Chapter 161 - Elixir Refinement
“Earn 100 million purple gold?”
Qian Wanguan blinked his eyes and touched Jiang Yi’s forehead. “Boss, you aren’t having a fever; but why are you speaking of nonsense? You want to refine elixirs and earn 100 million purple gold? Do you think elixir refinement is like playing with mud? Do you know how many people spend their life researching on elixir refinement and will only die as a grade-one Elixir Master that can only refine man-tier elixirs?! Even if you can refine man-tier elixirs, you still will not be able to earn 100 million purple gold by selling them for a hundred years…”
Zhan Lin’er nodded and said, “Big Brother Jiang Yi, the art of elixir refinement is indeed difficult. The Zhan Clan’s Elixir Masters are all old geezers and are grade-three at best, who can only produce peak-grade, earth-tier elixirs. It is much too difficult to become a grade-four Elixir King, or grade-five Elixir Saint!”
Jiang Yi grinned and didn’t give any explanation. He gestured with a wave and said, “Wanguan. Just listen to me. For the following days, this Big Brother will show you what is called a prodigy!”
“Alright then!”
Qian Wanguan remained unconvinced, but since Jiang Yi spoke of it, he naturally wouldn’t reject it. Since Jiang Yi was still in the recuperation stage during this period of time, why not let him squander some time?
In just a single day, Qian Wanguan brought over all the things; but he didn’t put it at Zhan Wushuang’s courtyard. Jiang Yi felt that he had almost recovered and didn’t want to trouble Zhan Lin’er anymore. He returned to his own courtyard and would either cultivate or research on the art of elixir refinement.
Qian Wanguan brought over many elixir refinement manuals and also plenty of inferior-grade materials. On the third day, Jiang Yi began to seclude himself and refine elixirs. It was obvious that he didn’t have enough comprehension and couldn’t even refine a single inferior-grade elixir after many days.
On the fifth day, Jiang Yi had finally and successfully refined a Yellow Ginseng Elixir. Looking at the tiny elixir in his hand, Jiang Yi was satisfied. He didn’t need to have the complete grasp on how to refine an elixir; he just had to be proficient in the process of making an elixir. What he was about to do was to process the earth-tier superior grade Earth Dragon Elixir and turn it into a heaven-tier inferior-grade elixir.
Earth-tier superior-grade and heaven-tier inferior-grade elixirs might only have a difference of a single grade, but the price was drastically different. A single Earth Dragon Elixir would cost around 1000 purple gold per elixir while a heaven-tier inferior-grade elixir could fetch up to 5000 purple gold a piece. If Jiang Yi was successful, it would definitely be child’s play to earn purple gold.
“I shall refine a few more elixirs and get familiar with the method. Afterward, I can refine the Earth Dragon Elixirs.” Jiang Yi had read a lot of books and obtained the knowledge on how to refine an elixir. It was because of his knowledge of the technique which prompted him to begin with the process of refining an elixir.
Elixir refinement was a complicated and delicate process. If a single step wasn’t done properly, the elixir would be wasted. This was also the reason why there weren’t many high-graded Elixir Masters.
“From this book, it says that the stronger a martial artist’s soul spirit was, the higher the achievement for elixir refinement. This world already has a lack of soul spirit martial experts, why would they even go refine elixirs with their formidable soul spirit? Apart from the Elixir Saint in the Azure Dragon royal clan, I think all the other Elixir Masters are working for those other Great Clans. That Elixir Saint must be some formidable soul spirit martial expert, too.”
Jiang Yi sighed sorrowfully. The elixir refinement was broken down into three steps: smelting, transmuting, and refining. Among these steps, the transmuting process required a strong soul spirit. The higher the grade of the elixir, the more complicated the transmuting process. If the refiner didn’t have a strong soul spirit, they would never be able to transmute it. This was precisely why there were so little high-graded Elixir Masters. Fortunately, Jiang Yi didn’t have to transmute the elixir, he merely had to re-refine the Earth Dragon Elixir again and add some additional content within.
For the next few days, Jiang Yi would be cooped up in the room for days and nights, constantly refining the Yellow Ginseng Elixir and familiarize himself with the methods, the crucial controls of the heat.
