Chapter 4: Condensing the FengFu Star
Nine Yin Grass, refinement complete.
Earth Dragon Root, refinement complete.
Flame Seed, refinement complete.
….
Over thirty types of medicinal herbs were refined one by one, using up over two hours of Long Chen's time, and causing him to be tired to the point where his forehead was covered with sweat.
Refining pills was not the same as simply decocting medicine. Every single medicinal herbs' essence had to be extracted while also removing impurities, which would form a powder.
However the flame in Long Chen's hand was of far too low a quality, and the refined powder still had too many impurities. Still, this was the only method that he had.
First of all, Long Chen's cultivation base was insufficient, and thus he didn't have the necessary strength to sustain the Pill Flame, making its strength weak.
Second of all, currently Long Chen didn't have the opportunity or capability to subdue a different flame so he could only settle for what he had.
The FengFu Pill was a first tier medicinal pill, only Pill Cultivators who had reached the Pill Apprentice stage could refine a first tier medicinal pill.
But wanting to train in alchemy methods required not only a strong Pill Flame, but also required a forceful spiritual energy, and the most important requirement was an exceedingly powerful Spiritual Strength.
The other two requirements were not that difficult. For the Pill Flame, as long as you obtained all the proper preparations you could seize a flame type Magical Beast and gradually tame it into a house pet. Drawing on the Magical Beast's flame, you could cultivate your own flame to match its formidable power.
Over ninety-nine percent of alchemists used Beast Flames, and only a couple people who possessed extremely ancient inheritances of powerful strength could control an extremely mysterious and mystical Spirit Flame found between heaven and earth.
Spirit Flames were flames that possessed their own soul, and according to Long Chen's memories he had previously controlled an extremely formidable heaven and earth Spirit Flame.
But no matter how formidable it was, right now he could only use this trash flame to continue his pill refining. After all, the things in his memories were not things he could take out.
After resting enough, Long Chen took a deep breath. He placed a half a foot long candle into his hand, and a yellow flame appeared, causing the temperature to increase.
"Not bad, after going through the refinements the flame's strength has increased by a slight amount. Whatever, it's better than nothing I guess."
After consecutively refining seven different medicines' essence he threw them into the furnace. His Spiritual Strength erupted out and the flame in Long Chen's hand suddenly fluctuated, and compared to before it was now several times stronger.
"Using Spiritual Strength to support the flame, if other alchemists saw this wouldn't they get shocked to death?" Long Chen bitterly smiled.
Spiritual Strength was the foundation of any pill refinement. At the time of refining, a large amount of Spiritual Strength was needed in order to control the temperature. If even a slight deviation occurred it would waste all your previous efforts and you'd end up refining a pile of pill ashes. And if the medicinal pill had a very large medicinal strength then you might even cause a furnace explosion.
Most alchemists wouldn't start using their Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement. They would only use it towards the latter stages when the pill was about to take form in order to very carefully control the flame's strength.
After all, that was the critical time in the formation of the pill. At that time the flame's temperature had to constantly change, sometimes high and sometimes low, and doing so required a large consumption of Spiritual Strength.
If at that time the alchemist's Spiritual Strength was already exhausted, then the furnace of pills could basically be considered as scrapped. However, Long Chen surprisingly started using his Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement.
And in addition he used this precious Spiritual Strength just in order to increase the flame, treating it like firewood. Any alchemist would definitely rage and curse at him for doing so. Even if someone was a reckless and frivolous spender, no one would actually take it to such a point.
But Long Chen wasn't worried. According to his memories his Spiritual Strength was already not lacking compared to ordinary alchemists.
Pill Cultivator ranks were Pill Apprentice, Pill Scholar, Pill Master, Pill King, and Pill Emperor, Pill Ancestor, Pill Venerate, Pill Saint, and Pill God.
In Long Chen's memories were those of an almighty Pill God, therefore towards his current self's capabilities he was one hundred percent clear.
When Long Chen awoke his Spiritual Strength had changed to become abnormally strong, therefore Long Chen was qualified to act in such a manner.
"Buzz."
The pill furnace in front of Long Chen faintly trembled, emitting a slight buzzing noise.
