Chapter 141: Pill Refinement Examination
Manager Lu's brows furrowed ever so slightly upon hearing this, but his expression then quickly returned to normal.
"Rest assured, Manager Lu, I'm willing to cover all expenses for the examination," Han Li added.
Manager Lu didn't hesitate any longer upon hearing this, and he replied, "In that case, it would be downright rude of our Thousand Medicine House to turn you down. Please come with me, Senior."
With that, he promptly made his way out of the room, leading Han Li back downstairs, then emerged from the rear hall on the first floor before traveling along a path that led to the backyard.
Deep in the backyard was a circular archway that separated it from the front yard.
Even before arriving at the archway, Han Li detected a transparent light barrier present in the air within the archway, and judging from the spatial fluctuations emanating from it, it seemed to have been a teleportation array.
Upon arriving at the archway, Manager Lu stopped in his tracks, then turned back to Han Li aske said, "Please wait here for me while I make our presence known, Senior."
He then flipped a hand over to produce a purple badge, which he waved at the archway up ahead, and a burst of bright light immediately appeared within the archway.
Upon stepping into the archway, Manager Lu instantly vanished.
Han Li inspected his surroundings for a moment, following which the archway lit up again, and Manager Lu's voice rang out from within.
"Please come in, Senior."
Han Li did as he was told, stepping into the archway.
As soon as he did so, he immediately arrived in a hot environment with a rich and complex medicinal aroma in the air.
He looked around to discovered that they seemed to be in a hall that resembled an underground palace, and there were several wide paths leading in all directions.
On the walls on either side of the path were a series of copper doors, each of which was around 10 feet tall, and the light of flames could just barely be made out beyond them.
Before Han Li had a chance to take a good look at his surroundings, Manager Lu led him down one of the paths, which led to a spacious guest hall.
Inside the room sat a red-haired elderly man with a medium build, wearing a short dark purple robe. He was holding a teacup with one hand and the lid of the teacup in the other.
Han Li was immediately able to sense from the man's aura that he was a Grand Ascension cultivator.
Upon seeing the arrival of Han Li's duo, the elderly man set down his teacup and rose to his feet.
Manager Lu turned to Han Li as he introduced, "This is Master Zhu, an A-grade Temporal Pill Master, and he's agreed to conduct your examination."
"You have my thanks, Master Zhu," Han Li said as he extended a salute.
The red-haired elderly man could sense that Han Li's cultivation base wasn't inferior to his own, so he didn't dare to show any disrespect and returned Han Li's salute as he said, "If you want to examine your pill refinement skills, then I suggest we each refine a Sunray Pill, and by comparing the quality of our pills, we'll be able to determine your skill level."
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he asked, "Sunray Pill? I'm afraid I don't know the refinement method for this pill. Is this something sold by your pill shop?"
"Oh?"
The red-haired elderly man was rather taken aback to hear this, seemingly rather surprised by Han Li's lack of knowledge, and he was beginning to look down on Han Li a little.
"There's no need to purchase the recipe. Sunray Pills are considered to be quite valuable among temporal pills, but its recipe is quite readily available in this area, so it's not worth much, and I'm happy to give it to you as a gift."
The red-haired elderly man swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, sending a white jade slip flying toward Han Li.
Han Li caught the jade slip before injecting his spiritual sense into it, and he couldn't help but feel a little dismayed by what he saw.
The pill recipe was free, but all of the medicinal ingredients listed were quite expensive, and he had to pay for two batches, so this was quite a steep price to pay.
The red-haired elderly man then began to elaborate on some things that had to be kept in mind during the refinement of Sunray Pills.
Han Li listened carefully to his instructions, committing everything to memory. At the same time, he was pondering the steps that he was going to take and how he was going to control the temperature of his flame based on his past pill refinement experience.
A few minutes later, the two of them each accepted a storage pouch from Manager Lu, within which contained all of the ingredients required to refine Sunray Pills, following which each of them made their way into a pill refinement chamber.
A loud clang rang out as the heavy bronze gate was shut, and Han Li inspected hi surroundings to find that the pill refinement chambers here were rather different from the ones he had seen in the Spirit Realm.
There was barely anything in the chamber, with only a purple copper pill refinement furnace positioned at the center of the room. There was no firepit on the ground, nor were there any fire-starting runes on the furnace.
Complex runes had been engraved onto the walls and the ground, seemingly forming some type of restriction that was capable of condensing and sealing the spiritual qi within the chamber.
After taking a moment to familiarize himself with his surroundings, he began to focus on the task at hand.
He raised a hand before snapping his fingers, and a silver flame flew into the pill furnace like a bird.
Scorching silver flames instantly rose up within the furnace, and only after about 15 minutes had passed, once the furnace had reached a sufficient temperature, did Han Li gradually begin to add medicinal ingredients to it.
As one spirit ingredient after another flew into the furnace, a medicinal aroma began to waft through the entire pill refinement chamber.
Around two hours later, a faint sound rang out from within the pill furnace, and Han Li caught sight of a cloud of faint purple mist beginning to rise up out of the gap on the top of the furnace. It lingered above the furnace without dispersing, presenting an intriguing sight to behold.
According to the red-haired elderly man's instructions, this was the point when he should've been adding the Cloudform Herb.
However, as Han Li picked up the Cloudform Herb, a hesitant look appeared in his eyes.
