Chapter 61 | The Divine Ability Practitioner

“For your first cauldron of pills, you should refine the Qi Refining Elixir. This is a pill used in the Qi Refining Realm, and it is considered a true entry-level pill. Many alchemists start their journey with this very pill.”

“You already studied the recipe for the Qi Refining Elixir a while ago. It involves eleven types of herbs, and they aren't very expensive, making them perfect for practice.” Zhou Xuan instructed Zhou Fuling to fetch a batch of herbs for refining the Qi Refining Elixir from the courtyard's medicine room and laid them all out in front of Lu Ming.

“A Qi Refining Elixir...”

Lu Ming licked his lips. This was a pill slightly more advanced than a Qi Refining Pill, though not as good as a Bone Refining Pill, making it suitable for beginners like Lu Mengmeng.

He took a deep breath, reached out to pick up a herb, and threw it directly into the lotus cauldron. However, as the flames transformed from primordial energy swept through the cauldron, the herb was instantly incinerated, leaving not even a trace of its medicinal efficacy.

“The fire energy is too fierce. You need to control the temperature and refine the herbs without damaging their medicinal properties,” Zhou Xuan guided.

Beside him, Zhou Fuling crossed her arms and teased with a beaming smile, “This technique doesn't look like that of an alchemy genius.”

Ignoring her distraction, Lu Ming's expression gradually grew calm. He threw another herb into the lotus cauldron. The fire energy surged, and the herb tumbled inside, gradually turning withered and yellow before finally reducing to residue.

But this time, although the herb was incinerated, a portion of its medicinal efficacy was successfully preserved under the wrap of the fire energy.

Zhou Xuan nodded slightly but still remarked, “The remaining medicinal efficacy is a bit too thin. You still need to increase your proficiency.”

Next, Lu Ming began to throw the other herbs into the lotus cauldron one by one. There were some failures along the way, but overall, it went quite smoothly, and he gradually grew more adept.

After about half a shichen.

Lu Ming finally managed to extract the medicinal efficacy of the various herbs. Wrapped in fire energy, the colorful medicinal essences tumbled inside the cauldron.

“What comes next is the most important and most difficult step. Withdraw the cauldron back into your Divine Ability Bone, use your spiritual sense to guide the fire energy, continuously refine the medicinal efficacy, and fuse them one by one according to the steps in the recipe. As the different medicinal properties clash and merge, they will unite. Once the medicinal efficacy perfectly condenses, the pill will take shape,” Zhou Xuan said.

Not daring to be careless, Lu Ming willed it, and the lotus cauldron turned into a flash of fire, disappearing into his palm.

He immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, focusing all his attention on controlling the primordial energy within his body to refine the pill.

“Fourth Uncle, will he be able to succeed?” Zhou Fuling asked curiously.

Zhou Xuan rolled eyes at her and said, “How could it be that easy? If refining pills were that simple, would alchemists still be so highly sought after?”

“Refining pills within the body is the most difficult step. Although this Qi Refining Elixir doesn't require many herbs, fusing every single bit of medicinal efficacy requires using spiritual sense to control the heat. Its complexity and tediousness are enough to exhaust one's mind. There are absolutely no shortcuts.”

“When you first refined the Qi Refining Elixir, I remember you failed for half a month straight and ruined countless herbs of mine before succeeding on your first cauldron, right?”

Zhou Fuling's pretty face flushed, and she muttered, “Miser, why do you remember that so clearly?”

“Let's wait and see. Let this kid fail a few times first to humble him a bit. Let him know that the Dao of Alchemy is broad and profound. If he wants to succeed in refining pills, he still needs to hone his skills properly,” Zhou Xuan said leisurely as he sat down by the stone table.

Zhou Fuling was also very curious about the outcome of Lu Ming's first attempt at alchemy, so she sat aside and waited patiently with him.

However, as they waited, they had no idea that a tempest of shock had already arisen in Lu Ming's heart.

Because after the lotus cauldron was withdrawn into his body, it was directly sucked into the Fire Lotus imprint. The strands of medicinal efficacy flowed back and forth within the Fire Lotus imprint.

Lu Ming activated the spiritual sense at his glabella, intending to enter the Fire Lotus imprint to fuse the medicinal efficacy.

But before he could act, Life's Flame, which was residing inside the Fire Lotus imprint, was suddenly activated by the imprint. Green flames whooshed out, directly wrapping around the strands of medicinal efficacy.

