Explosive Blood Pill
Translator: Cinder Translations
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The next day.
Song Wen arrived early at the alchemy room.
After receiving a batch of Qi Gathering herbs from Su Huayue, he entered the alchemy chamber.
He spent several hours refining three batches of Qi Gathering Pills to meet Su Huayue's demands.
Then, he set up the "Qi Concealing and Spirit Isolating Array" and began attempting to improve the "Explosive Blood Pill."
Taking out his own alchemy furnace, he followed the refining method for the Explosive Blood Pill recorded in Rong Jingyun's jade slip, carefully adding various spiritual herbs one by one.
The Yellow Essence Mushroom, which he used as the main herb for refining the Explosive Blood Pill, was obtained from Su Liu, a man with a handlebar mustache, and was over a hundred years old.
Song Wen had acquired many Yellow Essence Mushroom from the Su family's spiritual fields, but he always felt that their vitality was somewhat strange, so he didn't use them recklessly.
When he added the main herb, Yellow Essence Mushroom, and refined it into an herbal liquid, an explosion suddenly occurred when he tried to fuse it with the auxiliary herbs.
A puff of black smoke rose from the furnace, filling the alchemy chamber.
Song Wen took out a jade bottle and collected the black smoke before taking out the jade slip again and carefully reviewing it.
He understood that the explosion was caused by a conflict between the medicinal properties of Yellow Essence Mushroom and the auxiliary herbs.
To solve this problem, he needed to find the right auxiliary herb to harmonize the properties of Yellow Essence Mushroom.
Yellow Essence Mushroom was a common second-tier spiritual herb, and the jade slip contained several pill recipes that all used it.
One common feature of these recipes was the use of an auxiliary herb called Earth Mushroom Flower, which was evidently meant to balance Yellow Essence Mushroom's properties.
Fortunately, Song Wen happened to have some Earth Mushroom Flower on hand.
He set up the furnace again and tried once more.
Following the recipe in the jade slip, he selected what he believed to be the right ratio and added Yellow Essence Mushroom and Earth Mushroom Flower.
After fusing the Earth Mushroom Flower liquid with the Yellow Essence Mushroom liquid, and then merging it with the other spiritual herbs, this time the furnace did not explode.
The refining process went smoothly, so smoothly that Song Wen found it hard to believe.
However, when he began to condense the pill, the medicinal liquid inside the furnace suddenly spiraled out of control, the medicinal power rapidly dissipating. In the blink of an eye, all that was left in the furnace was a sticky black substance, with almost no spiritual energy remaining.
The pill condensation had failed, but Song Wen wasn't discouraged. Instead, he grew more excited.
The failure had been due to an improper ratio of Yellow Essence Mushroom to the other auxiliary herbs. As long as he could find the right ratio, the pill could be successfully condensed.
He didn't attempt another refinement right away, as two days had already passed. Staying in the alchemy chamber too long might attract unwanted attention.
After packing up the furnace and the Qi Concealing and Spirit Isolating Array, Song Wen left the chamber.
When he returned to the main hall to hand over the Qi Gathering Pills to Su Huayue, he noticed that many alchemists had gathered there.
Today was the last day of the month, the day for distributing monthly salaries.
These alchemists had come to receive their pay.
Song Wen also took the opportunity to collect his salary.
He had been at the Su family for half a month.
Before receiving his salary, a tally had to be taken of how many Qi Gathering Pills he had submitted over the half month.
Song Wen had submitted 70 Qi Gathering Pills in total. The monthly task required 80, so he had fulfilled his task. However, Su Huayue had later increased the task to 100, meaning he was now short.
Perhaps influenced by the fact that many alchemists were preparing to leave the Su family, Su Huayue did not withhold Song Wen's salary and gave him 15 spirit stones.
After receiving his salary, Song Wen left the alchemy hall.
