Volume 1 Setting Sail Chapter 89 Firing Up the Furnace to Refine the Elixir

  When they returned to Fei Long Institute, it was already evening. The doors of the other four rooms were all closed, and Gu Xiang and others were meditating in their rooms.

  Xiao Chen returned home with a full load, quietly and soundlessly entering his own room, diving headfirst into the dan furnace, and then causing the heavy stone door of the dan furnace chamber to fall shut.

  Xiao Chen knew that the most taboo thing in alchemy was to be disturbed by others. If someone was disturbed while refining a pill, they would lose focus for a moment, and the entire furnace of medicinal pills might instantly burn into ashes.

  After doing all this, Xiao Chen again under the command of Ye Liu Xing, took out all three medicinal materials for refining Nourishing Qi Dan from the storage ring, neatly placed them on the medicine rack, and conveniently picked up the materials when refining the elixir.

  "To refine the elixir, you must first understand the structure of the crucible." Ye Liu Xing's expression turned serious, and he spoke slowly, like a great master of alchemy: "For example, this crucible in front of us has two furnace eyes. This type of crucible is classified as a magical tool, which is the lowest level among all crucibles."

  "The more furnace eyes, the higher the grade of the elixir furnace. Don't think that these furnace eyes are just two holes dug casually. In fact, inside these furnace eyes, there is a profound mystery, like hundreds of rivers converging into the sea, old trees branching out, countless forks in the road, which can divide the flame into hundreds of strands. When refining elixirs, one needs to control every branch of the flame with their mind and spirit, otherwise, the fire timing will not be mastered, and the spiritual herbs inside the furnace will burn to ashes."

  "Like you now, at most can only control two furnace eyes of Dan furnace, if more, you will be out of control."

  Xiao Chen heard this and didn't say a word, but instead very seriously committed every single sentence that Ye Liu Xing had spoken to memory.

  "On the top cover, this band with a reverse device cover hole is used for material feeding. The material enters this hole and will enter the furnace belly, accepting the three yuan true fire burning in the furnace eye, refining."

  "On the top, these dense, raindrop-like holes on dry soil are used for heat dissipation to prevent excessive pressure inside the furnace and causing it to burst."

  "At the same time, when the elixir is about to be refined, these small holes will emit a clear and crisp whistling sound. If it's an alchemy master, there's no need to use divine soul or mental focus to observe the situation inside the furnace, just by listening to the whistling sound, one can know the fire timing."

  After listening to the explanation, Xiao Chen secretly remembered it in his heart, feeling that this alchemy was not simple at all. Listening to Ye Liu Xing's explanation, Xiao Chen had a feeling of listening to a chemistry teacher's lecture in his previous life, and various chemical equations gradually emerged in his mind.

  "Now, erupt the Triple True Fire within your body and inject it into the alchemical furnace to begin the first step of alchemy, preheating." Ye Liu Xing finished explaining and began instructing Xiao Chen in alchemy.

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen stepped forward, closed his eyes, and concentrated his spirit, energy, and will. Then, he stretched out his palm and slapped the furnace's opening.

  Bang!

  In an instant, the azure flames burst forth from the dan furnace, transforming through the fire eyes into a raging inferno.

  Xiao Chen felt that inside this dan furnace, there was something like a liquefied gas from his past life, which split the flame and presented an explosive combustion, dispersing the fire in all directions, but the temperature became even more uniform.

  "Now, you first take a Astragalus membranaceus and try it out, extracting its essence." Ye Liu Xing said.

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen took a stalk of Astragalus that he had previously prepared and threw it into the alchemical furnace through the hole on top of the lid.

  Hiss——

  A light sound, the Astragalus membranaceus that Xiao Chen had put in was suddenly ignited and turned into a wisp of smoke, sinking to the bottom of the furnace. Not to mention extracting the essence, Xiao Chen didn't even manage to extract any residue.

  "What's going on?" Xiao Chen asked in astonishment.

  Ye Liu Xing smiled and said, "This is what's called fire timing. Your flames were too fierce just now, so you directly burned the Astragalus membranaceus into ashes. To refine elixirs, one must first learn to grasp fire timing. This fire timing I cannot teach you; you can only come to understand it yourself. So, these medicinal materials, burn them slowly."

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen's eyes flashed with determination once again. He picked up another stalk of Gan and threw it into the furnace, stirring the Triple Yuan True Fire to refine it once more.

  "The temperature is still high!" This time, Gan Zhu was again burned into ashes by Xiao Chen.

  "Come on!" Ye Liu Xing said: "These things are worthless, you can burn as much as you want, don't be heartbroken."

  "Fire!"

  "Fire!"

  “……”

  After being burned by Xiao Chen for forty consecutive batches of medicinal materials, he finally barely grasped the subtlety of fire timing.

  He picked up a stalk of Redtail Grass and carefully threw it into the furnace. With his soul as the guide, his perception ability was maximized, tightly locking onto the changes of the Redtail Grass in the flames. At the same time, his soul dominated, fiercely suppressing the temperature of the Triple Yuan True Fire.

  Gradually, Xiao Chen saw through his spiritual perception that the Chi Wei Cao was slowly retreating its grass skin and impurities under the refining of the San Yuan True Fire. At the same time, a drop of crimson liquid, about the size of a raindrop, was extracted from the Chi Wei Cao, while the Chi Wei Cao itself was incinerated into flying ash under the burning of the San Yuan True Fire.

