Martial Peak

Chapter 1707, Refining Shadowed Heaven Pill

After learning that Yang Kai was not only an Alchemist, but also had a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, meaning he did not need to use Saint Qi or Earth Fire to perform Alchemy, Sha Hu was ecstatic.

This meant that as long as he forged a good relationship with Yang Kai, he wouldn’t have to worry about having Shadowed Heaven Pills to take in the future, and he wouldn’t have to worry about his strength being unable to grow! After languishing for a hundred years, he finally saw hope of revenge!

He unreservedly handed over the Shadowed Heaven Pill’s recipe for Yang Kai to study.

“When you’ve finished studying the pill recipe and start to refine Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master has a request to make!” Sha Hu said with a smile, intending to get closer to Yang Kai, the wrinkles on his face became even more wrinkled, doing his best to appear kind and friendly.

Yang Kai naturally accepted and after seeing Sha Hu out, he immersed himself in studying the Shadowed Heaven Pill’s recipe.

He had some Shadowed Heaven Pills on hand and could infer the approximate configuration of this pill recipe, but now that he had a complete pill recipe, it made the process much easier.

What’s more, his Alchemy level was amongst the best in the entire Star Field, so with his insight and experience, not only could he understand this Shadowed Heaven Pill recipe, he could also improve it.

This wasn’t a surprise though, after all, the Shadowed Heaven Pill was something created by the Alchemists who became trapped on Shadowed Soul Island, and the level of these Alchemists wasn’t very high, so how could they have created a profound recipe in the first place?

At most, Yang Kai would only use this recipe as a reference.

Five days later, Yang Kai had formulated a completely new pill recipe, one that was undoubtedly countless times better than the one Sha Hu had given him, replacing many of the materials used to reduce conflicts and increase efficacy.

With the pill recipe complete, Yang Kai naturally wanted to begin Alchemy.

However, he still lacked a few auxiliary herbs.

The Shadowed Heaven Lotus’ medicinal efficacies were quite potent, and if one took it directly, while it may improve that cultivator’s physique in the short run, if it were not paired with appropriate herbs to neutralize and balance some of the effects, one would need to wait a long period before swallowing another lotus. If a cultivator tried to forcefully consume a second lotus in short order, they would damage their body rather than strengthen it.

Yang Kai quickly called Sha Hu over.

Sha Hu has been waiting outside the wooden house for the past few days, and hearing Yang Kai’s call, he ran into the room and stared at Yang Kai eagerly.

“Old Man Sha, I still need some Fish Seaweed…”

Sha Hu grinned knowingly and with a wave of his hand dumped a large amount of Fish Seaweed onto the floor, causing the entire house to fill with a pungent odour.

These pieces of purple seaweed, which were only about as big as one’s palm, were not unique to Shadowed Soul Island, in fact, they could be collected almost anywhere in the Limitless Ocean, making its value quite low. Most great forces like Sea Temple and Sea God Palace disdained to even collect them and simply let them grow wild like weeds.

However, this Fish Seaweed’s medicinal efficacies were perfectly suited to balance out the domineering efficacies of the Shadowed Heaven Lotus, allowing a cultivator to refine Shadowed Heaven Pills far more easily.

Seeing the big pile of Fish Seaweed in front of him, Yang Kai was stunned for a moment before turning to Sha Hu with a meaningful glint in his eye, “It seems Old Man Sha has come prepared!”

Sha Hu rubbed his hands and said, “Yang Kai, help this old master refine some Shadowed Heaven Pills. As long as he has enough Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master can once again improve his strength and we will then have a better chance to return to Shadowed Soul Island and look for the way out!”

Yang Kai smiled slightly. Although he knew Sha Hu’s words were meant to tempt him into acting, he was not bothered by this little scheme and simply said, “I have no problem refining some pills for you, but do you have any Shadowed Heaven Lotus for me to use?”

The thousand Shadowed Heaven Lotus in the inland lake had already entered Yang Kai’s Space Ring, so he naturally would not use them to refine pills for Sha Hu.

“You look down too much on this old master,” Sha Hu smiled like a wily old fox and flipped his wrist, taking out seventeen Shadowed Heaven Lotus, all of which were silver grade.

Yang Kai was stunned.

Sha Hu chuckled, “How could this old master keep all his eggs in one basket? For the past hundred years, this old master has not just idled his time away on this island, he has often gone out to explore and made some gains in the process. There are more than just these few. This old master has also collected a lot of auxiliary herbs for refining Shadowed Heaven Pills, see if there’s anything here you need.”

Saying so, Sha Hu took out another pile of herbs.

Yang Kai nodded and did not refuse, picking out the useful herbs while leaving the useless ones behind before finally mentioning, “There is no problem refining some pills for you, but I can’t just do so for free…”

“Fifty-fifty!” Before Yang Kai finished speaking, Sha Hu directly made his offer, “What auxiliary herbs you need, just tell this old master and he will go help you collect them. As for the Shadowed Heaven Pills, this old master only wants half!”

“Deal!” Yang Kai no longer quibbled and nodded happily. With Sha Hu acting so straightforward, if Yang Kai were to refuse any further, he would seem too petty. The more Yang Kai got along with Sha Hu, the more reasonable and friendly he found him to be, their first meeting aside of course.

