Chapter 144 Refinement

Recalling the essential techniques of the fire-control method, the Profound Fire Technique, over and over in his mind, Ye Cheng tried desperately to control the fire spirit, hoping to bring down its terrifyingly high temperature. Otherwise, given that the snake-saliva grass was merely an herb of slightly superior quality compared to ordinary ones, burning it directly like this would reduce it to ashes in an instant, let alone allow him to extract the essence from its roots and stems.

The moment the snake-saliva grass entered the medicinal cauldron, Ye Cheng’s heart tightened abruptly. He hastily manipulated the flame, attempting to wrap it around the herb, but try as he might, he still failed to control the heat. The flame transformed by the fire spirit surged forward like a pack of wolves, directly burning the snake-saliva grass along with its roots and stems into a mass of pitch-black ash, which was then discharged from the cauldron through the special port at the bottom.

"It's just too difficult to control."

Gazing at the mass of pitch-black medicinal ash at the bottom of the cauldron, Ye Cheng could not help but frown.

Just now, he had clearly managed to control the temperature of the fire spirit, but he had failed to gauge the exact heat accurately, resulting in an inevitable mistake in the end.

"Using spiritual consciousness to regulate the flame temperature is a mandatory course in the path of alchemy. What you currently lack is simply this experience. Don't be discouraged, keep going," Elder Mu’s encouraging voice slowly drifted over.

"Understood!"

Naturally, Ye Cheng understood the principle that everything is difficult at the start. He could already be considered an extremely fortunate person; having a top-tier pharmacist leave all the profound pharmacological principles in his mind to become a part of his memory had already put him far ahead of countless people on the path of alchemy.

Taking a deep breath, Ye Cheng once again composed and focused his mind, extending his spiritual consciousness into the medicinal cauldron to lower the temperature of the flame transformed by the fire spirit down to the level of an ordinary fire.

"This way, it shouldn't instantly burn the snake-saliva grass to nothing, right?" Ye Cheng thought to himself. His hands did not stop moving as he grabbed another stalk of snake-saliva grass and tossed it into the cauldron.

Focusing his spiritual consciousness unwaveringly on the snake-saliva grass enveloped by the flames inside the cauldron, and seeing that it was not directly reduced to ashes like the first time, Ye Cheng let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Alright, keep it like this for now, and slowly increase the temperature, slowly increase it." Controlling the flame, Ye Cheng raised the temperature bit by bit. This method proved to be effective indeed; before long, the roots and stems of the snake-saliva grass gradually turned into a green liquid, though it was somewhat dim rather than as vibrant as described in the formula.

"It seems that raising the temperature slowly like this has both advantages and disadvantages; some of the essence of the snake-saliva grass has been lost." Observing every subtle change inside the medicinal cauldron and comparing it with the description in the formula, Ye Cheng quickly discovered the shortcomings of this method.

However, Ye Cheng did not stop what he was doing, as he had his own plans in mind. He was only just beginning with alchemy, and as long as he familiarized himself with the heat tolerance of various medicinal herbs, this problem would soon be resolved.

Besides, every apothecary had to waste countless herbs before finally managing to produce a finished product. No matter how talented a person was, success could not be achieved overnight.

After waiting for a full quarter of an hour, the essence from the roots and stems of the snake-saliva grass was completely extracted. Although a significant amount of essence had been lost due to Ye Cheng's lack of experience, he had nevertheless succeeded in extracting the medicinal material in the end.

"This kid actually has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, thinking of using a method like this. Although it consumes a bit of medicinal potency, it is still not a bad method for a beginner in alchemy." Elder Mu leaned against a rock. While he appeared indifferent to the former's alchemy, his divine sense constantly monitored Ye Cheng's entire alchemical process. Seeing Ye Cheng adopt such a crude method, a smile surfaced on his aged face.

