Chapter 15: Refining a Pill

Half a day later, Lou Mu Yan opened her eyes. Her body had recovered almost entirely now.

She stretched her numb neck, then looked at the man not far away. She discovered that his eyebrows were deeply furrowed, his face flushed crimson, and the red Crystal Core in his hand had already turned a greyish white.

He was forcibly refining the Flame Unicorn Beast’s Core, and it appeared that he was experiencing the violent energy of the Crystal Core invading his meridians.

Lou Mu Yan frowned slightly. She walked closer to the man and stared at his wrist. It was indeed a light purple.

The man’s current condition wasn’t optimistic. The Peak-Phase Tier 6 Demonic Beast Core was at a higher phase than this man’s abilities. Not only was the energy that the Core emitted uncontrollable when absorbed, raged and scattered in his body, but he must also endure the agony of bursting blood vessels.

According to her observation, the blue-purple colour of his veins was already very deep, which indicated that this wasn’t the first time the man directly absorbed the energy from a Crystal Core. A large amount of fire poison had already accumulated in his body and if he didn’t remove it, it could be detrimental to his future cultivation.

Based on the devilish man’s temperament and strength, it shouldn’t be a difficult task to ask an Alchemist to synthesise the Crystal Core’s energy by adding specific Spiritual Herbs. Yet he chose to directly refine and absorb the Crystal Core, so it probably related to his cultivation methods.

Seeing that the man’s red face was even more flushed, a layer of sweat dripped down his nose, and his brows were furrowed tightly, it appeared he was enduring extreme pain despite his calm exterior.

She sighed. This devilish man saved her twice despite being complete strangers. Such kindness was rare. She should help him.

Having decided that, Lou Mu Yan walked beside a rock, and took out a cauldron and a pile of Spiritual Herbs to prepare to refine pills.

The Blazing Mountain Range was already a scorching hot place, so the temperature within this hole within a cave was more than ten times higher. Even now she was still relying on the ice jade from her brother and the ice bangle on her wrist to withstand the heat. So if she refined pills in this place, she could probably even obtain double the results with half the effort.

She initially wanted to return to the Imperial Capital to buy a better cauldron to refine pills, but because of the needs of this devilish man and since the underground flames in this place were ideal, she decided to refine her own Marrow Cleansing Pill as well.

After her preparations, she calmed her heart and emptied her mind. She would first use the geothermal heat here to refine the Spirit Cleansing Pill to detoxify the fire poison that the man accumulated from absorbing the Crystal Core.

As she had no Spiritual Energy, and her cultivation base also hadn’t reached the Core Formation Stage, Lou Mu Yan couldn’t use the Pill Flame to refine pills. Fortunately, she specifically bought the charcoal used for refining pills before she set off on her journey.

She hadn’t refined a pill for a long time, not to mention her body was weak, so she decided not to refine the Spirit Cleansing Pill in one go. Instead, she isolated a few low-grade Spiritual Herbs and began to refine the Grade 1 Spiritual Energy Replenishing Pill for practice.

All Sword Cultivators in this world absorbed the Spiritual Force of Heaven and earth which was converted into Elemental Energy within them, so the Spiritual Energy Replenishing Pill could also replenish Elemental Energy.

In reality, Spiritual Energy and Elemental Energy were very similar to each other, but the Spiritual Energy she converted from the Spiritual Force was more refined and purer than the Elemental Energy of this world.

[PU! PU!]

Lou Mu Yan furrowed her brows and sighed. She failed again. She was accustomed to using Spiritual Energy to envelop the Spiritual Herbs while refining, so now that she was only relying on Mental Energy to control it, she was rather uncustomed to it and found it difficult.

But she was the type to fight harder the more she stumbled. After wiping the sweat from her forehead, she started again.

A day later, in Lou Mu Yan’s hands were five smooth, round white pills. She put them in a white porcelain bottle, closed her eyes to rest for two hours, and when she recovered enough, she began to refine the Spirit Cleansing Pill.

