Chapter 577: Refining Longevity Medicine

Fifty years later.

Jie Ming put down the "Principles of Soul Solidification" in his hand and rubbed his temples.

The complexity of Longevity Medicine was even higher than he had anticipated.

The body part was fine; he already had foundations in cell biology, histology, and organology.

But the soul part was difficult.

Soul solidification, spiritual sea stability, the connection between consciousness and the body...

These branches of knowledge were each enough for an ordinary person to study for a lifetime.

"But now that I have initially mastered this knowledge, I can try using an Entropy Brain next..."

Jie Ming picked up a pale blue crystal from the side, examined it for a few seconds, and then pressed it to his brow.

Light points poured in.

The knowledge in his mind that had been absorbed but not yet fully digested began to be automatically organized and archived.

Half an hour later, Jie Ming opened his eyes, feeling refreshed.

Various knowledge connected with each other, and even had connections with the knowledge he had obtained in the Information Plane before, allowing him to quickly grasp the context of the entire knowledge system.

This thing was truly a cheating artifact.

"It's about time to try practical operation..."

Jie Ming stretched, and sent a message to the Black Giant priests below through the Magic Network terminal.

A few minutes later, Jie Ming stood in front of the experimental table, with 73 types of materials neatly arranged on the metal platform in front of him.

"Are they all here?"

He asked without turning his head.

Behind him, a Black Giant priest bowed: "According to the list you gave, everything has been prepared. Each material has been verified three times, and the purity meets the standard."

Jie Ming nodded, his gaze sweeping over those materials.

Dried petals of the Longevity Flower, pale gold, emitting a faint soul fluctuation.

Roots and stems of the Soul-Condensing Grass, which must be cut with a wooden knife to maintain activity.

Powder of Solidification Crystal, ground to the nanometer level, used to stabilize the structure.

And extracts from the glands of 17 different creatures, each representing a specific biological function—metabolism, division, energy conversion, information transmission...

Jie Ming took a deep breath.

For this day, he had prepared for a full 50 years.

Although the first-phase project of the Dao Soldier System hadn't been completed, he felt his knowledge reserve was already enough.

He knew the refining method of Longevity Medicine by heart.

He knew the theories about the body, soul, and elemental balance by heart.

It was time to act.

"Withdraw. No one is allowed to disturb."

The Black Giant priest exited the door, and the heavy metal door closed silently.

Only Jie Ming remained in the laboratory.

He raised his hand to draw in the air, and a pale golden light shield covered the entire laboratory, used for soundproofing, isolating energy fluctuations, and preventing accidental explosions from harming the outside.

Then, he walked to the experimental table and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, his eyes were clear.

"Begin."

He raised his right hand, and his index finger lightly touched the petal of the Longevity Flower.

Spiritual power probed in.

The petals slowly hovered in the air.

Jie Ming's spiritual power was like a precise net, covering all those petals, and then arranging the internal structures of these petals in a specific order.

"The essence of living beings is the aggregation of matter and energy."

He muttered to himself, his voice echoing in the empty laboratory.

"And the carrier of matter and energy is elements."

His left hand raised, and the roots and stems of the Soul-Condensing Grass also slowly floated up.

Through the infiltration of spiritual power, the internal structure of the roots and stems was also clear at a glance.

Under Jie Ming's manipulation, the hovering petals and roots began to "fuse."

But fusion was not simple mixing.

Jie Ming's spiritual power was like an invisible carving knife, carving specific runes on every cell of these plants.

Those runes controlled the connection method between cells, controlled what kind of structure they would form after combining, and ultimately what kind of effect they could form.

In essence, it was actually treating the two materials in the way of refining a wizard tool.

The Longevity Flower provided the "longevity" characteristic—the limit of cell division was infinitely extended, and DNA replication would not make mistakes. The Soul-Condensing Grass provided the "stability" characteristic—the soul would not wither, and consciousness would not be confused.

The two characteristics had to be perfectly combined to form the basic skeleton of Longevity Medicine.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from Jie Ming's forehead.

This level of operation consumed an astonishing amount of spiritual power and computing power.

If it weren't for the assistance of the Fate System, he wouldn't have been able to last three minutes.

Golden light flickered between his brows, and the Fate System operated at full capacity.

Massive amounts of calculation tasks were shunted, processed, and optimized.

The connection method between those light points was adjusted tens of thousands of times every second.

Time passed second by second.

When the two groups of materials completely fused into a ball of pale golden light, Jie Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The first step was completed.

He didn't rest and immediately began the second step.

The 17 types of gland extracts flew up simultaneously, hovering around that ball of pale golden light.

These extracts came from different creatures; some came from a lizard capable of limb regeneration, some from a turtle species with a lifespan exceeding a thousand years, and some from a microorganism capable of resisting extreme environments.

Each extract represented a "biological function."

Jie Ming's spiritual power split into 17 strands, simultaneously probing into those extracts.

"The essence of Longevity Medicine is not a potion, but a wizard tool that can continue to exert its effect after combining with the human body."

Jie Ming recalled the definition of Longevity Medicine in his mind: "So although it is named 'medicine', it does not belong to potionology, but to alchemy. After a user takes Longevity Medicine, it is equivalent to undergoing a biochemical transformation, allowing the creature that takes it to gain the functions of these materials."

His spirit carried a trace of fatigue, but his hands didn't stop.

