Chapter 52: Alchemy

Returning to the rented courtyard, Yun Shang sipped some spiritual tea, rested for a while, then went into a room in the courtyard, took out the alchemy furnace, and prepared to start alchemy.

 Yun Shang was already a third-grade alchemist when she was in the Qi training stage. Now she is mainly familiar with how to make fourth-grade pills.

She planted various commonly used spiritual medicines in her space. When she left Yunhai Peak, she planted the entire space with spiritual medicines for fear that there would not be enough spiritual medicines when refining pills.

It takes more than sixty kinds of spiritual medicine to refine the Yishen Pill, among which the Xuanyang grass is one of the most important herbs.

She took out the spirit gathering bead and wore it on her body to avoid lack of spiritual energy. Yun Shang sorted and distributed the spiritual medicines, and took out the vessels to hold the spiritual medicine liquid. These vessels were made of thousand-year-old iron wood and thousand-year-old ice jade, which could preserve the efficacy and ingredients of the spiritual medicine liquid to the greatest extent.

Yun Shang let out fire, slowly preheating the alchemy furnace. After the furnace is heated to a certain degree, Yun Shang begins to add spiritual medicine into the furnace, continuously transporting spiritual energy to refine the spiritual medicine. After the spiritual medicine is refined into liquid, increase the firepower, continuously filter the liquid medicine, use spiritual consciousness to remove impurities in the liquid medicine, and purify the liquid medicine. This step is the most critical, which is related to the fusion of the liquid medicine in the future and the quality of the final medicine. The purer the liquid medicine, the easier it is to refine into a top-grade medicine. If there are impurities in the liquid medicine, the furnace will explode if you are not careful.

After several spiritual medicines were refined into spiritual medicine liquids, Yun Shang began the operation of fusing the medicinal liquids. This process was the most likely to cause the furnace to explode, similar to the chemical explosion that occurred when different materials met in the previous life. It was also a time to test the strength of the cultivator's spiritual consciousness.

If there are fewer types of elixir liquids, the possibility of refining elixir will be greater; if there are more types of elixir liquids, the probability of furnace explosion will increase and the possibility of refining elixir will be smaller.

As the quality of the elixir increases, more spiritual plants are needed, and the types of spiritual medicine liquids become more and more, so the refining becomes more difficult. This is also the reason why it is difficult to find alchemists above the sixth level. To refine high-quality elixirs, the requirements for the alchemist's cultivation, spiritual awareness, and spiritual energy use are higher. Now the spiritual medicine liquid for refining fourth-grade elixirs has been divided into five groups. It can be imagined that the higher the quality of the elixir, the more spiritual medicine liquids will be divided into groups, and the more difficult it will be to refine.

The benefits of having a strong spiritual consciousness are fully reflected in the process of fusion of spiritual medicine liquid. The cultivator's eyes cannot see whether the medicine liquids are completely fused. This requires the cultivator to concentrate his spiritual consciousness on the medicine liquid. Generally speaking, the stronger the spiritual consciousness, the more complete the fusion of the medicine liquid.

In the first few times, the furnace exploded every time, either the elixir was put in at the wrong time, or the spiritual energy was not delivered in time. Five days later, Yun Shang came out of the room with dishevelled hair and dirty face. Holding a bottle of Yishen Pill in her hand, she couldn't help thinking lucky that she has the space that can accelerate growth of spiritual herbs or she would have either not refined Yishen Pill or made trip to collect Xuanyang grass.

As a fourth-grade elixir, the Yishen Pill is in short supply. As soon as the elixir that can repair spiritual consciousness appears, it will be snatched up by people, and it will be impossible to buy it when needed.

Three months passed as Yun Shang continued to refine pills and practice. She had read the alchemy jade slips that Daoist Qingmu gave her. Now Yun Shang could already refine fourth-grade pills skillfully. As for fifth-grade pills, they required more spiritual energy. She had the space, so she didn't have to worry about the spiritual energy problem. She should have no problem refining fifth-grade pills.

However, the spiritual medicines used to refine fifth-grade pills were too valuable, and they were almost all hundreds of years old. Although she had no shortage of spiritual stones, she couldn't waste money like this. So she thought that she would wait until her cultivation was higher, her spiritual energy was more flexible, and she had collected more high-level spiritual medicines before she started to try to refine fifth-grade pills.

Time flies so fast. The lease of the yard that Yun Shang rented has expired. She doesn't plan to live here anymore. After staying in Yunshui City for more than three months, she feels it's time to leave.

However, before leaving Yunshui City, some supplies need to be replenished. Yun Shang had used most of the talismans on her body. This time, she wants to buy more talismans and prepare some blank talismans and blank formation plates so that she can practice with them when she has nothing to do.

