The Path of Immortality: Starts With Creating Water Bear Gu

Chapter 20: The First Time Refining Pills

At this moment, Long Xuan was completely unaware that he had been mocked, and what was being mocked was his most prized imaginative thinking.

Seeing how stubborn this little medicine boy was, he decided not to persuade him any further.

“If you want to trade for my Little Strong Gu, you can, but its price is far more than ten thousand spirit stones now.”

“How about this, give me ten pieces of each kind of waste pill, and we’ll call it even.”

The little medicine boy nodded. Not to mention giving away some insignificant waste pills, he would have even paid an additional hundred thousand spirit stones eagerly.

“It seems you really don’t have the ability to turn waste pills into treasures. Otherwise, you would have taken all my discarded pills instead of just ten pieces of each.”

The little medicine boy smiled, picking up some of the wasted pills. He then took out a green tripod cauldron from his storage bag, threw all the waste pills into it, and handed it to Long Xuan.

Long Xuan glanced at him sideways and took out a small bottle containing the Little Strong Gu from his insect nurturing bag and tossed it to the medicine boy.

The little medicine boy happily received the small bottle, verified its authenticity with a blood contract on the spot, and then quickly began packing up his stall.

The waste pills were now treasures to him; only a fool would sell them.

At this time, the scar-faced burly man who had been arguing with the little medicine boy was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect that someone actually wanted the waste pills. Truly, the world is vast, and strange things happen.

Just as Long Xuan was about to leave, the burly man quickly stepped in front of him and hurriedly said, “Young friend, please stay. I also want to trade for the Little Strong Gu. I’m willing to use spiritual herbs in exchange.”

“These are all personally picked by me from the mountains. Feel free to choose.”

He quickly threw a storage bag towards Long Xuan, revealing a flattering smile, afraid that Long Xuan might leave.

Seeing his appearance, Long Xuan knew that this person must really love the Little Strong Gu.

With his muscular body and scarred face, it was clear he liked to engage in physical combat, frequently hovering on the brink of death. The Little Strong Gu would naturally become a favorite for such individuals.

The cost of the Little Strong Gu was extremely low, and Long Xuan still had many in his insect nurturing bag.

So, he casually took the burly man’s storage bag and checked inside, finding it filled with various spiritual herbs.

Coincidentally, the three herbs he was planning to search for were all inside, and in considerable quantities too. This was truly an effortless gain.

Long Xuan smiled with joy, then poured all the spiritual herbs from the storage bag into his own, leaving none behind. He tossed the empty storage bag back to the burly man, followed by a small bottle containing the Little Strong Gu.

...

By the time Long Xuan returned from the market, it was already late at night. Many people had wanted to trade for the Little Strong Gu, and poor itinerant cultivators especially loved to haggle, which took up a lot of time.

However, the harvest was gratifying. He had exhausted his savings while refining the Eye of Heavenly secret, but this batch of Little Strong Gu had replenished a lot of his funds.

He realized that the new project, the Divine ice Flame, would definitely be a resource-intensive endeavor. To refine the Divine Ice Flame, the materials consumed would likely be astronomical, so he needed to start saving spirit stones as soon as possible.

Although it was already late at night, he had all the materials needed for refining the Hundred Flower Pill ready. With everything in place, he could attempt pill refining for the first time now.

He was fully excited and eager to try, unable to sleep without refining a pill.

So, Long Xuan decisively took out the alchemy furnace and placed it on the ground, starting his first attempt at pill refining.

Having observed Elder Long for a long time, he might not know how to refine other pills, but he had thoroughly learned how to refine the Hundred Flower Pill.

The Hundred Flower Pill required a hundred kinds of spiritual flowers as materials. With such a large quantity of materials, the refined elixir would naturally be extraordinary. Its medicinal power was undoubtedly top-notch.

Following the method he secretly learned from Elder Long, Long Xuan activated his fire and wood dual attributes, with wood below and fire above, and conjured a flame in his palm.

To become an alchemist, one must meet three requirements: possess both fire and wood attributes, have a powerful innate soul, and have precise control over fire spiritual energy.

These three restrictive conditions were enough to bar the vast majority of people from becoming alchemists. Only one in ten thousand might have the qualifications.

Such harsh conditions made alchemists extremely rare and endowed them with unparalleled status.

Long Xuan, of course, met these requirements and even exceeded them.

His cultivation aptitude might be terrible, but his alchemy aptitude was truly exceptional.

When one door closes, another often opens.

Long Xuan's soul was not yet strong enough to lift the alchemy furnace, so he could only place it slowly on the ground.

He then controlled the flame in his palm to rise and fall to the bottom of the furnace, starting to preheat it.

The first step in alchemy was to use high temperatures to remove impurities from the spiritual herbs, retaining their essence.

Most of the material in spiritual herbs was useless, requiring the alchemist to have precise control over the flame to burn away impurities while preserving the essence.

This step was extremely difficult. If the temperature was too low, the impurities would liquefy and mix with the essence. If the temperature was too high, both impurities and essence would be burned. Achieving the perfect balance to burn impurities without destroying the essence was incredibly challenging.

Even more exaggerated, different spiritual herbs required different temperatures, and even the same type of spiritual herb might have slight variations. The same herb could require constant temperature adjustments at different times, which could drive one mad.

This first step alone stumped the majority of alchemists. Very few could complete it successfully.

Even the experienced Elder Long often burned spiritual herbs, wasting valuable materials during the refining process.

Thus, Long Xuan understood the difficulty of this step deeply and decided to be extremely cautious, focusing all his attention without the slightest slack.

After adjusting his state, he saw that the alchemy furnace was warm and casually grabbed a spiritual herb, tossing it into the furnace.

Just as he was about to increase the heat, something astonishing happened.

The furnace displayed a purification progress bar, showing 0% progress.

Long Xuan took a deep breath, almost unable to believe it.

He recalled that a similar situation had occurred during his first Gu refining.

It seemed that the progress display was not limited to inanimate or animate objects but also included ongoing activities.

For instance, if he was refining a Gu, it would show the Gu refining progress. If he was purifying spiritual herbs, it would show the purification progress. When he later refined the pill, it would probably display the pill refining progress as well.

This realization raised the upper limit of his abilities, and Long Xuan was extremely excited.

Thus, what was incredibly difficult for others became straightforward for Long Xuan.

He could clearly see the purification progress. If it steadily increased, it meant his operation was correct, and he just needed to maintain it.

If the progress suddenly changed drastically or disappeared, it indicated an error, and he needed to adjust the flame quickly.

With this error prompt, purifying spiritual herbs became easy for Long Xuan.

As expected, there were no surprises.

What was exceedingly difficult for others was incredibly simple for Long Xuan.

As a novice refining spiritual herbs for the first time, he not only made no mistakes but succeeded easily. Can you believe it?

If other alchemy apprentices knew this, they wouldn’t know what to think.

Staring at the purified spiritual essence he put into a vial, Long Xuan was in a daze, feeling like he was dreaming.

Was it really this easy?