After leaving the meeting hall, Xiao Yan returned to his room. After preparing some of the things he needed to refine the healing medicine, he once again quietly slipped into the remote cave in the back mountain where he had trained earlier.
Yao Lao had once said that one must not be disturbed when refining medicine. There were many people in the clan, and if they were to barge in like Xiao Yu did the last time, Xiao Yan would not be able to bear the consequences.
Sneakily entering the cave, Xiao Yan impatiently took out his storage ring from his bosom and inserted a stream of Dou Qi into it. The light red ring flashed slightly and a red medicinal cauldron that was nearly half a meter long appeared out of thin air in the cave.
The entire body of the medicinal cauldron was dark red in color. There were specks of light on it. There were two ferocious snake heads carved on the bottom of the medicinal cauldron. The mouths of the snake were wide open, forming two connected fire holes. The holes were curved and continuous. The deeper one went, the smaller the diameter. At a faint glance, it seemed to contain a profound mystery.
At the top of the medicinal cauldron, the giant snake coiled itself into a dark red cauldron lid. There was a special hole at the top of the cauldron lid. This was the place where medicinal ingredients were thrown in.
On the lid of the medicinal cauldron, there were some fine holes made of ice silver. These had the effect of dissipating heat to prevent the high temperature from causing the cauldron to explode. In the middle of the medicinal cauldron, there was a transparent mirror made of ice essence. From here, one could clearly see all the movements inside when refining medicine.
The surface of the cauldron was painted with beautiful carvings of magical beasts. It was so lifelike that it looked like it was alive.
Xiao Yan nodded his head in satisfaction as he looked at this gorgeous medicinal cauldron. He rubbed the ancient black ring on his finger and Yao Lao turned into a light that flashed and appeared.
"Hmm, two cauldrons. This is not bad for a newbie like you.”Yao Lao glanced at the three snake mouths on the dark-red medicinal cauldron and spoke in a faint voice.
"Two cauldrons?" Hearing this unfamiliar form of address, Xiao Yan blinked his eyes doubtfully.
"Medicinal cauldrons are also divided into different grades. The more fire openings there are, the higher the grade of the medicinal cauldron and the rarer it is. Don't think that this kind of fire opening is something that can be casually made by punching a few holes. The profoundness inside is simply difficult for laymen to discover. The fire opening is the essence of the medicinal cauldron and needs to be polished with high precision. During the forging process, as long as there is a slight mistake, the entire medicinal cauldron will become a failed product. Therefore, the more fire openings there are, the stronger the supplementary effect it has on refining medicine. If you want to control more than one fire mouth, you need a powerful soul perception. For you, controlling two fire mouths is already your limit.”Yao Lao smiled and explained.
"A good medicinal cauldron is as important to an alchemist as a sword in the hands of a warrior.”
Xiao Yan nodded his head in a somewhat enlightened manner. He looked at the big fellow in front of him and asked in a daze,"What should we do next?"
"You should familiarize yourself with the medicinal cauldron first. Place one of your hands on the flame and circulate the Dou Qi in your body into it.”Yao Lao sat in the cave and commanded.
Nodding his head, Xiao Yan touched the fire outlet and shut his eyes. The pale-orange colored vortex within his body fluctuated slightly. Waves of pale-orange colored Dou Qi surged out and finally illuminated his palm until it was slightly yellow.
After the orange Dou Qi reached his palm, it became quiet for a while. Then, as if it was being sucked by a strong suction force, it suddenly came out from his palm and entered the cauldron through the fire.
"Puff…"
A muffled sound rang out. After the pale-orange colored flow passed through the fire mouth, it was suddenly transformed into a pale-orange colored substantial flame. It continued to churn and burn within the medicinal cauldron.
Xiao Yan's heart was startled when his palm suddenly spat out a fire. He almost reflexively withdrew his hand. Fortunately, he suppressed his panic when he sensed that his palm was still ice-cold.
"Hmm, not bad. You can transform into flames on your first try.”
Yao Lao nodded as he looked at the churning flame within the medicinal cauldron. He said in a deep voice,"The flame that you have summoned is not a pill refining flame. Now, you should focus on controlling the trace of wood attribute within your body and pour it into the medicinal cauldron!”
Xiao Yan obediently shut his eyes. His mind slowly focused. His outstanding Spiritual Perception repeatedly scanned the thread of faint Wood Strength within his body.
This was the first time Xiao Yan had searched for the Strength of Wood in his body. He had found it in less than a minute. It was all thanks to his Super Intuition that he was able to find the Strength of Wood so quickly. Only then did Xiao Yan sigh in relief and open his eyes.
