Rebuilding the Immortal Cultivator Clan

Chapter 142 - 140: Success

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Time flew by, and several months passed in the blink of an eye.

One day, Li Zhirui, seated cross-legged on a meditation cushion, suddenly opened his eyes, his face full of emotion, and said, ”The injury to my spiritual soul has finally healed!”

”Where did Xiaoqing run off to this time?” After stepping out of the meditation room, he noticed that only the languid Da Qing was in the courtyard and couldnʼt help but ask.

Cheep!

Da Qing explained lazily that Xiaoqing had gone to play with the group of Jade Beak Eagles in the tribal area.

Though they had different attributes, they belonged to the same Spirit Eagle clan. Although Xiaoqing was only two years old, under Li Zhiruiʼs dedicated training, its Qi Cultivation level had already reached the fourth level.

Moreover, with the suppression of its high-grade bloodline and Da Qingʼs backing, Xiaoqing had become the leader of the group of Jade Beak Eagles, mingling with the eagle flock daily.

Li Zhirui did not interfere with Xiaoqing, after all, this was also good. Maybe Xiaoqing would leave his progeny among the Jade Beak Eagle clan one day.

”Speaking of which, youʼre also thirty or forty years old now, you should be mature, right?” Li Zhirui stroked his chin and said, ”Should I find you a mate?”

Cheep!

Da Qing rejected the idea without hesitation.

As for the reason...

”You actually think the Water Spirit Turtle is ugly?” Li Zhiruiʼs mouth twitched as in his eyes, aside from the shell color, there was no difference between the two species of spirit turtle.

But to Da Qing, the Water Spirit Turtleʼs pale blue shell was extremely ugly, atrocious to look at!

”Alright, if you donʼt like her, then forget it.” Li Zhirui had been thinking about letting Da Qing interact more with the Water Spirit Turtle, hoping that familiarity would breed fondness, and things would naturally develop between them.

But before he could take any action, the plan was dead in the water; he couldnʼt possibly force Da Qing to do such a thing, could he?

Li Zhirui shook his head, not waiting for Xiaoqing to return, and headed toward the Alchemy Room. After reflecting for a while, he believed he had fully mastered the pill recipe for the Foundation Establishment Pill!

With the boost from a great number of Spirit Stones, the original ten portions of spiritual medicine for Foundation Establishment he had in hand had now turned into fifty!

But the cost was not small, as it nearly depleted the hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones he had.

”I believe that with my current alchemy skill level, I should be able to successfully refine a batch of Foundation Establishment Pills before using up all fifty portions of spiritual medicine,” Li Zhirui murmured to himself.

As long as one successful batch emerged, no matter how many Foundation Establishment Pills were produced, it would be considered a success.

Li Zhirui solemnly bathed and burned incense, praying for a moment before he brought out the second-order top-grade Alchemy Furnace, the Taiyi Green Jade Furnace!

The Spirit Water in the Pill Furnace was taken from the Spatial Spirit Lake, which contained denser Spiritual Energy compared to ordinary second-order Spirit Water, making it an excellent Spiritual Water for alchemy. Itʼs just that Li Zhirui didnʼt know what else to call it and had always referred to it simply as Spirit Water.

After taking out the first portion of Foundation Establishment spiritual medicine, Li Zhiruiʼs expression became very serious. His hands flew, with spirit light twinkling at the tips of his fingers like butterflies flitting through flowers, and spells followed one after another.

The essence of the spiritual medicine was extracted by the spells and, under Li Zhiruiʼs manipulation, entered into the Green Jade Furnace.

This step was the simplest, and because the Foundation Establishment Pill was so precious and this was Li Zhiruiʼs first time refining it, he decided to only use four basic alchemy spells. He didnʼt concern himself with the effects of the medicine or the toxicity; the first priority was to ensure that the Foundation Establishment Pill was refined.

After the essence was refined, it glistened translucently and emitted a rich herbal fragrance, but Li Zhirui did not dwell on the moment. His hand movements changed, and clusters of essence began to fuse in an orderly manner.

