Chapter 131: Su Xin Pill

Soon the sun set, and the sky grew dim.

Xu Chen put the remaining tiger meat into his Storage Bag, then lightly brushed his arm in a way that left no trace, and a bronze-colored, ancient Pill Furnace the size of a fist appeared; after he activated it, it landed on the ground with a clatter.

Lan You's eyes brightened, and she sat closer to Xu Chen, saying, "What kind of Spirit Pill is Daoist Friend Xu preparing to refine?"

Xu Chen said, "A Su Xin Pill, I suppose. The main ingredient is the Su Xin Plum, and there is no fixed recipe. I will find a few Spirit Medicines with astringent properties to use as auxiliary ingredients and give it a try. If it doesn't work, it won't be much of a waste; I'm just doing it to pass the time anyway!"

Lan You then nodded gently and said, "Then I shall stand guard for Daoist Friend Xu."

Xu Chen nodded and said no more. With a wave of his hand, several Spirit Medicines and Spirit Grasses with faint fluctuations of Spirit Qi appeared before him. He carefully observed each one, and after confirming that there would be no major issues using these, he inserted a Spirit Stone into the furnace chamber and pressed both hands onto the Yuan Qi channels to begin activating the array inside the Pill Furnace.

Soon, a Spirit Fire began to burn fiercely within the Pill Furnace, and the colorful light and shadows of the Array also began to flicker. As the temperature of the Spirit Fire rose higher and higher, the aura fluctuations released by the Pill Furnace grew stronger as well.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the furnace fire stabilized. Xu Chen guided it with his Divine Sense and tossed a Spirit Medicine into the furnace to begin refining.

Immortal-style pill refining and the medicine-making of folk physicians are actually of the same origin. Some verified traditional prescriptions naturally have strict and mature proportions, and the resulting medicine has an identical composition, generally in the form of pills or powders, ready to be taken as needed.

There are also other prescriptions that use medicine according to the condition, applying dialectical treatment based on theories such as the mutual complementarity of yin and yang and the Five Elements' generation and restriction; therefore, the formula for every such medicine is completely different.

Immortal-style pill refining is the same. Common Spirit Pills have mature, fixed recipes, strictly refined according to the pill formula, and are ready to be used, suitable for large-scale storage. As for uncommon pills, they are adjusted according to conditions, as long as the medicinal properties can be guaranteed to be reasonable; there is no fixed pill formula, and most are specifically researched and refined according to a certain need or to achieve a certain effect.

Just like how Yuqing Hall uses Soul Beads in pills, they use a very special method that has almost nothing to do with conventional pill refining, yet it can indeed maximize the utilization of Soul Power to achieve a curative effect.

As for a Spirit Medicine like the Su Xin Plum, which calms the spirit and stabilizes the soul, one could just brew it into tea and drink it directly. Drinking it every day would certainly have an effect, but refining it into a Spirit Pill with the aid of reasonable Spirit Medicines can exert greater medicinal efficacy, almost with immediate results, and it is easier to preserve.

This is because no Spirit Medicine can be effectively preserved for a long time; the longer the time, the more Spirit Qi will be lost, and the medicinal efficacy will naturally become worse.

Therefore, after collecting general Spirit Medicines, it is best to refine them into pills as soon as possible; the higher the grade of the Spirit Medicine, the more demanding the storage conditions.

If these Su Xin Plums cannot be put into a pill as soon as possible, and there is no suitable method to preserve them, I fear the Spirit Qi will have dissipated completely before they can be brought back to Taiyuan Sect.

Xu Chen has already refined quite a few First-grade Spirit Pills, and he is very familiar with the medicinal properties and refining of common auxiliary ingredients. Therefore, at a speed of one ingredient every half a quarter of an hour, he quickly finished refining all the auxiliary ingredients, and finally tossed in half of the Su Xin Plums.

Each Su Xin Plum flower is only the size of a finger and very fragrant, but its Spirit Qi is also very weak, relying entirely on quantity to prevail.

Because there was no pill formula, Xu Chen did not know how much to use for a batch of pills, so he didn't bother to think too much about it.

