One person: I, Daoist Master, am a cultivator of immortality!

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Uncle Master. From today onwards, I'm afraid I'll have to stay in this Scripture Pavilion for a long time. If I can't read through all the scriptures and classics in the Longhu Mountain Scripture Pavilion, I'm afraid I won't leave."

"You little rascal, I just praised you for teaching Zhang Zhiwei a lesson, which was a good thing, preventing him from getting agitated. Now you're the one getting agitated. You boasted that you wouldn't leave the Sutra Repository until you've read through all the thousand-year-old heritage of Longhu Mountain. Are you planning to stay here in the Sutra Repository for decades?"

Was he furious after hearing that? He had just learned from Zhang Zhiwei's example, and now Sun Yao had broken the rules. They say we should learn from past mistakes, but Sun Yao had done just that.

At this moment, the old Celestial Master stepped in with a smile to smooth things over, "Senior Brother, don't underestimate my newly accepted disciple. He has a photographic memory and can read ten lines at a glance. Last night, he mastered both the Earthly Immortal and the Heavenly Gang Steps. He even innovated a new technique based on the two, which can not be called a supernatural power."

"What?!" Upon hearing the old Celestial Master's words, the elder brother guarding the pavilion was also shocked. He believed that the old Celestial Master wouldn't lie to him, but could there really be such a talented person in the world?

“Senior Uncle, whether this matter is true or not, we can find out later. I will be staying here for a long time, so let’s not look at what’s said and look at what’s done. Why don’t you find me the Baopuzi first? I have been coveting this Taoist alchemical classic for a long time. Master said that this Baopuzi is a rubbing of the original Maoshan Baopuzi. If I can get this method, I might be able to comprehend something even more powerful.”

"Then I'd like to see what powerful thing you can comprehend. Here is the book 'Baopuzi,' feel free to take it and study it."

As the master spoke, he used golden light to take out an old book from the shelf of the scripture pavilion, on which were written the three large characters "Baopuzi".

"Thank you, Uncle Master!"

After thanking his senior master, Sun Yao picked up the *Baopuzi* and sat down at a table in the scripture pavilion to read it. The *Baopuzi* is a massive work, containing a vast amount of material. Even the portion his senior master had just given him—only the inner chapters—was far more extensive than most people could imagine.

For three consecutive days, Sun Yao devoted all his energy to the monumental work, Baopuzi. Apart from eating and cultivating, he spent more than half of his 24 hours reading Baopuzi.

After he had actually read through this monumental work, he discovered a problem: the most important aspect of alchemy, besides the methods of refining pills, was the formulas. Without formulas, alchemy was merely trial and error; therefore, to succeed, the most crucial element was understanding pharmacology. Only by understanding pharmacology could one know how to create pills, so simply reading "Baopuzi" was far from sufficient. However, he was not without gain; through "Baopuzi," he comprehended the true method of alchemy.

Extracting the essence, condensing the elixir, and controlling the fire—these are essential techniques for refining elixirs, and they are things he gleaned from the *Baopuzi*. The method of extracting the essence of the medicinal liquid is derived from the Nine Elixir Golden Liquid technique, while techniques like condensing the elixir are taken from the *Baopuzi*'s theory of the Golden Elixir. As for the art of controlling the fire, it originates from the Fire Element Method.

Even so, he had no alchemy furnace and no way to experiment. Just then, he suddenly thought of a term: the Heaven and Earth Furnace. This term often appears in various fantasy novels, referring to using heaven and earth as a furnace to control the fire of the world, eliminating the risk of the furnace exploding and allowing one to observe the changes in the elixir at any time, effectively preventing the production of ruined elixirs.

Moreover, this Heaven and Earth Furnace isn't just for alchemy; it can also be used for weapon crafting, making it an extremely high-grade supernatural technique. However, while that's true, achieving it is still very difficult. But for Sun Yao, it's different. With his talent for "One Thought, Heaven and Earth," and possessing both the concept and its detailed description, replicating it wouldn't be difficult.

But just when Sun Yao thought it wouldn't be difficult and wanted to replicate it, he encountered trouble. He had underestimated the complexity of the four characters "天地烘炉" (Heaven and Earth Furnace). The difficulty in understanding the concept of "天地烘炉" was never the "炉" (furnace) part of the last two characters, but rather the "天地" (heaven and earth) part.

To use heaven and earth as a furnace, one must be able to isolate oneself from other interferences. Sun Yao is currently unable to do this; let alone at his current Qi Refining stage, he probably wouldn't be able to do it even if he reached the Golden Core stage.

However, since there's a problem, it needs to be solved. The real solution is to lower the bar by one level. While he can't use heaven and earth as a furnace, creating one by controlling fire shouldn't be a problem.

Using flames to isolate external interference is quite an excellent method. Through this shortcut, he successfully deduced the method of the Heaven and Earth Furnace. After deducing this method, he couldn't wait to start refining pills, but unfortunately, he still couldn't succeed because he didn't have the pill formula yet.

However, this did not dampen his enthusiasm for alchemy. Since there was none, he would deduce one himself. He chose a relatively common prescription in the world of supernatural beings called Qi-Replenishing Powder, using it as a foundation to deduce his own formula. Of course, he didn't choose it randomly. This Qi-Replenishing Powder was used to replenish qi and blood during cultivation, and with a few modifications, it could be used to assist in cultivation. He only needed to replace the herbs used to replenish qi and blood with some spiritually rich herbs. He selected Vermilion Fruit and Heavenly Snow Lotus, and then used Spiritual Ginseng and Angelica to harmonize them. Unfortunately, rare treasures like the Nine Dragons Plate and the Qilin Stele were hard to find in the world; otherwise, using them in the medicine would have been much better.

The only medicinal herbs that can be found on Mount Longhu are things like Zhu Guo (朱果), Xue Lian (雪莲), Dang Gui (当归), Ling Shen (灵参), and He Shou Wu (何首乌). And that's after years of collecting them; even a major Taoist sect isn't particularly wealthy. If they still want to refine elixirs now, they'll probably have to rely on themselves.

Sun Yao racked his brains for a long time trying to figure out how to make money quickly, but couldn't come up with a good method. He could only shake his head and put all his energy into refining pills.

Carefully using his spiritual energy to activate the fire-based technique, he refined the essence of each medicinal herb into a liquid. First was the spiritual ginseng; its neutral properties served as a base, allowing the other herbs to slowly blend in.

The mere step of refining the medicinal liquid had already completely destroyed all the useless dregs, leaving only the essence. The essence of the Vermilion Fruit and the Heavenly Snow Lotus was slowly infused into the ginseng essence, along with other mild medicinal herbs as aids. After about half an hour, Sun Yao finally gathered all the essence into a single medicinal liquid.