The difficulty of alchemy sharply increased from here; he had to use a great deal of his divine sense to precisely control the timing of the fusion of each type of spiritual medicineʼs essence. Any delay or haste would lead to the failure of this attempt at alchemy!

This was why Li Zhirui had waited to heal the injury to his spiritual soul before attempting to refine the pills.

Fortunately, at this stage, Li Zhirui simulated the process many times in his Sea of Consciousness and managed to fuse all the essences smoothly.

However, when it came to separating the essence for the major pill, Li Zhirui was a bit too slow in his actions, resulting in only three small clusters of essence being divided.

Li Zhirui had anticipated this. Although the number of types of spiritual medicines required to make Foundation Establishment Pill was not high, it would not have earned its title as the most difficult to refine among the second-order Spirit Pills if it was easy to succeed.

You see, while the production of other Spirit Pills might allow for slight discrepancies, Foundation Establishment Pills, which help cultivators break through major realms, cannot have the slightest error; one must strictly follow the steps in the pill recipe!

But this step wasnʼt included in the pill recipe; Li Zhirui had to deduce it himself and verify it during the alchemy process.

It was also a control mechanism of Shen Leishan. They ”generously” and ”thoughtfully” provided the Spirit Seeds, Pill Recipe, and know-how on cultivating spiritual medicines, but actually, they kept the most crucial part to themselves.

In this way, even an Alchemist with exceptional talent for pill refining wouldnʼt be able to produce Foundation Establishment Pills with just ten portions of spiritual medicine!

Then youʼd have to either continue buying Foundation Establishment Pills, with your powerʼs development being limited by others, or continue working for Shen Leishan and trade for new supplies of Foundation Establishment spiritual medicine.

Or youʼd have to wait for decades, for your own cultivated spiritual medicines to mature.

The reason itʼs ʼdecadesʼ and not ʼhundreds of yearsʼ...

Is because ʼyearsʼ for spiritual medicine donʼt refer to the number of years they have grown, but whether they contain a standard amount of spiritual energy.

Consider, for example, a second-order spiritual medicine that would typically take a hundred years to grow, but due to being planted in a third-order Spirit Vein with abundant spiritual energy, it absorbs more energy annually and thus can mature in a shorter period.

The three types of second-order Foundation Establishment spiritual medicines from the Li family were all planted within a third-order Spirit Cave, in an extremely rich spiritual environment, potentially reducing their maturity time by several decades.

Li Zhirui, with an unwavering mind, continued the process of refining the Foundation Establishment Pill. He concentrated all his divine sense into the three clusters of essence, and upon observing that their interior had completely fused, the spells in his hands changed instantly. The final Condensation Pill Decision spell was cast.

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Pfft!

Instead of the scent of pills drifting out from the Green Jade Furnace, a sound of failure, a splitting sound, emanated.

Li Zhirui calmly collected the pill water from the furnace; he never expected to succeed in making the Foundation Establishment Pill on his first try.

After all, even cultivators with an exceptional talent for alchemy couldnʼt succeed at this task, how could he possibly do it?

So his expectation for himself was to succeed once out of fifty batches of Spiritual Medicine.

Recording the issues encountered and his thoughts this time, Li Zhirui continued to extract and refine the essence of the Spiritual Medicines.

Regrettably, after an entire day, he had consumed over twenty batches of Foundation Establishment Spiritual Medicines and failed more than twenty times.

Although it couldnʼt be said there were no gains, Li Zhirui couldnʼt guarantee success with the remaining materials.

This was the most uncertain attempt he ever had in his alchemy career!

”Sigh—” Even though Li Zhirui was prepared for dozens of failures, his heart still grew irritable; he silently recited the Heart-Clearing Mantra several times before he regained his calm.

Li Zhirui, unprecedentedly, didnʼt absorb Spiritual Energy at night, knowing that he had never skipped his daily cultivation, even when injured!

He plunged headfirst into the process of making the Foundation Establishment Pill, pondering over his previous records and tediously reviewing the Memory Stone again and again.

