Library of Heaven’s Path

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As the number one apothecary, Fu Jiangchen’s skills in controlling flames and his grasp of medicinal properties were indeed top-notch. All Zhang Xuan had to do was verbalize the timing and the steps, and Fu Jiangchen would be able to pull them off with an amazing level of precision.

It did not take long for over a hundred medicinal herbs to be added into the cauldron, each of them perfectly fused with one another. All in all, they formed a sphere of medicinal fluid that was roughly the size of a fist.

At the start, Fu Jiangchen was still getting shocked each time he saw medicinal herbs that were usually hard to mix together fusing together perfectly, but there eventually came a point where he got numb to the shock.

It was starting to feel like as long as he followed Zhang Xuan’s instructions, he would even be able to fuse even the heaven and earth impeccably together with one another.

He had been a little doubtful at the start about why that would be the case, but eventually, he had come to realize that the young man’s grasp over medicinal herbs had reached a level where he had an absolute grasp over each and every one of them.

For example, at the very start, he had been extremely skeptical about adding the Spittle of the Green Serpentine Dragon into the pill since the medicinal herb was renowned for its domineering poison. However, by abruptly raising the temperature to l,300 degrees within a single breath, it was possible to make the poison disappear temporarily for half a breath. As long as he fused the Densewood Flower together with it in this interval, not only would the poison not reappear, it would even have the beneficial effect of stimulating the cells in one’s body.

The same went for the Hundredleaf Violetscent Flower. It was known for its ability to freeze a person’s zhenqi, but by mediating it with certain medicinal herbs at a specific temperature, it would instead reinforce the cultivator’s meridians, thus allowing the cultivator to drive their zhenqi with greater vigor than before!

The young man had managed to draw out the beneficial medicinal properties from these herbs perfectly without wasting anything.

Fu Jiangchen had thought that he was nearing the peak of pill forging, but that day, he had witnessed something that he had never thought possible. He felt like the ceiling above him had shattered to reveal a brand-new sky.

“Wait a moment, this isn’t right…”

Just as Fu Jiangchen was going to heave a sigh of relief after seeing that nothing had gone wrong so far, he suddenly recalled something and anxiously turned his gaze toward Zhang Xuan. “I have already refined and fused the 107 medicinal herbs together, but why aren’t we adding in the main ingredient yet?”

He had been so preoccupied with the forging process that he had not noticed it before, but once his workload finally lessened slightly, it immediately struck him.

According to the pill formula, there was a total of 108 medicinal herbs, and he had already fused 107 of them together. So, why had the main ingredient not appeared yet?

The main ingredient was usually the crux of the pill. Like the foundation of a building, its presence served as the structure to build up the final product.

For most pills, the main ingredient was the first one to go into the cauldron, and the other medicinal herbs would be added in subsequently to mediate and fuse with it. Yet. strangely enough, he had forged 107 of the medicinal herbs already, and they were all just side ingredients…

Are you sure that this is going to work out?

This was similar to fried rice almost being ready to serve, but all that was in the bowl were onions, ginger, pepper, thirteen spice powder. Somehow, the main ingredient was nowhere to be seen!

Could the young man be pulling an elaborate prank on him?

“There’s no need to worry. Continue raising the heat in the cauldron,” Zhang Xuan replied with his eyes still staring intently at the cauldron.

“Alright…”

Fu Jiangchen was perplexed, but he did not dare go against Zhang Xuan’s instructions out of fear that his mistake would cause the failure of the pill forging process. So, he continued infusing his zhenqi into the cauldron, causing the flames to intensify furiously.

The temperature in the cauldron was rising at a terrifying pace.

Soon, the medicinal fluid started bubbling, but Zhang Xuan did not give the order for him to stop. Before long, it looked as if an explosion was on the verge of occurring.

Fu Jiangchen turned to Zhang Xuan and worriedly asked, “Is this enough?”

The medicinal herbs had already fused together, so there should be no need for the flame anymore. Furthermore, if they continued raising the heat, an explosion would really occur.

That would render all their previous efforts futile.

“It isn’t enough yet. Continue raising the heat,” Zhang Xuan instructed.

