Chapter 92: Testing Skills (Part Two)

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Smelling the various spirit herb fragrances in the pill chamber, Yue Qianchou had been standing to the side for a long time and was feeling somewhat drowsy. Just as he yawned, he heard a “bang” – the sound of the pill furnace lid opening. A clear fragrance hit his nose. Yue Qianchou wiped his face to wake up and saw that his master Guan Weiwu had already collected the pills.

“Master, how did it go?” Yue Qianchou walked closer and asked.

Guan Weiwu looked at the twenty pills in his hands, both black and white Qi Recovery Pills, and frowned while shaking his head: “I changed the technique, but it still doesn’t work. This time there are actually eight waste pills.” He said while removing the black waste pills from his hand.

Yue Qianchou scratched his head on the side: “Master, I have a request?”

“Hmm?” Guan Weiwu put the successful pills into his storage bag and turned back to ask: “What is it?”

Yue Qianchou ran to gather the four sets of spirit herbs from the ground, grinning: “Master’s every move in pill refining demonstrates the bearing of a grandmaster. This disciple watched with an itching heart, truly envious beyond measure. I also want to try it once to satisfy this craving. Could Master grant this disciple a pill chamber to let me try as well, to taste what pill refining feels like?”

Having just refined a batch of pills with poor results, Guan Weiwu was still somewhat displeased. Hearing his disciple say that his pill refining had grandmaster bearing, he couldn’t help but stroke his beard with satisfaction. In the entire cultivation world, who didn’t know the great name of ‘Pill Maniac’ Guan Weiwu? If speaking of pill refining techniques, if he claimed second place, who would dare claim first? He hadn’t expected that even his disciple who didn’t understand pill refining could see that he had grandmaster bearing. But what he said was indeed the truth – this disciple was an honest and reliable person! Guan Weiwu looked at Yue Qianchou with increasingly appreciative eyes.

Yue Qianchou stood to the side carefully maintaining his smile. How could he know that his casual flattering remark had pleased his master to the bone? He had purely made a habitual compliment.

“You also want to refine pills?” Guan Weiwu stared at the four sets of spirit herbs in his hands – clearly the spirit herbs for refining Qi Recovery Pills. He thought to himself that this disciple indeed had some pill refining talent, having remembered the formula after just one glance at the herbs he had picked out.

“Yes, yes! Master is the chief elder of the Alchemy Pavilion, with pill refining skills unmatched under heaven. As your disciple, having such a good learning opportunity, how could I let it pass by in vain? Even if I’m stupid, I must try once. In the future when I go out, if people know I’m your personal disciple and ask about it, I can at least say I’ve refined pills. I can’t say that my master is the chief elder of the Alchemy Pavilion while I’ve never even touched a pill furnace, right? Master, don’t you think what I’m saying is correct?” Yue Qianchou said sincerely.

“Mm.” Guan Weiwu nodded. If the ‘Pill Maniac’s’ personal disciple couldn’t refine pills, it would indeed be a joke if word got out, and it would definitely be his own face that was lost. Moreover, the spirit herbs for refining Qi Recovery Pills weren’t particularly precious spirit herbs. Taking them to try would at least allow him to learn something.

“Alright! You can take these four sets of spirit herbs to gain some experience. Carefully observe the process of spirit herbs being refined in the pill furnace. If it’s not enough, come get more from me. When your master has time, I’ll teach you a few pill refining techniques.” After Guan Weiwu finished speaking, he shouted loudly toward the outside: “Yang Qian!”

Wait until you have time? Once you see a pill furnace, you can’t move your feet. When you’ll actually have time is anyone’s guess. Yue Qianchou smiled mockingly in his heart but respectfully said: “Thank you for Master’s kindness.”

Before long, an elderly man hurried in and bowed: “Elder Guan, what are your instructions?”

This person was the pill chamber steward of the Alchemy Pavilion, with cultivation already at mid-stage Nascent Soul. Yue Qianchou had heard his great name and immediately bowed: “Steward Yang.” He addressed him this way to avoid conflict with Floating Immortal Island’s rules. According to the rules, he should call him Grand Master, but with his master present, it was naturally inconvenient to address him that way. In fact, others in similar situations did the same.

