Chapter 334 - 323: Alchemy Breakthrough

Chapter 334: Chapter 323: Alchemy Breakthrough

Inside the stone house, a wisp of faint blue medicinal fragrance swirled in the air, refusing to dissipate.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation mat, placing a freshly refined Soul Condensing Pill into his mouth. The pill melted on the tip of his tongue. It didn’t transform into Spiritual Qi to surge into his Dantian, but rather into a cool mist that rushed straight into his mind.

For some time now, Li Yuan had been taking the Soul Condensing Pills he refined himself every day. The medicinal power continuously nourished his Divine Soul, gradually building up its strength.

As the medicinal power spread, the formless Divine Soul in his mind, like a sponge, completely absorbed the cool mist.

Li Yuan silently activated the Concentrating Soul-Invoking Skill. Under his deliberate compression, his Divine Soul contracted and gathered inward, the fragmented Mental Power at its edges forcibly kneaded into the core. This compression brought a faint, aching sensation, but it quickly dissipated as the medicinal power soothed it away.

When the last wisp of mist was completely absorbed, an almost imperceptible hum emanated from the core of Li Yuan’s Divine Soul.

The originally taut mental barrier expanded outward by a layer.

A panel appeared at the edge of his vision.

[Concentrating Soul-Invoking Skill: Minor Achievement (0/1600)]

The changes from the Cultivation Technique’s breakthrough were immediate. Without opening his eyes, Li Yuan directly split his Divine Sense into five within his mind.

Previously, at the Mastery realm, forcibly splitting off a fifth Divine Sense Line would cause a distinct throbbing pain and was difficult to maintain for long. But now, the process of separating the fifth line from his main soul was exceptionally smooth. Five independent Divine Sense Lines existed side-by-side in his mind, not interfering with each other at all, completely free of the previous tearing strain.

The fifth Divine Sense Line had completely stabilized.

Li Yuan sent out all five lines, assigning them to different tasks.

The first, primary line guided the Spiritual Qi in his body along the [Meridian-Spirit Fusion] resonance channel into his Dantian, maintaining the circulation of his main Cultivation Technique.

The second line extended out of the stone house and sank into the underground Spirit Vein, following the patterns of the main and branch veins to monitor the faint fluctuations where the ruins’ periphery met the ore vein.

The third line covered the sky above the marketplace, taking in the footsteps of the patrol teams, the conversations in the Loose Cultivator trading area, and the flow of Spiritual Power at the entrance and exit Arrays.

The fourth line settled beneath the Pill Furnace in front of him, transforming into invisible tentacles to adjust the position of several Earth Fire Stones.

The fifth line delved into a stack of jade slips piled on the corner of the table, cross-referencing yesterday’s expenses for the marketplace shops and the development of the Spirit Fields.

The five lines operated in parallel, each processing a completely different stream of information without the slightest lag.

Li Yuan maintained this state for a full hour before retracting most of his Divine Sense, after confirming there was no discomfort.

He stood up and walked to the wooden table against the wall.

On the table were talisman paper, a talisman brush, and a box of dark red Spiritual Ink. Li Yuan didn’t use his hands; instead, he activated the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill.

A wisp of invisible soul force enveloped the shaft of the brush, lifting it steadily from the brush rest. The brush tip dipped into the inkstone, soaking up a full measure of Spiritual Ink, and hovered above a blank sheet of talisman paper.

The soul force pressed the brush tip down.

Downstroke, turn, drag. Fine Fire Element Spirit Patterns manifested on the talisman paper. There was no tremor from infusing Spiritual Power, only the pure physical pull of the Divine Soul on the brush and the natural absorption of the ink.

Two breaths later, a Tier One Fireball Talisman was complete.

Li Yuan picked up the talisman paper to take a look. The Spirit Patterns connected from end to end, and the Spiritual Qi was contained within, not dissipating. It was a qualified, finished product.

He put down the Fireball Talisman and picked up a sheet of Tier Two talisman paper, preparing to try drawing a Tier Two Spirit Water Talisman.

The soul force once again guided the brush down. The first third of the patterns went smoothly, but in the middle section, where extreme precision was needed to outline two overlapping Gathering Spirit nodes, a minuscule deviation occurred in the force of the Divine Soul’s control over the brush tip.

The brush tip strayed by half an inch.

The Spiritual Power circuit on the paper instantly fell into chaos. A cloud of water vapor burst from the surface, turning the talisman paper into a wet, ruined pulp.

Li Yuan dispersed the soul force enveloping the brush and swept the ruined paper into a wooden basket in the corner.

’The Divine Soul Line can be used to draw Talismans, which frees up my hands. But the current precision of the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill is limited to Low Tier Tier One Talismans that don’t require complex turns. Tier Two Talismans have too low a margin for error; the slightest tremor will result in failure.’

’Drawing Low Tier Talismans doesn’t take much effort, but the profit is also extremely low. It’s not worth investing a lot of time into it.’

Li Yuan’s core focus was still on Alchemy.

He turned and walked to the center of the stone house, took out a third Pill Furnace from his storage bag, and placed it next to the other two.

Lined up in a row.

He planned to test if he could sustain three simultaneous Alchemy processes now that both his Divine Soul and Cultivation Technique had broken through.

The primary line still controlled the dark red Pill Furnace on the left, using Spiritual Power to fuel the flame for refining Tier Two Gathering Essence Pills.

The second line used the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill to control the bronze Pill Furnace in the middle, refining Tier One Replenishing Essence Pills.

The third line also used the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill to control the iron-gray Pill Furnace on the right, refining Tier One Healing Pills.

Three furnaces, all at once.

The Pill Fire on the left ignited first, followed by the Earth Fire in the middle and on the right, which were lit by his soul force. Three different types of Spirit Medicine were simultaneously added to the different furnace chambers.

