Hermit in the Mountains

With some direction in his alchemy practice, Gu Changsheng spent his days, besides cultivating his spiritual pets and nurturing spiritual herbs, as well as refining pill formulas and researching his own unique alchemy methods.

In just nine days, Gu Changsheng used up all the raw materials for refining the Peiyuan Pill, leaving only newly planted seedlings in the medicinal field.

Only four ginseng samples remained after cultivation. One was cultivated using only water spirit liquid, another using only wood spirit liquid, and the last two were cultivated using "Rongzhili" and water and wood spirit liquid.

The other ginseng plants had already been used by Gu Changsheng to refine elixirs, and the newly planted ginseng seedlings in the medicinal field, like other Chinese medicinal herbs, were only irrigated with spiritual rain.

In nine days, Gu Changsheng figured out a unique method of alchemy based on the cycle of growth and decay. Unfortunately, the power of growth and decay within his sea of ​​consciousness could not be released outside his body, so he had to manually knead the pills each time to cultivate the elixir with the power of growth and decay.

Gu Changsheng's method of alchemy, which involves the cycle of decay and flourishing, differs from fire alchemy and water alchemy.

Essentially, it's like cultivating an elixir, which has two stages: the elixir undergoes a process of decay and a resurgence.

The "power of withering" eliminates impurities, dryness, and useless residue in the pill, preserving the purest core of the medicinal properties.

The "Power of Glory" awakens the pure medicinal properties, allowing them to regrow, spread, and form a complete elixir structure.

As the cycle of life and death repeats itself, the medicinal properties are sublimated through the process of life and death, causing their medicinal properties to transform.

The process of refining elixirs in the "withering and flourishing" method does not emphasize the heat, but rather the timing of the process—determining when the medicinal properties change from withered to flourishing, or from flourishing to withered.

Withering time: Judging the best time for medicinal materials to "wither". If it is too early, the medicinal properties are not pure; if it is too late, the medicinal properties will dissipate.

The highest level of "withering" is to make the medicinal materials "wither but not die," remaining in the purest critical state.

Ronghou: Determine the best time for medicinal herbs to "rejuvenate" so that their medicinal properties can be captured and locked in the instant they are released.

Gu Changsheng also created a Nine-Rank Refining Pill Method for himself, based on the Nine Revolutions Pill Refining Method. Each time a pill completes one cycle of withering and flourishing or the transformation of flourishing and withering, it is considered a Grade 1 Spirit Pill. Two cycles of withering and flourishing result in a Grade 2 Spirit Pill, and so on. Nine cycles of withering and flourishing result in a Grade 9 Spirit Pill.

However, these are just Gu Changsheng's thoughts. He first set a direction and a framework for himself, but so far he has not successfully completed a full cycle of prosperity and decline.

It is unclear whether the alchemy method is flawed, the medicinal properties of the raw materials are substandard, or he has not yet grasped the key to determining the cycle of growth and decay, or has not mastered the timing of growth and decay.

Gu Changsheng deeply understood why masters of alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman arrays, and all the arts of cultivation were so rare in the world of cultivation. They consumed too many cultivation resources, and ordinary cultivators simply could not afford to practice these techniques.

Without recipes, alchemy methods, artifact patterns, and weapon crafting techniques, cultivators would have to figure it out on their own, leading to a sharp increase in the failure rate, wasting a lot of time, and still not being able to succeed in the end.

The entry requirements alone deter 90% of cultivators; they might as well just focus on improving their cultivation.

Deducing spells consumes at most spiritual energy, which can be recovered through meditation.

Alchemy, weapon crafting, talisman making, and array formation require various cultivation resources, such as herbs, elixirs, iron ore, spirit ore, talisman paper, cinnabar, array base, array eye, and so on.

Creating your own spells or comprehending spells is like developing software products; it takes a lot of brainpower, effort, and time.

Creating your own methods of alchemy, weapon crafting, talisman making, and array formation, or learning these skills, is like building hardware yourself. It is not only mentally, physically, and time-consuming, but also requires money and hands-on production.

A moment's carelessness or distraction during the production process can lead to the waste of materials, and not just any waste, but the kind that cannot be recycled, as the raw materials are basically disposable.

