I Killed Gods and Demons in Song Dynasty

Chapter 162: Alchemy Genius
What was unexpected to everyone was that Li Qingyun, the oldest and seemingly least experienced of the five Taoist children, was the first to step forward and choose the alchemy furnace.

And the one he picked was a huge alchemy furnace that was more than a meter tall, with four legs and two ears, and its surface was engraved with complex runes.

Seeing this scene, all the Taoist children showed expressions of surprise and disbelief.

"He's crazy!" someone exclaimed in his heart, "This rune furnace is a top-level tool used to refine high-level elixirs. Only a true master of alchemy can control it. How dare he use it when he can't even recognize all the herbs?"

Some people even disagree:
"Is this an attempt to deliberately show off in front of Master Feng to attract attention? What a joke! Master Feng is well-informed, how could he not see through this clumsy trick?"

You know, Li Qingyun was clumsy when handling the medicinal materials just now, and everyone saw it.

He looked like a beginner, and didn't look like someone who knew anything about alchemy.

Because of this, Li Qingyun's actions at this moment seemed particularly abrupt, and almost everyone was waiting to laugh at him.

Only Lu Feng knew in his heart that this new "Junior Brother Gao" was no ordinary person. He must have some extraordinary qualities as he could make the arrogant Song Youde obedient while chatting and laughing.

He glanced coldly at the other three Taoist children, and seeing the contemptuous looks on their faces, he thought to himself:

"What do you know? No one is a jack of all trades. Although Junior Brother Gao doesn't know how to make external pills, he found a new way and chose the top-notch, most sturdy-looking pill furnace. Although he can't complete the task of refining pills, at least there is no danger of the furnace exploding, and there is no danger of his life. This is the best choice at the moment, and it is extremely safe."

Although the other Taoist children were waiting to see Li Qingyun make a fool of himself, as the chosen ones from all over the place, they quickly calmed down, focused on the task at hand, and began to choose a suitable alchemy furnace.

As a common elixir used by first-level cultivators, the Qi Gathering Pill has a simple refining process; the only difficulty lies in the rapid heating process.

The main ingredients of this medicine need to be cooked over high temperature and high heat to quickly release their medicinal properties and avoid loss of efficacy.

Therefore, when choosing an alchemy furnace, you should choose a silver or copper furnace that is small in size and has good thermal conductivity.

However, those rune furnaces engraved with special magic arrays that can control the temperature are like an overkill, and are as bad as too little.

These basic common sense are the compulsory knowledge for the registered Taoist children in their daily studies, so everyone quickly found a furnace that met the requirements and started to refine the elixir.

After a moment, four small medicine furnaces about a foot high were lined up in a row, and among them, the huge medicine furnace chosen by Li Qingyun, which was more than ten feet high, stood out and looked particularly eye-catching.

Even Feng Yaqin couldn't help but look at it a few more times and shook her head slightly.

……

After choosing the furnace, the next step is to light the fire and start the furnace.

The external alchemy of Longhu Mountain focuses on using heavenly thunder to ignite earthly fire, that is, using authentic thunder methods to ignite the fire in the earth veins to obtain the purest and most easily controlled flame.

Controlling fire with thunder magic is a task that tests the ability of the alchemist to a great extent, but the refining of Qi Gathering Pills is relatively simple and does not require so much fine control. As long as there is sufficient true Qi, the best effect can be achieved.

Several Taoist children secretly practiced their skills, each guiding the heavenly thunder into their bodies, and emitting "Five Thunder Techniques" of varying degrees, successfully igniting the earth fire.

The small alchemy furnace heated up very quickly, and in a moment it turned red and reached the expected temperature.

Without any hesitation, the Taoist boys quickly put several main medicinal materials such as "Biyun Grass" and "Iceberg Snow Lotus" into the alchemy furnace, and added the weighed lead, mercury, sulfur and other auxiliary materials, and began to refine the pills.

The moment the "Iceberg Snow Lotus" was put into the furnace, the cold air in the herbs was stimulated out by the high temperature, and the temperature of the furnace dropped rapidly. The Taoist children immediately increased the output of thunder magic and tried their best to release true energy to prevent the temperature of the furnace from being too low and affecting the formation of the pill.

However, at this moment, there was a sudden loud "bang" and the alchemy furnace in front of a Taoist boy suddenly exploded!

The Taoist boy's skills were not strong enough, and he failed to raise the temperature in time, causing the elixir liquid to quickly condense and carbonize. The medicinal power contained in it suddenly went out of control and collapsed, directly blowing up the elixir furnace.

