Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Chapter 192 Two-Year Pill Master

After Jin Ming finished instructing, he did not stay long in the Earth Fire Room, leaving behind six sets of Fish Marrow Pill spiritual medicinal materials for Zhao Sheng, then excused himself on the pretext of having other matters and left the place.

When the Earth Fire Room was left with only Zhao Sheng, a sharp light flashed in his eyes, and a color of uncontrollable excitement emerged on his face.

He turned around, returned to the cushion and sat down cross-legged, beginning his third attempt at refining the Fish Marrow Pill.

This time, he would give it his all.

An hour later, black smoke billowed out of the alchemy furnace, with divine light bursting forth in Zhao Sheng's eyes; two streams of blue light shot from his eyes, extending more than three inches, while his hands flickered with afterimages as he executed the Condensing Pill Mantra.

"Solidify!"

Following a low shout, three Fish Marrow Pills suddenly shot out of the pill furnace, swiftly flying in front of Zhao Sheng and stopping mid-air.

As he examined the Spirit Pills before him, emitting a rich Elixir Fragrance, Zhao Sheng slightly narrowed his eyes.

Alchemy was indeed not as simple as he had imagined.

Even with talent to bolster him, Zhao Sheng still underestimated the complexity of refining Spirit Pills, with the other batches of Elixir Liquid either failing to meet the solidification standards due to inadequate fusion of medicinal properties or, due to insufficient Elixir Transformation Reaction, resulting in failure to solidify.

"Once more!"

Zhao Sheng put away the Fish Marrow Pills and with a wave of his hand, he moved aside the silver-white pill furnace that Jin Ming had specifically left behind.

The next second, the Nine Dragons Pill Cauldron flew out, swelling to over a person's height and landing steadily on the Alchemy Platform.

Boom!

With eight Red Toads spewing pure cyan Earth Fire, the Nine Dragons Tripod rapidly became scorching hot.

The Nine Dragons Tripod, worthy of being at the Spiritual Artifact Level, was much easier for Zhao Sheng to control, like a natural extension of his arm, ten times smoother than that silver-white pill furnace.

On his fourth attempt to refine the Fish Marrow Pills, with the aid of the Nine Dragons Tripod, Zhao Sheng clearly felt that the medicinal herbs were melted faster, the medicinal properties were extracted more thoroughly and more evenly.

This became clear during the step of melting medicinal properties; the Elixir Liquid bubbled more finely, shrinking faster by a third in volume, and the temperature changes during refinement were easier to control than with the silver-white pill furnace, achieving a higher level of precision and accuracy.

This fourth attempt at alchemy immediately provided Zhao Sheng with a tremendous surprise.

This time, he produced five pills, with four of high-quality and only one slightly flawed, which still counted as of good quality.

Zhao Sheng was greatly encouraged by this result and took the opportunity to begin refining his fifth batch.

An hour later, the attempt failed, with the cause of failure unknown.

...

With the sixth batch, three pills were produced; the cause was the inferior quality of the medicinal herbs.

With the seventh batch, seven pills were produced!

After seven batches, all the medicinal materials left by Jin Ming were used up, and the total number of Fish Marrow Pills produced had reached seven, most importantly, he had only failed once!

If other Alchemists knew of his success rate in alchemy, they would be dumbfounded.

This guy is simply not human!

Zhao Sheng himself was also satisfied with this result, but not completely content. He felt that there was still much room for improvement.

When Zhao Sheng left the Earth Fire Room and descended from Dusk Peak, the sky was already darkening, the sun slanting westward.

The dim yellow sunlight bathed Dusk Peak; the vast expanse of white clouds floating above the peak were suddenly illuminated blood-red, as if clusters of red clouds sprawled across the sky.

At this moment, the column of smoke rising from the top of Dusk Peak was tinted pink, from afar looking like a red silk ribbon descending from the Nine Heavens, exceedingly beautiful.

But such a beautiful scene could not attract Zhao Sheng's attention.

