The first thing Cao Yun did was to breathe in the fresh air full of life of this new world. After being trapped in the mind bending void and the heavy metallic arena, being in the middle of nature was very welcome. However, he didn't let this moment of relaxation be a moment of carelessness. A part of his mind was always alert to any potential danger.
Once he was done relaxing a bit, Cao Yun began to really study the plants and the general environment he was in. The jungle was relatively sparse, so Cao Yun could see the sky above. It was perfectly blue and calm, but from time to time, he could see powerful gusts of wind crisscrossing the clouds. On the ground though, the winds were rather calm and whistled through the vegetation all around.
In his immediate vicinity, Cao Yun recognized every single plant, Charred Cow's Knees Roots, Sorrowful Dew Pearl Flowers, Eternal Purifying Ginsengs, Weeping Eucalyptus, and many more. Some were a bit less common like the Jade Serpent Ivy or the Silver Moon Fern. There was even a very rare Star Fall Willow that Cao Yun had only ever seen in books. Some of those plants had simply no business being close to each other. For example, the Silver Moon Fern, as the name suggested, required the subtle light of the moon to grow. On the other hand, the Radiant Orchid Blossom only grew under an arid sun. And the Moon Shadow Thistle would be severely damaged even by the light of the moon.
Seeing all of those plants in the same place would have not been a problem for most. But an alchemist was extremely weirded out by such an arrangement of plants. There was simply no sense to it. Not only could it not be natural, no herbalist would have ever created such a garden. Yet here it was. Looking even more closely, this garden would have weirded out anyone as the vegetation was placed in very strange ways. It was both as though it was random and yet with some form of pattern impossible to decipher. Randomness would not create something like that, but intent would create something way more ordered.
In some way, this strange arrangement had to be part of the test. And the test had to be related to alchemy. Because each world was modeled after what the cultivators needed, it was clear as day for Cao Yun that this one would test his understanding of alchemy. And he was ready for it. After all the time spent fighting the armor, doing some alchemy would be a nice change of pace. Besides, he needed time to digest both his new understanding of martial arts and his earlier breakthrough.
And this test was exactly what he needed. Now that he was a Mortal Warrior, he could finally use his Qi to both control the flames of his furnace and the medicinal essence within his cauldron. Until now, he had barely any time to really delve into it. But doing alchemy would allow him to gain even more control over his Qi Manipulation and thus his Qi Manifestation as well. Besides, he had thought about bringing his furnace and his cauldron with him. They were the most simple ones the Wubei Sect had, but it was enough for the young alchemist.
Before doing any alchemy though, he had to gain a better understanding of this place. Using his wider perception of Qi, Cao Yun was able to feel the life that was flowing through the plants around him. Thanks to his mind cultivation, he was able to expand his sensation rather far. Finally, he reached the extent of his ability, but he had a rather clear image of the jungle thanks to all the life that was within. Without any spiritual senses, he was forced to imagine what was actually there. But thanks to his knowledge of plants, just sensing the flow of Qi through the vegetation, he could guess their shape. As such, he had a good picture of the jungle in head.
All the plants were different but Cao Yun was able to somehow see a pattern within. It was more a hunch than anything else, but he felt that there was a deeper reason behind the way they were arranged. Right now, he still couldn't figure it out exactly, but he was getting there. Maybe the test was to use those plants in a very specific manner to refine a certain pill. There was no dangerous plant and nothing that seemed like danger at all. And all the plants, without any exception, were used in alchemy. Even in the most flourishing fields, it was hard not to find some plants which had no role in alchemy.
So clearly, the goal of this test was to refine a pill using those plants, but Cao Yun could still not figure out which one.
For now, he simply took out his furnace and his cauldron. After that, Cao Yun began to work on his cauldron. Using his Qi Manipulation, Cao Yun took out some leaves and some grass from around here. With his current control of Qi outside of his body, he could only carry less than a jin*. For alchemy, this was more than enough, but for anything else, this was still lacking. For example, he could not control weapons in a fight. Any shock or force exerted on the weapon would break his control over it. However, Cao Yun could still grab weapons through his Qi thanks to that, which was a good thing if he threw his spear.
By burning those leaves and grass, Cao Yun was now purifying his cauldron. Cauldron Maintenance was the first of the Five Golden Elixir Principles. Once satisfied that his cauldron was perfectly clean and ready for refinement, Cao Yun had to decide on a pill to forge. Because he had never refined a Human pill before, Cao Yun decided to go with one of the easy pills, a 1-star Human one. And since he had already used several spirit stones to restore his Qi, he chose to forge a pill to gather and restore Qi in the human body. Ultimately, he chose the Torrent Gathering pill, a higher version of the Qi Gathering pill he had made when he had become an alchemist.
All the ingredients required for the pill were around Cao Yun. And it was simple enough that it did not require him to prepare his cauldron beforehand. Some pills sometimes needed a very specific environment within the cauldron. For example, one had to burn certain ingredients inside their cauldron before refining the pill. Thus, Cao Yun only had to prepare the ingredients and then he could get right to it.
With his Qi Manipulation, he easily extracted everything he needed from around him and got started. For the first time, he was refining without touching anything directly. He still needed to use his hands to get a better sensation through his two Labor Palaces. But even the powders he sent through the fire were controlled by his Qi. And he could clearly feel their effect in the flames. In fact, he was now able to separate the properties within the flame and focus them on different parts of the cauldron.
