Chapter 16: Learning Dan Techniques (Part 2)

  Shi Sheng watched Wang Bo refine the elixir, memorizing every step, technique, temperature, and the order in which each medicine was added, as well as his control over time.

  After a long time, Wang Bo slowly reduced the fire and occasionally lightly patted the furnace, explaining to Shi Sheng: "This step is called Condensing Dan, which is also the most important place. It requires gentle shaking with residual force to disperse the residue."

  The essence of the medicine gathers in one place to form a ball, and after the success of the Dan Wan condensation, the temperature is quickly raised to solidify the Dan and increase the medicinal properties. The process of condensing the Dan is the most critical, and generally, most people fail at this step.

  Of course, if the refining of Van Dan fails, at most it will be difficult to disperse too many residues. If there are too many residues in the Dan pill, the medicinal properties will decrease. As long as the Dan is condensed and taken out of the furnace immediately, it won't stick to the pot!

  Shi Sheng didn't respond, but instead carefully listened and looked at Wang Bo's relaxed demeanor. Shi Sheng knew that he himself couldn't have done it so easily.

  In other places, it's easy to say, but in Jingdan, the stone birth feels a bit difficult. If the power is slightly stronger, the dan pill will be hard to condense. If the power is slightly weaker, it can't shake off the residual impurities that will accumulate in the dan pill. A small amount of residue will reduce the medicinal properties, but at least it can be used. Too much and it's a waste of elixir.

  Moreover, the control of fire is extremely subtle. As Wang Bo pounded the medicine cauldron, the essence of the medicine slowly gathered together to form a spherical shape, but it looked somewhat soft.

  Whoosh!

  Just as Sheng was watching the gathering of spiritual energy, Wang Bo suddenly controlled the furnace fire to rapidly increase in temperature. The dan pill slowly solidified inside the medicine cauldron, and a faint medicinal fragrance wafted out, but it was completely different from the fragrance that Sheng had asked about earlier, and did not have the same shocking feeling as before.

  Before long, Wang Bo controlled the fire temperature and it dropped again. The elixir had already condensed exceptionally and was slowly rolling inside the crucible.

  Bang! Wang Bo slapped the medicine cauldron with one hand, and a white awn shot out. With a whoosh, a thumb-sized, pure white pill accurately landed in Wang Bo's hand.

  "Haha, how's it going? Have you all seen it?" Wang Bo casually tossed the elixir to Shi Sheng.

  Holding the slightly warm Dan medicine, Shi Sheng furrowed his brow: "It looks like it's been seen before, but this Condensed Dan seems to be a bit difficult, let's try it first!"

  Wang Bo single-handedly picked up the medicine cauldron, and with a flip of his wrist, the residual dregs and cinnabar flowed out. By the time Wang Bo placed the cauldron on the stove, it was spotless, as if those remnants couldn't even stain the cauldron. Shi Sheng couldn't help but secretly sigh, indeed this was a spiritual artifact, an ordinary cauldron would never have such an effect.

  Shi Sheng didn't take action immediately, but instead pondered for a moment, rehearsing the process of refining the elixir in his mind several times. Wang Bo nodded slightly beside him.

  When it seemed like nothing was left, Shi Sheng picked up a whole emerald green medicinal herb with white flowers, which was the main medicine of Jin Chuang Wan, "Jin Chuang Hua". However, this flower only had three petals, and it's said that the number of petals is related to the year, with several petals appearing every few years.

  The medicine was thrown into the crucible, and then carefully controlled the temperature, following Wang Bo's method step by step, and finally slowly put the medicine in one after another.

  Seeing this, Wang Bo nodded his head, feeling that Shi Sheng's grasp of timing, sequence and fire control was not bad, which proved that Shi Sheng had a good memory and strong learning ability.

  However, Wang Bo slowly shook his head. Shi Sheng's every move was almost identical to Wang Bo's, but it was too stiff and rigid, fundamentally just imitating Wang Bo's appearance without grasping the inner essence.

