Longzang

Chapter 604 Virtual Refinement (Thanks to Alliance Leader Tigger)

As it turned out, the Peacock Monk was indeed much more professional than Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan used a whole set of complicated operations to extract less than a thousand streams of fortune from more than 30,000 refugees, while the Peacock Monk simply erected a statue for people to worship, yet Wei Yuan gained more than three thousand streams of fortune.

Based on past experience, the amount of luck that could be contributed has basically been squeezed out, and the vast majority of those remaining have no luck at all. As for the very few who possess luck but choose not to contribute, Wei Yuan does not intend to take their luck either.

It turned out that this small group of people had little luck and were difficult to manage. Rather than focusing on the meager sums they had, it would be better to bring in a few more groups of refugees.

The 30,000 refugees were just the first batch; the main force was still on its way. Wei Yuan led the cultivators through the process once, and everyone became familiar with it. They could handle the rest on their own without Wei Yuan needing to oversee things.

So Wei Yuan found himself with nothing to do again and started thinking about how to find something to do. The Human World was quite helpful in finding things for the Creator Immortal, immediately pointing out that having too much luck was useless; the best way was to find a way to use it up, keeping only the highest-grade and most essential luck.

Like the green energy of humanity, it is abundant but not strong, and may dissipate over time, so it needs to be used up quickly. The fortune of humanity does indeed dissipate, which is easy to understand. For example, when the refugees discover that the promises made by Wei Yuan cannot be fulfilled, their fortune will dissipate.

The original method of consuming Qi Luck was to use Xu Wenwu as a medium, but now even a mere Xu Wenwu couldn't use up all that Azure Qi. In the end, Wei Yuan exchanged a large amount of information about Qi Luck from the Hall of Merit, and while studying it himself, he also copied it into the mortal world to seek a solution.

The more information stored in everyday life, the more ordinary people can learn from it, and their reactions will become faster and more accurate.

After analyzing a large amount of data, Renjian Yanhuo concluded that the best ways to consume Qi Luck are to cultivate a Dao Foundation, refine elixirs, and cultivate immortal plants.

Wei Yuan agreed with the first two points, but he instinctively felt that something was wrong with the third point.

However, a training course for 10,000 people to build a foundation has just been completed, and there are not enough new body-forging cultivators. Only a few hundred independent cultivators have arrived in Qingming to participate in the next session.

After much thought, Wei Yuan realized that Xu Henshui's state of mind had been stable recently and he had quite a bit of free time, so he decided to take the path of alchemy and test his senior uncle's mental cultivation.

When Wei Yuan arrived, Xu Henshui initially ignored him, but upon hearing that Wei Yuan wanted to refine pills, he immediately became a thousand times more enthusiastic, eagerly inquiring what kind of pills he wanted to refine this time. In any case, he had everything below the Imperial Realm level, and it didn't matter if Wei Yuan didn't know how; Xu Henshui could teach him, and he would guarantee that he would learn.

The immortal master in the dream gave Xu Henshui a long-term task: to teach Wei Yuan how to refine pills, and to give him the opportunity to comprehend ancient immortal formulas based on the results of his teaching.

Xu Henshui had long known that the mundane world was Wei Yuan's Dharma form, and although it was called a Dharma form, it was actually no different from the true world of the mind.

However, he had actually secretly inquired about the ancient formula taught to him by the immortal master in his dream with his own immortal ancestor and the abbot, Danming Zhenjun.

Both sides have similar accounts: although the incident occurred in Wei Yuan's mental world, the immortal master in the dream clearly has little to do with Wei Yuan. One possibility is that the immortal who created Qingming left behind a wisp of his will, which is hidden in the mortal world, searching for a suitable successor so that the immortal path will not be interrupted.

Even his own immortal ancestor said so, so Xu Henshui naturally believed in the immortal master in his dream.

Wei Yuan had done his homework before coming. Since he needed to use his luck, ordinary pills would definitely not work. So he said, "Great Sun Morning Glory Pill".

Xu Henshui frowned, then slowly relaxed, and said, "This... it's not impossible, it's just a bit difficult. If you have time, I can teach you now. Although the ingredients for this pill formula are a bit expensive, they're not exactly rare."

“I am empty.” “Alright, come with me.” Xu Henshui led Wei Yuan into his alchemy room, lit a stick of incense to aid spiritual awareness, and began to explain.

In order to help Wei Yuan comprehend the comprehension as soon as possible, Xu Henshui spared no expense; that incense stick was not cheap.

