Chapter 79 – Failed Refining
Although he only had a little bit of powder from the inner dan of the poisonous Flood Dragon, it was still an extremely high grade ingredient, so the refining would still take one day. Fortunately it wasn’t as big of a problem as the constituent spirit and was much easier to handle. But before he could formally begin the refining, he still had to think of a method to neutralize the inner dan’s toxicity.
The Profound Spirit Furnace had directly risen by one grade under the influence of the Spirit Power and medicinal power from refining the blue-green zoysia and still had the aura of a treasure as before and had already mixed with Spiritual Influence. The entire Profound Spirit Furnace was in the process of becoming a middle grade magic weapon from a low grade magic weapon, Yang Chen was convinced that after few layers of refining, it would become an amazing middle grade magic tool.
After reaching the foundation stage, compared with the qi stage, some high quality changes had appeared in his Spirit Power and Spiritual Awareness, not to mention other things, just the fact that he could now connect the Spiritual Influence between the earth and the heaven immediately allowed him to maintain an even more formidable strength, regardless of whether he was cultivating or fighting. Pill concocting was the same, previously the elixirs he was incapable of refining, had suddenly gotten a chance to be refined successfully.
The constituent spirit of the poisonous Flood Dragon would probably be very weak, unable to support the requirements of the Heaven Seizing Pill, so Yang Chen wanted to make the pill spirit more powerful. During the process of refining he would have to fuse more than ten foundation stage elixirs of all attributes. Because of the possibility that the refining may fail, Yang Chen still wanted to refine some other things, in which the yin and yang of the five phases were blended properly, in short, he wanted to be prepared for everything.
Both sides were painstakingly refining, relatively speaking, Yang Chen’s side was simple, so the first step was completed very quickly. Having these things ready, Yang Chen now had some certainty about the success in the last stage of the Heaven Seizing Pill. After all, compared with other people, Yang Chen had a much greater understanding of the Heaven Seizing Pill. Though he may not have eaten pork, he had seen pigs run, even if it was Elder Wu, who had the highest cultivation among them, he would also not have Yang Chen’s knowledge and experience.
Although Yang Chen did not know the final refining method for the Heaven Seizing Pill, if he had a cultivation similar to Elder Wu, then he could have accomplished the refining forcefully without any problems. Currently his biggest weakness was his cultivation, so he had no other choice but to allow others to refine the pill in advance and he would think of some method to remedy it afterwards.
The refining of the Heaven Seizing Pill had entered its final stages, all of the base elixirs had already been absorbed into the blue-green zoysia. Now the blue-green zoysia in itself was an ingredient that contained both yin and yang of all five phases by means of a mixture of all the base elixirs, as long as the method of refining was correct, there would not be a problem. At the moment it was apparent that these three people were the real deal as, until now, everything had been completed without a hitch.
These three pill concocting masters no longer needed to take turns to control the pill concocting furnace, instead all three of them were conducting the refining together under the lead of Deng Yi, while the other two were supporting her. The fusion with the medicinal liquid still required several days to be completed and after that would be the time for adding the pill spirit.
That would still be the most crucial time, whether or not the pill spirit would fuse successfully. This would directly determine whether the pill could successfully be refined or not. The constituent spirit had already been prepared properly, the poisonous Flood Dragon was preserved inside of Fan Shan’s bestial pouch at its last breath, after suffering from constant torment by Fan Shan and Elder Wu. They were only waiting for the time when its constituent spirit would be required so they could extract it while the Flood Dragon was still alive.
Yang Chen had also arrived at the scene of refining by now and was attentively watching the three people doing their work, as if he wanted to learn something from the refining method of these people.
At this time, even He LianYun, who usually complained about Yang Chen, didn’t have any extra energy to pay attention to him. All of the three high grade pill concocting masters were single mindedly devoted to controlling the furnace and didn’t dare to get distracted for a single moment.
The purple colored pill furnace had currently already turned into a huge monster, occupying a radius of several meters. This pill concocting furnace that had been refined by high level experts, was crazily releasing steam at the moment. People with a low cultivation base could even not approach it. Fortunately, Yang Chen was a fire attributed cultivator and he moreover also possessed the Geocentric Flame, so this was still not much of a problem for him.
These three pill concocting masters were sitting in three different directions, as if they were the three legs of the pill furnace, each one of them was manipulating their unique flame and they were incessantly refining the medicinal liquid within the pill furnace. Since the pill furnace was still covered, Yang Chen could not know about the situation inside of it and so he was observing those three people very carefully, while also using his Spiritual Awareness threads to probe, waiting for the final moment.
