Chapter 38: Alchemy

In the cultivation world, alchemy is a profound art.

Once one reaches a certain realm, one can use spiritual sense to manipulate the alchemical flame, directly roasting the herbs to burn off dross and retain essence, extracting the medicinal juices from the spirit plants.

After purifying all different types of herbal juices, they are fused together.

Once cooled, they become pills.

This is an advanced alchemical method.

Clearly, Qi Refining stage disciples and Foundation Establishment stage disciples cannot use this method.

On one hand, they lack powerful spiritual sense and cannot separate medicinal juice from dross. On the other hand, since their dantian has not yet formed a Golden Core, they cannot summon alchemical flame.

Thus, low-level disciples use a simple and crude method: boiling.

Add water to the alchemy furnace, then wash the herbs and place them inside as well.

Then begin boiling.

After boiling, the essence of the herbs is released into the water; once the water evaporates completely, what remains is the herbal essence.

This method is extremely crude and has an extremely low success rate—often only one out of ten batches succeeds.

But this is the only alchemical method available to low-level disciples in the cultivation world.

He Pingsheng could only use this clumsy method now.

The herbs and the alchemy furnace had both been fully enhanced.

Originally twenty portions of herbs, now they had become forty portions!

Crucially, all forty portions were top-grade herbs.

Previously, Wang Dun had owned one alchemy furnace, a low-grade magic treasure with only one seal.

Now, after He Pingsheng enhanced it, the furnace became a top-grade magic treasure with four seals.

And there were two such furnaces—one square tripod, one round cauldron.

“Hehehe…” Seeing the furnace, He Pingsheng chuckled: top-grade magic treasure—next time I go to Mount Matou’s marketplace, I’ll sell this thing; it should fetch quite a few spirit stones.

In the cultivation world, the classification of magic treasures is strict.

From low to high, they are: magic treasure, spirit treasure, artifact, mystery treasure, and so on.

Generally, Qi Refining stage disciples use magic treasures.

Foundation Establishment stage disciples use spirit treasures.

Golden Core stage disciples have the basic conditions to nurture artifacts, so usually, cultivators above Golden Core third layer possess artifacts.

Mystery treasures and similar items are used by Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

Of course, this is not absolute.

For example, some impoverished early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators may still be using magic treasures.

Moreover, magic treasures, spirit treasures, artifacts, and mystery treasures are each divided into four grades: low, medium, high, and top.

Take magic treasures: a low-grade magic treasure has one seal!

A medium-grade magic treasure has two seals.

A high-grade magic treasure has three seals.

A top-grade magic treasure has four seals.

And so on!

When reaching the spirit treasure level, even the lowest-grade spirit treasure has five seals.

One can understand it this way: the more seals engraved on a treasure, the higher its grade and the greater its power.

He Pingsheng reached out and picked up the round alchemy furnace before him.

Palm-sized.

“Open…” He roared, and his magic power surged violently into it.

The furnace instantly expanded to the size of an iron pot, its four seals visible.

But unfortunately, none of the four seals had been subjugated.

So using the furnace at will was unlikely.

Before alchemy, one must first subjugate the furnace.

“Come on… I wonder how long it will take to subjugate it!”

Next came the subjugation of the furnace.

Unconsciously, two more months passed.

He Pingsheng fully subjugated all four seals on the furnace.

“Open…”

“Retract!”

“Out!”

After subjugation, He Pingsheng found the furnace became far more responsive—he could summon or store it freely, even within his dantian.

Of course, the furnace also had some storage space, allowing temporary placement of items.

Now came the alchemy!

First step: summon the furnace, expand it to the size of an iron pot, and place it in the courtyard.

It must be placed in the courtyard, since fire must be applied—inside the house was impossible.

Second step: add water to the pot.

Then sequentially place the herbs inside to begin boiling.

The boiling process requires utmost caution.

But no major issue—the method of boiling, control of heat, and what conditions arise in the pot at each stage were all clearly recorded in the [Alchemy Thirty-Six Formulas].

He Pingsheng had long memorized them by heart.

First placed in was Immortal Bamboo Shoot, then Seven-Leaf Spirit Grass, third was Spirit Apricot, and finally, the Zhu Fruit.

Everything was secure.

Half an hour later, a strange fragrance emerged from the furnace.

But it was not particularly strong.

Only He Pingsheng could smell it; neighbors could not.

Even if they had smelled it, they wouldn’t come to ask—his neighbors were all ordinary people, not a single cultivator.

Several more hours passed!

He Pingsheng fished out the dross and discarded it, then began refining the small amount of mixed herbal juice left in the pot.

As the pills gradually took shape, they finally formed twelve pill pellets.

But before they fully solidified, the pot emitted a loud crash.

Boom…

It exploded!

First alchemy attempt: failure!

Yet what comforted He Pingsheng was that though the alchemy failed, he obtained twelve dud pills.

Similar to the twelve he had obtained earlier in the alchemy room at Xiuzhu Peak.

“Phew…” He Pingsheng exhaled, retrieving the dud pills.

To others, these were dud pills—but to He Pingsheng, who possessed the miraculous Treasure Basin, they were treasures.

Because he could directly purify them; after enhancement by the Treasure Basin, they became top-grade Qi-Condensing Pills.

First batch failed!

He Pingsheng did not rush to prepare the second batch; instead, he calmed his mind and began reflecting.

Why did it fail?

Where was the problem?

What was the issue?

How to fix it?

Armed with questions and solutions, He Pingsheng began preparing the second batch.

But the result was unsurprising—the second batch also failed.

Alchemy offers no shortcuts.

It relies solely on repeated failures, accumulating experience and instinct.

Fortunately, though he failed, he always produced dud pills.

In the days that followed, He Pingsheng spent all his time on alchemy.

He brewed two batches daily.

One in the morning, one in the afternoon.

Day after day.

When He Pingsheng reached his seventeenth batch, he finally succeeded.

He Pingsheng was ecstatic.

“Hahaha… I can alchemize… I can make Qi-Condensing Pills…”

He did not know that a normal mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator typically requires over a hundred attempts before producing their first pill.

He Pingsheng found his rhythm by the seventeenth batch because his spiritual sense was stronger than peers, and because he had the Heavenly-grade [Alchemy Thirty-Six Formulas] to aid him.

Otherwise, he would have failed just like anyone else.

"Again!"

Next, He Pingsheng continued to refine elixirs.

But not every attempt succeeded.

His success rate in refining elixirs was about one in four.

That meant, on average, one batch of elixir could be produced from every four portions of herbs.

This success rate was already extraordinarily remarkable.

Even ordinary skilled elixir refiners achieved no more than this.

For beginners, some could not even produce one batch in ten attempts.

Of course, He Pingsheng believed that if he refined elixirs in the elixir chamber of Xiuzhu Peak, this success rate could improve further.

Moreover, if his cultivation base increased and his spiritual sense grew stronger, the elixir refinement success rate would rise dramatically.