Chapter 94: Testing Skills (Part Four)
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Don’t underestimate these ordinary Qi Recovery Pills – Yang Qian knew what they represented. For the numerous disciples of Foundation Establishment stage and above at Floating Immortal Island, the consumption of Qi Recovery Pills was enormous. The spirit herbs for Qi Recovery Pills grown at Ten Thousand Fragrance Garden were often insufficient, and the sect had to sell a considerable portion of Qi Recovery Pills each year to appease disputes with other sects – the quantity involved was imaginable.
With such massive consumption came the need for large-scale refining, but the proportion of waste pills was too high. One batch would probably have more than half as waste pills. Only pill refining experts like Guan Weiwu could control it to below half. If every batch could produce perfect pills like Yue Qianchou’s – a full furnace of successful pills with pill halos indicating supreme grade – selling just one would at least double the price. The enormous benefits this would bring to the sect were simply unimaginable.
Yang Qian finally understood why Guan Weiwu had been so regardless of everything just now.
“Bang!” The furnace lid popped open. Guan Weiwu spread his five claws and drew all the pills into his palm. Yue Qianchou and Yang Qian both walked over to observe.
In his broad palm, among the twenty pills there were still seven waste pills. Yue Qianchou and Yang Qian exchanged glances. Guan Weiwu suddenly howled toward the sky, shaking all the busy people in the pill chambers to look this way. It was impossible to tell whether he was happy or sad. The twenty pills in his hand, regardless of good or bad, were all crushed to powder by him and thrown aside.
Yang Qian understood Guan Weiwu’s feelings at this moment. Having refined pills his entire life yet being inferior to a disciple who had just started – his feelings could be imagined. Yue Qianchou was dumbfounded, not knowing what madness had seized his master. Wasn’t it just a few waste pills? Was it worth such self-reproach? Look at me – I refined a whole batch of mediocre pills and remained quite calm! Sigh! This master really is a pill maniac – rotten wood cannot be carved!
Guan Weiwu grabbed Yue Qianchou’s arm and shouted: “Come with me!” Then he dragged him running.
Damn! Such strength – you’re hurting me! Yue Qianchou grimaced in pain as he was dragged along. Yang Qian also followed running.
The three ran all the way to Guan Weiwu’s exclusive pill chamber. After entering, Guan Weiwu released Yue Qianchou’s arm: “Yue Qianchou, refine another batch using the same method as before. I want to inject my divine sense into the pill furnace to see how you refine. Don’t mind my divine sense – I won’t interfere with you. Just focus on refining your pills with peace of mind. Do you understand?”
Yue Qianchou rubbed his pinched and painful arm, also moved by his master’s attitude of carefully guiding his disciple. He thought: What virtue and ability do I, Yue Qianchou, have to encounter two masters who treat me so well? Sigh! Tears of emotion flowed down into his stomach – this kindness will be unforgettable in this lifetime!
Taking the spirit herbs Guan Weiwu handed over, he nodded vigorously: “Master, I understand.” After speaking, he threw in the spirit herbs and began refining once again.
Tsk tsk! The furnace of the Alchemy Pavilion’s chief elder was indeed different – the heat was even and strong, even better than what Ma Jiugu used. Very good indeed. Just as Yue Qianchou sighed in his heart, he detected two additional strands of divine sense in the furnace – one was his master’s, and the other? Needless to say, with only three people in the pill chamber, the remaining one must be Yang Qian’s.
Guan Weiwu also discovered the extra divine sense and glared at Yang Qian on the side. The latter smiled sheepishly and gestured toward the pill furnace with his mouth. The two then closed their eyes together to carefully observe the scene inside the pill furnace.
As soon as the two looked, they were startled to discover that Yue Qianchou wasn’t using divine sense to directly control the refined spirit herb essences, but was controlling the spirit herb essences by controlling the hot airflow inside the furnace. Having refined pills for many years, neither had ever seen such pill refining. Since ancient times, who in the cultivation world didn’t use divine sense to control objects for pill refining?
Unless it was those ordinary mortals who claimed they could also refine pills, but actually produced some medicinal paste, which they would take out, roll into balls, and dry as pills. That had nothing to do with real pill refining. Even if they used genuine materials, real spiritual pills treated this way would probably lose nine-tenths of their contained heaven and earth essence. Yue Qianchou’s method was unheard of and unseen, but it was refreshingly novel.
