okay?
"It's a success! A success!" He hurriedly nodded his head.
If this couldn't be considered as a successful refinement of pills, then what else could be considered as success? Those garbage that I produced?
Let's stop embarrassing ourselves, all right?
"That's good then…"
Su Yin let out a sigh of relief.
Using dough to form the pill in the tripod furnace was an impromptu idea born from a sudden epiphany, he didn't expect that it would actually succeed.
In this case, does this mean that I have learned how to refine pills?
Didn't they say that medicine refinement was a skill that was notoriously difficult to learn?
Su Yin was confused when his figure suddenly froze. Lifting his head, he saw a streak of spiritual aura coming over to him from out of nowhere. Then, that streak of spiritual aura entered his body.
His pores that were originally tight shut swiftly opened—as if they were welcoming the arrival of this spiritual aura. The rejection and aversion that Su Yin had experienced beforehand no longer existed.
"This…" Su Yin's figure shook.
Pores wide open and no feeling of rejection… does this mean that I can now cultivate?
I didn't even succeed even after exhausting all means necessary and reading so many cultivation manuals. But now, I am able to cultivate after refining some pills? What exactly was going on?
He turned to look towards Alchemist Ming Yu and Chen Xiaoyue. But he noticed that the two were completely unaware of the spiritual aura that entered his body. In fact, it seemed that they didn't feel anything at all.
Could it be that… that I was the only one that could 'see' that kind of spiritual aura?
If this was the case, then what kind of a spiritual aura was that? Where did it come from?
For a moment, Su Yin was filled with nothing but confusion.
…
Forbidden Grounds.
At the exact moment when Su Yin achieved success in his medicine refinement…
A soul remnant abruptly appeared.
Medicine Sage, Li Shixiu.
A look of surprise was currently on Li Shixiu's face as he looked in the direction of the foot of the mountain. "I didn't expect that his first enlightenment would actually be related to pills. He truly has an innate Dao body, to think that he would find his path so quickly…"
Hu!
With a mutter, the soul remnant vanished as if it had never appeared in the first place.