Fu Jiangchen gritted his teeth as he channeled his zhenqi into the cauldron furiously, causing the flame in the cauldron to surge rapidly once more.

“I have already raised the temperature to the extent of my limits…”

It was just a short five seconds, but the number one apothecary of the Firmament had already started sweating.

Due to the limitations of his cultivation, he could only intensify the flame within the cauldron to this extent. Running out of zhenqi would be a problem if he went any further than this, but more importantly, he could also lose control of the flame and cause an explosion.

The temperature is still slightly lacking…” Zhang Xuan frowned.

The Grass of God King was a medicinal herb that could thrive even within a spatial vortex, so the temperature needed to be extremely high in order to properly refine it. Even though Fu Jiangchen had managed to raise the temperature considerably, it still was not enough.

“I can’t go any further than this anymore,” Fu Jiangchen said with a pale face. “Furthermore, I only have enough energy to sustain the flame for thirty seconds. Beyond that, my zhenqi will dry up…”

He was infusing as much zhenqi as he could into the cauldron already, so it went without saying that this would take a huge toll on both his zhenqi reserve and his spirit. By his estimations, thirty seconds was truly his limit.

Once he ran out of energy, all his previous hard work would have gone to waste.

Zhang Xuan clenched his fists tightly upon hearing those words.

Despite all his planning, he had failed to plan for Fu Jiangchen’s sorely lacking zhenqi capacity…

Furthermore, if they could not reach the required temperature, it would be futile even if the other party held on for another thirty minutes!

“I guess I have no choice then…”

With a solemn look on his face, Zhang Xuan finally turned his gaze to Fu Jiangchen and started speaking. “You are currently at God King realm advanced stage, and you are already on the verge of making a breakthrough… While that won’t increase your zhenqi capacity by too much, it should increase the purity of your zhenqi considerably. That will allow you to further raise the temperature of the flames inside to meet the requirement.”

This was a very dire situation.

From the looks of it, there was only one way to prevent the pill forging process from failing, and that was for Fu Jiangchen to make a breakthrough in his cultivation!

As long as the latter reached God King realm pinnacle, he would be able to raise the temperature within the cauldron even higher. With that, he would be able to refine the Grass of God King and complete the pill!

Otherwise, all their hard work thus far would go to waste.

“Breakthrough?” Fu Jiangchen was rendered speechless after hearing Zhang Xuan’s words. “Now isn’t the time to be kidding around!”

Fu Jiangchen knew where his limits lay, and if it was possible for him to make a breakthrough, he would have long so. He would not have waited so long.

Furthermore, he was in the midst of forging a pill. It was taking everything just to maintain the flame within the cauldron, yet he was supposed to make a breakthrough under such conditions?

“I’m not kidding with you. This is the only way we can avoid the pill forging from ending in a failure,” Zhang Xuan said. “The reason your cultivation has stagnated thus far is due to your overreliance on pills. That has resulted in pill poison accumulating within your body, and no matter what you did, you aren’t able to rid yourself of it…”

As the saying went, ‘no medicine is devoid of poison’. Even the best pill would still leave all kinds of poison within one’s body. This would not pose much trouble in the short run, but as one’s cultivation rose through the ranks, and the requirement on the purity of one’s zhenqi grew more and more stringent, even the slightest hint of pill poison would make a world of a difference.

As one of the top apothecaries of the Firmament, there was no doubt that Fu Jiangchen had greater access to cultivation resources compared to other God Kings. In fact, it was mostly through pills that he had been able to reach his current realm.

It was inevitable that a huge amount of pill poison would accumulate in his body after consuming so many pills.

“I will help you clear your pill poison right now. There’s no need for you to think of anything except advancing your cultivation!” Zhang Xuan said.

Dozens of silver needles appeared between his fingers with a flick of his wrist.

Weng!

With a gust of wind, all of them flew straight toward Fu Jiangchen’s acupoints.

Fu Jiangchen was initially taken aback by his movements, and his first instinct was to resist the needles. However, he suddenly changed his mind and closed his eyes instead. “Screw it!”

Just like that, the silver needles pierced right into his body.