8 Chapter 8: Refining The Consciousness Opening Pill
It was a Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame!
A Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame, was the flame of the Ice and Fire Ghostly Dragon, which could only be acquired when killing a Ice and Fire Ghostly Dragon. However, this was not something anyone could do, as a Ice and Fire Ghostly Dragon had terrifying strength and hardly one could kill it. This dragon's flame had two opposing attributes that would go against each other, but each Ice and Fire Ghostly Dragon were born with an innate ability to handle both elements at the same time, without suffering the consequences.
Yuan Tianzhu's eyes sparkled when he thought about it, he was a Primordial Being, and thanks to his Primordial Divine Source Veins he could handle all the elements existing in the world. And to control all elements of the world one needs to have the ability to restrict the opposition of certain elements. With that thought in mind, Yuan Tianzhu advanced towards the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame, placing his hand on the square of glass, which surprisingly passed over the glass.
Yuan Tianzhu's eyes sparkled more intensely. That could only mean one thing, which was that he could get the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame out of that square of glass!
So, when his hand came into contact with the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame, he didn't feel anything, fire or ice, the feeling was neutral, even, it couldn't be called feeling because he didn't feel anything.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
Suddenly he heard a queer rustle, when he realized, his right hand was already frozen, only the ice was different, it was white instead of colorless. Seeing what had just happened, Yuan Tianzhu's eyes widened furiously. Looking to his left side, he noticed that his left arm was on fire, burning like never before, with a black flame.
"Amaterasu?"
It was the first thought that came into Yuan Tianzhu's head when he saw that black flame burning in his left arm. Before he could even process any information of what was going on, an unendurable pain surfaced. He felt hot and cold at the same time, it was insane the amount of pain he was feeling.
His internal organs were being frozen and burned simultaneously, his body was torn apart by fire and ice. At that moment he just wanted to die, the pain was insufferable, insupportable, it was insane...
All of his internal organs seemed to be being rebuilt after being destroyed, the same could be said for his entire body, which seemed to get stronger and stronger than before. Realizing this, Yuan Tianzhu stopped with suicidal thoughts and began to endure the pain he was feeling, it was not easy to do as much to say, but with his determination of the size of the universe, something that had no size, he managed to persevere.
Thousandths, seconds, minutes and hours have passed since Yuan Tianzhu was suffering from frostbite and burns. Surprisingly, his porcelain-white skin had not sustained any damage and remained the same, white and flawless. After so many hours of torture, Yuan Tianzhu couldn't take it anymore and passed out on the spot.
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[Name]: Yuan Tianzhu
[Race]: Primordial Being
[Age]: 16
[Profound Cultivation]: 1st Layer Nascent Profound Realm
[Body Cultivation]: 1st Layer Nascent Profound Realm
[Soul Cultivation]: none
[Others Bloodlines]: none
[Innate Abilities]: Primordial Soul (Lv. Max), Primordial Transformation (Lv. Max), Primordial Blood (Lv. Max), Primordial Pressure (Lv. Max),
[Profound Art]: Dragon Transformation Skill (Lv. Max)
[Profound Skill]: Cultivation Information (Lv. 5), Beast Encyclopedia of the World (Lv. 5), Memories of Ancient Gods (Lv. Max), Sword Cutting Through The Heavens (Lv. 4), Dragon-Elephant's Scalding Palm (Lv. 4), Steps of the Thunder Dragon (Lv.4)
[Profound Veins]: Primordial Divine Source Veins
[Flames]: Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame
[Inventory]: Primordial Spirit Ring, Infinite Clothes
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[A.N: Many will be confused, because of terms like 'Spiritual Qi' 'Spiritual Veins', 'Spiritual Beasts', etc. But be aware that these are terms used in the world of the Ancient Gods who reached the peak of cultivation. So don't be so surprised if you see these terms, as most of the MC's information about alchemy, formations, etc. Comes from the memories of the Ancient Gods who reached the peak of cultivation.]
In a golden room, a young man could be seen sleeping with his eyes open. The young man was thin and a little taller than most, dressed in royal black robes with gold fabrics.
His long white hair that held a mysterious and enchanting shine, tied in a ponytail, was silky, thin white eyebrows raised like a sharp sword, his red blooded eyes were shining in the night like a shooting star. Small, upturned nose, red lips with a sugary rose, a perfect semi-oval face with sharp features fit for an God.
