Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 39 The extremely complicated alchemy process

According to the instructions of the Qi-Nourishing Pill recipe, I purchased several basic spiritual herbs that were not expensive at the moment.

Xiao Chen set up the alchemy furnace in his small courtyard, placed the cushion and prepared to start refining the elixir.

The first step is to pre-process the spiritual materials.

This step tests the alchemist's knowledge and examines his familiarity with the spiritual materials in his hands.

However, this step can be skipped for now, as the Qi-nourishing Pills only use basic spiritual materials, which have already been processed by the stall owner.

The second step is to burn incense to calm the mind.

This step tests the alchemist's financial resources, and it mainly depends on whether it is necessary and whether he is willing to spend the cost.

Xiao Chen now had thirty sticks of agarwood, so he generously took out one and lit it, then sat cross-legged. Soon he felt his mind calm.

The third step is to dissolve the liquid.

This step tests the alchemist's control over the temperature. The main medicine and spiritual spring water need to be added into the furnace, and the spiritual fire is used to boil out the medicinal properties to make a liquid medicine.

During the one-hour-long boiling process, the fire must be constantly adjusted according to the state of the medicinal liquid, neither too high nor too low.

Fortunately, with the three-legged tempering furnace, Xiao Chen only needs to look at the temperature indicated on the recipe and activate the corresponding pattern on the furnace, and this step can be easily completed.

The fourth step is to add medicine.

This step tests the alchemist's control of timing and examines his observation and judgment.

However, the Qi-nourishing Pill is a very common basic pill made with simple ingredients, so the instructions on this step of the pill recipe are also very clear.

Xiao Chen followed the steps and added the five auxiliary herbs according to the time marked on the recipe.

The fifth step is to combine the medicine.

This step tests the alchemist's carefulness and the precision of his magic power manipulation.

When the liquid medicine in the furnace gradually dries up under the continuous heating of the spiritual fire.

The alchemist needs to use his magical powers to stir, flip, or rotate to mix the medicinal properties and evenly divide the spiritual liquid into several pills.

The recipe only has eight words: mix thoroughly and disperse evenly.

The specific mixing situation and how many parts it will be divided into in the end all depend on the alchemist's judgment based on his rich experience.

The reason why it is unclear is that every time the elixir is refined, many factors are different, such as the origin of the medicinal materials, the age of the medicinal materials themselves, the preservation integrity of the medicinal materials, the medicinal properties extracted in the first two steps, the proportion of the remaining spiritual springs, etc.

These are just a few simple spiritual materials. If it comes to high-level elixirs, there are dozens of differences between them.

Therefore, at this stage, Xiao Chen can no longer rely on external objects. He must mix the medicinal properties by himself and then separate them evenly.

The sixth step is the final step - making the elixir.

This step tests the alchemist's overall proficiency, and occasionally the right time and place need to be considered.

To condense the evenly divided medicinal liquid into a pill, the previous steps must be performed to the utmost.

Otherwise, it will either fail to solidify into a pill, or it will be hard to solidify but will break after it comes out of the furnace. At best, it will become a defective product, and at worst, it will become a waste pill.

As for the right time and place, it is related to the mutual generation and restraint of the five elements.

For example, noon belongs to fire, so making pills at noon is beneficial for pills belonging to the fire and earth elements, but not for pills belonging to the water element.

When refining some extremely critical pills, sometimes in order to increase the success rate even a little bit.

Alchemists will consciously calculate the time required to refine the elixir, and try to control the approximate time it takes to make the elixir within a certain range.

Fortunately, the Qi-nourishing Pill is a general-purpose elixir that does not require any particular time or location, and can be taken at any time.

Therefore, in the entire extremely complicated refining process, the only step Xiao Chen really needs to worry about is the fifth step.

As five hours passed, the medicinal liquid in the furnace, which was divided into ten parts, gradually took shape and turned into ten pills.

"Refine the elixir, it doesn't seem that difficult."

Xiao Chen stopped supplying mana, and while waiting for the temperature of the alchemy furnace to drop, he summarized the process of his first alchemy.

"Am I the one in a million genius in alchemy?"

He succeeded in refining the elixir on his first try, so he should be called a genius, right?

"Snapped!"

Suddenly there was a crisp explosion, like a sharp slap in the face.

Then, it was like setting off firecrackers, with continuous bangs.

Xiao Chen watched helplessly as the ten pills in his furnace exploded one after another as the temperature of the furnace dropped, and none of them survived.

The failure came so quickly that he was caught off guard.

In fact, it is normal to fail in refining the elixir the first time. Alchemists rely on repeated failures and a large number of spirit stones to succeed.

Xiao Chen had foreseen this, so he quickly accepted the result.

He slept to replenish his energy and woke up the next day to continue working.

The second refining failed.

The third refining failed.

The fourth refining attempt failed.

……

The tenth refining attempt resulted in a complete annihilation! The total value of the spiritual herbs consumed this time was forty spiritual stones, equivalent to half a year's training allowance for an ordinary inner sect disciple.

But now, in just ten days, it has turned into a pile of toxic garbage.

During the journey, Xiao Chen took the waste pill and went to ask Elder Chen for advice.

As expected, the result was lack of proficiency.

Elder Chen's original words were: "Practice until you become proficient. There is no other way."

