Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

After carefully reading the four jade slips again, Zhang Yuanjing roughly understood the rules of this Yin-Yang Creation Furnace: anyone entering it must refine a kind of elixir called the益神Dan (Yi Shen Dan - Mind Strengthening Pill) in order to leave.

However, there is only one chance. Failure will not result in obliteration or other penalties, but you will be trapped here until you die. However, even a Core Formation realm alchemist master like Qin Wutong failed here. What ability do I have to pass such a test!

He walked to the bookshelf, placed his hand on it, and immediately a thought came: Refine the Yi Shen Dan to open the next level.

Immediately, a jade slip appeared in his hand. He sent his spiritual sense into it, and it was indeed the pill formula and refining method for the Yi Shen Dan. This pill only has three ingredients, named White Cinnamon, Jade Leaf, and Red Fruit. He had never heard of any of them, and they must be medicinal materials from ancient times.

The refining method is also very simple: use the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace in the room to ignite Yang Fire and Yin Fire alternately nine times each, each time for three breaths, and then burn with both fires simultaneously until it turns pure black.

According to Qin Wutong's notes, the pill refining method recorded in the pill formula is very simple compared to today's complex steps, but the difficulty is also extremely high. A slight carelessness will lead to failure. However, if successful, the quantity and quality of the pills produced will be very high, far surpassing today's pill refining methods.

Zhang Yuanjing took the pill formula, walked to the side of the medicine cabinet, placed the pill formula on it, and immediately a flash of white light appeared, and three fresh and dripping spiritual plants with abundant spiritual energy appeared on the counter.

One plant is a small white flower with a three-inch stem and a dense mass of roots at the bottom. In the middle, there are two leaves, and at the top, there is a white flower the size of an egg yolk, which should be White Cinnamon.

One plant is a short grass with two leaves growing opposite each other, about two inches in size, which should be Jade Leaf.

Finally, there is a small red fruit, the size of a grape, which is the Red Fruit.

Whether from the name or the appearance, these three medicines do not look like rare treasures, but rather ordinary. However, the Yi Shen Dan refined from these three medicines can enhance the spirit and soul, which is quite extraordinary.

Zhang Yuanjing's first reaction when he saw these three spiritual objects was to try to cultivate them. Since the chance of success once is very small, then if he can cultivate them, as long as his lifespan has not expired, he still has a chance to get out.

He doesn't understand spiritual plants, and he doesn't know the quality of these three ancient spiritual objects, let alone judge their age. However, the most direct standard exists, that is, the current appearance of these three is that of mature medicine, which can be used for refining pills.

He started with White Cinnamon, tearing off a section of the root and using the Thick Earth Creation Technique to start cultivating. If this medicine is of spiritual grade, then according to the level of the grade, his creation technique can increase the age by more than 300 years for each year of cultivation. If it is of profound grade, it will definitely be greatly reduced.

The first day passed, and the root successfully sprouted a green bud, which made Zhang Yuanjing feel very happy and also quite strange. Three days passed, and the green bud grew to an inch high, with two green leaves growing out. By the tenth day, it had grown to more than three inches and produced a small flower bud. On the twelfth day, a white flower bloomed, the same size as the one provided by the medicine cabinet.

Holding this simple little flower, Zhang Yuanjing didn't feel happy at all, but only felt incredible. He carefully compared this flower with the one provided by the medicine cabinet, and whether it was the shape, smell, or the aura emitted, they were exactly the same, definitely the same variety.

However, with the first level of the Thick Earth Creation Technique, twelve days of work can only bring a spiritual medicine of the first level of spiritual grade to twelve years of age. What kind of spiritual medicine can mature in twelve years? Ordinary medicinal materials used by doctors to treat diseases in the mortal world are more like it. Is the so-called refining of the "Yi Shen Dan" in this Yin-Yang Creation Furnace just a prank? Or, are the medicinal materials for refining the "Yi Shen Dan" just ordinary medicinal materials that can be seen everywhere in the mortal world?

