However, refining Second-Order Spirit Pills and spiritual weapons is much more difficult.
The refinent of Second-Order Spirit Pills and Divine Weapons already involves the use of Divine Soul, which Innate Martial Artists usually cannot employ. Only those with exceptional talents, born with strong Divine Souls, despite lacking spiritual apertures, have the chance to refine Second-Order Spirit Pills and spiritual weapons in the Innate Realm.
There is also the unusual circumstance of consuming the Illusion God Pill.
The Illusion God Pill can enhance Divine Soul strength, allowing Innate Martial Artists to feel the power of Divine Soul, enabling them to use it in the Innate Realm for refining Second-Order Spirit Pills and spiritual weapons.
The dozen or so Second-rank Alchemists and Artifact Refiners in the Spirit Source Land advanced by consuming Illusion God Pills.
Of course, we are talking about martial arts Alchemists and Artifact Refiners; those practicing the Immortal Path are not troubled by Divine Soul. However, the Alchemy and Artifact Refining Techniques of Immortal Cultivators are countless tis more complicated than those of Martial Artists.
Thus, currently, Yang Zhenshan is the only Immortal Cultivator who is both a Second-rank Alchemist and a Second-rank Talisman Master in the Spirit Source Land.
Inside the Pill Hall, a young man dressed in a green vestnt robe sits steadily in front of the Golden Crow Eight Trigrams Furnace, performing spells and intently sensing changes within the Pill Furnace.
Beside him, the Golden Crow watches the fierce ground fire beneath the furnace with a bored expression.
As Yang Zhenshan steps into the hall, the Golden Crow imdiately notices him and is about to flap its wings to fly over.
Yang Zhenshan quickly gestures for silence, prompting the Golden Crow to continue managing the blazing ground fire at its original spot.
The young man refining elixirs is Yang Zhenshan’s disciple, Zhang Hexuan.
He is the only disciple among seven who follows Yang Zhenshan in learning the art of Alchemy.
Zhang Hexuan, at this mont, is refining the Jade Marrow Pill. He can refine the Jade Marrow Pill, but his success rate is quite touching, less than thirty percent. Even with the Golden Crow’s assistance in Fire Control, his rate would be less than ten percent without it.
However, Zhang Hexuan is only twenty-four years old, and his cultivation is at Qi Refining Fourth Layer. His ability to refine the Jade Marrow Pill sufficiently proves his high talent in Alchemy.
After approximately an hour, Zhang Hexuan suddenly springs up, performing a spell to retrieve the pill. The lid of the furnace opens, and more than ten gray elixir pills float out, landing in a jade plate nearby.
Yang Zhenshan can produce ten batches of Jade Marrow Pills in one furnace, achieving a success rate of over eighty percent, refining more than three hundred Jade Marrow Pills at once.
Zhang Hexuan, of course, cannot compare to Yang Zhenshan; he can only refine one batch of Jade Marrow Pills, yielding a success rate of thirty percent, approximately ten pills.
"Hmm, not bad!" Yang Zhenshan steps forward to examine the elixirs in the jade plate.
Though all are low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, they are much better than Zhang Hexuan’s previous attempts.
"Master, when did you arrive!" Zhang Hexuan asks, drenched in sweat.
"Just a little while ago." Yang Zhenshan chuckles, with a wave of his hand, sweeps away the residue within the Pill Furnace.
"Now, let refine a batch of Jade Marrow Pills, and watch closely!"
Today, he intends to refine Turtle Breath Pills. He has studied the elixir recipe for seven years, rehearsing its process in his mind countless tis, yet he still lacks the confidence to produce it.
However, he has no choice now but to attempt it, for if he waits any longer, Master Jing Shui truly will pass away from old age.
He cannot wait until Master Jing Shui has only three or five years of lifespan left before refining the Turtle Breath Pill.
Yang Zhenshan approaches the refining of Jade Marrow Pills with ease; while refining, he simultaneously explains to Zhang Hexuan the important points of each step, imparting his experience in refining Jade Marrow Pills.
After another hour, a batch of Jade Marrow Pills is completed, yielding three hundred and twenty-eight pills, half of which are mid-grade and the other half superior-grade.
"When will my Alchemy skills reach Master’s level!" Zhang Hexuan says enviously as he bottles the elixirs with porcelain containers.
Yang Zhenshan chides with a smile: "You silly boy, don’t aim too high. I started researching Alchemy techniques from my days as a Martial Artist, over sixty years now, while you’ve only been training for a few years, yet you aim to surpass !"
