Chapter 222 Alchemy Exchange Meeting 2
At this moment, Sang Yunchu also sat down cross-legged, about a few steps away from Zhong Cai. His position would not disturb Zhong Cai's alchemy, and he could also see all of Zhong Cai's reactions.
Wu Shaogan and his master Jiang Chongguang had quietly taken up their seats at the back, where they wouldn't block Zhong Cai and Sang Yunchu's view, but would completely envelop the master and apprentice under their protection.
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The moment Zhong Cai was ready, almost no one spoke. Almost all the alchemists' eyes were on Zhong Cai, watching how he would demonstrate his alchemy skills.
Even alchemists of level six and above were watching, including those who had also gone to the Pill God Tree. Although they had seen Zhong Cai refine level four pills, the difficulty of breaking through from level four to level five was greater than that of breaking through the previous levels. They also wanted to see what kind of transformation Zhong Cai had undergone in his alchemy skills after returning from the Pill God Tree.
Even other level eight alchemists would not overlook Zhong Cai.
Because they all expected that Zhong Cai should possess a level nine inheritance! Some of the methods and ideas involved can be gleaned from Zhong Cai's refining process.
Sang Yunchu dared to have his own disciples demonstrate without worrying about being shunned by the senior alchemists for one reason—they all had to watch carefully!
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Zhong Cai warmed the stove at a leisurely pace, not in a hurry at all.
His fingers moved constantly, and in just a few breaths, he had already changed three different hand gestures.
Why are there three types?
Any alchemist with some lineage can see that the way each hand gesture is made is different. Some hand gestures are responsible for large, sweeping movements, some are responsible for fine details, and some are supplementary to the former two.
Each technique controls the degree to which the wood fire is used to warm and nourish the furnace.
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Before nurturing the furnace, the alchemist must have a complete memory of the entire formula and be quite skilled at it during practice in order to ensure that every inch of the furnace is at the appropriate temperature.
In addition, alchemists also need to be able to perfectly control the heat and maintain the furnace temperature at all times, or to accurately time the furnace to cool down. For example, if there are medicinal herbs that need to be placed at the bottom of the furnace when the furnace temperature is about 30 degrees Celsius, the alchemist can keep that part of the furnace at 30 degrees Celsius, or they can time it so that the furnace temperature is just about 30 degrees Celsius when the medicinal herbs are put in.
There are many factors that influence which method to choose.
For example, if the fourth ingredient to be added is the one that requires three-tenths of the heat, and another ingredient with seven-tenths of the heat is to be added to the same part of the furnace before it, then you can only use the seven-tenths heat first, and then use other hand gestures to adjust the temperature, and so on.
The more medicinal herbs there are, the more complex the cooking process becomes.
The interactions between them are ever-changing, and special circumstances may arise at any time, requiring the alchemist to make timely adjustments.
Controlling the heat has always been a difficult point in alchemy. Alchemists must fully understand the formula in order to ensure that each medicinal material reacts properly with the temperature after being put into the furnace during the refining process. Only in this way can they strive to bring out the best in the medicinal properties without damaging them.
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In the eyes of many alchemists, Zhong Caiwen was very skilled at warming the furnace.
Most alchemists are quite good at mastering one fire control technique. They often try to divide the wood fire into several streams that swirl around the furnace, carefully controlling where to make it hot and where to make it smaller.
Zhong Cai used three different hand gestures in succession.
He manipulated wood and fire with ease, able to easily disperse and scorch them with a hand seal, then instantly change the seal to unleash a raging fire. He could also use different hand seals with his left and right hands, alternating between them... His various techniques were effortless and precise.
The process of warming the furnace, which many alchemists find extremely troublesome, becomes incredibly simple under Zhong Cai's manipulation of the wood and fire.
Moreover, Zhong Cai was refining a common elixir formula—many alchemists of level five and above had this formula and had tried to refine it. Therefore, while Zhong Cai's movements were smooth and graceful, they could easily discover that the furnace that Zhong Cai had nurtured was perfect, and there was no mistake in the temperature of any part of it.
