Chapter 317: Public Pill Refining

Nourished by the power of vitality, the injured were given a breath of life, preventing them from succumbing at any moment, while also buying the medical personnel crucial time to administer treatment.

"Who is that female cultivator?"

High above, dozens of elders from the Central Sacred Land, Artifact Saint Palace, Talisman Saint Pavilion, and Formation Saint Sect guarded each sector, jointly maintaining the stability of the spiritual energy shield.

"Her? She is Hua Changxi, the Peak Master of Danyuan Peak in the Pill Saint Hall."

Upon hearing this, the elders from the Artifact, Talisman, and Formation Sacred Lands looked down at Hua Changxi with renewed attention.

"She is certainly generous; she has exhausted nearly all the vitality within the branches of the Undying Divine Tree. Restoring it will not be easy."

"Fortunately, she was here; otherwise, the death toll would have been far higher."

"I wonder where those old fellows of the Pill Saint Hall are hiding? To endure until now without showing themselves, they truly possess remarkable fortitude."

Although the people of the Pill Saint Hall did not step forward to stabilize the spiritual energy shield, the members of the other Sacred Lands did not mind too much.

For one thing, treating the injured required the Pill Saint Hall to take the lead.

Furthermore, given the sheer amount of vitality Hua Changxi just expended, her contribution was no less than theirs.

"In the past, those old fellows of the Pill Saint Hall remained hidden out of necessity, unwilling to be infiltrated by the imperial family and powerful noble clans. But now, it is likely intentional; those old fellows probably want the younger generation to take the forefront, hoping to revitalize the Pill Saint Hall through this."

"In that regard, we must learn from them."

As the conversation continued in the sky, on the ground, under the grateful gazes of numerous injured people, Hua Changxi walked toward the medicine stall where the disciples of Danyuan Peak were stationed.

"Peak Master."

"Master."

Yu Fu and Zhou Shou hurried forward to greet her.

Seeing the two looking at her with slight apprehension, Hua Changxi immediately said, "You did very well to proactively bring people here to treat the injured this time."

Hearing this, Yu Fu and Zhou Shou instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

Hua Changxi continued, "In the future, when I am absent and similar situations arise, you stewards must discuss and decide together. Remember, do not violate Danyuan Peak's principle of 'saving all beings from suffering and calamity'."

Yu Fu and Zhou Shou hastily agreed.

Then, Yu Fu began to complain, "Master, you don't know; this time the entire Medical Bureau mobilized, yet neither the Qihuang Pavilion nor the Lingjing Pavilion bothered to notify Danyuan Peak."

"If our people hadn't been alert and followed on their own, outsiders might not even know that the Medical Bureau includes a Danyuan Peak."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi furrowed her brows slightly and glanced toward the distant medicine stalls.

In front of every medicine stall stood a banner bearing the name of some secret realm or some Qihuang Hall.

Hua Changxi knew clearly that the Qihuang Pavilion and Lingjing Pavilion had deliberately excluded Danyuan Peak, merely hoping to isolate and ostracize her, waiting for her to bow her head to them voluntarily.

"Ignore them for now."

Hua Changxi withdrew her gaze and walked toward the Danyuan Peak apprentices who were treating the injured.

The people Yu Fu and Zhou Shou had brought this time were all apprentices with experience in both treatment and pill refining.

Among them, Ye Lingxuan, Jiang Henian, and several other successors of the Pill Saint Hall performed particularly outstandingly, having treated the largest number of people.

Hua Changxi made a round and observed that whether at Danyuan Peak or at other medicine stalls, the healers were admitting patients one by one.

Watching this scene, Hua Changxi shook her head.

With so many injured and so few healers, treating them one by one meant that even with the nourishment of vitality, most of the injured probably would not survive long enough to receive treatment.

"Yu Fu."

"Master, I am here."

Hua Changxi looked at Yu Fu and said, "Go set up eight large iron cauldrons. I will immediately return to Danyuan Peak to fetch some spiritual herbs, as I intend to brew medicine shortly."

Once Yu Fu agreed, Hua Changxi rode a cloud and departed.

Yu Fu worked with great efficiency; shortly after Hua Changxi left, he had set up eight large iron cauldrons beside the Danyuan Peak medicine stall.

Ever since Hua Changxi appeared, the Danyuan Peak medicine stall had attracted attention from all sides; seeing them set up eight large iron cauldrons, many people's expressions changed.

The injuries this time mainly fell into three categories: cuts from spatial rifts slicing through flesh, poisoning by fire toxins, and inhalation of demonic beast qi.

While the injuries were easy to classify, treating them was difficult.

During this period, some healers attempted to classify and treat the injured in batches, but unfortunately, all attempts failed.

The reason was nothing else but the inability to supply enough medicine.

Both pill refiners and alchemists were busy to the point of their feet not touching the ground, yet they still could not supply the numerous injured.