They didn’t know that Yue Qianchou had already begun learning pill refining while still at Qi Refining stage. With that level of cultivation, divine sense simply couldn’t directly manipulate any objects inside the furnace, forcing him to think of using divine sense to stir airflow for control. Although he eventually succeeded in learning it, the tribulations and suffering he endured in the process were completely beyond what Guan Weiwu and Yang Qian could comprehend. They also didn’t know that Yue Qianchou had been foolish enough to forcibly use divine sense for pill refining before reaching Foundation Establishment stage.
Of course, there were objective reasons for him doing this. First was his urgent desire to obtain Foundation Establishment Pills. Second was listening to Yan Zixia’s words – she said Ma Jiugu had mentioned that very few people could refine pills at Qi Refining stage cultivation. Since it was “very few,” that meant there were some. Since there were some, that meant he could do it too. As a result, relying on large quantities of spirit stones, he really managed to do it. Third, he didn’t know that those so-called few people were naturally gifted, with cultivation at Qi Refining stage sufficient to match Foundation Establishment stage people. Fourth, he didn’t know that forcibly doing so could accidentally completely destroy one’s divine sense and turn someone into an idiot.
If he had known back then, he would probably have preferred being killed rather than accepting the result of becoming an idiot. Fifth, which was somewhat related to the third point – although he wasn’t naturally gifted, back at Qingguang Sect, due to the golden pearl’s help, he had spent an extraordinarily long time cultivating his dantian, giving him greater true qi capacity than people of the same cultivation level. This made his late Qi Refining stage cultivation indeed much stronger than ordinary people, and naturally his divine sense was also much stronger, largely avoiding the possibility of him becoming an idiot.
Actually, Yue Qianchou’s current cultivation could completely use the divine sense object control method to directly refine pills, but he discovered that using the airflow control method for pill refining was more effortless. Borrowing the hot air in the pill furnace had a bit of the flavor of using four ounces to move a thousand pounds – very effortless. Moreover, when refining pills, according to the inertia of airflow circulation driving the separation and combination of spirit herb essences, no matter how many pills were divided, it could guarantee uniform medicinal properties in each pill. This was something that the divine sense object control technique’s forcible separation during pill refining couldn’t achieve – that way, each pill would inevitably contain more or less medicinal properties, absolutely lacking the uniform medicinal property distribution that Yue Qianchou’s current technique maintained.
When the spirit herb essences in the pill furnace were made to perform various fluid displays by the airflow driven by Yue Qianchou’s divine sense, various brilliant spiritual liquids danced in the furnace, tracing shocking and dazzling spectacular lights. The arcs traced were colorfully magnificent, intoxicating when they gathered. Sometimes drop by drop, sometimes suddenly gathering and scattering, sometimes flowers blooming in fury, sometimes rotating in embrace. The spiritual liquid in the furnace evolved bit by bit toward the ultimate goal under the simple manipulation of airflow by divine sense.
The divine senses of Guan Weiwu and Yang Qian inside the furnace initially showed some incredulous fluctuation, then both quietly enjoyed this visual feast. The main bodies of both men outside the pill furnace showed intoxicated expressions on their faces. Even after the pills were completed, both were still immersed in intoxication.
“Bang!” The furnace lid opened. Yue Qianchou used a method countless times clumsier than Guan Weiwu’s – jumping up and using the old method of catching the pills with the hem of his robe.
The sound of the furnace lid opening also awakened the two men. They opened their eyes and slowly exhaled a stifling breath from their chests that had to be released.
Yue Qianchou approached carrying the hem of his robe and scratched his head: “Master, are there major problems with the pills I refined this way?”
Guan Weiwu and Yang Qian exchanged glances and both shook their heads with bitter smiles.
“Sigh!” Guan Weiwu sighed, examining the twenty successful pills before him. He reached out and picked up one Qi Recovery Pill from his disciple’s robe, gazing with distant eyes at the charming halo emanating from the pill, then suddenly threw it directly into his mouth and swallowed it. His own refined pills and his disciple’s refined pills – both were Qi Recovery Pills, but after circulating his cultivation to dissolve it, the latter’s medicinal efficacy was nearly double that of the former.