When he returned to his residence, he noticed that more than half of the visiting alchemists, blacksmiths, talisman makers, and formation masters were leaving the Su family in groups of three or five after collecting their pay.
The Su family took no drastic action to stop them, allowing them to leave as they wished.
This struck Song Wen as suspicious once again; the Su family's behavior was unusually strange.
That day, around noon.
When Song Wen arrived at the dining hall, he ran into Qi Xiong.
Over the past two days, Qi Xiong had likely taken the Breakthrough Pill and had been in seclusion, attempting to break through his cultivation bottleneck.
At this moment, he had already reached the seventh layer of Qi Refining.
Qi Xiong was surprised to see Song Wen.
"Master Yuan, you didn't leave with the others?"
"Supervisor Su raised my monthly salary by five spirit stones, so I decided to stay at the Su family for now. I'm nearly at the end of my lifespan, and being able to find shelter here is already a blessing. I dare not ask for too much," Song Wen replied with a mouthful of lies.
In fact, he hadn't even gone to Su Huayue to request his resignation.
As for the salary increase, it was true that Su Huayue had promised all alchemists who stayed an additional five spirit stones in their monthly pay.
Qi Xiong nodded in agreement.
"The Su family is an old Golden Core family that dominates this region, with great strength and deep foundations. Aside from those orthodox sects, who would dare provoke them? Duan Jie and the others are just worrying about nothing, their vision is too narrow."
"By choosing to stay with the Su family, we made the right decision. Duan Jie and the others will regret it sooner or later."
Qi Xiong's words, rather than being directed at Song Wen, seemed more like he was trying to convince himself that staying with the Su family was the right choice.
"You make a good point," Song Wen agreed.
After parting with Qi Xiong, Song Wen realized that the Su family was preparing to take action.
However, up until now, Song Wen still had no idea why the Su family was capturing cultivators of the "Longevity Technique."
"I must find a way to get more information about this matter!" Song Wen pondered to himself.
Whatever the Su family was plotting, it was clearly of great importance to them. If he could sabotage it, it would deal a significant blow to the Su family.
Based on his current understanding of the Su family, he was certain that the elders in charge knew the reason behind this scheme. Some of the Su family's core mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators might also be aware, but Song Wen had no way of identifying exactly who those people were, so he couldn't target them specifically.
Last time, he had tried to soul-search the Su family's third elder, Su Jingshu, but due to the insufficiency of his spiritual sense at the time, the attempt had failed.
Now, his spiritual sense was as strong as that of a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, greatly increasing his chances of successfully using the soul-searching technique on a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
In his mind, Song Wen compared the remaining five core elders of the Su family and concluded that the fifth elder, Su Xiuyong, who guarded the Northern Market, was the easiest to target.
However, Su Xiuyong was extremely cautious.
Last time, Song Wen had tried to use Su Liu as bait to ambush Su Xiuyong, but the plan had failed.
The Northern Market was only a little over fifty miles from Qingping Mountain, and most of the time, Su Xiuyong stayed in the Su family's spiritual herb store, protected by an array formation.
Using force to storm the herb store and kill Su Xiuyong wasn't the best approach.
The Northern Market was too close to Qingping Mountain, and the Su family reinforcements could arrive at any moment.
He needed to find a way to lure Su Xiuyong out of the herb store, away from the array-protected building, or even out of the market altogether, where he would be easier to deal with.
Song Wen began to recall the information he had about Su Xiuyong.
Su Xiuyong, 153 years old, once had a Daoist partner, but she failed to establish her Foundation and died thirty years ago after exhausting her lifespan.
His parents had long passed away, and his partner had not borne him any children.
He was extremely cautious in his actions, had no close blood relatives, and spent most of his time in the herb store, cultivating.
At first glance, Su Xiuyong seemed to have no weaknesses, leaving Song Wen momentarily unsure where to strike.
"Perhaps this time, I'll have to take a risk," Song Wen murmured softly to himself.
(End of the Chapter)
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