After checking out of the inn, Yun Shang go to Treasure Pavilion, stating the talisman she wants and blank formation plates. After taking the things the shopkeeper prepared for her, Yun Shang pay them all and left.

On the way to the city gate, Yun Shang had to pass through the market, and thought she had nothing to do, so she went for a walk. During her time in Yunshui City, Yun Shang had been to the market three times in total, and each time she didn't gain much, but she also collected some uncommon low-level spiritual plants.

The market was no different from the first time she came here. There were many stalls and people. Yun Shang wandered around casually. Suddenly, a stall caught her attention. It was a father and daughter. What caught Yun Shang's attention was not the items they put on display, but the little girl. The little girl's face was extremely pale. Judging from her expression, she must have hurt her consciousness. A young cultivator in the Qi training stage couldn't even release his consciousness. How could his consciousness be hurt by someone? Yun Shang thought silently. Generally, cultivators can release their consciousness only when they reach the foundation building stage, but Yun Shang is an exception. She has lived two lives and practiced the Divine Soul Art. The strength of her consciousness is not comparable to that of ordinary people.

Yun Shang came to the stall of the father and daughter. There were some low-level spiritual plants and some low-level formation plates on the stall. It seemed that the middle-aged male cultivator was a formation master. "How much is your formation plate?" Yun Shang asked casually, looking at the little girl inconspicuously. She must have hurt her consciousness, Yun Shang said in her heart.

"Fellow Daoist, fellow Daoist," the middle-aged male cultivator called Yun Shang twice.

"Ah, what?" Yun Shang finally came back to her senses.

"This array is a third-grade compound array, which combines defense, isolation, and trapping into one. It requires 500 low-grade spirit stones." The middle-aged male cultivator looked at Yun Shang and said.

"Okay, I'll take this."

"Ah!" The middle-aged male cultivator was a little surprised that Yun Shang did not bargain, and then he immediately agreed.

After Yun Shang put away the formation plate, she looked at the little girl several times, but the little girl didn't react. The middle-aged male cultivator saw that Yun Shang had not left yet, and thought that she needed something else, so he recommended other things on the stall to her.

Yun Shang endured it for a few times, but still asked: "I see that this little Taoist friend doesn't look very well, is he not injured?"

"Ah." The male cultivator was stunned for a moment by Yun Shang's question, then looked at Yun Shang with some scrutiny, "My daughter is just feeling a little uncomfortable, nothing serious."

Feeling the vigilance of the middle-aged male cultivator, Yun Shang thought that the elixir for repairing spiritual consciousness was very difficult to find, and even if there were spirit stones, it might not be possible to buy it. If the little girl did not repair her spiritual consciousness in time, she would probably become stupid in the future.

"Don't misunderstand me, fellow Daoist. I have also heard of this disease before, so I am asking, has your spiritual consciousness been damaged?" Yun Shang said.

The middle-aged male cultivator looked at Yun Shang and thought that she might not have any bad intentions, so he said, "To be honest, my daughter's consciousness is indeed damaged. I set up a stall here just to collect spirit stones so that I can buy pills for her to repair her consciousness."

"Can you buy elixirs to repair spiritual consciousness?" Yun Shang asked. She was curious about where he could buy them.

"It's hard to find a pill that can directly repair spiritual consciousness. I can only buy my daughter a pill that can alleviate the deterioration of spiritual consciousness, slowly warm her up, and then find a pill that can repair spiritual consciousness." The middle-aged male cultivator said helplessly.

Yun Shang thought for a moment and said, "I happen to have a pill that can restore spiritual consciousness. Do you have anything you can exchange with me?"

"Is what you said true?" the middle-aged male cultivator asked excitedly. God knows how much he regretted it. His wife died early and he raised his daughter alone. Although life was hard, he didn't think it was a big deal every time he saw his daughter's smile. He was a fifth-rank formation master. His daughter's consciousness was injured because she met her former friend.

He has three spiritual roots and has been in the late stage of foundation building for decades. If there is no great opportunity, he probably won't be able to form a golden elixir in this life, and can only wait for his life span to run out. But his daughter is different. She has two spiritual roots. He doesn't want his daughter to worry about cultivation resources, so he accepted the invitation of his friend to explore a cave of a Nascent Soul cultivator. It took a lot of effort to break the formation outside the cave, but he didn't expect that the Yuanshen of the cave owner had not been destroyed, and flew directly to his daughter who was only in the sixth level of Qi training. Maybe because the Yuanshen was consumed too much, the possession was not successful, but his daughter's consciousness was also fatally damaged. If it can't be repaired as soon as possible, she will only be stupid for the rest of her life.

He had already given up hope, but he didn't expect this female cultivator to say that she had a pill that could restore his spiritual consciousness. He had to try it no matter what. The pill that could restore his spiritual consciousness was very hard to find, and even if he did find it, he couldn't afford it.