It had to be said that the passive techniques of the proficient class were really like a wonder, and knowledge that was forcibly instilled could save a lot of practice time.
It was the same with the “Mastery of Cooking” fire control, the proficiency of which should’ve been achieved by practice and sweat, but he already had it as if he’d been at it for many years.
Xiaoshou put a compressed fire under the tripod. The invisible flame started to burn, making the herbs in the tripod give out a sizzling sound and turn into ash.
However, a drop of condensed medicinal liquid was successfully left behind!
He was overjoyed. He’d succeeded after only the first trial.
“According to Elder Sang’s experience, just extracting a drop of medicinal liquid after refining the several small mountains of herbs inside the ring would be a success.”
“How many resources have I… saved?!” he thought.
Xu Xiaoshou was excited.
He tried several more times with various fire temperatures and didn’t fail even once!
“A perfect result!”
Xu Xiaoshou wrapped the medicinal liquid with the spiritual source and dragged it into the tripod. Then, he took out the “Method of Magic Pill Condensation” that Elder Sang had given him.
In it, the crude “Infernal Method of Magic Pill Condensation” was recorded. It instructed one to condense the medicinal liquid and then bake it into a pill, like what Xu Xiaoshou had seen Elder Sang do twice before.
No seal, spiritual array, or other accessory techniques of the regular magic pill cultivators were needed, and there was no special skill involved. All one had to do was just one word: baking!
“This is really impressive. This flame…”
In addition to the “Infernal Method of Magic Pill Condensation,” there were two other magic pill cultivation recipes inside the scroll for cultivating the Red Gold Pill and the Spiritual Magic Pill, both of which Xu Xiaoshou had taken before.
One of them was the tenth grade, and the other the ninth grade.
Xu Xiaoshou skimmed the instructions on how to cultivate the tenth-grade Red Gold Pills and found that he had the spiritual medicine in his ring that he could use to practice his magic pill cultivation skills.
Refining medicinal liquid was merely a matter of time, so he tried to carry out two tasks at the same time and found it worked.
But when he tried to refine three spiritual medicines at the same time, he found it was a bit overwhelming.
Having barely managed to do three at a time, he decided that there was no need to try to refine four spiritual medicines at a time. Thus, he went on with three medicines at a time.
By now, he’d realized how strong Elder Sang was. He could blend hundreds of pills together and refine them all and separate them into different categories without mistake.
“Well, there’s no rush. I’ll take my time. I’ve only just begun…”
He made up his mind. As time went by, all sixty-four types of acquired spiritual medicines needed for the Red Gold Pill were refined.
In total, the medicinal liquid he’d refined collected together was about the size of a fist, which was no match for the medicinal liquid the size of a human head Elder Sang had refined the other day.
Moreover, Elder Sang had refined several magic pills at the same time.
The key to the “Method of Magic Pill Condensation” was to make it in one trial. The magic pills were manufactured with instantly raised temperatures, scorching the surface and condensing the inside!
But it wasn’t quite…
“Hiss…”
Xu Xiaoshou looked at the empty tripod and found that the medicinal liquid he’d refined with a great deal of effort had all evaporated…
“D*mn it. It’s not working. I thought it would be easy to succeed!”
Yet, he didn’t feel dejected. He figured it was a process where practice makes perfect, and he felt that he’d already made some sort of shortcut.
“Carry on!”
…
After the sun set and more than ten attempts, Xu Xiaoshou was able to condense a magic pill the size of a bean.
“I can be considered a half tenth-grade magic pill cultivator now!”
He’d made unexpectedly swift progress, but Xu Xiaoshou was still unsatisfied to some degree.
“Though this thing can be consumed and is somewhat useful, the condensation process wastes too much medicinal liquid,” he mused, unable to help falling into deep thought.
“Try a different approach?
“Instead of using the ‘Method of Magic Pill Condensation,’ I should use… the method ‘Mastery of Cooking?'”
Xu Xiaoshou’s expression turned peculiar, but not because he thought this approach wouldn’t work; on the contrary, his brain felt like it was being poked by a needle as this great lot of ideas suddenly poured out.
Yet, he felt it was a bit odd.
He had a mild toothache at the moment. However, he would regret it if he didn’t give the idea a try. Maybe something amazing might happen.
“Just give it a try then,” he decided.
The steps to refine the medicinal liquid remained the same. After the process was completed after a great deal of effort, Xu Xiaoshou didn’t use the “Method of Magic Pill Condensation.” Instead, he chose to use the most reliable approach, which was, according to his thoughts, to maintain the flame at “simmering.”
