Feiyun used the spirit energy in the dragon vein to create a cauldron for pill refinement. This had a negligible effect on other pills but was amazing for a cultivation-boosting one like Heavenly Core. It filled the pills up with ample energy.
Of course, this alone was far from enough.
“Heavenly Weapon Essence, form a cauldron!” He released the white liquid.
It surrounded the golden cauldron that had formed earlier and taken on the same shape.
This particular weapon was one of the most important ingredients of the pill.
Feiyun wasn’t quite confident in creating this pill due to its rarity and grade. It was difficult finding the materials in Jin. However, after obtaining the weapon essence, he was ninety-percent certain about creating this pill.
The essence was an amazing material to create weapons, but also served as a core ingredient for this pill - essential in forcing the pill to take shape. Otherwise, the rest of the ingredients would only create a Heavenly Core Liquid, not pill.
A liquid had a fundamental difference versus its solid form.
After successfully condensing the cauldron, he began to feed it a Dan Spirit Stone, the sixteenth ranked on the list.
It was used to create third-ranked pills and up, also an essential ingredient.
He sat in the meditative pose afterward and used his Heavenly Phoenix Gaze. Two plumes of flame shot out from his eyes and burned the bottom of the cauldron.
The first step was to melt the spirit stone - quite a slow process.
If the flame was too strong, the stone would become ashes. If too weak, it wouldn’t be able to melt the stone. Thus, in order to become a good alchemist, the first requirement was to be a great fire controller.
While he focused on pill refinement, the Evil Woman slightly opened her eyes with a tinge of skepticism. Her brows furrowed - his refinement process didn’t look like a human method.
Nevertheless, she closed her eyes again in order to refine the evil blood out of her body.
“Three-birth Flower, White Fritillary Bulb, Ironwood Leaf…”
He inserted the thirty-six supporting ingredients into the cauldron. The stone had melted now so he increased the temperature in order to melt the rest of the ingredients with haste.
Next, the impurities gathered at the base while the essences floated to the top.
It took two days before he extracted the essences of these ingredients and the spirit stone.
The next step was the most important - adding the eighteen main ingredients. He had prepared them in the right order and amount. Making a mistake was not allowed here. He also needed to carefully control the flame.
After adding them, he finally heaved a sigh of relief since he didn’t make a mistake. All he had to do right now was to control the flame and waited for the pills to form.
“I just need to use it to reach the fourth level; the beast physique will improve and so will my const.i.tution. My speed will be greater than a Giant and my weapon essence can destroy spirit treasure. No one among the young generation can take me on then since I’ll pretty much be at the half-step combat level.”
He was quite excited. With such power and speed, no one could stop him from going anywhere.
Days pa.s.sed by and eventually, light rose from the cauldron with mists and clouds forming on top of pillowing spirit energy. The blinding ray of a pill shot to the sky like a shooting star.
These were the signs of a successful refinement. This was his first time refining pills after coming back to life, so he wasn’t too sure.
“Condense!” He formed a mudra and aimed it at the weapon essence. He broke out a section of it and threw it into the medicinal liquid inside the cauldron for harmonization.
The water began to come together into a pill form. The energy of the pills and thick medicinal fragrances turned into tiny streams, floating above the vein.
He recalled the flames and heat due to the ma.s.sive spending of spirit energy. He took out a spirit core to replenish his dantian.
The cauldron had turned cold once his dantian was seventy-percent filled.
He recalled the weapon essence and the cauldron disappeared as well. A group of blinding circles floated above like little suns. Each pill was full of spirit energy.
They had taken form.
“I wonder how many I got?” Feiyun wanted to gather them.
Suddenly, beasts roared enough to shake the area. The energy from the lake was being boiled to the max.
Some beasts inside the vein were attracted by the pills and wanted them.
“You dare?!” Feiyun’s eyes turned cold. He changed the weapon essence into one thousand white flying swords and sent them towards the dragon vein.
Screams came about; dozens of powerful beasts were killed and their bodies floated up to the surface.
However, some were strong enough to not be scared at all. More and more came with ones spanning for dozens of meters, covered in scales while spewing lightning bolts.
“I can’t kill them all, just need to grab the pills first, twenty-eight of them.” Feiyun used his gaze and shot out two golden rays to kill a 700-year-old python before grabbing one pill.
It was the size of a longan fruit with a spiritual glow and four runic lines, resembling a tattoo or a spell.
A spirit pill naturally had its own formation runes. The higher the grade, the more lines.
Without these runes, the pill couldn’t take on a physical shape and it would just be regular medicine.
“Sigh, alchemy is proportional to cultivation. The fifth formation runes aren’t formed, this is only a fourth-ranked pill then.” Feiyun felt slightly disappointed.
Fourth-ranked pills were very rare. Even the ancient clans and top sects only had a few.
One of them was enough to tempt a Giant.
Not more than three in the dynasty could create twenty-eight fourth-ranked pills at the same time. The third-ranked Grand Pill Master, the current Grand Tutor, might not be able to do so either.
Of course, it wasn’t necessarily because of a lack of good alchemists, more so due to a lack of materials.
Feiyun required the materials from both the Yin Gou Ward and the Grand Tutor’s mansion, two places with the highest concentration of spirit materials.
Others would find it even more prohibitive to find what they need.
He carefully put it away into a jade box before heading for the second pill.
More than ten 800-year-old beasts were competing for this one. Each was as strong as a young king.
The majority of the ones here were rare species from the ancient ages. They had an innate physical prowess with strong life force, capable of eating older cultivators with ease.
“Whoos.h.!.+” He used his Swift Samsara and turned his weapon essence into a white spear then rampaged through the crowd.
Blood squirted everywhere from these beasts. Some got b.l.o.o.d.y holes while others got claws and head severed.
These beasts weren’t enough to stop the ferocious man so their corpses piled on the river. Their souls left their body, wis.h.i.+ng to escape.
Feiyun used a soul-sealing technique. A spirit net flew out and grabbed all of them.
He then successfully obtained the second pill.
The rampage continued; the beasts seemed like paper tigers before his might.
The third pill, fourth, fifth… all the way till the nineteenth.
His speed was as fast as lightning so he took the beasts down before they could reach by piercing the heart with his weapon essence.
Some pills were swallowed by the beasts already but Feiyun destroyed the body to grab them before any damage could occur.
It was killing two birds with one stone - taking the pills and their souls.
He had 9,960 beast souls right now, just 31 more before he could finish his Myriad Beast Physique. At grand completion, he would become a peak Grand Historical Genius.
1. Dan means pill, I kept it as Dan before so using Dan instead of pill in this case