Chapter 53

"Don't be in such a hurry to pay respects..." Daoist Zhen said proudly: "What you should be taught is still to come."

"Ordinary practitioners cannot detect the tricks buried in pills, the impurities, or whether the medicinal properties are full, but it is different for practitioners who specialize in this path. Therefore, in addition to the pill assembly, if there is a pill refiner who is trusted by others, they can also act as a middleman for transactions by appraising spirit pills."

Wei Taiping showed joy and hurriedly said: "Daoist, when you talk about this pill refining, you know it like the back of your hand. You must also be an insider. Can you appraise one or two, so that we can broaden our horizons."

Daoist Zhen looked at Qian Chen and smiled: "Fellow Daoist, do you still want to exchange spirit pills for the map? If you can pass this test of mine..." He had unfinished meaning in his words, just turning his head to look at Wei Taiping.

Wei Taiping was indeed tactful and patted his chest, saying: "Then I will make the decision to exchange the map of the Jiu Zhen Great Marsh for the Fellow Daoist."

Qian Chen naturally had no objection. He was afraid that this Daoist Zhen wouldn't know the goods, so he specifically put away the Bi Yuan Cui Ling Pill he had originally prepared for the exchange. The effect of this kind of spirit pill, which tempered the Dao foundation and was the root of true qi, was not direct enough. This Daoist Zhen sounded reliable, but what if he misjudged? He changed it to the Yi Qi Master Chunyang Pill, which increased cultivation... He figured he wouldn't misread that!

The Yi Qi Master Chunyang Pill had a pure red color, but its medicinal properties were very gentle, and it was refined from primordial energy, with almost no impurities.

Qian Chen held it in the palm of his hand. Its appearance was truly good, smooth and round. A probe of spiritual sense felt like falling into a hot spring, making the whole body feel comfortable. Qian Chen thought that this kind of spirit pill would definitely not be looked down upon.

But he saw Daoist Zhen take the spirit pill, look at it for a long time, and suddenly sneer.

This time, Qian Chen was truly shocked. This was the spirit pill he had specially selected for its best appearance and simplest medicinal properties. What other tricks could there be?

Only hearing Daoist Zhen say: "The way of pill refining requires ten years of burning fire and three years of bitter practice of eye techniques to observe the fire color and understand the fire temperature. Then there are ten years of picking herbs and bitter reading of pill books to test the refining of pills with simple medicinal properties. During this period, one must bitterly read hundreds of volumes of pill books, know the medicinal properties by heart... and also open the nose orifices to distinguish medicinal properties, detecting changes in medicinal properties from the medicinal fragrance emitted by the pill furnace. Finally, open the tongue orifices to taste the flaws in the fire temperature of the medicinal herbs in the pill, and constantly adjust."

"After thirty years of this, one can officially open the furnace to refine pills."

"A good furnace of pills must start from picking medicinal herbs, tasting the herbs with the tongue to detect whether the medicinal properties are shallow or thick, and then quantifying the medicinal properties. If you are missing one part or have one part too many, no matter how well you refine it later, it will be a waste pill. Then choose the right timing, location, and even the pill furnace, all have tricks. Before opening the furnace, you must warm the furnace, sacrifice to the furnace... what water to use, what fire to use, all have requirements."

"After officially opening the furnace, the fire temperature must change with the changes in the medicinal properties in the furnace, and there cannot be the slightest difference."

"During this period, the protection of magic power requires a thick magic power to persist... Finally, when opening the furnace, the method of forming the medicine has secret transmissions. The various methods during this period are also called pill formulas, which are the inheritance that pill refiners regard as their lives. If you are not an indoor disciple, don't even think about seeing it. Even at the pill assembly, pill refiners can hide the pill formulas they use."

"Not to mention the method of collecting medicine, even the birth date and physical foundation of the boy who collects the pills have requirements. Master Chunyang pills must use pure Yin virgins, and pure Yin pills must use pure Yang boys..."

