105: First time refining pills

The breeze was gentle and the sun was bright; the weather was clear.

Lu Xuan placed several winnowing baskets in the courtyard, spreading medicinal herbs on them to dry.

Most of the medicinal herbs for refining the qi gathering pill needed to be processed in advance to stimulate their medicinal properties.

Not every part of the medicinal herbs could be used; some required the fruit, others the roots and stems, some the sap, and some the smoke produced after burning.

"The quantity of this batch of medicinal herbs is enough for me to refine thirty furnaces, but it still consumed over a dozen Spirit Stones. This is only because I grew the main ingredients within my space."

Currently, Lu Xuan's income of Spirit Stones could be described as only going out, not coming in. Fortunately, he could grow herbs and spiritual rice within his own space, which saved him a lot of costs.

Furthermore, the planted spirit fields would be ready for harvest in a while. At that time, one mu of spirit land could yield nearly ten Spirit Stones; his nine mu of spirit land would mean ninety.

After drying the medicinal herbs, he immersed himself once again in the great undertaking of Alchemy. These days, for the sake of Alchemy, he had even compressed his cultivation time again and again.

It was also because of this that he could understand why Alchemists were indeed so rare.

Even with Heaven Rewards the Diligent, he had been preparing for over half a year, and this did not include the years of studying medicine beforehand.

Although medicine and Alchemy were two different things, the theories of medicine and the explanations of medicinal properties used in the Alchemy books had truly helped him save a lot of time; this was unquestionable.

A month later, Lu Xuan was fully prepared.

In front of him lay the processed auxiliary materials, while the jade box contained the Green Spirit Fruit and Spiritual Vein Flower he had just plucked from the space.

The Green Spirit Fruit contained Spiritual Qi and was the source of Spiritual Qi for the qi gathering pill; after refining, all the Spiritual Qi accumulated in its flesh would be locked within the Medicinal Pill.

The Spiritual Vein Flower had the effect of protecting the Meridians, ensuring that the consumer's Meridians would not be impacted by the suddenly absorbed Spiritual Qi, while also serving to harmonize with the Green Spirit Fruit.

The two main ingredients implicitly contained one yin and one yang.

Before starting Alchemy, Lu Xuan bathed and changed his clothes, hoping it would bring him good luck and success on the first attempt.

Opening his eyes, his spirit and energy were at their peak state.

Moreover, to ensure nothing went wrong, he had also purchased a bottle of Qi Replenishment Pills, which could replenish Spiritual Qi. A bottle cost two Spirit Stones, which was considered a basic resource.

As soon as he cast the Spirit Fire Technique, a ball of spiritual flame appeared in Lu Xuan's hand.

"Go~"

That ball of flame hovered beneath the Pill Furnace.

As the flame burned, the temperature inside the Pill Furnace rose rapidly, and Lu Xuan's Spiritual Qi was slowly being consumed.

The bottom of the Pill Furnace was scorched bright red, and the temperature slowly rose to the level Lu Xuan needed.

Under Lu Xuan's control, the Green Spirit Fruit was tossed into the Pill Furnace.

The high temperature instantly decomposed the Green Spirit Fruit, and the Spiritual Qi contained within burst out, but under Lu Xuan's control, it gathered together.

Next, the Spiritual Vein Flower was added. Its addition not only constrained the Spiritual Qi refined from the Green Spirit Fruit, but the purple sap refined from it also began to continuously entwine with the Spiritual Qi.

The two substances continuously entwined.

The color of the purple sap also quickly faded; this was the most critical part of the qi gathering pill. Once the sap was continuously entwined and refined into a colorless state, the auxiliary herbs could be added.

The flames burned continuously, and Lu Xuan adjusted the state of the medicinal herbs within the Pill Furnace according to the records in the Alchemy book.

At one moment, the color of the originally purple sap began to change.

Seeing this, Lu Xuan was immensely excited.

"I can succeed on the first try?"

Obviously, he was overthinking.

The purple sap had indeed changed color, but it had turned black.

"Failed! Fortunately, I have enough main ingredients."