"Found it?" Yao Lao asked in a somewhat surprised manner when he saw Xiao Yan open his eyes. He involuntarily praised in his heart after seeing Xiao Yan nod his head. Back then, he had used nearly half an hour to search for the Wood Strength within his body. From this, one could see just how powerful Xiao Yan's Spiritual Perception was.
Xiao Yan extended a finger and gently pressed it on the other fire outlet. An extremely thin green-colored airflow was slowly poured in.
The green-colored airflow had just entered the medicinal cauldron when the pale-orange flame within it appeared to have produced a chemical reaction and suddenly quieted down. At this moment, even though Xiao Yan had yet to control the flame within it, he could sense that the wild and violent element within the flame had already been neutralized by the Strength of Wood. Moreover, due to the principle of wood producing fire, the current flame clearly possessed a longer endurance and control than before.
"Alright…" Nodding his head in satisfaction, Yao Lao extended his finger and touched Xiao Yan's forehead. A message was transmitted into the latter's head.
"This is a self-concocted healing medicine formula. You can try to refine it. I will remind you to control the temperature of the flame and the composition of the extracted medicinal ingredients at any time.”
Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes to sense the information in his head and nodded slightly.
"Blood Clotting Powder, one Blood Clotting Grass, one Vitality Fruit, two Poppies…"
After memorizing the number of medicinal ingredients in his mind, Xiao Yan's Spiritual Perception gradually invaded the medicinal cauldron and tried his best to control the relatively gentle flame.
Xiao Yan flicked his finger on the Storage Ring and a somewhat dark red Blood Clotting Grass appeared in his palm. After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Yan threw it into the coiled snake head at the top of the medicinal cauldron.
The moment the Blood Clotting Grass entered the medicinal cauldron, Xiao Yan did not even have the time to control it when the flame fluttered up. In an instant, a stalk of Blood Clotting Grass turned into dark-black ashes. Finally, it was expelled from the medicinal cauldron by a special setting.
Seeing his first mistake, Xiao Yan smiled awkwardly.
"Continue." Yao Lao said faintly.
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Xiao Yan once again threw in a stalk of Blood Clotting Grass. This time, his Super Intuition allowed Xiao Yan to clearly feel the appropriate temperature. His Spiritual Perception firmly compressed the temperature of the flame. His eyes passed through the ice mirror and stared intently at the stalk of Blood Clotting Grass that was suspended above the flame.
After tumbling in the flame for a moment, the Blood Clotting Grass finally began to gradually shed its turf. The juice contained within the grass was also roasted into a little pale white powder. The essence of the Blood Clotting Grass was successfully extracted by Xiao Yan on the second try.
Within the narrow mountain cave, the flame within the medicinal cauldron was reflected on the mountain wall, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it continuously jumped.
Xiao Yan's entire attention was focused on the churning flame within the medicinal cauldron. His somewhat pale face was covered with sweat. Refining medicine for a long time was a task that exhausted Dou Qi. Moreover, Xiao Yan's Qi Method was currently at the lowest Huang class Low Level. It was very difficult for him to have any advantage in terms of strength and endurance. Therefore, it was already very difficult for him to persist in refining medicine in front of the medicinal cauldron for nearly two hours.
Yao Lao narrowed his eyes as he watched Xiao Yan successfully refine the Blood Clotting Grass into a white powder once again. Knowing that Xiao Yan had already reached his limit, Yao Lao nodded slightly and softly said,"Alright, let's rest for a while."
Hearing this, Xiao Yan's shoulders, which he had been trying hard to maintain balance, immediately fell down. His body seemed to have lost all its strength as he softly lay on the cold ground. He panted in large mouthfuls as his chest repeatedly rose and fell. His entire body was numb and he was simply too lazy to even move a finger.
"This is the best time to cultivate.”
Yao Lao glanced at Xiao Yan, who was lying on the ground like soft mud, and spoke in a faint voice.
Laziness and diligence battled in his heart for a moment before Xiao Yan could only unwillingly wail and sit up. His trembling hands formed a training seal before he slowly closed his eyes.
Yao Lao smiled when he saw Xiao Yan's manner. His gaze shifted to the ten plus jade boxes placed in front of the medicinal cauldron. The jade boxes were filled with the pale-white powder extracted from the Blood Clotting Grass. These were the results of Xiao Yan's hard work earlier.
Looking at the jade boxes from left to right, the pale white color also became denser and denser. When it reached the last few jade boxes, the white powder within had already reached a pure white texture.
Eyeing this extremely obvious improvement, Yao Lao nodded his head in amazement. His heart once again praised Xiao Yan's outstanding Spiritual Perception.
Glancing at Xiao Yan, who was recovering his Dou Qi, Yao Lao sat cross-legged and leaned against the stone wall. He leisurely closed his eyes and rested. Xiao Yan had only refined the first ingredient. There were still two more ingredients waiting for him to slowly work hard.