The moment the alchemy furnace exploded, a strong burnt smell spread, dust overflowed, and the alchemy area instantly fell into chaos.

The Taoist boy who failed in refining the elixir was also blown away, looking very miserable.

Feng Yaqin was prepared for this scene and reacted very quickly.

She stretched out her hand and a gentle force surrounded the shattered alchemy furnace, concentrating the force of the explosion within a small range, thus avoiding accidental injury to others.

As for the boy who was blown away, she just casually kicked a few cushions on the ground over to him and let him fall on them to prevent him from getting injured.

The boy fell on the soft cushion, stood up with shame on his face, stood with his hands hanging down, and stared blankly.

The explosion broke the tranquility in the scene and obviously affected several other Taoist children. They were caught off guard and frightened by the sudden change. They almost couldn't control the Lei Fa Dan Fire and followed the fate of the previous Taoist child.

The only person who was not affected was Li Qingyun, who was standing in front of the huge alchemy furnace and had not yet started to refine the elixir...

……

Li Qingyun knew nothing about alchemy. At the beginning, he was afraid of some common sense knowledge and seemed flustered. However, he soon used the "inspiration" method of divination and completely let his actions depend on his keen intuition to make up for the lack of knowledge and experience.

However, the result of this divination surprised him a little.

Although all the other Taoist children chose ordinary alchemy furnaces, his intuition pointed to the largest and heaviest giant alchemy furnace in the center of the back hall.

This is obviously not the conventional stuff used to refine ordinary pills.

However, since traveling through time, Li Qingyun's divination method has never been wrong, so he decisively chose to trust his intuition.

After seeing a Taoist boy blowing up a furnace, Li Qingyun suddenly had an idea. He quickly absorbed the heavenly thunder into his body. A flash of lightning emitted from his palm, which ignited the earth fire and ignited the giant furnace.

On the alchemy furnace, huge runes flickered and made pleasant humming sounds, like the sound of nature, as if responding to his operations.

Li Qingyun suddenly had an idea and quickly put the herbs and auxiliary materials into the alchemy furnace one by one. Then he suddenly activated the Nine Revolutions Yuan Gong, mobilizing all the powerful martial arts innate true energy in his body, transforming it into the power of thunder and lightning, and fiercely slammed it on the earth veins.

In an instant, the underground fire suddenly shot up seven or eight feet high, and the flames quickly turned into a hotter blue, with a faint white light emitting from inside, which was a sign of soaring heat.

At this moment, the runes on the giant alchemy furnace were quickly lit up, emitting a dazzling light that was extremely eye-catching, and the atmosphere in the entire hall changed.

Li Qingyun looked focused. He tapped the furnace lightly according to the instructions on the recipe, using the vibration of his true Qi to prompt the elixir to take shape.

Each of his movements was based on his divination premonitions, appearing calm and precise, as if he was performing an exquisite performance.

As the divination premonitions appeared one after another, his control over the flames became more and more superb. The flames of the ground were sometimes large and sometimes small, and the colors were constantly changing, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, as if he was performing extremely delicate operations. Feng Yaqin, who was sitting next to him, witnessed all this and couldn't help but feel an indescribable surprise in his heart.

She stared at Li Qingyun's every move with her phoenix eyes, feeling both puzzled and expectant.

Ordinary elixirs like Qi Ju Dan are destined to be difficult to refine into high-quality finished products due to the crudeness of their herbal materials.

In addition, cultivators at lower levels would not pay too much attention to this, so throughout history, few people would spend extra time to finely control the flame when refining Qi Gathering Pills, striving to refine high-grade pills.

Because of this, Li Qingyun's performance at this time seemed particularly unusual. Every one of his movements was full of rhythm, as if he was not refining pills, but performing a carefully planned art performance.

It seems that his operation is more like a seasoned alchemy master showing off his skills, just like a top chef who uses radishes and cabbages that are commonly found everywhere to make a feast comparable to bear paws and shark fins.

Although Feng Yaqin was a rare alchemy expert in Longhu Mountain, she could not understand Li Qingyun's actions and secretly speculated in her heart:

"Is he just bluffing and doing useless work, or does he really have a unique talent for external alchemy?"

Thinking of this, this ordinary assessment actually became somewhat exciting...

……

Two hours later, rich medicinal fragrance emanated from each furnace and filled the entire back hall, announcing that the long and tedious alchemy process had come to an end.

As the last bit of true energy was injected into the alchemy furnace, the underground fire finally went out. Several Taoist children stopped what they were doing, waited for the alchemy furnace to cool down, and slowly opened the lid.

