Chapter 19: Alchemy

  Qiong City was enormous, several times larger than Mo Jia City, which was Leng Yun's original destination. From a distance, Leng Yun could see the massive city lying beside a great river like a giant beast. The shock he felt was much stronger than before. Moreover, due to the presence of this river, the spiritual energy of water in this area was extremely abundant, which would be very beneficial for Leng Yun's cultivation of the Xuan Water True Frost.

  Following the strange old man, the two of them swayed and staggered through the city gate after paying the tax. For Lingyun, who was truly entering the city for the first time, the scene of people coming and going was incredibly exciting. As they walked, she looked around in all directions, especially at the various shops along the street.

  The old man seemed to be familiar with the city of Qiong, and led Leng Yun to rent a small courtyard by the city wall. Although it was not large, its location was exceptionally quiet and inconspicuous. Afterwards, the old man walked around the courtyard for a while, doing something unknown, but soon the originally somewhat noisy courtyard fell silent, leaving Leng Yun staring in amazement.

  "Kid, the fabric array method will be taught to you after your elixir skills are accomplished. From today on, except for evening cultivation, you must use the morning to learn about elixir refinement. As for the afternoon, it's up to you to arrange. If you want to go out and play, that's fine too."

  After finishing speaking, the strange old man led the way into a side room. Before Leng Yun could say anything, two large purple wooden cabinets, each over one person tall, had already appeared by the wall. As for the strange old man's magical items, Leng Yun was no longer surprised. Who knew how many legendary Qian Kun bags the old man had, and just how vast their spaces were.

  "These two cabinets contain some ordinary medicinal materials." After finishing, the strange old man casually threw more than a dozen jade slips to Leng Yun, "These are some Dan formulas related to the medicinal materials in these two cabinets, including refining methods. Take a good look first, familiarize yourself with the properties of the medicines, and I'll personally teach you how to refine the elixir ten days later."

  After finishing speaking, the strange old man didn't stay for long and actually walked out of the yard. For a moment, the newly rented yard was left with only Leng Yun. As for the old man's style, Leng Yun had already gotten used to it over the past year and wasn't surprised at all.

  Since he's here, let him stay. Moreover, this strange old man seems to be exceptionally powerful. As for learning alchemy, although Leng Yun doesn't know how good it is, he also doesn't dislike it.

  In the following ten days, Leng Yun devoted himself to cultivation and began to silently memorize the medicinal materials in the two large cabinets. In fact, he had seen these medicinal materials in the nearly 4,000 books he had read, as most of the more than 3,000 books were medical texts or travel notes on medicinal herbs. This was only his first time seeing the actual objects, but after comparing and verifying them, it didn't take him long to distinguish them clearly.

  In addition, each grid of the two large medicine cabinets has the name of the medicinal material engraved on it, and these medicinal materials have all been processed. Especially in one grid, three hundred-year-old ginseng were sealed in three crystal long-necked bottles using the secret technique of the Dan toxin sect.

  However, in these two cabinets, there were even more strange and bizarre poisonous components, such as the Seven Star Centipede's venomous liquid, the Flying Snake's fang, the Ghost Spider's silk, the Thousand Year Old Toad's skin, the Ghost Snake's tongue, and so on. Although Cold Cloud felt a chill run down his spine when he saw these things, he had read about them in books before, including how to collect and process them. After all, it seemed that the Dan Poison Sect was most skilled at refining poisonous elixirs. With this knowledge, he was able to remain calm in the face of these highly toxic substances, but if he were asked to personally touch them, he wouldn't dare.

  In the past ten days, Leng Yun had been devoting himself to cultivating the Xuan Yin Ding with all his might, aside from reviewing it once. Although he hadn't planned on making this ding his main magic treasure, he still needed to use it to refine dan, and couldn't delay any further. However, as he continued to cultivate, he indeed felt the benefits of the ding towards the Xuan Shui True Essence. It could actually make the originally not-so-pure Xuan Shui True Origin become even more refined, which was a great help to his cultivation of the Xuan Shui True Essence.

