Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 1096: Chapter 746: Spiritual Method of Attracting Spirits Dharma Seal (2)

Today, Yang Chengze, Liang Jinyan, Qu Shaogong, and Wang Mingzhe happened to be at the Secret Skill Pavilion. When Yang Zhenshan took out the “Attract Spirit Dharma Seal,” after the four took turns reading it, they immediately burst into joyful cheers.

“Great, we finally know why we couldn’t imprint runes onto objects!”

“Oh, that’s how it is. After so many attempts, we never thought of using the spiritual energy from spirit stones to delineate the runes!”

“It also requires a sealing array. If needed for alchemy, does that mean it’s also required for artifact refining?”

“With this book, I can refine Spirit Pills!”

Wang Mingzhe said with uncontainable joy.

“Let’s go, the two of us will do alchemy!” Yang Zhenshan was also delighted and pulled Wang Mingzhe to start refining Spirit Pills.

“Master, we don’t have a pill furnace!” Wang Mingzhe said.

“Uh!”

Yang Zhenshan was so overjoyed that he had forgotten all about this.

“Then let’s go make a pill furnace first!”

“How do you make a pill furnace?”

The master and apprentice stared at each other in confusion, completely dumbfounded.

Alright, one hurdle passed, yet another one appears.

The “Attract Spirit Dharma Seal” only mentions that refining Spirit Pills requires a sealing array on the pill furnace but doesn’t explain how to make a pill furnace or how to engrave a sealing array on it.

“A pill furnace should be purchasable, right?” Wang Mingzhe looked at Yang Zhenshan.

Yang Zhenshan tugged at his beard. He had never actually seen a pill furnace for sale, but since there are loose cultivator alchemists at the Sea of Spirit, and they have pill furnaces, it must mean pill furnaces can be bought.

“I’ll go find out!”

With that, Yang Zhenshan’s figure flickered, leaving the Spirit Source Land and returning to Lingxi Mountain.

To buy a pill furnace, one naturally needs to find an artifact refiner. The only artifact refiner Yang Zhenshan was familiar with was Qiu Jin.

So Yang Zhenshan hurried over to the Spirit Flame Foundry.

“Brother Qiu, can you forge pill furnaces?” Yang Zhenshan asked straight to the point as soon as he entered the door.

“Pill furnace!” Qiu Jin was taken aback, then shook his head, “Can’t do it, you need to go to the artifact refining workshop in the county town to buy that thing.”

“Is it difficult to forge a pill furnace?” Yang Zhenshan asked in surprise.

Qiu Jin nodded, “A pill furnace involves arrays, not something that a small artifact refining shop like ours can make!”

Not wasting time, Yang Zhenshan headed directly with Li Chang to the Ancient County town.

This artifact refining workshop belongs to the Xuanqing Sect, among the top shops in the martial cultivator workshop in the county town. Buying the pill furnace went smoothly. Yang Zhenshan bought two pill furnaces at the price of five hundred spirit stones each.

The process was smooth, but the price made Yang Zhenshan feel a sting of pain.

Five hundred spirit stones!

A total of one thousand spirit stones, which nearly represented all the spirit stones Yang Zhenshan had saved in the past five years.

However, as Yang Zhenshan was enthusiastic about refining Spirit Pills at this time, he couldn’t afford to worry about the cost and hurried back to Lingxi Mountain, returning to the Spirit Source Land.

Spirit Source Land, Alchemy Workshop.

In a modest and unremarkable room, Yang Zhenshan and his apprentice Wang Mingzhe were studying a pill furnace.

This pill furnace was not large, just waist-high. The furnace body was made of coarse bronze, with a dark hue devoid of any luxury. The furnace walls were densely covered with runes, with varying thickness and a haphazard irregularity, as if hurriedly inscribed.

A small hole was opened in the center of the furnace lid, surrounded by relatively tidy runes, yet unable to conceal the overall crudeness.

Though it was just an ordinary new furnace, these runes added a touch of mystery to it.

It was evident that this pill furnace was not of high-grade quality, but the fact that this single furnace was worth five hundred spirit stones explained why there were so few alchemists among loose cultivators.

For those in a Martial Arts Family, such a pill furnace could probably be considered an heirloom treasure.

“Master, should we give it a try?” Wang Mingzhe, with shining eyes, said.