“Don't mess around, my medicinal efficacy!”

Lu Ming was startled by the sudden mutation of the Fire Lotus imprint. Just as he was about to stop it, he saw that as the Fire Lotus imprint slowly rotated under the melting of the green flames, those strands of medicinal efficacy actually began to fuse.

And what shocked Lu Ming the most was that the fusion of these medicinal efficacies was incredibly perfect! Not a single mistake was made!

For every successful fusion, a drop of medicinal liquid would condense.

In just a brief moment, all the medicinal efficacy was fused, turning into drops of medicinal liquid. Then, the green flames swept over the liquid, gathering it together, and gradually transformed it into an irregularly shaped pill prototype.

“Holy crap, it formed a pill?!”

Shock surged like wild waves in Lu Ming's heart. He stared blankly at the irregularly shaped pill prototype, completely dumbfounded.

After studying alchemy knowledge during this period, he already knew that the stage of fusing medicinal efficacy and forming the pill was the most difficult in the entire refinement process. This was because it required one's spiritual sense to probe deep inside to control every single bit of medicinal efficacy. Its tediousness and complexity heavily consumed spiritual sense and mental energy, which was why the vast majority of alchemists failed at this very step.

But now, what was Lu Ming seeing?

The most difficult step of fusing the medicinal efficacy and forming the pill had been actively completed by the Fire Lotus imprint before he even had a chance to interfere!

Lu Ming felt like he was dreaming.

Although he had long known that this mysterious Fire Lotus imprint was peerlessly wondrous, the scene before him still transcended his cognition.

Learn alchemy? Learn my foot.

This Fire Lotus could refine on its own!

The shock in Lu Ming's heart could not be calmed for a long time. It wasn't until the Fire Lotus imprint vibrated slightly that he finally snapped out of it. He hurriedly activated his spiritual sense, entering the Fire Lotus imprint to wrap around the pill prototype.

Because the pill refinement was not yet truly complete.

Although the Fire Lotus imprint had helped him complete the most difficult step, this was only a pill prototype. The final pill formation still required him to activate his alchemy divine ability and do it himself.

“Fortunately, I can finally show some of my own use. Otherwise, if the Fire Lotus imprint did everything, I'd feel a bit uneasy,” Lu Ming mocked himself in his mind. With a thought, an ethereal aura slowly rose from the Fire Lotus imprint.

It was precisely the stream of Clear Qi that had been swallowed by the Fire Lotus earlier.

Lu Ming used his spiritual sense to drive this stream of Clear Qi, wrapping it around the pill prototype and performing the final tempering using the alchemy divine ability, the True Explanation of the Six Refinements of Clear Qi.

This step was also exceptionally smooth.

Because the function of the True Explanation of the Six Refinements of Clear Qi was to purge impurities from the pill prototype while simultaneously fusing the medicinal efficacy, making its pill power more perfect and stabilizing its grade. However, the Fire Lotus imprint was simply too outstanding; the fused medicinal efficacy was no different from the work of a master.

Thus, even though Lu Ming could only barely execute the first refinement of the True Explanation of the Six Refinements of Clear Qi, as the Clear Qi continuously shuttled through the pill prototype, the color of the pill began to brighten, and its shape gradually became perfectly round.

A trace of pill fragrance diffused from it.

Finally, after another incense stick's time.

Lu Ming stared at the greenish-blue pill that had appeared inside the Fire Lotus imprint, dazed once again.

“...”

His first time refining a pill had succeeded just like that.

With an extremely complex state of mind, Lu Ming opened his eyes.

“How did it go?” Zhou Xuan asked with a faint smile. Holding the teapot, he leisurely poured tea into a cup.

Lu Ming didn't speak because he didn't know if his performance would be a bit too terrifying.

Seeing his silence, Zhou Fuling assumed he had failed. She immediately stepped forward, patted his shoulder, and comforted him, “Oh, Junior Brother, don't be sad. No one succeeds on their first try anyway. It's completely normal.”

Lu Ming exhaled a long breath. Since he needed to show his value to Zhou Xuan and the others, there seemed to be no need to hide it. Thus, he raised his palm, and the lotus cauldron emerged.

Zhou Xuan and Zhou Fuling cast their gazes over, and in the next instant, both of their expressions froze.

For they saw that inside the lotus cauldron, a perfectly round, greenish-blue pill was spinning smoothly, diffusing traces of pill fragrance that lingered around their noses.