Guan Weiwu pointed at Yue Qianchou: “This is my disciple Yue Qianchou. Arrange a pill chamber for him.”

“Understood, Elder Guan.” Yang Qian smiled at Yue Qianchou: “Come with me.” Guan Weiwu also waved at him: “Go on, go on! Be attentive.” Yue Qianchou thanked him, gathered the spirit herbs, and followed Yang Qian.

Walking outside, Yang Qian sized up Yue Qianchou. Guan Weiwu had taken over ten disciples, but they either died or switched to other masters. The reason was naturally that after Guan Weiwu enthusiastically took disciples, he would ignore them completely. Some disciples, after meeting their master for the first time, never saw him a second time. That Yue Qianchou could make Guan Weiwu value him so much was indeed an anomaly.

Yang Qian hesitated slightly, then led Yue Qianchou to an empty pill chamber and asked: “Yue Qianchou, how do you find this place? If you don’t like it, we can change to another room.”

Yue Qianchou glanced inside – as long as he could refine pills, that was fine. Where were all these fussy requirements coming from? He bowed: “Thank you, Grand Master Yang. This room is fine, no need to trouble yourself further.”

“Good then. Call me if you need anything. I still have matters to attend to, so I’ll go first.” Yang Qian smiled. Yue Qianchou saw him out.

Returning to the pill chamber, he stepped on a protruding stone on the ground. There was a commotion below the pill furnace, red light overflowed, the room instantly brightened, and the temperature gradually rose as earth fire burned beneath the pill furnace.

Yue Qianchou separated out one set of spirit herbs and threw the remaining three sets into his storage bag. After the pill furnace completed preheating, he opened the lid, threw the spirit herbs in, and quickly covered it. His divine sense guided the airflow to rapidly refine the several spirit herbs.

With this test, Yue Qianchou was delighted to discover that his divine sense’s control over airflow was thousands of times easier than before. Compared to when he refined Foundation Establishment Pills and still needed spirit stones to recover, he didn’t know how much stronger this was. No wonder they said that only after Foundation Establishment stage was one suitable for pill refining – the difference between before and after was simply too great.

Different pill furnaces did make a difference in pill refining, though it had little to do with familiarity. This pill furnace was obviously much inferior to the one Ma Jiugu used. The heat inside dispersed unevenly and could easily go berserk suddenly.

Fortunately, he had been tempered through suffering, and his technique of controlling airflow with divine sense was extremely skilled. No matter how violent or difficult to control the airflow became, his divine sense could guide, direct, block, or make small circles, effortlessly taming the hot airflow to be obedient – whatever he wanted it to do, it had to obediently listen.

This was Yue Qianchou’s first time enjoying this feeling of complete control. That smooth and comfortable sensation was too refreshing. He thought proudly: ‘Little thing, trying to fight with me.’

Following the Qi Recovery Pill refining technique memorized in his mind, the essences of several spirit herbs separated or combined, flowing smoothly within the pill furnace, tracing beautiful arcs, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes dancing throughout the furnace, sometimes separating and combining. That aesthetic beauty between movement and stillness even intoxicated Yue Qianchou himself.

Inside the furnace, a slightly blue, crystal-clear, transparent mass – the largest cluster of spirit herb essence – slowly floated in the center, with several other clusters of different colored crystals circling around it. A stream of airflow passed by, and the circling crystals spun faster and faster. Yue Qianchou’s divine sense moved: “Combine.”

The spinning crystals suddenly crashed like meteors hitting Earth, one after another rushing toward the crystal blue mass in the center. In an instant, only one cluster of crystal radiating five-colored light remained spinning in the furnace. Yue Qianchou’s divine sense moved again: “Separate.”

The five-colored crystal in the center of the furnace, under the control of airflow, spun out droplets like a rotating umbrella, eventually spinning itself out of sight, but forming twenty much smaller, uniformly sized five-colored crystals in the furnace. Under the control of airflow, they arranged themselves orderly in the center position, rotating and uniformly receiving the baptism of the furnace’s highest temperature.

Yue Qianchou breathed a sigh of relief. This was his first time simultaneously controlling as many as twenty pills with divine sense, but after reaching Foundation Establishment stage, he was obviously more than capable – he had worried for nothing. Observing the movement inside the furnace, he felt there shouldn’t be any more problems.