That's amazing!
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The higher the level of the alchemist, the more knowledgeable they are. So when they understand these three fire control techniques, they have already basically grasped some of the fire control ideas. They can compare them with the fire control techniques they have used, and they can also see some ideas about warming the furnace, thus gaining something.
At the same time, some advanced alchemists may know one or two of these three fire control techniques, but there are still some they are unfamiliar with. And through their discernment, they can see that the third one is more exquisite... Suddenly they understand that this third one is probably one of the gifts from the Alchemy God Wood.
Of course, this is not absolute.
All three fire control techniques are top-notch skills. If it just so happens that this young alchemist knows the last one and is unaware of the others, then it is quite possible that the Alchemist Godwood would instead offer the first one.
When these three hand gestures are used together, they become a highly efficient method for warming the furnace.
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Before long, Zhong Cai had completely finished her warming and nourishing process.
Then, he easily snapped his fingers a few times, and the wood fire quickly returned to the bottom of the furnace, burning quietly—as if the previous rampaging, overwhelming state that had swept across the entire furnace had never existed.
It's like handling heavy tasks with ease, or doing something understated...
Next, Zhong Cai took out a medicinal herb from the basket next to her.
The medicinal material is brown in color, resembling a tree root, with many one-inch-long tendrils at the bottom.
Zhong Cai ran his fingers back and forth across his beard a few times, and ten hairs appeared in his palm.
The rootlets hadn't been completely removed, but the entire root system had been discarded and placed in an empty bamboo basket that had appeared out of nowhere.
Upon closer inspection, the ten whiskers in Zhong Cai's hand were different from most whiskers, which had a dark, murky appearance. They were actually quite lustrous, and even had a faint red glow within them—this was the real medicinal material they needed.
Zhong Cai casually tossed ten whiskers into the air.
Thus, many alchemists immediately discovered that there were three tendrils on top and seven on the bottom.
With a flick of Zhong Cai's sleeve, the seven lower ones flew out, while the three upper ones fell directly into the alchemy furnace.
In an instant, a hissing sound burst forth.
A thick plume of white smoke rose from the entire alchemy furnace and quickly spread in all directions!
Zhong Cai quickly took out another medicinal herb from the basket, a thick, bright red leaf. He gathered the leaf in his palm, squeezed out a large amount of juice with his fingers, and dripped it into the alchemy furnace.
Something interesting happened.
Every time a few drops of juice fell, a large patch of white smoke would disappear... This speed was incredibly fast, and Zhong Cai seemed to have anticipated this, as a sudden burst of wood fire erupted the instant all the white smoke disappeared, instantly burning away the half-fallen juice!
At the same moment, Zhong Cai also threw the crimson leaves in her hand into the bamboo basket beside her.
In this way, the two medicinal herbs reacted together in the alchemy furnace. The furnace itself no longer showed any abnormalities. Only very slight crackling sounds of flames burning could be heard from time to time, and very occasionally, there were sounds as if bubbles were rising from the interaction of the herbs.
Zhong Cai's ear twitched slightly.
He seemed to be judging the effect of the mixed herbs by listening to the "bubbling sound".
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Zhong Cai's series of movements were so smooth that before countless alchemists could react, he had already processed two kinds of medicinal materials and overcome the first difficult hurdle of this kind of pill!
No, it should be said that this was not a difficult point for him at all.
He seemed to have an innate ability to precisely grasp the medicinal properties of every herb that fell into his hands, thereby controlling the amount of herbs needed to be used.
The amount of the tendrils is determined by the total amount of medicinal properties, and the amount of the subsequent dripping of the crimson liquid is determined by the medicinal properties contained in the tendrils.
Countless alchemists have found it difficult to control the amount of liquid when refining this kind of pill.
