Chapter 474: Vein-Protecting Pill

The fifth-tier high-grade Ziyang Furnace, and it was an alchemy furnace, was extremely rare. Su Fan was naturally exceptionally fond of this dharma treasure. Indeed, he had many treasures on him; whether it was the bone spear or the Fusang Divine Tree, they were all above this Ziyang Furnace, but this Ziyang Furnace was of great help to the improvement of his alchemy.

At least this Ziyang Furnace could guarantee his success rate in alchemy, and even improve the pill formation rate.

Of course, this was also because his soul power was strong enough to refine this Ziyang Furnace; otherwise, if it were another Purple Mansion cultivator, even if this Ziyang Furnace were placed in front of him, he wouldn't be able to use it.

With this Ziyang Furnace, Su Fan had greater confidence in refining the Foundation Establishment Pill.

After introducing the earth fire from the earth fire vein and warming the Ziyang Furnace, Su Fan began to attempt refining the third-tier high-grade spirit pill, the Vein-Protecting Pill.

The Vein-Protecting Pill, as the name suggests, was a pill that protected the meridians.

Ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators all had to face the problem of Foundation Establishment. Without a Foundation Establishment Pill, unless one was a Heavenly Spiritual Root, the success rate for other spiritual root cultivators was less than 30%, and only heterodox spiritual roots might reach over 30%.

Ordinary three-spiritual-root cultivators only had 10%. This success rate was truly too low, and more importantly, without a Foundation Establishment Pill, a ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator forcing Foundation Establishment was an act of "either succeed or die."

Once it failed, it meant broken meridians and death.

However, the Foundation Establishment Pill was extremely precious in Zheng State. Even the Yunyang Sect found it very precious, let alone other cultivation families.

In the entire Zheng State, if there were 10,000 ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators, at most ten could obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill—a one-in-a-thousand chance.

This also led to many ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators not daring to attempt Foundation Establishment, preferring to die of old age rather than having the courage to attempt it.

And one couldn't blame them for being timid; after all, the mortality rate was truly too high.

So gradually, alchemists began to attempt whether they could refine a type of pill that could protect the meridians.

Thus, the Vein-Protecting Pill appeared. This type of pill was considered an ancient pill, even earlier than the Foundation Establishment Pill.

With the Vein-Protecting Pill, when a Qi Refining cultivator was establishing Foundation, even if they failed, they could protect their meridians from breaking. If they failed, the cultivator would at most suffer meridian damage, which was not fatal and could be recovered from through recuperation.

The effect was not bad.

It was once very popular, but later, because the cost was truly too high—after all, the spirit herbs required for the Vein-Protecting Pill, at least the main ingredient had to be a third-tier spirit herb, and all had to be over five hundred years old.

Just for one furnace of Vein-Protecting Pills, the cost required 8,000 spirit stones. This was not something that ordinary powers could bear.

After all, the cost was too high, and the effect was not too high. After all, it only protected a ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator. If Foundation Establishment succeeded, it was fine; becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator greatly increased the value.

But if it failed, a pill worth nearly 2,000 spirit stones was wasted. How much value could a ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator bring?

So gradually, this Vein-Protecting Pill was only refined by top-tier major powers. Later, after the Foundation Establishment Pill appeared, the value of the Vein-Protecting Pill decreased again.

After all, the Foundation Establishment Pill also had the effect of protecting meridians, and its effect was better than the Vein-Protecting Pill, and it could also increase the success rate of a Qi Refining cultivator's Foundation Establishment.

So the Foundation Establishment Pill completely replaced the Vein-Protecting Pill, even though the cost of the Foundation Establishment Pill was higher, its effect was better.

However, although the Vein-Protecting Pill was gradually abandoned, the pill formula still circulated.

After Su Fan obtained it from Zixu Shangren, he naturally learned about the Vein-Protecting Pill, and he felt that this Vein-Protecting Pill was a good spirit pill for the Su family.

The Foundation Establishment Pill indeed had a much better effect than the Vein-Protecting Pill.

But aside from being difficult to refine, the spirit herbs required to refine it were very hard to obtain. Even with a third-tier demon beast inner core as the main ingredient, collecting the other auxiliary spirit herbs was not easy.

This time, the Su family spent a full half-year collecting these auxiliary spirit herbs.

Those auxiliary spirit herbs were all third-tier, and many needed to be around five hundred years old.

For Su Fan, cost was not a problem; the key was that collecting spirit herbs was the biggest problem.

Relatively speaking, the spirit herbs required for this Vein-Protecting Pill were easier to find.

And in Su Fan's view, the Vein-Protecting Pill was more suitable for the Su family. Its cost was low, and refining it was not difficult. Even if the effect was not as good as the Foundation Establishment Pill.

But it could save the lives of Qi Refining cultivators.

More importantly, in Su Fan's view, such Qi Refining cultivators still had the opportunity to continue attempting Foundation Establishment. Having experienced this life-and-death tempering, Su Fan believed that most ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators would undergo a transformation, and their next Foundation Establishment, even without a Foundation Establishment Pill, would have a much greater chance of success.

And once they established Foundation, these cultivators, compared to those Foundation Establishment cultivators who took the Foundation Establishment Pill, would far exceed cultivators of the same level in both mana and divine sense, which was even more beneficial for opening the Purple Mansion in the future.

Su Fan was very clear about the benefits of this.

So in Su Fan's view, the value of the Vein-Protecting Pill was even higher. It gave those cultivators with poor spiritual roots but firm will a chance. Once Foundation Establishment succeeded, not to mention soaring, but Su Fan believed their future path might be much smoother.

And the Su family disciples had all begun to cultivate the Purple Qi secret technique Su Fan passed down to improve soul power. In this way, coupled with the Vein-Protecting Pill, even without the Foundation Establishment Pill in the future, the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators would increase by one or two percent.

And these were all Foundation Establishment cultivators who hadn't taken the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The cultivation world had a common sense: Foundation Establishment cultivators without the auxiliary Foundation Establishment Pill far exceeded those who took the Foundation Establishment Pill in both combat power and potential.

If the Su family could achieve this, the Su family's rise would be inevitable.

So Su Fan also began to cultivate alchemists. Once the family produced a third-tier high-grade alchemist, this Vein-Protecting Pill would become the family's most important pill, even more important than the Foundation Establishment Pill.

As for the cost, it was not something Su Fan considered.

In reality, Su Fan had also mentioned this to the Clan Head. The latter was shocked at first, but later was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful scene Su Fan described.

If this were really the case, the Su family's future would absolutely be limitless.

Su Fan was quite calm about refining the Vein-Protecting Pill.

Lighting the fire, warming the furnace, adding medicine—everything was done with composure. Next was warming the medicine liquid. Warming the medicine liquid was a long-term process, although it didn't consume too much mana in this stage.

And with Su Fan's thick mana, he didn't care at all.

However, this process consumed more divine sense and energy to observe the changes in the medicine liquid in the alchemy furnace.

Finally, it was the pill formation technique to condense the medicine liquid into pills.

After ten days of effort, this furnace of third-tier high-grade Vein-Protecting Pills was finally finished.

In the alchemy furnace, five round, red pills appeared in Su Fan's palm. With a wave of his hand, he put them into a porcelain bottle. ===== CHAPTER 475 =====