Chapter 353 A Boring Pill Gathering

Shen Wen stepped into that dark gray space, and the moment his feet touched the ground, the surrounding light dimmed.

A grayish mist churned and rushed toward him, carrying a strange fluctuation that headed straight for his Sea of Consciousness.

Those fluctuations attempted to disturb his perception and distort his sense of direction, creating countless false forks and dead ends in his mind.

He slightly raised an eyebrow.

The intensity of this illusion was higher than he had expected.

If an ordinary Alchemist with a Spirit Realm Soul entered, they would likely truly get lost inside.

Those strands of Illusory Soul Qi were condensed and persistent, layered upon each other, with each layer simulating a different spatial structure; one slight slip would result in being trapped.

But for Shen Wen—

It was nothing more than this.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the scriptures of the Past Amitabha Sutra flowed silently, golden characters slowly rotating deep within his Soul.

The moment the invading Illusory Soul Qi touched the golden light, it melted away completely like remnant snow meeting the sun.

The Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart throbbed slightly, categorizing, organizing, analyzing, and deducing all the surrounding information.

In just three breaths.

A clear path emerged in his mind.

It wasn't one of those false forks in the illusion, but the path that truly led to the exit. It was straight and simple, without any twists or turns.

Shen Wen stepped forward.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, as if he were strolling in his own courtyard.

The surrounding gray mist churned at his side, constantly changing its form.

Sometimes it turned into towering walls, sometimes it condensed into bottomless abysses, and sometimes it simulated countless identical forks in the road.

But those deceptive tricks were nothing more than crude little ploys in his eyes.

He didn't even bother to distinguish truth from falsehood, simply walking forward along that clear path.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the gray mist before him suddenly dispersed.

A wide open space appeared in front of him.

At the end of the clearing, a spatial tunnel was constantly rotating; behind it lay the Pill World.

In front of the spatial tunnel, a figure sat cross-legged on a stone platform.

It was a gray-robed Elder with a gaunt face and eyes slightly closed. The aura around him was as still as water, faintly merging with the surrounding space.

Shen Wen walked up to him and stopped.

The gray-robed Elder opened his eyes, his gaze falling on him, and he was slightly startled.

"Elder Shen?"

His tone carried a hint of surprise; he clearly hadn't expected the first person to walk out of the illusion to be Shen Wen.

But he quickly reacted, stood up, and bowed slightly toward Shen Wen.

"Elder Shen, please wait here for a moment. Once the other contestants have all arrived, you may enter the Pill World."

Shen Wen nodded and said nothing more.

He found a flat spot near the stone platform and sat down cross-legged.

The gray-robed Elder sat back down, but his gaze couldn't help but linger on Shen Wen for a few more moments.

An Elder of the Little Pill Tower.

This status was completely different from a Pill Tower Elder.

Pill Tower Elders managed the overt affairs of the Pill Tower, handling things like Medicinal Pill trade, external relations, and Disciple cultivation.

While Little Pill Tower Elders were existences that truly touched the core of the Pill Tower.

Those who could enter the Little Pill Tower were either Alchemists above Grade 8 or experts at the Dou Sheng level.

The former relied on talent, while the latter relied on strength; one could not enter without either.

Shen Wen was only in his early twenties, yet he was already a guaranteed Little Pill Tower Elder.

Once the time came and the title was formalized, he would be the youngest member of the Pill Tower's core.

The gray-robed Elder withdrew his gaze, secretly sighing with emotion in his heart.

The younger generation is truly to be feared.

Shen Wen didn't notice the Elder's gaze, or rather, he noticed but didn't care.

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and sank his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness.

Ancestral Talisman Three Mysterious Transformations.

This secret technique was derived from the Heavenly Flame Three Mysterious Transformations; its principle was to unlock the deeper powers of the ancestral talismans through resonance.

