Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Chapter 276 Detoxification Pill

"Could he be the young master of the Great Xia Empire? But the current ruler of the Great Xia Empire seems to be Su Yangyan, the city lord of Luoxia Town. I know his family background; he only has one son, who is now crippled. When he was crippled by City Lord Liao that year, he even came to me for help. Could this kid be his illegitimate son?" Master Yu guessed.

"Old Yu, you're too out of touch. My information is that the master of the Great Xia Empire isn't actually surnamed Su. He's just the nominal supreme commander, with the official title of Grand Chancellor. His nephew is the Grand An Si, and there's also some Grand Commander and Grand Coordinator. They seem to have similar official titles, but they each have their own duties and responsibilities."

He seems to be one of them, yet he doesn't seem to hold any official title, but he's involved in all the important matters, which is what I find most puzzling. In short, his status in this small marquisate of the Great Xia Empire is definitely not simple. Perhaps he is the true master or young lord of this marquisate.”

“Miss, your imagination is too vivid. How could a teenager lead a group of adults? Moreover, it is said that the Great Xia Empire has gathered more than a dozen Heaven-Rank experts from somewhere to oversee it. That number is more than those of the large marquisates. Based on this alone, the mastermind behind the Great Xia Empire is definitely not a little kid,” Master Yu Dan argued.

……

In the underground training room, Mo Yuming and Ji Xianlin sat facing each other. Mo Yuming placed the fake Heavenly Pill he had bought and the pills he had refined on the table together.

"This pseudo-Heavenly Profound Spirit Gathering Pill is of exceptional quality, definitely made by one of the highest-ranking elders in the Alchemist Association. The pill's toxin content is less than one percent. It's the best pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pill I've ever seen! There are no visible flaws. These kinds of pills are usually monopolized within the Alchemist Association; very few are sold externally. Ten gold is a very cheap price. I wonder why that Manager Tang would do this. Is he trying to curry favor with you? Perhaps he's taken a liking to you, kid?" Ji Xianlin observed carefully.

"Master Ji, don't talk nonsense, it's definitely not what you're saying!" Mo Yuming was unusually embarrassed.

"So this pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pill is very close to the Heavenly Profound Pill? Is the Heavenly Profound Pill very expensive? Ten gold coins is almost the living expenses of an average family for several years!" Mo Yuming asked.

"As far as I know, even the lowest-grade fake Heavenly Profound Pills on the market cost at least ten gold coins, and the next grade costs at least fifty gold coins. Pills of this quality would easily sell for a hundred gold coins. A genuine Heavenly Profound Pill, on the other hand, costs at least a thousand gold coins. Good pills are not something ordinary people can afford!" Ji Xianlin said.

"Since the effects of the pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pill are almost as good as the Heavenly Profound Pill, why is there such a big price difference between the two? Is it really just because that little bit of pill toxin wasn't removed?"

"The reason why the Heavenly Profound Pill is so expensive is primarily due to its rarity. Scarcity drives up prices, so a higher price is to be expected, but that's not the main reason. The biggest reason for the price difference is indeed the tiny amount of pill toxin. Because the formation of pill toxin is very complex, its specific toxicity is unknown. If used normally, it can be tolerated and suppressed, then removed by cleaning the pill's contents."

However, things can get complicated in certain situations. For example, many people encounter insufficient spiritual energy or blocked meridians during the process of upgrading their profound skills. In such cases, they need to take elixirs to replenish their spiritual energy or open up their acupoints to assist in the successful upgrade. This is because upgrading profound skills requires a continuous process without any interruptions. Any accident could lead to qi deviation and failure. At this time, the toxicity in the elixirs has a significant impact on the body. If one is unlucky, the toxicity in the body may flare up, even if only slightly, immediately affecting concentration and disrupting blood circulation, thus hindering the advancement and causing it to fail.

The Heavenly Profound Pill, however, does not have this hidden danger; there's no need to worry about toxic side effects when using it. This is the biggest difference between the two, because pill toxins are not ordinary impurities. If they are not completely removed during the refining process, they will remain in the pill, like an invisible bomb that could explode at any time.

"So, in a sense, the pills I've refined have surpassed the pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pills. If their effects reach or approach those of the pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pills, it proves that my pills are no different from Heavenly Profound Pills!"

"Yes, now we only need to verify how potent these pills are to determine their grade!"

