In the Cultivation World, Alchemy is a profound discipline.
If one reaches a certain Realm, they can use their Divine Thought to control the Dan Fire, directly roast the Medicinal Plant to burn off impurities and retain the essence, extracting the medicinal juice from the Spiritual Plant.
All the medicinal juices from different types of Spiritual Plants are purified and then fused together.
After cooling, it becomes a Medicinal Pill.
This is an Advanced method of Alchemy.
Evidently, Disciples in the Qi Refinement Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage cannot use this method for Alchemy.
On one hand, they do not possess powerful Divine Thought, making them unable to use Divine Thought to separate the medicinal juice from the impurities. On the other hand, since a Golden Core has not condensed in their Dantian, they naturally cannot summon Dan Fire.
Therefore, the Alchemy method for Low Grade Disciples is simple and crude: boiling.
Water is added to the Pill Furnace, and after the Medicinal Plants are cleaned, they are also put in.
Then, the boiling begins.
After boiling, the essence within the Spiritual Plants will be released into the water, and finally, after the water boils away, what remains is the essence of the Spiritual Plants.
This method is extremely clumsy, and the success rate of forming Medicinal Pills is extremely low; often, only one out of ten furnaces succeeds.
However, this is the Alchemy method for Low Grade Disciples in the Cultivation World; there is no other way apart from doing this.
He Pingsheng can only use this clumsy method for now.
The Medicinal Plants and Pill Furnace have all been reinforced.
What was originally twenty portions of Medicinal Plants has now become forty portions!
Crucially, these forty portions of Medicinal Plants are all of High Grade quality.
Previously, it was Wang Dun's Pill Furnace, which was a Low Grade Magical Artifact, with only one Restriction on it.
Now, after being reinforced by He Pingsheng, this Pill Furnace has become a High Grade Magical Artifact, possessing four Restrictions.
Moreover, there are two such Pill Furnaces, one square cauldron and one round cauldron.
“Hehehe…” Seeing the Pill Furnace, He Pingsheng chuckled, “A High Grade Magical Artifact! When I go to Matou Mountain Market next time, I’ll sell this thing. It should be worth quite a few Spirit Stones, right?”
In the Cultivation World, the grading of Treasure Artifacts is quite strict.
From Low Grade to Advanced, they are sequentially Magical Artifacts, Spiritual Artifacts, Magic Treasures, Profound Treasures, and so on.
Generally, the Treasure Artifacts used by Disciples in the Qi Refinement Stage are of the Magical Artifact level.
Those used by Foundation Establishment Stage Disciples are Spiritual Artifacts.
Golden Core Stage Disciples possess the basic conditions to nurture Magic Treasures, so generally, Cultivators at Golden Core Stage Layer Three and above will possess Magic Treasures.
As for Profound Treasures and similar items, they are treasures used by Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.
Of course, it is not always so.
For instance, some impoverished Early Stage Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators might still be using Magical Artifacts.
And whether it is a Magical Artifact, Spiritual Artifact, Magic Treasure, or Profound Treasure, they are all divided into four qualities: Low Grade, Medium Grade, High Grade, and High Grade.
Taking Magical Artifacts as an example, a Low Grade Magical Artifact has one Restriction on it!
A Medium Grade Magical Artifact has two Restrictions on it.
A High Grade Magical Artifact has three Restrictions on it.
A High Grade Magical Artifact has four Restrictions on it.
And so on!
When it reaches the level of Spiritual Artifacts, even the very lowest grade Spiritual Artifact has five Restrictions.
It can be understood that the more Restrictions a treasure has imprinted on it, the higher the level of the treasure, and the more powerful its might.
He Pingsheng reached out and took the round Pill Furnace in front of him.
It was the size of a palm.
“Open…” He shouted loudly, and the spiritual energy in his body surged over with a rumble.
The Pill Furnace instantly transformed into the size of an iron pot, with four Restrictions on it.
However, unfortunately, none of these four Restrictions had been refined.
So, using this Pill Furnace as he wished would likely be impossible.
Before Alchemy, one must first refine the Pill Furnace.
“Come on… I wonder how long it will take to refine it!”
Next, it was time to refine this Pill Furnace.
Unbeknownst to him, another two months passed.
He Pingsheng refined all four Restrictions on the Pill Furnace.