As soon as he left Dusk Peak, he headed straight for Elixir Fire Square.

Upon arriving at the square, he didn't go directly into the Treasure Medicine Pavilion, but instead, he purchased many batches of spiritual medicinal materials for refining Water Spirit Pills and Fish Marrow Pills.

Not only that, but he also bought several other types of spiritual herbs for refining First-rank Spirit Pills, preparing to have Jin Ming teach him alchemy later on.

The next day, inside the Earth Fire Room, a muffled explosion came from within the Nine Dragons Pill Cauldron. Though not loud, it sank Zhao Sheng's heart, his complexion turning somewhat unsightly.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhao Sheng sighed, stopped the Earth Fire, and then approached, with a wave of his hand, the lid of the cauldron lifted up, and he looked inside to find nothing but a pile of Elixir Residue.

Zhao Sheng shook his head, flicked his finger, and a Water Dragon materialized out of nowhere, flying into the pill furnace, swiftly and repeatedly rinsing its inner walls.

This was his fifth attempt at refining the Water Spirit Pill and the second failure!

From the success rate perspective, indeed the Water Spirit Pill was a bit more difficult than the Fish Marrow Pill.

After cleaning the pill furnace, Zhao Sheng had already moved past the shadow of failure, his mood returning to calm.

Expressionless, he sat back down on the cushion, pondered for quite some time, summed up the lessons from his failures, and then started refining the sixth batch of Water Spirit Pills.

Refining Spirit Pills sometimes requires practice makes perfect, similar to leveling up in a game— the more times you play, the more skilled you become,

...

Seven days later, Jin Ming and Zhao Sheng met again.

Without waiting for Jin Ming to ask, Zhao Sheng immediately showcased the fruits of his seven-day intensive alchemy training.

One batch of Fish Marrow Pills, three pills produced.

One batch of Water Spirit Pills, two pills produced.

What was most impressive was that he had not failed a single time!

Looking at Zhao Sheng's modest yet eager expression, Jin Ming took a deep breath and found himself unable to voice any criticism.

Seeing this, Zhao Sheng seized the opportunity to propose, "Mr. Jin, I've heard that you are also masterful at refining Jade Yellow Pills. I have prepared twenty sets of medicinal ingredients. How about you teach me how to refine the Jade Yellow Pill today?"

Upon hearing this, Jin Ming couldn't help but gasp for air. He felt as if something was pressing against his lungs, causing him a great deal of suffocation and distress.

He clutched at his chest, painfully agreeing, "...Alright then!"

Zhao Sheng was overjoyed at his response and turned a blind eye to Jin Ming's suffering, grabbing his hand in gratitude, "Fellow Daoist, you really are generous. Zhao holds you in high regard!"

As he spoke, Jin Ming felt something hard being pressed into his hand, and upon looking down, he saw a Mid Grade Pure Yin Spirit Stone leaking faint light halos between his fingers.

Upon seeing this, Jin Ming immediately felt much better and declared loudly, "No need for such courtesy, Fellow Daoist! Since you are sincere, I shall spare no knowledge to ensure your satisfaction!"

Zhao Sheng patted his hand knowingly and smiled, "I don't dare to promise other things, but you will see my sincerity in the future."

"Fine, Jin Ming will start refining a furnace of Jade Yellow Pills right now," Jin Ming said very straightforwardly.

...

Two years passed in a flash.

On the core spirit island of Nine Virtuous Isle called Spring and Autumn Island, to the east lies a large three-story palace-like building, with the words "Merit Hall" gilded above the entrance of the first floor's main hall.

The interior of the building was very spacious, with the main hall on the first floor being fifty to sixty yards wide and divided into numerous areas separated by jade counters.

In the center of each area stood a huge white light barrier, displaying rows of black, red, yellow, green, and white characters, corresponding to five different task levels.

The Merit Hall was where the Spring and Autumn Alliance disseminated various tasks to its own members, the loose cultivators on the island, and the minister elders.

