Chapter 188: Refining the Soul-Returning Pill

Qin Ming gazed delightedly at the transformations of the two spirit plants, feeling quite satisfied in his heart.

However, both of these spirit plants had been elevated to the peak of the second rank, and their growth cycles were correspondingly long.

It would take at least over a decade before they could be harvested.

Yet, for Qin Ming, this was not a major problem.

The Silver-Winged Frost Bee also flew out from within the beehive, its gaze filled with curiosity as it looked upon the completely renewed tea tree forest and the purple-green bamboo grove.

It seemed to sense the even richer wood-and-grass spiritual qi emanating from within; immediately, it commanded all the spirit bees in the hive to transform into streaks of flowing light, drilling into the bamboo grove to patrol and see if there were any ungrateful pests.

After using up two 【Bloodline Reversion】 tags, Qin Ming pondered for a moment, "Since I've already chosen to upgrade my spiritual tools, I might as well add more fuel to the fire."

Then, with another movement of his mind, the 【Spirit Plant Spirit Endowment】 tag in his sea of consciousness vanished instantly, merging into one of the Void Bamboos before him.

"This tag can actually only be used on a single spirit plant individually."

After use, the 【Spirit Plant Spirit Endowment】 tag can endow an originally ordinary spirit plant with a certain degree of spirituality.

The next instant.

"Hee-hee-hee-hee!"

Within Qin Ming's perception of his affinity with wood and grass, a sound of joyful childish laughter actually emerged from inside that Void Bamboo.

"Damn!"

"Could it have given birth to spiritual intelligence?"

Qin Ming couldn't help but exclaim in shock.

With a tense expression, he tried to perceive it again, only to find that the laughter had instantly disappeared without a trace.

Subsequently, deep within the core of this plant, Qin Ming discovered an embryo the size of a grain of rice, flickering with a faint green luster.

It seemed to be nurturing some kind of strange existence.

Following the rhythm of heaven and earth, it breathed in the external spiritual qi, constantly strengthening itself.

Qin Ming's expression became extremely excited, and he said joyfully, "This Void Bamboo that was endowed with spirit seems to have a very high probability of growing directly into a third-rank spirit bamboo!"

Having said this, he even reached out to stroke the spirit bamboo, unexpectedly feeling a sense of affection transmitted back from it.

"This..."

Qin Ming did not know what kind of spirituality this tag had actually endowed upon the Void Bamboo; even he was somewhat unsure.

It seemed he would only uncover the answer after waiting for it to grow up.

Half a day later.

Wu Jiang, having delivered the letter, took the opportunity to return to Wangyue Island aboard a San Alliance dharma boat.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, I have personally handed the letter to Gu Gezhu Gu."

"And I have informed her to handle it with expedited priority."

"Gu Gezhu Gu said there will be a reply in at most half a month."

After informing Qin Ming that the matter was settled, he returned down to the island with a somewhat distracted demeanor.

Qin Ming didn't need to think hard to know that Wu Jiang must have also been shocked by the tragic scene outside.

When piles of cultivator corpses were carried out, one could not help but feel sorrow for one's own kind.

Half a month later.

Qin Ming had Wu Jiang make another trip to retrieve Su Yuqing's reply letter.

Once the reply jade slip was in hand, Qin Ming excitedly returned to his cave dwelling to examine its contents.

But when he clearly saw Su Yuqing's response, he discovered it contained only a few brief sentences: "Brother Qin, this pill is actually not as difficult to refine as imagined; the reason for the high difficulty lies not in the pill formula, but in the alchemist themselves."

"That Yan Changkong failed repeatedly in his refinements; the root cause was that his divine soul strength was insufficient, leading to an inability to precisely master the fusion and blending of the medicinal properties, failing to meet the requirements for refining this pill."

"But with Brother Qin's divine soul strength, refining the Soul-Returning Pill is naturally more than sufficient."

"Brother Qin need not worry excessively; you only need to boldly attempt a refinement once, letting all the problems obediently surface."

"As for the rest, you will know how to successfully refine this pill."

After reading it, Qin Ming couldn't help but complain, "Just this?!"

He had waited anxiously for over half a month, only to receive such an answer; the success rate of the Soul-Returning Pill actually depended on the alchemist's divine soul strength.

"Since Su Yuqing said it won't fail, he surely wouldn't deceive me, so let's just give it a try." Qin Ming hesitated no longer, taking out the Profound Jade Furnace from his storage bag and placing it before him.

Subsequently, he poured out all the spiritual materials that Wei Wuya had given him.

In an instant.

Over a hundred kinds of top-grade spiritual materials, rare in the Wei Kingdom's Immortal Realm, scattered out and, under the control of Qin Ming's powerful divine sense, floated quietly around him.