It's not that their control is inaccurate, but the white mist will immediately dissipate as soon as it appears, and naturally some of it will disappear. If the juice is not dripped in time, and the juice dripped in later is only based on the total amount of white mist lingering nearby at that time, some loss is inevitable.
If the alchemist reacts quickly enough when dripping the liquid, the white mist can serve as a basis for judgment. However, it is inevitable that the alchemist will not be able to control the process accurately when dripping the liquid for the last time. For example, the previous drop has already been neutralized, but the next drop or several drops are already falling to the bottom of the alchemy furnace. In this case, it is difficult to solve the problem.
Fortunately, adding a little less or a little more of this liquid won't cause the furnace to explode, and the pills can still be refined. However, this will lead to two more problems:
Firstly, the lack of some medicinal properties affects the final number of pills produced.
Secondly, any excess medicinal properties will turn into impurities, affecting the final quality of the pill.
In both cases, it is almost impossible to produce top-grade pills.
This is merely the first difficulty, or the first limiting factor.
Refining a level 5 elixir is not easy; the method of using each medicinal ingredient must be extremely sophisticated.
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The reason this kind of pill is common is because it is the Soul Fusion Pill.
The Soul Fusion Pill is very common in the fifth level, because any cultivator at this level absolutely needs to take this type of pill.
The refining process is indeed very complicated.
All pills involving the primordial spirit are extremely complicated.
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As Zhong Cai performed his technique, the alchemists began to whisper among themselves.
"Did you see those fire control techniques clearly just now?"
"I can see it clearly, but it's impossible to actually use it like that. Compared to King Zhong Dan, my fingers are like cripples, clumsy and difficult to switch quickly."
"Then you must have at least two fire control techniques at your disposal?"
"We alchemists all have two or three hand seals in our hands; it's just that we have to choose one to use when necessary."
These are all the truth.
Alchemists acquire their skills through various means, and many powerful organizations have such hand seals in their libraries. Perhaps the hand seals are not as exquisite as those shown by Zhong Cai, but the underlying principles are still there.
Why didn't they use three different hand gestures simultaneously to speed up the furnace warming process? Was it because they didn't want to?
They simply can't do it!
Among the various hand gestures, alchemists can only choose the one that best suits them.
Even using two at the same time is not allowed, let alone three!
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Some alchemists, after paying attention to the fire control technique, focused their main attention on the processing of medicinal materials.
"Zhong Danwang's method of selecting medicinal herbs is quite skillful."
“It’s not easy to choose the rootlets of the plant; if you’re not careful, you might end up choosing a fake one. But he used a throwing method, which seems to have also involved guiding the plantlets. That’s a pretty good trick.”
"This trick is very simple, but we just didn't discover it before. King Zhong Dan is really clever, bold and meticulous."
"Indeed, if one is not careful and loses control of the force, even one extra stubble could end up in the furnace and cause it to explode."
"Haha! After all, King Zhong Dan is a cultivator of the Suspended Illumination Realm, so he shouldn't be so incapable of controlling profound energy."
As the alchemists spoke, they also wrote down Zhong Cai's methods for processing medicinal materials.
Adopting Zhong Cai's approach will indeed save a lot of effort and reduce processing time.
There are also alchemists who are paying attention to the difficulties.
"Look at how Zhong Danwang processes the juice from the red maple leaves!"
"Zhong Danwang's technique for kneading the red maple leaves seems somewhat mysterious. Let me take a closer look..."
"Indeed mysterious! Each time the fingers knead, a drop of leaf juice is squeezed out instantly, and several drops are squeezed out after a few kneads. The size and amount of each drop seem to be exactly the same."
"No, no, it's not always the same. Look, my friend, on two occasions the leaf sap was clearly more concentrated, but the droplets were noticeably smaller overall. It's likely that Zhong Danwang deliberately adjusted the concentration of the medicinal properties..."
"So, King Zhong Dan has amazing control skills!"
"There must be a trick to this technique, unlike us, who are always a bit inaccurate at this step and prone to making mistakes."