The most direct and effective way to assess the efficacy of a pill is to take it. Ji Xianlin first put the pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pill into his mouth, concentrating his mind to refine the pill in his stomach and sensing its effects. A quarter of an hour later, Ji Xianlin recovered and said:

"This pseudo-Heavenly Profound Spirit Gathering Pill has a rich medicinal power and its effects spread rapidly, reaching the peak of the low-level Heavenly Profound realm, approaching the level of the mid-level Heavenly Profound realm. It truly is the top-tier pseudo-Heavenly Profound Pill in the Heavenly Profound Continent. The content of the pill's poison is extremely low, so it has no effect on us Heavenly Rank Profound Technique cultivators."

This level of Spirit Gathering Pill is truly remarkable, even for someone like us at the fourth level of the Heavenly Rank. It's important to understand that Spirit Gathering Pills are the most basic pills for restoring spiritual energy, practically worthless to us at the Heavenly Rank. The fact that this pill still has some effect demonstrates the exceptional skill of the alchemist who crafted it! If it weren't for that tiny bit of pill toxin, it would be virtually indistinguishable from the Heavenly Profound Pills obtained from domain tombs and ruins.

Ji Xianlin praised it endlessly.

After a moment of meditation, Ji Xianlin swallowed the Spirit Gathering Pill refined by Mo Yuming. He then closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes in the pill within his abdomen. Ten breaths later, the previously calm Ji Xianlin frowned, and his expression changed. Mo Yuming couldn't help but tense up upon seeing this, involuntarily wondering if there was something wrong with the pill. Just as Mo Yuming was lost in thought, Ji Xianlin opened his eyes, staring at Mo Yuming with an incredulous expression.

"Master Ji... how is it?" Mo Yuming asked, stammering.

"Incredible! Incredible! Kid, how did you do that!" Ji Xianlin excitedly grabbed Mo Yuming's shoulder and said.

"Mr. Ji, please calm down and tell me how you feel first, okay?"

"Your pill melts instantly upon entering the mouth, and its effects spread even faster than that pseudo-Heavenly Profound Gathering Spirit Pill. Although its effects aren't as potent, they're not far off! Most importantly, your pill is exactly the same as that rare Heavenly Profound Pill, without any toxic side effects! In this respect, the pill you refined is completely comparable to those Heavenly Profound Pills!" Ji Xianlin explained.

"Is it really that good?" Mo Yuming was somewhat unsure. He was only a beginner in alchemy, and hadn't even mastered the basic methods. How could he possibly refine such a miraculous pill? If the Heavenly Profound Pill was that easy to refine, what had all the countless alchemists on the Heavenly Profound Continent been doing for thousands of years?

But the truth is just that perplexing. Others spend their entire lives working tirelessly, yet their results aren't as good as his haphazard attempts. However, from another perspective, Mo Yuming's method is well-founded, based on experience gained through countless studies by numerous people. Of course, the role of the divine artifact, the Medicine King Cauldron, cannot be ignored.

"I just felt that if I followed the original method of the pill formula, I definitely wouldn't be able to refine the pills well in a short time, and I didn't have that patience either. So I started trying to practice with other methods, and I didn't expect that I would actually succeed in refining them!"

"Hehe, a novice alchemist messing around and actually managed to refine a Heavenly Profound level pill? I bet no one would believe that. Only a madman would." Ji Xianlin laughed heartily.

"These are the simplest basic pills; the advanced ones are much harder to refine." Mo Yuming knew that his method, though seemingly simple, was actually far more difficult than traditional methods. Even master alchemists might not be able to refine them successfully. Firstly, one must possess a multi-attribute profound energy physique, requiring not only wood but also water and fire elemental power. While fire elemental power could be obtained using the fire-gathering array in the alchemy furnace, it wasn't one's own spiritual power output, making it much harder to control. It required numerous complex techniques and distraction. This significantly increased the demands on soul power.

Mo Yuming was able to achieve this because he mastered five elemental profound arts, and because he learned the Wu Clan's 'Soul Wheel Guidance,' his soul power was extremely strong, which further enhanced his control over elemental spiritual power. He could multitask.

Perhaps the true masters of alchemy are all cultivators of multiple spiritual attributes.

After this alchemy session, Mo Yuming discovered that his soul power was far from sufficient to refine more complex pills. However, he also unexpectedly found that his alchemy technique greatly helped him enhance his control over his soul power. After refining just one pill, his ability to control his soul power had improved significantly.