The tasks in different areas varied widely, ranging from ordinary tasks such as hunting demon beasts, seeking Spirit Grass, and medicinal materials, to specialized tasks like Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and talisman refining, and even unique tasks like hiring, assassination, escorts, and even recruitment of sons-in-law or disciples.

It could be said that as long as you dared to assign a task, Merit Hall would dare to undertake it, provided that the compensation and task commission could be afforded.

In the Cultivation World, places like Merit Hall were quite common, with any slightly significant Cultivation Sect or Cultivation Family likely to have a similar venue. For example, the Good Deeds Hall established by the Origin Return Sect, where Zhao Sheng had spent a former life, was very similar in function to Merit Hall, except that it didn't dare to advertise every kind of task openly as Merit Hall did.

At this moment, in front of a huge light barrier

Zhao Sheng, dressed in black, stood still, his eyes flickering uncertainly as he watched the changing text on the light barrier.

A moment later, he activated his Divine Sense and raised a hand to reveal a Jade Token.

"Level C, Task Number Eleven"

Following his low shout, a white beam suddenly shot out from the light barrier, entering the Jade Token in his hand.

After the Jade Token surface lit up with a white glow, a line of small characters became visible:

"Twenty Water Repelling Pills, Merit Points one thousand!" With a glance, Zhao Sheng had a clear understanding of the task's details.

It turned out that the Water Repelling Pill was a special type of First-stage Spirit Pill that was particularly difficult to refine.

Once a cultivator consumed a Water Repelling Pill, they could breathe freely underwater for a duration of up to three days.

Alchemy really was a costly skill; even with Zhao Sheng's ample resources, he felt the strain.

Especially when he attempted to learn how to refine the Second Order Spirit Pills from the "Refining Elixir Hundred Formulas", any single failure in the refining process would cost a three-digit number of Spirit Stones.

It wasn't that he wasn't content with refining First-stage Spirit Pills; his progress was just too fast. Even Jin Ming had been cleaned out half a year ago.

The twenty-one methods of refining First-stage Spirit Pills were all masterfully learned by Zhao Sheng.

As for the Second Order Spirit Pills?

Regrettably, Jin Ming only knew how to refine one type of Second Order Golden Essence Pill, with a pitifully low success rate.

He would succeed only one or two times out of ten attempts, and each successful attempt yielded at most two pills, not to mention their quality.

Zhao Sheng had contemplated the idea of taking another Alchemist as a teacher, but ever since he had occasionally heard rumors that he was an "Alchemy Genius", and had been visited by many fellow Foundation Establishment Daoists multiple times,

To avoid further trouble, Zhao Sheng had to temporarily dismiss the idea.

At the same time, Zhao Sheng also covertly reduced the frequency of his visits to the Earth Fire Room, as well as the number and frequency of selling Spirit Pills.

As for Merit Hall, Zhao Sheng had been visiting more frequently in the past two months.

Firstly, he took on a few alchemy tasks to earn some spirit money to recoup his expenses.

But mainly, he came for the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire.

It was just unfortunate that suitable Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire for Alchemy was hard to come by. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

During several months, Zhao Sheng scoured the island's workshop and Merit Hall. He did see several types of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, but none met his requirements.

Eventually, when he found the Earth Core Golden Flame suitable for alchemy,

Before he could make a move, the Earth Core Golden Flame had already been bought by the upper ranks of the Alchemy Master Guild.

Zhao Sheng was merely an Alchemy Apprentice; he didn't register on the radar of the others.

Although no one on Nine Virtuous Isle except for Jin Ming, who had a vague inkling, was aware that he was already a First-rank Alchemist.

...

After taking on the alchemy task, Zhao Sheng glanced over the other task light barriers but found no clues about tasks involving Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire.

After briefly considering his options, he immediately strode out of Merit Hall, threw his Golden Essence Flying Sword, and with a turn around his body, he transformed into a sword rainbow, speeding directly towards the cave mansion at the edge of the island.