Spirit Pills that use flowers as medicine are rare, and Xu Chen had never refined them before, so he was even more unsure and could only experiment based on his limited knowledge and experience in pill refining.

Therefore, he kept the temperature of the Spirit Fire very low and baked them slowly. It took a full two quarters of an hour before he finally refined these flowers, which were as translucent as gold and jade, into a mass of golden-yellow cold liquid.

Next was the Combining Pill stage. As the Combining Pill Array was activated, a surge of Yuan Qi began to rotate within the Pill Furnace, and all the refined Spirit Medicines were drawn into the vortex to begin merging. Soon, a dense pill fragrance began to emanate.

Lan You had been very quiet sitting on the side, but smelling the pill fragrance wafting from the furnace, a look of joy appeared on her face.

Although a First-grade Pill is not worth mentioning to the powerful Yuqing Hall, being able to refine it can be considered a small harvest on this journey.

Moreover, being able to stay with Xu Chen and help him refine pills was a rare moment of companionship; perhaps in the future, it would be hard to find such an opportunity again.

The Pill Nourishing time lasted for nearly an hour. The medicinal fragrance was already very rich, and the entire cave was filled with a white pill vapor; the fragrance was refreshing and soothing, making even the Soul feel peaceful and comfortable.

Next was the Pill Dividing and Pill Nourishing. After another half an hour, when the pill vapor had subsided to a very weak level, Xu Chen tapped the Pill Furnace lightly. The furnace lid jumped up, and accompanied by a burst of Spirit Fire and pill vapor spraying out of the furnace, Xu Chen raised his hand and collected the Spirit Pills mixed within into his palm.

There were eight Spirit Pills in total; the yield did not seem very high. They were pale yellow in color, cool to the touch, and carried a faint luster of Spirit Qi.

After looking at them, Xu Chen handed the pills to Lan You and said, "Everything went smoothly. Daoist Friend Lan, take a look and see how the quality of these pills is?"

Lan You took the Spirit Pills, scanned them slightly with her Divine Sense, and nodded, "These Spirit Pills have a smooth color and a full aura; the fragrance is restrained and the spiritual light is apparent. The quality is quite good, at least reaching the middle-to-high grade."

Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "That is good then. It seems I didn't waste them."

After saying this, Xu Chen waved his hand, and seven or eight more types of Spirit Medicines landed before him.

Lan You asked in surprise, "Is Daoist Friend Xu preparing to continue refining?"

Xu Chen nodded and said, "Yes. The first batch was for practice. For the second batch, I will use a method unique to Taiyuan Sect. There might be some complications midway. If I cannot control the Pill Furnace later, I would trouble Daoist Friend Lan to lend a hand and help me suppress the furnace fire."

Lan You was both surprised and delighted, nodding repeatedly, "Daoist Friend Xu, please rest assured. If you need my help, just give me a word, and I will definitely give it my all!"

Xu Chen said, "Daoist Friend Lan need not be nervous. It is only a First-grade Pill, after all. With the strength of our Divine Sense and Yuan Qi, there shouldn't be any major accidents; it is just a precaution!"

As he spoke, Xu Chen activated the Pill Furnace again and began to toss the Spirit Medicines into the furnace one by one.

In the blink of an eye, more than half an hour passed. Xu Chen had finished refining all the auxiliary ingredients and the Su Xin Plums. When it came time for the Combining Pill stage, the expression on Xu Chen's face began to turn serious and earnest. He used his Divine Sense to guide a wisp of white vapor from the Blue Light Treasure Bottle into the Pill Furnace. Instantly, the Spirit Fire, as if it were a beast that had been provoked, erupted violently. Through the furnace holes, one could clearly see the fire inside become much more intense.

Lan You's expression also turned nervous, and she stared intently at the Pill Furnace.

Xu Chen was already familiar with this change, so he poured his Yuan Qi into the Pill Furnace in rolling waves, forcibly suppressing the irritable Spirit Fire, while simultaneously focusing all his attention on driving the array to rotate and combine the pills, merging the white vapor with the Spirit Medicines.