He had refined countless pills in the past, and there was a hierarchy of importance that applied to all ingredients used in pill refinement. The purposes served by the ingredients differed depending on their level of importance.
The Cloudform Herb wasn't a spirit ingredient that was unique to the Immortal Realm. Instead, it was something that he had used back in the Spirit Realm, so he knew that it properties were quite mild, and it was normally used to balance out the medicinal effects of the other ingredient. In the case of the Sunray Pill, it served that same purpose.
At this point, the purple mist had only just begun to rise up from the furnace, which meant that the other ingredients had only just begun to release their medicinal effects, and there was no need to balance them out yet. Hence, this was definitely not the best time to be adding in the Cloudform Herb, and that was the reason for his hesitance.
However, he quickly made a decision, sticking by his gut instinct.
Around another hour passed, and the purple mist billowing out of the pill furnace had become a lot denser. Only then did Han Li lift the furnace lid before tossing in the Cloudform Herb.
As a strong medicinal aroma wafted into his nostrils, a hint of elation appeared in his eyes.
Right at this moment, the surrounding walls suddenly began to glow, and the array patterns engraved upon them were activated of their own accord.
A small vortex instantly took shape in the entire pill refinement chamber, sweeping up the spirit power that was escaping from the pill before directing it back to the pill furnace.
……
Around four hours later, the red-haired elderly man had already emerged from his pill refinement chamber, and he was waiting together with Manager Lu outside Han Li's pill refinement chamber.
Around another 15 minutes passed, and the door of Han Li's pill refinement chamber also swung open, following which he emerged with a white vial in his hand.
Manager Lu smiled as he said, "Looks like you've successfully refined the Sunray Pill as well, Senior. Congratulations."
"I don't know how well I was able to refine the pill, so I'll have to trouble the two of you to appraise it for me," Han Li said as he offered them the vial.
Manager Lu accepted the vial before pulling out the stopper, and a rich medicinal aroma immediately wafted out from within.
The red-haired elderly man expression instantly changed slightly upon catching a whiff of the aroma, and he unconsciously sidled up closer to Manager Lu to take a closer look at Han Li's pill.
Placed on Manager Lu's hands were the two batches of three Sunray Pills that Han Li and the red-haired elderly man had refined. On the surface, they didn't look very different, with the only notable disparity being that Han Li's pills appeared a little smaller.
Han Li turned his gaze to the red-haired elderly man, and he was just about to ask for his opinion when the latter heaved a faint sigh before departing without a word.
Manager Lu made no effort to stop him. Only after he had completely disappeared out of view did he turn to Han Li with a peculiar look on his face as he explained, "Please don't take it to heart, Senior. Master Zhu is not trying to be rude, he's just feeling a little... defeated."
Han Li immediately understood what Manager Lu was trying to say, and he waved a hand with a smile as he said, "In that case, I'll have to trouble you to appraise these pills, Manager Lu."
Manager Lu wasn't a pill refinement master, but he was a very skilled pill appraiser, and he said, "If what you said earlier is true, and you really haven't come into contact with any high-grade pills of the Immortal Realm prior to this, then I can only say that you have immense talent for pill refinement.
“Your control over temperature is incredibly precise, allowing you to eradicate all of the impurities in these Sunray Pills while also completely preserving the medicinal effect. The quality of these pills exceeds that of the ones refined by Master Zhu."
"So where would I rank as a pill refinement master in the Immortal Realm?" Han Li asked as a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Even though you only refined the Sunray Pill on this occasion, judging from the quality of the pill, you are undoubtedly already an A-grade Temporal Pill Master," Manager Lu replied with a serious expression.
Han Li nodded in response with a contemplative expression.
Even though he didn't have to display the full extent of his skills in the refinement of a pill of this caliber, the level of complexity and difficulty of refining this pill was not inferior to that of the top-tier pills of the Spirit Realm.
With that in mind, his past pill refinement skills would've most likely only landed him the rank of C-grade Temporal Pill Master in the Immortal Realm.
Manager Lu could see that Han Li didn't seem particularly excited about this appraisal, and he added, "Given your current pill refinement skills, there's definitely a chance that you could become an Earthly Pill Master in the future."
"Thank you for kind words, Fellow Daoist Lu," Han Li replied, and right there and then, he made up his mind, resolving himself to become a Heavenly Pill Master.
Once he reached that level, all he would need to do would be to find a suitable pill recipe, and he would be able to refine those mysterious crystals produced by the Heaven Controlling Vial into dao pills.
He had a unique advantage over others in that it was far easier for him to obtain spirit materials that contained the power of laws.
After a brief hesitation, Manager Lu asked, "May I ask if you're planning to settle permanently in Black Wind City, or are you just visiting on a temporary basis?"
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and Manager Lu hurriedly explained, "Please don't misunderstand, Senior, I only wanted to invite you to join our Thousand Medicine House as a guest pill master. Given your skills, I'm sure you'll be ranked second only to Master Hao in no time, and once you get there..."
Han Li waved a hand to cut off Manager Lu as he said, "I'm only stopping by in this city for a short time, but I appreciate the kind offer."
Manager Lu could tell that Han Li didn't seem to be lying, so he could only heave a forlorn sigh and drop the subject.
After that, Han Li purchased some more Origin Return Pills, then paid for them along with the cost of the Sunray Pills before promptly departing.
Of course, the six Sunray pills refined by himself and the red-haired elderly man had also been taken by him.
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