The body of a cultivator at the third level of Qi training is far superior to that of an ordinary person. Although the bronze furnace is heavy, it can be moved if one really wants to.

It's just a little embarrassing.

Qin Gengyun finally moved the bronze furnace into the kitchen, leaning on his waist and panting.

He looked outside and said loudly:

"Fellow Daoist Qiu, today I not only bought a bronze furnace, but also spent one spirit stone to buy four pill stones and one spirit stone to buy a Qingling grass. Tonight is a bright moon in the sky, which is a good time to refine pills. How about I refine Qingfeng Powder tonight?"

After a moment, there was no response from outside.

Qin Gengyun walked out of the kitchen, but saw Qiu Zhihe had already gone to bed with her back to him.

Qin Gengyun had no choice but to say, "Fellow Daoist Qiu, you go to sleep first. I'm going to make the elixir."

After saying that, he walked back to the kitchen.

**, Qiu Zhihe, facing the wall, opened her eyes, and her slender arms stretched out from under the quilt, holding a Qingling grass full of spiritual energy in her hand.

This was cultivated by her using her spiritual power during the past two days.

Qiu Zhihe was silent for a moment, took out the storage bag, put the Qingling grass in it, and then closed his eyes again.

In the kitchen.

Qin Gengyun used a magic broom to clean the alchemy furnace, opened the bottom of the furnace, and placed a piece of alchemy stone into the fire room.

Then he activated his spiritual power towards the elixir stone, and soon the elixir stone caught fire.

Qin Gengyun quickly picked up the fire-controlling spirit fan and flicked it twice, and the fire in the elixir gradually became stronger.

There are seven steps in alchemy. The first step is to clean the furnace and sweep it clean to remove any impurities.

The second step is to make a fire, put the elixir stone into the elixir furnace, and use spiritual power to stimulate the elixir fire.

Qin Gengyun had completed the first two steps. The next step was to use it as medicine. He picked up the Qingling grass, opened the side door of the furnace, wrapped the Qingling grass with spiritual energy, and put it into the furnace.

Cleaning the furnace, lighting the alchemy fire, and adding medicine, the first three steps are very simple, but the subsequent steps will begin to test the alchemist's level and experience.

The fourth step is to chemically transform the medicine, controlling the fire to melt the medicinal materials and turn them into liquid medicine.

Usually at this step, there will be a spirit fan medicine official serving by the side, fanning the fire-controlling spirit fan according to the alchemist's instructions to control the size of the pill fire.

But Qin Gengyun didn't have the money to hire a spiritual fan medicine practitioner, so he had to do it himself.

While he was waving his spiritual fan to control the fire in the elixir, he was concentrating his spiritual awareness into the furnace to check on the progress of the medicinal materials being refined in the furnace.

Fortunately, Qingling grass, a first-grade medicinal herb, is very easy to refine. After an hour, the Qingling grass in the furnace had turned into liquid medicine.

Then comes the most difficult step - refining.

The so-called refining is to use spiritual consciousness to enter the furnace and separate the essence from the impurities in the medicine liquid. The essence remains in the main furnace, and the impurities are discharged into the erysipelas chamber.

In this way, only the most essential part of the medicine remains in the main furnace.

This step requires the alchemist to have extremely high spiritual control capabilities.

The difficulty is no less than peeling a raw egg with one hand or carving words on rice grains.

This step is the difference between alchemists and ordinary cultivators.

Many cultivators who want to become alchemists are stopped at this step and have to give up.

When Qin Gengyun was still an apprentice to an alchemist, he often trained his spiritual awareness. However, his spiritual awareness was not strong enough at that time, and he was unable to practice refining.

And this moment was the first time that he truly took this most crucial step as an alchemist.

In the alchemy furnace, Qin Gengyun's spiritual consciousness penetrated into the melted medicine liquid, separating the impurities from the essence bit by bit.

But he was not skilled enough and the process was very slow. After two hours, only half of the impurities were removed.