At the Qingyao Peak medicine stall.

Meng Yuchuan looked displeased: "Why does this Hua Changxi love showing off so much? Setting up so many iron cauldrons—I don't believe she can actually brew injury medicine in batches to treat the wounded."

Meng Qingyao remained silent, saying nothing; in her heart, she also felt that Hua Changxi could not treat the injured in batches.

For mortals repairing their flesh, brewing medicinal soups might have some effect; but for cultivators, one must consume body-refining spiritual pills, as ordinary decoctions are ineffective.

As for clearing fire toxins, even mortals must consume corresponding spiritual powder; although spiritual powder is easier to refine than spiritual pills, it still cannot be produced in large quantities at once.

A first-rank pill refiner can process at most ten spiritual herbs simultaneously.

Clearing demonic beast qi is even more difficult.

Demonic beast qi consists of demon qi and devil qi, which must be treated separately.

Inhaling demon qi pollutes and corrodes the spiritual energy within the body, making it impure; once the demon qi in the dantian exceeds the spiritual energy, demonic transformation occurs.

Only Spirit-Purifying Pills can purify demon qi.

Moreover, the main ingredient for refining Spirit-Purifying Pills, the Spirit-Purifying Flower, only appears in the ruins of battlefields from human-demon wars, born from the irrigation of human and demon blood; she had only seen a few blooms in the Xia family's warehouse.

Currently, healers can only suppress the demon qi within the injured one by one, preventing it from rampaging inside their bodies.

As for devil qi, it primarily affects the mind; once inhaled in excess, it triggers human desires and heart demons, causing people to become manic.

Eliminating devil qi requires either consuming Calming Heart Pills or bathing in Buddhist chants—the Calming Heart Mantra.

Calming Heart Pills are also difficult to refine, requiring Calming Heart Bamboo as the main ingredient.

Although Calming Heart Bamboo is not as rare as the Spirit-Purifying Flower, it takes too long to mature—a hundred years—found only in the Divine Wood Secret Realm and a few blessed lands. Yet, precisely because it is difficult to refine, it cannot be supplied to the injured in large quantities.

Nowadays, clearing demonic qi could only be hoped for by having the monks of Daxiang Temple and Dixiu Temple recite the Heart-Calming Mantra everywhere.

Apart from these difficulties, since every injured person's condition differed, achieving mass treatment of the wounded was truly hard to accomplish.

Meng Qingyao glanced again at the Dan Yuan Peak medicine stall: "Enough, do not let Hua Changxi affect you; let us speed up saving people."

The others shared much the same thoughts as Meng Qingyao; no longer staring at the Dan Yuan Peak medicine stall, they continued diagnosing and treating the wounded one by one.

Two hours later, Hua Changxi appeared once more within everyone's line of sight.

Seeing the iron cauldrons set up, Hua Changxi instructed Yu Fu and Zhou Shou to each manage four cauldrons: "Yu Fu, your four cauldrons are for repairing physical bodies; Zhou Shou, your four cauldrons are for clearing fire poison."

Afterwards, she had the two men arrange their respective four cauldrons in order.

Cauldron Number One was for mortals; Cauldron Number Two was for Qi Refining cultivators; Cauldron Number Three was for Qi Sea cultivators; Cauldron Number Four was for Core Formation cultivators.

Since among the wounded there were both mortals and cultivators, whose treatments differed; and among cultivators, differing cultivation bases required different dosages, Hua Changxi had made such classifications.

Immediately, Hua Changxi took out spiritual herbs for repairing physical bodies, controlling spiritual fire with one hand and spiritual herbs with the other, directly refining the herbs with spiritual fire and extracting their useful components.

Stalk by stalk, the spiritual herbs were refined by spiritual fire into medicinal liquid; useless components evaporated directly, while useful parts fell into the iron cauldrons.

Hua Changxi did not refine the spiritual herbs one by one, but rather hundreds at a time.

Since the Shennong Cauldron could refine tens of thousands of spiritual pills in a single batch, she had grown accustomed to processing spiritual herbs in massive quantities at once.

She was accustomed to refining medicine this way, yet the others were all stunned speechless with wide eyes.

Whether it was Ye Lingxuan, Jiang Henian, and others as successors of the Pill Saint Hall, or Meng Qingyao, the chosen alchemist with Fire-Wood Spiritual Body, all were shocked by Hua Changxi's method of refining medicine.

Refining hundreds of spiritual herbs simultaneously while ensuring each was fully refined and its useful components extracted—at this moment, everyone gained a clear, intuitive understanding of Hua Changxi's alchemy skill.

"Hua Changxi truly deserves her reputation as the foremost figure of the Pill Saint Hall!" someone exclaimed in astonishment.

Before long, Cauldron Number One for repairing physical bodies was filled with medicinal soup, while a rich medicinal fragrance simultaneously spread through the air.