The method of boiling soup used to cultivate magic pills!
“But I don’t know if my idea will work…” he thought to himself.
Xu Xiaoshou was somewhat excited. If this approach succeeded, he would make history and could set a new trend of cultivating magic pills in the future.
“Goo, Goo, Goo!”
The medicinal liquid rolled up and down, the thick spiritual mist steamed, and the gas circled around the surface of the tripod.
Though it looked empty above the tripod, it was covered by an array to ensure that the medicinal properties wouldn’t be lost, which was why Xu Xiaoshou had dared to adopt the “boiling soup” approach.
The spiritual mist flowed back and then was constantly collected back to the original medicinal liquid. As time passed, the medicinal liquid grew less and less.
“Collect the juice…”
Xu Xiaoshou felt hungry when he saw the gold and red sticky medicinal liquid. Looking out the window, he found that night had arrived, but this pot of soup…
Ahem, this pot of medicinal liquid had been boiling for several hours.
When all the medicinal properties were recovered, the tripod showed a drop of red-golden liquid… No, this could no longer be considered a liquid. It was something in-between a solid and a liquid. Very Q-bomb.
The exciting instant condensation hadn’t happened. What had happened was the natural process of “boiling soup.”
Xu Xiaoshou pulled out this drop of “red gold liquid” and held it in his palm, thinking that its medicinal properties were much stronger than those of ordinary Red Gold Pills!
Feeling excited, he took out Hiding Pain and stabbed his sword into his palm.
The blood oozed out. Eternal Vitality was acting up. Yet, Xu Xiaoshou waited until after he’d drunk all of the “red gold liquid” before pulling out the black sword.
One breath later.
The lad collapsed to the ground with his elbows by his ribs, his knees touching each other, and his shoulders pushed high while he tilted his head to one side.
“Giggle, giggle…”
The medicinal properties of the red gold liquid turned out to be many times more terrifying than those of the Red Gold pills.
He’d thought his immunity to the medicine was strong, but he couldn’t stand this wave of pleasure attacks.
Xu Xiaoshou slowly recovered after several breaths, and he found that the wound on his palm had disappeared and that there was still a large amount of medicinal residual left in his body.
He stabbed his palm with the sword again. The medicine swarmed to the wound, and the wound was repaired instantly without a scar.
“So amazing. A drop of red gold liquid is probably as good as ten Red Gold Pills!”
He had eaten Red Gold Pills, so he well knew the value of red gold liquid more than others.
He seemed to have succeeded after having tried the new approach, and, moreover, he seemed to have exceeded the upper limit of Red Gold Pills!
“This is only the Red Gold Pill. If I can use the ‘boiling soup’ method to cultivate the spiritual pills and the Origin Court Pill…”
Xu Xiaoshou’s mouth opened wide, and his eyes flashed with greed.
“I’m rich. I’m rich!”
He suddenly realized that the “boiling soup” method didn’t have the last step of condensing the pills and that the efficacy after the formation of drops was dependent on the amount of the spiritual medicine boiled.
“Thinking about it, it seems that I can cause a qualitative change through a quantitative change.
“For example, if I put in more of the herbs and merely condense a drop of liquid, then the efficacy of this drop must be better than the one I swallowed earlier!
“It’s quite possible!
“However, the cultivation of magic pills has developed for so long, as such, someone must have thought of the ‘boiling soup’ method. Or maybe nobody carried it through?”
Xu Xiaoshou pondered this, doubting that he was the only one who had thought of this method. There must be geniuses out there who’ve thought similar ideas.
“Could it be that it’s not easy to preserve?”
Many thoughts flashed through his mind. In the end, he decided to wait for the completion of the method of “Infernal Pill Condensation” and then ask Elder Sang all of these questions.
“If I try to figure all of this out on my own, I might make mistakes and go astray, which would be a worse result.
“The method of ‘Infernal Pill Condensation’ is the only one left…”
This was something he must learn. He figured that he had no choice but to learn it no matter what.
“Though I should continue the study of the method of “boiling soup”, I can’t lose sight of the essence of the magic pill cultivation technique. After all, the outside world only recognizes the magic pills so far.
“If I took a drop of liquid to the outside world, I don’t think anyone would want it!”
A look of determination appeared on Xu Xiaoshou’s face.
“I’ll learn it in three days!”