Chapter 93 - 93: Are You Teaching Me Alchemy?
Not all members of the God-hidden Cult were indiscriminate killers. There were disciples like Zhang Han in the beginning, whose duty was killing, but only killed evildoers. For such disciples, Jiang Li had a way to secure their lives while ensuring they could never leak information about the God-hidden Cult.
Unfortunately, such disciples were in the minority. Many more were like the current Zhang Han. For the power of the God-hidden Cult, they would kill under any pretext, or even without one, launching into killing sprees.
For the latter, Jiang Li had no mercy, he exterminated them without leaving a single one.
Now that the cleaning up of the God -hidden Cult was done, Jiang Li’s new task was to uncover the Heavenly Demon hidden in Jiuzhou.
A rough plan had formed in Jiang Li’s mind.
First, he needed a medicinal pill.
When it came to pill refining, the best place in Jiuzhou was the Dao Sect’s Alchemy Peak. The Nine-Turn Golden Core that Jiang Li had – which could initiate day-flight ascension upon consumption – was made by the Chief of
Dan Kenning peak.
Before he even reached Alchemy Peak, from a faraway distance, Jiang Li could hear Su Wei, the Peak’s Chief arguing with someone.
“I’ve been refining pills my entire life, and you’re telling me my technique is wrong? Can you refine better than me?” Jiang Li could hear Su Wei, who usually had a gentle demeanor, stomping about with frustration.
No wonder, he was having this kind of reaction. Su Wei was genuinely good-natured, but that was because he had no interest in anything besides Alchemy. Now, being accused of poor refining techniques, how could he not be infuriated?
“With your poor technique, I could refine better than you even with my eyes closed!”
“Then let’s have a contest! Let’s refine the fundamental Yuan-Pei Pill! With a hundred sets of ingredients, let’s see who can refine the highest quality! If you can surpass me, you can be the Peak Chief! If I win, you have to assist me in refining pills dutifully!”
The other voice sneered, ‘Who ever wanted to be the Peak’s Chief? Change the condition. If I win, you have to work for me as a fire fanner.”
“A deal!”
Jiang Li was quite curious. Su Wei’s alchemy skills were nothing short of phenomenal. He was a leading figure in Jiuzhou’s refining world. Any cultivator learning Alchemy would revere Su Wei’s three masterpieces: “Pill”, “Furnace”, “Fire”.
He had never seen anyone question Su Wei’s Alchemy skills.
Walking into Su Wei’s refining room, where the door of the Pill Furnace was wide open and fiercely burning, Su Wei was facing the furnace, yelling hysterically at it as the flames seemed to mock him.
Su Wei was arguing with his own Pill Furnace.
He was so engrossed in the argument that he didn’t notice Jiang Li’s arrival.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Li asked Su Wei’s disciple, who was red-lipped, pale-faced, wore a red bellyband and had two braids dangling from her head, she was very adorable.
As soon as the disciple noticed the Human Emperor, she immediately paid her respects. She wanted to stop her Master from embarrassing himself in front of others.
However, it was well known that Jiang Li enjoyed drama, so he stopped the disciple and asked her to explain.
“It all started when Grandmaster Tian Yin enlightened all the Spiritual Treasure, including the Red Crow Furnace belonging to my Master” , explained the disciple.
“Master’s Pill Furnace is a spiritual treasure that grows stronger. He received it during the foundation establishment stage. Since then, it has always been with him and has become a top-tier Dao device for 1,500 years.”
“Ever since Red Crow Furnace gained spiritual intelligence, it didn’t demand to become independent by shouting about the freedom of Spiritual Treasures.
Instead, it chose to stay with the Master and help him refine pills.”
“Initially, Master was very happy, regarding this as a symbol of their 1,500-year friendship. But who’d have thought that Red Crow Furnace liked to talk during Master’s pill refinement process, instructing Master on how to refine pills. ”
The disciple, impersonating Red Crow Furnace’s voice, went on to explain. “Old Su, you’ll ruin the pill if you refine it this way.” “How can you expect to create a Pill Cloud with such a rough technique?” “Here, here, let me show you how to refine pills.”
