Everything was prepared, and Lu Li began the first true pill-refining attempt of his life.
The first three medicinal ingredients for the Piercing Acupoint Pill were Emerald Bamboo Grass, Lightning Fire Orchid, and Earth Milk Essence, with the final ingredient being the Scarlet Flame Fruit.
The order of addition was just as stated above. If it became chaotic, not only would the refining fail, but it might even cause the cauldron to explode.
Lu Li took a deep breath, steadying his state of mind.
After preheating the pill cauldron, he carefully picked up the Emerald Bamboo Grass and placed it inside.
Then, quickly sealing the lid, he sat on a small stool and imitated Xiao Jue's previous posture, casting his Divine Sense into the pill cauldron to observe the changes within the Emerald Bamboo Grass while subtly turning the earth-fire control switch with his hand.
Regardless of anything else, judging by this steady composure, Lu Li genuinely looked a bit like an alchemist.
In the blink of an eye, half a quarter of an hour passed.
Whether it was because Lu Li was being overly cautious or not, the Emerald Bamboo Grass inside the cauldron, apart from being slightly wilted by the heat, had not even yielded a trace of medicinal liquid. Meanwhile, because Lu Li kept his Divine Sense pinned onto the ingredient the entire time, he appeared somewhat listless.
His cultivation realm was still too low; he simply lacked the capacity to maintain a continuous Divine Sense lock on the cauldron the way Xiao Jue could.
He had no choice but to temporarily withdraw his Divine Sense while simultaneously lowering the fire to recover for a while.
Once he had recovered sufficiently, Lu Li cast his Divine Sense back into the pill cauldron. But when he looked inside, his expression instantly soured: the Emerald Bamboo Grass had completely lost its spiritual nature, its stems withered and shriveled like the face of a centenarian crone.
Could it be due to a sudden drop in temperature?
With no other options, Lu Li removed the ruined herb, then plucked another stalk of Emerald Bamboo Grass from the spirit garden and tossed it into the cauldron.
This time, Lu Li did not dare to be careless, resolving not to stop until he extracted the spiritual liquid. At the same time, he refrained from foolishly staring at the spirit herb nonstop as he had before, instead only poking his Divine Sense in briefly to check on the herb's transformation before immediately withdrawing it.
Doing this proved several times easier, and he felt no sense of Divine Sense depletion whatsoever.
This left him secretly delighted, thinking that his brain wasn't so dull after all.
Feeling that his previous caution had made the refining process far too slow, Lu Li increased the firepower slightly. As the earth-fire switch turned fractionally, the flames grew stronger.
Having adjusted the heat, Lu Li hurriedly cast his Divine Sense inside to confirm that the sudden increase in temperature hadn't reduced the Emerald Bamboo Grass to ashes, and only then did he let out a breath of relief.
A short while later, Lu Li checked with his Divine Sense once more and discovered that emerald-green juice was beginning to ooze from the stems of the Emerald Bamboo Grass. A look of joy crossed his face; through trial and error, he had finally grasped the correct heat for refining Emerald Bamboo Grass.
He believed that in the future, refining Emerald Bamboo Grass would no longer require such agonizing caution, and he could jump straight to the required firepower.
Before long, the spiritual liquid of the Emerald Bamboo Grass had been completely extracted. The original stems and leaves turned to ash, which was absorbed by the restrictions inscribed upon the cauldron and expelled outside.
This was one of the reasons pill cauldrons were so rare-just this single restriction designed to purge impurities was beyond the ability of an ordinary person to carve.
The extracted spiritual liquid gathered at the bottom of the cauldron, roughly the size of a pinky finger. Whether it was because Lu Li's Emerald Bamboo Grass possessed greater spiritual essence or not, the liquid looked emerald-green, crystal-clear, and exceptionally striking.
Once a type of medicinal liquid was extracted, it only needed to be kept warm. Lu Li slowly reduced the earth-fire, then sprang up to grab the Lightning Fire Orchid from the jade plate, tossing it inside before snapping the lid shut with lightning speed.
Once the Lightning Fire Orchid was inside, Lu Li resumed his cautious manipulation.