"Hehe, by increasing the power of the flame the speed has increased by quite a bit."
He hastily threw in three more medicinal ingredients into the furnace, however at this moment Long Chen's forehead was already perspiring.
Hurriedly taking out a two foot long grass stem straw, he placed one end into the medicine jar which was filled with Energy Recovery Liquid and placed the other end into his mouth and firmly sucked in a mouthful.
When the Energy Recovery Liquid entered his stomach, the pores all over his body opened and began to crazily absorb the spiritual energy between and heaven and earth. The originally about to be exhausted spiritual energy rapidly recovered.
This was something that Long Chen had prepared earlier. Without it there was no way for him to refine the FengFu Pill. With the current him's Spiritual Strength it would be a joke if he could actually refine a pill on his own.
With the grass stem in his mouth, every now and then he would suck in another mouthful of Energy Recovery Liquid to replenish his body's spiritual energy.
With Long Chen's spiritual energy being replenished, his Spiritual Strength could show off how extremely powerful it was, and it was only two days later that Long Chen started to feel a bit exhausted. That was a sign that his Spiritual Strength had been largely used up.
But at this time the interior of the pill furnace's medicinal ingredients had all already been absorbed, so all that was left was finishing it up. The medicinal aroma was also starting to fill the air.
Although Long Chen's impression of a first tier medicinal pill was that it was so easy to refine it could be done with his eyes closed, the current him was no longer the same. His destiny had already been completely changed, and saying that he wasn't nervous would be a lie.
"Buzzz."
Suddenly the pill furnace's interior started to pulse, emitted a burst of buzzing noises. The energy within the pill furnace started to became berserk.
Long Chen didn't become even the slightest bit panicked, and on the contrary he even started to smile. This was the indication of the pill's formation, and also the most critical time of the refinement.
His Spiritual Strength completely activated with not even a trace held in reserve. The flame in his hand suddenly exploded out, and an incorporeal strength tightly sealed the entire pill furnace. This technique was called the "Heaven Seal Earth Lock," and was something that he had come up with from his memories. It was something used in order to prevent pill explosions and thus furnace explosions.
Moreover this technique was very practical, and could in the shortest period seal the medicinal energy within the pill furnace, not letting too much leak out.
Normal alchemists would all do this at the last step, because when the medicinal pill would go berserk, by taking a more gentle action it would cause it to stabilize.
Although doing so would decrease the danger by a lot, but a large amount of the medicinal ingredient's essences would be lost, and therefore the medicinal pill's quality would just be ordinary.
"Bang."
Following the full suppression of Long Chen's Spiritual Strength the pill furnace emitted a smothered noise, and following it everything turned silent.
In front of Long Chen the pill furnace had already turned tranquil. Long Chen couldn't help but to gasp for breath. His whole body was drenched in sweat, and he felt so dizzy that the sky was spinning.
When he felt a bit better he excitedly opened up the furnace. His hand was even trembling as he picked out five extremely round pills. Holding them in his hand, they reflected in his eyes, and a dense medicinal aroma completely filled the whole room.
"Two low grade pills, three trash pills. Tch, saying it out loud really makes me lose enough face to die." Long Chen's face was showing how excited he was but he still sighed.
Staring blankly for a bit, he couldn't help but to laugh; he had a mixture of a lifetime's worth of memories from a Pill God. Apparently that Pill God was truly excessively arrogant.
He himself didn't care about losing any face though, and he hastily carefully examined the pills in his hand.
Two low grade medicinal pills with their bodies completely round and their pill aroma filling the air, which refreshed the mind and raised a person's spirit with they smelled it.
Long Chen couldn't hold back a burst of elation. After all, one successful medicinal pill could be sold in the imperial capital for at least ten thousand gold coins.
In addition, even the three trash pills in his hand were much better than the Yaowan his mother had bought for him, especially since at least thirty percent of the medicinal essence had been sealed into the pill.
A medicinal essence that took up fifty percent of the pill would be termed low grade, and over eighty percent of all medicinal pills were only low grade.
