168: Chapter 168 Each Displays Their Unique Abilities

When he performed Alchemy alone, he had the creation furnace, but he also needed to have solid strength of his own.

What he saw today was exactly what his own solid strength should look like.

After the pill fire's temperature stabilized, Immortal Master Elder Lu Yuan raised his hand.

Han Jing stepped forward and took the first ingredient, a stalk of third-tier spirit medicine called soul-fixing root, from a jade box. He injected an appropriate amount of Qi to perform a preliminary activation according to the parameters on the label, then held it in both hands and presented it to the furnace mouth.

The soul-fixing root was the base medicine for the huayuan pill; its medicinal properties were gentle, serving to create a buffering foundation for the subsequent aggressive ingredients.

This particular ingredient did not need to pass through Su Cheng's hands.

Elder Lu Yuan took the soul-fixing root and, with a slight flip of his left hand, sent it into the furnace chamber with a precise burst of spiritual power.

The moment the soul-fixing root entered the furnace, Su Cheng's Divine Sense captured a detail: Elder Lu Yuan's spiritual power made an extremely minute adjustment during the process of pushing the soul-fixing root; the thrust suddenly weakened by thirty percent in the final inch, allowing the soul-fixing root to "float" in rather than be "thrown" in.

Why?

Because there was an extremely thin layer of spiritual protective film at the ends of the soul-fixing root's fibers; if it suffered too great an impact upon entering the furnace, the protective film would rupture, causing the medicinal power to leak prematurely.

This detail was not written in the records of the Dharma Transmission Pavilion; it was experience that could only be accumulated through practical operation.

Su Cheng made another mental note.

After the soul-fixing root entered the furnace, the temperature of the pill fire was adjusted upward by five degrees.

The medicinal ingredient slowly melted within the flames, its roots spreading out and releasing wisps of green medicinal mist.

Immortal Master Elder Lu Yuan's Divine Sense enveloped the entire furnace chamber, performing real-time monitoring of the medicinal liquid's Fusion state.

"golden nectar marrow."

It was Wei Tian's turn to work.

He stepped forward and took a fist-sized, dark silver crystal from a jade box—the golden nectar marrow.

As soon as this item left the box, it emitted a bone-chilling coldness that formed a sharp contrast with the scorching heat inside the furnace chamber.

Wei Tian circulated his technique, and a cluster of purple flames emerged from his palm.

It was a Sub-fire of the Purple Lotus Heart Fire.

Even if it was just a Sub-fire, its temperature and quality were far beyond what ordinary spiritual fires could compare to.

The moment the purple flames touched the surface of the golden nectar marrow, the boundary between the cold silver and the fire sizzled, and white steam rose.

Wei Tian's technique was fast; with a few flips of his fingers, the purple fire enveloped the entire surface of the golden nectar marrow, performing directional refinement at a uniform temperature.

Layer by layer, the Impurities on the outer shell of the golden nectar marrow peeled away, revealing the core substance inside, which looked like liquid silver.

The entire process was completed in one smooth motion.

Su Cheng noticed that Wei Tian withdrew his hand at the eighteenth breath of quenching, two seconds earlier than the twenty breaths agreed upon during the discussion; this person's control over the heat was more conservative and steadier than expected.

He wasn't just someone who relied recklessly on an Exotic Fire.

The processed golden nectar marrow was sent to the furnace mouth, and Elder Lu Yuan took it, sending it into the furnace chamber with the same precise technique.

The dark silver liquid and the green medicinal mist collided within the pill fire, quickly fusing into a mass of turbid medicinal liquid.

"azure soul flower."

Su Cheng stepped forward.

Three azure soul flowers were laid out on a specialized jade tray; their leaves were a dripping emerald green, their stems supple and strong, and they were brimming with spirituality. These were the three he had personally restored, and their appearance was better than any stalk in the medicinal fields.

Su Cheng hovered his palms above the azure soul flowers.

The Qi of Creation surged from his Dantian to his palms, turning into an invisible and intangible thin film that covered the surface of the three azure soul flowers.

In conventional operations, the extraction of the azure soul flower's activity required using spiritual power to squeeze the petals from the outside, forcing the medicinal power to be released.

This method was inefficient because the azure soul flower would instinctively contract to protect itself; only about sixty percent of the core medicinal power could be successfully extracted.

Su Cheng didn't need to squeeze.

After the Qi of Creation seeped into the stems and leaves of the azure soul flowers, the reaction of those three Spiritual Plants was completely different from others; their petals actively unfurled, welcoming the infusion of the Qi of Creation like they were greeting sunlight.

The medicinal power contained in the stems climbed upward along the veins and converged at the pistils, condensing into three drops of emerald-green medicinal liquid.