  "Success!" Xiao Chen exclaimed excitedly, his divine soul carefully controlling a drop of crimson liquid as it floated up and separated from the furnace's belly fire.

  At this moment, with the essence of Redtail Grass being refined, Xiao Chen finally let out a long sigh. Refining pills was mentally exhausting, and at this moment, Xiao Chen's forehead was already covered in a layer of sweat beads.

  It's just that Xiao Chen's divine soul is extremely powerful, if it were an ordinary person, they would probably have collapsed from exhaustion by now, their divine soul strength can't sustain such a long period of release.

  Xiao Chen now understood Ye Liu Xing's intentions. From the beginning, Ye Liu Xing had planned to make him a Dan Master, passing on the 'Nine-Nine Refining Soul Technique' to him, tempering his soul and making it extremely powerful.

  "Now, gather them all!" said Ye Liu Xing.

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen's mind surged with thoughts and his spiritual soul force burst forth, enveloping the refined spiritual liquid extracted from the Red Tail Grass as it flew out of the Dan furnace.

  "The vessels of the alchemists all have this special trait, jade bottles that can protect the elixir and prevent its potency from dispersing." Ye Liu Xing said as he somehow produced a delicate small bottle for holding elixirs and filled it with the essence of Chi Yan Cao that Xiao Chen had extracted from the dan furnace.

  "Take a rest." Yè Liú Xīng suggested after refining, looking at Xiāo Chén's sweaty appearance.

  "No need, I can still hold on." Xiao Chen didn't go to rest, but instead once again stirred the Triple Yuan True Fire and threw the Astragalus into the alchemy furnace, continuing to refine it.

  With the experience of successfully extracting the essence of Redtail Grass, this time extracting the essence of Astragalus would be much easier. After three consecutive failures, Xiao Chen finally succeeded in extracting the essence from Astragalus.

  Astragalus membranaceus is a light yellow powder, this medicine tonifies the Qi and consolidates the Exterior.

  "Only Gan Zhuang is left." Xiao Chen's excitement grew, as if hope was just ahead, and with a burst of energy, he threw Gan Zhuang into the alchemy furnace once again.

  The Triple True Fire stirred, and in the Dan furnace, a blue flame surged and rolled. Because Xiao Chen was a Star Chaser War Body, his Triple True Fire was blue. Different war bodies had different colors of Triple True Fire for each disciple.

  After making a mistake once, Xiao Chen successfully extracted the essence of Gan Zhu. The essence of Gan Zhu was also a powder, a silver-white powder that smelled slightly sweet and had the effect of nourishing blood and Qi.

  After collecting all three medicines, Xiao Chen finally couldn't hold on anymore and sat down on the ground with a thud, panting heavily.

  Before, Xiao Chen felt that refining the elixir was easy, just like burning firewood in a pot and then it would come out. However, now that he is personally practicing it, he suddenly feels that it is extremely difficult.

  This is still his leadership ability is extremely strong, just now able to grasp so quickly, if the leadership ability is poor, I'm afraid that even extracting this one item, without a few days of time, don't think about grasping.

  At this moment, Ye Liu Xing was also very satisfied with Xiao Chen's performance. As a great alchemy master, Ye Liu Xing was very clear about what level Xiao Chen had reached, and it was absolutely at the level of a genius.

  It only took the time of three incense sticks to extract the essence of the three medicinal materials of the Nourishing Qi Pill, and it's hard not to mention his incredible talent. Although the '99 Refining Soul Technique' played a role in this, Xiao Chen's talent is still undeniable.

  But what follows is the real test of whether someone has a talent for alchemy, and that is refining the elixir.

  Only those who can refine Dan medicine can be called alchemists; otherwise, merely refining these powders does not qualify one as an alchemist.

  "Take a rest, you've done great." Ye Liu Xing also knew that Xiao Chen was now exhausted, his spirit and soul highly concentrated, controlling the flames, and still having to burst out with the Triple Yuan True Fire. Among these, his spirit played a crucial role, and for three incense sticks' time, the high-intensity refinement was already very difficult for Xiao Chen, who had just started practicing alchemy.

  At this moment, Xiao Chen was indeed very tired, with a drowsy feeling, his whole body was sore and numb, as if he had lost all his strength, and didn't even want to move.

  At this moment, hearing the words of Ye Liu Xing, Xiao Chen quietly closed his eyes, and the 'Jiǔ Jiǔ Liàn Hún Jué' began to revolve. The radiance from the stars was absorbed by Xiao Chen, swirling around his head, rolling in and out, nourishing his weary soul.

  Thus, after a while, Xiao Chen opened his eyes, his gaze was bright and sharp, he had already recovered to the peak state, his spirit was not tired, and his mind was clear.

  "Recovered? Then let's begin. The next step is to synthesize the essence of the medicinal materials and refine them into a dan medicine, which is where things get even more difficult. That's when your control over the fire timing will truly be put to the test." Ye Liu Xing said as he saw Xiao Chen wake up.

  "Alright." Xiao Chen replied succinctly.

  Refining elixirs is crucial to his future. In this era, the heavenly yuanqi can no longer sustain the Starlight Battle Body, so it must rely on the accumulation of elixirs to continuously upgrade and break through boundaries.

  It's better to rely on oneself than others, so Xiao Chen must master the skill of alchemy, and only then will his cultivation become easier.