Yao Tianhua's handsome, fair face looked extremely unsightly. His facial muscles twitched slightly as he was shocked by Shen Xiang's alchemy skills. He never expected that there was a young alchemist in the world who was on par with him!
Shen Xiang held the five Marrow Cleansing Pills in his palm and casually popped them into his mouth one by one, smiling at Yao Tianhua as he said, "Now you can give me the materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill, right?"
Seeing Shen Xiang eat the freshly made Marrow Cleansing Pills as if they were candy, the crowd couldn't help but twitch their lips in disbelief. They cursed Shen Xiang for being wasteful and wanted to kick him. How could he treat the pills like snacks? This was incredibly disheartening; was it normal for alchemists to eat pills like candy?
The owner of the Lingdan Pavilion trembled as he handed over three packets of materials to Shen Xiang, astonished as he asked, "You're not seriously planning to try making a Marrow Cleansing Pill, are you?"
Shen Xiang scratched his head and smiled, "Trying is always better than doing nothing, right? Since your Lingdan Pavilion has raised its prices so much, I'll have to make it myself."
After collecting the materials, Shen Xiang turned and strode out. Just before leaving the door, he turned back to Yao Tianhua and said, "Young Master Yao, in a few days, we'll have our duel. I hope you can bring a satisfying wager to bet against me! Since it's a competition, let's make it interesting. I'll add an even bigger wager. If you can't keep up, then don't show up for the duel."
With that, Shen Xiang left in style, sparking a flurry of discussion in the Lingdan Pavilion. The wager of a thousand-year blood ganoderma was already astounding, and now he was going to raise the stakes!
Yao Tianhua snorted angrily and walked upstairs.
In the Lingdan Pavilion, the pavilion master murmured, "Impossible! He's only sixteen; there's no way he can make a Marrow Cleansing Pill. Absolutely impossible…"
However, Shen Xiang felt very pleased because he would get three matured materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill for free. He could soon begin trying to refine the pills.
"Little brat, be careful not to capsize in the ditch!" Su Meiyao reminded him.
"Why bother with alchemy? It's so boring! You should just go up and smash him to pieces," Bai Youyou's cold voice came, making Shen Xiang shiver. He suddenly felt a bit reluctant to practice Bai Youyou's demonic techniques, knowing that she was an extraordinary practitioner of dark arts.
Shen Xiang returned to the Shen family estate and inquired about Xue Xianxian, discovering that she and her father were guests at the city lord's residence and would also be visiting some families in Wo Hu City. Xue Xianxian's father had a wide network of contacts.
Shen Xiang arrived at a very secret underground stone chamber. This was his first attempt at refining the Marrow Cleansing Pill, and he needed to concentrate without interruptions.
Opening the paper package containing the medicinal materials, Su Meiyao gently played with the herbs with her slender fingers and said, "The fifty-year-old blood ginseng, fifty-year-old ganoderma, Xuan Yuan fruit, and Huoyang flower—these four main medicinal materials are of good quality. The other supplementary ingredients are just average, but they won't affect the refinement of the Marrow Cleansing Pill."
Shen Xiang picked up a white fruit the size of a walnut and a flower that looked like a small sunflower—these were the Xuan Yuan fruit and Huoyang flower. They were quite expensive since they took decades to mature.
Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou didn't want to stay inside the ring all the time, so whenever they had a chance, they would come out for some fresh air and chat with Shen Xiang, which made their time less dull.
Shen Xiang enjoyed the occasional company of these two stunning beauties; after all, they were both exceptionally beautiful and made him feel good. Having two beautiful girls around was a wonderful experience.
"Meiyao, if I use the Dragon Saliva Technique to accelerate the growth, how long would it take to obtain a set of materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill?" Shen Xiang asked, knowing that the materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill required decades to mature.
Su Meiyao's beautiful eyes twinkled as she replied, "It'll take about ten days! You're currently at the sixth level of the Mortal Martial Realm, so using the Dragon Saliva Technique will enhance the speed."
Ten days to accelerate the growth of decades-old medicinal herbs made Shen Xiang pleasantly surprised.
Su Meiyao said, "Let's start refining. There are two key points in making the Marrow Cleansing Pill! First, because the amount of medicinal materials is greater than the pills you refined before, and each material has a different fire tolerance, you need to control the heat well. Don't burn the auxiliary materials! The second point is during the pill condensing process; you'll need to comprehend that yourself."
Shen Xiang remembered this advice and then turned to the cold beauty not far away, saying, "Youyou, could you return to the ring for now? The cold energy you emit will affect my control over the flames…"
Bai Youyou's expression turned chilly, and Shen Xiang hurriedly added, "Youyou, you're truly beautiful! I wouldn't want to send such a great beauty back into the ring unless absolutely necessary."
Hearing this, Su Meiyao burst into laughter, "Beautiful sister, don't scare the little guy. Let him refine the pill properly."
Bai Youyou snorted softly and then returned to the ring.
Shen Xiang began refining the Marrow Cleansing Pill. This was a middle-grade mortal-level pill, which could sell for five thousand great spirit coins. With the recent price hike at the Lingdan Pavilion, each pill was now worth over ten thousand great spirit coins, equivalent to one hundred thousand small spirit coins!
After pouring all the medicinal materials into the alchemy furnace, Shen Xiang unleashed the flames and controlled the temperature inside the furnace. Each area had a different temperature to incinerate the medicinal materials completely, allowing them to release their essence and spiritual energy.
The materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill were not ordinary, and it took Shen Xiang over an hour to grasp their properties and the degree of fire resistance. At this point, the furnace was filled with colorful spiritual energy from the herbs being roasted by the true fire—this was the main component of the Marrow Cleansing Pill.
The materials slowly turned into powder, and at that moment, Shen Xiang needed to use his divine sense to envelop the powder. He needed to merge the powder with the "medicinal gas" that was evaporating, and ultimately solidify it into pills to succeed.
Initially, everything went smoothly, but as Shen Xiang began to sweat profusely at the end, the "medicinal gas" became very unruly, making it difficult to blend the different "medicinal gases."
"No wonder you need divine sense to refine the Marrow Cleansing Pill; controlling these spiritual herbs' medicinal gases is incredibly challenging!" Shen Xiang thought to himself, focusing his mind and releasing stronger divine sense to merge the multicolored medicinal gases, finally transforming them into black spiritual energy to blend with the gray powder.
"It's going to succeed! Hold on!" Shen Xiang silently urged himself, feeling the powder and medicinal gases slowly merging. However, he felt that his divine sense wasn't strong enough to condense them into pills.