Three transformations were already complete. With the Flame Talisman Transformation, Space Transformation, and Devouring Transformation, he could activate the power of three ancestral talismans using the secret technique, allowing him to erupt with combat power far exceeding his own cultivation in a short time.

But there were eight ancestral talismans.

As for the remaining five.

Ice, darkness, life and death, thunder, and primal—he hadn't yet been able to incorporate them into this system.

If he could incorporate all eight ancestral talismans and stack the eight transformations, what would the effect be?

Shen Wen began to deduce this in his mind.

With the bodhi heart plus the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart, along with the Future Non-Existence Sutra, the deduction speed of the three was astonishingly fast.

Complex energy circulation diagrams unfolded in his Sea of Consciousness, only to be rejected by him one by one.

How could the frigidity of the Ice Ancestral Talisman coexist with the fierceness of the Flame Ancestral Symbol?

How could the devouring of the darkness ancestral talisman be coordinated with the balance of the life and death ancestral talisman?

How could the violence of the thunder ancestral symbol be fused with the profundity of the space ancestral talisman?

Every question required repeated deduction, and every deduction required countless verifications.

But Shen Wen was in no hurry.

He had plenty of time.

After an unknown amount of time, two more figures appeared in the clearing.

One after the other, their steps were composed.

Yao Tian walked in front, dressed in brocade robes and a jade crown, his face so handsome it was almost feminine.

The moment he stepped out of the gray mist, his gaze swept across the entire clearing and then paused.

Shen Wen was sitting cross-legged by the stone platform, his eyes slightly closed and his expression calm.

His aura was as still as water, without a hint of the exhaustion or disarray of someone who had just emerged from an illusion.

Yao Tian's brow furrowed slightly.

He considered his own speed to be fast enough.

Although those strands of Illusory Soul Qi were subtle, in the face of his Soul cultivation, they were merely deceptive tricks that required a little discernment.

But Shen Wen was even faster than him.

Yao Ling followed behind him out of the gray mist and immediately saw that black-robed figure.

"Shen Wen!"

Her voice carried a hint of pleasant surprise as she hurriedly waved her hand.

Shen Wen opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the two of them, and he nodded slightly.

"Young Miss Yao Ling."

His tone was flat, polite yet distant.

Yao Ling didn't mind; she quickly walked to his side and crouched down next to him, her eyes—born at the Heaven State—filled with the light of a thirst for knowledge.

"Shen Wen, I thought about it for a long time after I went back. That method of 'refining medicinal ingredients with the rhythm of the four seasons' you mentioned last time—I tried to deduce it a few times, but I always feel like something is missing."

She took a Jade Slip from her sleeve that she carried with her and unfolded it; it was densely packed with the steps of her deductions.

"Look, for the timing of the medicinal ingredients entering the cauldron here, I arranged it according to the rhythm of spring growth and summer flourishing, but at the autumn harvest step, the medicinal power begins to become disordered.

Is there something wrong with my understanding of 'harvesting'?"

Shen Wen took the Jade Slip and glanced at it.

The deduction was very serious, and the logic was correct. The problem lay in the details.

"'Harvesting' is not about contraction; it's about settling."

He raised his finger and pointed to a spot on the Jade Slip. "You lowered the flame temperature too quickly here; the medicinal ingredients didn't have time to complete their final transformation before being sealed.

You should let the temperature drop naturally, like autumn weather—getting cooler day by day, rather than turning into winter overnight."

Yao Ling's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly pulled out a pen to note it down on the Jade Slip.

"And what about winter storage?"

"Winter storage is about nourishing, not sealing.

By completely extinguishing the flame before, you locked the activity of the medicinal ingredients dead.

You should leave a wisp of warm fire, like the residual heat underground, allowing the medicinal power to slowly settle in the quiet."

Yao Ling nodded while taking notes, then looked up at him again with sparkling eyes: "What else?"

Shen Wen looked at her and sighed slightly in his heart.

He already had his fill of wives and concubines and had no intention of attracting anyone else.