As the Combining Pill process continued, thick pill vapor rolled out of the Pill Furnace, and the Spirit Medicine that had already been refined actually shed quite a bit of impurities and pill ash again under the baking of the Spirit Fire. The volume of the gradually forming medicinal paste actually shrank by nearly thirty percent.

At the same time, a cyan-white cloud and mist began to gather above the Pill Furnace.

However, because it was in the middle of the night, it could not be seen with the naked eye, but the aura released by the cloud and mist shocked Lan You. Under the observation of her powerful Divine Sense, this Pill Cloud that had appeared out of thin air actually possessed a power that made her heart tremble.

Could this be a Pill Cloud?

As the cloud and mist grew, Lan You became increasingly shocked, and her face turned slightly fearful.

The appearance of a Pill Cloud indicates that a Dan Tribulation will occur.

Yet a Dan Tribulation only appears for very few special Spirit Pills of the fourth grade or above. The Spirit Pill Xu Chen was refining was merely a First-grade Spirit Pill; how could a Dan Tribulation appear? This completely exceeded her range of cognition.

However, soon, she seemed to feel an unusually familiar aura from the pill fragrance being emitted.

Because that aura had left a deep impression on her memory.

That was the white vapor that Xu Chen had sent into her body using a special technique to support the Blue Light Treasure Bottle against the Ancient Fierce Beast when they first encountered it together.

While the pain brought by that white vapor was unforgettable, she had also gained unprecedented benefits.

That she could have her current aptitude and cultivation was all thanks to that kind of white vapor.

Therefore, she quickly realized that the special pill-refining method Xu Chen spoke of actually had nothing to do with Taiyuan Sect, but came from that mysterious immortal artifact, the Blue Light Treasure Bottle.

Perhaps Xu Chen wanted to incorporate that white vapor, which could enhance the Soul, strengthen the Meridians and dantian, and temper the physical body, into the pill, thereby refining it into a special kind of Spirit Pill.

And according to Xu Chen's words and actions, he should not be refining pills this way for the first time.

Lan You suddenly remembered the words Zhao Xuan said when she went to bid farewell to Xu Chen a month ago.

Could it be that he had truly already succeeded?

Even with the naturally intelligent brain brought by her excellent Spirit Root talent, she quickly associated this with the miraculous effects of the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill, another special Spirit Pill that had recently been in the limelight at Taiyuan Sect.

Third Senior Brother Xu Wen had suffered severe damage to his Soul and was in a near-dying state; it was said that he only regained consciousness after taking the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill. Although he had not fully recovered, as long as he recuperated well, he would not be left with too many sequelae.

Back then, the three Supreme Elders of Yuqing Hall, in order to save Yulong Zhenren, could be said to have racked their brains before finally thinking of using the Nascent Soul to refine Soul Power and carve an array into a pill. After succeeding, they even celebrated it. They had thought that no one in the world besides Yuqing Hall could develop such a Spirit Pill, but they never expected that Xu Chen would use an ordinary Pill Furnace to introduce mysterious white vapor into the pill, with even better results.

The more she thought, the more shocked she became; Lan You's mouth slowly fell open, unable to close.

She was all too aware of the miraculous effects of this white Qi; it was no exaggeration to call it heaven-defying, as it could comprehensively reshape a cultivator and forcefully elevate their aptitude several times over.

Originally, given her aptitude, successfully reaching Golden Core should not have been a major issue, but she had no certainty at all regarding Spirit Transformation; this was a pure deficiency in aptitude, unrelated to the Spirit Pills or Spirit Medicine used for Spirit Transformation.

In other words, even if she cultivated to the Danyuan Realm Great Perfection, and even with the best Spirit Transformation Pill, she had no certainty of being able to achieve Spirit Transformation.

But now, after the three Supreme Elders examined her changes, they confirmed that she fully possessed the aptitude to successfully achieve Spirit Transformation; all that was lacking was time and a Spirit Transformation Pill.

If Xu Chen could promote this Spirit Pill infused with white Qi on a large scale, wouldn't that mean any cultivator with above-average aptitude would have a chance at Golden Core and Spirit Transformation?

Lan You felt as if she could no longer breathe, her Soul in a state of utter chaos.

(End of this chapter)