Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Collaborative Refining
"With me here, what’s there to be afraid of? I won’t make you do the refining alone. As for the ingredients for these three pills, I’ve written them all down on this paper. I already have most of them; only a few rare ingredients are missing. You can start preparing the materials now. My time is limited."
Hua Luoxuan was taken aback. ’Is Young Master Xuan actually going to guide me in Alchemy? Could he really refine these three pills? How is that possible? These are Third Grade pills!’
Although he was grumbling internally, he still took the recipe and examined it carefully. Zhou Huarong also leaned in to take a look.
"Huh? These are the recipes for the Chongxuan Pill and the Essence Strengthening Pill, that’s right... and this one below should be for the Vein Splitting Pill. But what’s all this below that? Star Sand? Celestial Crystal Stone? Aren’t these materials for Artifact Refining?"
"Mm, that’s right. I happen to be planning to refine a set of Profound Soldiers, so I had you gather the materials for that as well."
Hua Luoxuan: "..."
Zhou Huarong: "..."
Despite being speechless at Ye Xuan’s demands, Zhou Huarong quickly ran to the Alchemist Association’s warehouse under Hua Luoxuan’s orders.
Just fifteen minutes later, Zhou Huarong returned with all sorts of materials and presented them to Ye Xuan.
Ye Xuan couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion. This was the advantage of being in Blue Moon City. Ingredients he could never find in Cyan Mountain Town could be found here in just fifteen minutes. This was one of the reasons he wanted the Ye family to move to Blue Moon City.
The bigger the place, the more resources it had, and the greater the potential for future growth.
Soon, the group arrived at Hua Luoxuan’s private refining chamber.
"Ahem, Young Master Xuan, when you and Chairman Hua are refining, could you let me watch from the side? If there’s anything you need, I can help with the odd jobs," Zhou Huarong said, looking embarrassed.
"No problem. If you want to watch, then watch. And since you want to help, I can take the opportunity to be lazy and give you something to do."
When an Alchemist was refining, having another Alchemist watch was the biggest taboo. This was because it was easy for them to steal techniques, causing one’s personal alchemy methods to be leaked.
However, Ye Xuan had no such reservations.
"First, sort these ingredients for me."
"Yes!" Zhou Huarong was so excited he almost jumped for joy. He quickly began to sort all the medicinal ingredients.
After all, this was the refining of Third Grade pills. To be able to observe it up close would be of immeasurable benefit to his future development as a Second Grade Alchemist.
Watching Zhou Huarong separate the various ingredients, arranging each portion neatly, Ye Xuan said, "Steward Zhou, you only need to prepare one portion of each. Why prepare so many? What a waste!"
Hua Luoxuan immediately chimed in, "Young Master Xuan, I was the one who told him to prepare extra portions. Refining all three of these pills in one day... I just feel it’s a bit unreliable. With a few extra sets of ingredients, we can continue even if we fail. For example, our Alchemist Association only has four portions of the main ingredient for the Vein Splitting Pill. I’ve already sent people to find more."
Ye Xuan rolled his eyes. "You prepared so many portions of the main ingredients, but I only prepared one portion of the supplementary ingredients. How are we supposed to refine them?"
"What?" Hua Luoxuan gave a wry smile. "Young Master Xuan, you think too highly of me. You expect to refine the Essence Strengthening Pill and the Vein Splitting Pill in one go? I’m afraid I couldn’t do it even if you worked this old bag of bones to death. Besides, even for the Chongxuan Pill, my success rate is only fifty percent."
"Relax, one portion is enough. Steward Zhou, put away the extra main ingredients. As long as you follow my commands, I guarantee you’ll succeed on the first try."
At this point, even if Hua Luoxuan still didn’t believe Ye Xuan, there was nothing he could do.
Soon, the ingredients for all three pills were fully prepared.
"Chairman Hua, activate the Refining Array and maintain it at the Third Level. Then, prepare three Pill Furnaces above the Array," Ye Xuan instructed from the side.
"What? Three Pill Furnaces? Are you planning to refine all three types of pills at once?"
Ye Xuan said lightly, "Of course. Refining them one by one is too troublesome and a waste of time. It’s better to do them all together."
Hua Luoxuan swallowed hard, speechless. "Young Master Xuan, refining three types of pills at the same time in one Array... you can’t be joking, can you? Leaving aside whether I can even control it all, the heat control requirements for these three pills are completely different."
Ye Xuan, growing impatient with the questions, said coldly, "Chairman Hua, you just need to do as I say. Do you think I’m unaware of the things you know? Look at Steward Zhou. He hasn’t said a word."
’Me...?’ Steward Zhou was spiraling. It wasn’t that he had nothing to say; it was that as a mere gofer, he was so stunned by Ye Xuan’s outlandish ideas that he was utterly speechless.
At that moment, only a single thought occupied his mind: ’Is Young Master Xuan really here to perform Alchemy? He didn’t come here today just to pull a prank, did he?’
Hua Luoxuan rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Fine. I won’t ask any more questions from now on. But if the refinement fails, don’t you dare blame me."
"Don’t worry, I won’t blame you. But let me make one thing clear: you must strictly follow everything I’m about to say." Ye Xuan’s expression turned serious. "Listen carefully. We’re starting now."