"Hehe~~" Zhang Hexuan grins sheepishly, efficiently boxing all the Jade Marrow Pills into porcelain bottles.
"Golden Crow, assist with Fire Control. Hexuan, check the herbs! Next, we’ll refine the Turtle Breath Pill!" Yang Zhenshan instructs.
After practice, now cos the serious task of refining the Turtle Breath Pill.
The most troubleso aspect of refining Turtle Breath Pills is ensuring the dicinal properties of the Thousand-year-old Xuan Turtle’s essential blood are preserved, followed by the fusion of over a dozen attribute-conflicting herbs.
To achieve these two points, Yang Zhenshan has practiced considerably over the years, even mastering the Heart Hand to the Perfect Realm.
He relies on the Heart Hand to ensure the essential blood from the Thousand-year-old Xuan Turtle doesn’t dissipate.
Zhang Hexuan adeptly inspects the necessary herbs; he has long morized the herbs needed for refining Turtle Breath Pills, understanding them thoroughly as foundational knowledge required for Yang Zhenshan’s new Alchemy assistant.
Igniting the furnace, Yang Zhenshan focuses on sensing the temperature changes within the furnace. Once it reaches the required temperature, he begins by adding several auxiliary herbs.
Once the auxiliary herbs are refined into liquid, he carefully retrieves a porcelain bottle containing Xuan Turtle’s essential blood, utilizing the Heart Hand to draw it from the bottle and add it into the Pill Furnace.
"Golden Crow, True Sun Fire!"
Once the Xuan Turtle’s essential blood enters the furnace, Yang Zhenshan calmly instructs.
Gaw~~
The Golden Crow opens its mouth, spewing a burst of True Sun Fire towards the bottom of the furnace.
This is Yang Zhenshan’s first use of True Sun Fire in Alchemy; its heat far exceeds that of Second-order ground fire.
With a burst of True Sun Fire, Zhang Hexuan imdiately couldn’t withstand the scorching air that seared his hair, hastily retreating from the hall without hesitation.
Yang Zhenshan pays no mind to Zhang Hexuan, enveloping himself in a faint Magic Barrier while maintaining focus on the changes within the Pill Furnace.
True Sun Fire’s intensity almost caused Yang Zhenshan to lose control over the Xuan Turtle’s essential blood within the furnace.
Fortunately, he managed to salvage, barely preserving the essential blood’s dicinal properties.
Yet as ti progressed, Yang Zhenshan found his Divine Soul Power depleting at an alarming rate, as though his Sea of Consciousness had a breach, his Soul Power surging out like a vent.
The sensation was due entirely to the massive consumption of Divine Soul Power by the Heart Hand within the True Sun Fire.
True Sun Fire, a Third-order True Fire, is sothing Yang Zhenshan can barely withstand at present, only by the Golden Crow’s controlled intensity can he endure.
However, this attempt ended in failure; as he controlled the fusion of Xuan Turtle’s essential blood with the herbal liquid, black smoke surged from the furnace, turning both essential blood and herbal liquid into black ashes.
Yang Zhenshan exhaled heavily.
Failure!
A failure anticipated!
"Withdraw it!"
Golden Crow retracts the True Sun Fire.
The reason for failure was simple; the timing of fusing the essential blood and herbal liquid was late. The True Sun Fire was too domineering, the herbal liquid had already condensed, and Yang Zhenshan missed the opportune mont, directly leading to failure.
Despite rehearsing with True Sun Fire, he hadn’t genuinely refined before, so this outco was expected.
"Master!"
Outside the hall, Zhang Hexuan dared not enter, calling out from the entrance.
Yang Zhenshan slowly stands up, disabling the array protecting the hall before dismissing the hot air within with a sleeve wave.
"Co in!"
"Was it a failure?" Zhang Hexuan asked, seeing the furnace still emitting black smoke.
"Yes! I need to ponder a bit; you go clean the furnace first!"
After speaking, Yang Zhenshan sat nearby, cross-legged, contemplating the gains and losses from this Alchemy session.
Failure isn’t terrifying; not knowing the cause of failure is.
This failure allowed Yang Zhenshan to truly understand the difficulty in refining Turtle Breath Pills, while also granting him so experience.
This failure, in fact, increased Yang Zhenshan’s confidence in refining Turtle Breath Pills.
Only by genuinely attempting will one know if it’s achievable.
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