"Transplanting these glands directly will cause rejection. They must be turned into actual rune structures to continue exerting their effect." The 17 types of extracts simultaneously turned into light points, and each light point was stripped of its original biological imprint under the action of spiritual power, leaving only the most core "functional elemental structure."

Then, Jie Ming began to integrate the core elemental structures converted into runes into that pale golden basic skeleton.

This fusion was several times more difficult than the first step.

Each function had its own unique frequency and its own specific way of operating.

After they entered the basic skeleton, they had to find a suitable position, had to coexist harmoniously with their neighbors, could not conflict with each other, and could not interfere with each other.

Jie Ming felt like he was building an extremely precise block castle.

Every block had to be placed in the correct position, and every layer of structure had to be perfectly aligned.

If it was slightly crooked, the entire castle would collapse.

The load rate of the Fate System rose straight up.

71.8%... 85%...

Time seemed to freeze.

I don't know how long it had been, but when the last functional light point integrated into the skeleton, that ball of pale golden light suddenly trembled violently.

Jie Ming was startled.

Wrong!

He reacted instantly—the balance between functions had been broken.

The last function integrated conflicted with one of the previous ones, causing the entire structure to begin to collapse.

"Damn it!"

Jie Ming didn't hesitate to raise the power of the Fate System to the maximum.

At the same time, spiritual power surged in frantically, forcibly isolating the two conflicting functions.

This was an extremely rough method that would waste a lot of materials, but it was the only way at the moment.

The addition of massive spiritual power temporarily stabilized the ball of light.

Jie Ming seized this precious moment, his spiritual power turning into countless thin threads, weaving isolation layers between the two conflicting functions. Those isolation layers were composed of pure spiritual power, capable of temporarily blocking the influence between them.

Then, he began to fine-tune.

The frequencies of the two functions were repeatedly adjusted until they no longer interfered with each other, but instead began to produce a faint resonance.

When the resonance reached a certain critical point...

Boom!

That ball of light expanded violently, then contracted sharply.

Jie Ming's eyes widened.

Success?

The light dissipated, and a pill the size of a dragon's eye hovered in the air.

It was pale gold, with faint light patterns flowing on the surface, and one could vaguely see countless fine structures slowly operating inside. Longevity Medicine.

Jie Ming reached out to catch it, feeling the warmth coming from his palm, and the corners of his mouth slowly spread.

"It's done..."

Although this thing was considered a defective product because a lot of materials were wasted during the refining process, causing the effect to only last for 300 years. But, it was finally done.

50 years of study finally paid off at this moment.

But before he could be happy for too long, a violent vibration suddenly came from deep within his spiritual sea.

Jie Ming's face changed, and he immediately looked inward.

In the spiritual sea, the Ring of Truth was operating frantically.

Those three models representing core wizard spells—Eye of Universality, Alchemy, and Extraction—were all trembling violently at this moment.

Among them, the model representing Alchemy suddenly began to disintegrate.

Jie Ming's pupils shrank.

Wrong, not disintegrating, but "reorganizing."

Those runes constituting the model peeled off one by one, wandering around in the Ring of Truth.

They collided and fused with other runes in the Ring of Truth, then returned to their original positions, reorganizing into new structures.

The entire process lasted for a full quarter of an hour.

When everything returned to calm, Jie Ming discovered that his Alchemy model had completely changed.

It had become more complex, more precise, and more agile.

Originally just a set of fixed rune sequences, now it was like a living thing, slowly breathing in the Ring of Truth, and every breath would swallow and spit out massive amounts of spiritual power.

"This is..."

A realization welled up in Jie Ming's heart.

His alchemy had leveled up.

From ordinary alchemy, it had become true "Life Transmutation."

"It's done just like that?"

Jie Ming couldn't wait to try his new ability.

His gaze swept across the laboratory, finally landing on a metal ingot in the corner.

That was an ordinary metal material, a material used for daily experiments.

Jie Ming pointed with his hand.

Spiritual power surged out, and the iron ingot was instantly wrapped in a ball of light.

Under the action of spiritual power, the iron ingot began to deform.

Its atomic structure was forcibly changed, various basic elements were rearranged, and various organic matters were created.

Proteins, fats, sugars, cell membranes...

A few seconds later, the light dissipated.

The iron ingot disappeared, replaced by a lump of meat the size of a fist.

Red muscle tissue, white fat texture, and even a faint smell of blood.

Jie Ming leaned in to look, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

But before he could be happy for long, the lump of meat began to collapse.

The muscle tissue lost its elasticity at a speed visible to the naked eye, the fat began to liquefy, and the entire lump of meat collapsed into a pool of turbid liquid like it had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid.

Jie Ming was stunned, then shook his head helplessly.

"Alright, although alchemy has evolved, my own level is still a bit lacking..."

The reason for the collapse of the meat lump was simple: the structure was unstable.

Those cells didn't form a complete tissue architecture, and those tissues didn't form a complete organ system.

They were just roughly piled together, with no life force at all.

"But the direction is right."

Jie Ming looked at the pool of liquid, an excited light flashing in his eyes instead.

New alchemy could indeed create living matter.

It was just that he wasn't skilled enough, and his knowledge was still lacking.

But as long as he continued to study and research, one day, he would be able to truly create life.

True life.

Jie Ming withdrew his gaze and looked down at the Longevity Medicine in his hand.

The pale golden pill lay quietly in his palm, warm and steady.

He smiled, put the pill into a container, and turned to walk out of the laboratory. ===== CHAPTER 578 =====