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At the Pill Pavilion, a few disciples were drying medicinal herbs outside, while several others were in the distant fields searching for herbs. On the Shengtian Continent, only the Heavenly Pill Sect was the strongest in alchemy, the Spirit Talisman School specialized in refining talismans, and the Heavenly Secret Sect was proficient in formations and artifact refining.1 At the same time, the Heavenly Secret Sect was also the largest sect on the Shengtian Continent.
When the disciples saw Sui An, their eyes held a hint of curiosity.
They spent their years here learning alchemy and cultivating spirit plants, having no time to cultivate or even travel far. They were key protected members of the Demon Slaying Sect, so some disciples would often pass by here, occasionally recounting interesting stories from inside and outside the sect. The most frequent story they heard was about Sui An.
Especially a few days ago when they saw Sui An being dragged back to the Main Hall by Tan Yun, she looked like a rebellious child who had run away from home and was now furious with shame after being caught.
Sui An ignored these gazes and walked straight in.
In the center of the room was a huge cauldron. There was a ladder at its edge, and the patterns on the cauldron were still glowing with a faint red light, making the entire room hot. Surrounding the cauldron were rows of neat shelves displaying various porcelain bottles. Further in, another door led to another room.
Sui An did a full circle but saw no one.
She looked at the cauldron and curiously climbed the ladder.
It was pitch-black inside the cauldron. Sui An raised a hand, and a small flame appeared on her fingertip, illuminating the interior. She saw it was full of various medicinal herbs. It was clear the cauldron was being warmed, and the alchemy process had not yet begun.
“Junior Sister An?” Fan Tianyou walked in carrying a basket of freshly dried herbs. Seeing Sui An’s back, he almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, so he called out tentatively.
Sui An turned around. “Senior Brother Fan.”
Fan Tianyou was surprised. He placed the basket on a shelf. “It really is you. Why have you come here, Junior Sister An?”
“Didn’t Elder Kong Yue tell you?”
Fan Tianyou also had dual Fire and Wood spiritual roots, with a grade higher than Sui An’s—Earth-rank. He majored in his Fire spiritual root and was considered a talented disciple, as well as Kong Yue’s direct disciple. Logically, Kong Yue should have informed him.
Fan Tianyou scratched the back of his head. “Shizun has been in the inner room brewing Jade Flame Wine for the past two days. He probably forgot. Junior Sister An can just tell me directly.”
“Oh, it’s nothing much. I’ll just be coming here to learn alchemy for a while.”
Fan Tianyou was stunned and didn’t speak for a long moment.
“Is Elder Kong Yue in the inner room now?”
Fan Tianyou snapped back to reality. “Yes, in the inner room.”
Sui An didn’t pay much mind to his reaction. She turned and walked towards the inner room. The windows along the long corridor were open, offering a view of the spirit fields and medicinal herbs. The breeze blowing in carried the faint, fresh scent of grass, cool and refreshing.
As soon as she entered the room, Sui An smelled the fruity aroma of Jade Flame Wine. This made her feel as if Tan Yun were right there beside her, holding her in a tight embrace, never letting go.
Sui An shook her head. She saw Kong Yue checking the wine jars on the floor, shaking his head and sighing. It seemed this batch of Jade Flame Fruit had all been wasted.
“It’s over. There are no more fruits.”
Hearing this, Sui An said, “Elder Kong Yue.”
Kong Yue turned around, and upon seeing who it was, he slapped his forehead. “Aiya, so it’s my martial niece!”
“I’ve come to learn alchemy.”
“Good, good. Follow me to the outer room.”
Sui An asked, “Are there no more Jade Flame Fruits?”
Kong Yue smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry, don’t worry. We can buy more from outside. They’ll be delivered in a couple of days.”
“Alright.” Sui An was just asking casually.
She remembered that the Jade Flame Fruits were always supplied by the male lead’s family, which meant that Huaiyang might be coming.
Sui An sighed. If it was the novel’s setting that made her like Huaiyang, then it meant that Tan Yun must also have different feelings for Huaiyang.
If Tan Yun already had a good impression of Huaiyang at this point, then it was necessary for her to avoid this person and not get involved. It was just that her heart would likely feel pained. Perhaps Tan Yun had kept her confined in the sect because she was afraid of her getting close to Huaiyang. Not killing her, just imprisoning her, was probably because she still had some affection left from raising her all these years.