This state continued until noon the next day when Li Zhirui took a short break to restore his mana and Spiritual Soul before starting the alchemy process again!

But the result remained unchanged, batch after batch of Foundation Establishment Spiritual Medicines were put into the Green Jade Furnace, only to turn into turbid pill water that could be used to irrigate Spiritual Medicines.

”Where exactly is the problem!?” Li Zhiruiʼs current state was like being possessed, with a Heart Demon gradually emerging along with his obsession; his originally clear Sea of Consciousness also showed a speck of black.

Roar!

The Divine Turtle, coiled in the center of the big island in his Sea of Consciousness, suddenly roared and extended its giant paw to crush the black spot, also jolting Li Zhirui awake.

”Heh!” Li Zhirui, now awake, realized what he had just experienced and couldnʼt help but let out a bitter smile.

But looking at the few batches of Spiritual Medicine left, his expression suddenly became relaxed!

Li Zhirui skillfully took out a batch of Spiritual Medicine, refined its essence, and added it to the Green Jade Furnace; the spell began to change, the essence merged into a mass, and everything from dividing pills to condensing pills went very smoothly.

”I did it!” Looking at the two white jade Spirit Pills in the Pill Furnace, Li Zhirui shouted excitedly.

Although blinded by his obsession, which nearly summoned a Heart Demon, fortunately during the process he found the correct steps and successfully made the Foundation Establishment Pill!

With the remaining three batches of Spiritual Medicine, Li Zhirui went all out, using them all up. He failed once and obtained four Foundation Establishment Pills.

Adding the two successfully made on his first attempt, the Spiritual Medicines he had quickened with hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones ultimately yielded six Foundation Establishment Pills!

If he were to sell them all, not only would Li Zhirui recover all his costs, but he would also earn an extra hundred thousand or so.

Thinking it over, he decided to hand over four Foundation Establishment Pills to the clan, and naturally, the remaining two were for himself.

This would count as compensation given by the clan to him, and besides, presenting six Foundation Establishment Pills at once was too many, difficult to explain to everyone.

”I have successfully made Foundation Establishment Pills; from now on, there are no second-tier Spirit Pills that can pose a challenge to me!” Li Zhirui was overjoyed, not just because he had created Foundation Establishment Pills.

Also, because his level in alchemy had considerably improved and it seemed the threshold to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment had also lowered a bit for him.

This small threshold could not be considered a bottleneck, but it was something that required time and effort to overcome. Now, as long as Li Zhirui accumulated enough Spiritual Energy, he could easily step into the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment!

However, he was not in a rush to break through but decided to refine his mana further, because once he broke through to the mid-stage, he would take Barrier-Breaking Pills for another breakthrough.

Two consecutive breakthroughs would cause the mana within his body to become very unstable, so he had to lay a solid foundation first.

Anyway, Li Zhirui was still young, there was plenty of time for him to engage in this tedious task.

Speaking of which!

After a good nightʼs rest, Li Zhirui tidied up his appearance and went straight to the main hall.

Only once he arrived did he realize it was the day of the clanʼs monthly meeting!

”Zhirui, why have you come?” Li Zhizhun, facing the main entrance, was the first to notice him and asked with a look of surprise.

Li Zhirui chuckled and said, ”Perfect timing, since all the Elders are here, I have some tremendous news to announce!”

”Could it be...” Li Zhizhunʼs mind geared up, his eyes filled with surprise as he looked at Li Zhirui.

The unsolved riddles between the two triggered the curiosity of the Elders, especially a few who were impatient, almost itching to interrogate them.

”Thatʼs right! Itʼs exactly what youʼre thinking, brother!” Li Zhirui didnʼt keep everyone in suspense any longer and loudly said, ”I have successfully made Foundation Establishment Pills! And Iʼve made four of them!”

These words, like cold water poured into a boiling oil pan, instantly provoked a wave of exclamations.

The noise was so loud that the nearby clan members all turned to look, curious about what had happened to make all the Elders lose their usual composure.