She threw the Spiritual Herbs that were easy to refine into the cauldron first, observed the flame and temperature with her Mental Energy, and controlled the flame by adding more charcoal. After the Spiritual Herbs were refined into powder, she wrapped it in her Mental Energy, then began to refine the next Spiritual Herb.

If it were back during those times in the Immortal Cultivation World, she would’ve been able to refine the Spirit Cleansing Pill with peak-quality with her eyes closed, and with all the ingredients tossed in at the same time.

She concentrated on refining each individual Spiritual Herb separately, and half a day later, a soothing aroma seeped out the cauldron.

Delighted, Lou Mu Yan slapped the cauldron, and five smooth, lustrous white pills flew out. She quickly placed them into a porcelain bottle.

Then, feeling the weariness catch up to her, she fell on her bottom and panted as sweat covered her forehead.

After feeling more comfortable, she stood up and walked over to the devilish man’s side.

But the moment she squatted and neared, even before touching the man, he opened his eyes. A trace of scarlet flashed in his black eyes that glistened like the stars in the sky, emphasising his devilish charm. Lou Mu Yan stared at the man as if she would be sucked into those eyes that were as deep as a well.

Their breaths were entangled with each other’s, and Lou Mu Yan froze. Realising their distance, she shifted away slightly. From the white porcelain bottle, she tipped out one Spirit Cleansing Pill and placed it near the man’s mouth with a smile in her eyes, saying nonchalantly: “This pill can help you detoxify your fire poison. Whether you eat or not, it’s up to you.”

Ming Xiu naturally could determine whether there was any problem with this pill or not, so he consumed the pill directly from Lou Mu Yan’s hands. Then he shut his eyes and began refining and absorbing the medicinal properties of the Spirit Cleansing Pill.

Upon seeing this, Lou Mu Yan walked towards a lava rock nearby and sat down to recover. According to her judgement, it would take approximately one day for the man to detoxify himself and finish refining the Crystal Core.

She had to take advantage of this time to refine the Marrow Cleansing Pill. After all, once she returned, she wouldn’t be able to encounter a place with such abundant amount of high-quality natural fire anymore.

After resting for more than two hours, she discovered that her physical strength was practically restored, so she returned beside the magma, took out her cauldron and began to refine the Marrow Cleansing Pill.

The Marrow Cleansing Pill was more complex and troublesome than the Spirit Cleansing Pill, particularly when refining the Flame Fruit as the refinement and purity of it was very demanding.

She threw one Flame Fruit into the cauldron first, then tossed in some charcoal to increase the flames to its most powerful. As she inserted her entire Mental Energy into the cauldron to wrap around the red fruit, she began to roast it.

When the red skin of the Flame Fruit slowly started to wrinkle and the flesh softened, she immediately removed half the charcoal, halving the flames, and roasted it with a small fire.

An hour later, the red fruit in the cauldron gradually softened into a pool of purple liquid. She used her Mental Energy to wrap the liquid into three separate portions, increased the fire power and smoked them one by one.

Time slipped by bit by bit, and with Lou Mu Yan’s precise fire control, the dark purple liquid changed into a pile of red powder.

Lou Mu Yan sighed in relief. Fortunately she was very familiar with the refining process of the Flame Fruit and the required degrees of firepower, otherwise she really wouldn’t be able to sustain herself if it took more than one try.

She reached out and wiped the sweat on her forehead, then used her Mental Energy to physically wrap around the red powder to isolate it. Afterwards, she picked up another Spiritual Herb and tossed it into the cauldron, controlled the flames to grill, roast, and smoke, and stopped only when she finally turned it into a pile of powder.

Spiritual Herbs were placed into the cauldron one by one, and because of her powerful Mental Energy, she didn’t need to take out the powders from the cauldron like other Alchemists. She only required her Mental Energy to envelope it and isolate it.