And most of his spiritual consciousness has been consumed.

But we have already come to this point. If we stop, the spiritual energy in the medicine will dissipate, so we can only continue.

Another hour passed, Qin Gengyun was sweating and his face was pale.

Most of the impurities were finally removed, but his spiritual power could no longer support it.

Bang!

Finally, his spiritual consciousness that had probed into the furnace became disordered, and the essence that was originally wrapped in spiritual energy exploded with a bang, spilling all over the furnace.

Refining failed.

This Qingling grass, which cost one spirit stone, was completely scrapped.

Qin Gengyun collapsed to the ground and raised his hand with difficulty to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

There is a saying among alchemists:

The one who succeeds in refining the elixir the first time is a peerless genius, the one who succeeds the second time is a genius, and the one who succeeds the third time is a gifted person.

The majority of people in the world succeed after trying four or five times, just like you and me in ordinary small towns.

It seems that this is true. The chance of successfully refining the elixir for the first time is even harder than passing the civil service exam in the previous life.

Qin Gengyun was mentally prepared. If he was a genius, it would be impossible for him to reach the second level of Qi training at the age of 35. Even a genius would not be possible.

Living in a small town, it's normal for me to fail two or three times.

Just one Qingling grass costs one spirit stone, which is really painful.

Qin Gengyun extinguished the fire in the furnace, washed up briefly, stood up and walked out of the kitchen.

My spiritual energy has been exhausted today, I will try again tomorrow.

When I walked to the bed, I saw the naked Qiu Zhihe still facing the wall with her back to me. She must have fallen asleep.

Qin Gengyun took off his coat, got onto the bed quietly, looked at the petite figure's back, turned his back and closed his eyes.

His spiritual power was exhausted, he was extremely tired, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

…

Yin hour.

Willow smoke lane.

Three men in black robes were guarding a bronze furnace, shivering in the cold wind in the early morning.

Zhao Yi poked his head out to look at the alley entrance and murmured:

"Why hasn't the senior come yet?"

According to the request of the senior last night, the three of them arrived at Liuyan Lane at 3:00 p.m. today, dragging the bronze furnace.

But after waiting for an hour, the senior still did not show up.

The three of them were injured last night and were poisoned by the Heart-Eating Pill. They were unable to withstand the cold winter wind in the middle of the night, but they did not dare to leave.

I can only stand in the cold wind and wait.

The three of them held their almost frozen bodies and waited anxiously.

Another hour passed, around 3:30 pm.

Finally, a tall red figure appeared.

"Welcome, senior!"

Zhao Yi, Qian Er, and Sun San immediately knelt down and shouted respectfully.

Zhao Yi pointed at the bronze furnace next to him with a flattering look on his face: "Senior, this is the furnace you wanted."

Qian Er smiled and said, "Senior, this bronze furnace was cleaned overnight, and I guarantee there is no impurity in it!"

Sun San said respectfully: "Senior, I also put four pieces of medium-grade elixir stones in the furnace, please accept them."

Zhao Yi and Qian Er turned and glared at him.

Damn, let this guy take all the credit!

However, just as the three of them finished speaking, they heard that ethereal voice:

"We don't need the alchemy furnace anymore, move it back."

The three of them looked up at the red-haired female cultivator in astonishment: "Ah?"

But the red-haired nun had already turned and walked out of the alley.

The three of them looked at each other, and Zhao Yi said, "What should we do?"

Qian Er said helplessly: "Didn't you hear what the senior said? Let's move back!"

Sun San said with a bitter face: "Brothers, if it were normal days, I could carry this small furnace back by myself, but now I am seriously injured, cold and hungry, and I really don't have the strength."

The two glared at him: "Aren't we the same? Stop talking nonsense and do it quickly. Don't let anyone see us!"

So, the three men in black robes lifted the heavy bronze furnace with difficulty and walked towards the narrow rain alley with grunts.