He pondered for a long time, but couldn't figure it out, so he shook his head and went to cultivate Jade Leaf. This item has an even shorter maturity period, only eight days to complete.

Finally, there is Red Fruit. He first carefully peeled off the flesh of the Red Fruit, preserved it in a jade box, and then held the remaining black core, running the Thick Earth Creation Technique. Half a month later, the core sprouted, and after another month, it grew to a foot high and grew several crescent-shaped long leaves. After another month, five purple flowers bloomed, and half a month later, five red fruits were formed.

In this way, there were six Red Fruits.

So, Zhang Yuanjing spent another eighty days cultivating four White Cinnamon and four Jade Leaf plants each, collecting six sets of materials.

Regardless of the reason or any hidden dangers, Zhang Yuanjing couldn't control so much and just wanted to quickly pass the level and get out of this place. His lifespan is running out, and he can't waste it here.

During these six months, Zhang Yuanjing cultivated spiritual herbs while reading the alchemy secrets and notes he obtained from the Mustard Seed Space of the Thick Earth Sect, Guo Yuqing, and Qin Wutong, studying alchemy.

The 'Essentials of Alchemy Introduction' compiled by San Jingzhai and the 'Alchemy Notes' of the ancient Earth Sect alchemy master are things from the ancient times, but the alchemy techniques recorded are not much different from those in today's cultivation world.

Combining these two books with the notes of Guo Yuqing and Qin Wutong, today's cultivation world's alchemy usually distinguishes four steps: identifying medicine, preparing medicine, refining medicine, and burning pills.

Identifying medicine is identifying medicinal properties, mainly identifying the age, medicinal power, five elements attributes, and ingredients of spiritual herbs.

Preparing medicine is preparing various herbs according to the pill formula, paying attention to the roles of the principal, assistant, adjuvant, and guide to achieve a perfect ratio.

Refining medicine is to refine the main and auxiliary medicines together, so that the ingredients of each medicinal material are fused together to form the "original pill." According to the 'Essentials of Alchemy Introduction', there are many methods of refining medicine, such as the stone pounding method, grinding method, decoction method, soaking method, calcination method, roasting method, etc. Different medicinal materials adopt different methods, and some require two or even multiple methods.

Burning pills is to burn the "original pill" into a finished pill, and this step is the most critical step. According to the 'Alchemy Notes', before ancient times, alchemists had five methods of forming pills: fire refining, water refining, wood refining, earth refining, and thunder refining. However, since ancient times, only fire refining has been passed down, and the other four have declined. This is because this method is simple, neither as time-consuming as water refining, wood refining, and earth refining, nor as difficult to achieve as thunder refining, with a short time and a high success rate.

Yin-Yang Creation Furnace pill refining only has one step, which is burning pills, without the other three steps. Identifying medicine and preparing medicine are okay; ordinary pills do not require much in this regard.

However, refining medicine is a crucial step. Refining medicinal properties and forming the original pill are effective methods that the cultivation world has gradually explored over tens of thousands of years to ensure success rates. Without this step, directly placing the spiritual medicine in the pill furnace for calcination, I am afraid that no matter how many medicinal materials there are, it will not be enough.

However, the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace is so absolute, only giving one portion of medicinal materials, but requiring success with the most difficult method. Therefore, even low-grade pills are difficult enough to make today's alchemy masters dumbfounded.

Zhang Yuanjing has not practiced today's alchemy techniques, but he has a benefit: he is not bound by established methods. Even if he lacks the step of refining medicine, he will not lose confidence because of this.

He walked to the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace in the room and carefully studied it, and found that there was a groove at the bottom of the square cauldron, with an inscription of a formation in the middle, and four grooves for embedding spirit stones around it. He took out four low-grade spirit stones and inserted them into the grooves. After the last spirit stone was inserted, a point of fire light rushed out of the formation and submerged into the long ears and rings on both sides of the upper round furnace.

