Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 1289: Chapter 838: Yue Ming’s Request, Illusion God Pill (2)

The Nine Nether Ghost Orchid has the effect of enhancing the divine soul. Yang Zhenshan remembers that in the Lotus Heart Valley, a single Nine Nether Ghost Orchid would cost over eight hundred Spirit Stones.

If Yue Ming only had two or three stalks of the Nine Nether Ghost Orchid, Yang Zhenshan wouldn’t be confident in refining the Illusion God Pill.

Yue Ming hesitated a bit, but he quickly made up his mind as he had no other choice.

He wasn’t that old, only about one hundred and eighty years now, and his cultivation had already reached the mid Golden Body Realm. If assisted by the Illusion God Pill, he might have a chance to strive for the Divine Soul Realm. But without the pill, he would never glimpse the mysteries of the Divine Soul Realm in his lifetime.

Moreover, he had already waited for twenty years. Now, finally encountering Yang Zhenshan, an Immortal Cultivation Alchemist who might be able to refine the Illusion God Pill, he didn’t want to wait any longer.

He took out a storage bag and said, "Here are twenty portions of medicinal materials. I hope Elder Yang will pay extra attention to refining them!"

"If successful, we will each take half!"

When seeking someone for alchemy, each taking half is the norm among Immortal Cultivation Alchemists.

This applies whether the alchemist is familiar with the elixir recipe or is encountering it for the first time.

Few alchemists are willing to take a loss to refine for others unless the elixir recipe given is extremely precious.

"Alright, rest assured Elder Yue Ming, I will do my utmost to refine this Illusion God Pill!" Yang Zhenshan took the storage bag with a smile.

The Illusion God Pill was of little help to him; he had the Void Refining Scripture and didn’t need pills to enhance his divine soul. Such pills weren’t better in quantity. Consuming too many would lead to pill poison accumulation, which could form a pill barrier, and once formed, it would be extremely difficult to break through.

Compared to divine soul enhancement pills, he actually needed mana-enhancing pills more, like the Gathering Spirit Pill, specifically assisting Foundation Establishment cultivators in their practice.

Currently, Yang Zhenshan was researching the elixir recipe for the Gathering Spirit Pill.

However, even if he didn’t need the Illusion God Pill, Yu Qingyi and the others did.

"How long will the refining take?" Yue Ming asked.

Yang Zhenshan thought for a moment and said, "At least a year!"

Familiarizing with the elixir recipe, attempting the refining, to meticulously supplement the deficiencies, and summarizing experiences—this was a time and energy-consuming process.

Yang Zhenshan couldn’t give up on his cultivation just to focus on the Illusion God Pill recipe, so he could only do the refining whenever he had spare time.

Fortunately, he had already started refining the Gathering Spirit Pill, or else this timeline could have been extended.

"Very well, I await Elder Yang’s good news!"

Yue Ming understood the principle of trusting whom you employ, so he didn’t rush Yang Zhenshan.

After sending off Yue Ming, Yang Zhenshan studied the Illusion God Pill recipe briefly and examined the materials Yue Ming had provided.

Upon careful inspection, he found that Yue Ming had prepared very well, with all the medicinal ingredients adequately gathered.

Later, Yang Zhenshan closed the array and returned to the Spirit Source Land.

He practiced while pondering the arts of alchemy.

However, he was still focused on refining the Gathering Spirit Pill.

The Gathering Spirit Pill was a relatively easy Second-Order Pill to refine, with its necessary ingredients being quite common. After all, this was the most consumed pill by Foundation Establishment cultivators; if its ingredients were rare and refining was too difficult, it wouldn’t become so widely used.

The rarity of a pill is judged by its effects. If its effects are rather special, its value is relatively high, such as the Foundation Establishment Pill.

As for the rarity of the ingredients needed in refining, it depends on its efficacy. If the effects don’t justify the ingredients’ rarity, no one would want to refine it because it’s better to directly consume the unrefined materials than refine them into a low-efficacy pill.

Generally, the more common a pill, the more common the ingredients required for its refining, like the Jade Marrow Pill and the Gathering Spirit Pill.

The recipes for these pills have evolved over countless years, undergoing numerous tests and amendments by predecessors, altering rare ingredients to common, even cultivable ones.

This is how today’s recipes have formed.

The Illusion God Pill differs from the Gathering Spirit Pill; its main ingredient is the Nine Nether Ghost Orchid — a special herb with no easy substitutes.

Thus, the Illusion God Pill’s importance and refining difficulty far surpass those of the Gathering Spirit Pill.

Yang Zhenshan succeeded in producing a batch of Gathering Spirit Pills after just three attempts.

But when he tried refining the Illusion God Pill, he consecutively failed five times.

When he initially refined foundation establishment pills, he only failed consecutively three times. But this doesn’t mean the Illusion God Pill is more challenging than the Foundation Establishment Pill; rather, it showed Yang Zhenshan’s shallow understanding of the Illusion God Pill recipe.

Before refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, Yang Zhenshan spent years understanding its recipe thoroughly before trying to refine it. However, he only got the Illusion God Pill recipe two or three months ago, so he hadn’t yet deeply understood many parts of the recipe.

Attempting to refine the Illusion God Pill was also a part of deepening his understanding of the recipe.

"This Illusion God Pill is truly difficult!"

In the Pill Hall, Yang Zhenshan looked at the few wasted pills on the jade plate and sighed in frustration.

It had been over three months since he received the recipe. Firstly, he refined the Gathering Spirit Pill and then spent a month getting familiar with the Illusion God Pill recipe. In the past half a month, he tried to refine five batches of the Illusion God Pill, all ending in failure.

"The Nine Nether Ghost Orchid requires a special technique to refine. The technique is not hard to learn, but it’s extremely challenging to master!"

"To successfully refine the Illusion God Pill, mastering this technique is imperative!"

Yang Zhenshan took out the Illusion God Pill recipe again and examined it closely.

The Nine Nether Ghost Orchid is quite peculiar, growing in cold, shady places and itself an extremely yin-attributed herb. To refine such an herb in the blazing fire of a pill furnace, a unique technique is required to preserve the orchid’s properties.

The recipe documents this technique called Heart Hand, an exceptionally specialized formula for controlling divine soul power.

Initially, Yang Zhenshan thought this was merely a common herb-processing method, but it seems now that this technique conceals deep secrets.

Its significance might even exceed that of the Illusion God Pill recipe itself.

Yang Zhenshan was no stranger to controlling divine soul power, having practiced the Soul Crow Divination Skill and the Soul Capturing Skill, both of which involved such control. He had also been practicing with the Soul Vibrating Bell and the Soul-breaking Cone, which similarly involved divine soul power management.

Simply put, Yang Zhenshan was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator proficient in divine soul matters.

Thus, he should find it relatively easy to maneuver techniques involving divine soul management. Yet, with the Heart Hand, he felt awkward.

"What exactly is amiss?"

Yang Zhenshan pondered with a furrowed brow.

The technique looked straightforward yet challenging to execute.

Just then, a sudden idea sparked in Yang Zhenshan’s mind, offering a potential insight.

He reached for a jade scroll, infused it with his divine sense, and moments later, smiled faintly.