Seeing Yang Kai agree, Sha Hu smiled happily.

Immediately, Sha Hu went out to sea to search for various auxiliary herbs. Although Yang Kai had some materials on him, it was not enough to support a large number of refinements, so Sha Hu naturally went to procure what was missing.

After Sha Hu left the island, Yang Kai waved his hand.

A bright red flame shot out from his palm and transformed mid-air. The next moment, a glamorous woman with a fiery figure, revealing clothes, and an indifferent expression appeared in front of Yang Kai, her red hair flying behind her like burning flames.

She was wearing a fiery red armour that only wrapped around her most sensitive parts, exposing both her thighs to the lower abdomen.

A seductive neckline, flat stomach, and delicate belly button were all exposed to the air while two beautiful, snow-white legs and a pair of delicate jade feet were also on full display.

Like a dancing flame, she had a strange sense of beauty.

This was none other than the Artifact Spirit, Liu Yan!

Now, she could no longer be simply called Firebird, she had her own sentience and could assume human form. After having been given a name by Yang Kai, Liu Yan was now a kind of special existence that transcended what she once was.

“What are Master’s orders?” Liu Yan asked in a deep tone as soon as she appeared.

“I need to borrow your power to perform Alchemy. Coordinate with me.” Yang Kai answered lightly.

Liu Yan nodded, said nothing, and transformed herself into an Alchemy furnace. The shape of this Alchemy furnace was the same as her natal artifact, except that it was completely composed of flames, making it even higher quality than her original Origin King Grade furnace incarnation.

Yang Kai focused himself and after taking a deep breath began arranging the required materials one by one while using his Divine Sense to communicate with Liu Yan to control the fire.

The process of refining Shadowed Heaven Pills was not complicated, so it was naturally not a problem for Yang Kai to succeed with his current skill.

Within half a day, a pill fragrance filled the wooden house. Having arrived at the last stage of refinement, Yang Kai suddenly had a thought and poured his Divine Sense into the pill furnace to attempt the Pill Condensing Technique recorded in the True Alchemy Enlightenment Scripture.

A short time later, three bursts of flame shot out from the Alchemy furnace’s lid.

Yang Kai stretched out his hand and caught the three streams of light, after which he stored them into a jade bottle he had prepared in advance.

When the clinking sound from the jade bottle settled down, Yang Kai cast a glance inside and flashed a satisfied smile.

The Pill Condensing Technique recorded in the True Alchemy Enlightenment Scripture was incredibly deep and profound. If one used it well, they would condense more than one pill at a time, when normally only one pill could be condensed from one set of materials.

Over the recent years, whenever Yang Kai performed Alchemy, he had always tried to use this Pill Condensing Technique, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but each time gaining experience.

Now, condensing three pills at once was a minor breakthrough for him.

Taking out a single Shadowed Heaven Pill, Yang Kai popped it into his mouth and tasted it, slowly examining the medicinal efficacies contained within. After a while, he nodded with satisfaction and continued to devote himself to his Alchemy.

Half a day later, another furnace of Shadowed Heaven Pills was successfully refined, and this time, Yang Kai managed to condense four, one better than his first attempt.

As time went by and he became more and more proficient with the technique, the number of pills Yang Kai condensed increased. Additionally, the time it took him to refine a furnace of Shadowed Heaven Pills was getting shorter and shorter, from the original half a day to just an hour, a remarkable improvement.

As Yang Kai continually performed Alchemy, his mastery of the Pill Condensing Technique also improved.

This rare Alchemy experience allowed him to make another substantial breakthrough in the Alchemic Dao, an unexpected benefit which brought Yang Kai much joy.

Suddenly, a rustling sound rang out behind him, causing Yang Kai to turn around and suddenly discover that the little dolphin had at some point entered the wooden house. Flapping its tail, it swam freely through the air just like it was water.

Yang Kai was taken aback!

Saint Qi could not be used on Shadowed Soul Island, so even someone as powerful as him was unable to fly, and could only jump long distances using pure physical strength. However, this little dolphin did not follow this common sense and was able to swim through the air, in essence fly, even if it did not fly very high.

This little fellow was obviously attracted by the pills’ fragrance and immediately swam up beside Yang Kai, its nose inhaling deeply as it stared at the Alchemy furnace in front of it.

Yang Kai even saw that at the corner of the little dolphin’s mouth there were a few drops of saliva flowing down onto the floor.

Yang Kai immediately began examining it from top to bottom, trying to figure out just how it was flying.

The little dolphin then began letting out pitiful cries that were extremely hard to refuse while continuously nudging up against Yang Kai’s body, completely disrupting his Alchemy.

Yang Kai rubbed his temples and could only pass it a jade bottle full of Shadowed Heaven Pills.

The little dolphin took the bottle excitedly, circled Yang Kai a few times, cried out twice, then swam off with the jade bottle in its mouth.

Yang Kai continued his Alchemy in peace.

Three days later, Sha Hu returned to the island, bringing with him a lot of auxiliary herbs that Yang Kai needed, and waited quietly outside the wooden house.

Smelling the pill fragrance that permeated the wooden house, Sha Hu felt a hundred years younger.