Chapter Twenty: Initial Exploration
Sent Feng Tao away, instructed Jiang Xiao Tie to continue watching the store downstairs, and Yuan Fu Tong returned upstairs. Sorted out the medicinal materials purchased today, selected the raw materials for Yiqi Dan, and prepared to open the furnace to refine the elixir.
After entering the 7th layer of Qi Refining, Yuan Futong's efficiency in refining these low-grade elixirs had already become very high. He could basically guarantee that they would all be mid-grade elixirs. Today, after seeing Feng Tao's attitude towards the quality of elixirs, Yuan Futong wanted to try and see if he could refine a high-grade elixir, and at the same time familiarize himself with the functions of Huo Yu again.
Bring out the Dan Ding, strike the Fa Jue. The Dan Ding changed from the size of a altar to the size of a water vat. Ignite the spiritual fire and open the lid at the same time, then add the medicinal materials in order into the Dan Ding. Yuan Fu sat cross-legged on the ground, focusing his mind to control the flames.
In the initial stages of alchemy, spiritual fire is used. As one progresses, earth fire must be employed. Earth fire is a flame drawn from the earth's veins, with greater power and temperature than spiritual fire. Many places can draw out earth fire from the earth's veins for use in alchemy. The elixirs refined using earth fire are of better quality than those refined using spiritual fire, as they have an advantage in terms of stable flames and temperature. A higher level of alchemical fire is the Samadhi True Fire used during the Golden Elixir stage, which is commonly used by high-level cultivators for refining elixirs, with effects far surpassing those achieved with earth fire. The best known alchemical fire is the Heavenly Fire, which can only be collected by a handful of top masters in the Embryonic Breath period. No one has ever seen what kind of elixir is refined using Heavenly Fire; even Yuan Fugui has only heard about it.
Having a good fire can improve the quality of alchemy, which is a recognized rule in the cultivation world. The four major sects all have high-quality earth fires and set up alchemy rooms at the earth fire mouths. It's said that there are people who specialize in controlling the earth fire, adjusting the flames for alchemy. Larger families also control some earth fire mouths, and even rogue cultivators who have reached the foundation period and know alchemy will often look for a small earth fire mouth to cultivate. However, Yuan Futong didn't think that far ahead; with his current cultivation level, he should still find it difficult to control the earth fire, so he hadn't thought about finding a small earth fire mouth specifically for alchemy.
Although there was no earth fire, the Huo Yu within Yuan Fugong's body had opened up another path for him. After breaking through the seventh layer of Qi Refining, Yuan Fugong's spiritual awareness became much stronger and more acute. Many things that he couldn't detect before were now noticeable to him. His latest discovery was that the Huo Yu could enhance his flames. Before breaking through the seventh layer, although the Huo Yu would provide him with magical energy, allowing him to complete the alchemy process, it didn't offer any other assistance. However, after reaching the seventh layer, he discovered that his spiritual fire was much more powerful than the one recorded in the alchemy manual, and its effect on purifying medicinal materials was also much better. Through careful observation with his spiritual awareness, he found that it was still the Huo Yu's doing. After being nourished by the Huo Yu, his spiritual fire's temperature and power were far greater than what they should be at his current level of cultivation. Every time he ignited his spiritual fire, the Huo Yu would release a thread of energy to join in, increasing the power of his flames. What Yuan Fugong wanted to do now was to see if he could control the Huo Yu to provide more of this energy. If it were possible, then the effect of his spiritual fire could be raised to the level of earth fire or even higher. In that case, the quality of his alchemical pills would definitely increase by a whole level.
Skilled in maintaining the flame, Yuan Futong put his main consciousness into the fire jade in his sea of consciousness. The fire jade was very silent in Yuan Futong's sea of consciousness, quietly staying in Yuan Futong's soul that had not yet condensed into a primary yuan god. It only continuously released energy, nourishing the soul and body. Yuan Futong's consciousness revolved around the fire jade for several circles, still without any reaction. The speed of the energy flowing out was still steady, but Yuan Futong discovered the path of the energy flowing out. At the very tip of the fire jade, the energy flowed out from here, merging into his own magical power, forming a powerful ling fire.
Yuan Futong studied for half a day, wanting to use his spiritual sense to guide this strand of energy, but it had no effect. He used his spiritual sense to surround the fire jade, tightly wrapping around the fire jade, but he couldn't stop the energy from flowing out. The fire jade seemed to ignore the existence of his spiritual sense, doing its own thing. Yuan Futong again used his spiritual sense to tie up the fire jade, wanting to pull it.
