Chapter 92: Alchemy

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Alchemy

Ever since he had spent time in the herb garden listening to Senior Brother Ji Ling talk about alchemy, he had gradually become fascinated by it. The process of turning spiritual herbs into powerful pills had seemed surprisingly interesting to him, and he had already begun wondering whether he might have some talent in that area.

Perhaps he could start there and see where it took him.

Sui Sui continued reading and gradually gained a better understanding of alchemy.

Alchemy was essentially the art of creating pills by extracting and refining the medicinal properties contained within spiritual materials. According to the books, the process could be divided into four main stages.

The first was extraction. During this stage, the alchemist would extract the medicinal essence from the ingredients, whether they were spiritual herbs, beast cores, or other materials. The goal was to separate the useful medicinal properties from the raw material so they could be refined further.

The second stage was purification. This was one of the most important steps because the medicinal essence extracted from the ingredients would still contain impurities and toxins. The alchemist had to carefully remove as much of them as possible to improve the quality of the final pill.

The books explained that the grade of a pill was largely determined by the amount of toxins remaining after purification. Pills with around fifty percent impurities were considered low-grade, while those with only twenty-five percent remaining toxins were considered mid-grade. High-grade pills contained only around ten percent toxins. Naturally, the fewer impurities a pill contained, the more effective its medicinal properties would be and the fewer side effects it would have.

The third stage was merging. Once the medicinal essences had been sufficiently purified, the alchemist would combine them according to the pill’s recipe. The different ingredients would gradually fuse together and transform into a unified medicinal liquid.

Finally came pill condensation. Once the medicinal liquid had been completely merged, the alchemist would compress and condense it, gradually transforming the liquid into a solid pill. This was the final step of the process and required precise control over both the spiritual energy and the medicinal essence.

After reading through the explanations, Sui Sui felt that he now had a basic understanding of how alchemy worked.

Naturally, his next thought was to try it himself.

There was only one problem: He didn’t have a cauldron.

Sui Sui stared at the books for a moment before suddenly remembering someone: Senior Brother Ji Ling.

If anyone in the sect could help him get his hands on an alchemy cauldron, it would probably be him.

With that thought, Sui Sui immediately closed the book, returned it to the shelf, and hurried out of the library.

His destination was the Herb Garden.

—

"You want to learn alchemy?"

As soon as Sui Sui arrived at the herb garden, he immediately went to find Ji Ling and asked if he had any spare cauldrons that he could use to practice alchemy.

"Well, I do have a few unused cauldrons here. I can certainly give one to you, but are you sure you’ll be alright?" Ji Ling asked, looking at Sui Sui with a hint of concern.

Sui Sui naturally understood why he was worried. After all, everyone knew that Bai Sui Sui had once been unable to cultivate and couldn’t properly use spiritual energy. Ji Ling was probably wondering whether Sui Sui could really learn alchemy, but he didn’t want to ask too directly and risk hurting his feelings.

Sui Sui didn’t plan to completely hide the fact that he could cultivate now from everyone. After all, he would be participating in the sect’s disciple competition later, so sooner or later, everyone would find out.

He decided there was no harm in telling Ji Ling a simplified version of the truth.

"Actually, Senior Brother doesn’t have to worry. The reason I was gone for so long was because my parents found something that could help me. It turns out there were some things blocking my meridians before, so my spiritual energy couldn’t be detected properly. But now we found a way to remove it so I can finally cultivate."

Hearing this, Ji Ling smiled, looking genuinely happy for Sui Sui. "That’s great. Now I feel more assured." After saying that, he then left to fetch one of his spare cauldrons. When he returned, he was carrying several other things as well.

"By the way, I also have some notes and personal insights on alchemy. I’m only a Golden Core alchemist myself, so there are many things I may not be able to help you with, but these should still be useful. I’ve written down some of my experiences, as well as a few common dos and don’ts."

Ji Ling handed several notebooks to Sui Sui.

