“Hehe! Good, good! I’ll arrange it for you right away, Junior Brother!” The ugly man, overjoyed to see that Han Li had given him a mid-grade spirit stone, beamed with delight.
It was worth noting that while the exchange rate of one hundred low-grade spirit stones for one mid-grade spirit stone was widely accepted in the cultivation world, few were actually willing to trade mid-grade spirit stones for low-grade ones.
Everyone knew that, under the same conditions, mid-grade spirit stones allowed for much faster absorption of spiritual energy than low-grade ones. For this reason alone, everyone preferred to keep mid-grade spirit stones and looked down on low-grade ones.
Naturally, the same applied to the exchange of high-grade spirit stones for mid-grade ones.
The ugly man, grinning from ear to ear as he accepted the fire-attribute spirit stone, became even more attentive to Han Li. He immediately led Han Li to the massive five-colored stone gate and pulled out a purple arrow-shaped token from his robe, waving it toward the gate.
A red light flashed from the purple token, and a beam of radiant light shot out, striking the gate accurately. Instantly, the five-colored flowing lights began to swirl rapidly. With a series of loud creaks, the stone gate slowly rose, revealing a dark passage behind it. The passage was about ten feet high and square-shaped.
“Junior Brother, once we pass this Black Ironstone passage, we’ll reach the rooms with earthfire. Let’s go now!” The ugly man forced a few smiles and spoke ingratiatingly to Han Li.
“Hmm.” Han Li nodded noncommittally and stepped into the passage first.
“Although Black Ironstone isn’t exactly rare, it’s not an ordinary material in the mortal world either. To find so much of it and use it as bricks to build passages and rooms—this was accomplished by several highly skilled ancestors who went to great lengths. However, it’s precisely because of Black Ironstone’s resistance to high temperatures and its peculiar ability to withstand earthfire that this earthfire site has never had any major accidents since it was opened!” The ugly man led the way while boasting a little.
Han Li listened with great interest and couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the black stone wall beside him. It felt smooth and icy cold!
“Where does this Black Ironstone come from? It’s truly remarkable that it can resist earthfire, which is even more intense than true fire,” Han Li remarked, unusually vocal in his agreement, and casually asked a question.
“Well, I’ve heard it’s not extremely rare, but our Yue Kingdom doesn’t produce it. Our ancestors brought it from countries in the far west—it was quite troublesome!” the ugly man explained.
Just like that, Han Li followed the ugly man and soon passed through two other similarly tall stone gates, finally exiting the Black Ironstone passage and arriving at an enormous circular hall.
The hall was also built from Black Ironstone, with a diameter of forty to fifty zhang and a height of over ten zhang—truly astonishingly large! Along the walls of the hall, uniformly distributed white stone doors of identical size numbered over thirty.
At that moment, there was no one else in the hall except for the newly arrived ugly man and Han Li.
After curiously surveying the hall, Han Li heard the ugly man say with a chuckle, “Beneath this hall is the most concentrated area of earthfire. Our sect has opened thirty-six earthfire rooms here for weapon refining and pill concoction. The best pill concoction rooms are numbers eighteen and nineteen.
However, number eighteen is already occupied by an uncle-master, so Junior Brother will have to use number nineteen. Although it’s slightly inferior to number eighteen, its firepower and stability are still excellent.” As he spoke, the ugly man led Han Li to a door marked with the golden characters “Nineteen” and grinned.
Han Li listened without a word, silently nodding in agreement.
Seeing this, the ugly man immediately took out a white jade token and pressed it against the door. The white stone door automatically swung open. Then, the ugly man and Han Li entered the room.
The room was square-shaped, of average size, about seven or eight zhang wide. In the center of the room was a round platform about a zhang wide, with a fist-sized gourd hanging on each of the four walls. In a corner not far away was an emerald-green meditation mat.
The round platform was also made of Black Ironstone, quite flat and only half a foot high. On the outer side of the platform, eight miniature fiery-red dragon heads were embedded, so lifelike that they seemed real. The dragon heads were slightly raised, their mouths aimed at the center of the platform above, as if ready to spew fire—extremely vivid.
After taking in the room’s layout, Han Li felt slightly surprised. But before he could ask anything, the ugly man walked over to the round platform and began explaining proactively.
“Junior Brother, this is the earthfire vent of the room. The earthfire needed for pill concoction is emitted from these eight dragon heads. You can adjust the flame size and height as needed. The specific method for controlling it is carved on the outer wall of the stone platform,” the ugly man explained, pointing at the round platform.
