Rising from Small Cloud Rain Technique

Chapter 250: Chapter 235: Daoist Master Zhengyang

Late noon, at the Earth Fire Chamber of the Grotto Mansion on Red Flame Peak.

Ji An pressed the Jade Slip against his forehead, contemplating the refinement of the Yellow Bud Pill.

This pill requires five ingredients: Yellow Sprout Rice, Crimson Flower, Profound Jade Ginseng, Ice Spirit Flower, and Fuling.

The main ingredient remains Yellow Sprout Rice, but the required degree of refinement for it is a notch higher than for refining Fasting Pills.

For Fasting Pill, the Spirit Rice only needs refinement once, whereas the Yellow Bud Pill requires thrice refinement.

Putting down the Jade Slip, Ji An lit the Clear Spirit Bamboo Charcoal, adeptly using the Warm Fire Finger Technique of the Three Yang Pill Fire Technique.

The pale cyan flame remained stable, nurturing the Cyan Lotus Fire Cloud Furnace.

Fire clouds floated and cyan lotuses swayed on the furnace’s surface; the furnace was well-prepared.

Ji An used the Object Control Technique to open the furnace lid, poured in the Yellow Sprout Rice, filling one-third of the furnace space.

His hands deftly performed the spell, while the flame beneath the furnace maintained a light cyan hue.

His finger technique shifted from warm fire to nurturing fire, the flames evenly spreading across the furnace’s lower half.

The temperature in the furnace rose steadily; Ji An’s finger technique changed once more to fire manipulation, causing the flames to surge.

He effortlessly refined the Spirit Rice twice, but during the third refinement, there was a sudden “poof” sound from the furnace.

The sound was faint, yet to Ji An, it was as thundering as a roar.

Wisps of cyan smoke emerged from the furnace, and he found that the Yellow Sprout Rice essence had turned into a mass of blackened substance, with a burnt smell permeating the room.

Ji An bared his teeth; the attempt started poorly.

He used the Small Cloud Rain Technique to wash the furnace, pondering what went wrong.

After a moment, he roughly understood the issue: the furnace’s temperature continued to rise, exceeding the maximum threshold the Yellow Sprout Rice essence could withstand. Therefore, he needed to weaken the flames by using the Three Yang Pill Fire Technique.

When refining Fasting Pills, since the ingredients only required one refinement, this problem never surfaced.

The master’s words were correct; refining such a pill begins to test one’s refining experience.

Having understood the cause, Ji An began a second refinement of the Yellow Sprout Rice.

As he performed the spell, he constantly monitored the furnace’s temperature and soon achieved the required number of refinements for the Spirit Rice essence.

Ji An continued refining the Spirit Medicine essences: Crimson Flower, Profound Jade Ginseng, Ice Spirit Flower, Fuling—all needed secondary refinement.

He failed once each during the second refinement of Profound Jade Ginseng and Ice Spirit Flower, but everything else proceeded smoothly.

After half an hour, Ji An finally refined all five ingredients.

“In the future, I should probably take on an alchemy apprentice to handle essence extraction tasks daily, reducing my workload.”

He muttered this, washed the furnace again, and continued the refinement.

In alchemy, a hierarchy of monarch, minister, assistant, and envoy is emphasized. In the Yellow Bud Pill, Yellow Sprout Rice is the monarch medicine, being the main source of spiritual energy in the pill.

Crimson Flower and Profound Jade Ginseng are the minister medicines, enhancing the pill’s efficacy. Ice Spirit Flower is the assistant medicine, boosting the effects of the monarch and minister medicines, while Fuling serves as the envoy medicine, balancing the properties of various ingredients.

As the furnace’s temperature gradually increased, Ji An placed the Yellow Sprout Rice essence inside, waiting for it to melt into a liquid.

Then he added the faint red Crimson Flower Crystal and the light white Profound Jade Ginseng Crystal. The two crystals slowly melted, distinctly presenting two colors in the spiritual liquid.

Immediately after, Ji An threw the pale blue, nearly transparent Ice Spirit Flower Crystal into the furnace.

“Boom!”

The furnace suddenly exploded, the lid was flung open, and the medicinal liquid splashed all over the place.

’Damn, an accident happened!’

Ji An chuckled wryly. The Ice Spirit Flower is inherently cold; when adding this Spirit Medicine essence, the furnace’s temperature should have been lowered before adding the essence.

After the Ice Spirit Flower essence fully merged into the medicinal liquid, Fuling essence should be added to harmonize the medicinal properties, finally condensing the liquid into pills.

Ji An cleaned the furnace and continued refining.

Such small failures had no psychological effect on him; instead, he saw them as beneficial.

It’s better to step into every pitfall now; the current pill’s value is low, making it ideal for accumulating experience.

Had there been unresolved issues, that would have been the real danger.

If such unexposed problems were to erupt while refining high-tier elixirs, the loss would be unbearable.

After refining the Spirit Medicine essence, Ji An began the true refinement.

Knowing precisely where he went wrong, the second refinement was much easier.

After another half hour, Ji An used the Pill Separation Technique, and condensed four pills, while several others were substandard, and even one pill had abnormally high Pill Poison and was a wasted pill.

He crushed the wasted and substandard pills directly, then placed the Yellow Bud Pills into a medicine bottle.

Ji An closed his eyes, carefully recalling the rhythm of his alchemy, pondering areas for improvement and ways to improve.

After reviewing for a moment, he opened his eyes and began the third round of refinement.

This time was another success, forming four pills.

Although the number of formed pills didn’t increase, the refining efficiency was noticeably faster.

With such a success rate, the cost could likely be recouped.

After completing three furnaces of pills for the day, Ji An opened the Earth Fire Seal and took out several fist-sized Meteorite Iron Ores before using the Pill Fire Technique.

This set of techniques could not only be used for pill refinement but was also excellent for ore refinement.

The earth fire surged forth like a Fire Dragon, and Ji An, using the fire manipulation finger technique, controlled the flame to envelop the ore obediently.

The earth fire at Red Flame Peak contained a trace of the Gold Element Spirit Mechanism, so when refining ores, there was no need to focus on removal; these mechanisms could instead nurture Metal-elemental Spiritual Objects.