……
After closing his eyes and recuperating for close to an hour, the vortex within Xiao Yan's body, which had appeared dim due to the exhaustion of Dou Qi, finally emitted a bright luster once again. Moreover, the glow this time around seemed to be a little brighter than a few hours ago.
Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes. The numb and powerless feeling throughout his entire body had mostly disappeared. He twisted his neck and the sound of bones colliding caused Xiao Yan to comfortably let out a breath.
"Have you recovered? Then let's continue." Yao Lao opened his eyes and eyed Xiao Yan, who had once again become lively, as he spoke with a smile.
Xiao Yan smiled bitterly and shook his head. After experiencing the painful medicinal refinement process earlier, Xiao Yan finally understood that he had been fooled by Yao Lao. In the past, Yao Lao only needed to extend his hand and randomly burn it a few times, and the medicinal pill that caused a countless number of people to go crazy for it was immediately baked. Such a simple process had also left Xiao Yan with the impression that refining medicine was extremely easy. However, now that he had personally refined it, he knew that this thing was even more tiring than hard labor carrying ores.
Now that he understood, it seemed to be a little too late. Therefore, Xiao Yan could only sigh gloomily. He once again sat in front of the medicinal cauldron and began to refine the essence of the other two medicinal ingredients.
With the experience of refining the Blood Clotting Grass earlier, Xiao Yan was clearly much more relaxed this time around. After burning two Vitality Fruits and one Poppy Flower after another, he successfully extracted the ingredients needed to concoct the healing medicine from the two medicinal ingredients.
The thing extracted from the Vitality Fruit was a kind of slightly black fine particles. These fine particles had the effect of removing blood clots and promoting blood circulation. In the wild, some experienced injured mercenaries often crushed the Vitality Fruit into minced meat to reduce their injuries if they did not have enough healing medicine.
What was extracted from the poppy flower was a light red liquid. This liquid had the effect of paralyzing the nerves and could be used to relieve pain.
Eyeing the three types of medicinal ingredients neatly placed in front of Xiao Yan, Yao Lao nodded slightly and softly said,"The required ingredients have been refined. Now, let's fuse their medicinal effects together. This is the most important step in refining medicine.”
Xiao Yan inhaled a deep breath of air and nodded with a solemn expression. He skillfully threw the pure white powder into the medicinal cauldron and used a warm fire to roast it for over ten minutes. When the pure white powder was slightly red, he swiftly poured the liquid of the Poppy Flower into it.
The liquid had just entered the medicinal cauldron when it wrapped around the pure white powder. It rolled for a moment within the flame before the two gradually merged into a kind of pale-red viscous liquid.
His Soul Perception was working hard to control the temperature of the flame, slowly roasting the light red sticky liquid.
Under the continuous roasting of the flames, the viscous liquid gradually turned into a dark red paste shape.
Staring intently at the cluster of dark red paste in the medicinal cauldron from the transparent mirror, Xiao Yan hesitated for a moment before throwing the small black particle of the Vitality Fruit into it.
The tiny black particles entered the medicinal cauldron. Under a temperature that was neither high nor low, the tiny black particles turned into a clump of black powder that slowly floated into the cluster of pale-red paste, dyeing the latter's color even darker.
When the final pinch of black powder floated into the flour paste, Xiao Yan let out a long sigh of relief. His hand slowly left the fire mouth. Following the withdrawal of Xiao Yan's hand, the flame within the medicinal cauldron also gradually extinguished.
Yao Lao smiled as he watched Xiao Yan, who was panting non-stop. He waved his hand and the lid of the medicinal cauldron flew off. With a beckon of his right hand, a large cluster of dark-red paste within the cauldron flew out of thin air and finally floated in the air above the mountain cave.
Yao Lao glanced at the cluster of dark-red paste that was emitting a rich medicinal smell. His hand cut down from the air. Following a wave of his hand, the cluster of dark-red paste that was continuously flowing was also divided into at least a hundred tiny pieces of paste liquid.
Taking the storage ring from Xiao Yan's hand, Yao Lao flicked his finger and over a hundred small jade bottles immediately filled the narrow cave.
Yao Lao randomly waved his hand after arranging the jade bottle. The paste liquid in the air accurately fell into the jade bottle.
Casually taking a jade bottle, Yao Lao smiled and handed it to Xiao Yan. He said with a teasing smile,"Congratulations on your first successful concoction, and it was perfect!”
Xiao Yan impatiently received the jade bottle. He eyed the extremely pure dark-red medicinal liquid inside and an excited pride involuntarily surged into his heart.
"Yeah, from now on, I can be considered an alchemist!”
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