The process took less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Su Cheng used spiritual power to lift the three drops of medicinal liquid and steadily sent them to the furnace mouth.

Anyone present with even a bit of discernment could see the skill involved.

The azure soul flowers hadn't been extracted; they had "spat" it out themselves. This kind of efficiency and quality were completely different things from what was forced out by pressure.

Immortal Master Elder Lu Yuan's hand paused for a moment as he took the medicinal liquid; his Divine Sense had been monitoring Su Cheng's entire operation in real-time, and the purity of the medicinal liquid was at least twenty percent higher than he had estimated.

But he said nothing and sent the medicinal liquid into the furnace chamber.

As soon as the emerald-green medicinal liquid entered the pill fire, the originally turbid medicinal liquid inside the furnace chamber instantly cleared by thirty percent.

Supported by the full-state medicinal power, the azure soul flower's harmonizing function operated perfectly, completely smoothing out the previously unintegrated medicinal conflicts between the soul-fixing root and the golden nectar marrow.

Immortal Master Elder Lu Yuan's pill fire temperature was raised by another ten degrees.

"yuanling grass."

The real tough battle had arrived.

Han Jing personally took the yuanling grass out of a specially made Spiritual Jade Casket.

Spiritual Jade Caskets were specifically used for sealing high-spirituality medicinal ingredients; once opened, the spirituality of the yuanling grass would fluctuate violently in a very short time.

Sure enough, the moment the casket lid was lifted, an overbearing and unreasonable wave of spiritual fluctuations surged out from within.

The Divine Sense of every Foundation Establishment Cultivator present was jolted.

A layer of fine sweat broke out on Su Cheng's forehead; it wasn't from the heat, but because that wave of spiritual fluctuation had directly struck the edge of his Sea of Consciousness.

The spirituality of a third-tier spirit medicine was on a completely different level compared to second-tier spiritual herbs.

The appearance of the yuanling grass was unremarkable: palm-sized leaves, slender roots, and a faint dark red glow emanating from its entire body.

But that wave of spiritual fluctuation formed an extreme contrast with its "physique"; a tiny, lightweight blade of grass emitted a Spiritual Pressure sufficient to make a Qi Refining Cultivator faint on the spot.

Su Cheng did not hesitate; he covered his palms over the yuanling grass, and the Qi of Creation poured out.

Completely different from the docility of the azure soul flower, the yuanling grass's first reaction was rejection.

At the same time the Qi of Creation seeped into the roots, the yuanling grass's spirituality contracted violently, its leaves suddenly curled, and its roots arched up on the jade tray.

That faint dark red glow surged threefold, and the spiritual fluctuations became sharp and piercing.

Su Cheng gritted his teeth.

He did not increase the output of the Qi of Creation; instead, he decreased it.

From ten parts down to seven, then from seven down to five.

While reducing the infusion amount, he adjusted the frequency of the Qi of Creation, changing it from a steady output to a pulsed, rhythmic penetration.

One by one, with a half-breath interval between each pulse.

This rhythm was close to the frequency of a heartbeat.

It was also close to the basic frequency of the Spirit Medicine's own spiritual power circulation.

After two breaths, the leaves of the yuanling grass stopped trembling.

After five breaths, the curled leaves began to slowly unfurl.

After ten breaths, the roots pressed back against the jade tray, and the faint dark red glow receded from its threefold surge back to a normal range.

The process took the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

The spirituality of the yuanling grass had completely stabilized.

That tiny Spiritual Plant sat quietly on the jade tray, its roots even actively reaching toward Su Cheng's palm as if acting spoiled.

Su Cheng took advantage of this window to increase the output of the Qi of Creation to eight parts, guiding the yuanling grass to release its core medicinal power.

Just like the azure soul flower, the yuanling grass did not resist.

Dark red medicinal power slowly seeped out from the leaves and roots, converging under the guidance of Su Cheng's spiritual power into a dark red medicinal bead the size of a fingernail.

As for the purity of the medicinal bead, Su Cheng roughly estimated it to be thirty percent higher than the standard extraction protocol recorded in the ancient texts.

He lifted the medicinal bead and sent it to the furnace mouth.

This time, Immortal Master Elder Lu Yuan did not take it immediately.

He stared at that dark red medicinal bead for several breaths before reaching out to take it.

The medicinal bead entered the furnace.

The color of the medicinal liquid inside the furnace chamber changed drastically, turning from a clear light emerald to a deep amber; fine patterns began to appear on the surface of the churning medicinal liquid, marking the initial stage of the various medicinal powers formally entering deep Fusion within the pill fire.

Su Cheng retreated to his original position and placed his hands on his knees, his fingers trembling slightly.