Chapter 25: The Phase Refiner

After Li Luo finished reading all the books before him, five hours had already passed. He let out a long breath and twisted his stiff neck.

Yan Yan Lingqing and Cai Wei were chatting softly nearby. Hearing the exhale, they stopped their conversation and looked over.

"Not bad, you have some patience after all." Yan Yan Lingqing commented lightly, though it was obvious she was fairly satisfied with Li Luo's performance.

To become a Phase Refiner, patience is a very important point, because they need to blend many materials together through repeated trial and error, and the dosages must be extremely precise, allowing no room for the slightest mistake. Just this one point alone may require long periods of practice.

Yan Yan Lingqing stood up, walked to the workbench, and beckoned Li Luo over. The latter hurried over.

On the workbench, a dazzling array of transparent crystal bottles was laid out, containing all sorts of strange and unusual materials.

"Refining Spirit Water Marvelous Light, simply put, is following a formula to fuse various materials together in perfect dosages. Using the properties of different materials, they break down and eliminate the impurities contained within, and the final product is the Spirit Water Marvelous Light."

Yan Yan Lingqing picked up a crystal bottle containing a blue flower, with ripples faintly spreading across its surface: "This is a Three-Leaf Water Flower."

Her slender jade hand gripped the crystal bottle and gave it a gentle shake, shattering the flower into powder. At the same time, Li Luo saw blue phase force rise from within her body, flow along her arm, and pour into the crystal bottle, finally merging with the powder of the Three-Leaf Water Flower.

"During refinement, we need to mobilize our own water phase or light phase force to fuse with the materials and enhance their inherent properties. However, this requires controlling the intensity of the phase force input. If it's too strong, it will damage the materials; if too weak, the refinement will fail."

As the water phase force poured in, after several breaths, some deep blue, slightly viscous liquid gradually condensed within the crystal bottle.

Next, Yan Yan Lingqing repeated the same method, swiftly blending roughly a dozen or so materials. Finally, with extremely practiced technique, she poured them together in a specific order, one after another.

Half an hour later, these material liquids thoroughly mixed together, and immediately there was a violent reaction, even beginning to boil.

"Next comes the final step, and it's an extremely important one. To completely fuse these materials together requires a coordinating force. This force is one of the important factors that determines what level of tempering power the final Spirit Water Marvelous Light will possess."

"That kind of force is called Source Water, or Source Light."

"Actually, to put it simply, it's the energy formed by highly condensing one's own water phase force or light phase force."

Yan Yan Lingqing took a diamond-shaped crystal from the side, with a crystal jar suspended beneath it.

Her hand gripped the crystal, and blue phase force surged out, flowing into the crystal. Ripples oscillated ring after ring across the crystal's surface. A moment later, Li Luo saw a drop of deep blue liquid slowly drip down from the sharp point at the bottom of the crystal, falling into the crystal jar.

"This is a Phase Gathering Crystal. Its function is to highly condense one's own phase force, ultimately forming Source Water."

Yan Yan Lingqing dripped this drop of Source Water into the boiling crystal bottle, and immediately a miraculous scene appeared. The boiling instantly subsided, the chaos within was eliminated, and finally brilliant blue light suddenly burst forth.

A bottle of Spirit Water Marvelous Light was successfully produced.

Li Luo gazed at the liquid emanating a blue halo in the crystal bottle, clicking his tongue in admiration.

"This is only a first-rank Spirit Water Marvelous Light, so it's very simple and not troublesome to refine." Yan Yan Lingqing said casually. She herself is a fourth-rank Phase Refiner, so a first-rank Spirit Water Marvelous Light is indeed just a trivial task for her.

However, Li Luo was quite self-aware. Although Yan Yan Lingqing's refinement showed not the slightest mistake, going as smoothly as eating and drinking, he, who had some understanding of the basic knowledge of Phase Refiners, knew that this smoothness was built upon countless failures.

Li Luo's gaze fell on that Phase Refining Crystal as he asked: "Source Water, the quality of Source Light can enhance the tempering power of the finished Spirit Water Marvelous Light, so what determines their quality level?"