Qian Chen listened and clicked his tongue secretly—is pill refining actually so difficult?

What eye techniques, nose orifices, tongue orifices—aren't these things that come naturally when spiritual sense detects subtleties after breaking through the sensory barrier? Medicinal properties are fundamentally primordial energy. As long as you can detect primordial energy, you can naturally observe medicinal properties, right?

What? Fire temperature changes still need to be observed with eyes?

Isn't it relying on spiritual sense?

And why do changes in the furnace need to be distinguished by smelling the medicinal fragrance with the nose? Shouldn't it be directly observing the qi?

Are changes in medicinal properties such simple things that they are worth learning for ten years? And why do the medicinal properties of medicinal herbs need to be memorized one by one? Every realm in the countless realms of the cosmos has unique species. In this way, can one only be trapped in one place to refine pills? What if you encounter medicinal herbs you don't recognize? Why not directly observe the changes in the source of medicinal properties? All medicinal properties are primordial energy, and their essence does not change!

Qian Chen had a feeling of a graduate student analyzing mechanics using finite elements encountering a big shot who used empirical formulas...

Although it was very hard for him to learn a thick book of finite element analysis of approximate solutions to boundary value problems of partial differential equations, the ruthless person who could memorize three-foot-high empirical formulas was truly awesome!

It was like a college student with normal intelligence seeing someone with intellectual disabilities who finally achieved something by relying on rote memorization of the multiplication table to solve quadratic equations, feeling deep sympathy and being inspired and excited.

Such a strong person, how could one not look up to him with high mountains and follow his path.

Qian Chen's pill refining technique was a hundred times stronger than Daoist Zhen's, yet he still admired him so much. The people in the hall listened to this kind of hard pill refining technique, and one by one they became more and more in awe. Even an old fox like Wei Lecheng showed a look of surprise. The spirit pills in this world were precious. If Daoist Zhen really understood pill refining, his status would be precious and would definitely not be below that of a Core Formation master.

I don't know how many prominent families wanted to climb up to make friends.

Wei Taiping was even more blatant: "Daoist knows this kind of hardship, he must be a master of the pill path. Appraising spirit pills like this really opened our eyes. If the Daoist doesn't mind, I am willing to run errands for the Daoist..."

Daoist Zhen did not answer directly, but changed the subject: "Appraising spirit pills is inseparable from the four tricks of 'seeing, smelling, weighing, and appraising' in the pill refining method."

"To appraise whether a spirit pill is good or bad, first observe its color. A high-quality spirit pill has a color that is upright and not evil, pure and not flashy..."

"The purer the color, the fewer the impurities. Once the fire temperature is light, the pill color will be pale, and once the fire temperature is heavy, the pill color will have scorch marks. This pill looks like the color is extremely upright, pure and not mixed. Observing with eye techniques, there are actually no impurities at all..."

Qian Chen listened carefully. This Yi Qi Master Chunyang Pill did indeed have a very upright pill color and no impurities. Why did this person sneer at it?

Daoist Zhen shook his head and smiled: "But the pill refiner probably overdid it. This pill color is too pure, and you can't even see the transition of medicinal properties and the traces of melting medicinal herbs. The pill comes out of the fire, but there are no fire marks. And even if it is a water-refined spirit pill, there is always a process for the spirit pill to condense. There are traces of human-made creation. A high-level pill refiner can even detect how the pill was condensed, the time, and the process."

"This pill... actually looks like it was naturally achieved, born like this, without any traces of condensation..."

"Is this a spirit pill refined by a pill refiner?" Daoist Zhen sneered.

Qian Chen said silently in his heart: "Because it was transformed by primordial energy, condensed as a whole. There are no herbal medicinal herbs, and there is no need to borrow the fibers of herbs to burn into pill form..."

"Next is smelling..." Daoist Zhen handed the Yi Qi Master Chunyang Pill in his hand to Wei Taiping and said: "You smell it."