  Ten days later, the strange old man returned on time. This time, the strange old man was not injured, but instead seemed to have a spring breeze-like energy.

  Looking at the Cold Cloud Furnace that had been refined to the point where it could be placed in the Dan Tian for warm nourishment, the old man was very satisfied.

  "Our Dan Du Men is most famous for its poisonous techniques, but to cultivate poisonous techniques, one must first cultivate antidotes. Therefore, the first step in cultivating Dan in our Dan Du Men is to refine the Seven Stars Antidote Dan. This is the most common antidote Dan in our Dan Du Men, and you should remember the formula."

  Leng Yun hastily nodded, and afterwards, the strange old man waved his hand, and a person-sized, entirely colorful ancient cauldron appeared in front of him. Looking at the several strands of colorful smoke swirling around the cauldron, Leng Yun didn't wait for it to spread before hastily using the Turtle Breath Technique to seal all the orifices on his body. This was also a usage method that Leng Yun had learned after obtaining the Turtle Breath Jade Slips.

  For Leng Yun's quick reaction, the old man was exceptionally pleased. He poured a stream of true yuan into his golden cauldron while happily tossing a pair of colorful and somewhat eerie long gloves to Leng Yun. "These are third-generation ancestor's gloves made from the thousand-year-old seven-colored spider king's poisonous silk. Our Dan Duomen only has three pairs, and I'm giving you one."

  This thousand-year-old Seven-Colored Spider Silk Glove was something that Cold Clouds had seen records of in several books, known as the "Impenetrable to All Poisons", one of the Dan Xuan Sect's most treasured items used for refining elixirs and capturing poisons.

  After receiving the gloves, Leng Yun was extremely excited and thanked the old man repeatedly. The old man simply waved his hand casually, "In our Dan Duomen, we emphasize that there must be punishment for past mistakes and rewards for achievements. This is a reward for your turtle-breathing technique, which is indeed not bad. In the past few days, I have been to several strongholds of the Dan Ding Sect, and those turtle bastards still haven't discovered that it was me. Let's see how they find me in the future."

  Leng Yun was about to say a few flattering words to make the old man happy, but at this time, the old man suddenly waved his hand and said, "You carefully watch how I refine this Seven Stars Detox Pill. Although the quality of this pill is only lower-grade Xuan stage, it's the most famous detox pill in our sect and unique to Dan Du Men. Remember not to use it recklessly later on, or if you're targeted by those turtle grandsons from Dan Ding Sect, with your current cultivation level, you'll definitely be finished."

  Any Dan Fang of the Dan Du Men emphasizes using poison to counteract poison, and this Seven Stars Detox Pill is made from seven common poisonous substances. In the Dan Fang of the Dan Du Men, this can only be considered a very ordinary pill, because in all the Dan Fang of the Dan Du Men, even the lowest are Xuan-class, let alone Huang-class, which in the Dan Du Men can only be considered a legend. According to Lao Tou's words, the Dan Du Men never refines Huang-class pills, it's not worth mentioning that person. However, although Leng Yun doesn't know what a Huang-class pill looks like, he always feels that refining Xuan-class pills in the Dan Du Men is somewhat simple.

  For half a year, Leng Yun devoted all his thoughts to the great cause of alchemy. For some people, this kind of alchemy might be unbearable, but he found pleasure in it instead. In less than half a year's time, Leng Yun learned how to refine twenty-three kinds of Xuan-level medicinal pellets. However, when he learned the twentieth one, the old man stopped teaching him personally, saying that learning twenty kinds of medicinal pellets was equivalent to mastering alchemy, and afterwards, he could refine them just by looking at the recipe. Although this was what he said, the time it took for each of the last three medicinal pellets to be successfully refined was more than ten times that of the first twenty, and the initial success rate was less than one-tenth of the first twenty. This consumption was too great, so much so that after half a year, the two medicine cabinets which originally seemed to have plenty of materials were emptied in an instant. When he found the old man meditating with his eyes closed in the courtyard, the reply he got almost made Leng Yun angry to death.