  Wang Bo is watching the medicine material smelt to what degree, then add another medicine material, according to the medicine material's root slightly old and tender program grasp when to add temperature, Shi Sheng is completely following Wang Bo's time to do every step, almost completely not noticing the change of the medicine material in the pot.

  After a short while, Shi Sheng slowly lowered the flame, and the medicinal liquid had completely melted, reaching the point where it could condense into a dan. Shi Sheng's expression also became somewhat solemn.

  With a single slap on the small tripod, the essence of the medicine slowly gathered towards the center, and the residue was scattered around. Occasionally, some residue was mixed in, and Shi Sheng was somewhat anxious, adding more force, but just as the medicinal liquid was about to condense into a pill, it was dispersed again.

  After repeated failures, Shi Sheng was anxious but did not give up. He prepared to lightly tap the medicine cauldron again when a pungent smell of burnt offerings wafted out, followed by a faint wisp of cyan smoke that floated out and enveloped his face as he bent down to concentrate on the contents of the cauldron.

  "Cough, cough, I'm choking to death..." Shi Sheng didn't care about the medicine cauldron anymore, and was smoked by that puff of green smoke until he was dizzy. He suddenly lifted his head, stumbled backward several steps, and couldn't stop dry coughing, with red eyes.

  "Alas, you can even mess up the refining of ordinary Vandan. You're really one of a kind. Fortunately, I found some common medicinal materials to try out, otherwise they would have all been ruined by you. I thought you had at least half the talent for refining pills as you do for refining talismans... but it seems not... Ah, never mind..."

  Wang Bo's hesitant expression looked disappointed. "It's my first time, okay?!" Shi Sheng defended himself.

  "It's not a big deal if you fail for the first time, but succeeding in your first attempt at alchemy is truly rare. I'm lucky to have witnessed it. You're a genius at crafting talismans, and your elixir-crafting skills are truly exceptional. Alright, let's get out of here!" Wang Bo ignored the medicine cauldron and dragged Shi Sheng out of the secret room.

  Back in the main hall, Shi Sheng also shook his head and sighed. It wasn't because he regretted losing those medicinal materials, but rather because it seemed like he didn't have a knack for making money by refining elixirs.

  "Wang Bo, how much silver do those few medicinal materials cost? Are they expensive? If they're cheap, even if we fail four or five times and succeed once, selling the elixir would still be profitable." Shi Sheng seemed to have some lingering hopes.

  "Four or five times? Do you think it's a spiritual elixir? Even if you fail seven or eight times, succeeding once can buy a sky-high price, but this ordinary elixir, even if you want to fail four or five times, except for you, ordinary people probably can't do it." Wang Bo rolled his eyes.

  "Cough...cough..." Shi Sheng was somewhat speechless. This kind of person didn't even treat Wang Bo with respect, and his words were too sharp.

  "Jin Chuang pills were originally not expensive, and the price of this medicine would naturally not be too high, but it's also not cheap. Among them, that Jin Chuang flower is the most expensive, twenty taels of silver for one!" Wang Bo said.

  "Twenty taels of silver?" Shi Sheng felt a little heartache, he had just lost ten taels of silver due to his own carelessness.

  "What do you think? Jin Chuang Hua must be over three years old, otherwise the effect of Jin Chuang Wan is zero. Therefore, it's hard to find Jin Chuang Hua that has reached three years of medicinal properties on the market, almost all have been snapped up."

  However, Jin Chu Hua that is less than three years old is not worth much money. It can be sold for about ten taels of silver, which is already a good deal. Even so, no one wants to buy it because it's useless and needs to be taken care of for some time after getting it.

  "It's better to buy three years' worth of Golden Creation Pill and earn silver quickly, rather than being stuck with these silvers that can't be moved. Moreover, if you cultivate the medicinal materials yourself and something unexpected happens, you might end up losing everything." Wang Bo explained slowly.