“Are you a fool? I’ve told you many times that refining it your way won’t work, wouldn’t it be better to listen to me?”
“Little disciple, seeing as you clean me every day, I’ll do you a favor. Don’t follow your foolish Master, I’ll teach you how to refine pills.”
“What are you glaring at? Yes, I plan to steal your disciple right under your nose. You can’t even teach properly yourself, and now you don’t want others to do it either. How selfish!”
Afraid of being heard by Su Wei, the disciple whispered in Jiang Li’s ear,
“Master always said he wasn’t good at fighting. But ever since Red Crow Furnace gained spiritual intelligence, I saw that Master actually could slap a top-tier Dao device until it gets disoriented.”
“Now, Red Crow Furnace has proposed a competition with Master on Alchemy to settle who will lead the refinement process in the future.”
And with that, Su Wei began his contest with his own Pill Furnace.
Su Wei went first. He put the ingredients for the hundred Yuan-Pei Pills into the Red Crow Furnace at the same time. He controlled the furnace flame according to his instincts, extracting the essence from the herbs, discarding the waste with an Eight-Trigram conversion technique…
“Hey, hey, hey, lower the fire.”
“What’s the matter?” inquired Su Wei, frowning. He felt that the furnace fire was just right. Increasing or lowering it wouldn’t result in good pills.
“You’re burning my stomach.”
With veins throbbing in his forehead, if it weren’t for the pills that needed to be refined, Su Wei would definitely have increased the fire to burn this damn Furnace!
A hundred Yuan-Pei Pills, each with a red Pill Cloud, were born from the fire, the red Pill Cloud looked like a red cloud at sunset, beautiful and elusive, like a work of art. These were indeed top-grade Yuan-Pei Pills.
“Heh, trying to break my focus? Dream on.” Su Wei spoke nonchalantly, as if the angry person just now wasn’t him.
“Your turn.” He didn’t believe that Red Crow Furnace could do better than him.
Refusing to admit defeat, the Red Crow Furnace swallowed a hundred sets of Yuan-Pei Pill ingredients, its flames roaring, making a chomping sound as if it were chewing food.
“Puke -”
The Red Crow Furnace spit out the Yuan-Pei Pill, making the three individuals feel uncomfortable.
Could it be that all pills are actually the vomit of a Pill Furnace? Who would dare to consume them after this?
“Look, it’s refined.”
A Yuan-Pei Pill, the size of a head, rolled to Su Wei’s feet.
“What is this?” Su Wei looked at the object, it did resemble a pill, and there was a red Pill Cloud above it.
After a pause, the flame of the Red Crow Furnace jumped twice and it proudly stated, “This is an improved version of the Yuan-Pei Pill, you can call it ‘Big
Yuan-Pei Pill’!”
“A person can at most consume only fifty top-grade Yuan-Pei Pills, any more would be ineffective. With my Big Yuan-Pei Pill, consuming one equals to a hundred, the effect will definitely be better than yours!”
“Are you joking? Is this thing even edible?” Su Wei pointed at the ball-sized Big Yuan-Pei Pill, angered.
“You don’t need to worry about that. You can give it to a beast or learn to exhibit the world through your Dharma Appearance first or something. In any case, the quality of the Yuan-Pei Pill I refined is better than yours. So, obediently become my fire fanner. ”
“I refuse to acknowledge this as a Yuan-Pei Pill!”
“Heh, you old rascal!”
“You two, now that the contest is over, how about doing me a favor?” Seeing the man and furnace arguing without resolving the dispute, Jiang Li stepped in to stop them. “Human Emperor Jiang.”
“Brother Jiang. ”
Upon noticing Jiang Li, the man and the furnace temporarily ended their dispute. In front of an outsider, they had to maintain the image of a respected senior alchemist and a respected Alchemy Furnace.
“I wish to refine Pure Blood Pills, can you do it?”