Wei Taiping carefully brought his nose close to the pill and sniffed hard. He used too much force and his face wrinkled into a ball, which made the boy serving on the side laugh, but Wei Taiping didn't feel he was funny, but nodded and said: "I sniffed hard, and only smelled a faint pill fragrance... there is no pill taste at all."

"Yes, pill fragrance can distinguish medicinal properties. The medicinal properties of this pill are no problem, nourishing qi and essence, but this shallow pill fragrance shows that the medicinal properties are also shallow." Daoist Zhen explained.

Wei Taiping also detected that after smelling the pill fragrance, his own true qi had a slight improvement, but it was imperceptible, and the effect was really shallow.

Of course, he couldn't distinguish that his own true essence also had a pure trace that was imperceptible, and he couldn't distinguish the difference between the stimulation of true qi by stimulating medicinal herbs and the nourishment of true qi by gentle and pure primordial energy.

Qian Chen couldn't help but say: "If the fragrance is too strong, won't the taste be lost?"

"What?" Wei Taiping didn't expect that someone would dare to refute him, and immediately felt offended by the high-level person in his heart, and couldn't help but ask sternly.

Qian Chen explained kindly: "It means the medicinal properties are lost!"

Daoist Zhen laughed loudly: "This is the third mistake..." He took out a crystal bottle from the leopard skin bag at his waist. Inside was a pale, transparent liquid like clear water. Daoist Zhen shook the crystal bottle and said: "This is pill wax. In order to prevent the medicinal properties from evaporating with the medicinal fragrance, pill refiners will apply a layer of pill wax to the surface after refining the spirit pill to prevent the taste from volatilizing. When appraising spirit pills, one often has to rub off a little pill wax with one's hand to sniff the medicinal fragrance..."

"Where is your pill wax?"

Qian Chen couldn't explain. He couldn't say that his pill refining technique was completely beyond your cognition. It was refining pills with primordial energy. After the pill was formed, he used inert primordial energy to transform into a pill shell, sealing that pure Yang primordial energy inside. This pill shell transformed by inert primordial energy was equivalent to your pill wax, right!

This Pill Refiner Zhen didn't have the concept of refining pills with primordial energy in his brain at all. Even if he said it, he would only be identified as a liar.

"This is a wrong market positioning! High-end products should be positioned for high-end customers like Cui Dan. Why did I come to the low-end market to show off..." Qian Chen sighed in his heart.

Pill Refiner Zhen finally weighed the Yi Qi Master Chunyang Pill and shook his head: "Finally, don't you think this pill is too light?"

"Because it's a strand of primordial energy inside..." Qian Chen was already powerless to refute.

"It only weighs three zhu. Spirit pills have different weights depending on the material. Herbal spirit pills weigh from one qian to three qian. By observing the amount of impurities and weighing them, you can determine the medicinal properties. Mineral gold pills are slightly heavier, with distinctions from eight qian to three liang. Different spirit pills have different specific gravities. Often, you can calculate whether the medicinal properties are heavy or there are too many impurities based on the weight."

"Of course, these are all very subtle and need to be adapted to local conditions. However, no matter what kind of spirit pill it is, none is this light!"

"I even suspect this is just a shell!" Daoist Zhen sneered.

Qian Chen sighed secretly: "You're right! This really is just a shell..."

Daoist Zhen threw the spirit pill back to Qian Chen and said: "Like this, looking, smelling, weighing... This kind of pill is not worthy of my careful appraisal, so let's skip the last step directly! This pill is of the lowest grade... although there are few impurities, the medicinal properties are even shallower. Although it is not the worst 'poison pill' and is slightly better than a 'waste pill', it is also a 'fake pill'... It is not worth the map of the Great Marsh."

Daoist Zhen looked at Qian Chen coldly. At this time, Qian Chen was reflecting in his heart: "When did I offend this Daoist Zhen? I haven't even seen him before!"

"I feel like he has some malice towards me. Should I kill him with a sword on the spot?"