The intensity of the flame inside of the furnace was very steady under the control of these three people, but it was inclined towards increasing more and more. Several tens of thousands catties of ingredients, were all mixed together to refine a very small pill inside of the pill concocting furnace, that was indeed a great skill. Although Elder Wu and Fan Shan weren’t participating in the refining, they were sitting five steps away from the refining stage, ready at all times to take out the constituent spirit of the Flood Dragon.
After the intensity of the flame in the pill furnace reached its peak after several days, the purple colored pill furnace turned slightly white. Beads of sweat could be seen sparkling on the foreheads of Deng Yi, Zhu Peng and He LianYun, but at this moment they didn’t have the time to wipe it off, both hands of each of them were pressed against the pill furnace, frantically strengthening the intensity of the flame.
“Constituent Spirit!”
All of a sudden, Deng Yi shouted loudly, following which the lid of the pill furnace rose high into the air, revealing the situation inside of the pill furnace.
Surrounded by three portions of fire, a ball of medicinal liquid, the size of human head, was repeatedly rolling between them, emitting a sweet scent. Just by sniffing this scent Yang Chen felt as if his body was fluttering and ascending, his Spirit Power moving and rousing. Even the incomplete pill had such efficacy, the name of the Heaven Seizing Pill was indeed not in vain.
Elder Wu and Fan Shan on the side didn’t dare to be careless and as if they were a bolt of lightning, they appeared on the side of the pill furnace in a flash. Fan Shan opened his bestial pouch and pulled out a Flood Dragon that was several tens of meters long. The enormous body occupied almost all of the vacant space at the refining site. The Flood Dragon was at its last breath, so after it came out, it still was motionless. Only by looking at its eyes one could see some traces of it still being alive.
Elder Wu pressed one hand onto the head of the Flood Dragon and then placed a heavy punch on its head using the other hand.
Bang!
The huge head split open on the spot and a ball of feeble light flew out of the head. Elder Wu swiftly caught it in his hand and immediately threw it into the pill furnace. Fan Shan immediately collected the corpse into his pouch. Everyone stared at the pill furnace with a shining gaze.
The white light directly fused with the ball of medicinal liquid and immediately afterwards the lid of the pill furnace was closed once again at lightning speed. Deng Yi, Zhu Peng and He LianYun once again started the insane refining.
This was the final step and also the most important one. If this step succeeded, then the Heaven Seizing Pill could be smoothly taken out of the furnace, if they made a mistake at this step, all of their previous efforts would be in vain. At this moment, the three pill concocting masters had exerted all of their strength, waiting for this final fight.
Elder Wu, Yang Chen and Fan Shan did not need to do anything for the time being and were carefully waiting for the moment when the lid of the furnace would be opened on the side.
This fusion continued for several days and several nights. During that time, the big round lump of medicinal liquid was incessantly struggling against the fusion with the weak constituent spirit of the Flood Dragon and the sound of the medicinal liquid ramming the side of the pill concocting furnace was echoing on the outside.
Beads of sweat continued to roll down from the faces of all three pill concocting masters, while Elder Wu was feeding them elixirs for recovering their Spirit Power every few hours, but the shaking of the medicinal liquid still didn’t stop and the sound of ramming against the pill concocting furnace continued to echo.
All of the people at the scene were deeply worried, including both the people concocting the pill and the people sitting at the side. The most anxious one among them was Elder Wu. In order to refine the Heaven Seizing Pill, he had prepared for a hundred years, from looking for the pill recipe to acquiring all kinds of pill ingredients. Very soon, he would know about the results, whether he would succeed or fail, this question even made Elder Wu lose the calm-headedness Da Cheng stage experts usually displayed.
Finally, the ramming sound became quieter, the time interval between the sound was also increasing more and more, as if the strength of the constituent spirit was becoming weaker and weaker and finally it stopped completely.
A trace of relaxation appeared on the faces of the three pill concocting masters, Elder Wu and Fan Shan also took a deep breath and let it out. A smile made its way on Elder Wu’s face.
“It seems that they have almost succeeded!”
“Not necessarily!”
Yang Chen’s voice came through from the side. His one sentence made everyone wrinkle their brows, the four YuanYing and one Da Cheng stage expert hadn’t said anything, but this trifling youngster, who had barely reached the foundation stage said these kinds of discouraging words? He was indeed an eyesore.
“If this kind of docile elixir was able to have the reputation of Seizing the Heavens, then seizing the heavens is really very simple!”
Under the resentful stares of all of these experts, Yang Chen wrinkled his brows and continued without any fear:
“Maybe the elixir still has some counterattack!”
Yang Chen had not said this with the purpose of explaining himself to get out of trouble, instead, what he had heard about the Heaven Seizing Pill in the past pointed towards it not being such a simple matter. If they relaxed at this time, then not to mention failing at the last step, maybe they would not have any way to save it.