  "Oh, that's right, Uncle Wang. I'll head back first and come find you again after I've finished drawing these talismans. Since I don't have any talent for alchemy, I won't be studying it anymore!" Shi Sheng bid farewell to Uncle Wang and left his house.

  ……

  "Go and take a look, someone in the Liu family has died again, it's said that the daughter-in-law committed suicide!"

  "It seems that Liu's family is really haunted. I even saw a black shadow floating out of their window one day, it scared me to death."

  "It's probably just your misconception, it's said that this time the child got lost and the daughter-in-law committed suicide!"

  Shi Sheng had just walked out of Wang Bo's house, not far away, when he saw a group of people running towards the village in a certain direction. Shi Sheng sighed secretly, others' families had died and they still went to watch the excitement, with this time it was better to go back and cultivate.

  "What? Boss is also here, are you going to watch the excitement?" Just then, Bai Ming ran over from a distance.

  "I'm not in the mood, I want to go back and rest. What's good about looking at a dead person?" Shi Sheng shrugged his shoulders.

  "Dead people? Who said we're going to see dead people? We're going to watch the excitement. Since Liu Laohan found a Taoist priest to relocate his ancestral grave, two people have died in his family."

  The first time was the son going crazy, almost chopping his mother to death, and finally suddenly taking his own life. This time it's the daughter-in-law hanging herself, but that swindler is still there performing rituals. It's said that the Liu family is haunted by ghosts, but actually it's all fake, just people going to see a commotion.

  Liu Lao Han hasn't done many good deeds, this is actually his retribution. Come on, old big, let's go see the excitement! As he spoke, Bai Ming pulled Shi Sheng and left. Upon hearing about divine arts and ghostly realms, Shi Sheng somehow didn't refute it, as if possessed by a mischievous spirit.

  But when they arrived at Liu's house, Shi Sheng was greatly disappointed. He had thought there would be some excitement, but it turned out to be just a man in his fifties who looked somewhat disreputable, holding a peach wood sword that seemed to be only a few years old, muttering something incoherently at the Liu's house, surrounded by a large crowd outside the courtyard.

  "Even if there really are ghosts, it's impossible for them to be caught like this, right?" Shi Sheng was somewhat speechless and after watching for a while felt that it wasn't very interesting, so he decided to leave.

  "Huh?" Suddenly, Shi Sheng felt that in the courtyard of Liu Lao Han, in a certain dark corner, there seemed to be an inexplicable fluctuation. If it weren't for the presence of spiritual energy, Shi Sheng would have been unable to sense anything, and that was absolutely a filthy aura.

  "Could it be that there really are ghosts?" Shi Sheng's hand slowly withdrew into his sleeve, tightly grasping the peach wood dagger, and slowly squeezed into the crowd. Before long, he arrived at the courtyard.

  Shi Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly, staring at the dark corner of the wall. He released his spiritual energy and sent it towards the corner, where it enveloped a small area. A moment later, a glint of light flashed in Shi Sheng's eyes.

  "Sure enough, there's something!" Shi Sheng felt a surge of invisible power bursting out from the dark place, breaking through his own mental strength and drifting towards the Liu family house, but nothing could be seen with the naked eye.

  Shi Sheng was not tense, but rather excited. The peach wood dagger slowly protruded from his sleeve, and with this treasure in hand, Shi Sheng wasn't too worried. After all, Wang Bo had said that it could counteract the filthy aura.

  "Huh? It's actually you? Hmph, what, come to steal our credit with our fellow disciples? Disciple brother, stop him!" Just then, Zhou Tao suddenly walked out of the crowd, glanced at the peach wood dagger in Shi Sheng's sleeve, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes. (End of this chapter, next chapter is even more exciting.)

  I've caught a cold and feel terrible, just got back from getting an IV drip and I'm rushing to write, it's snowing in Northeast China and the weather is too cold, everyone please take care of yourselves and stay warm, by the way, please collect, recommend, and help me out with everything!!!