Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Black Cauldron
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Meng Wuyou hurriedly left with seventeen pill formulas in his hand, heading straight back to his residence and secluded himself inside his pill refining room.
In Meng Wuyou’s pill refining room, there was a beryl green pill furnace exuding a subtle coolness. The whole room smelled refreshing as if it were filled with a bamboo forest.
Known as the Green Bamboo Furnace, it was not made from bamboo as the name implied but was instead cast from bamboo rock where century-old bamboo roots deeply embed. Using bamboo rock cast pill furnace would carry the aura of the antiquated bamboo, and that could increase the success rate of refining pills by as much as half to one percent.
Do not underestimate the increase of half to one percent success rate. Many pill refiners had racked their brains for such incremental improvement. Meng Wuyou was fortunate to own such a furnace which he obtained after years of travel and adventure.
Meng Wuyou held the pill formula for the Purple Heart Pill and studied it for a long time, his face grave. He wanted to determine whether what Fang Lin said was correct, or if the information recorded on the formula was accurate.
After all, to make a move that could shock the entire Pill Sect, he couldn’t help but feel uncertain if he didnt verify it in advance.
The Purple Heart Pill was a rank-one pill. After consuming it, it could cleanse the body and mind, preventing the consumer from losing one’s self in cultivation. Even if one lost control, a single Purple Heart Pill could instantly pull the martial artist back from the brink. The pill was incredibly effective.
The Hemp Snake Vine was an ingredient in the Purple Heart Pill formula. Yet,
Fang Lin insisted that the vine was unnecessary and substituting Dragon Sunflower Grass instead, would increase the pill’s success rate to eighty percent. The quality of the pill would also be superior to the one refined with the vine.
Meng Wuyou had doubts about this. The Purple Heart Pill was considered a challenging pill to make even within rank-one pills. Even experienced pill refiners could only hope to maintain a success rate of around sixty percent at most.
As for the quality of the pills, it could only be compared after refining the Purple Heart Pill using both formulas. At this moment, Meng Wuyou was still unsure.
Setting aside the pill formula, Meng Wuyou began refining the Purple Heart Pill. He started with the Hemp Snake Vine ingredient, continually refining it three times before producing a Purple Heart Pill.
Such a success rate left Meng Wuyou feeling somewhat embarrassed, it seemed age had resulted in a loss of his skill.
After a brief rest, he started refining the Purple Heart Pill using Dragon Sunflower Grass.
The process proved successful on the first attempt, and the refinement process went smoothly.
When comparing the pills refined from the two different formulas, Meng
Wuyou found that the Purple Heart Pill refined using the Dragon Sunflower Grass was of medium quality. In contrast, the Purple Heart Pill refined with Hemp Snake Vine was of lower quality.
These results left Meng Wuyou silent for a long time.
“Could it be that our Pill Sect’s predecessors were wrong?” Meng Wuyou mulled to himself.
Still doubtful, Meng Wuyou tested it several more times. To his amazement, the results showed that the Dragon Sunflower Grass did enhance the Purple Heart Pill’s quality and yield a higher success rate compared to the Hemp Snake Vine.
When compared side by side, the difference was glaringly apparent. The Pill Sect’s predecessors had apparently made a mistake using the Hemp Snake Vine in the Purple Heart Pill formula.
Meng Wuyou sighed deeply. This result overthrew the painstaking effort of the
Pill Sect’s predecessors. If not handled properly, it could cause a significant controversy.
As Meng was dealing with his worries, Fang Lin sauntered over to the D Building’s tenth pill refining room at the Pill Forest Academy.
These ten pill refining rooms were all on one floor, divided into two rows of five each.
There was a placard hanging above each of the ten rooms, showing numbers one to ten.
At this time, the placards of nine of the rooms were red, which meant that these nine rooms were in use.
Only the placard for room number nine was blue, indicating that the room was vacant.
Fang Lin looked around and saw no one else, so he thought, why not go inside and take a look?
Without any hesitation, he pushed the door open and entered. The moment he closed the door, the placard turned red.
At the very moment when Fang Lin entered room number nine, Kang Lu, who had been hiding in the dark, revealed a malicious smile.
“Fang Lin, oh, Fang Lin, everyone knows that room number nine is Brother Yuan Bo’s exclusive pill refining room, but you just walked right in. It seems like the heavens are on my side!” he chuckled, then turned on his heel and quickly walked away.
Besides a pill furnace, there was only a meditation mat in room number nine, with nothing else in sight.
However, Fang Lin keenly felt that there was an array present in this refining room.
“No wonder they say refining within this room yields a higher success rate. So, there indeed is an array,” Fang Lin mumbled to himself.
Arrays were also vital in pill refining. For particular hard-to-refine pills, using an array would significantly increase the success rate.
Fang Lin then turned his attention to the pill furnace in the room. The furnace looked quite ordinary, like a lump of black iron, with no distinctive features and not even a single ornamental engraving which made it seem very modest. Its plainness could make many pill refiners raise their eyebrows at first sight.
However, Fang Lin didn’t underestimate it because of its unimposing appearance; instead, he sensed something and looked intrigued.
Fang Lin walked up to the black furnace, reached out to touch, then gently knocked against its surface.
The furnace made a very faint sound. Fang Lin let out a soft sound of surprise and circled the furnace, knocking it repeatedly.
Bang!
Finally, the furnace emitted a deep and rather muffled sound, and an invisible wave of energy dispersed in all directions.
Fang Lin was forced back by this energy wave. He stumbled backward several steps before managing to stabilize himself.
Fang Lin was surprised, which quickly turned into delight.
“I didn’t expect the Purple Mist Sect to have such a treasure!” he muttered.
Fang Lin had recognized that this black furnace was cast from Mysterious Heavenly Stone.
Mysterious Heavenly Stones were extraterrestrial rocks that were incredibly rare and unusually robust, carrying a strange power.
It was challenging to cast furnaces using this stone, but those made from the Mysterious Heavenly Stone invariably represented the top choice for pill refiners.
Fang Lin’s Golden Flame Cauldron was already an impressive furnace, but it still fell short when compared to this black furnace.
“If I could absorb this furnace, I suspect my Nine Cauldron Skypassing Spell could rapidly progress. At the very least, I could reach the peak of the Human Origin stage or break through the Earth Element stage in one fell swoop…” Fang
Lin mused to himself
The quickest way to enhance the Nine Cauldron Skypassing Spell was by assimilating pill furnaces, especially high quality ones. The better the quality of the pill furnaces, the greater the progression.
The black furnace in front of him was something Fang Lin wanted to devour right away. However, considering the repercussions following the absorption, he decided to resist the temptation.
“Sigh, I can’t consume it. I suppose drawing some furnace Qi should be alright…” Fang Lin was somewhat disappointed he couldn’t devour the black furnace. As the next best alternative, he decided to absorb some of the furnace’s Qi..