Abruptly, the young man's previously open eyes took on color. The young man looked confused and stunned by what was happening, he lifted his body with some difficulties, it looked like he hadn't moved in ages.
"What the hell happened?" Looking around, Yuan Tianzhu couldn't help cursing aloud, after vaguely remembering what had happened.
His whole body was sore, devoid of strength, he was sure even a child could kill him in this situation he found himself. After a time of rest, Yuan Tianzhu got up, but with difficulty, he walked towards the stack of spiritual stones and removed one. The only way for him to recover even faster, even with his rapid regeneration, would be to use a spiritual stone.
He sat in a lotus position and broke the spiritual stone that he had previously taken from the stack. A wave of Profound Strenght quickly came out of the spiritual stone. Without further ado, he began circulating the Dragon Transformation Skill and absorbing the Profound Strenght for self-recovery. After a few minutes, Yuan Tianzhu's face remained as pale as ever, but it seemed full of vigor and energy.
"Dragon Transformation Skill never cease to amaze! Even with these injuries, just a few minutes and a spiritual stone were enough to recover me to my peak," Yuan Tianzhu nodded his head in approval, "Perhaps part of it said it's because of mine regeneration, but that's not so important now that I've recovered."
Wounds like this could happen in the outside world too, after all, we were talking about a cultivation world where the weak are despised and the strong are glorificated. Learning alchemy would be a good idea, not only for refining recovery pills, but also for the spontaneous advancement of his cultivation, whether profound, body or soul.
With that thought in mind, Yuan Tianzhu got up and headed towards where all sorts of spiritual materials were floating in the air like magic. There were all kinds of spiritual materials, but Yuan Tianzhu only got the essentials. He took a Foundation Building Herb, a Red Strengthening Infernal Flower, a Neutral Spiritual Flower, and an Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva.
He had the experiential memories of Ancient Gods who reached the peak of cultivation, he could refine his own pills, as he had a lot of knowledge about pill formulas, medicinal herbs, spiritual fruits and much more. He only lacked practical experience in refinement and only then he will be unbeatable in alchemy.
The pill he wanted to refine was called the Consciousness Opening Pill, a pill designed to strengthen and temper the soul. But nothing in the world was free, you had to endure horrible pain throughout your soul, and soul pain was far worse than physical pain. After all, the soul was the greatest weakness a living being had, but that fatal weakness, if cultivated well, could be a cultivator's greatest weapon. For, you could do things that were previously impossible, like killing someone with your soul or even revising their internal memory.
A pill could be divided into 9 Grades, with 9th Grade being the lowest and 1st Grade being the highest. Which were also separated into three small grades: Low, Middle and High.
The Consciousness Opening Pill was especially used by soul cultivators in the Ancient Era, because the formula was forgotten, the number of people who can refine this pill couldn't be counted by ten fingers in the world he was. And also for its ingredients, although they are not high level ingredients, but their rarity, made few alchemists to refine this pill, or still spend their time on it.
The Foundation Building Herb can be found in areas where Spiritual Qi was abundant, but these areas were always occupied by a high-level spiritual beasts. A Red Strengthening Infernal Flower were found naturally in areas in abundance of demonic Qi. A Neutral Spiritual Flower were usually found in the forest, due to the dangers found there, few people dare to enter the forest. And an Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva was just a drop of water from the Fountain of Death in the Demon Realm.
Now that the set of ingredients he needed to refine the Consciousness Opening Pill was in his hands, he just needed to refine the pill. Alchemists according to the memories of the Ancient Gods who reached the peak of cultivation, could be divided into 9 Tiers, 9th Tier being the lowest and 1st Tier the highest. To become an alchemist, there were three prerequisites: One needed a spiritual vein attributed to fire or a technique attributed to fire, knowledge of medicinal herbs and Divine Sense.
Divine Sense was like a sixth sense used to look into the cauldron when refining, also used to communicate with another being by sending waves of Divine Sense, words can be exchanged with another being waves of Divine Sense. And of course, as a Primordial Being, Yuan Tianzhu already had innately a Divine Sense, but he had never used it to get used to feeling the presence of the profound beasts, only by instinct, something that didn't quite work if we remember the incident with the brown bear and the Flaming Red Gecko.