Now Cao Yun was able to feel the medicinal essence within the cauldron. Coupled with his 'Shen Visualization', Cao Yun was now seeing through the cauldron without any problem, as though he was a Spirit Warrior. This was the true 'Spiritual Sea Refinement' method and he didn't even know it. Only after speaking with Xiao Xuefeng would Cao Yun learn of it. In theory only a Spirit Warrior could do it. Indeed, to practice 'Spiritual Sea Refinement', one had to be able to feel what was going on within the cauldron and then get within their own sea of consciousness to create a perfect image of it. With spiritual senses, Spirit Warriors could directly see what was happening in the cauldron while Cao Yun had to infer it from what his Qi perception was feeling.
Right now, Cao Yun had no spiritual senses but he could almost see what was happening in the cauldron. As such, he could in fact even try to refine Heaven pills. They often required much more mental strength, but with his mind cultivation, it would be in theory possible.
For now though, Cao Yun was fully focused on his Torrent Gathering pill. Thanks to his senses, controlling the flames to maintain the balance of Yin and Yang as well as the wheel of the five elements was quite easy. Still, the very first result was not that good with a pill that only retained around 71% of medicinal essence and more than 12% of the toxins. But with a bit more practice, Cao Yun was able to make a few Perfect Torrent Gathering pills but not a single Pure pill.
Right now, he really didn't need those so he put them away in his spatial ring. He also used the opportunity to gather some more plants in his spatial ring. Not many plants around here were rare, and even the ones that were were not that rare, so he only took a few pieces of each. After all, his spatial ring was not extremely big and he had already put many things in it.
Cao Yun was now close to being a 1-star Human alchemist. Clearly he could go beyond that, but he would need some time with his teacher. Hopefully Instructor Meng Jia would soon get out of seclusion as a Spirit Warrior. Although Cao Yun had the theoretical ability to forge even Heaven pills, he still lacked in experience. No amount of reading could compensate that. And training with a master was the most effective way to get better faster. Even if he were to follow some advice from a book, the book could not adapt to the student, only a teacher could.
After his successful alchemy, Cao Yun waited for a few seconds with the Supreme emblem in hand. Apparently the test was not as easy as forging a pill. Maybe he simply needed to forge a higher pill... Or maybe he had to forge a very specific one, or at least one among a select few... Clearly, there was some kind of mystery to be solved in this jungle. Cao Yun's hypothesis was simple. He had to find out some kind of deeper meaning from those plants and derive a pill from them. Maybe the pill was not even known to him. First of all, he had not read all the books in the world. But even then, it was possible that this pill belonged to an ancient era and no book contained any information on it.
But there were just too many different plants for a single pill. No pill required several dozens of different ingredients. Then, maybe he needed to forge several pills. Maybe there was a way to put those ingredients together to refine a very specific set of pills. For now, Cao Yun dived into his sea of consciousness. There, he had a picture of his surroundings. It had a radius of more than ten li. In fact, he could go beyond that limit, but then, it slowly became too blurry and fuzzy to make out exactly what was going on.
After making a complete list of all the different plants around, Cao Yun tried to find some kind of pattern in their distribution over the area. And his hunch had been right. The plants were not spread the same way everywhere, but their ratio to one another was always the same. To sort through many pill recipes, knowing the ratio of every ingredient was important. Now Cao Yun had a really good foundation to try and solve this puzzle.
-
Mo Tian had once more summoned his disciple Mo Ti.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes, Master. I have completed the 108 Blood Runes. If I use all of their power inside me, I could reach the strength of a 5th-grade Mortal Warrior, and even beyond."
"Good. But be careful! Chen Guo has already shown us he has some way of dealing with blood runes. Luduo Bu should have been able to kill him in his rage. Yet, all his blood runes were gone after his death. And no one other than Chen Guo could have done it before the chief elders appeared."
"I will remember your words, Master. If I have the opportunity to kill Chen Guo, I'll do so swiftly. But otherwise, I will avoid him. I'm even ready to throw my dignity away and crawl away if need be. But no matter what, I will give you what you need."
"Perfect! Are all your brothers ready as well?"
"Indeed, Master. The different generals have sent their best. As soon as you give the order, we'll force entry into the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. My array formations are all ready to be activated. Just give the order and it shall be done."
"Do no be too hasty! Chief Elder Suxian is not a complete fool. With Sect Leader Xuan rebuilding the defenses, he's the most dangerous man for this part of the operation. No matter what, he must not be able to notice the activation of the array formation we built within the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Thus, we'll have to wait for the right opportunity. For now, Chief Elder Suxian is the one in charge of guarding that place. I think our best option is to wait for him to be relieved of his duty. We'll use this momentary lapse in focus to send you within."
Indeed, Mo Ti had been inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom the year before. And inside, he had been able to set up new array formations to allow someone from the outside to get into it.
"Master, you're always much more alert than I am."
"It took us more than a century to put this plan in order, I won't leave anything to chance. The moment I get the key I need, the Wubei Sect will fall and then the Emperor. Finally, the entire Hongchen Kingdom will be ours for the taking. Even the demons will worship us as gods once we control theirs. If only I could get inside this Palace of Supreme Wisdom myself..."
"Master, even with the array formations you've discovered, we could not breach the age limitation set by its original maker. But do not be too worried. All the disciples I'll take inside have already reached the Mortal Warrior realm. Besides, they all have practiced our best demonic methods. Apart from Chen Guo, I do not think anyone could be a problem for us. We'll reunite as fast as possible. Once the main array formation is stopped, we should be able to gain access to the real Palace of Supreme Wisdom. And then, we'll find the key that you need. I swear not only my life, but my very soul on it."
"No matter what happens, do not underestimate your opponents. If you can crush them, use everything you've got and do so. Otherwise, run and stay focused on our goal!"
"Yes, Master."
* Approximately 1 jin = 500 g