Chapter 253: Alchemy 2

"Master, I want to learn Alchemy," Meng Yifan said. He had long wanted to learn Alchemy, and never expected that Zhang Sanfeng was actually proficient in it; this was truly like finding a pillow just as one felt sleepy.

Once Meng Yifan learned Alchemy, he could refine pills himself to supply the soldiers for their cultivation, or use the pills to trade for cultivation resources with other Immortal Cultivators, or refine more auxiliary pills like Six Yang Pill and Whitening Pill to bring to Earth to sell for money.

Meng Yifan was Zhang Sanfeng's closing disciple, the one to inherit his mantle, so naturally, Zhang Sanfeng would not hold anything back from him.

Meng Yifan wanted to learn, and Zhang Sanfeng would teach him, though he hesitated for a moment and said, "Yifan, learning Alchemy is very mentally taxing. It requires distinguishing the properties of medicines, paying attention to the four energies and five flavors, the seven emotions and compatibility, and the roles of monarch, minister, assistant, and envoy. A difference of a hair's breadth leads to a loss of a thousand miles."

"If you use the wrong herb, or use the wrong amount of a medicine, a pill meant to save lives could potentially turn into a poison that harms people. To learn Alchemy well is a very mentally exhausting task."

"Most importantly, Earth has now entered the End of Dharma Era, and Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi is exhausted. Many Spirit Herbs are already hard to find. Even if you learn Alchemy, there will be no place to practice it; it would be useless to learn. Are you sure you still want to learn Alchemy?"

Meng Yifan did not hesitate and said firmly, "Master, I want to learn Alchemy."

All the difficulties Zhang Sanfeng mentioned were things Meng Yifan could overcome.

First of all, Alchemy was also a skill. According to Meng Yifan's understanding of the Game Panel, as long as Meng Yifan successfully refined a type of pill himself, this skill would appear on the Game Panel, and then he would only need to consume Experience Value to quickly increase his proficiency in refining that pill.

The tedious learning of Alchemy was something that could be accomplished in one go for Meng Yifan, and it would not waste too much of his time.

Additionally, while Spirit Medicine was hard to find on Earth, the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World was filled with abundant Spirit Qi, which naturally nourished many Spirit Herbs. As long as one had money and Spirit Stone, one could go and purchase them.

Meng Yifan had learned that refining the Six Yang Pill required fifty-year-old Wild Ginseng, and fifty-year-old Wild Ginseng was almost impossible to find on Earth.

Herbs that were very rare on Earth were refined into common aphrodisiacs in the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World; from this, it could be seen that finding Spirit Herbs in the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World was not a very difficult task.

Seeing that Meng Yifan insisted on learning Alchemy, Zhang Sanfeng nodded and had Meng Yifan sit cross-legged opposite him, then Zhang Sanfeng extended a finger and tapped it on the center of Meng Yifan's brow.

"Hum!" Zhang Sanfeng's finger emitted a hazy light and trembled slightly, and Meng Yifan felt a great deal of knowledge regarding Alchemy appear in his mind.

This method of transmitting knowledge using Spiritual Power was extremely useful; the Alchemy transmitted was illustrated with text and images, and even included audio explanations.

After Meng Yifan browsed through it quickly, he understood what herbs were needed to refine pills, which Spirit Herb to use first during the refining process, which to use next, and whether to use Gentle Fire or Martial Fire. He only needed to follow the steps to begin refining pills.

However, knowing is easy but doing is difficult. Even if Meng Yifan understood the methods of refining pills, he might not necessarily succeed in actual operation; this required long periods of hands-on practice.

"Thank you, Master." Meng Yifan was filled with gratitude. This Alchemy knowledge not only contained various pill formulas and pharmacopoeias but also the experience Zhang Sanfeng had accumulated over a thousand years of alchemy. If he were within a sect in the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty, such knowledge would be kept strictly secret, but Zhang Sanfeng had passed it all to Meng Yifan without reservation, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"Haha, Yifan, no need for thanks. If I don't pass these things to you, they might be completely lost once this old man passes away."

Zhang Sanfeng smiled. He knew his days were numbered, so he would teach Meng Yifan as much knowledge as he could. To be able to see that the Shenzhou Cultivation World had successors before he passed away, Zhang Sanfeng would have no regrets.

The Demon Core that Meng Yifan brought looked like a lot, but in reality, most were Second Grade Demon Core. To someone like Zhang Sanfeng, who was once a Fifth-grade Cultivator, the energy contained in a Second Grade Demon Core was limited, and taking them was better than nothing.

The Third-grade Demon Core had a bit more energy, but it could only barely maintain his state and stop his cultivation realm from continuing to regress. To truly restore his strength, he would need at least a Fourth-grade Demon Core, or even a Fifth-grade Demon Core.

"Master, don't say such disheartening words. You should take the Demon Core and absorb the energy in a moment. I know the Third-grade Demon Core has limited effect on you, but take these first, and next time, I will bring you a Fourth-grade Demon Core," Meng Yifan said.

Meng Yifan certainly did not want Zhang Sanfeng to pass away. An elder in the house is like a treasure, and furthermore, with an Immortal Cultivator like Zhang Sanfeng who had lived for a thousand years, as long as Zhang Sanfeng recovered his cultivation, Meng Yifan would have a backer on Earth.

Whether it was the Japanese Onmyoji, Western vampires, or the Death Organization, Meng Yifan would have the confidence to face them head-on.

Zhang Sanfeng saw Meng Yifan's concern for him and nodded with gratification. In the old-school way of thinking like Zhang Sanfeng's, one valued Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Kin, and Master; the master-disciple relationship was like father and son. Meng Yifan was his closing disciple and was like his own son. That Meng Yifan cared for him and did not want him to pass away naturally made Zhang Sanfeng feel deeply comforted.

"Master, I want to collect some Dungeon Evil Qi to help the Yin Soul and Zombie advance," Meng Yifan said.

Zhang Sanfeng looked at Meng Yifan with some surprise. He also knew that whether it was a Yin Soul or a Zombie, their strength would greatly increase after absorbing Evil Qi, and they could attempt to break through to the Fourth-grade realm. It seemed that not only was Meng Yifan's own strength advancing by leaps and bounds, but he also had Third Grade Yin Soul and Zombie under his command.

The stronger Meng Yifan's strength was, the happier Zhang Sanfeng was, because the Yasukuni Shrine in Dongying hid a group of old ghosts. They had been defeated by the Shenzhou Cultivation World practitioners back then, and after fleeing back to Dongying, they had been absorbing the faith of all living beings to slowly recover their strength, longing to fight again in the future.

Yet, because the Spirit Qi in the Shenzhou Cultivation World was thin, cultivation was as difficult as ascending to Heaven, and practicing martial arts to strengthen blood and Qi required years of bitter training through the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter to achieve anything.

However, which young people today are willing to calm their hearts and put in the hard work to practice martial arts? They would rather learn the flashy Japanese Karate or Korean Taekwondo than learn traditional martial arts.

There were also some grandmasters on the internet who sought attention; they spoke with great logic, but when it came to actual combat, they were knocked out by a single punch.

The behavior of these grandmasters was constantly ruining the reputation of martial arts, making even more young people unwilling to learn traditional martial arts.

It could be said that the Shenzhou Cultivation World had reached an awkward situation where the old were gone and the new had not yet arrived, leaving no successors.

Back then, seniors like Zhang Sanfeng had fought with iron and blood to carve out the illustrious reputation of the Shenzhou Cultivation World, making the land of Shenzhou a forbidden zone for practitioners from other countries, with no one daring to step in. But now, only an empty shell remained.