Cultivation Starts with Rejuvenation

Yan Qingwan’s inheritance of Second Tier Pill Master techniques obtained back in the day wasn’t particularly advanced, similar to Alchemist Mo’s legacy back then. Li Ji’an refined and improved upon them extensively as a foundation.

Ever since the Fire Spirit regained its peak power, comparable to Second Tier Pill Fire, he has persistently experimented and adapted.

He even simulated the Foundation Establishment Pill refining process many times in his Sea of Consciousness.

Although it was his first time now, he felt no unfamiliarity.

Li Ji’an sat cross-legged, holding his breath and concentrating his spirit, channeling the might of the Fire Spirit. As its Primordial Spirit Flame erupted from beneath the Pill Furnace, Li Ji’an followed the steps, sequentially adding medicinal ingredients, adjusting temperature, controlling Spiritual Pressure, and refining the medicinal essence...

Until half a day passed, the auxiliary medicinal ingredients were fully refined, extracting their essence.

This was almost twice as fast as recorded in the inheritance and anticipated by Li Ji’an.

The key to refining medicinal essence mainly lies in the power of the Pill Fire and the control techniques. A typical Second Tier Pill Fire would take at least a day to extract the essence from such auxiliary ingredients.

Moreover, the longer the refinement time, the higher the risk of losing medicinal essence, which is why inadequate Pill Fire can’t produce Second Tier Pill Medicine and can’t guarantee the refined pill’s quality.

This step brought Li Ji’an a surprise; the reduced time preserved nearly all the essence of these auxiliary ingredients, greatly aiding the subsequent fusion into a refined pill with the main medicinal essence.

”Little Fire’s Spirit Flame is notably more potent than the recorded Heaven and Earth Spirit Flame!”

He was delighted, placing the most crucial main ingredient into the furnace with great anticipation, half a stalk of Nine-Star Fushen.

As a Second Tier main ingredient, the Nine-Star Fushen typically requires two days under ordinary Second Tier Pill Fire to fully refine its essence.

After another half day, the main ingredient Nine-Star Fushen was initially refined, its properties fully activated, awaiting further half day refinement to further concentrate its essence for the next fusion stage.

Meanwhile, three individuals outside the adjacent Cave Mansion were all wearing joyful expressions.

From the reflection, they clearly saw Alchemist Zou complete the refinement of all auxiliary ingredients, now beginning to add the main ingredient.

”Alchemist Zou truly is experienced, every step is carried out with such ease.”

”There’s still half a stick of incense time left until one day; Alchemist Zou’s skills have evidently advanced further.” The two seekers of alchemy smiled.

Xie Gui also felt honored: ”Haha, you really have deep blessings. To be honest, my master recently refined a Fire-Attribute Heaven and Earth Spiritual Object; the Pill Fire indeed increased by threefold, almost guaranteeing no worries this time.”

”Heaven bless us, heaven bless us.” The two alchemy seekers were overjoyed; they were the core descendants of two generations of allied Foundation Establishment Clans in the southwest of Golden Splendor Immortal City, having spent over twenty years accumulating and collaborating to gather the materials for the Foundation Establishment Pill. This time, they don’t seek surprises, only hoping for one Lower Grade Foundation Establishment Pill per person as a guarantee to renew the family bond that lasts for hundreds of years.

Xie Gui smiled and nodded, then turned his gaze to Li Ji’an’s Cave Mansion next door.

Having shared the same ranking for over a decade, he specifically investigated Li Ji’an.

Initially, he didn’t pay much attention, given his age; in his view, without decades of immersion, an independent Loose Cultivator wouldn’t have remarkable alchemy skills to speak of.

It was likely due to him being backed by Nine Tripods Commerce Association’s promotion.

However, as several selections of the Pill Master rankings passed, he found that his previous private clients were increasingly lost, and in the end, he discovered many had actually turned to Li Ji’an instead.

After inquiry, he learned that many clients felt Li Ji’an’s pills were superior.

He didn’t agree with this, believing that Li Ji’an’s youthful age was the reason he had comparable fame to him, and because of his youth, others saw him having greater potential.

He resolutely refused to believe Li Ji’an’s alchemy skill surpassed his.

Meeting today, the other party actually intended to refine a supreme-grade pill, just as his master taught, truly a bit overly ambitious.

Though he had steeped himself in the Alchemy Dao for decades, he still hadn’t dreamed of being able to refine a supreme-grade pill.

After carefully sensing for a while, there wasn’t any unusual change above Li Ji’an’s Cave Mansion, so Xie Gui shook his head and paid no more attention.

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”The most critical step!” Half a day later, Li Ji’an had a solemn expression, his Divine Sense gathered entirely within the Pill Furnace, meticulously sensing the fusion of several medicinal essences.

This crucial step not only requires adjusting the overall Pill Fire according to the medicinal essence condition but also necessitates subdividing the Pill Fire to precisely control the temperature locally, nearly equivalent to instantly splitting the Pill Fire into multiple parts, with each part exerting different power according to the varying temperature tolerances of various medicinal essences.

Additionally, the Spiritual Pressure and humidity inside the Pill Furnace also need precise control, timely adjustments made according to the fusion circumstances of several medicinal essences.

At this time, the Divine Sense played a significant role; insufficient Divine Sense would result in an inability to detect changes promptly, leading to failure.

Likewise, the quality of the Pill Furnace also played a key role at this stage; the fine-tuned sensitivity control could greatly reduce the difficulty of the Pill Master’s manipulation.

One hour later, all medicinal essences successfully merged into one.

The most critical step was completed, theoretically determining whether the pill could be refined.

Clearly, Li Ji’an’s first furnace of Foundation Establishment Pill being refined into a pill was inevitable; the only difference lay in the number and quality of the pill.

After another hour, the liquid within the Pill Furnace slowly rose under the influence of Spiritual Pressure and was gradually compressed into clumps, clustering into spheres.

On his first pill refinement, Li Ji’an did not harbor excessive expectations, seeking neither the number nor quality of pills, simply selecting the most central medicinal liquid, discarding any possible peripheral liquid that might cause pill impurities.

”Boom~”

Half an hour later, Spiritual Pressure collided, producing a faint sound.