Chapter 237: Using Law Powers for Pill Refinement
Han Li gently exhaled as he flipped a palm upward before gently raising it.
The purple copper burner rose up into the air, carried by a burst of invisible force, hovering around three feet above the ground.
Han Li then opened his mouth to release a burst of nascent flames, which resembled a lingering fiery cloud that enveloped the entire cauldron.
All of the ancient runes and flame patterns on the surface of the copper cauldron lit up in unison, and the cauldron itself began to take on a crimson color.
Han Li made a beckoning motion upon seeing this, and the Blaze Tuber Herb rose up into the air before falling into his grasp.
In the next instant, his hand began to glow with bright azure light, and a miniature azure vortex slowly took shape with a faint whistling sound ringing out from within it.
The Blaze Tuber Herb began to rapidly revolve within the vortex, and it was torn to shreds and grinded down into powder as if the vortex were acting as a stone mill.
A faint pop rang out as the lid of the purple copper cauldron was suddenly removed, and the powderized Blaze Tuber Herb immediately flew in.
With a sweep of Han Li's sleeve, the cauldron began to revolve within the nascent flame.
Time slowly passed by, and a rich medicinal fragrance began to waft throughout the secret chamber.
Han Li's attention remained entirely fixed on the pill cauldron, monitoring all of the changes taking place within it. He followed the pill recipe, adding one ingredient after another to the cauldron while simultaneously constantly adjusting the temperature of his nascent flame.
Only after an entire day and night had passed by did the fire in the secret chamber gradually fade away, following which the cauldron descended onto the ground with a faint clang.
Han Li rose to his feet and made his way over to the cauldron, then removed the lid with a sweep of his sleeve, and he was immediately greeted by an extremely rich medicinal aroma.
His brows were slightly furrowed as he peered into the cauldron with a nervous look on his face, and he discovered that the interior of the cauldron was pitch-black, with only a layer of medicine powder at the bottom, and there was not a single pill to be seen.
Unsurprisingly, this first pill refinement attempt had ended in complete failure.
Han Li reached into the cauldron to scoop out some of the medicinal powder, then carefully examined it for a moment on the palm of his hand. After that, he sniffed at the powder a few times, and he began to understand why he had failed.
It seemed that his temperature manipulation had been lacking, and the temperature was too low at the point when the pills should've taken shape, thereby resulting in failure.
After understanding the underlying reason for his failure, Han Li remained unfazed, and after half a day of rest, he commenced his second pill refinement attempt.
……
Around half a month passed by in the blink of an eye.
Inside the secret chamber, there were nine small piles of black powder on the ground in front of Han Li, resembling a row of miniature graves.
All nine of his pill refinement attempts had ended in failure.
Even though he was already prepared for such an outcome, he still couldn't help but feel a little defeated and frustrated in the wake of nine consecutive failures, particularly when almost all of them had been a result of incorrect temperature moderation.
He had thought that all he would have to do was to raise the temperature right as the pills were about to take shape, and that would ensure that the pills would be formed, but as soon as the pills too shape, they would instantly be incinerated into charred powder due to the excessively high temperatures.
Hence, after nine failures, Han Li didn't continue. Instead, he paused to think of a way around this problem.
The window of time during which the pills were supposed to take shape was extremely brief, and it was virtually impossible to master the required temperature manipulation strategy in a short time. At this rate, it would most likely have taken Han Li at least 10 more failures to begin grasping the correct method.
With that in mind, it became understable why Earthly Pill Masters were considered to be so precious. After all, every single one of them would've taken an astronomical amount of resources to develop.
The problem was that he didn't have such a large supply of ingredients for him to experiment with, and if he were to fail once more, then all of the top-grade spirit stones that he had spent would go to waste, but how could he capitalize on that incredibly brief window of opportunity?
Han Li was massaging his brows with a vexed expression when he was suddenly struck by an idea.
He immediately sprang into action, making a hand seal while chanting an incantation to conjure up his Mantra Treasured Axis behind him.
14 semi-transparent Time Dao Runes were flashing on the axis, giving off peculiar law fluctuations that slowed down the flow of air in the entire secret chamber.
In order to minimize his immortal spiritual power expenditure, Han Li limited the area encompassed within the law fluctuations to only the area within 10 feet in front of him.
He then opened his mouth to release a ball of nascent flames, which lifted up the purple copper cauldron while also causing it to slowly revolve in mid-air.
The movement of the flames around the cauldron had also been slowed down significantly, to the point that Han Li was able to see every single minute flicker that the flames exhibited.
He then began to powderize the spirit medicines before adding them into the cauldron for refinement.
Under the effects of the Mantra Treasured Axis, the entire process was slowed down to less than a third of its normal speed.
At the same time, the changes taking place in the spirit medicines within the cauldron were also slowed down, to the point that Han Li was able clearly monitor everything that was unfolding inside through the use of his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, and some details that had evaded him in the past were now coming to the fore.
After observing the refinement process for a while, Han Li withdrew his Mantra Treasured Axis. Even though he had limited the area under the axis's influence, constantly maintaining it was still quite taxing on him. He had already mastered the majority of the pill refinement process, so he would only require the Mantra Treasured Axis's services at some crucial junctures.
Time slowly passed by, and the refinement process that had originally only required a day and a night was extended to almost twice its original duration. However, Han Li was able to gain more insight and understanding from this single pill refinement than all of the previous nine attempts combined. In particular, it had become a lot easier for him to control the temperature of his nascent flame during the moments where the pills were about to take shape.
As the flames around the cauldron slowly subsided, Han Li withdrew the Mantra Treasured Axis back into his body once again.