She rather wished Tan Yun could just be direct about it.
“Tianyou, are all the medicinal herbs ready?”
Fan Tianyou clasped his hands. “They are all ready.”
Kong Yue beckoned to Sui An and took out a packet of powder. “When we learn alchemy, we start with the simplest Qi Refinement Powder. Because it’s a powder, not only can we use spiritual energy to remove impurities, but it also helps us better control our spiritual energy… As for its drawbacks, they are also obvious: the medicinal power is dispersed, and the effect is poor.”
Sui An nodded. “I know this. When I was just gathering qi as a child, I relied on this Qi Refinement Powder to break through.”
Kong Yue nodded. He smiled and pointed at the large cauldron in the center. “The quality of a cauldron is related to the grade of pills an alchemist can refine. The patterns carved on it are done by a talisman master, the formation is set by someone from the Heavenly Secret Sect, and the material of this cauldron is also forged from thousand-year-old mystic iron. The quality of a cauldron is judged by these three things. This cauldron of ours is a Yellow-rank, high-grade one.”
“But… isn’t this cauldron a bit too large?”
Kong Yue smiled. “Isn’t that because there are too many people in the sect and too few alchemists? So the cauldron has to be a bit bigger. That way, we can refine a whole pot in one go.”
In that case, if there was a single mistake, the entire cauldron of medicinal herbs would be ruined. Sui An felt the potential loss wasn’t worth the gain, but she naturally wouldn’t say this out loud.
[Host, have him refine a pill once. The System will record his alchemy method and then calculate a better and more convenient way.]
“May I ask Elder Kong to personally refine a pill once?” Sui An feigned ignorance. “I don’t quite understand just from your explanation.”
Hearing this, Fan Tianyou took a step forward. “Junior Sister An, Shizun has been working hard brewing the Jade Flame Wine these past few days. How about I refine this Qi Refinement Powder in his stead?”
“Ah, it’s no matter. Those few jars of wine are ruined anyway, and I’ve been idle these past couple of days. I’ll just refine a few more pills to relieve my boredom,” Kong Yue said, pointing at Fan Tianyou. “You two, just watch carefully from the side.”
“Thank you, Elder Kong.”
“Yes, Shizun.”
Kong Yue sat cross-legged in front of the cauldron, and Fan Tianyou removed the ladder.
He formed a hand seal. “The formation on the cauldron can help an alchemist generate stronger fire spiritual power. Each formation has a different alchemy method, but you must remember, no matter which formation you use to refine pills, you must control your spiritual energy well.”
Kong Yue’s expression was serious, not as easygoing and cheerful as before. At this moment, he was an elder imparting knowledge.
The cauldron began to rotate on its own following Kong Yue’s hand seal. He said in a cold voice, “Remember, if the fire spiritual power you send is too weak, the pill will be impure with too many impurities. Conversely, if it’s too strong, the lightest outcome is a failed pill, the most severe is the pill exploding and destroying the cauldron.”
“Yes!”
A blazing fire ignited in Kong Yue’s hands, raising the temperature in the already steamy room by several degrees. He raised his left hand, and the fire shot into a square-shaped pattern. The pattern immediately began to rotate.
“Square formation, using flames to refine the medicinal herbs. The timing for adding the herbs at this point must be judged by one’s own perception.”
Kong Yue pointed at the medicinal herbs, and they flew into the cauldron.
One by one, they moved at an extremely fast speed, like the feathers of a spirit crane dancing in the daytime, dazzlingly brilliant.
When the cauldron lid closed, his right hand shot a flame into a circular formation. The circle began to spin, with dense lines drawn in circles on it. “Circular formation, for controlling the fire. At this time, you must control your spiritual energy well, until the pill is formed.”
[The lines on the circular formation are markings. Through these markings, you can clearly see whether the spiritual energy you’re sending is too much or too little. The design of this cauldron was an idea unconsciously brought in by people from the real world during its creation.]
‘So what?’
[The cauldron uses three formations. In a sense, this is a low-quality product. It’s not smart enough.]
Before Sui An could ask for details, Kong Yue shot out another flame. “Rhombus formation, for crushing and fusing the medicinal powers to form a powder.”
