Chapter 72: The Immortal Method of Refining Medicine with Bait Stones!

Upon lighting up the 【Boiling Stones】 technique.

The Heavenly Book in his mind hung suspended like a brilliant sun, and characters flashing with golden light floated up from it, falling into the sea of Lu Yuan's heart.

Subsequently, a profound and mysterious method emerged:

"Shenxian Bait Pill: Properly set and secure cinnabar and grain seeds; these two things, the amount of cinnabar is at one's discretion, pound thoroughly until the pestle strikes well. Squeeze the juice from the grain seeds to mix with the cinnabar, making it like mud; take it three times a day. In one year, the body will be light and the eyes clear, and all illnesses will be removed. Take it for two years, and ghosts and gods will pay homage of their own accord. Take it for three years, and one will communicate with the essence of the sun and moon."

"Shenxian Lian Er Huan Dan: One tael of cinnabar, one catty of Qin silver. These two things, take the Qin silver and place it in a copper basin, expose it to the sun during the fifth or sixth month, pound the cinnabar into a fine powder, place it in the silver, swallow one pill, and wash it down with well-flower water. Take it for one hundred days, and the hair on the crown will see spirits. Two hundred days, the body will be light, and all afflictions will be healed. Three hundred days, one will be able to soar above the clouds."

"Shenxian Longevity-Extending and Youth-Restoring Immortal Pill: One catty of cinnabar, pound thoroughly until fine to extract the essence. Two liters of pure lacquer, one liter of white honey, three liters of fine bitter wine. Take it for one hundred days, and the three corpses will depart of their own accord. Take it for one thousand days, and all evils will not dare to interfere; one will be able to fly and transform, reaching anywhere without difficulty, changing one's appearance, entering and exiting without hindrance, and standing in the sun without a shadow; this is the most secret and untransmitted method of the immortals."

There were also the Flowing Bait Pill, the Shenxian Ingestion of Bait Stones, and the three-substance Bait Cinnabar for lightening the body and boosting Qi.

The "Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa," such a method for refining various miraculous gold and stone great pills, all emerged in Lu Yuan's heart.

This medicine refining method was broad, profound, and obscurely difficult to understand; he sat cross-legged, motionless, digesting it for a long, long time, until the sky outside the window was about to darken, only then did he open his eyes in a daze.

"Good fellow, is this what they call the great gold and stone pills? One is more extraordinary than the next."

He gradually collected his thoughts, shock and a mix of joy and worry flashing across his eyes in turns:

"But... this seems way too difficult to refine!"

The "Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa" contained over thirty types of gold and stone great pills, each with different effects.

Even the most ordinary ones among them, when ingested, could cure a hundred illnesses, replenish essence and boost Qi, and make one's spirit strong and body robust, with effects far surpassing the Leopard Fetus Essence Pill by an unknown margin.

But the problem was.

For so many types of gold and stone great pills, most of the refining processes were extremely complex; not to mention the processing of various materials, just starting the furnace to refine them would take ten days or half a month, or even several years or decades!

Like the Shenxian Longevity-Extending and Youth-Restoring Immortal Pill.

This pill was a supreme great pill in the medicine refining method that could allow one to sever the three corpses and ascend to immortality; it even required the realm of Refining Spirit into Void, and had to be refined continuously with Samadhi True Fire for forty-nine years to be achieved!

This undoubtedly left Lu Yuan tongue-tied.

It was one thing that cultivation had no concept of time, but if he were made to sit in front of a pill furnace, stoking the fire and waving a fan without taking a single step away for forty-nine years, just thinking about it made him want to go mad.

"Could it be that this Earthly Fiend Art was lit in vain?"

Not allowing his 100 units of Heavenly Merit to be wasted, he immediately frowned and searched carefully through the "Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa."

Then, he found a type of external pill that was the simplest to refine and also the most suitable for him at present:

The Bait Stone Pill.