The basic steps of alchemy included: pouring the Profound Strenght into the alchemical furnace, roasting the spiritual herbs, waiting for the spiritual herbs to start melting into a single medicinal liquid, controlling these various medicinal liquids and mixing them in one place, and then then condense them into a pill.
Looking at the alchemy cauldron he also found on the second floor, Yuan Tianzhu led his Profound Strenght into the cauldron and condensed a white flame in his right hand and began his first attempt at refinement.
The flame he was using was his newly acquired Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame, surprisingly he had no problem controlling it, it was like it was part of him at that moment.
Placing the Foundation Consolidating Herb into the cauldron and carefully beginning to refine it, he carefully controlled the strength of the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame.
Yuan Tianzhu dared not be careless, as any mistake would ruin the refinement. And that was something he didn't want after going to so much trouble trying to refine this pill.
The four pieces of Foundation Consolidating Herb began to melt immediately, leaving four drops of a green liquid, which left a faint medicinal odor.
Floating the four drops of green liquid out of the cauldron with the help of his Divine Sense.
Yuan Tianzhu cautiously took five leaves of a Red Strengthening Infernal Flower and threw it into the cauldron with the intention of completely melting it.
The five leaves of the Red Strengthening Infernal Flower immediately began to melt, but slowly melting. Upon seeing this, Yuan Tianzhu slowly and carefully increased the strength of the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame.
Controlling a flame to melt something seemed easy, but it was tiring for low-grade alchemists, but not for Yuan Tianzhu.
Controlling his flame was very easy as if the flame were part of him and obeying any order, he could control the temperature of his flame easily with just a thought.
So alchemy for him was like drinking a glass of water with his extreme flame control!
If the flame were that small, he wouldn't be able to melt the herb into a medicinal liquid. If it were that big, the medicinal liquid would be burned.
With just a perfectly sized flame, he could successfully extract the medicinal liquid. As long as he's focused, it wasn't that hard to get.
He then extracted five drops of medicinal liquid from the Red Strengthening Infernal Flower.
Yuan Tianzhu quickly dropped the Neutral Spiritual Flower and the Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva into his cauldron, after putting the five drops of medicinal liquid floating in the air.
The ingredients Neutral Spirit Flower and the Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva were a special case, as the two ingredients had to be extracted together, because the Neutral Spirit Flower had the ability to neutralize the intense Profound Strength Fire within the Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva.
Just by neutralizing it, the chances of the pill being successful would increase by a large margin.
Putting the two ingredients together, Yuan Tianzhu immediately began and accurately fusing them together, the two teamed up and threatened to light a small flame, just like the first time you use a lighter.
However, he ignored this small detail, as the two ingredients were successfully combined.
The Neutral Spiritual Flower and the Seven Paths of Pain's Infernal Saliva once together, he quickly began to melt them, obtaining a colorless medicinal liquid while still slightly gray.
Looking at the medicinal liquids floating in the air and inside his cauldron, Yuan Tianzhu took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Almost all the steps have been completed, now only pill formation remains!
Immediately making some mysterious and deep seals with his hands, all the drops of medicinal liquid in the air slowly floated into the cauldron.
And under the purification of the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame, the medicinal liquids continued to churn, giving a 'Zi Zi' sound.
Yuan Tianzhu placed the lidon cauldron and continued to provide Profound Strenght to increase the potency of the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame in the alchemical cauldron.
An invisible thread connected to Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame in the cauldron, alchemical caused the Profound Strenght in his body to flow in a steady stream, which kept the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame alive.
Inside the cauldron, the medicinal liquids of different colors swirled continuously before slowly melting, turning into a viscous liquid that continually swirled.
At that moment, the smell of medicine began to get stronger in the room.
Yuan Tianzhu, who had Divine Sense, could see the situation inside the medicinal cauldron.
At that time, he could no longer use a strong flame to purify the medicinal liquid. He had to follow the direction of the revolving ball of medicinal liquids, controlling the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame to envelop it from a distance.
The Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame also had to slowly rotate in sync with it, and the temperature had to be adjusted.
Cold sweat continually dripped from Yuan Tianzhu's forehead, as this was a delicate step that consumed more Profound Strenght than simply forcing a fierce flame to purify the medicinal liquids.
