I am a mortal who has achieved enlightenment through burning my secrets

Chapter 179 Alchemy
"Why are there only two doses of medicine?"

Xiao Wuji glanced at the spiritual herbs in the storage bag, then began to scrutinize Ancestor Ao Xiao with a strange look. But when he noticed Ancestor Ao Xiao's clenched fist, he immediately withdrew his gaze and said in a serious tone:

"This kind of pill is not easy to refine. If I only have two sets of materials, I am not absolutely confident!"

Refining the Bone-Growing and Blood-Melting Pill wouldn't be difficult for him, given his peak eighth-grade alchemy skills; his primordial spirit realm is also absolutely comparable to the peak of the Spirit Realm. The difficulty lies in his current insufficient cultivation level. It's hard to control the spiritual energy fluctuations at the final pill formation stage, and a single mistake could cause the furnace to explode.

Ancestor Ao Xiao did not force him to do anything, because even he felt a headache looking at the dense list of ingredients on the pill formula. He had never seen such a complicated pill formula in all his years of life.

"Just do your best. If it really doesn't work, then we can try the Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill!"

"All right!"

Xiao Wuji nodded and said, "But you'd better give me a set of materials for the Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill first. I need to practice with that medicine."

"In addition, you need to prepare another pill furnace for me. An ordinary pill furnace cannot withstand such violent pill energy!"

"That's not difficult!" After saying that, Ancestor Ao Xiao suddenly looked at Xiao Wuji with a strange gaze and asked:
"Did you really deduce this pill formula? I feel like you're missing something! You haven't actually refined one before, have you?"

"Heh, why don't you go ask Silver Moon how my previous alchemy furnace exploded!"

Xiao Wuji glanced disdainfully at this old fogey who seemed to doubt him, his posture exuding confidence.

When the high-ranking Patriarch Ao Xiao was suddenly looked at like that, he immediately became furious and said, "You brat, if you dare to look at me like that again, believe me, I'll beat you up!"

"I believe you, of course I believe you. It's just that this injury of mine won't heal for several years. Even if it does, it will leave a lasting scar. Imagine if my hand trembled even slightly while I was refining pills, hehe..."

"You little rascal, you're pretty good. Wait here, I'll go find you a pill-making furnace..."

Watching Ao Xiao's departing figure, Xiao Wuji's tense nerves relaxed. Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough, otherwise it would have been difficult to smooth things over.

Xiao Wuji quickly communicated with the corpse-like Sword Pill Linglong lying in the spatial birdcage, telling him his explanation for the lie. Linglong's true form was not far from here, and the two could communicate telepathically. Now, even if Ancestor Ao Xiao really went to Linglong to do something to verify, there would be absolutely no mistakes.

As for why he asked Patriarch Ao Xiao for a pill-making furnace, it was simply because he wanted to acquire a suitable one for himself.

Among his many magical treasures, he only had three high-grade alchemy furnaces. One, the Myriad-Foot Red Dust Furnace, a mid-grade Dao artifact, was refined into his Dharma body and placed in the lower realm to manage his forces. The other, the Five Thunder Cauldron, a high-grade treasure artifact, was used by his second primordial spirit to refine and store thunder. The third was an alchemy furnace he forged from a piece of living gold.

However, this alchemy furnace is extremely special. Xiao Wuji would never use it unless it was necessary to enhance spirituality. After all, the life-giving metal itself is not very sturdy, and it would be easily damaged if the furnace were to explode. He didn't want to risk losing a piece of life-giving metal to someone else to forge weapons.

Three months later.

The ancestral home of the Howling Moon Wolf Clan.

Inside a vast, open-roofed palace spanning a thousand miles, Xiao Wuji listlessly placed an ancient treasure alchemy furnace on the ground. Although it was just an ancient treasure, it was definitely comparable to the so-called Heavenly Cauldrons in the Doupo world, more than enough to refine eighth-grade pills. However, he found it hard to believe that the dignified Ancestor Ao Xiao couldn't produce an alchemy furnace of the Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Treasure level.

Xiao Wuji muttered under his breath, "I'll just have to make do with this!"

What Xiao Wuji considered a quiet "muttering" was, in Ao Xiao's eyes, no different from a direct taunt, instantly enraging him so much that his fists clenched so tightly behind his back cracked. But for the sake of a perfect second primordial spirit, he endured it!

At this moment, there were only three people in the main hall, no, it was one person and two demons. Besides Xiao Wuji and Ao Xiao, Linglong was also present.

However, she has now grown to the size of a normal six-year-old, and her original turquoise color has now turned into a white jade color. Those round toes look quite appetizing. Ugh, you vixen, you're affecting my Dao heart. By the way, won't she be ruined by being played with at six years old?
However, this old ancestor Ao Xiao really doesn't know what "a son-in-law is half a son" means. Look how fast Linglong has grown. It's obvious that she has been eating a lot of spiritual eye things during this time. Compared to her, he is like someone who has been working for nothing.

Fortunately, he wasn't a proper son-in-law to begin with; he was just there to get some benefits.

Xiao Wuji flicked his finger, tossing a ball of grayish-white flame into the alchemy furnace to begin warming it. This time, he didn't intend to use a stronger exotic fire for alchemy.

Among his experience as a peak eighth-grade alchemist, the most frequently used fire is the Transformation Fire. In other words, this is the fire he is most familiar with, and using it to refine pills will increase the chances of success.