“Open…”
“Close!”
“Release!”
After refining it, He Pingsheng found that the Pill Furnace was much more convenient to use; he could freely take it out and also store it in his Dantian.
Of course, this Pill Furnace also has a certain storage space, where some items can be temporarily placed.
Next was Alchemy!
The first step was to summon the Pill Furnace, transform it into the size of an iron pot, and place it in the courtyard.
It could only be placed in the courtyard, because a fire also needed to be lit, which would definitely not work indoors.
The second step was to add water to the pot.
Then, the Spiritual Plants were added in sequence, and the boiling began.
The boiling process required the utmost care and caution.
However, it was not a big problem; the method of boiling and refining this Medicinal Pill, the control of the heat, and what situations would occur in the pot at what time, all these things were clearly recorded in the “Thirty-Six Methods of Elixir Refining”.
He Pingsheng had long since memorized these things perfectly.
The first to be put in was the immortal bamboo shoot, then the seven-leaf spirit grass, the third was the Spirit Apricot, and finally, the last to be put in was the Vermilion Fruit.
Everything was stable and in order.
Half an hour later, a strange aroma emanated from the Pill Furnace.
However, it was not particularly strong.
Only He Pingsheng could smell it, his neighbors could not.
Even if they did smell it, they wouldn't come over to inquire, because He Pingsheng's neighbors were all ordinary people, and none of them were Cultivators.
After a few more hours!
He Pingsheng scooped out and discarded the impurities in the pot, then began to boil down the remaining small amount of mixed medicinal juice in the pot.
Watching as the Medicinal Pill gradually took shape, finally forming twelve pills.
But before they truly solidified, a loud bang erupted from the pot.
Bang…
It exploded!
First attempt at Alchemy, failed!
However, what comforted He Pingsheng was that even though the Alchemy failed, he obtained twelve waste pills.
They were similar to the twelve pills he had obtained earlier in the Pill Refining Room on Xiuzhu Peak.
“Phew…” He Pingsheng let out a sigh of relief, putting away the waste pills.
These things were waste pills to others, but to He Pingsheng, who possessed a Heaven-Defying item like the gathering treasure basin, they were treasures.
Because they could be directly purified, and after being reinforced by the gathering treasure basin, they would become High Grade Gathering Qi Pills.
The first furnace failed!
He Pingsheng did not rush to refine the second furnace, but instead calmed his mind and began to ponder.
Why did it fail?
Where did the problem occur?
What was the problem?
How to solve it?
With the problems and solutions in mind, He Pingsheng began to refine the second furnace.
But the result was undoubtedly the same; the second furnace also failed.
Alchemy has no shortcuts.
It relies on repeated failures, accumulating experience and feel.
Fortunately, even when he failed, he could always refine waste pills.
In the following days, He Pingsheng spent his time on Alchemy.
He refined two furnaces daily.
One in the morning, one in the afternoon.
Day after day.
When He Pingsheng refined the seventeenth furnace, he finally succeeded.
He Pingsheng was overjoyed.
“Hahahaha… I can do Alchemy now… I can refine Gathering Qi Pills…”
What he didn't know was that for a normal Middle Stage Qi Refinement Stage Cultivator, it was almost impossible to refine their first Medicinal Pill without at least a hundred attempts.
The reason He Pingsheng was able to find the knack on the seventeenth furnace was, firstly, because his Divine Thought was stronger than Disciples of the same Realm, and secondly, he had the Heaven Rank “Thirty-Six Methods of Elixir Refining” as a boost.
Otherwise, he would not have been able to succeed in refining.
“Again!”
Next, He Pingsheng continued with Alchemy.
However, he didn't succeed every time.
His success rate in Alchemy was approximately one-fourth.
In other words, on average, he could refine one furnace of Medicinal Pills from four portions of Spiritual Plants.
This success rate was already very Heaven-Defying.
Because even ordinary skilled Alchemists had a similar success rate in forming Medicinal Pills.
If one was just starting out, some might not even succeed in refining one out of ten furnaces.
Of course, He Pingsheng felt that if he were to refine Medicinal Pills in the Pill Refining Room on Xiuzhu Peak, this success rate could be further improved.
Additionally, if his cultivation increased and his Divine Thought continued to grow, the success rate of Alchemy would also significantly increase.