Xiao Chen readily followed the advice, purchased a new batch of spiritual herbs, and continued practicing.

Two months passed in a flash, taking away Xiao Chen's 240 spirit stones.

"The seventieth furnace of Qi-nourishing Pills, huh? One pill is done!"

Xiao Chen habitually recorded the pills, but when he looked at the round elixir in the furnace, he was slightly startled: "Hey, I did it?"

Then he felt a round ball appear in his arms out of thin air. When he took it out, he found it was the same elixir.

The Hextech [Buy One Get One Free] effect was also successfully triggered. I really succeeded.

At this moment, Xiao Chen did not feel as happy as he had imagined, but instead felt tired.

"It's really difficult to refine the elixir. After enduring for so long, I finally see hope."

"If I don't succeed again, all the spirit stones I earned will be lost."

In fact, if Xiao Chen had not received the compensation of 500 spirit stones from the Great Elder, he would have been out of money long ago.

If that were the case, he would have no choice but to accept the sect's missions and take risks to earn some hard-earned money.

"Fifty spirit stones? Why is it so much more expensive?"

When Xiao Chen went down the mountain to buy spiritual herbs for the ninth time, he unexpectedly learned that the price of basic spiritual herbs had increased again.

This doesn't make sense. The spiritual herbs for the Qi-nourishing Pill don't need to rely on caravan trade, and Lizhou can be self-sufficient.

Moreover, the lowest-end Qi-nourishing Pill is closely related to many low-level cultivators, and the price of five spirit stones per bottle is already very high.

However, if the price of raw materials continues to rise, the price of pills will inevitably rise as well.

From a big picture perspective, the long-term impact of this will inevitably be far-reaching.

Specifically for Xiao Chen himself, the most direct impact is that it will undoubtedly become much more difficult for him to make money from Qi-nourishing Pills in the future.

The vendor was also helpless. Seeing a familiar customer, he couldn't help but complain: "Oh, there's nothing I can do."

"Shortly after you bought the spiritual herbs a few days ago, the market price soared all the way to 45 spiritual stones. I was hoping it would drop back down in the next couple of days."

"No one expected that a group of robbers would suddenly appear in Pingyuan County in the east, killing many spiritual plant farmers. All of the spiritual herbs on the market were suddenly in short supply."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen immediately thought of Liu Benxin, whose Liu family was in Pingyuan County.

Pingyuan County does have a large fertile plain and several natural spiritual springs. Most of the spiritual medicines in Lizhou are produced there.

Jie Xiu is definitely not interested in the spiritual medicines in the fields, but the casualties of the spiritual plant husbands will inevitably affect the production of spiritual herbs next year.

In addition, now that trade routes have been cut off and foreign trade has been interrupted, the number of spiritual herbs in the market has suddenly decreased and the prices have begun to rise.

After figuring this out, Xiao Chen couldn't help but be speechless.

It must be that some big families saw this trend and stockpiled goods in advance and maliciously raised prices.

"Then give me five portions of spiritual herbs. This is twenty-five spiritual stones."

Despite this, I still have to practice. I finally see a glimmer of hope for success, so I can't give up halfway.

"Hey, isn't this Junior Brother Xiao? Why are you still buying these spiritual herbs? With Junior Brother's great comprehension, shouldn't he have learned to refine pills in no time?"

The person who was speaking was Jiang Cungang. As an alchemist, he often came down the mountain to buy spiritual herbs.

Last time outside the Law Enforcement Hall, he spoke up to defend Jiang Shiyou, and afterward many of his fellow disciples pointed fingers at him, thinking that he had character problems.

In addition, Jiang Shiyou lost his position in the Law Enforcement Hall, and the Jiang family was very angry. They cursed behind closed doors many times, and all these things were finally blamed on Xiao Chen.

So when they saw Xiao Chen purchasing spiritual herbs, they came over and mocked him, "Alchemy isn't that difficult, why don't some people continue to have an epiphany?"

"It's been over a month. I heard you were dumping medicinal residue out of Bishui Peak every day, but you still haven't been able to refine a single pill. Is that true?"

"Then letting you buy this spiritual herb is a waste of resources and a disgrace to nature."

Xiao Chen put away the spiritual herbs and said, "You are really a dog barker. Why are you talking so much nonsense? Do you want to go to the sect's martial arts arena with me to practice?"

The Lihuo Sect has a martial arts arena for disciples to practice and fight with each other. Although they are not allowed to kill their fellow disciples, they are allowed to injure them.

Jiang Cungang subconsciously took a step back. Most alchemists were not good at fighting, and Xiao Chen had shown some strength in the outer sect trial, so he guessed that he would be defeated.

But he still sneered: "Hmph! Xiao Chen, you are just a common man, who only knows how to fight and be aggressive."

"A fool like you who only thinks about fighting will never be able to become an alchemist in your next life."

One more person is added to the Little Notebook’s revenge list.

Xiao Chen walked over, pointed at Jiang Cungang, and smiled: "I bought a watch last year."

Jiang Cungang was confused after hearing this. What does this mean?
Afterwards, Xiao Chen was too lazy to continue talking nonsense with him. After all, it was not convenient to really fight at the moment, and bickering would not produce any results.

There was no need to waste my precious time on him, so I turned around and went back to the mountain.

The seventy-first furnace begins refining!
(End of this chapter)