"I wonder if I can learn this trick..."
"In my opinion, there doesn't seem to be any special skill involved; it's probably just a matter of practice. It might also be related to Zhong Danwang's talent for perceiving the properties of medicine. Those of us with less talent can't accurately control the amount of medicine contained in each drop, so we can't operate like him."
"What a pity..."
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By this time, although the alchemists had a lot of discussion and shared their insights, there were no further questions.
Zhong Cai's actions were very clear, and they could see everything clearly and quickly understand the specific ideas behind them.
And at this time, martial arts cultivators...
Most people were a little confused.
While the martial arts cultivators were indeed seated on the outer perimeter, their minds were also focused on the alchemists in front.
Since I noticed it, I started listening to what the alchemists were saying. But as I listened, I somehow found that I couldn't understand much of what they were saying.
It's not that the sentences are too complicated, but rather that martial arts cultivators don't know how to refine this kind of pill. When the alchemists discuss it among themselves, they omit many common-sense points that they already know. For the martial arts cultivators, it means they understand every word but don't understand the specific meaning.
perhaps……
Summarize……
This Zhong Danwang must be very talented and skilled at manipulating the properties of medicine, right?
Some martial arts practitioners who were already more insightful had some understanding and could roughly deduce that this was probably similar to how they cultivated secret techniques—they also needed to have some understanding of the core of the secret techniques, and when honing their secret techniques, they also needed to master each skill precisely.
As they listened, they still couldn't grasp the more complex aspects, so they eventually focused solely on extracting information related to medicinal herbs.
In any case, martial arts cultivators always need to collect medicinal herbs to exchange for resources when they are training. The more they hear about it, the more they understand, and they can avoid a lot of trouble when they go to the wilderness.
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Zhong Cai continued to process the medicinal materials.
Each medicinal herb was like a toy in his hands; he handled it with remarkable ease and effortlessly sent it into the alchemy furnace with silky smooth movements.
When multiple medicinal herbs collide with each other, the resulting reactions become even more intense.
Occasionally, strange phenomena would appear in the alchemy furnace.
In the early stages, there was a large plume of white smoke, and in the middle, there was a pungent, fishy smell. If you didn't pay close attention, it was hard to tell whether all the medicinal materials were ruined or if the process was successful. This was the second difficulty. The alchemists couldn't judge the situation inside. Once they opened the furnace to check, the external air would enter, and any medicinal materials that weren't ruined would be ruined immediately!
This involves a hidden difficulty.
When most pills are being refined, the reactions inside the furnace can be judged by probing and scanning with one's spiritual sense. As long as the alchemist is experienced, the judgment can be accurate.
However, most of the pills related to the primordial spirit cannot be detected by the soul sense.
In this situation, once the soul is sent inside, it will be immediately devoured by the medicinal herbs. While this has little effect on the cultivator, it has a great impact on the medicinal herbs themselves—they will explode upon being devoured!
Therefore, whether it is neutralizing the white smoke or distinguishing the fishy smell, only the alchemist can make the judgment.
Zhong Cai was quite skilled at it; he was naturally gifted in this area and didn't need to put in much effort, being remarkably perceptive—but other alchemists might not be so—which is why it became a challenge.
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Zhong Cai has now reached the middle stage of refinement.
His movements remained fluid, and his handling of the medicinal herbs was always flawless.
Everything seems to be normal.
However, some astute alchemists noticed something and whispered to those around them.
"Is King Zhong Dan truly only capable of the Suspended Illumination technique?"
"Is this for real? He is indeed a Xuanzhao, and he is also capable of refining pills beyond his level."
"Gentlemen, refining pills beyond one's level takes twice as long as refining pills of the same level, and the amount of profound energy consumed is terrifying. But look at Zhong Danwang, he has already spent more than two hours, yet he shows no signs of consuming pills to replenish his profound energy, nor does he show any signs of excessive consumption of profound energy..."