This external pill was the most basic application of the 【Boiling Stones】 technique and also one of the external pills with the simplest refining method in the "Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa."

This pill was refined with five metals and eight stones, and its effect could harmonize the six entrails, strengthen bones and rectify Qi, make the face and body lustrous like jade, and refine the soul; simply put, it could strengthen the three treasures of a person's essence, Qi, and spirit.

And the so-called five metals generally referred to metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin; the eight stones generally referred to minerals such as cinnabar, realgar, mica, azurite, sulfur, rock salt, saltpeter, and orpiment.

Most of these materials were common items, and they were not difficult to refine; according to the annotations in the medicine refining method, if refined in small quantities, it could be completed in a few hours.

"Strengthening the three treasures of essence, Qi, and spirit is just right for the Refining Essence into Qi stage."

Pill refining was an important skill on the path of immortal cultivation; Lu Yuan pondered it repeatedly, eager to try:

"That's the one, I hope it doesn't let me down!"

Then the next day.

Having obtained 【Boiling Stones】 and carefully digested it, Lu Yuan went out early in the morning to make preparations for his grand pill-refining plan.

What he needed to prepare first was the venue.

He wandered around the East City scouting for half a day, and after observing and comparing, he bought a two-courtyard house far from the bustling market and quite secluded through a property agency.

This area was home to well-off families, and the price of this house reached a full 1,800 Silver Yuan, but for Lu Yuan, who had become immensely wealthy from the inheritance of Jin Taihong, this bit of money was merely a drop in the bucket, so he bought it straightforwardly and happily.

It is worth mentioning.

This house had belonged to a bully in the East City who had committed many evil deeds in his daily life. Two months ago, when the deterrence of Qingyike reached its peak in this East City, this person was terrified of being liquidated, so he fled in a panic with his whole family and sold the house cheaply to the agency; as a result, after some twists and turns, the house ended up in Lu Yuan's hands.

After buying the house, the next step was to renovate the kitchen.

There were two kitchens in this house; Lu Yuan also found craftsmen through the agency to directly renovate one of the kitchens and its stove, turning it into a relatively simple pill-refining fire room.

Because he paid enough, the craftsmen he found were all experienced, and they completed the renovation in just three days.

At the same time, during these three days, Lu Yuan was also searching everywhere for the most critical pill furnace.

Originally, he wanted to find a reliable craftsman to help him cast a pill furnace directly, but after some inquiries, it seemed there were no such craftsmen in Fengyang Prefecture.

Fortunately, he changed his train of thought and began to inquire and search in various antique markets, and he actually found an old pill furnace with a very long history in an old-established antique shop.

This pill furnace was called the Bronze Fire-Pattern Furnace; it was made of bronze, had three legs and two handles, and was no more than three feet tall, belonging to the category of small pill furnaces.

In Lu Yuan's view, this object was just an ordinary bronze furnace, but according to the shopkeeper, this pill furnace was excavated from the ruins of a Daoist temple from the previous dynasty that had already been destroyed; not only was it intact, but it also had a history of several hundred years and was an extremely precious antique with extraordinary value.

Seeming to see that Lu Yuan had an extraordinary temperament and was quite fond of the pill furnace, after he proposed to buy it, the shopkeeper opened his mouth like a lion and demanded an astronomical price of 8,000 Silver Yuan, looking very much like he was sharpening his knife to slaughter a fat sheep.

Lu Yuan naturally would not indulge such a profiteer.

He claimed he would go back and consider it, but when night fell, he used Invisibility and the Earth Walking Technique to sneak into this antique shop and steal the pill furnace, and he also sank several other antiques in the shop, whose authenticity was hard to distinguish, directly into the ground to confuse the situation.

With this, he didn't spend a single cent, easily "free-loading" a pill furnace while severely striking a blow to the profiteer.

This little episode was not worth mentioning.

In a few days' time, the venue, fire room, and pill furnace were all ready; the next step was the purchase of pill-refining materials.

