In the narrow mountain cave, the flames in the medicine cauldron reflected on the cave walls, constantly transforming, baring fangs and brandishing claws.
Xiao Yan focused all his attention, staring intently at the rising flames inside the medicine cauldron. His face was slightly pale, and sweat poured down in torrents. The longer the alchemy process, the faster his Dou Qi was consumed. Moreover, with Xiao Yan's current cultivation technique, which was only the lowest-grade Huang-level technique, maintaining such abundant Dou Qi was not his strong suit. Therefore, for him to persevere in front of the medicine cauldron for two hours was already quite impressive.
Narrowing his eyes, Yao Lao watched Xiao Yan successfully condense the Blood Coagulation Grass into white powder. Knowing that he had reached his limit, Yao Lao nodded and softly said, "Very good, take a rest first."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan, who had been struggling to maintain balance, instantly let his shoulders drop. His body seemed to lose all strength, and he collapsed onto the cold ground, panting heavily, his chest rising and falling continuously. His entire body felt paralyzed; he truly couldn't even move a single finger now.
"Cultivating at this time will yield the best results."
Glancing at Xiao Yan sprawled on the ground, Yao Lao said indifferently.
Laziness and diligence battled in his heart for a moment. Xiao Yan, with ten thousand times his reluctance, let out a miserable cry and sat up. His trembling hands formed cultivation seals, and then he slowly closed his eyes.
Seeing Xiao Yan's appearance, Yao Lao smiled, his gaze shifting to the dozens of jade boxes scattered in front of the cauldron. Inside these jade boxes were the white powders refined from the Blood Coagulation Grass, all of which were the fruits of Xiao Yan's previous efforts.
The jade boxes were arranged from right to left, and the pale white color gradually deepened, almost reaching a completely distinct pure white in the last box.
Looking at this extremely obvious progress, Yao Lao nodded with a hint of awe, praising Xiao Yan in his heart for his powerful soul perception.
Glancing at Xiao Yan, who was recovering his Dou Qi beside him, Yao Lao sat cross-legged against the cave wall, leisurely closing his eyes to rest and recuperate. Xiao Yan had only refined one type of material; there were still two more types awaiting his slow efforts.
After nearly an hour of closed-eye cultivation, the Dou Qi in Xiao Yan's body, which had been almost completely depleted, leaving only a faint swirling energy, finally radiated a bright and magnificent light again. Moreover, this aura seemed to have become a little brighter after only a few hours.
Slowly opening his eyes, the feeling of paralysis and powerlessness throughout his body had dissipated by more than half. Twisting his body and cracking his knuckles, the sound of bones colliding made Xiao Yan let out a comfortable sigh.
"You've recovered well, good. Continue!" Opening his eyes, Yao Lao smiled as he saw Xiao Yan once again as vigorous as a dragon and a tiger. Shaking his head with a bitter smile, having experienced the agony of the previous alchemy process, Xiao Yan finally understood that he had been somewhat deceived by Yao Lao. In the past, when Yao Lao performed alchemy, he would simply reach out and casually burn a few times, causing the moisture inside the medicinal pills to evaporate wildly, like flames in a furnace. Such a simple process had given Xiao Yan the impression that alchemy was extremely easy, but now that he was doing it himself, this was even more arduous than painstakingly mining ore.
It was clear now, but perhaps a little late, so Xiao Yan could only sigh in frustration. He then sat cross-legged before the cauldron and continued to refine the essences of the remaining two medicinal ingredients.
Having the experience of refining the Blood Coagulation Grass earlier, Xiao Yan’s refining process was clearly much easier this time. After incinerating ten Poppy Flowers and eight Vitality Fruits, he finally extracted the wound-healing components from these two medicinal ingredients.
From the Vitality Fruit, he refined tiny black pellet-like stones. These small pellets had the effect of promoting blood circulation. Outside, some experienced mercenaries, if they lacked sufficient healing medicine, would often crush these Vitality Fruits and drink their juice to alleviate injuries.
