Chapter Eighteen: Cultivation Soars

  Entering the Purple Yuan Boundary, she carefully selected the medicinal materials needed to refine the Beneficial Qi Powder and placed them separately. Only then did Zuo Xiao Yao take out the Dan Ding and place it in front of her. She first added a small portion of the medicinal material into the Ding, and as she silently recited the incantation with her heart, she used gentle flames to heat the enlarged Dan Ding from below. The intricate patterns on the exterior of the Ding slowly guided the flame's energy directly into the interior, while she controlled the four types of medicinal materials inside the Ding with her relatively weak spiritual power, causing them to absorb the heat separately.

  When Zuo Xiao Yao gradually increased the flame, the four kinds of medicinal materials that had melted into a liquid, although they were different in color, began to emit a strong fragrance. From past experience, she knew this was a sign that the medicinal materials were about to be successfully refined. Having experienced the greatest surprise and joy before, she was quite familiar with this scene, but Zuo Xiao Yao, who had become as calm as still water, knew that what followed was the most crucial part.

  At the moment when all four medicinal herbs in the cauldron turned into a thick, liquid essence, Zuo Xiaoyao suddenly made a series of hand seals. As her face turned pale and sweat dripped from her forehead, the Dan tripod emitted a 'ding' sound, and a small, delicate pouch flew out.

  She glanced at the small pile of powder in the cauldron, sighed inwardly, and then closed her eyes to meditate on the spot. She ran the late-stage technique of the Nascent Soul stage within her body to restore the ball of energy in her dantian.

  At first, when practicing the purification of Dan medicine, after finally being able to quickly and successfully purify one type of medicinal material, Zuo Xiaoyao, who wanted to simultaneously purify two types of medicinal materials, had eaten a lot of bitter fruit and spent a great deal of mental effort. In the end, it was only by chance that she discovered that as long as she concentrated her mind on separating the two medicinal materials when they were heated, the two materials with different melting points would change their heat absorption due to her full spiritual consciousness, and would not mix together automatically after becoming liquid.

  Overjoyed Zuo Xiaoyao, after racking her brains and searching for a lot of information online, finally found out that she had unintentionally used her spiritual power at the time when she was fully focused. This is a kind of mysterious invisible force, and some people with strong spiritual power from birth may even have innate abilities due to this reason.

  But previously, Zuo Xiao Yao was an ordinary person and obviously didn't possess any special abilities. The reason she possessed such abilities later on was also due to her cultivation. It's just that previously, the intangible power within her was too weak, so she hadn't noticed it at all, nor had anyone reminded her of it.

  In the following days, Zuo Xiaoyao continued to maintain her enthusiasm for entering the great cause of alchemy after recovering from the Qi ball in her Dantian. Although she was met with failure time and again, at the same time, every time she consumed the Qi ball inside her body, Zuo Xiaoyao could clearly feel that her strength would increase significantly each time she recovered her power through meditation.

  It's Monday again, and before she knew it, Zuo Xiao Yao had spent nearly twenty days and nights eating, sleeping and cultivating in the Zi Yuan Boundary. Her spirit was still full and she was eagerly looking forward to continuing after work tonight.

  The rhythm and regularity of life are completely different from those of ordinary people, Zuo Xiaoyao has now become quite accustomed to it, single-handedly guarding her own secrets and fighting alone on the path of cultivation, detached from the category of ordinary people, which really requires persistent strength and effort!

  Eight days later, when the two large bags of semi-finished medicinal herbs that Zuo Xiaoyao had bought back for 3,000 yuan were almost consumed, she was holding a small pill emitting normal medicinal fragrance, her face filled with surprise and excitement, she was so excited that she could hardly control herself. Heaven knows that including the previous weekend, it has been nearly three months since she has been fighting in this Zi Yuan boundary. She finally harvested a product that is not bad, how can she not be happy and excited!

  After glancing at the bucket of Chinese medicine beside her, Zuo Xiao Yao's confidence reached an unprecedented level!