The materials needed for the Bait Stone Pill were gold, mica, cinnabar, azurite, white stone, sulfur, fritillaria, and various other materials.

Most of the materials, including gold, were very easy to find; things like mica, cinnabar, and sulfur could be found in pharmacies. Only one ingredient, azurite, was a medicinal herb much more precious than ginseng; one tael cost dozens of Silver Yuan, and it was hard to find in ordinary pharmacies.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan was a wealthy man of some standing now, and by exercising his "money power," he managed to get two catties of azurite through the Dongzhi Pavilion he frequented within a few days, directly spending over a thousand big ocean dollars.

Thus.

After half a month of preparation, all his things were ready, and he rolled up his sleeves and began the formal refining.

Because he could not determine how much time the first pill refining would take, Lu Yuan could only choose to sneak out of the Boxiyuan at night and head to his secret base to refine pills when the night was deep and quiet.

Having prepared a large amount of charcoal in advance, he set up the pill furnace in the fire room and lit the bottom fire; now, in the depths of winter, every well-off family was burning fire and charcoal, so even if smoke rose, it would not attract any attention at all.

After the temperature rose, Lu Yuan threw the materials for refining the Bait Stone Pill into the pill furnace one by one in small quantities.

It is naturally impossible to refine extraordinary external pills from just any ordinary materials so casually.

After placing the materials into the furnace, Lu Yuan stood solemnly, chanting words, and then, as he formed a seal, he cast the fire-assisting technique from the Boiling Stone Technique.

With a loud boom, fierce flames surged up within the fire platform, the intensity and temperature of which were at least three times greater than before;

He did not stop, changing his hand seal again, and a pill-nourishing technique transformed into a faint rainbow, striking through the air and landing on the Bronze Furnace.

The next moment, the Bronze Furnace suddenly hummed and vibrated, and Lu Yuan also suddenly felt as if he had established a faint connection with it, and could vaguely sense the mica, empty green, and other materials in the furnace undergoing violent changes under the high temperature and the effect of his Dharma Power.

Under the reinforcement of the techniques, the various materials began to melt bit by bit; some turned into liquid, some shattered into powder, and others steamed into gas, then fused and gathered together under the effect of his Dharma Power.

Just like that, although it was his first attempt at refining, under the empowerment of the Heavenly Book, Lu Yuan spontaneously mastered the 【Boiling Stone】 and completed each step quite smoothly.

However, refining the Bait Stone Pill required at least several hours, so he dared not slacken or be careless in the slightest, needing to add charcoal and cast the fire-assisting technique from time to time to maintain the furnace fire;

At the same time, the furnace-controlling and pill-nourishing technique also had to be cast at regular intervals to ensure the reaction and fusion of the metal and stone materials.

By now, Lu Yuan already possessed more than ten wisps of True Qi, but such high-intensity spellcasting was still somewhat beyond his capacity, and it did not take long for his Dharma Power to be mostly exhausted.

Regarding this situation, he had no other choice but to grit his teeth and persist, taking the opportunity during the gaps to hurriedly swallow medicinal herbs and pills to refine and restore his True Qi.

Just like that, the arduous refining process lasted for a full three hours.

Lu Yuan continuously cast the fire-assisting and pill-nourishing techniques, the medicinal herbs he carried were eaten up, and his whole person felt as if he had been completely hollowed out.

However, under his faint perception, the various metal and stone materials in the pill furnace had long since completely melted and gathered, gradually condensing into a round pill.

Another while passed.

Hum.

Finally, all of a sudden, the pill furnace on the fire platform shook, and the furnace lid was suddenly blown open by a burst of intense medicinal vapor, which dissipated throughout the room!

"It's finally done!"

The fire room was suddenly filled with a peculiar medicinal stone fragrance, and Lu Yuan, who had reached the end of his rope, was overjoyed; he immediately stopped the pill-nourishing technique and hurriedly used fire tongs to move the pill furnace off the fire platform.