Because the Emerald Bamboo Grass spiritual liquid was already resting at the bottom, refining the Lightning Fire Orchid required even greater care; a single misstep would ruin not only the orchid, but the existing liquid as well.
Yet, since the pill formula had already been verified, it proved that with proper control, one could extract the essence of the Lightning Fire Orchid without damaging the Emerald Bamboo Grass liquid.
Otherwise, it would scarcely deserve to be called a pill formula.
Behind the creation of every single pill formula lay an extraordinary genius who had forged it through countless trials. Therefore, pill formulas were supreme treasures to cultivators, particularly alchemists.
Especially the order of addition-without repeated testing, such results were impossible to achieve.
Although this was Lu Li's first time refining pills, he had thoroughly studied Xiao Jue's Alchemy Notes, meaning his theoretical knowledge was far from lacking.
Moreover, he was exceptionally prudent, refusing to increase the firepower all at once and instead raising it step by step to test the waters. When he saw spiritual liquid beginning to seep from the leaves of the Lightning Fire Orchid, he immediately steadied his hand and slightly lowered the fire.
Through this back-and-forth process, he smoothly extracted the spiritual liquid of the Lightning Fire Orchid.
Two pools of spiritual liquid now lay quietly at the bottom of the cauldron. Although their edges touched, they did not merge.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Lu Li stood up, picked up the bottle of Earth Milk Essence from the jade plate, removed the stopper, cracked the cauldron lid open by a sliver, and gently let a single drop fall inside.
Sizzle...
The Earth Milk Essence struck the cauldron wall, sending up a puff of white smoke. Lu Li hastily slammed the lid shut and cast his Divine Sense into the interior, watching with taut nerves.
He saw the milky-white Earth Milk Essence roll down the cauldron wall and slide into the two pools of liquid. Yet once it settled in, nothing happened at all; the three pools of liquid remained entirely distinct.
This left Lu Li deeply puzzled.
Glancing at the faint earth-fire burning beneath the cauldron, Lu Li grew thoughtful, then slowly began to increase the heat.
Sure enough.
As the temperature rose slightly, the three pools of liquid began to slowly merge. In no time at all, they fused into a single, thumb-sized, completely emerald-green semi-solid medicinal pellet.
Its surface hardness felt roughly comparable to a glutinous rice ball.
"Only the final spirit herb left!"
Sweat beaded on Lu Li's palms. After toiling for so long, he could finally see a glimmer of hope. Now, as long as no accidents occurred with the last ingredient, the Scarlet Flame Fruit, this Piercing Acupoint Pill would be a success.
He cautiously dropped the Scarlet Flame Fruit from the jade plate into the cauldron and once again carefully manipulated the earth-fire.
It had to be said that Lu Li's method of starting small and testing the heat upward was remarkably effective. Before long, he had figured out the temperature required to refine the Scarlet Flame Fruit, and crimson-red spiritual liquid began to seep from its surface.
Gradually, it flowed toward the emerald-green pellet.
As the crimson liquid entered the pellet, the pill began to slowly contract, developing tiny red specks amidst the emerald-green surface that gave it a somewhat dreamlike appearance.
"It's going to succeed! It's going to succeed!"
Seeing this scene, Lu Li blurted out in excitement, and his hand gave an involuntary jerk-
The flames beneath the cauldron surged upward in a fierce pillar of fire.
Oh, damn it!
The forming pill inside instantly turned pitch black.
"Ah! I..."
Lu Li hammered a fist against his own head, consumed by self-loathing. Why on earth had he failed to steady himself? Now, all his hard work over the past half-hour had gone down the drain.
In truth, this could hardly be blamed entirely on Lu Li. Youth aside, even seasoned old-timers experiencing their first successful pill-refining would likely lose their composure far more than he did.
"Forget it. I'll just try again."
Lu Li shut off the earth-fire and fished the charred, ruined pill out of the cauldron.
After sitting by the doorway to catch the breeze and calm his mind, he reviewed the entire refining process before plunging back into a new round of alchemy.
With the experience gained from his first attempt...
This time, Lu Li's movements were far more proficient than before.