He made a beckoning motion to draw the cauldron to himself, then swept a sleeve through the air to remove its lid. His eyes were filled with both unease and anticipation as he tipped over the cauldron to pour out its contents.
Some black powder fell out of the opening of the cauldron, immediately following which the sound of pills rolling around inside the cauldron rang out.
Han Li was ecstatic to hear this sound, and he tipped the entire cauldron upside-down before reaching out a hand to catch what was inside.
Seven or eight longan-sized golden pills rolled out of the cauldron before falling into his grasp.
According to the pill recipe, a successful batch of Origin Unifying Pills should've been somewhere between 15 to 16 pills, so this still wasn't a complete success.
However, Han Li was still extremely pleased with this outcome. After all, he was treating these 10 pill refinements as an experiment to begin with, so this was already a very favorable outcome.
Furthermore, now that he had developed the idea of using his Mantra Treasured Axis to assist him in the pill refinement process, his success rate going forward was going to be significantly elevated.
He examined the pills in his hand over and over again, then stored them away in a small vial, leaving only one behind, which he devoured before closing his eyes and beginning to cultivate his Mantra Axis Scripture.
Ultimately, these pills had to be put to the test to see if they had actually been correctly refined.
……
Two months later, Han Li appeared in the sky above the Crimson Dawn Peak before descending toward the spirit fields down below.
The pills that he had refined earlier had worked extremely well, and he had spent this entire time cultivating while consuming the pills in his secret chamber. His rate of cultivation progression had clearly improved during this time, and he had only come out of seclusion on this day.
Sun Buzheng and the others were busy at work in the spirit fields, and Meng Yungui was also among them, having recently made his return.
The majority of the spirit fields near the Crimson Dawn Peak had already been arranged into orderly sections, presenting a spectacular sight to behold.
Following the recession of the fire miasma, not only had the climate returned to normal, the underground veins had also been restored to their normal state, so they were no longer restricted to just planting fire-attribute spirit plants in the fields.
Han Li gave a pleased nod upon seeing this. These spirit fields were situated quite close to the main spirit vein of the Crimson Dawn Peak, so any spirit plants planted in these fields would be sure to grow quite quickly.
He had descended in a silent manner, so Meng Yungui and the others initially didn't notice his presence, but he was quickly spotted thereafter.
"Elder Li!"
The servant hurriedly extended a respectful bow.
Everyone else immediately turned around to find Han Li hovering in mid-air, and they hurriedly dropped what they were doing to pay their respects.
"Welcome back, Elder Li."
Having been with Han Li for quite some time, Meng Yungui and the others had developed a rough understanding of Han Li's personality, so they no longer spoke to him in as formal and rigid a manner as before.
"I just came back, and I decided to come down here to take a look. Keep doing what you were doing. Meng Yungui, come with me," Han Li said with a dismissive wave, then flew back toward the mountain with Meng Yungui trailing along behind him.
A short while later, the two of them arrived in Han Li's cave abode.
Han Li wasted no time with idle chatter as he cut straight to the chase. "I've assigned you quite an arduous task, making you travel so extensively in search of spirit plant seeds. How did it go?"
"Please don't say that, Elder Li. It's my honor to be able to serve you, and I didn't find the task grueling or arduous at all. These are the seeds that I've collected during these past years, please take a look," Meng Yungui hurriedly replied as he pulled out a storage treasure that he offered to Han Li in a respectful manner.
Han Li accepted the storage treasure before injecting his spiritual sense into it, and a few moments later, a surprised look appeared on his face as he nodded and praised, "You did quite well."
He had only sent Meng Yungui on a mission to search for spirit plant seeds as a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he hadn't actually harbored any high hopes for him.
After all, with Meng Yungui's limited cultivation base, there was only so much that he could've been expected to do.
However, the rewards that Meng Yungui had reaped went far beyond Han Li's expectations. All of the seeds that he had found were quite remarkable, and many of them were seeds for supplementary spirit medicines required to refine Origin Unifying Pills. If he were to plant all of these seeds, then he would be able to save a huge sum of spirit stones when refining Origin Unifying Pill in the future.
On top of that, he had also discovered several unfamiliar seeds that resembled rocks with granite-like patterns on their surfaces, but clear traces of life could be detected within them.
"You're far too kind, Elder Li. I was simply very fortunate," Meng Yungui said in a humble manner, but it was clear that he was ecstatic to have received such praise from Han Li.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li gave some seeds to Meng Yungui, some of which had been collected by Meng Yungui, while the others were from Han Li's own collection.
"Go and plant these seeds in the spirit fields at the foot of the mountain, and make sure to look after them well," he instructed.
"Yes, Elder Li," Meng Yungui replied as he accepted the seeds.
"Also, continue your search for seeds. You can keep this treasure for your protection," Han Li said as he handed another storage pouch to Meng Yungui.
"Thank you, Elder Li! I'll be sure to do my best!" Meng Yungui immediately replied before turning to depart.
Han Li remained standing on the spot for a moment, then made his way to the medicine garden in his cave abode.
There, he pulled out several seeds, one of which was shaped like a worm, another was as translucent as jade, and a third one resembled a pea-sized lump of soil with a bumpy surface.
These seeds all belonged to supplementary ingredients for refining Origin Unifying Pill and Spring Rain Pills.
Han Li carefully planted the seeds before watering them with spirit liquid, and only after close to half a day did he finally complete the procedure.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he looked at his gradually expanding medicine garden.
After that, he summoned the giant ape puppet, then instructed it to look after these newly planted spirit seeds before departing from the medicine garden.
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