If the medicinal essence reached sixty percent it would be middle grade, seventy percent would make it high grade, eighty percent would make it top grade, ninety percent would make it peerless grade, and as for one hundred percent… hehe. Right now Long Chen didn't think too much about it as it was simply too far for the current him.
Some people might wonder, what's the different between fifty and sixty percent medicinal essence? Was there a difference?
Wouldn't consuming two low grade medicinal pills be much more effective than one middle grade? If someone heard you ask this they'd probably choke on their own saliva.
Inside a medicinal pill was not only its medicinal essence, but there were also impurities. These so called impurities were unable to be absorbed by the body, and most importantly these impurities would cancel out a portion of the absorbed essence.
The saying that each medicine had its own side effects was not just a colloquial saying, but a hard truth. During the formation of a pill it was difficult to avoid accumulating pill toxins. These kinds of toxins, if not taken very often, would not have a large effect.
But for cultivators medicinal pills were often life saving measurements, and in one lifetime who would know just how many pills you would consume. When the body's pill toxins reached a certain degree, in would become a life threatening poison.
Pill toxins were one of the most difficult to eliminate poisons. They penetrated deep into the flesh and bones, and even the spirit. But the higher grade a medicinal pill was the less side effects it would have.
It was for this reason that the medicinal effect of a middle grade medicinal pill was over ten times greater than a low grade medicinal pill, and as for the price difference it was at least a hundred times greater.
Collecting the five medicinal pills and cleaning up the medicinal furnace and everything else, Long Chen could no longer endure and collapsed into slumber.
After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, he felt two hands caressing his cheek and could hear some low murmurings, but he was too exhausted and incapable of waking up.
When Long Chen once again regained consciousness it was already three days later. His stomach was growling with hunger and he wolfed down his food before once again starting his seclusion.
Consuming one trash pill, he used his Spiritual Strength to guide the medicinal pill's energy to enter the YongQuan point[i] on the bottom of his foot. That was the location of the first Star of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts- the position of the condensed FengFu Star.
"BANG."
Long Chen's right food shook, and under the foot the ground emitted a banging noise as the ground cracked, and fissures covered the whole floor.
"Excellent, I've already found the meridian channel as well as the exact position. Now I can genuinely attack it."
Long Chen faintly smiled, and he took out a low tier FengFu Pill and directly consumed it. A pure and perfect energy erupted, and under the Long Chen's pull it went straight to the YongQuan point on the bottom of his foot.
The YongQuan point trembled, following the rushing medicinal energy it was just like a dry riverbed receiving water, and like a JiaoLong Dragon[ii] it crazily convulsed.
"BOOM!"
A booming noise rang, and the frightening energy filled Long Chen's whole body, and of its own accord the tyrannical energy exploded out, shaking the room into smoke and dust, with waves of energy surging about.
As the smoke and dust slowly scattered it exposed a tranquil and refined Long Chen, his eyes filled with excitement. He felt that on the bottom on his foot was a bean-sized body from which endless energy would flow out of into his body, giving Long Chen a feeling of wanting to lifting his head up to the heavens and roaring.
The activity from Long Chen's room caused the entire noble estate to be disturbed and one after another everyone rushed over.
Seeing his mother also coming over, Long Chen hastily said, "Mom, today is the day that the aristocrat sons can enter the Imperial College to study, I have to hurry over."
Saying this he left behind a group of dumbstruck people and a pile of destroyed ruins as he changed into clean clothes and left directly for the Imperial College.
[i] YongQuang 涌泉穴, literally meaning gushing springs acupuncture point, is found on the bottom of the foot 2/3 of the way up in the middle. In the five-element system, the Kidney meridian is water element, and since the foot is always touching the ground the YongQuan point is earth element. The Kidney meridian connects to the YongQuan point, thus it is "gushing springs point."In Qigong it connects us to the ground, and with the point at the top of head it allows us to pull in the energy of heaven and earth through us. In acupuncture it is used to treat orders in the head and neck, and is also used to calm the spirit.
[ii] Found in the title of Volume 1, which I am debating changing the translation to JiaoLong Dragon Rising from Shallow Waters. A reminder that JiaoLong is a legendary dragon capable of controlling rain and water.