Chapter 530 – Pill Refinement
Bang.
The moment Ye Zichen spoke, one of the disciple’s furnaces imploded.
With that, all of the other furnaces also followed. Fortunately, Old Lord Taishang immediately set up a barrier in front of them, otherwise, the kids might have been turned into smithereens.
“Whose furnace was the first to explode?” Old Lord Taishang frowned.
The disciples lowered their heads for a long time, then finally a dark faced disciple around thirteen or fourteen years old walked forward.
“Reach your hand out!”
The disciple obediently did so under Old Lord Taishang’s order. Old Lord Taishang whipped down with a willow branch.
“How many times did I tell you guys? Focus! You just refused to listen. Look at what happened, the furnaces have imploded!”
The disciples all looked down without daring to speak.
Old Lord Taishang let out a long sigh, “Go and copy the Focus Incantation thirty times, and hand it to me tomorrow morning!”
“Yes, Esteemed Master!” The disciples all walked out of the pill refinement room with lowered heads.
Old Lord Taishang rubbed his temples, then shook his head with a sigh, “They truly make people worry. Oh yeah, Sky Sovereign, what did you say just now?”
“I said that I want to learn pill refinement,” Ye Zichen said with a serious expression.
“Sky Sovereign, you should have seen it just now. Pill refinement requires you to be extremely focused. What’s more, natural talent and specific attributes are needed. Only people who naturally have the dual attributes of fire and wood are suitable for pill refinement. If… I’m not mistaken, you seem to lack any attribute.”
I didn’t expect him to be able to tell just like that. Even the old Dragon God needed to inspect for a while before making the judgment that I lack any attribute.
“The void of any attribute won’t do?” Ye Zichen frowned.
“No,” Old Lord Taishang replied. “I’m not tricking Sky Sovereign. The fire attribute allows one to better control the flames, and understand them better. The wood attribute is able to make the effects of the pill gentler and help it condense. You might be able to try if you had one of the attributes, but you…”
Old Lord Taishang’s meaning was obvious. He essentially said that it was impossible for Ye Zichen to become a pill refiner.
Yet, back when Ye Zichen was in the Immortal Region, he had already made up his mind to learn pill refinement…
If I’m unable to refine pills, then all my plans are ruined.
“But if Sky Sovereign insists, then you can give it a shot!” Just as Ye Zichen became rather dejected, Old Lord Taishang spoke up once again.
“Didn’t you say it won’t work?” Ye Zichen raised his eyebrows.
“It’s definitely not going to work without external assistance. I can teach you some pill refining techniques to see how good your talent is. If your talent is spectacular, there is a type of fire in this world called Beast Flames. It is the flames from Phoenixes, Fire Qilin and Frost Dragons. The flames from their bodies can be used to refine pills, but the ways of gaining these flames are extremely difficult…” Old Lord Taishang replied with a smile.
Ye Zichen’s dejected heart re-ignited once again, “Then I want to try!”
Thus, they set up the furnace and started the fire…
Ye Zichen sat cross-legged in front of the pill furnace. It was his first time refining pills, and the heat of the flames from the pill furnace caused him to feel rather uncomfortable.
“What you have to do next is refine a Spiritual Recovery Pill, a Spiritual Grade Level 1 pill, which is also what the disciples were refining just now. Since it is your first time refining pills, your target isn’t too high. All you have to do is refine it so that the shape is right!” Old Lord Taishang said, then opened up the furnace and popped the herbs in.
“Begin!”
The moment Old Lord Taishang shut the furnace, Ye Zichen put all his attention on the pill furnace.
Meanwhile, Yue Lao couldn’t help but speak up when he saw Ye Zichen completely focus, “Geezer, do you think Sky Sovereign can actually succeed?”
“It’s going to be difficult,” Old Lord Taishang shook his head. “His ability to focus is pretty good, but he has never study pill refining before, nor does he possess the fire or wood attributes. The chances of him actually refining a pill, even with my True Samadhi Fire underneath the furnace, is going to be tiny.”
“Then why are you still letting him try?” Yue Lao couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t it be better if you just directly tell him?”
“But didn’t you notice his expression? He will not give up if he doesn’t witness failure,” Old Lord Taishang shook his head, then patted Yue Lao’s shoulders. “C’mon, a first time pill refiner won’t be able to succeed without a few days. Grab someone from the group so we can have a few games!”
When Yue Lao and Old Lord Taishang departed from the pill refinement room, Ye Zichen, who was concentrating wholeheartedly on pill refining, did not notice at all.
It was as Old Lord Taishang said, it felt like a ridiculous wish for him to refine pills without either the fire or wood attribute.
Without the wood attribute, he was unable to sense the actual situation within the furnace, causing Ye Zichen to feel even more anxious. As he wished more and more desperately to sense the situation within the furnace…
Fiery Eyes of Truth, activate!
Through the Fiery Eyes of Truth, Ye Zichen was able to see that the herbs had already turned into powder. Now, the most important thing he had to do was help the pill take shape…
If he possessed the wood attribute, he would be able to rub the powder into a pill shape with his spiritual energy.
But he didn’t have it.
“Laozi’s not giving up!”
…
“Straight!”
Old Lord Taishang threw out a pile of cards. Both Yue Lao and God of Fortune looked at the cards in their hands, and passed.
“I was looking for you guys, why are you all here?” At that very moment, Ye Zichen walked over with dust all over his nose and face.
“Sky Sovereign,” God of Fortune and Yue Lao threw their cards onto the table and nodded towards Ye Zichen.
Seeing the other two did so, Old Lord Taishang also threw his cards onto the table. He didn’t mind, since the chances of him winning were actually rather low.
He glanced at Ye Zichen, then took note of the time.
It’s only been an hour or so, why did he come out already? However, when he saw what happened to Ye Zichen’s face, Old Lord Taishang said understandingly, “Your furnace imploded?”
“Nope,” Ye Zichen shook his head.
“Then why did you come out? Oh, I get it, did you give up because you lack the wood attribute, so you were unable to shape the pill?” Old Lord Taishang walked over understandingly and patted Ye Zichen’s shoulders. “Don’t mind it too much. You can develop in other areas even if you can’t refine pills. Sky Sovereign doesn’t have to be a pill refiner.”
“Yeah Sky Sovereign, don’t mind it too much,” Yue Lao also comforted from the side.
“Why are you guys all like this? Did you really think that I failed?” Ye Zichen raised his eyebrows, causing Old Lord Taishang and co. to be unsure of how to reply.
From their perspective, especially from the viewpoint of Old Lord Taishang, a true professional, it was impossible for Ye Zichen to succeed.
“Sky Sovereign, don’t mind it too much. We don’t mean anything bad with what we said. But it really isn’t possible for you to have succeeded under such circumstances. It’s just failure, it’s nothing special!” Old Lord Taishang sighed.
However, Ye Zichen opened his palm and smiled, “Who said I failed? Isn’t this a pill?”