Lu Xuan had long anticipated the first failure; firstly, this was his first time practicing Alchemy, and secondly, he was entirely self-taught.

However, it was fortunate that there was not zero gain.

With the help of Heaven Rewards the Diligent, he had a deeper understanding of Alchemy, and the reasons for the recent failure as well as the summary of experience from the failure appeared in his mind.

Cleaning the Pill Furnace and adjusting his spirit, he began his second attempt at Alchemy.

The second time, failure: the temperature was insufficient, and the extraction speed of the Green Spirit Fruit's Spiritual Qi was too slow.

The third time, failure: the temperature was too high, and the Green Spirit Fruit's Spiritual Qi was completely evaporated.

The fourth time, failure...

...

The tenth time.

Lu Xuan adjusted his mindset again.

Although he had failed ten times, he had gained some tricks regarding the refining process.

Moreover, understanding one thing meant understanding everything; he now had a reference for refining other Medicinal Pills in the future.

The tenth Alchemy session began.

The temperature rose steadily, the Green Spirit Fruit was added, and the Spiritual Qi was extracted. Although not perfect—only seven-tenths—as long as five-tenths were extracted, a Medicinal Pill could be formed.

The Spiritual Vein Flower was added, and the purple sap blended continuously with the Spiritual Qi according to Lu Xuan's intention. Lu Xuan controlled them to tumble continuously within the Pill Furnace, and the sap turned from purple to semi-transparent, meeting the requirements for forming the Medicinal Pill.

Next, more than a dozen auxiliary herbs were added, and the medicinal properties refined from them wrapped around the central Spiritual Qi.

Within a few breaths, Lu Xuan cast the Pill Condensation Technique with his hands.

"Condense!"

The Spiritual Qi within his body was continuously poured into it, and the medicinal liquid that had originally gathered together was evenly divided into ten portions.

Brown-black Medicinal Pills appeared within the Pill Furnace.

A burst of pungent medicinal fragrance filled the room.

"Success!"

Beads of sweat appeared on Lu Xuan's forehead.

But he still couldn't be bothered to wipe away the sweat, and couldn't even wait for the Pill Furnace's temperature to lower before taking out the ten Medicinal Pills.

Six Low Grade, four waste pills.

He inspected the quality of these Medicinal Pills.

"After such a long time, I have finally managed to refine this Medicinal Pill. Once successful, my technique and methods for refining Medicinal Pills will only get better; it is no longer a sourceless stream."

With the talent of Heaven Rewards the Diligent, Lu Xuan did not need to worry about his Alchemy technique not improving, nor did he need to worry about it regressing. This point alone was enough to make him invincible.

Feeling the experience gained from his first Alchemy session, he carefully savored the mysteries within and summarized the gains and losses from before.

Striking while the iron was hot, he started another furnace.

With the blessing of successful experience, he succeeded again this time.

Still six Low Grade, four waste pills.

But the quality of these six Low Grade ones was clearly slightly better.

However, regarding these finished pills, he had no intention of consuming them. Although these Medicinal Pills were indeed qi gathering pills, they contained a lot of pill toxins. He planned to store them and find an opportunity to sell them later.

He would wait until he could refine Medium Grade Medicinal Pills or higher before consuming them; he believed this time would not be too far off.

According to the current progress, he could refine Medium Grade Medicinal Pills in at most half a month.

If outsiders knew, they would likely call him a monster.

Putting aside the consumption involved, just advancing his Alchemy technique to a higher level in half a month was simply shocking.

But in Lu Xuan's view, with his daily high-intensity Alchemy, coupled with the blessing of his talent, if he couldn't reach this level in half a month, he might as well buy a block of tofu and bump his head against it to die.

For the next half month, apart from the necessary spiritual rain for the spirit land, Lu Xuan spent all his time refining qi gathering pills.

During this period, he even went to the marketplace to purchase auxiliary materials for the qi gathering pill again. He bought quite a lot, almost exhausting his savings.

But the result was good; now he had accumulated over two hundred Low Grade qi gathering pills.