Cautiously Cultivating Immortality in a Strange World

Chapter 36: Failure in Refining

As soon as the Soul Nourishing Pill entered his stomach, Chen Lin felt a warm and cozy sensation, as if his entire body was filled with warmth.

Especially, he felt a sense of "expansion," but upon checking his body, he didn't notice any changes.

Chen Lin's heart was filled with joy.

It seemed that this pill was indeed capable of nourishing and strengthening his soul, and he didn't even need to split his soul, so the medicinal effects wouldn't be wasted and would be fully absorbed by him.

He didn't know much about the knowledge of the soul, only that it was beneficial, but he didn't know what specific benefits it brought.

However, that didn't matter; as long as it was beneficial, that was enough.

After calming himself, Chen Lin followed the instructions in the soul-splitting secret technique. He pretended to inject his soul's power into the talisman, and continued to refine it.

Outside the courtyard.

Lu Li's eyes were fixed on the room, his heartstrings tied to Chen Lin's every move, his hand unconsciously clenched.

He couldn't find many talisman masters willing to help him, because even with the Soul Nourishing Pill, it would still cause irreversible damage to the soul. Those few famous talisman masters would never agree to refine it.

And if he couldn't get the Soul-Restraining Talisman, his treasure would be unable to recover its function, greatly reducing his strength.

At this critical moment, a decrease in strength was equivalent to an increase in the risk of death.

"Whoosh!"

The talisman paper in front of Chen Lin suddenly burst into a ball of black flames, once again ending in failure.

Lu Li's eyes seemed to be about to spew out fire as well.

Ye Jingyun glanced at him, didn't say a word, but pressed down on her flying sword, preventing Lu Li from losing control and harming Chen Lin.

Chen Lin's face, however, remained expressionless.

This failure was within his expectations, because he hadn't followed the standard refining method to draw the talisman pattern.

He had never intended to refine the talisman in the first place!

Even if someone had the luck of heaven, they wouldn't be able to refine everything successfully every time; they would occasionally fail.

He wasn't willing to waste his own things, so he might as well waste someone else's. Lu Li, that big fool, was the perfect target.

With Ye Jingyun around, Lu Li couldn't do anything to him, and he would be leaving the city in a few days anyway. What did he care about the Five Great Families?

Moreover, the Soul Nourishing Pill had already been eaten, and he couldn't spit it out. The mid-grade flying sword was tempting, but it wouldn't greatly increase his strength, since he wasn't a sword cultivator who focused on sword control.

Thinking this, he continued to refine the talisman multiple times.

Without exception, all of them ended in failure.

Looking at the empty talisman ink bottle, Chen Lin pretended to be disappointed and helpless, slowly standing up.

At this moment, Lu Li, who had been monitoring the situation, had already rushed into the room, his eyes bursting with killing intent!

"I'm sorry, I've disappointed your expectations, Daoist Lu, but I really did my best."

Chen Lin pretended to be weak, his body swaying slightly, and showed a bitter smile to Lu Li.

"Go to hell! You know how many spirit stones these materials cost? You know the value of a Soul Nourishing Pill? Are you doing this on purpose? I'll take your life!"

Under immense disappointment, Lu Li suddenly erupted, and his flying sword was about to shoot towards Chen Lin's face!

However, just as the flying sword was about to launch, a yellow, earthy, and illusory giant hand grasped it, letting out a sorrowful cry.

"What's the meaning of this, Daoist Lu? He had already said that he couldn't guarantee success, and the Soul-Restraining Talisman is a talisman with an extremely low success rate. Failure is very normal. You're going to kill someone in a fit of rage? Do you not put me, Ye Jingyun, in your eyes?"

Ye Jingyun's voice was cold and clear, and she withdrew the technique she had just used, causing Lu Li's flying sword to fall to the ground with a clang.

Lu Li's face darkened, and he slowly retreated out of the room, then laughed angrily and said, "Good, good, good, Ye Jingyun! I hope you can always be so strong!"

