Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 189 The Demon Refines Pills with the Elements of Water and Fire, and the Snake Becomes a Disciple with Three Sticks of Incense.

The Eel Gang took over Fulong Lake, while the Shrimp Gang attacked Shilang Lake. In each battle, they naturally reaped many river delicacies.

River delicacies, local treasures, and the flesh and blood of the serpent can be used as the main ingredients. As for the other necessary auxiliary materials, just tell Bearded Catfish, and they can be found in the market. If they are not found in the market, just send a few lesser demons to search in the water and mountains, and they will eventually find them.
He didn't need to go looking for it himself; he only needed to give an order, and his subordinate demons would find it and bring it to him.

This is the advantage of being the master of a power.

Before officially refining the pills, Liu Qing prepared all the main ingredients and auxiliary materials required for each pill formula, and prepared many portions of each type of pill material.

In three years, Liu Qing had memorized all the medicinal properties of various spiritual herbs from the Three Realms, including rare river treasures, earthly treasures, and celestial spirits, from the Eastern Sea Alchemy Collection.

He also memorized all the prescriptions for pills he had.

In the following time, Liu Qing prepared to begin refining pills.

It opened its mouth and spat out the already refined Water and Fire Yin-Yang Furnace, the very furnace needed for the initial stages of alchemy. After complete refinement, the Water and Fire Yin-Yang Furnace revealed its ancient internal patterns—engraved arrays—used to purify and refine spiritual herbs and essences.

Besides this purification and tempering formation, there is also a formation for controlling the magnitude of water and fire power. These two formations are not particularly unusual, but they are commonly used and indispensable.

There are traces of water and fire energy on the outside of the alchemy furnace, indicating that this water and fire yin-yang furnace was frequently used by the Weihe evil dragon.

Liu Qing silently recited the formula for the Bigu Pill, along with the refining method, precautions, and so on.
Then, taking a deep breath, he decided to start practicing with the most common and lowest-grade Bigu Pill.

Following the instructions in the prescription, Liu Qing meticulously placed the main and auxiliary ingredients required for the Bigu Dan (fasting elixir) into the Water-Fire Furnace, step by step.

The lowest grade river jade, and the unqualified lotus seeds, water chestnuts, etc., each main and auxiliary material have a fixed amount; too much or too little is not acceptable.

Then Liu Qing hovered above the Yin-Yang Furnace and spat out two high-grade magical array plates: a water-gathering array plate and a fire-gathering array plate.

These two array plates were high-grade magical artifact array plates crafted by Liu Qing after he achieved some success in comprehending array formations. He used the Spirit Gathering Divine Power as the core array and high-grade water jade as the supporting material.

Specifically for use in alchemy today.

Liu Qing made a hand seal and pointed at the water-gathering array plate and the fire-gathering array plate. Instantly, water elemental power rose from the left side of the Water-Fire Yin-Yang Furnace, while fire elemental power soared from the right side.

The forces of water and fire surged into the Yin-Yang Furnace, where they were controlled by a power-manipulation array engraved within the furnace to maintain an appropriate level of intensity.
Then they began to refine the essence of the medicinal herbs inside the furnace.

The power of water is yin, and the power of fire is yang. They rotate and interact within the furnace, like yin and yang fish, enveloping the ingredients for the fasting pill.

As time passed, the yin-yang symbol formed by the forces of water and fire spun faster and faster, slowly melting the materials and turning them into drops of spiritual liquid.

Liu Qing quickly changed his alchemy technique, using a hand seal to draw out the residue left after refining the spiritual liquid from the furnace.

Otherwise, if it's too late, these impurities will mix into the spiritual liquid, or the impurities won't be completely removed, and this batch of Bigu pills will be ruined.

Fortunately, Liu Qing had already memorized the steps and was well-prepared. Upon seeing the spiritual liquid being refined, he immediately switched the pill-making technique to remove the impurities.

The next step is to refine the Bigu Pill, or rather, the most crucial step in refining all pills.

Fusion elixir.

Liu Qing changed his alchemy technique again, his fingers moving almost like phantoms as he formed the alchemy formula, and then pointed to the Water and Fire Furnace.

Inside the Yin-Yang Furnace, the Yin-Yang fish shone brightly, enveloping all the spiritual liquids and spinning rapidly. With its swirling power, it fused the spiritual liquids refined from different medicinal herbs into a single mass.

Seeing this, Liu Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

If the pill-refining technique had been switched just now, or if the reaction had been even slightly slower, the spiritual liquid might not have been able to fuse properly, or the fusion might have been incomplete, resulting in a useless pill.

After the spiritual liquid merges into a single mass, the next step is to separate the core.

The materials Liu Qing had used this time were only enough to make ten Bigu Pills. Therefore, Liu Qing changed the pill-making technique again, manipulating the yin-yang fish to instantly split into ten smaller yin-yang fish of equal size.
Each of the smaller yin-yang fish was enveloped in an equal amount of spiritual liquid.

The final step is extracting the pill. Since it's the lowest grade, first-level Bigu pill, there's no need to worry about pill tribulations or anything like that.

Therefore, Liu Qing easily spread his hands outwards, and the yin-yang fish enveloped by the spiritual liquid returned to the power of water and fire, returning to the water-gathering array plate and the fire-gathering array plate.

As the power of water and fire dissipated, it took away the moisture from the spiritual liquid, then hardened it by baking, finally revealing it to Liu Qing's eyes.

There were ten perfectly round, jade-colored fasting pills, each about the size of a soybean. Liu Qing reached out and pulled the ten pills into his palm, took one out and threw it into his mouth. Instantly, a feeling of fullness welled up inside him.