Feng Yaqin then came over, walked forward, and checked the final results of several people one by one.

She first walked towards the alchemy furnace of one of the Taoist children, glanced at it calmly, and said with some disappointment:
"Two pills were made, both of which are of low quality."

It is understandable that most Qi Gathering Pills are of inferior quality, but this Taoist boy produced too few finished products. Only two of the ten pills were made, and the rest of the materials were all wasted. This low efficiency proves that the alchemist is not talented enough and lacks skills, and is unable to keep the earth fire stable and fierce.

After hearing this, the Taoist boy showed a look of shame, lowered his head silently, and did not dare to look at Master Feng.

Feng Yaqin then walked towards the alchemy furnace of another Taoist boy. After checking it, she found five finished pills, all of which were of low quality. She nodded slightly, with a slightly relieved tone:

“Although there is no outstanding performance, it is still acceptable.”

After hearing this, the Taoist boy beside the alchemy furnace breathed a sigh of relief.

After staying in the back mountains for many years, she finally got the chance to make the leap to the dragon gate. She couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

Next, it was Lu Feng's turn. Feng Yaqin looked carefully in his alchemy furnace and found that there were still five successful pills, but one of them was slightly larger, with emerald green lines all over its surface, and it emitted a richer fragrance than the others.

A glimmer of approval flashed in her eyes:

"Five pills were made, one of which was of medium quality."

Feng Yaqin nodded, very satisfied with Lu Feng's performance.

This efficiency and quality are already comparable to that of ordinary alchemists.

What is even more commendable is that Lu Feng is still young and has not yet broken through the four major levels of tendons, bones, skin and flesh. The heavenly thunder he attracted is far less than that of a true Qi Gathering Realm cultivator. However, he can still achieve such results. This shows that Lu Feng is far superior to ordinary people in grasping the key timing of adding materials, and his talent in alchemy is evident.

Following Feng Yaqin's inspection, the four alchemy boys had clearly been separated in terms of their skill. However, at this moment, everyone's eyes invariably turned to another place in the field - the huge alchemy furnace.

At this moment, Li Qingyun was still refining the elixir in full swing. Runes appeared and disappeared from time to time on the huge alchemy furnace. The underground fire was still strong, and there seemed to be no sign of ending.

"Isn't he afraid of losing face and deliberately delaying the end..."

The Taoist child who had just passed the test was named Fu Daiyu. She felt relaxed at this moment and couldn't help but gently touch Lu Feng beside her and whispered.

She was full of doubts: the amount of true Qi consumed to maintain the operation of such a large furnace was several times that of an ordinary furnace. After such a long time, even a disciple who had achieved great success in gathering Qi should feel tired, but this older Taoist child was still full of energy, as if he was enjoying the process very much.

Moreover, refining an ordinary Qi Gathering Pill does not require so many fancy operations. What is this person thinking?

Lu Feng sneered and made a gesture to keep quiet, indicating Fu Daiyu not to affect others, but his heart was full of expectations for this mysterious junior brother.

At this moment, Feng Yaqin held up her cheek and watched Li Qingyun's movements with great interest. She saw that his method of controlling the flame was very clumsy, but always just right and with great effect. She was very puzzled.

Even with her eyes, she couldn't tell whether Li Qingyun was hiding his true abilities or just pretending to be so. She could only wait and see.

More than an hour passed, and finally, under the gaze of everyone, the runes on the huge alchemy furnace gradually dimmed, the flame slowly went out, and Li Qingyun also stopped what he was doing.

He took a deep breath and pretended to wipe the non-existent sweat from his head, still with a bright smile on his face.

Feng Yaqin's heart moved, and she could no longer wait. She waved her hand and opened the medicine outlet at the bottom of the furnace before Li Qingyun could.

"One, two, ..., nine!"

Nine crystal clear, almost transparent pills rolled out from the medicine outlet, but strangely there was no trace of medicinal fragrance.

Several Taoist children, including Lu Feng, looked at each other, wondering what on earth Li Qingyun had refined.

This pill obviously does not look like the Qi Gathering Pill, and it is colorless and odorless. It is more like the crystal and lead and mercury in the auxiliary ingredients burned into a glass ball for children to play with.

"This...this is a failure."

Just when everyone was puzzled, Feng Yaqin widened her eyes and looked at the pill in the medicine outlet in disbelief.

She walked forward, picked up the pill, and examined it carefully, not hiding the shock in her eyes. Finally, she couldn't help but speak:

“Top-grade… This is a top-grade Qi Gathering Pill!

"How can this be!"

……

(End of this chapter)