Chapter 60: Automated Alchemy Furnace

"Let's go, time to head back." Dugu Bo waved his large hand, preparing to take the two of them away.

Shi Quan suddenly spoke up: "Grandpa Dugu, may I stay here to cultivate? I feel this place is very suitable for my cultivation, and while I cultivate, I can continue trying to sense the medicinal power—killing two birds with one stone."

"Stay here to cultivate?" Dugu Bo thought for a moment and nodded. "This place is indeed a rare treasure trove for cultivation for you. I will explain things to the academy, so you can cultivate with peace of mind. However, remember what I told you: when I am not here, absolutely do not touch the spring water or the herbs."

"Don't worry, Grandpa Dugu, I know what I'm doing," Shi Quan nodded in response.

"Then I shall send you down."

"No need, Grandpa Dugu, I can go down and come back up on my own." As he spoke, Shi Quan summoned his martial soul. His second Soul Ring lit up first, and the hardened Blue Silver Grass pierced into the ground; then, the second Soul Ring lit up again, and the Blue Silver Grass on the ground rapidly extended downward.

"Interesting." Dugu Bo nodded, picked up Dugu Yan, and said, "Then I won't worry about you. Take care of yourself; I will bring Yan Yan to see you again tomorrow."

Once he finished speaking, Dugu Bo took Dugu Yan and soared into the air.

"Yan Yan, what do you think of this kid Xiao Quan?" Dugu Bo looked at Shi Quan, who had disappeared from the mountaintop, then looked down at Dugu Yan and asked.

"Xiao Quan?" Dugu Yan thought for a moment and said, "Smart, hardworking—he is a true genius."

"Yan Yan, I am asking you what you think of this kid Xiao Quan as a person," Dugu Bo repeated with a faint smile.

Dugu Yan was stunned for a moment, then said coquettishly, "Grandpa, what are you thinking about? Xiao Quan is my junior at school; we have only known each other for a few months, and I already have a boyfriend. Stop trying to play matchmaker here."

"You have a boyfriend?" Dugu Bo's eyes widened. "It wouldn't be that little brat from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family, would it?"

"That's right," Dugu Yan nodded shyly.

Dugu Bo asked with a helpless expression, "When did you two get together? How come I didn't know?"

"Just the day I brought Xiao Quan to see you last time. I originally intended to tell you, but I forgot later. Then you weren't around for the following months, so I never got the chance to tell you."

"Fine. I didn't expect that kid to have beaten him to it; it's truly a pity."

"Grandpa, Tianheng is also very outstanding. Furthermore, he is the future successor of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family. His talent, strength, and status are all very impressive."

Dugu Bo said disdainfully, "He was born in a good place. If he had been born with the same background as Xiao Quan, I fear he would have been left in the dust by Xiao Quan by a hundred and eight thousand miles long ago."

"Grandpa."

"Alright, alright, Grandpa knows. I won't talk about your little boyfriend anymore."

Dugu Bo sighed and could only temporarily shelve the thoughts in his heart. It wasn't that he had completely let go; if by any chance Dugu Yan and Yu Tianheng broke up one day, then Shi Quan and Dugu Yan would still have a chance.

Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Shi Quan looked around excitedly at the various Immortal Herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"This is the Youxiang Qiluo Immortal Product, this is the Qirong Tongtian Chrysanthemum, this is..."

After walking around, Shi Quan quickly found the few Immortal Herbs that had appeared in the original work.

"Let's see if it can succeed first."

Shi Quan's gaze landed on the spring water of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

System Storage Space.

Shi Quan's gaze did not land on the Automated Alchemy Furnace, but rather on the Bloodline Extractor.

"Extract Bloodline Extractor."

With a thought, a blood-red, crystal-like hexagonal diamond object appeared in Shi Quan's hand.

This item that looked like a crystal was precisely the Bloodline Extractor.

Buried beneath the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well were the remains of the Water and Fire Dragon Kings. The power of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well came from the remains of these two Dragon Kings. If he remembered correctly, the strength of these two great Dragon Kings in their previous lives was at the Shiji level, and it seemed they had fallen during the war in the God Realm.

This meant that the bloodlines of these Water and Fire Dragon Kings both belonged to the Shiji bloodline.

If the Bloodline Extractor could extract the bloodline of either of the two great Dragon Kings from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, it would definitely be a guaranteed profit.

"Extract the Dragon King bloodline from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well."

Holding the Bloodline Extractor, Shi Quan silently recited this in his heart toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

The crystal immediately bloomed with a blood-colored light that enveloped the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and the blood-colored light merged into the spring water.

After a short while, the blood-colored light slowly receded and returned into the crystal.

"It doesn't work?" Shi Quan put the Bloodline Extractor back into the System Space with a hint of disappointment.

Fortunately, the Bloodline Extractor would not lose its function after a failure; it would only become ineffective after a success, otherwise he would never have attempted it.

However, thinking about it, it was normal. After all, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was only formed by the residual power within the remains surrounding the two great Dragon Kings. If one wanted to extract the bloodline, there had to be a substantial existence. If what was in front of him were the remains of the two great Dragon Kings, then perhaps it could have been extracted successfully, but for just the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, failure was understandable.

"Then I can only make other plans."

Shi Quan thought to himself, then turned his gaze to the Automated Alchemy Furnace.