  During this period, she changed many methods and used all the abilities she had discovered to try to change the fact that although the medicinal materials could be purified, they still couldn't be condensed into a good elixir. Faced with the powders, black carbon balls, and irregular blocks that appeared time and again despite her efforts, she felt extremely frustrated.

  After failing to excavate any other potential abilities due to cultivation, she thought the main problem was that these medicinal materials had been air-dried. Xiaoyao picked up a plastic bucket she used for washing in the Ziyuan boundary space and filled it with water from the pond outside the courtyard. She then soaked the medicinal materials in the bucket to see if they could absorb some moisture, hoping they would have the effect of fresh medicinal materials needed for alchemy.

  It turned out that Zuo Xiao's move, which was originally intended to be a desperate attempt to revive a dead horse, unexpectedly succeeded. As for what principle it was based on, even she didn't know, having only thought of trying it after leaving the Zi Yuan realm that morning. In any case, this time it was a complete success!

  Hurry to recover the increasingly condensed gas group in her body, Zuo Xiaoyao began to refine the elixir again. Compared with the first time when she was overjoyed by the successful condensation of the elixir and failed to handle the final step of collecting fire, this time she successfully harvested a round and jade-like elixir that emitted a faint medicinal fragrance after summarizing her previous failure experience, from gathering the elixir, to condensing it, and finally to collecting fire to form the elixir.

  According to the information recorded in her mind about alchemy, the fainter the fragrance emitted by the elixir, the higher its quality. Although Zuo Xiaoyao didn't know what was considered high or low, from the two successfully refined elixirs, it was clear that this one had a fainter fragrance but better quality than the previous one, and its Qi-gathering properties were even more excellent.

  With the pellet of Yiqi San the size of a bullet pinched between her two fingers, Zuo Xiao Yao hesitated for a moment before putting it into her mouth. As soon as the entrance melted, the Dan Wan slid down her throat and transformed into a fine stream that filled her entire body. She couldn't help but feel a shock, and immediately began to circulate the Qi of the later stage of Naqi.

  Until the realization that the air mass in the dantian was rapidly recovering, the airflow transformed from the elixir was still gathered towards the dantian by the gong method. The air mass also unconditionally accepted and absorbed them one by one. At the same time, the speed of expansion and condensation of the air mass became faster and faster, causing Zuo Xiaoyao, who was fully immersed in her cultivation, to reveal a hint of a relieved smile.

  Waking up from her self-cultivation, she made some observations and realized that this time's cultivation was equivalent to what she had gained from a night of bitter practice in the past. Surprised and delighted, Zuo Xiaoyao was overjoyed, thinking that at this speed, she might soon break through to the Fusion Liquid stage, and she looked forward to the effect of the elixir even more.

  Unfortunately, this beautiful wish was declared broken when she took Yiqi San for the second time. Compared to the first time she took a Dan medicine equivalent to one night's work in reality, this time's effect was only equivalent to half a night's work. Although she felt disappointed, after some thought, Zuo Xiaoyao had already figured out the key to this.

  The low-grade Qi-gathering pill is not a rare item, and the medicinal materials used to refine it are also common. Moreover, even using unqualified wind-dried medicinal materials can produce it, so it's not considered a precious elixir. If taking Qi-gathering pills has an effect like the first time, then cultivation doesn't seem to be difficult either, just need to take more pills and that's all. Not to mention that there are even better and more precious pills than this low-grade one, I suppose it's because it was my first time taking a pill that it had such a strong effect at the time.

  Although the joints in between won't drop as severely as they did the first two times, Zuo Xiaoyao noticed that as she took more and more of the medicinal pellets, their effects became increasingly limited. She didn't find this too surprising, perhaps it was just a case of the usual drug resistance.

  Even though the efficacy of Yiqi San was continuously decreasing, in the eight nights of Zuo Xiaoyao's reality, after taking more than a hundred Yiqi San, she had already sensed that she was only one line away from reaching the perfect state of Naqi. The breakthrough period was just a matter of time, and this speed, although unknown compared to other cultivators, was absolutely a rapid progress compared to her own past cultivation speed!