Using his spiritual consciousness to control the flames and move the extracted green liquid to one side of the cauldron, Ye Cheng immediately tossed a piece of yellow lotus into the cauldron to extract its medicinal liquid once again.

Repeating his old method, Ye Cheng familiarized himself with the heat tolerance of the yellow lotus. Not long after the yellow lotus entered the cauldron, it began to dissolve, its outer skin peeled away, and the essence within the lotus was once again burned down into liquid medicinal potency.

The remaining few medicinal materials were all processed using this method to extract their medicinal essences, which were then left inside the cauldron. Although quite a bit of medicinal potency was lost across the board, generally speaking, Ye Cheng could barely be considered successful in the realm of medicinal extraction.

"Now comes the main event. Extracting the medicinal potency is the easiest part of formulating this potion, while the most difficult part is the fusion and blending of the potencies." Ye Cheng sensed the various separated pools of medicinal essence within the cauldron using his spiritual consciousness.

His heart inevitably grew somewhat heavy. Although he had barely managed to clear the hurdle of extracting the medicinal potency, the most difficult stage of potion-making also lay in this very step. He did not harbor extravagant hopes of successfully fusing the various medicinal essences and producing the potion all in one go.

Although hemostatic powder was merely a tier-one potion, no tier-one apothecary would dare guarantee a success rate exceeding fifty percent. After all, their experience was still raw, and achieving a smooth fusion of medicinal potencies with a high probability was difficult. Even tier-two apothecaries could fail if they were careless.

With his eyes tightly closed, maintaining control over the fire spirit through his spiritual consciousness had already begun to induce a sense of weakness. Fortunately, Ye Cheng possessed the ancient soul jade, which nourished his spiritual consciousness and periodically transmitted a trace of strange energy to help him recover.

As Ye Cheng's strength continued to grow, his spiritual consciousness would likewise become increasingly powerful. In the future, the time he could spend refining potions would be greatly extended, and under the burning of the fire spirit, he would no longer feel the slightest pain.

Therefore, the current phenomenon of flagging stamina ultimately stemmed from the fact that Ye Cheng's realm was not high enough and his spiritual consciousness was not yet powerful enough. Moreover, this state of spiritual recovery could not be sustained for too long; Ye Cheng understood that once too much time passed, the medicinal potency inside the cauldron—even with the cauldron's special mechanisms—would only experience a delayed volatilization.

"Fuse!"

Exerting his strength once more, Ye Cheng poured his entire spiritual consciousness into the medicinal cauldron, manipulating the fire spirit to gradually merge the previously scattered medicinal essences together. Relying on the unique temperature of the fire spirit, he diluted and blended the potencies of varying medicinal properties.

Through these actions, Ye Cheng finally truly experienced the arduous nature of alchemy. The blending of medicinal potencies with differing properties was akin to several crazed bulls charging about wildly, constantly thrashing amidst the flames.

"Thud!" "Damn it, the temperature was too high!" Suddenly, Ye Cheng’s expression shifted. The clash of medicinal potencies exceeded his expectations, shattering apart right inside the cauldron and causing the vessel to vibrate heavily a few times.

Looking at the potion that still failed to be successfully refined despite his hard work for half a day, a bitter smile crept onto the corners of Ye Cheng's mouth.

No wonder those who could achieve success on the path of potion-making were so rare. A mere tier-one potion was already this difficult to refine, let alone the tier-two and tier-three potions that followed.

Yet, the more difficult something was, the more his rebellious, unyielding spirit surged from deep within his bones. Ye Cheng did not fear failure; if once wasn't enough, he would try ten times, a hundred times—he simply refused to believe he couldn't refine the potion.

By now, the sky had completely darkened. Just as Ye Cheng was preparing to continue refining, Elder Mu, seeing the late hour, had no choice but to helplessly say, "It's getting late, let's head back first and continue tomorrow!"

Hearing this, Ye Cheng could only reluctantly stop what he was doing, put away the medicinal cauldron, and hurry back to the Ye family residence.