Although these words were not pleasant to hear, everyone could understand what he meant, so all of them immediately became even more vigourous, not daring to relax in the slightest. The chance to put down their names in history was in front of them, nobody wanted to let it slip by due to carelessness.
Peng!
A huge sound came from inside of the pill furnace and the huge pill concocting furnace shifted horizontally for several tens of meters due to the force of the knock. The fierce impact almost made the three pill concocting masters fall backwards.
Fortunately Yang Chen had warned them, so everyone was on guard. Although the power of the hit was enormous it did not affect the refining of the pill concocting masters in the slightest, their six hands were pressed against the pill concocting furnace the same as before, incessantly rousing the intensity of the flame. Elder Wu looked towards Yang Chen with a thankful expression and nodded, before once again turning towards the pill concocting furnace.
Apparently this impact had consumed all of the strength of the pill spirit, as there was no more activity. The refining continued calmly for one day and one night. After sensing that the inside had reached sufficient a temperature, Deng Yi yelled: “Careful, I am going to congeal the pill!”
With one hand pressed against the furnace to control the heat, Deng Yi raised her other hand and made a few complex signs in succession to spur the medicinal liquid inside of the furnace and start congealing the pill.
This was the ultimate step, as long as the pill was congealed and then collected, all of the work would be accomplished successfully. A look of expectation appeared on Elder Wu’s face. No accident had appeared in the previous procedure, so just after this one step, he would immediately obtain a Heaven Seizing Pill. He couldn’t express his excitement in words.
Not only Elder Wu, even Deng Yi, Zhu Peng, He LianYun and Fan Shan, all had the same expectant expressions. The smile on everyone’s face still hadn’t completely appeared, when suddenly Deng Yi complexion changed, immediately following, Zhu Peng and He LianYun’s expressions also had an enormous change.
These three people knew the situation inside of the furnace clearly, the change in their expressions made the hearts of Elder Wu and Fan Shan grow cold. Could it be that refining had failed? But these three pill concocting masters hadn’t said anything, so nobody knew really knew what was going on inside of the furnace.
The only one who was calm was Yang Chen, this elixir was so weak, how could it claim the name of Seizing Heaven? Even if it was refined successfully, at most it would be Stealing Heaven, that’s all. This had no relation with the word Seizing, it would be a miracle if it had been successful.
Deng Yi was desperately testing a few methods, but her expression was becoming more and more anxious, Zhu Peng and He LianYun who were assisting her, also tightly wrinkled their brows without saying anything. After Deng Yi had tried the final method, she disappointedly stopped and said to Zhu Peng and He LianYun: “I am not able to congeal the pill, you both should try!”
These words explained the current situation inside of the furnace, hearing this, Elder Wu’s expressions sank, but both of his eyes were looking hopefully towards Zhu Peng and He LianYun, who were sitting on the side.
At this moment, without caring for courtesy, Zhu Heng also extended his big hands and began to use his methods to congeal the dan. Within a short moment, he had already used more than ten methods, but in the end he stopped without saying anything, which clearly implied that his results were the same as Deng Yi, unable to congeal the dan.
The last person remaining, He LianYun, did not believe in hearsay, his spirit was greatly roused and he was using all that he had learnt in his entire life without any restraint. Even to Yang Chen, it was clear that his method to congeal and collect the pill was better than the other two. Deng Yi and Zhu Peng had been unable to congeal the pill, as long as He LianYun could grab this chance, he would amaze all of them. Just like that, Elder Wu would be so grateful to him that he would be willing to put his life on the line to help He LianYun. If that happened, he would certainly not need to pay his stakes for that wager.
Not only that, the huge fame that he would gain by refining the Heaven Seizing Pill would put him above all other pill concocting masters in the mortal world, making him the number one pill concocting master, at that time he could gain all of the fame and fortunes. Just thinking about what would happen afterwards, He LianYun lost his concentration at this moment.
Elder Wu was watching He LianYun very attentively, the hopeful expression on his face was slowly turning into despair, as He LianYun’s hand gestures became slow.
“Failure!”
As a Da Cheng stage expert, his bearing was more graceful than that of other people and he didn’t appear like a sore loser. Seeing the current situation, where the three pill concocting experts were still putting in their greatest effort, he sighed and admitted that this time’s refining was a failure.
“After all, the pill recipe was not complete, I don’t blame you all, stay your hand!”
Elder Wu’s words proclaimed the defeat of everyone’s effort. The three pill concocting masters dejectedly let go of the furnace, the lid of the furnace automatically opened, revealing the situation inside.
Except for a lump of a black thing, nothing else was there. Although it was still releasing a strong Spirit Power as before, they were all very clear that this were the dregs of an already failed concoction and not the Heaven Seizing Pill they were seeking.
Looking at this black lump, a light flashed in Yang Chen’s eyes.