After saying that, he spread his wings and flew out of the courtyard.

Seeing that the opponent didn't fight back and retreated, Chen Lin let out a sigh of relief.

His cultivation was too low, and he couldn't determine Lu Li's specific cultivation level. He was afraid that Lu Li might be a Qi Refining ninth-stage cultivator, or even stronger than Ye Jingyun, and Ye Jingyun might not be able to protect him with his life.

In that case, he would still need to summon Yu Yuehai.

"Thank you, Daoist Ye, for your help!"

Chen Lin walked forward and respectfully bowed to Ye Jingyun.

This bow was sincere.

Although he didn't understand the reason, Ye Jingyun had indeed been very concerned about him, even more so than Yu Yuehai.

Ye Jingyun smiled slightly and teased, "What, now that the danger has passed, you're not acknowledging me as your master?"

"Ah!"

Chen Lin was taken aback.

He thought that Ye Jingyun's words about being his master were just a reason to prevent Lu Li from attacking him, but could it be that Ye Jingyun was serious?

His eyes flickered for a moment, and he couldn't grasp Ye Jingyun's true intentions.

However, he quickly bowed again, "Disciple sees Master!"

If Ye Jingyun said so, regardless of whether it was a joke or not, he would establish their relationship.

Even if his age was almost as old as Ye Jingyun's father, and even if they were both Qi Refining cultivators, he would still acknowledge Ye Jingyun as his master.

The more connections he had, the more chances he had to survive, and he wouldn't worry about anything else.

As for Chen Lin's gesture of acknowledging Ye Jingyun as his master, Ye Jingyun neither accepted nor rejected it, but instead turned around and returned to Yu Yuehai's room.

Chen Lin stood there for a while, then returned to his room with a thoughtful expression.

In the room, he sat for a while, still unable to understand Ye Jingyun's intentions, and finally let out a bitter laugh, deciding not to think about it anymore.

Ye Jingyun was clearly plotting something, or else she wouldn't be so concerned about him, but Ye Jingyun didn't explain, and he couldn't guess, so he could only take things one step at a time.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he began to refine the Soul Nourishing Pill's medicinal effects.

This pill was something he had never heard of, and its value shouldn't be low, so he couldn't waste it.

After refining the pill, he felt refreshed and clear-headed, with a sense of weightlessness.

However, this feeling didn't last long and soon returned to normal.

After checking, he didn't find any changes in himself and began to continue refining the Enlightenment Pill and Thunderbolt Bead.

He had originally planned to refine some Initial Yuan Pill, but he didn't have enough materials, and even with his true abilities, he couldn't refine it, so he had to give up.

The materials for the Thunderbolt Bead were still very cheap, and he had bought a lot.

Moreover, as he refined more and more, he surprisingly encountered several instances where he succeeded without relying on his innate abilities.

"Could it be that eating too many Enlightenment Pills has opened up my mind?"

Chen Lin, who had completely lost hope in his innate abilities, was extremely surprised and delighted.

Additionally, apart from the increased success rate, he had also gained a deeper understanding of the Thunderbolt Bead's source power and could modify and simplify the spell array, even managing to superimpose two balanced spell arrays on a single material, making it more stable.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

"Is it possible to use a completed Thunderbolt Bead as a material and re-refine it into a more powerful stacked version of the Thunderbolt Bead?"

This idea made Chen Lin's heart race, and he immediately took out several Thunderbolt Beads and a pile of neutral materials.

After carefully pondering for a while, he felt that the theory should be sound.

The Thunderbolt Bead utilized the mutual impact force between materials to produce an explosion, and a completed Thunderbolt Bead could be seen as an unstable material. He just didn't know if his researched spell array stacking method could maintain the stability of such intense power.

As for the correct refining method, it should also be fine.

He could just follow the previous method, which he had already mastered.

The rest would depend on his innate abilities.