From the Poppy Flower, he refined a light red liquid. This liquid had the effect of stabilizing the nerves and could be used to eliminate pain.
Looking at the three types of medicinal substances neatly arranged before Xiao Yan, Yao Lao nodded slightly and said softly, "Now, use the materials you've just refined. Combine their medicinal powers together."
Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan nodded with a solemn expression. He skillfully placed the white powder into the medicinal cauldron first, then used a moderate flame to burn it for ten minutes. When the white powder turned slightly pink, he quickly added the Poppy Flower liquid into it.
As soon as the liquid entered the medicinal cauldron, it enveloped the white powder. They briefly mixed in the flame, then slowly fused into a sticky pink liquid.
His soul perception carefully controlled the temperature of the flame, slowly burning the sticky pink liquid.
Under the continuous tempering of the flame, the sticky liquid transformed into a dark red paste.
Staring at the dark red paste inside the medicinal cauldron through the viewing window, Xiao Yan hesitated for a moment, then tossed in the black pellet refined from the Vitality Fruit.
The small black pellet entered the cauldron but showed no change whatsoever. It refused to fuse with the dark red paste inside the medicinal cauldron.
"Different medicinal ingredients have different resistance to fire. Therefore, you must learn to adapt and control the temperature in different parts of the cauldron. Where the temperature needs to be lowered, you must suppress the flame. Where the temperature needs to be increased, you must not suppress the flame..." Yao Lao said indifferently, watching Xiao Yan, who was drenched in sweat.
Licking his dry lips, Xiao Yan nodded, hurriedly separating a portion of his soul perception. He tried to control only a small amount of flame around the black pellet, gradually increasing its temperature.
"Thump..."
As his soul perception released its suppression of the temperature, the unsuppressed flame immediately flared up. In just a moment, nearly half of the black pellet was incinerated into ash. Xiao Yan was so frightened that cold sweat poured down him, and he quickly suppressed the flame with great force.
His soul perception continued to maintain the previous temperature in one area, while simultaneously trying to increase the flame's temperature in another. This demand for dual focus truly gave Xiao Yan an unbearable headache.
However, having experienced several dangerous situations like this before, Xiao Yan finally calmed down from his initial panic. The cold sweat on his forehead disappeared, and he took a deep breath, concentrating all the remaining Dou Qi in his body into the fire vent.
Inside the medicine cauldron, the temperature of the black granule continuously rose, eventually becoming unbearable and shattering. A bit of pitch-black powder slowly merged into the dark red paste, causing the color of the material to darken slightly.
After all the black powder had entered the dark red paste, Xiao Yan let out a long breath and slowly withdrew his hand from the fire vent. As Xiao Yan's hand retreated, the flames inside the medicine cauldron also gradually extinguished.
Watching Xiao Yan panting incessantly, Yao Lao smiled. He waved his hand, and the medicine cauldron accurately landed in his grasp. The large mass of dark red paste inside the cauldron floated out, finally hovering in the air within the mountain cave.
Looking at the hovering dark red paste, which exuded a strong medicinal scent, Yao Lao waved his empty hand. With the movement of his hand, the dark red paste was continuously divided, forming at least over a hundred small blocks of paste.
With one hand, Yao Lao took from the storage ring on Xiao Yan's hand. With a flick of his finger, over a hundred small jade bottles instantly filled the narrow mountain cave.
After taking out the jade bottles, Yao Lao casually waved his hand, and the paste hovering in mid-air accurately fell into the jade bottles.
Casually taking out a jade bottle, Yao Lao smiled and handed it to Xiao Yan, teasing, "Congratulations on your first successful alchemy."
Unable to wait, Xiao Yan immediately accepted the jade bottle. Seeing that the color was not overly pure, originally containing dark red medicinal liquid inside, a surge of excited pride couldn't help but rise in his heart.
"Heh heh, from now on, I can be considered an Alchemist."