‘Practice makes perfect.’ Jiang Yi’s technique was gradually becoming more proficient, and the success rate of him refining the Yellow Ginseng Elixir was further improved. Three days later, he consecutively refined three stoves of elixirs and had a success rate of 70% to 80%.
“About there! Prepare to re-refine the Earth Dragon Elixir again.”
Jiang Yi clapped his hands with satisfaction, but he didn’t begin the re-refinement immediately. Instead, he went over to the other room, only to fall onto the bed and go into a deep sleep. The refinement of the Earth Dragon Elixir was an extremely difficult task, and there must be no mistakes. He had to make sure that his mental and physical state was at the best, and the best way to achieve that—was to sleep.
Jiang Yi slept for an entire day and night, waking up feeling that he was brimming with vigor like he had an endless amount of energy. He practiced a set of fist routine and cultivated for two hours. He ate something, showered, and changed into a fresh set of robes before beginning his elixir refinement grand plan.
“Black Fire Stone, Yellow Wind Herb Powder, Silver Herb Dust… everything is ready. Let’s begin!”
Qian Wanguan had prepared the materials very comprehensively. Jiang Yi retrieved three Earth Dragon Elixirs, threw them into a green elixir furnace, and used the superior-grade Black Fire Stone to start a fire. Jiang Yi wasn’t a retarded fool who would furiously increase the temperature. He controlled the Black Fire Stone and gradually increased the temperature instead, allowing the elixirs to slowly dissolve.
“Almost there!”
He had been keeping his hand close to the furnace, using his essence force to sense the situation within. When he felt that the elixirs had turned into three soft lumps, he used one hand to slam and open the cover of the furnace. His other hand took a yellow powder and scattered it with lightning speed, before swiftly covering the furnace.
In order to achieve re-refinement, the content inside of the elixirs must be separated; and the Yellow Wind Herb was the best neutral herb powder. It could separate the content of the elixirs and still wouldn’t affect the elixir.
“Increase temperature!”
Jiang Yi swiftly increased the Black Fire Stones and waited for a moment before opening the furnace again and putting in the Silver Herb Dust. Just like that, he continued to put in three or four types of powder before his eyes lit up and shouted, “Black essence force, go!”
Three wisps of black essence force were channeled through Jiang Yi’s palm and entered the furnace. Right at this moment, a dull explosion could be heard from the furnace, even the cover was blasted off. Jiang Yi took a quick glance and had this confused expression because all three elixirs had exploded.
“This doesn’t make sense?!”
Jiang Yi frowned and muttered. He had followed the instructions in the manual on how to refine the elixir, the flame, and the powders. All the steps were exactly the same, why would the elixirs explode so bluntly?
After pondering for a moment, Jiang Yi couldn’t understand. He ultimately threw aside the doubts and went back to refining again. After refining seven to eight furnaces of elixirs, they had all exploded, ruining 20 Earth Dragon Elixirs.
20 Earth Dragon Elixirs meant twenty thousand purple gold. Jiang Yi was having such a heartache that he didn’t dare to continue trying. Before he found the problem, there wouldn’t be enough elixirs for him to explode if he carried on refining them.
“Where did it go wrong?”
Jiang Yi sat on the ground in with an unruly appearance. His robes were painted black from the soot of the explosions, and he looked just like a beggar. His brows were knitted tightly and looked like he had hundreds of things on his mind.
“This isn’t logical. When I cultivate using my black essence force to enhance the Earth Dragon Elixirs, the medicinal effects managed to achieve the heaven-tier inferior-grade? Since the black essence force can be blended with the medicinal effects, why can’t it be injected into the elixir?”
Jiang Yi muttered to himself and suddenly shuddered. He smacked his head and cursed himself as a pig before quickly bouncing off the ground and heading back to refinement.
This time, he didn’t inject the black essence force after the elixir has been re-refined. Instead, he injected the black essence force when the elixir had all its content separated, before using the herb powders and blue essence force to form the elixirs.
“It didn’t explode!”
When the final step was completed, the furnace didn’t have any reaction from within. Jiang Yi was immediately excited.
He shivered as he gradually opened the furnace. He could smell a seeping fragrance and saw three beautiful elixirs quietly sitting within. His filthy face instantly revealed a splendid smile, just like a flower that bloomed on a lump of cow’s dung.