Zhang Yuanjing understood that the Yin and Yang fires would come out of the long ears and rings. Immediately, he held one place with each hand, and with a thought, his mana surged in. Immediately, two streams of flame emerged from the bottom of the furnace, one dark blue, coming from the long ear, and one orange-red, coming from the ring, instantly burning the temperature in the furnace to an extremely high level.

With a thought, he extinguished the orange-red flame, leaving only the dark blue flame, and the temperature in the furnace dropped, maintaining at a medium height, extremely stable. He changed the operation again, extinguishing the dark blue flame and generating the orange-red flame. The temperature in the furnace rose rapidly, and slight bursts of sound were emitted from the air from time to time.

He activated the dark blue flame again, and the furnace temperature continued to rise, but it was very quiet, and the previous "crackling" sound disappeared. After a few breaths, the two fires suddenly went out at the same time.

Zhang Yuanjing was stunned, and then realized that the spirit stones were exhausted. This consumption was too amazing. In less than twenty breaths, four low-grade spirit stones were exhausted.

So, he replaced them with four middle-grade spirit stones. This time, he kept the two fires activated, lasting for thirty breaths, and the two fires went out again.

He was shocked and thought how could four middle-grade spirit stones be so useless. When he looked down, he found that the spirit stones were still available and had not been exhausted. He went to control the long ears and rings again, and the flames reappeared. This time, it only lasted for more than twenty breaths, and then automatically went out, while the spirit stones were still usable.

He took out Qin Wutong's jade slip and read it carefully for a long time, and found that he did not mention this problem at all. Obviously, this problem was only encountered by him, and Qin Wutong did not encounter it when refining pills.

Zhang Yuanjing had no experience in refining pills, and thought hard for a long time, but still could not find a solution. He went back to read Qin Wutong's jade slip, and saw the sentence that controlling the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace requires "balanced Yin and Yang attributes of mana," and then he realized that it was a problem with mana.

He cultivates earth techniques, and his mana is of the earth attribute, which contains water power, leaning towards Yin, but without Yang attribute mana. Most of the monks who are good at refining pills cultivate fire techniques, with wood and water as supplements. This Qin Wutong is probably fire-based and water-assisted, so he realized that he needed Yin and Yang balance to control the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace well.

This made him difficult. How to solve the mana problem! So he looked at Qin Wutong's jade slip again. Qin Wutong proposed a method to maintain the Yin and Yang balance of mana, which is to balance it through pills.

Which attribute of Yin and Yang mana is weak, supplement that one. If they are roughly similar, they can be used together. After all, the Yin and Yang fires are born from the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace, and they have high stability. When they alternate, they can also convert quickly, without the need for the pill refiner to bother themselves, just needing the two kinds of mana to keep up synchronously. However, this is Qin Wutong's idea. Whether it can be done or not, he has no conditions to verify.

"Pills?" Zhang Yuanjing recalled the pills he had obtained. The Fire Dragon Pill is of the fire attribute, which can supplement the lack of Yang attribute mana. The rest are general pills that enhance mana, without attribute distinctions.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to his mind, and he remembered the five pills engraved with red and black patterns he had obtained from Ling Yunzi, which seemed to contain pure fire spiritual power and water spiritual power.

He also remembered that Ling Yunzi cherished this pill very much, and each pill was stored separately in a jade bottle, and the five jade bottles were placed in a carved box made of precious jade.

So, he quickly sent his spiritual sense into the storage bracelet, found the jade box, took out a jade bottle, pulled out the stopper, poured out the pill, and then swallowed it directly into his stomach. Sure enough, as soon as the pill entered his stomach, it turned into two streams of spiritual power, water and fire, similar to the effect of eating red-finned fire-patterned fish, but the spiritual power was more condensed and peaceful, and the two were almost completely balanced, and did not conflict with each other.

He quickly replaced the Yin-Yang Creation Furnace with new middle-grade spirit stones, and then held the blue long ear and the red ring, and began to control the Yin and Yang fires. This time, with the help of the two attributes of water and fire spiritual power, the Yin and Yang fires lasted for a full quarter of an hour before going out, but it was because the spirit stones were used up.