For the first quarter of an hour, everything went relatively smoothly.

But when all three Pill Furnaces entered the stage of purifying and merging the medicinal liquids, a problem arose.

The left Pill Furnace, controlled by Spiritual Power, remained stable. However, the middle and right furnaces began to show temperature deviations. When his soul force tried to simultaneously fine-tune two flames of different sizes and burning speeds, its precision began to drop.

The heat for the Replenishing Essence Pills in the middle furnace was a tad too low, causing the liquid to merge sluggishly. Meanwhile, the heat for the Healing Pills in the right furnace was a tad too high, and a burnt smell wafted out from the gap in the lid.

Li Yuan decisively cut off the Earth Fire to the right Pill Furnace. He used his soul force to forcibly finish merging the liquid in the middle furnace, pulling out a few extremely low-quality dud pills.

He cleaned up the dud pills and the burnt medicinal dregs.

’The conclusion is clear. The current precision and stability of the Divine Soul Manipulation Skill aren’t enough to handle high-quality, multi-furnace Alchemy simultaneously.’

’The main line handles difficult pills, while a Divine Soul Line handles one furnace of low-difficulty pills. This one-primary, one-secondary dual-furnace model is the current limit for guaranteeing both quality and efficiency. Forcing more furnaces will just waste Spirit Medicine ingredients.’

Li Yuan put the third Pill Furnace back into his storage bag, leaving only two.

In the afternoon, Chen Yi arrived at the stone house.

"A mission dispatch just came down from the Sect." Chen Yi placed a jade slip on the table, his expression somewhat grave. "The trade routes on the outskirts of the marketplace have been almost completely cut off these past few days. Not only can’t the Cultivators fleeing from Yunzhou get in, but even the traveling merchants within Liangzhou don’t dare to move about."

Li Yuan picked up the jade slip and extended his Divine Sense into it.

The dispatch required Mist Forest Marketplace to send out personnel to clear out several Demon Cultivator strongholds and points of activity within a few dozen li of the perimeter.

"Those people from the Dark Abyss Association haven’t attacked the marketplace directly, but they’ve blocked off the roads outside." Chen Yi pulled over a wooden chair and sat down. "Several small cultivator families and Loose Cultivator settlements nearby have been attacked one after another in the past two days. The Sect has decided to take the initiative; all strongholds and marketplaces must send people to clear the periphery."

Li Yuan put the jade slip down.

If traveling merchants couldn’t get in, materials couldn’t circulate in the marketplace. Although the output from his Spirit Fields and ore veins could cover a portion of his needs, Alchemy and Artifact Refining still required a large amount of basic materials from the outside world. The cutoff of trade routes directly impacted his profits and resource acquisition.

"I’ll take this mission," Li Yuan said.

Chen Yi nodded and took another, cyan-colored jade slip from his sleeve, handing it over.

"This is a Magic the Sect sent along with the dispatch. It’s called the Qi Tracking Skill. It’s specifically used for searching for traces of residual Demonic Qi in the wild. Every Foundation Establishment Cultivator participating in the cleanup mission received a copy."

Li Yuan accepted the cyan jade slip.

His finger touched the surface of the jade slip, but no panel prompt appeared.

’No equippable affixes, just an ordinary support Magic.’

"You arrange for the other Cultivators participating in the sweep. I’ll set out tomorrow." Li Yuan put the two jade slips away.

Chen Yi didn’t stay long. After explaining the details, he got up and left.

After seeing Chen Yi off, Li Yuan glanced at the sky but didn’t immediately go out to practice the tracking Magic.

’Clearing out the strongholds will inevitably involve fighting. Since I’m going out tomorrow, I have to convert the batch of medicinal ingredients I have on hand into finished pills tonight as a reserve.’

Night fell, deep and dark.

Two clusters of light, one crimson and one dark yellow, once again lit up the stone house.

Beneath the dark red Pill Furnace on the left, a Pill Fire formed from Spiritual Power licked the bottom of the furnace. Vascular Grass and various supplementary medicines melted under the high temperature into a mass of emerald-green liquid. Li Yuan’s primary line was fully focused, controlling every minute fluctuation of the heat to force the impurities out of the medicinal liquid bit by bit.

Beneath the bronze Pill Furnace on the right, the Earth Fire burned steadily under the guidance of his soul force. The Spirit Medicines for refining Soul Condensing Pills were added one by one. To guarantee a successful outcome, he deliberately lowered the quality requirement for this furnace of Soul Condensing Pills on the right, aiming only for successful formation, not for top-grade pills.

Inside the two Pill Furnaces, the medicinal liquids churned at different temperatures.

Time passed quietly during the refinement process.

When the medicinal liquid in the dark red Pill Furnace on the left had completely merged and emitted a crisp sound signaling imminent pill formation, Li Yuan slapped the body of the furnace with both hands.

Three round, plump Tier Two Vessel Continuation Pills flew out of the furnace mouth and landed on a jade plate to the side.

At almost the exact same instant the pills landed on the plate, the panel popped up in the center of his vision without any warning.

[Tier Two Alchemy: Great Success (0/1600)]

Li Yuan’s hands froze in mid-air.

In his mind, his understanding of Tier Two medicinal properties, heat control, and the extremely subtle differences in liquid fusion underwent a deep reorganization and integration at that moment. The pill formation nodes that he previously had to repeatedly confirm with his Divine Sense had now become something akin to an instinct.

He picked up one of the freshly refined Vessel Continuation Pills.

The pill’s surface had an extremely faint halo, a sign that the medicinal power was perfectly locked within.

Li Yuan placed the three Vessel Continuation Pills into a jade bottle, pressed the stopper in, and set it among the row of wooden boxes filled with various pills on the corner of the table.