Based on a rough estimate, with Liu Qing's current cultivation level, this Bigu Pill can sustain him for a month without food or hunger.

Indeed, its efficacy is no less than that of the fasting pills stolen from the evil dragon of the Wei River.

Liu Qing happily took out the jade bottle, put the remaining nine fasting pills into it, rested briefly, and then looked at the sky.
Morning arrived again, and Liu Qing rose to offer incense. After lighting three sticks of incense, Liu Qing bowed and said, "Disciple Liu Qing kowtows to wish Master good health—"

After muttering to himself, he raised his eyelids and glanced upwards. Seeing that the portrait's face was still shrouded in a mysterious aura and showed no sign of reproach, he felt relieved.

Well, as long as you're thick-skinned enough and fawn over people enough, calling out "Teacher" every time you offer incense, over time, it will eventually become a fait accompli.

Afterwards, Liu Qing tried to refine a first-grade Condensing Essence Pill. The formula for this pill was passed down from the East Sea. Its function is to increase the demonic power in the body. It is somewhat similar to the second-grade Water Essence Pill, but it lacks the effect of healing physical injuries. Therefore, it is only a first-grade pill.

Liu Qing had already prepared all the main and auxiliary ingredients, and had memorized the detailed steps for refining this pill, as well as the precautions, the techniques for melting and separating the pill, etc.

Having prior experience in refining first-grade fasting pills, Liu Qing's process of refining Qi Condensation Pills went smoothly without any mistakes, ultimately yielding ten first-grade Qi Condensation Pills.

After Liu Qing consumed one, his demonic energy increased slightly, and the effect was much better than directly consuming and refining it using his Elephant Devouring Talent.
Sure enough, it still comes down to alchemy. In the past, consuming river treasures, earth treasures, and heavenly spirits had truly wasted a lot of spiritual energy.

Having successfully refined two types of first-grade pills, Liu Qing was confident that refining first-grade pills would no longer be a problem, so he began to prepare to refine second-grade pills.

When refining second-grade pills, Liu Qing's first choice was the Water Essence Pill, which he had stolen from the Wei River Evil Dragon, because this pill was not particularly difficult to refine.

Moreover, he had practiced with the Condensing Essence Pill and had gained some experience.

After calming his mind and concentrating his spirit, Liu Qing began to put all the main ingredients and auxiliary materials needed for the Water Essence Pill into the alchemy furnace one by one.

Compared to first-grade pills, second-grade pills require significantly more types of materials, with four or five main ingredients alone and more than ten auxiliary ingredients.

Each one has different properties, different amounts, different order of addition, and different heat levels required for extracting the essence, which takes a lot of effort.

Fortunately, Liu Qing had already memorized the pill formula beforehand, and his hand gestures for controlling the heat during the refining of each ingredient were quite swift.
After failing once, it was successfully refined on the second attempt.

The second attempt at refining was successful. Liu Qing then refined several more batches smoothly, succeeding only once, and all subsequent attempts were successful.

At this point, Liu Qing had fully mastered how to refine Water Essence Pills, and had successfully refined them several times, reaping a total of fifty Water Essence Pills.

If the Journey to the West world had a ranking system for alchemists, Liu Qing's successful refinement of a second-grade Water Essence Pill would already qualify him as a second-grade alchemist.

Liu Qing was slightly pleased with himself, having successfully mastered the basics of refining second-grade pills, but he remained humble. He then found several more second-grade pill formulas in the East Sea Pill Repository.
They also began to try and familiarize themselves with the steps, hand gestures, and key points to note in refining second-grade pills.

Other second-grade pills may have simpler refining processes, or be slightly more complex than the Water Essence Pill, but their overall difficulty level is roughly the same.

After experiencing one or two initial failures, Liu Qing mastered the refining methods for each of the second-grade pills.

Liu Qing recorded the key points to note during the refining process of these second-grade pills, as well as some insights, on a blank scroll, which can be considered as a contribution to the alchemy of the Three Realms.

It only took Liu Qing a month to refine first-grade and second-grade pills, but the time required to refine third-grade pills increased dramatically.

Third-grade pills, such as the Soul Nourishing Pill, have already touched upon the soul level, so naturally the difficulty of refining them is doubled, and it is to be expected that they will take longer.

It took Liu Qing two whole months and countless failures before he finally succeeded in refining the Soul Nourishing Pill for the first time.

Fortunately, Liu Qing had collected plenty of the various materials needed to refine the Soul Nourishing Pill beforehand, so he wasn't worried about wasting too many materials and having to stop halfway through the process.
After another two weeks, following his initial success in refining, Liu Qing seemed to have grasped the essence of the craft. His success rate quickly improved from three out of five attempts to four out of five, and finally to 100% success.

By this point, Liu Qing had thoroughly mastered the third-grade Soul Nourishing Pill, greatly increasing his alchemy experience. Various insights came his way, which he carefully studied and recorded in his Alchemy Insights Scroll.

He obtained dozens of Grade 3 Soul Nourishing Pills. These pills can heal injuries to the soul and spirit. Like the Water Essence Pill, they are essential medicines for home, travel, murder, and robbery. Therefore, Liu Qing refined more of them for himself and those around him.

Afterwards, Liu Qing selected several third-grade pill formulas from the East Sea Pill Dao Collection and tried refining them to solidify his refining techniques for third-grade pills.

Six months later, after several failures and wasting many materials, Liu Qing finally succeeded in refining all the selected Grade 3 pills. By then, Liu Qing could be considered a grandmaster in the field of alchemy.

(End of this chapter)