But this girl Yao Ling had her mind entirely on Alchemy, so she didn't seem to have any other intentions.

It just so happened that from her few words, he could also see what was special about the Medicine Clan's Alchemy.

The Medicine Clan had a Legacy of ten thousand years and a deep foundation; those experiences and insights accumulated over generations were things outsiders couldn't learn in many years.

Although the Medicine Clan people had come to this Pill Gathering, their truly core knowledge would not be easily shown to others.

However, during exchanges, some clues would inevitably be revealed.

Shen Wen leaned against the stone wall, his gaze falling on Yao Ling's Jade Slip filled with deductions, as he formed a plan in his mind.

The Pill Gathering was indeed quite boring to him.

But the arrival of the Medicine Clan actually made this Pill Gathering a bit interesting.

"Your logic about spring growth and summer flourishing just now was correct," he spoke, his tone a few degrees softer than before, "but you overlooked one thing: medicinal ingredients are not dead objects."

Yao Ling looked up.

Shen Wen continued, "medicinal ingredients are born from heaven and earth and grow from heaven and earth; their medicinal properties are themselves projections of the rules of heaven and earth.

When you use the rhythm of the four seasons to refine them, you aren't 'mimicking' heaven and earth, but 'echoing' heaven and earth."

"Echoing?" Yao Ling was thoughtful.

"Yes." Shen Wen raised his hand, and a wisp of flame appeared in his palm, burning quietly at his fingertips. "Look at this fire. It doesn't need you to command it how brightly or how long to burn.

You only need to know how brightly it wants to burn, and then follow its will by providing it with enough fuel."

The flame danced in his palm, growing large and small, bright and dim, as if it possessed life.

"medicinal ingredients are the same. When they are being refined in the flame, they have their own rhythm.

What you need to do is not force your rhythm upon them, but feel their rhythm and then follow it."

Yao Ling stared at that wisp of flame, the light in her eyes growing brighter and brighter.

"So... spring growth and summer flourishing isn't about arranging the ingredients, but about observing them?"

Shen Wen nodded.

"Then what about winter storage? You just said to leave a wisp of warm fire to let the medicinal power slowly settle—is that also following its rhythm?"

"Yes."

Yao Ling lowered her head and quickly wrote something on her Jade Slip. After finishing, she looked up at Shen Wen again with a somewhat embarrassed smile.

"Shen Wen, let me ask one more..."

"Ask."

The two went back and forth with questions and answers, and time passed unknowingly.

Yao Tian stood not far away, watching this scene with a slight furrow in his brow.

His gaze lingered on Shen Wen for a moment and then fell on Yao Ling's Jade Slip filled with deductions, his lips pursing slightly.

But he said nothing, simply walking to the other side of the clearing to sit down and regulate his breathing.

A moment later, several more figures appeared in the clearing.

Huo Xuan and Huo Zhi walked out of the gray mist side by side, followed by several Yan Clan Disciples.

Huo Xuan's gaze swept across the clearing, pausing on Shen Wen for a moment and then looking at Yao Tian sitting on the other side, but he didn't speak.

Huo Zhi did look at Shen Wen a few more times, but seeing him talking to Yao Ling, she didn't go forward to disturb them and followed Huo Xuan to sit on the other side of the clearing.

Closely following them, several more figures emerged from the gray mist one after another.

There were outstanding figures among the Loose Cultivators, hidden Grade 8 Alchemists, and several faces whose names Shen Wen didn't know.

The last to emerge was Xiao Yan.

When he stepped out of the gray mist, fine beads of sweat were on his forehead and his face was slightly pale, but his steps were still steady.

His gaze swept around the clearing and he nodded slightly upon seeing Shen Wen, then found a corner to sit down and regulate his breathing.

The gray-robed Elder stood up, his gaze sweeping over the dozens of figures in the clearing, and he nodded slightly.

"The time is up. Those who have not walked out of the illusion are eliminated."