"Extract Automated Alchemy Furnace."

"So small?" Shi Quan looked at the alchemy furnace in his hand, which was no larger than a palm, and doubted his life.

Shi Quan had thought the alchemy furnace would certainly not be small, so he had specifically found an open space. After extracting it, the result was just this...

Touching the cold alchemy furnace in his hand, someone who didn't know better would think it was just a nicer-looking model.

After flipping it over, Shi Quan noticed a button in the middle of the alchemy furnace.

With a light press, a light screen projected from the top of the alchemy furnace.

The content on the light screen was very simple: it welcomed him to use the Automated Alchemy Furnace and asked him to select the pill he wished to refine, and there was also a button prompt in the middle for selecting a prescription.

Shi Quan raised his hand and tapped it; he hadn't expected this light screen to be a touchscreen!

As expected of a high-tech product.

Opening the prescription selection, the screen immediately displayed a dense list of various prescriptions. After randomly opening one and looking at the names of medicinal herbs he had never heard of, Shi Quan chose to give up directly.

The fixed prescriptions recorded in this alchemy furnace were not suitable for him. Fortunately, he noticed the automated prescription option in the bottom right corner of the prescription selection.

The light screen changed to specify the efficacy of the prescription. According to the content displayed on the light screen, Shi Quan entered his requirements.

Improve martial soul quality, improve physical fitness, improve bone and tendon strength, improve Soul Soul strength... to put it simply, he wanted a type of Ten Complete Great Replenishment Pill that could improve his strength in every aspect.

After writing down a series of requirements and clicking next, the light screen interface changed again; on one side was editing a prescription based on existing herbs, and on the other was editing a prescription based on the prescriptions already in the alchemy furnace.

Without hesitation, Shi Quan clicked the scan button under the "Edit Prescription Based on Existing Herbs" option.

Once the scan button was pressed, the top of the pill furnace emitted a cyan screen of light, which began scanning along one end of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, sweeping across the entire Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well before returning to the appearance of a light screen.

The words "Analyzing medicine" appeared on the light screen.

After a while, the screen prompted Shi Quan to inject a drop of blood into the pill furnace; after Shi Quan did so, the light screen changed to the words "Analyzing target."

After a long time, the image on the screen changed again, showing a series of herbs; Shi Quan roughly counted them, and there were well over fifty types of these herbs.

Among them, the ones Shi Quan found relatively familiar included the Qirong Tongtian Chrysanthemum, Blazing Apricot Delicate Flower, Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Tulip of Romance, and Eight-Petaled Immortal Orchid.

Shi Quan clicked his tongue in amazement, thinking to himself, "If all these Immortal Herbs are used to refine pills, am I sure I won't be stuffed to death?"

One must know that a normal person cannot consume other Immortal Herbs after eating one; according to the light screen's display, the Immortal Herbs needed for his pill refining numbered at least ten.

If this pill were truly refined, Shi Quan would be a little afraid to eat it.

However, after Shi Quan looked at the words "Extract medicinal essence" on the screen, his expression grew more puzzled.

"Could it be that the whole Immortal Herb is not needed?"

Shi Quan then followed the light screen's prompts and first came to a herb in a corner on the edge of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

There were many herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well; whether Dugu could remember them all was another matter, and this herb was in a corner on the edge, and it was not a powerful Immortal Herb, so if one such plant were missing, Dugu Bo should not notice it.

Thinking this, Shi Quan clicked the six large characters "Extract medicinal essence" on the screen.

The pill furnace in Shi Quan's hand floated up and slowly descended above this herb; cyan radiance slowly spilled from the bottom of the pill furnace, enveloping the herb. The light of the pill furnace suddenly brightened, and dots of emerald light suddenly emerged from the herb, slowly sinking into the pill furnace along with the cyan radiance.

In just five or six breaths of time, the cyan radiance of the pill furnace dissipated, and it returned to Shi Quan's hand.

Below the corresponding herb on the light screen, a label appeared: "Extraction successful."

Seeing this, a touch of surprise appeared in the depths of Shi Quan's eyes.

From the outside, the herb whose medicinal power had just been extracted by the pill furnace showed no obvious changes, but if Shi Quan sensed it carefully through his Blue Silver Grass, he could feel that the herb seemed to have been hollowed out; now only an empty shell remained, and more than half of its medicinal power had been completely absorbed by the pill furnace through some strange means.

Next, Shi Quan found several more herbs in succession to conduct repeated tests.

The situation was the same in every case; the herbs that had been extracted were like a pillar eaten by termites—they looked intact on the surface, but in reality, they were already riddled with holes and gaps inside, and were of no further use.

Moreover, without special means, one could not see any abnormality at all; even Shi Quan could only sense the changes in the medicinal materials by using his special ability of Natural Affinity combined with his Blue Silver Grass martial soul as a medium.

However, just to be safe, Shi Quan remained cautious and did not take this opportunity to extract all the Immortal Herbs shown on the light screen at once; he first sought out a few more conspicuous Immortal Herbs, and after extracting their medicinal power, he stopped. He prepared to wait until the next day when Dugu Bo brought Dugu Yan to force out the poison, to first observe Dugu Bo's reaction, and once he was certain that Dugu Bo would not notice, he would extract the remaining Immortal Herbs all at once.

In any case, it was just a matter of the final step, so there was no need to rush for this moment.