Each time the flames made a complete revolution, Yuan Tianzhu felt the reserve of Profound Strenght in his body wither significantly.
If he had faced a situation where his Profound Strenght has run out, then everything he had done so far would be in vain.
The medicinal fragrance inside the second floor had another change. Yuan Tianzhu finally managed to breathe easily. About one-tenth of his Profound Strenght remained in his body.
The situation that worried him most, exhausting the Profound Strenght, fortunately did not occur. This bit of Profound Strenght was enough to complete the final step in the refinement of this pill.
Under the purification of the heated flames, the medicinal liquids in the cauldron had already condensed into pill embryos in pill form.
A faint fragrance came out of the cauldron. As long as the final stage of solidification was completed, this Consciousness Opening Pill would be complete.
If he could complete the finals perfectly, it would be ideal. Yuan Tianzhu's eyes seemed to burn with excitement, but his heart remained extremely calm.
This final step was the most important step. There was no margin for error!
Yuan Tainzhu guided the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame to slowly rise into the air, and the rough pill embryos also followed the Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame and rose into the air.
He reached out with his right hand and the pill embryos surrounded by a white flame slowly descended into his palm.
It was time to solidify and shape!
With his attention fully focused on that, Yuan Tianzhu's eyebrows were tightly knit together in a frown. This would only happen in a situation where someone was extremely focused.
Hu Chi!
The embryos from the pills swirled quickly around the flames and Yuan Tianzhu didn't even dare to let out his breath. Sweat glistened on his forehead as it ran down his face.
The irregular embryos from the pills began to soften and turn into perfect spheres, and even a slight glow began to envelop the pills.
Only after completing this step, the Consciousness Opening Pill could be considered a true pill. Yuan Tianzhu pushed hard with his hand, sending the pills back to the cauldron.
After closing the lid, he started the final heating. At that time, Yuan Tianzhu still dared not give in to his focus.
Yuan Tianzhu was now in the 1st Layer Nascent Profound Realm. He had a fair amount of Profound Strenght, but he was already approaching his limit.
This was mainly because he divided the embryos from the pills into nine while trying to fuse them with nine equal portions of "Medicinal Liquid" at the same time.
He was trying to refine nine pills at once!
As he formed the nine swirls, Yuan Tianzhu's eyebrows began to wrinkle and he was sweating profusely.
Not only did he need to use Profound Strenght to maintain his flame, but he also had to control the flame formed, while at the same time also trying to condense the nine pills, which forced him to consume large amounts of Profound Strenght.
"It better be a success!"
Yuan Tianzhu screamed in his heart. The nine embryos in the pills quickly rotated and even started the fusion process. Now he just needed to add the right amount of water and let the two condense into nine pills.
Yuan Tianzhu was sweating continuously on his forehead and looking very tired. But he still continued to unleash his Ice and Fire Ghostly Flame and Profound Strenght.
He had used almost all of his Profound Strenght!
"I finally got it, plus I ended up spending all day refining these nine pills, alchemy really takes a lot of time!" Yuan Tianzhu said with a sigh as he took a look at the cauldron.
Yuan Tianzhu was surprised, he never expected to refine nine pills with pill veins in his first refinement attempt.
He opened the alchemical cauldron, looking at the nine red pills with meridian-like marks on the surface of those pills, he couldn't help but smile.
Two of them were Low Grade, three Medium Grade and four High Grade, which was amazing, especially for a novice alchemy like Yuan Tianzhu.
Pills Veins were pills that had meridian-like marks on their surface. With these meridians, the effectiveness of the pills would be preserved indefinitely. Only with that one could I know how rare those pills Yuan Tianzhu had just refined were.
If some old alchemists from the same world as the Ancient Gods who reached the peak of cultivation knew that he had managed to refine the 'Consciousness Opening Pill' with the Pill's veins in one day, many of them would surely die of shame.
Many alchemists would take three to five years to successfully refine a pill for the first time, even the most talented alchemists would still need a year and a half or more, they were only able to refine one pill at a time.
But Yuan Tianzhu in his first attempt successfully refined nine pills with pill veins, two Low Grade, three Middle Grade and four High Grade. So if those old alchemists found out, they'd probably die of shock.