Gu Changsheng almost doubted whether he had any talent for alchemy. It took him 1-3 days to create his own spells, and now, after nine days, he still hadn't mastered the cycle of growth and decay, and hadn't refined a single elixir.

If it weren't for the good news from the 'Withered and Flourishing Dao Tree' in his sea of ​​consciousness—that his cultivation was improving and he was nearing the 'Seed Transformation' state—Gu Changsheng would have given up on the idea of ​​alchemy.

He planned to prepare for his breakthrough first, relax his mind, and then proceed with the alchemy gradually.

Gu Changsheng spent half a day putting aside his obsession with alchemy and calming his emotions.

As night fell, he sat in meditation in his bedroom, breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, refining the essence of the sun and moon, and comprehending the cycle of growth and decay of the Dao seed.

"Coo coo coo... Oh—"

The bright red crowing of dawn sounded precisely on time, and a red glow appeared in the east.

Taking advantage of the convergence of Yin and Yang, Gu Changsheng gathered and refined the "purple energy" generated by the convergence of Yin and Yang in heaven and earth, and once again completed the "seed transformation", raising his cultivation level to a higher level.

In the hazy sea of ​​consciousness, a 'Dao Seed' interwoven with gray and green hues floated, and a gray-white ring flew into the physical body.

Gu Changsheng's bone marrow underwent a transformation, with a layer of grayish-white gas membrane enveloping it, enhancing its defense and improving its hematopoietic ability.

The blood in his body seemed to transform into a river cart, rushing through his veins; the blood flow accelerated, and there was a faint sound of wheels rolling.

The "Withering and Flourishing Armor" within his bone marrow resonated with the original five "Withering and Flourishing Armors," and the invisible high-frequency vibrations tempered the strength of Gu Changsheng's physical body.

After the breakthrough ended, Gu Changsheng sat quietly for an hour before slowly opening his eyes. It seemed that a grayish-brown light spot had appeared deep in his left eye, and a green light spot had appeared deep in his right eye.

The moment he opened his eyes, the changes within his body surfaced in his mind.

With the strength to break six thousand jin, one can live for three Jiazi years;

His divine sense covered a radius of seven meters, and his perception covered a radius of seventy meters.

Gu Changsheng raised his hands and stretched his body, his bones and joints cracking like firecrackers.

After finishing his morning exercises, he fed his three pets with spiritual liquid and then rode his blue ox on his routine mountain patrol.

Gu Changsheng stood facing the sun on the back mountain, looking down at the lush saplings around the wooden house, and muttered, "The peach and plum saplings have mostly survived, so we can continue to expand the planting area."

His gaze remained fixed as he fell into deep thought.

After much deliberation, he planned to plant peach and plum blossoms all over the mountain within three months, and then close the mountain under the pretext of cultivating seedlings.

Planting peach and plum blossoms on the hilltop means that villagers need to go up the mountain to work from time to time to prevent changes from happening to the villagers on the mountain.

Gu Changsheng plans to cultivate bamboo extensively after closing the mountain to prevent anyone from observing his unusual behavior through binoculars or drones.

He had his own cultivation plan in mind. After mastering the Refining of Life and Death Pills, his next step was to specialize in array formations.

With spells and incantations as references, comprehending formations should be relatively simple. For example, the "Spirit Gathering Seal" can be carved into jade to serve as the "Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern".

The "Spirit Gathering Technique" and the "Spirit Gathering Array" are essentially the same; both involve gathering spiritual energy.

Why did he prioritize studying alchemy? Because elixirs have no effect on the environment, and as long as he doesn't use them, no one will notice anything unusual.

The art of setting up formations will more or less affect the surrounding environment. If a spirit-gathering formation is set up around the wooden house, spiritual energy will continuously gather around it, and the overflowing spiritual energy will nourish the surrounding plants, causing them to grow wildly.

The spiritual energy continuously flows to the wooden house, attracting animals with keen senses from the mountains.

This wasn't just Gu Changsheng's guess, because he already had three such animals around him.

The three pets now have incredibly sensitive noses, especially Big Yellow's dog nose, which can smell the elixir in the porcelain bottle in the bedroom drawer.