Yan Yan Lingqing said lightly: "The quality of Source Water and Source Light depends only on the grade of one's own water phase or light phase. The higher the grade of the water phase or light phase, the better the quality of the Source Water and Source Light condensed."

"Therefore, those who possess high-grade water phase or light phase have a greater advantage over ordinary people when becoming Phase Refiners."

"Take Jiang Jiang Qinge for example. If she were willing to become a Phase Refiner, then the Spirit Water Marvelous Light she refines in the future would have tempering power far surpassing others. But unfortunately, she has no interest whatsoever in becoming a Phase Refiner, even though the dean of the Phase Refining Institute of the Sacred Mystic Star Academy pleaded with her earnestly for a full year."

Li Luo nodded. Jiang Jiang Qinge possessed an extremely rare ninth-grade light phase, which was indeed a heaven-blessed condition, but her heart lay elsewhere, and she did not wish to divide her attention to Phase Refining.

"What if we had her condense some high-quality Source Light for backup? Could it improve the tempering power of the Spirit Water Marvelous Light produced by Xiyang House?"

Yan Yan Lingqing shook her head and said: "Even people with the same phase, the Source Water and Source Light they condense still contain different characteristics and imperceptible personal will. For example, the materials I blended for half a day earlier already contain my phase force. If at this point Source Water condensed by another person were added in, it would cause conflict, leading to refinement failure."

"However, there indeed exist some Mi Fa in this world that can use special methods to refine some special Source Water and Source Light, thereby improving the tempering power of Spirit Water Marvelous Light. Those are called Mi Fa Source Water and Source Light, but these are top secrets in virtually every faction, and our Xiyang House doesn't have them."

Hearing this, Li Luo couldn't help but fall into thought. He was born with an empty phase, and even though he later refined an acquired "Water Light Phase," the "empty" nature of his empty phase was preserved. Just as his phase palace could accommodate the erosion of impurities from countless Spirit Water Marvelous Lights, the Source Water and Source Light he condensed should also possess this all-accepting "empty" nature. So, could this be provided to other Phase Refiners for use?

His "Water Light Phase" is currently only fifth-rank, but the combination of water phase and light phase, the tempering nature it possesses, is far from as simple as one plus one.

Li Luo was confident that if it were just a simple comparison of phase force tempering nature, his fifth-rank Water Light Phase would probably not be weaker than a normal seventh-rank water phase or light phase.

And generally speaking, Phase Refiners who possess a seventh-rank water phase or light phase are quite rare.

However, there's no rush. He'll wait until he has truly entered the path of Phase Refining and tried it himself before saying more.

While Li Luo's thoughts were turning, Yan Yan Lingqing adjusted her silver-framed glasses and said: "If you truly want to become a Phase Refiner, come here whenever you have time each day from now on. I'll teach you some basics, and when you can refine a first-rank Spirit Water Marvelous Light on your own, you will be a first-rank Phase Refiner."

"Then thank you, Sister Yan Lingqing." Having achieved today's goal, Li Luo couldn't help but smile and sincerely thank her.

Yan Yan Lingqing waved her hand coolly, put on her long coat, and pulled Cai Wei out of the refining room.

In the following period of time, Li Luo's life became plain, fulfilling, and regular.

During the day he cultivated at Nanfeng Academy, then returned to the old residence to cultivate for a while with the aid of the Golden House, practiced some phase arts, and finally went to Xiyang House, where under Yan Yan Lingqing's guidance he began learning how to become a qualified Phase Refiner.

The first batch of fifth-rank Spirit Water Marvelous Light that he had asked Cai Wei to purchase had also arrived, so every day he would also set aside time to absorb and refine some Spirit Water Marvelous Light.

Time passed, and Li Luo could feel that each day, he was growing stronger.

Until the day before the preliminary exam at Nanfeng Academy began, Li Luo's phase force level finally, as wished, stepped into Di Liu Yin.

(End of this chapter)