This lecture took half a day to finish.

The Great Sun Morning Glory Pill uses Huiyang Grass as its main ingredient. The problem is that once Huiyang Grass grows, a single leaf can reach a height of three zhang (approximately 13 meters), with thick branches and leaves. It hardly resembles a grass; it's practically a tree. Even after being processed using the secret methods of the Creation Temple, it still grows to seven or eight chi (approximately 3.3 meters) long. Therefore, a large alchemy furnace with a length of fifteen zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) is required for its refining.

The refining process is very long. At Xu Henshui's current level, it would take seven days, while an ordinary alchemist would need fifteen days. Xu Henshui estimated that Wei Yuan would need about twenty days.

A qualified alchemist in the normal realm of creation can produce about ten pills in a single batch, each worth 50,000 taels of immortal silver. Xu Henshui produces more pills, often including several exquisite ones with pill patterns, so a single batch of pills is worth one million taels of immortal silver, while the medicinal materials for the entire batch are worth about 60,000 to 70,000 taels of immortal silver.

At this point, Xu Henshui couldn't resist boasting. He said that the God of Creation had a default standard: the value of a single batch of pills produced by an alchemist was determined by how many times the value of the raw materials.

Generally speaking, a tenfold return is considered excellent for a disciple, sevenfold is considered normal, and if one can only earn fourfold despite tears, then they might be expelled from the Creation Temple.

Someone like Xu Henshui, who consistently scores between 15 and 20 times, is a true genius and has a slim chance of becoming the future head of the sect. To consistently score above 20 times is to be considered a genius among geniuses, a formal candidate for head of the sect, and subject to evaluation by numerous senior disciples. By this standard, Xu Henshui falls short.

When Danming Zhenjun was still a minor alchemist, his earnings were consistently over 25 times his initial investment for many years. More than half of the pills in each batch contained pill patterns, and at his peak, he even set a record of 68 times his initial investment, a record that no one had been able to surpass for over a thousand years. Therefore, on the day he broke through to the Yujing realm, the previous abbot automatically stepped down and gave way to a more capable person. Danming Zhenjun also became the abbot at the age of 170.

According to Xu Henshui, the price of the Great Sun Morning Glory Pill is actually somewhat inflated, mainly because many people regard it as a disguised form of longevity elixir. Some cultivators and elders who cannot afford orthodox longevity elixirs use this as a substitute for their concubines or less capable nephews and nieces. If successful, it can add several hundred years to one's lifespan, even longer than orthodox longevity elixirs.

For Xu Henshui, refining this pill required considerable caution, so he spent two days preparing, exchanging medicinal materials and preparing the pill furnace. At the same time, he took out an ancestral pill manual and asked Wei Yuan to study it over the next two days.

The so-called ancestral alchemical manual is actually a jade tablet, on which an ancient formula was originally recorded. The previous patriarchs of the Creation Temple used the empty space inside to record many formulas for alchemical breakthrough pills, as well as their insights and experiences. The entire refining process of each formula was recorded in a Daoist style.

Xu Henshui was very open-minded, so Wei Yuan didn't hold back either, making copies of all the pill formulas, including the incomplete ancient formulas.

Two days later, the formal alchemy process began. The first step was a virtual alchemy. Xu Henshui refined one batch by himself, and then personally guided Wei Yuan in refining another batch.

The so-called "virtual refining" involves using a formula with similar medicinal properties and the same refining process to refine a batch of pills first, in order to familiarize oneself with the entire process. However, even the medicinal materials for the virtual refining of the Great Sun Morning Glory Pill cost five thousand per batch.

The virtual refining process was completed one day later. Based on the results, Xu Henshui should have produced eleven pills, two of which were of the first type, and the refining time was eight days. Wei Yuan, on the other hand, produced four pills, one of which was of the first type, and the refining time was fifteen days.

From the perspective of the virtual refinement method, Wei Yuan's yield per furnace was around five times, putting him on the verge of being expelled from the Creation Temple. Xu Henshui felt quite relieved and couldn't help but smile. In his opinion, this was the level Wei Yuan should be at; he must have just gotten lucky the previous times.

Throughout the entire virtual refining process, Wei Yuan made more than seventy mistakes, large and small. Xu Henshui pointed out and corrected them one by one, then took out the real medicinal materials and set up a pill room with Wei Yuan to begin the formal refining of the Great Sun Morning Glory Pill.

(End of this chapter)