Chapter 5: Initial Alchemy

Looking at this medicine cauldron, Lin Feng nodded in satisfaction.

Although the medicine cauldron he obtained from Liu Xi was only the lowest-grade two-opening cauldron,

it was most suitable for him as a beginner.

After taking a deep breath, Lin Feng picked up the introductory alchemist's book he had gotten from Liu Xi and looked again at the recorded techniques for using the medicine cauldron.

Then, according to the book, he placed his hand over the cauldron's fire opening and circulated his fighting qi to his palm.

As soon as his fighting qi reached his palm, the cauldron instantly emitted a suction force, drawing the fighting qi from his palm through the fire opening into itself.

Pfft

With a muffled bang, the fighting qi flow, after passing through the fire opening, was abruptly transformed into crimson substantive flame.

Inside the cauldron, it continuously churned and burned.

His palm suddenly spurted fire, startling Lin Feng, who almost reflexively pulled his hand back.

Fortunately, he remembered what the book taught, which allowed him to suppress his panic.

Gazing at the flames churning inside the cauldron, he closed his eyes and gradually calmed his mind.

His powerful soul perception continuously scanned back and forth within his body for that faint trace of wood power.

After nearly ten minutes, Lin Feng finally found that faint trace of wood power within his body.

He extended a finger and lightly tapped it on the other fire opening.

An extremely thin green current was slowly infused into it.

As soon as the green current entered the cauldron, the crimson flame inside, as if a chemical reaction had occurred, suddenly calmed down.

At this point, even though Lin Feng had not yet controlled the flame inside,

he could sense that the violent factor in the flame had already been neutralized by the wood power.

Furthermore, due to the principle that wood generates fire,

the flame at this moment was obviously more enduring and controllable than before.

He lifted his palm from the cauldron, picked up a prescription titled 'Revival Powder,' and examined it again.

Revival Powder, a low-grade prescription, when sprinkled on a wound can staunch bleeding and prevent infection, but only for external injuries; the required ingredients are Azure Blue Flower, Revival Grass, and Hundred Treasure Vine.

As for the medicinal ingredients needed for alchemy, he had already spent twenty thousand gold coins at the Mitell Auction House to buy a hundred portions, enough for his practice.

After finishing, he lit the fire again and flicked his finger on his space ring.

A faint light flashed, and a stalk of azure-blue medicinal herb appeared in Lin Feng's hand, which he then tossed into the cauldron.

As soon as the Azure Blue Flower entered the cauldron, Lin Feng hadn't yet had time to control it, and the flame surged upward.

In an instant, it turned into a handful of black ash, which was finally expelled from the cauldron by its special device.

Uh...

Lin Feng looked at the black ash inside the cauldron, scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, and then tossed in another stalk of Azure Blue Flower.

This time, the Azure Blue Flower persisted a bit longer in the flame, but still turned into black ash.

"The temperature seems a bit high..."

After several back-and-forth attempts, Lin Feng carefully controlled the flame, his soul perception firmly compressing the flame's temperature.

Through the ice mirror, he stared intently at the Azure Blue Flower suspended in the flame.

After churning in the cauldron for a moment, the Azure Blue Flower gradually began to shed its outer skin.

The juice contained in the leaves was also gradually smoked into a green powder.

Shortly thereafter, Lin Feng obtained a quantity of green powder speckled with occasional black dots.

Looking at the product in his hand, Lin Feng's face broke into a smile.

Although the temperature control this time was still somewhat lacking, it could be considered a success.

An hour later, Lin Feng looked at the more than twenty portions of Azure Blue Flower powder refined beside him and nodded in satisfaction.

He then picked up a stalk of Revival Grass, tossed it into the cauldron, and began refining it.

After producing more than twenty portions, he began refining the Hundred Treasure Vine.

After the Hundred Treasure Vine had also been refined into more than twenty portions, Lin Feng's face turned slightly pale; he could no longer endure, stopped the medicinal refinement, and weakly collapsed onto the ground.

Although his cultivation method is Mysterious Tier intermediate, controlling the two-opening cauldron for nearly four hours had already reached his limit.

"It seems alchemy isn't an easy task either!"

Feeling that his fighting qi was nearly exhausted, Lin Feng sighed.

He quickly sat cross-legged beside the cauldron, circulated his cultivation method, and began training.

Training at this time yields the best results...

After closing his eyes and resting for a while, the dim vortex within Lin Feng's body, caused by depleted fighting qi, once again emitted a bright luster.

Moreover, this halo appeared somewhat brighter than it had a few hours earlier.

Slowly opening his eyes, the sore, numb feeling of weakness throughout his body also receded by more than half.

He twisted his neck, and the sound of his bones colliding let Lin Feng exhale comfortably.

Thereupon he began the most difficult and crucial step of alchemy: medicinal fusion!

It is considered the most difficult because each medicinal ingredient requires a different level of heat.

And fusing medicinal ingredients requires placing multiple ingredients together at once, necessitating precise control of the heat level for each ingredient.

Taking a deep breath, he skillfully ignited the fire and tossed the Hundred Treasure Vine liquid into the cauldron.

A few minutes later, he again picked up the Revival Grass essence from beside him and threw it in.

After the two had fused, he quickly tossed in the Azure Blue Flower powder.

Lin Feng stared fixedly at the cauldron as it began to fuse the bluish-white liquid, controlling the flame to start heating up.

Boom!