Sui Sui accepted them gratefully. The books he had read in the library focused mostly on alchemy theory and techniques, while Ji Ling’s notes contained practical experience from a real alchemist. They would undoubtedly be much more useful for actually learning how to refine pills.

Before Sui Sui left, Ji Ling also picked out a few stalks of herbs from the garden and handed them to him. "Come on, just take them. Don’t worry about it. This portion should have been yours in the first place since you work here too. Consider it an extra stipend for the herb garden workers. Go on, take them."

After receiving the herbs, Sui Sui quickly returned to his room and began preparing everything he would need for his first attempt at alchemy.

Cauldron? Check.

Ingredients? Check.

Alchemy notes? Check.

Everything was ready. Now, all that remained was to put what he had learned into practice.

The herbs Ji Ling had given him were enough to make a basic Fasting Pill, one of the simplest pills available to low-level cultivators. Once consumed, it could suppress hunger and allow a person to go several days without eating, making it a popular choice for cultivators who needed to travel or enter secluded cultivation.

The recipe itself required only two main ingredients.

The first was Hollowmint, a herb with a long stem and dark-blue leaves. The second was Pale Lotus, which looked almost like an ordinary lotus at first glance.

Sui Sui had received thirty portions of each herb, giving him more than enough materials to practice.

He looked at the ingredients laid out before him, then at the cauldron beside them.

Alright! Time to begin.

Sui Sui placed the Hollowmint and Pale Lotus into the cauldron and carefully reviewed the steps described in the books and Ji Ling’s notes one last time.

Once he was ready, he closed his eyes and began circulating his spiritual energy.

His spiritual power slowly spread into the cauldron, becoming countless threads and then enveloping the two herbs and . Almost immediately, Sui Sui could sense the different components contained within them. It was a strange feeling, as though the herbs had become transparent under his spiritual perception. He could clearly distinguish the useful medicinal properties from the parts that served no purpose in the pill.

Following the method he had just learned, Sui Sui focused on the medicinal components and carefully separated them from the rest.

Once the extraction was complete, he moved on to purification.

This step proved slightly more difficult. Within the medicinal essence, Sui Sui could sense countless tiny black particles floating among the concentrated medicinal properties. These were the impurities and toxins mentioned in the books.

Sui Sui carefully focused his spiritual energy on removing them.

His first attempt was able to remove some of them, but not all of it, so he tried again, this time paying closer attention to the movement of the impurities and adjusting his spiritual energy accordingly.

After another round of purification, there were still traces of black particles remaining, but Sui Sui did not give up, he continued refining the medicinal essence, repeating the purification process until he had distilled it three times. Only then did the remaining black particles finally disappear from his perception.

Seeing this, Sui Sui moved on to the next step.

He slowly liquefied the purified medicinal essence before carefully merging the two ingredients together. The separate medicinal properties gradually fused into a single, uniform liquid.

Finally, it was time for the last step.

Pill condensation.

Sui Sui concentrated his spiritual energy and carefully compressed the medicinal liquid. The liquid slowly shrank, becoming denser and denser until it finally condensed into a small, perfectly round pill.

When Sui Sui opened his eyes, a deep-green pill was already resting quietly in his palm, he stared at it for several seconds.

He had succeeded.

And he had actually succeeded on his first attempt!

Sui Sui was so happy that he nearly jumped for joy.

What he didn’t realize was that what he had just accomplished was practically the feat of an alchemy genius. Successfully refining a pill on the first attempt was already difficult enough, especially without a teacher personally guiding him through the process. Yet Sui Sui had not only succeeded, but had also managed to produce a pill with an exceptionally deep color.

That deep green color was a sign of extremely high purity.

The purification process had been thorough enough that the remaining toxins were likely no more than ten percent, placing the pill firmly in the high-grade category.

Unfortunately, Sui Sui had no idea how impressive this was.

Most of the pills his parents had given him in the past were already high-grade pills, so he had naturally assumed that this was simply what a properly refined pill was supposed to look like.

As far as Sui Sui was concerned, his first attempt had gone completely normally.