Yin Yang Life Soul Pill, a mid-grade seventh-rank pill, has the miraculous effect of fusing souls and restoring life. Refining materials: Soul-Returning Demon Fruit, Life Soul Ghost Face Flower.
With a flick of his hand, medicinal herbs floated out of his storage ring, eventually hovering in mid-air. After carefully examining the herbs and finding no problems, Xiao Wuji slowly closed his eyes. The formula for the Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill flowed through his mind like water, and he meticulously reviewed the key points of its refining process.

Although he had the experience of an eighth-grade alchemist, he had never actually practiced it before, so he had to be careful.

A moment later, Xiao Wuji opened his eyes, took a light breath, and flicked his finger. A flower with extremely vibrant colors fell down. The flower was extremely bright, and strangely enough, at its center was a human face with eyes, nose, and mouth, so lifelike that it gave people a chilling feeling.

The name of this flower, "Ghost Face Flower," flashed through Xiao Wuji's mind. It was one of the main ingredients for refining the Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill, growing only in extremely yin places and being extremely rare. It was clear that Ancestor Ao Xiao had put in considerable effort to refine his second primordial spirit.

He glanced at the creepy flower, then flicked his finger, and the ghost-face flower was thrown into the alchemy furnace. In a flash, the gray-white flames enveloped it.

what--

As soon as the ghost-faced flower was engulfed in flames, wisps of black energy emanated from it, and at the same time, a shrill cry of a baby came from the alchemy furnace.

However, even though everyone present was a highly skilled cultivator, Linglong, who had already undergone a complete transformation, was not intimidated by the wailing.

Xiao Wuji exhaled a breath of vital energy onto the fire, and the temperature of the flame immediately rose significantly. As the temperature of the flame increased dramatically, the black energy emanating from the ghost-face flower also rapidly faded, and eventually, it completely dissipated. Without the protection of the black energy, the ghost-face flower withered rapidly, and the human face gradually drooped. About ten minutes later, it finally burst open, turning into a cloud of black powder.

As soon as the powder appeared, Xiao Wuji did not immediately withdraw the flame. Instead, he repeatedly burned the powder until it showed a metallic luster. Then, with a thought, a ball of flame enveloped the black powder and floated in a corner of the alchemy furnace.

As time passed, the medicinal herbs that were suspended in mid-air were gradually put into the alchemy furnace. Xiao Wuji was extremely careful this time because it was the first time he had ever refined such a high-grade pill.

Seven days flew by.

Because there were so many kinds of medicinal herbs, it took Xiao Wuji seven days just to refine them. During this time, Xiao Wuji also took out pills more than once to restore his magical power.

After all, his cultivation level wasn't high, he wasn't using a different kind of fire, and the mana in his nascent soul wasn't very abundant. If he were to break through to the Void Refinement stage, refining this kind of pill would be much simpler.

Under the guidance of Xiao Wuji's divine sense, thousands of pure medicinal liquids gradually converged in one place, then merged in an orderly manner, transforming into a huge elixir the size of a human head, which spun endlessly in the flames. With each rotation, its size shrank slightly, and at the same time, it sprinkled some blackish-gray impurities.

Three more days have passed!
Suddenly, the alchemy furnace trembled, and a clear "humming" sound rippled out, eventually echoing throughout the main hall.

After the alchemy furnace emitted a humming sound, an exceptionally dense burst of alchemical energy suddenly erupted from it like a volcano. The source of this energy could be faintly seen, seemingly a perfectly round pill encased within the grayish-white flames…

Under the watchful eyes of Ancestor Ao Xiao and Linglong, the medicinal energy emanating from the furnace grew increasingly dense. Eventually, the entire hall was filled with the delightful fragrance of the pills, clearly a sign that the pills were about to be formed.

As the elixir energy surged forth, Xiao Wuji slowly opened his slightly narrowed eyes, and a look of joy appeared on his face as he gazed at this scene.

The surge of elixir energy grew increasingly rapid, eventually shooting almost directly into the sky. Attracted by this dense elixir energy, dark clouds quickly gathered in the sky...

White lightning crackled incessantly within the dark clouds. Ancestor Ao Xiao frowned; this tribulation seemed somewhat like the transformation tribulation unique to their demon race, only much more powerful. But how could a single pill trigger such a tribulation? Could this pill possibly transform into human form?

However, Ancestor Ao Xiao quickly dismissed the idea. Pills taking human form? How could that be possible? He had never even heard of it. He had seen some magical artifacts and magical weapons that could take human form, though.

Xiao Wuji pointed a finger at the thunderclouds in the sky, and a long whip with a bronze hue and strange black patterns shot directly into the sky, stirring up wind and rain within the thunderclouds.

Fine white lightning bolts were drawn to the long whip, causing it to crackle with electricity before suddenly turning black and being swallowed up in an instant.

As the thunder subsided, the entire thundercloud dissipated in no time.

Inside the alchemy furnace, a black and red pill shimmered with a faint spiritual light, but it didn't seem to be running around like an eighth-grade pill.

He raised his hand and sucked the pills out of the furnace, then took a low-grade magic gourd and threw it in. He then deliberately shook the gourd in his hand at Ancestor Ao Xiao, as if to say, "How about that? The gourd I used to put the pills in is a Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Treasure!"

……

(End of this chapter)