Then, he pointed to the four gourds on the wall and said, “These gourds contain Fire Sand, which can temporarily enhance the power of the earthfire. If you feel the earthfire temperature isn’t high enough, you can use it to boost the power, though the effect won’t last long. Also, keep this jade token safe. Once the door is closed, it severs all connection with the outside. Unless several Core Formation cultivators join forces, no one can enter from the outside. So, you can rest assured—no one will disturb you!”
Hearing this, Han Li felt secretly delighted. Such a completely sealed environment was exactly what he needed, and he couldn’t help but show a hint of joy on his face.
At that point, the ugly man, seeing that he had explained everything, tactfully took his leave.
Han Li watched the ugly man leave the room and immediately activated the jade token to seal the stone door shut again. Then, excitedly, he walked over to the round platform, circled it several times, and carefully examined the eight dragon heads in their spewing poses.
Over the past few years, Han Li had spent a great deal of time studying pill concoction techniques specifically for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. Thus, he was not entirely unfamiliar with the art of pill concoction. He knew that the success of pill refining primarily depended on controlling the fire during the process and timing the opening of the furnace to retrieve the pills.
As for the ingredients and their quantities, after countless trials by predecessors, they were clearly specified in the recipes, so no further consideration was needed. Of course, it was possible to adjust the quantity of pills produced in one batch, as long as the ingredient proportions were increased or decreased accordingly.
However, while it sounded simple, it was exceedingly difficult in practice!
Precisely controlling the furnace fire and timing the opening of the furnace—these two major challenges had stumped countless so-called pill concoction masters.
Even the most renowned pill concoction masters of the time admitted that their success rate wasn’t very high, even when refining their most proficient pills—only about fifty percent. This was even more true for ordinary pill concoction masters!
Therefore, whether a pill could be successfully refined depended entirely on the experience of the concoction master. The more pills a master had refined, the higher their success rate. As a result, pill concoction masters were one of the two most resource-intensive professions in the cultivation world, alongside talisman makers, and also the most sought-after.
Han Li had looked into these matters and knew that it was pure fantasy for a novice like himself to successfully refine a Foundation Establishment Pill on his first try. So, from the beginning, he had planned to refine the pills one at a time!
This way, even if he failed numerous times initially, he wouldn’t feel too heartbroken about wasting spiritual herbs. The amount of spiritual herbs he had prepared was enough for over a hundred attempts. He believed that with so many ingredients, he could accumulate enough experience through trial and error.
Having made up his mind, Han Li memorized the method for controlling the dragon heads. Then, he formed hand seals and sent eight red beams of light into the dragon heads. The dragon heads immediately absorbed the red light, and their mouths slightly opened, each emitting a purple flame about the thickness of a chopstick. Instantly, the room filled with intense heat, surprising Han Li.
Next, Han Li experimented with adjusting the thickness of the flames and the height of the dragon heads’ spouts, fine-tuning his control until he could manipulate them effortlessly. Then, he extinguished the earthfire from the dragon heads. After that, he walked over to the meditation mat, sat down cross-legged, and began meditating to conserve his energy.
Han Li meditated for most of the day. Only when he felt his spirit and physical condition were at their peak did he open his eyes and stand up, ready to begin pill concoction. Fortunately, since his cultivation had surpassed the tenth layer, he could sustain himself without food, so there was no need for meals.
Now, Han Li took out the Silver Thread Cauldron he had bought that day from his storage pouch and cast a levitation spell on it, causing it to hover in the air directly above the round platform. He had specifically practiced this spell for today’s task, spending a considerable amount of time on it.
Han Li again sent red beams of light into the dragon heads, activating the purple earthfire.
Since no ingredients had been placed in the cauldron yet, Han Li controlled the earthfire to remain very fine, only as thick as a thread. He then set the Silver Thread Cauldron to rotate slowly in the air, preheating under the eight thin lines of fire.
After fifteen minutes, the Silver Thread Cauldron had become intensely hot, radiating astonishingly high temperatures.
Seeing this, Han Li pointed at the small cauldron, and the lid of the Silver Thread Cauldron immediately flew off, revealing the opening. With a flip of his right hand, a white jade bottle appeared in his palm. The bottle contained precisely measured powdered spiritual herbs.
Controlling the small bottle, Han Li poured all the powdered medicine into the Silver Thread Cauldron, then immediately discarded the bottle and took out another one from his storage pouch, repeating the same action.
In this manner, Han Li poured dozens of types of powdered spiritual herbs into the Silver Thread Cauldron before finally replacing the lid. The first step was now complete, seemingly perfect without any errors.
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