Chapter 17 Success

  Zhao Chunxin's nature is pure and good, and his relationship with Lin Feng is not ordinary. As the conversation reached this point, Lin Feng had nothing to say except gratitude. Moreover, he knew that although the Qi-gathering technique was a bit slow, it was enough for him to cultivate until the foundation-building period. As for the techniques after the foundation-building period, who knows how many years later they would be useful? There is still plenty of time to search now, and rushing won't make a difference.

  After obtaining the Thick Earth Manual this time, apart from beginning to understand the contents of the Thick Earth Manual, Lin Feng's life once again entered a fixed cycle of cultivation, gathering herbs and refining elixirs. Of course, the Thick Earth Manual couldn't be cultivated now; cultivating only one technique wouldn't have much use for him, and might even limit his choices for other techniques in the future. So Lin Feng continued to cultivate the Guiding Qi Manual, with a slow pace of progress.

  But what's encouraging is that Lin Feng's talent in alchemy gradually showed up after so many failures, perhaps due to his possession of the firewood spiritual root, he was often able to more accurately judge the fusion process of the medicine in the furnace, which helped him a lot in learning alchemy, and this was also one of the reasons why his alchemy skills improved rapidly.

  It's worth mentioning that whether Lin Feng was refining the pill himself or observing Yang Ze refine it, he discovered that his Five Elements Spirit Root emitted spiritual awareness that observed not only the changes of fire and wood spiritual properties in the alchemy furnace but also the changes of all spiritual medicines' properties within the furnace.

  After studying alchemy for so long, Lin Feng already knew that although the elixirs were all wood-attribute from their physical bodies, the spiritual energy they contained was also divided into five attributes. For example, the golden lotus and earthroot used to refine the Qi-gathering pill contained earth-attribute spiritual energy, while the wind yang fruit contained water-attribute spiritual energy, and the ling lucao grass contained wood-attribute spiritual energy.

  Generally, alchemists only have fire spiritual roots or wood spiritual roots. When refining elixirs, they mainly feel the changes in temperature of the elixir liquid or the fusion of spiritual medicines, which causes changes in the wood properties of the spiritual medicine itself. They use this to judge the changes in the elixir liquid inside the alchemical furnace and then decide on their next action.

  Lin Feng, due to having the Five Spirits Root, could not only sense the fire and wood attributes but also feel the spiritual energy within the medicinal herbs changing during the alchemy process. Although it wasn't particularly detailed, this sensation was truly existent and influenced his judgment on the elixir's temperature and his own wood attribute changes.

  At first, this made Lin Feng feel extremely headache, and it was also the biggest reason why he found it difficult to grasp the alchemy process. However, after multiple observations and perceptions, Lin Feng gradually found the difference between the temperature change of the elixir liquid and the fire spirit energy change, as well as the difference between the wood attribute of the spiritual medicine itself and the contained wood spirit energy in the alchemy furnace. As a result, he grasped the changes at each stage of alchemy more accurately.

  As the alchemy technique improved in quality, Lin Feng's vision also broadened greatly, and he had many ideas about alchemy. After accumulating for nearly half a year, he accumulated five pieces of Qi-gathering Dan's spiritual medicine, and Lin Feng prepared to start trying according to his own ideas. Five pieces of Qi-gathering Dan materials, over 100 pieces of Ling Stone, for Lin Feng who only had three Ling Stones as monthly living expenses, was already a huge sum of money, showing how much determination he needed to make the choice to try this experiment.

  Because his own ideas were somewhat at odds with Yang Zhe's alchemy techniques, Lin Feng was afraid that Yang Zhe would say he was too ambitious, so he specially chose a day when Yang Zhe was not at home.

  He entered the dan room, placed a portion of refined spiritual medicine neatly beside him, and after a brief period of meditation to calm his mind, he thought for a moment before striking out with his incantation. Suddenly, flames burst forth, enveloping nearly half of the large dan furnace. Having done this no less than ten times before, Lin Feng was quite familiar with the process. After about a dozen breaths, feeling that the temperature of the dan furnace had reached an appropriate level, he struck out again with his incantation to weaken the flames, then added Golden Calamity Flower and Earthly Root, beginning the decoction of the dan liquid.

  The key to this stage is to maintain the temperature inside the dan furnace, which cannot be too high or too low. However, since the dan furnace is not heated evenly, the reaction speed of the dan liquid also varies when it rolls in the dan furnace, resulting in a large change in the heat emitted, leading to fluctuations in the overall temperature of the dan furnace. This change is similar to that of ordinary medicine refining, but due to the fact that the elixir being refined contains a large amount of spiritual energy, this change will be amplified by hundreds of times, making it much more difficult to control.

  Lin Feng's control in this ring wasn't very good, and several times he even caused the spiritual medicine to be burnt due to his slow reaction. But today he was calm and unhurried, paying attention to the changes in the dan furnace's temperature while controlling the fire, advancing and retreating as if it were an old routine, slow and effortless, seemingly not caring about ruining the dan at all.

