A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 201-Chapter 400)

Han Li, after curiously sizing up the place, heard the ugly man say with a laugh:

“Underneath this large lobby is the location where the Earth Fire gathers and burns the brightest; thus, the sect opened up a total of thirty-six Earth Fire refining rooms here; the best rooms for refining pills are number eighteen and number nineteen.”

“However, number eighteen is already occupied by a Senior Martial Uncle, so Junior Martial Brother should use room number nineteen! Although it is somewhat worse than number eighteen, the flame intensity and stability are also extremely outstanding,” said the ugly man with a grin. As he spoke, he led Han Li in front of a door with “nineteen” painted in gold on its surface,

Hearing this, Han Li did not say anything and silently nodded his head, indicating his assent.

The ugly man, seeing this, immediately pulled out a jade tablet and stuck it on the door, and the white stone door automatically opened. Then, the ugly man and Han Li entered this room.

The room was square; its surface area was average, only eighty or ninety square feet in size; however, in the heart of the room was a round heap a few feet wide, and a fist-sized gourd was hanging from each of the four walls. A jade green meditation mat was also in a corner not too far away.

The round heap was similarly made of dock stone and was extremely flat, only half a foot tall. However, eight lifelike, fire-red miniature dragon figures were inlaid at the edges of the round heap. In addition, the mouths of the dragons were slightly elevated, aimed at a location in the air above the heart of the round heap, and they assumed a very lifelike spitting position.

After clearly seeing the circumstances inside of the room, Han Li felt quite astonished, but before he even opened his mouth to ask, the ugly man had already gotten close to the round heap and took the initiative to explain to Han Li.

“Junior Martial Brother, this is this room’s Earth Fire opening; the Earth Fire needed to refine pills shoots out from these eight dragon bodies. In addition, one can adjust the intensity and height of the flames according to one’s needs. The exact technique to control it is inscribed on the surface of the stone heap,” explained the ugly man, pointing at the round heap.

However, he then pointed at the four gourds hanging on the walls and said:

“Within these gourds is spark sand, which can temporarily add to the intensity of the Earth Fire; if Junior Martial Brother feels that the Earth Fire’s temperature is not high enough, you can use these to temporarily increase its intensity, but the duration will not be long. In addition, Junior Martial Brother should carefully put away this jade tablet. Once the door to the room closes, all contact with the outside world will be cut off. Unless numerous Core Formation cultivators put their strength together, nobody can enter from the outside, so Junior Martial Brother can be assured that there will be absolutely no one who will disturb you!”

Hearing these words, Han Li began to rejoice quietly in his heart; this kind of a completely sealed off environment was just what he needed, and he couldn’t help but reveal a few traces of delight.

At this time, seeing that his explanations were good enough, the ugly man said goodbye and took his leave.

Han Li, after watching the ugly man walk out of the room, immediately used the jade tablet and caused the stone door to seal shut. Then, he excitedly walked to the round heap and, after circling it many times, began to closely inspect those eight spitting dragons.

In the past few years, Han Li had purposefully spent a huge amount of time researching techniques for refining pills, all for the sake of refining this Foundation Establishment Pill. Thus, he could not be considered a stranger to the Dao of Alchemy. He knew that whether or not refining a pill succeeded was related mainly to the control of the fire, as well as opening the furnace to retrieve the pill at the right timing.

As for the composition of the ingredients and their quantities, after being put into practice countless times by former generations, they had already been clearly described on the recipe, so one did not have to consider it. Of course, appropriately increasing or decreasing the quantities needed to form a pill once was acceptable. As long as one followed the fixed scale, both increasing or decreasing the quantities of the ingredients was permitted.

However, while it was easy to say, actually doing it would be extremely difficult!

After accurately controlling the pill furnace’s fire, one also had to grasp how to open the furnace at the right time. Who knew how many prospective alchemists these two great problems had confounded!

Even the current, most well-known masters of alchemy could not help but admit that even if they were to personally attempt it, the success rate of forming a pill would still not be too high, only roughly a fifty-fifty chance of success, and this was for refining the pills they were the most proficient at. Thus, one did not even have to mention any regular alchemist!

The success rate of refining a pill completely depended on whether or not the alchemist’s experience was plentiful. The more an alchemist had refined a pill, the higher their odds of successfully refining a pill would be. Thus, both alchemists and talisman masters were neck-and-neck for the two most profitable careers in the cultivating world, and thus they were also the two most popular occupations.

From his inquiries, he was actually clear about these things, and he knew that based on his novice self, wanting to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill at this moment was purely a dream. Thus, he had already planned out from the start to refine these Foundation Establishment Pills one by one!

In this way, no matter how many times he failed, he would not feel too distressed about the loss of spiritual medicines. And the amount of spiritual medicines he had prepared was enough to refine more than a hundred pills; he trusted that this many ingredients would be sufficient for him to accumulate enough experience early on.

Having made a decision, Han Li committed the method of how to use the dragons to memory. Then, he began to form the appropriate hand seals, and shot out eight streaks of red light towards the dragons in a row. The dragons immediately absorbed red light, and their mouths opened; a purple flame as thick as a chopstick spurted out from each of their mouths separately. Instantly, the high temperature of the flames began to diffuse throughout the air inside of the room, causing Han Li to be quietly shocked.

Then, Han Li tried adjusting the thickness of the flame, as well as finely manipulating the height of the flames spurting from the dragons. When he could control them with ease, he extinguished the flames from the dragons. Next, he walked towards the prayer mat and sat down cross-legged, then began to restore his energy.

Han Li sat for the greater half of a day; after feeling that his energy and physical strength had reached their optimal condition, he opened his eyes and stood up, preparing to begin refining the pills. Thankfully, Han Li’s cultivation technique had luckily passed the tenth layer, allowing him to refrain from eating; thus, he did not need to eat.

Now, Han Li fished out the silver threaded cauldron that he had bought that day from his storage pouch, then placed a floating technique onto it, causing it to stop in midair directly above the round heap. This magic technique was also one that he had specifically cultivated for today’s task, and he had used up many days learning it.

Han Li once again shot out red light towards the dragons, stimulating the release of the purple Earth Fire.

Because ingredients had not been placed inside of the cauldron, Han Li controlled the fire and made it extremely thin, as thin as a silk thread. Then, he caused the silver threaded cauldron to begin to rotate in midair under the heating of the eight flames.