Small holes on the four corners of the cauldron opened, emitting bursts of medicinal fragrance. A hazy mist lingered in the room, making it feel like being in the clouds.
Kong Yue retracted his qi. He stretched, stood up, and handed a book to Sui An. “Because it’s a loose powder, I skipped the most important part of pill formation. It’s all in this book. You can study it more when you have time. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can also ask Tianyou.”
Sui An took it. “Thank you, Elder.”
“There’s no rush with alchemy. First, have Tianyou teach you how to separate the impurities from this cauldron of Qi Refinement Powder and learn to control your own spiritual energy. This way, when you fight against others of the same rank in the future, you won’t waste spiritual energy and will have more of an advantage.”
Sui An nodded.
After giving a few more instructions to Fan Tianyou, Kong Yue left. Fan Tianyou watched his departing back and pursed his lips. Only after his figure had disappeared into the mountains did he relax his brow and turn around.
“Junior Sister, you can take out the Qi Refinement Powder first. I’ll go clean the medicinal cauldron.”
“Alright!”
A typical medicinal cauldron had two small openings at the bottom of either end: one for dispensing the medicine, and one for filtering out the dregs. Fan Tianyou needed to clean out the dregs, and later a servant disciple would come to wash the cauldron.
Only an Immortal-rank cauldron with an attached spirit would leave no dregs, because the spirit would devour the dregs as food, preserving the full medicinal power as much as possible.
But an Immortal-rank cauldron was something one could only hope to encounter by chance2, let alone an Immortal-rank cauldron with an attached spirit. That was something everyone would fight for. If someone had one, they would likely be killed and have their treasure stolen with a single misstep.
Sui An took out all the medicinal powder, filling an entire basket. Just separating the impurities would probably take two or three days of non-stop work.
After Fan Tianyou finished cleaning up the pitch-black powder, he clapped his hands, dusting off the black ash. “Junior Sister, let’s go practice under the sun!”
“Alright.”
Fan Tianyou held a stack of medicinal paper. He placed it to the side and arranged it neatly. “Wrap the separated Qi Refinement Powder in the medicinal paper. I’ll demonstrate once.”
A portion of the powder in the basket slowly floated up, then spun into a funnel shape. The light white powder was on top, the heavy black ash on the bottom. Then, the black ash fell to the ground, and the remaining Qi Refinement Powder was wrapped in the medicinal paper.
“It’s that simple. Junior Sister, give it a try.”
Sui An frowned. For some reason, she felt that Fan Tianyou’s teaching was very perfunctory, with no explanation of techniques or instructions on what she should pay attention to.
It was somewhat inconsistent with her memory.
Sui An shook the thought from her mind. she had already delayed Fan Tianyou for a long time; she shouldn’t be too demanding.
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Glossary
Heavenly Pill Sect (天丹门, Tiāndān Mén): The sect renowned for its alchemy skills.
Spirit Talisman School (灵箓派, Línglù Pài): The sect renowned for its talisman-refining skills.
Heavenly Secret Sect (天机宗, Tiānjī Zōng): The sect renowned for formations and artifact refining, and the largest sect on the continent.
Mystic Iron (玄铁, xuántiě): A type of strong, high-grade metal common in Chinese fantasy, often used for forging powerful weapons and items.
Direct Disciple (亲传弟子, qīnchuán dìzǐ): A disciple personally taught by a master, implying a closer relationship and higher status than an ordinary disciple.
Qi Refinement Powder (炼气散, Liànqì Sǎn): A low-grade medicinal powder used to aid in Qi Refinement cultivation.
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Reika’s Notes:
- This text was translated by RudeGirl and given to BC Novels for publication.
- I helped with the footnotes, formatting, grammar, etc., the usual stuff that is needed to post this on the website.
- Please let me know if there are any errors. Thanks for reading!
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- The names of these sects follow a common pattern in Xuanhuan/Xianxia, where the name directly reflects the sect’s specialization. 天丹 (Tiāndān) = Heavenly Pill; 灵箓 (Línglù) = Spirit Talisman; 天机 (Tiānjī) = Heavenly Secret/Mechanism.
- 可遇不可求 – It’s a matter of luck, not something you can actively pursue; something that can only be found by accident, and not through seeking