Just as the fusion was about to succeed, Lin Feng accidentally raised the flame temperature a bit too high, and the medicinal ingredients inside instantly turned to black ash.

He exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, then added the ingredients again.

Fusion began.

"Bang!"

The heat was too high, resulting in failure.

He added the ingredients again.

After several consecutive failures, Lin Feng felt he had roughly found the appropriate heat level.

He added the ingredients again, and in an instant, the surging flames once more enveloped the various materials, beginning to fuse.

As soon as the final trace of blue-gray color successfully merged, Lin Feng immediately reduced the fire.

When the moment was ripe, he fiercely waved his palm, and a mass of green medicinal liquid precisely fell into the prepared jade vial.

"Hehe, from now on I can consider myself an alchemist."

Gazing at the liquid in the jade vial, a surge of pride instantly welled up in Lin Feng's heart.

Although, due to collecting the fire too hastily, it was mixed with some mottled color.

But regardless, this is already a bottle of medicinal liquid that can be sold normally.

"Rumble..."

Lin Feng pushed open the stone door of the alchemy room, glanced at the opposite wall, and saw the date chart updated daily by the Alchemist Guild.

"It turns out seven days have already passed."

Lin Feng scratched his hair, which hadn't been washed in a week and was somewhat messy.

He had basically been frantically concocting pills these past few days, never expecting that seven days had already gone by.

Returning to the inn, he renewed his room at the front desk for another month.

After cleaning up in his room, he put on his alchemist apprentice's badge and headed to the trading market of the Alchemist Guild.

There to purchase medicinal ingredients, the variety was rich and the safety was more assured than elsewhere.

After all, those who can set up stalls there are surely extremely wealthy.

Unless you possess something extremely rare, who would be idle enough to become a bandit?

Entering the Alchemist Guild, Lin Feng headed straight for the eastern area, which was the zone the guild had specially designated for trading.

Upon arriving at the trading area, the vendors here were worlds apart from those outside.

Each one not only refrained from loudly hawking to attract customers, but instead leisurely sat in soft chairs, some even already brewing tea.

Only when someone asked about the price would they rise to converse.

Transactions worth hundreds of thousands often arise from just a few simple sentences.

After browsing the market for a while, Lin Feng came to a small stall whose medicinal ingredients looked relatively abundant, and asked the elderly stallholder in his sixties: "Senior, I need the ingredients for thirty Hemostatic Pills; do you have them?"

"Hehe."

The old man stroked his goat beard and laughed: "It's just the ingredients for a First-Tier Pill; even if you increase the quantity that much, I still have them!"

"What is the price for thirty portions?" Hearing the old man's confident tone, Lin Feng asked again.

"150,000 gold coins, or a single Third-Tier Pill."

"Senior, this is a Third-Tier Turtle Breath Pill; should that be enough?"

Upon hearing that, Lin Feng touched his storage ring, took out a wooden box, and handed it over.

The old man received the wooden box, opened it, gave a slight nod, and said: "Not bad, it is indeed a Turtle Breath Pill; take the goods."

Saying that, the old man likewise touched his storage ring, and the previously rather empty small stall instantly piled up with various medicinal ingredients.

Lin Feng glanced over them and found no problems.

He then stored them in his storage ring, then cupped his hands toward the old man and said: "Since the transaction is complete, I'll take my leave, junior."

Having said that, he walked toward the alchemy room he rented.

"Phew, thanks to Liu Xi's abundant collection; otherwise, even concocting a month's worth of Rejuvenation Elixir wouldn't be enough to buy these thirty portions of ingredients."

Returning to the alchemy room and placing the ingredients beside him, Lin Feng couldn't help but thank Liu Xi again.

If it weren't for this One-Star Alchemist bringing him all these things, he would probably still be worried about his cultivation technique.

Having adjusted his condition, Lin Feng immediately released the medicinal cauldron; today he intends to attempt refining a proper First-Tier Pill.

Although he can already concoct some medicinal liquids, only by refining pills in pellet form can he be considered a One-Star Alchemist.

Skillfully igniting the fire, he waved his hand, and a stalk of blood-clotting grass beside him was tossed into the medicinal cauldron.

"Is this the Hemostatic Pill? The prescription says it should be blood-red... this pellet... seems the medicinal toxicity is too strong; can it count as a success?"

Lin Feng looked at the dark-red pill in his hand, thinking uncertainly.

After shaking his head, he finally understood why only by refining a pill can one be called a One-Star Alchemist.

He originally thought that since he could concoct liquids, refining pills wouldn't be too difficult.

As a result, after hard work for half a day and using thirty portions of ingredients, all that came out was this thing.

Thinking of those ingredients, Lin Feng's eyes involuntarily flashed a hint of heartache.

From Liu Xi's storage ring he had obtained only two Third-Tier Pills in total.

And in this half day's work, the ingredients exchanged for one of those pills have already been completely wasted.

Lin Feng secretly thought to himself: "Should I take an alchemist as my master?"

Immediately afterward, Lin Feng extinguished that thought.

If he were to take a master now, under ordinary circumstances he could only stay by that teacher's side to study until he completed his training.

That would be nothing special for ordinary people, but for Lin Feng it would be a disaster.

After all, by that time, many of the fortunate encounters he knows about have already been completely taken by Xiao Yan.

Furthermore, he had prepared for two years to go to Canaan Academy; if he takes a master, then you going to study at the academy again would be a slap in the teacher's face, wouldn't it?