Looking over, he saw a pill the size of a dragon's eye, glowing with a faint green light, lying at the bottom of the furnace; the slightly scorching medicinal vapor inhaled into his nasal cavity immediately refreshed his heart and spirit, making his mind feel a jolt.

"This pill..."

Ignoring the temperature, Lu Yuan fished it out in one go, and seeing that the pill was covered with stone-like patterns, his gaze shifted:

"It is finished, but it seems to be only a low-grade pill."

Whether it is the Boiling Stone Technique or ordinary pill refining techniques, even with the same pill formula, the heat, materials, and the skill level of the refiner will all affect the quality of the finished pill.

According to the *Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa*, pills have three grades of quality: low, middle, and high, with each higher grade increasing the medicinal power by thirty to fifty percent.

Like this Bait Stone Pill, the low-grade quality is covered with stone patterns, the middle grade has only a few scattered stone patterns, and the high grade is round and smooth like amber, while the medicinal power is also much greater.

Of course.

Lu Yuan had just mastered the Boiling Stone Technique; being able to successfully refine the Bait Stone Pill on the first try was already a matter of good luck, and it was only natural that it was of low-grade quality.

"I went to such great lengths to refine this, so please don't let me down..."

Refining this one Bait Stone Pill was even more tiring than killing his way in and out of the Jingwu Division three times; he could not help but take a deep breath, held the Bait Stone Pill in his hand, and with a flick of his finger, cast the Tiaohe Zhishu.

Hum.

The next instant, a shimmering light suddenly flashed on the Bait Stone Pill, and it began to undergo an astonishing change.

Under the shroud of the shimmering light, the pill seemed to come alive, constantly expanding and fluctuating, and the stone-patterned pill skin began to peel off bit by bit.

As the stone patterns peeled off, the revealed parts gradually became crystalline, as if they had been condensed by some kind of power, and the quality clearly changed.

Lu Yuan stared for a moment, then without hesitation, sent it directly into his mouth, and sat cross-legged on the ground to refine it using the Ingestion Technique.

Subsequently.

Rumble!

As if a Meteor had struck the earth, a thunderous sound suddenly erupted in his abdomen.

At the same time, a surging, terrifying essence and medicinal power, like a river bursting its banks, erupted fiercely!

At this moment, even though Lu Yuan had been prepared, he only felt the surging essence within his body like oil poured on a raging fire, booming and skyrocketing, suddenly falling into a state of frenzy and vibration, to the point where he could not even feel the existence of his Meridians.

"What fierce medicinal power!"

His entire body's aura boiled instantly; clearly, he had underestimated the effect of the Bait Stone Pill after the Tiaohe Zhishu. He felt a slight shock in his heart, his spirit concentrated to an unprecedented degree, and he exerted all his strength to refine the rampaging medicinal power.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

However, the primordial energy throughout his body was now boiling like boiling water, and the wisps of True Qi in his dantian also became restless, crazily wandering through his Meridians.

Under such violent circumstances, Lu Yuan only felt that what he had swallowed was not some pill, but a bag of ignited gunpowder, rampaging through his entire body.

His exposed skin had turned blood-red, and he could only twitch his eyelids, stubbornly suppressing the violent primordial energy within his body.

One incense stick, two incense sticks, three incense sticks...

The Ingestion Technique and Guiding Technique operated with Great Strength; the chaotic essence and medicinal vapor were rapidly refined, his entire body's internal organs were cheering, and under the nourishment of the surging essence, the True Qi in his Meridians was also condensing and strengthening bit by bit.

I do not know how much time passed.

Whew!

The next moment, a soul-shaking hum suddenly rang out, and Lu Yuan, who had been as motionless as a statue, suddenly opened his eyes, while a vigorous, vast, ethereal, and mysterious invisible aura surged out in all directions.

After eating this Bait Stone Pill that had undergone the Tiaohe Zhishu, he had actually condensed a wisp of True Qi on the spot!

(End of this chapter)