Through his continuous study of the pill formula over these past days, his grasp of the information regarding these spiritual materials was crystal clear.

With a movement of his divine sense, Qin Ming divided this batch of spiritual materials into twelve portions according to the ratio required for refining the Soul-Returning Pill.

Then, he blew out a mouthful of air; the ice-blue Spirit-Devouring Poison Flame transformed into a firebird that drilled into the bottom of the Profound Jade Furnace and began to evenly heat the pill furnace.

Immediately following this.

He began the familiar processes of extracting medicinal embryos and compounding medicinal liquids; for a second-rank upper-grade grandmaster of the Dao of Pills like himself, these steps were as common as daily meals.

Yet, Qin Ming vaguely felt that he seemed to have missed something somewhere.

However, even though he noticed some anomaly, he did not stop the actions of his hands, proceeding all the way to the final stage of pill condensation.

Puchi!

A burst of green-black thick smoke billowed out from within the Profound Jade Furnace; obviously, the refinement had failed.

Qin Ming raised his hand to grab it, opened the lid of the pill furnace, poured out the pitch-black medicinal dregs inside, and recalling the alchemy process just now, observed them thoughtfully.

After half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed.

Qin Ming's eyes suddenly brightened; several points he had previously been unable to comprehend instantly became clear.

He cleared away the medicinal dregs and began the second pill refinement.

The preceding procedures remained as usual, but when reaching the step of compounding the medicinal liquid, Qin Ming began to make changes.

With a movement of one of his divided thoughts, a clump of yellow medicinal liquid brimming with earth spiritual energy floated directly before him.

Subsequently, Qin Ming used his powerful divine sense to manipulate the other medicinal liquids representing the four Five Elements attributes of water, wood, fire, and metal, merging them into that clump of earth-attribute medicinal liquid in the order of mutual generation among the Five Elements.

It was precisely this process that severely tested a cultivator's divine soul strength; the slightest carelessness, a tiny error, would cause the medicinal liquid inside to shift instantly from Five Elements mutual generation to Five Elements mutual restriction, creating conflicts between the various attributes and leading to the failure of the final pill formation.

More importantly, before entering the furnace to condense the pill, divine sense was still required to control the stability of this clump of medicinal liquid.

Qin Ming discarded distracting thoughts, focused his mind without diversion, and concentrated entirely on the pill refinement.

Gradually.

A clump of medicinal liquid emitting a five-colored halo fused into existence before him, its Five Elements colors flashing in alternating succession.

Huu~ The most critical step was completed; he carefully used his divine sense to guide this clump of five-colored medicinal liquid into the Profound Jade Furnace.

Boom! The instant the medicinal liquid entered the furnace, the Spirit-Devouring Poison Flame beneath the pill furnace suddenly intensified in temperature.

Qin Ming's gaze was sharp; he immediately formed hand seals and unleashed the Pill Fusion Technique to carry out the final pill condensation step.

A full half-hour and more passed.

Chirp! A clear ringing sound signifying successful pill formation rang out from within the pill furnace.

Yet this time, no strange fragrance typical of spiritual pills drifted out.

Nor were there any extraordinary phenomena indicating the successful refinement of a high-grade medicinal pill.

"That's not right? Could it be that I've failed again?"

Qin Ming immediately raised his hand and grabbed toward the interior of the Profound Jade Furnace; a spiritual pill turned into a streak of flowing light and fell into his palm.

He opened his palm to take a look and instantly froze in astonishment.

Because this pill was completely colorless and odorless; it was actually transparent! Yet recalling the description of the Soul-Returning Pill in the pill formula, a slight smile inadvertently appeared on the corners of his mouth.

"The Soul-Returning Pill is successful."

Successfully refining the Soul-Returning Pill on the second attempt—if Elder Yan of Lei Yuanzong were to learn of this, he would probably be enraged to death.

Qin Ming stored this Soul-Returning Pill away and immediately began refining again.

"Since Yunxi Laozu Yunxi is going to stake everything against the demons, naturally one cannot rely merely on ordinary-quality Soul-Returning Pills."

"Because according to the records in the pill formula, the medicinal power of a premium Soul-Returning Pill can even burn a cultivator's life span to exhaustion, temporarily elevating their cultivation to a state surpassing their peak condition."

Given Yunxi Laozu Yunxi's cultivation from Lei Yuanzong, he might temporarily reach the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm.

"In that case, the chances of victory against that third-rank Blood Curse Demon Vine would increase considerably."

"Hehe! Consider it a surprise for Lei Yuanzong!"

(End of Chapter)