"Chairman Hua, first place the Thousand Leaves into the first Pill Furnace. After three breaths, place the Primordial Heart Vine and the Bulrush Leaf into the second and third Pill Furnaces, respectively. Steward Zhou, open the third Array base to twenty percent power and double the power of the fifth base..."
Though Hua Luoxuan and Steward Zhou found it all hard to believe, they suppressed their internal doubts and began the refinement under Ye Xuan’s guidance.
Meanwhile, Ye Xuan wasn’t idle as he gave commands. He was seen moving swiftly around the Array, streams of Profound Sense and Soul Power quietly releasing from his mind, merging with the Array and the Pill Furnaces to secretly assist the refinement process.
The first step in refining pills is to purify the medicinal ingredients. Different ingredients will have different reactions when they enter a Pill Furnace, but with the involvement of an Alchemist’s Profound Sense, the impurities are refined away or expelled, leaving only the essence.
Naturally, the temperatures required to purify various pills and ingredients also differ, which was the source of Hua Luoxuan’s earlier confusion.
Ye Xuan was seen rapidly sending out streams of Profound Sense. As they entered the Array’s patterns, they immediately triggered a certain reaction.
Instantly, as the heat controlled by the Array permeated the three Pill Furnaces, the temperatures became completely different for each.
Three completely different levels of heat were now firing three different Pill Furnaces.
"Wh-what is going on?" Hua Luoxuan, who was handling the ingredients as instructed by Ye Xuan, froze in stunned disbelief. He muttered, "How can the same Array release different levels of heat to warm different Pill Furnaces? Isn’t an Array a single, integrated system? How is this possible!"
Zhou Huarong was so shocked his eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head. "It’s not just that the heat for the three Pill Furnaces is different," he said in amazement, "the heat under each furnace is also constantly changing! Am I seeing things?"
It was a known fact that any Refining Array was a single, integrated system. By stimulating the Array, an Alchemist could more easily control the degree of heat for the refinement.
However, Arrays also had a very important characteristic: they operated on a fixed pattern, making it extremely difficult to split the output into different temperatures. Therefore, an Alchemist’s constant control via Profound Sense was usually required.
But what Ye Xuan was demonstrating now completely overturned Hua Luoxuan and Zhou Huarong’s understanding of the world.
And in their shock, their control over the Array immediately began to waver.
"Hua Luoxuan! Zhou Huarong! What do you think you’re doing? Get back to refining, now!"
Ye Xuan’s slightly enraged voice echoed from within the Array.
Startled by Ye Xuan’s sharp rebuke, Hua Luoxuan and the others snapped out of their shock, only to discover that their refinement process had reached an extremely dangerous point.
’Not good!’
The various Spirit Medicines inside the Pill Furnace, having briefly lost their balance, immediately went berserk. The entire furnace trembled violently, looking as if it could explode at any moment.
’It’s over. This refinement is a failure.’ Hua Luoxuan’s heart sank, a look of self-reproach filling his eyes.
Once the medicinal properties went berserk, the entire refinement was considered a failure. It was nearly impossible to turn things around.
Just then, Ye Xuan’s angry shout rang out, "Hua Luoxuan, who told you to stop refining?! Get the medicinal reactions under control, now! Zhou Huarong, don’t let the Array die down!"
"But..."
Before Hua Luoxuan could say more, Ye Xuan, who was inside the Array, suddenly formed a series of profound hand seals.
Streams of Profound Sense seemed to form strange patterns as Ye Xuan rapidly shot them into the Pill Furnaces.
The intensity of this Profound Sense wasn’t high, merely at a Tier One level. But the moment it entered the Pill Furnaces, a miraculous change occurred. The Spirit Medicines, which had been on the verge of collapsing into a violent frenzy, swiftly stabilized under the influence of this Profound Sense and returned to a state of mutual reaction.
"How is that possible?" Hua Luoxuan’s eyes flew wide.
As for Zhou Huarong, his jaw dropped so wide you could have fit an egg in it.
When Spirit Medicines entered a berserk state, it meant the reactions in the Pill Furnace were on the verge of collapse. Trying to return them to a stable refining state was a task as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
To put it bluntly, not even a Fourth Grade, Celestial Level Alchemist would have had an easy way to salvage the situation when faced with such a berserk state.
Yet Ye Xuan, using nothing more than some Tier One Profound Sense, had pulled the collapsing refinement back from the brink. This completely upended their understanding of alchemy.
’These Profound Seals... they’re too brilliant! Each one is a perfect manifestation of Tier One Profound Sense, containing a hint of the Great Dao of Alchemy. It’s simply incredible!’
Hua Luoxuan and Zhou Huarong stared wide-eyed. Though their hands never stopped moving, a tempest was raging in their hearts.
"You idiots. Keep your eyes wide open and watch carefully. Don’t let what just happened repeat itself!"
Ye Xuan snorted coldly, his voice echoing from the Array. "When ingredients enter a berserk state, it’s simply an overactive reaction of the Spirit Medicines’ properties. What you need to do at that moment isn’t to use Profound Sense to forcibly reverse the entire process, but to guide it along, using the inherent characteristics of the various ingredients to lead them back onto the path of fusion. This is much easier than forcing a reversal. Of course, to achieve this, two things are crucial. First, your understanding of the various medicinal properties must be absolutely thorough. Second, your control over your Profound Sense must be exquisite down to the smallest detail. If you can do that, reversing a berserk state is no difficult task."