“No rush, let’s study it carefully first!” Yang Zhenshan restrained his impulse to dive in, took out a small booklet, and began to read it diligently.

The artifact refining workshop was quite considerate, as it provided a user manual with the purchase of the pill furnace.

This pill furnace was divided into three parts. The first was the outer furnace, engraved with a True Fire Array, providing the furnace with the source of refining, and the True Fire Array required the consumption of spirit stones to operate.

The second part was the inner furnace, where elixir refining takes place, engraved with a rune amplification array. When the alchemist refined elixirs, they didn’t need to directly imprint runes on each elixir but only needed to delineate the runes on the inner furnace wall, and the furnace would naturally form runes and imprint them on each elixir.

The third part was the furnace lid, which had a sealing array, essentially adding a sealing rune to the spirit pill; only with the added sealing rune would the runes on the spirit pill not dissipate.

Yang Zhenshan studied it carefully and felt that this thing was essentially a spirit stone-consuming beast.

The True Fire Array on the outer furnace required spirit stones, the amplification array on the inner furnace required spirit stones, and the sealing array on the furnace lid also needed spirit stones.

Refining a batch of elixirs would require at least five spirit stones.

Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard and thought, even the lowest grade spirit pill was worth only a few spirit stones; if you deducted the cost of the herbs, the batch of elixirs would need to produce at least twenty pills.

“Shall we try it first?”

Yang Zhenshan looked at Wang Mingzhe, and Wang Mingzhe nodded eagerly, clearly unable to wait any longer.

“Then you go prepare the materials for the Ice Attribute Soul-attaching Pill!”

They didn’t have the elixir recipe for a spirit pill, but this didn’t matter. Yang Zhenshan had been immersed in the craft of alchemy for decades, naturally understanding the properties of various herbs and the key points in alchemy.

Despite previously only refining Mortal Pills, not Spirit Pills, the principle of the elixir recipe is consistent – whether it’s Spirit Pills or Mortal Pills.

The Ice Attribute Soul-attaching Pill was undoubtedly the elixir Yang Zhenshan was most familiar with, so starting with this known elixir for the first experiment seemed fitting.

While Wang Mingzhe went to gather herbs, Yang Zhenshan continued studying the pill furnace and runes.

He first practiced using the arrays on the pill furnace, familiarizing himself with the three arrays before taking out the compilation of spiritual patterns from the Secret Skill Pavilion and researching the runes associated with elixirs listed within.

The spiritual pattern compilation was a collection by the Secret Skill Pavilion, documenting the known uses and efficacies of various runes. Although mostly based on conjecture and not verified, given the number of runes they studied, much of the content was still deemed reliable.

Wang Mingzhe soon returned with the herbs, and the master and apprentice together pondered which spiritual patterns to employ.

“Let’s try one rune first; let’s use this medicinal property amplification rune.”

“You control the True Fire Array!”

They immediately got to work; the master and apprentice considered it for a while and began refining.

Wang Mingzhe handled the True Fire Array, while Yang Zhenshan, using previous experience, added herbs into the inner furnace.

His past experience was essentially that of making herbal pills, but using a pill furnace for alchemy was obviously different than rolling herbal pellets.

First experiment.

Yang Zhenshan had not yet added all the herbs into the pill furnace before it began emitting black smoke.

Watching the rising black smoke and smelling the scorched odor, Yang Zhenshan’s mouth twitched slightly.

“This fire seems a bit intense; perhaps we need to add more water!”

“Should the fire be lowered a bit?”

“Yes, let’s try again.”

Second experiment.

This time, no black smoke appeared, and Yang Zhenshan smoothly added all the herbs into the pill furnace. However, shortly after closing the furnace lid, a bang sounded, and the lid was blown off. Immediately, a steamy mist rose from within the furnace.

Yang Zhenshan’s face darkened, “Did we add too much water?”

Third time, fourth time…

As the day went by, the master and apprentice finally figured out something.

Darn it, this thing shouldn’t have water added.

More accurately, shouldn’t have too much water added.

The process of alchemy is meant to be refining, not boiling.

Reliance on past experience can be fatal. Previously, the two of them used to boil during alchemy and then roll herbal pills, but using a pill furnace doesn’t require boiling; it employs the method of fire refinement.

Moreover, they used to use earthenware pots, how large can an earthenware pot be compared to a pill furnace.

Thus the amount of herbs was naturally based on the previous measures.