  Indeed, Lin Feng was thinking this way now. In the past when he was refining pills, he was afraid of making mistakes, so as soon as there were any changes, he would hastily react and end up in a flurry, with very poor medicinal effects as a result. To solve this problem, he had long wanted to carefully and calmly sense the temperature fluctuations, to see just how big they were and how difficult they were to control. However, in the past, because materials were hard to come by, every time he refined pills, he would exhaust all his strength, striving to refine the best possible pill, without any spare energy to risk wasting one or two furnaces of pills to sense these changes. So he could only try to sense as much as possible under the premise that he had already successfully refined a furnace of pills. But this way, as a newcomer, his effects were even worse with divided attention.

  So this time Lin Feng made a special determination, even if it meant suffering huge losses, he had to solve this problem. Therefore, in the refining process, observation was key, and even when the temperature was too high or too low, he didn't panic, slowly manipulating the technique, adjusting the temperature with the flow.

  What is meant by "going with the flow" is that when it's high, the temperature is lowered, and when it's low, the temperature is raised. This is roughly the same as previous methods. The difference lies in the fact that the current action is distinct from the usual hurried and hasty manner. Whether heating or cooling, it is gentle and even, and even if there is a risk of scorching the medicinal liquid, efforts are made to maintain a stable temperature without sudden fluctuations.

  "Hiss......" The dan furnace emitted a faint sound, and suddenly a burnt smell wafted up. It turned out that Lin Feng had only noticed the temperature change, and after the dan liquid dried up, it couldn't withstand the high temperature inside the furnace, and in an instant, it transformed into a lump of charcoal.

  Lin Feng smelled a burnt smell and only then came back to his senses from his epiphany, but on his face there wasn't a hint of disappointment, instead he had a faint smile.

  The liquid was burnt after being dried, not because the temperature was too high or too low and got out of control. This shows that my way of adapting to changes is still quite useful. The most important thing is that through my attention throughout the process, Lin Feng has grasped some tips for drying, and as long as he makes some slight improvements in his adaptive method, he should be able to achieve a pretty good effect. Although it's a bit painful, Lin Feng is still very happy with this gain.

  "Bang!" Several clean furnace spells were cast in a row, and the dan furnace automatically poured out the burnt residue and returned to the ground fire. The warm furnace, opened the furnace and added medicine, Lin Feng started a new round of refining.

  This time, Lin Feng's movements were slightly faster than before, and the entire movement was much smoother. Although it couldn't be said to be as effortless as floating clouds and flowing water, it was still far from the master's style, but it had a 70-80% resemblance to Yang Ze's elixir-refining movements.

  Very soon, the temperature of the Dan furnace suddenly rose, Lin Feng knew it was the time when the Dan liquid fully reacted, and he quickly cast out the spell, while pinching the wind yang fruit into the furnace. Suddenly, a burst of smoke and fog rose from the Dan furnace, rushing towards the Dan liquid in the furnace. At the same time, Lin Feng quickly poured in the Ling Lu Cao liquid, wrapping up the Dan liquid, and then cast out the spell to seal the Dan furnace, starting to nurture the Dan.

  Pregnant Dan, the liquid in the Dan furnace is constantly drying and absorbing the spiritual energy of Fengyang fruit and Lingluo grass. When it reaches half dryness, it is slowly swung into a pill. This process requires attention to temperature and the speed of the Dan furnace's rotation.

  If the temperature is too high, the spiritual energy will not be fully absorbed, and the elixir will dry out prematurely. As a result, the quality of the elixir will be poor due to insufficient spiritual energy.

  On the other hand, if the temperature is too low, the elixir will take too long to form in the furnace, causing the already formed elixir to become charred and lose its spirituality.

  The speed at which the furnace is rotated depends on the specific situation of the elixir. Generally speaking, if the elixir is too thin, it should be rotated faster to accelerate the formation process. Conversely, if it's too thick, it should be rotated slower. However, during actual operation, adjustments need to be made according to the situation at hand, which can be quite complex and relies heavily on experience.

  Lin Feng used to do best in this aspect, although compared with the skilled alchemist, there is still a lot of room for improvement, but that requires time to practice, and for the time being, he can't find a good way to quickly improve.

  He soon felt the elixir liquid in the crucible slowly being tossed into eight pellets, drying up, and the sound of colliding with the crucible also became crisp. Lin Feng started to pinch the alchemy formula to collect the elixir.

  "Hum!" The dan furnace opened, and a white mist sprayed out. Lin Feng was unmoved, and he chanted the dan incantation, "Puff puff puff..." A series of sounds of the dan medicine spraying out, quite wonderful. Lin Feng held the jade bottle, and collected all the dan, then casually chanted the spell to seal the earth fire and the dan furnace, ending this alchemy session.

  He picked up the dan bottle, and Lin Feng carefully examined the quality of this batch of elixirs. There were eight pills in the bottle, relatively uniform in size, indicating that he still had a good grasp on refining elixirs. Next, Lin Feng poured out all the pills and examined them one by one, distinguishing between genuine and fake ones. Upon closer inspection, his face lit up with joy.

  Only eight of the dan had no obvious darkening, most of the dan's milky white color had a yellow or green tint, almost evenly split, indicating that the fire was slightly lacking. Obviously, the time for decoction and fetal dan formation was a bit insufficient. However, two of the dan had a milky white color occupying 70%, while the yellow or green colors combined to form two layers, in terms of quality, it can be considered as lower-grade dan.

  That is to say, Lin Feng finally refined a low-grade Qi Gathering Pill and promoted from a Dan disciple to a true alchemy apprentice.