Chapter 80: Fresh From The Oven
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The ten not-yet-solidified Foundation Building Pills in the furnace swayed slightly. Yue Qianchou was startled – there were plenty of examples throughout history of failure at the last moment! Silently warning himself, he quickly steadied his mind and carefully tended to the ten treasures. His cultivation wasn’t high, and refining pills at the Qi Refining stage was already forcing it. He couldn’t compare to Ma Jiugu’s abnormal cultivation level – she could be by the seaside while her divine sense controlled pills in the furnace with ease.
Before long, wisps of green smoke drifted from the furnace top, accompanied by the fragrance of pills emanating from the furnace.
“Success?” Although Yan Zixia knew it was almost done, she couldn’t help but feel somewhat surprised. She had taken Foundation Building Pills before and was familiar with this fragrance – it was indeed the aroma of Foundation Building Pills, and it seemed even more concentrated than the ones she had taken. She secretly pondered, ‘I wonder how many pills he managed to produce in this batch?’
“Rise!” Yue Qianchou shouted loudly, his voice trembling with excitement. As he struck the furnace lid open with a palm from the air, his divine sense quickly withdrew. Several purple shadows were shot out by the compressed air currents in the furnace.
Yue Qianchou quickly sprang up, grabbing the hem of his long robe. All ten purple shadows fell into it. After landing, he opened the gathered hem, and an enticing aroma hit his face. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and couldn’t help but laugh heartily, “Fresh from the oven! Fresh Foundation Building Pills from the oven! I succeeded!” His smug expression was beyond annoying. But you couldn’t blame him – after day after day of pursuit, achieving it in one moment would make anyone excited.
Yan Zixia quickly walked over and helped pull open his robe. Inside lay purple, glistening pills quietly. After counting, she exclaimed, “Ten pills!”
Unable to resist, she reached out with her slender finger to pick up one pill. She could still feel it was slightly hot to the touch, with substantial weight. Bringing it to her nose to smell, the color, fragrance, and quality were all very pure. The pill’s surface faintly glowed with a hazy purple light – clearly a very successfully refined batch of pills.
Yan Zixia showed a trace of envy in her surprise. Even with her cultivation level, refining nine spiritual herbs together – even if given a dozen sets – she wouldn’t dare guarantee she could produce a full batch of ten Foundation Building Pills. There would definitely be several waste pills when they came out of the furnace, not to mention she didn’t even know the specific steps and methods for refining Foundation Building Pills. When the pills emerged just now, she clearly saw exactly ten pills, no more, no less. Now they were right before her eyes – truly not a single waste pill.
“Qianchou, who taught you this pill refining method?” Yan Zixia asked as she put the pill in her hand back.
Yue Qianchou was grinning foolishly at the pills. He hadn’t expected that just over ten sets of spiritual herbs could produce a batch of pills. He had originally planned for dozens of sets to produce one batch – this was truly unexpected. Hearing her words, he put the pills into his storage bag, touched his nose and smiled, “I figured it out myself. Didn’t you see I used over ten sets of spiritual herbs to experiment?”
“Ah! You figured it out yourself!” Yan Zixia didn’t doubt his words and said urgently, “Qianchou, you must quickly record your pill refining steps and methods properly. You absolutely cannot forget them.”
Yue Qianchou was puzzled, “Why?”
“Don’t you know? Although the same spiritual herbs are used, the refining steps differ between sects and schools. A good formula is a priceless treasure…” Yan Zixia poured out everything she knew.
After listening, Yue Qianchou was overjoyed inside. The Pill Sect’s pill formula jade slip was indeed extraordinary – just one Foundation Building Pill formula could be treated as a treasure. That boy Liu Zhengguang was worth castrating!
But he didn’t consider that every formula in that pill formula jade slip, every pill refining step and method, was the crystallized wisdom of countless generations of Pill Sect members. If not for this, how could someone of his second-rate level refine a perfect batch of ten pills? Even if he succeeded in refining a batch, it would be strange if he didn’t waste seven or eight pills. It seemed he hadn’t yet witnessed the scene of waste pills and didn’t know how high the heavens were.
Yue Qianchou wasn’t ready to tell her about the pill formula yet. He nodded seriously, “Mm! Zixia, thank you for the reminder. I understand. I’ll think it through carefully right now. Oh, Zixia, could you get some food? I’m a bit hungry.” He had been completely absorbed in pill refining and hadn’t had a drop of water for two days.
“Alright, I’ll go back and get some for you right now.” Before leaving, Yan Zixia didn’t forget to remind him, “You absolutely must remember it.”
After she left, Yue Qianchou muttered, “Remember my ass! I memorized it a year ago. Now I should consider what to do. I don’t know if this girl’s mouth is tight. No, ten Foundation Building Pills really isn’t safe. Besides myself, there’s Guan Yu, Chen Feng, and Xiaotian. Who knows, there might be more subordinates to recruit in the future. Besides, I don’t even know how many pills I’ll need to successfully establish my foundation. It seems I can’t rush to establish my foundation now. I should first refine all the spiritual herbs I have into pills. If anything changes, I can just run away directly.”
Yan Zixia flew back and forth alone, so she returned quickly. She not only brought Yue Qianchou’s favorite roasted meat but also a bottle of wine, quite like celebrating for him.
After Yue Qianchou had eaten and drunk his fill, he patted his belly and said, “I’ve memorized it all. Now let me confirm how effective it is.”
With one successful experience, refining became much more time and effort-efficient. When batch after batch of Foundation Building Pills emerged from the furnace, Yan Zixia was amazed. Each batch was exactly ten pills, and not a single waste pill – this success rate was too high. Even if great-grandmother came, she might not be able to achieve this.
After more than ten batches, since he was always refining the same type of pill, he had become familiar with all the points requiring attention. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. When he had refined the fiftieth set, he had established a fixed pattern. Controlling the spiritual liquids in the furnace was effortless, and he knew how to borrow and apply force when controlling the hot air currents in the furnace. When a batch of pills came out, he hadn’t even used a single spirit stone.
If others saw this, who would believe this was a Qi Refining stage disciple refining pills? But no one else could be like him, using a pile of precious spiritual herbs and high-grade spirit stones for practice.
As he refined more batches, with batch after batch of Foundation Building Pills emerging, his face showed no joy or worry – he had become numb, as if refining Foundation Building Pills was as simple as eating, nothing remarkable. Even Yan Zixia watching from the side had become somewhat numb.
After finishing all one hundred sets of spiritual herbs, a full ten days had passed. During this time, he ruined one batch of pills due to carelessness. Calculating it out, one hundred sets of spiritual herbs had succeeded ninety-six times, with ten pills per set – he had refined nine hundred and sixty Foundation Building Pills.
The earth fire that had burned under the pill furnace for over ten days was finally sealed. Yue Qianchou clapped his hands and exhaled, “Work’s done.”
Yan Zixia had also lost count of how many batches he had refined. She walked over and asked, “Not refining anymore?” Honestly, watching someone do the same thing with a known outcome every day was really boring.
“Not refining anymore. I’ve memorized the method too. It seems the pill refining method I figured out is pretty decent,” Yue Qianchou smiled.
Yan Zixia gave him a look. Let him say whatever he wanted. She had figured it out – no matter how good the formula was, she was too embarrassed to ask for it. If she asked and he didn’t give it, wouldn’t that be mortifying? After all, this wasn’t an ordinary pill formula. Even if he gave it to her, she would owe him an enormous favor. How could she repay that in the future?