"Practice makes perfect!" Ji Xianlin found himself increasingly unable to understand this young man. He always managed to come up with unexpected things. For example, the snow crystal salt at the beginning—something even an eight-crown dragon chef would struggle with—was solved by him using just some bottles and jars, without even needing any profound cultivation. Then there was that giant hot air balloon, which could lift people high into the air without using any spiritual energy, and even pass through the Ten Thousand Thunder Barrier and the Cloud Condensation Illusion Array, which were considered forbidden zones for life. And later, there was the blast furnace iron smelting, the demon-breaking bullet, the mechanical hidden arrow, and so on. These highly difficult things all didn't require any profound cultivation. This time, he once again pioneered the creation of a Heavenly Profound-level pill that even a Grandmaster alchemist couldn't refine, achieved by a novice alchemist.

If all of this were made public, many people would probably go crazy, and might even start to question whether those high-ranking weapon refiners and alchemists were actually frauds. When did the incredibly rare and precious Heavenly Profound Pill become so shameless?

After confirming that his refined pills were no different from the Heavenly Profound Pill, Mo Yuming's confidence soared. He decided to strike while the iron was hot and refine the other two types of primary pills he had mastered.

The 'Detoxifying Pill' is a more commonly used basic pill than the Spirit Gathering Pill, belonging to the Human Profound level. Because both cultivators of profound arts and ordinary people encounter poisonous insects, snakes, and scorpions in daily life, the Detoxifying Pill is an effective antidote for these common poisons. Due to its common use and simple formula, many alchemists have gradually mastered its refining techniques. Generally, alchemists of level three or above can refine Earth Profound level Detoxifying Pills, and alchemists at the peak of level four, like Master Yu, can basically refine pseudo-Heaven Profound level Detoxifying Pills. However, all alchemists stop there; even the highest-ranking alchemists in the Alchemist Association cannot refine Heaven Profound level Detoxifying Pills.

After preparing a complete set of medicinal herbs, Mo Yuming carefully reviewed their properties once again: Main ingredient: Blue Silver Grass, supplementary ingredients: Chrysanthemum Root, Hibiscus Leaf, and Desmodium Powder.

The first three herbs are fine, all being detoxifying and cleansing herbs. Although the effects of Chrysanthemum Root and Hibiscus Leaf are mediocre, they can somewhat compensate for the shortcomings of Blue Silver Grass. However, the Demonite is a common volcanic ore with virtually no special properties; it's a loose volcanic rock ejected from a volcano. Aside from its fine stone powder, it has no other distinguishing characteristics. But its presence in this formula, and in a significant quantity, suggests it must have a purpose.

Because the properties were vague, Mo Yuming didn't know how to control them. Unable to make a decision, a sudden inspiration struck him: since it was volcanic rock, it was naturally immune to fire. Why not try burning it with spiritual fire alone and see what the reaction would be? After all, the volcanic rocks were very cheap; even if he wasted a whole basketful, it wouldn't be worth much.

Mo Yuming took out a handful of De-Immortal Stones and placed them in the furnace to refine them. He pushed the flames to their maximum intensity, wanting to see what they would ultimately become. After a quarter of an hour of high-temperature calcination, the De-Immortal Stones turned a deep red-hot in the spiritual fire, even becoming snow-white. However, there was still no sign of them melting. Mo Yuming then realized that no matter how strong his spiritual fire was, it could never reach the temperature of a volcano.

Fifteen minutes later, Mo Yuming took the kaolinite out of the furnace and examined it in his hand. To his surprise, he found that the kaolinite had changed after being calcined. First of all, it was noticeably lighter, but its volume had not decreased and had even increased slightly. The color was much whiter than before, and the particles were finer.

Mo Yuming suddenly understood why the ancients added diatomite to elixirs. After being calcined, diatomite becomes more porous, with each tiny particle being hollow. Just as charcoal granules were used as an adsorbent for decolorization in his previous life, diatomite in elixirs acts as an adsorbent and encapsulating agent. It can adsorb the medicinal components within the particles and also adsorb and encapsulate toxins for excretion. Because diatomite is stable, it does not affect the efficacy of the medicine. However, the prerequisite is that it must be pure.

Because the Demon Stone comes from volcanic ore, its composition is complex, and it is not processed during collection to remove impurities. This inevitably affects the efficacy of the elixir, which is why this simplest, most basic elixir can never be refined into a Heavenly Profound level elixir. Before being added to the elixir formula, the Demon Stone must be calcined at high temperatures to burn off its impurities.