Divine sense is an upgraded spiritual power, which is commanded by the soul and is one of the superpowers that distinguishes cultivators from ordinary people. The main function of divine sense is to command the magical powers within the body and combine with magical powers to release spells, forming a strong combat force. However, divine sense itself is also a kind of power. Independent divine sense can also release spells, move objects, it's just that the requirements for divine sense are higher. High-level cultivators can kill low-level cultivators with just their divine sense alone. Yuan Fugui's current divine sense power can even move hundreds of kilograms of heavy objects when released outside his body, and the spell that cultivators often use to move objects is mainly released by divine sense.
But the power of divine consciousness can't even budge the Fire Jade. The Fire Jade seems to have taken root in his soul, and the power of divine consciousness doesn't even have the qualification to make it tremble slightly. Since there's no way to explore from outside, the only method left is to enter the Fire Jade and take a look.
When he first entered the Qi Refining stage, Yuan Fugui had also tried to do so. However, at that time, his spiritual consciousness was still weak and not sensitive enough, and he didn't have any experience or methods in refining artifacts, so he failed. When he reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining, he learned how to refine artifacts, but at that time, he was focused on learning alchemy and didn't think about studying this piece of Huo Jade. Until now, Yuan Fugui became more and more curious about the Huo Jade. It could be said that everything he had today was because of it, and he couldn't suppress his curiosity anymore, wanting to investigate further.
After waiting for the completion of this furnace's Beneficial Qi Pill, Yuan Futong meditated for half a day, restoring his magical powers and divine consciousness to their best state. He then began preparing to use the Ritual Refining Method to refine the Fire Jade.
Huǒ Yù brought Yuán Fú Tōng's soul across, and by itself should have already been considered a recognized master. However, Huǒ Yù's level was too high, and Yuán Fú Tōng's cultivation could not control it at all. Therefore, Huǒ Yù had always quietly stayed inside Yuán Fú Tōng's body, silently nourishing Yuán Fú Tōng's body with its most basic spiritual energy. When Yuán Fú Tōng began to cultivate, Huǒ Yù's functions slowly emerged. However, until now, the functions that Huǒ Yù revealed were all passive, and Yuán Fú Tōng had no way of commanding Huǒ Yù at all. Now that his divine consciousness' power has increased quite a bit, Yuán Fú Tōng wants to try controlling Huǒ Yù. Let's see if he can open up any new functions.
Wrapped the divine consciousness tightly around the fire jade, trying to merge with it. However, the divine consciousness did not enter, as if there was a layer of solid membrane in between. The ritual refining tool's spell was used, but the fire jade did not react at all. The seals that were placed on the fire jade melted away as soon as they got close, and none could be left intact. Yuan Fugong tried using all the ritual refining tool spells he had learned from San Yang Zhu Ji and Xuan Gui Yin Shui, but there was no effect whatsoever. After half a day of effort, there was not even a single gain. The only thing that became clear was that this fire jade was high-grade goods, and it was estimated that using methods to counter ritual tools would be useless against it.
After careful consideration, Yuan Futong condensed his divine consciousness into a thread. From the hole where the fire jade emitted energy just now, he pierced in. There was indeed a hole there, and the divine consciousness entered the interior of the fire jade from here. After entering the fire jade, the scene that Yuan Futong felt made him shocked.
As soon as he entered, it was a sea of fiery red, and his divine sense seemed to have entered the world of flames, where everything was burning with flames. His divine sense could feel the temperature of the flames, which were much higher than the temperature of his own spiritual fire, and their power should be much stronger too. This flame world seemed to have endless energy, supporting the boundless burning of the flames. It seemed that when he used his spiritual fire, the thing that provided him with energy and strengthened his fire was here. This was the outermost part of the Fire Jade, and the energy leaking out from here had greatly increased the power of his own spiritual fire. If he could control and guide the flames here to serve himself, then he would be able to refine top-grade elixirs now, and many foundation-stage elixirs as well. Because of the acknowledged ownership relationship, the flames did not cause any harm to his divine sense, but when his divine sense tried to guide the flames here, it was unsuccessful. Yuan Fugui attempted to use the fire-guiding technique from the Three Yangs Foundation stage, but always felt that his divine sense's power was insufficient to guide the flames here. Since he couldn't use the energy of this place for now, his divine sense continued forward in the world of flames, wanting to see if there were any other things inside. His divine sense advanced for a long time, but the environment did not change at all, as if this sea of fire had no end. The further he went in, the greater the pressure his divine sense encountered, and the higher the temperature of the flames became. His divine sense was slowly being consumed and compressed. Finally, when his divine sense sensed that there was a yellow world inside the fiery red world, his divine sense could not withstand the great pressure and could only retreat outward in flight.
When the divine consciousness withdrew from the fire jade, Yuan Futong was already exhausted. The pressure on the divine consciousness in the fire jade was too great, and the condensed divine consciousness had been compressed into a thread. Yuan Futong now felt drowsy, knowing that this was due to overuse of his divine consciousness, and he didn't dare sleep like this. He concentrated his last bit of energy, released several protective spells to guard his body, and began to cultivate to recover.