Many alchemists suddenly realized what was going on and understood.
Yes, it's remarkable that Zhong Danwang has elevated his alchemy skills to such a high level at such a young age, but given his current cultivation level, his profound energy is probably still insufficient.
Often, it's necessary to add one or two more things.
Anyway, if you use level four pills to replenish your Xuan energy and eventually refine level five pills, it's not a loss.
At this moment, another alchemist suddenly said, "I know that the geniuses among the martial arts cultivators spend a lot of time and resources in the early stages of their cultivation to improve their foundation. Therefore, the total amount of profound energy they have accumulated far exceeds that of most cultivators, which also allows them to fight for longer periods of time!"
Another alchemist seemed to remember something and said, "I have a good friend in Canglong. He is a cultivator on the Canglong Ranking. It is said that he once saw the Daoist partner of King Zhong Dan fighting on the arena. He is such a genius!"
The other alchemists also understood.
"With such a Daoist partner, one must also value the accumulation of one's foundation. When King Zhong Dan was at a lower realm, he must have spent countless resources to lay a solid foundation for himself."
"It's a pity that we were so focused on alchemy back then that we didn't acquire a higher foundation, which is why we can only refine pills at the same level..."
"Haha! I can only reach the same level as others, but if I hadn't devoted most of my energy to alchemy, I wouldn't have been able to reach this level. The time required to cultivate my cultivation level has been reduced again and again, and this is the best I can do."
“Zhong Danwang is a top genius among alchemists, and he is naturally different from you and me.”
"But thinking about it carefully, if King Zhong Dan can handle both, his talent in cultivation is probably not low either... right?"
"Perhaps so, but taking more pills will always help me improve faster."
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Despite the discussions among many alchemists, they still held Zhong Cai in high esteem.
There are quite a few alchemists who can master both, but Zhong Cai is too young. Not only has his cultivation level reached the required level in time, but his alchemy skills are also so outstanding that he has surpassed many other alchemists.
As a result, the alchemists examined the samples even more closely.
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As Zhong Cai refined the pills, the advanced alchemists discovered many secrets.
There are many novel ways to process medicinal materials, but there is no doubt that these methods can save time.
Many alchemists at the seventh or eighth level couldn't help but calculate how long it would have taken them to refine the Soul Fusion Pill using their methods—but the final calculations all showed it would have been much slower.
...That's true, even at the fifth level, they couldn't reach the fastest alchemy speed.
Only a handful of alchemists can achieve the fastest refining speed—and this "fastest" already represents the ultimate standard of alchemy.
If it weren't for being precise every time and having no mistakes in any step, how could the time be compressed to the extreme?
Many advanced alchemists now recall that when Zhong Xiaodanwang was refining pills, it seemed that he always did it in the fastest time.
Now they want to see if the time for this batch of pills to be ready will be exactly four hours.
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Time passed by, bit by bit.
Zhong Cai's every movement remained precise, and her methods for processing medicinal materials and adjusting the properties of the medicine in the alchemy furnace were also very ingenious.
Just a quarter of an hour before the four-hour mark was reached, a rich fragrance wafted from the alchemy furnace.
Many alchemists turned their attention to that direction.
This fragrance is a sign that the medicinal herbs have reacted perfectly and are condensing into the elixir!
If this continues, perhaps...
One alchemist recalled his own lineage, which seemed to mention that the entire process of condensing the Soul Fusion Pill and determining the number of pills required took exactly one minute.
It is said that the longer the initial time is spent, the longer it will take to condense the elixir...
And now...
Doesn't this mean that Zhong Cai has indeed perfectly controlled the fastest alchemy speed?
These alchemists recalled the circumstances of their refining this elixir; during the condensation of the elixir... it seemed...
It takes a little longer than a quarter of an hour.
There are many more.
Their lips twitched slightly; for some reason, they felt a little awkward.
You don't know until you compare... and once you do, it's really embarrassing to see who's worse.
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