"Right!
How did I not think of that?!"
With Qin Shijiang's reminder, Qin Xuan slapped his forehead.
He had only been thinking about how spiritual power was needed during the condensation and formation stages of alchemy, and hadn't considered transforming his spiritual power into a "monitoring" tool to constantly check the details of the alchemy process.
He couldn't believe he needed his grandfather to remind him of such a simple application of spiritual power; his mind was truly not turning fast enough!
After thanking Qin Shijiang, Qin Xuan immediately began refining the next batch of pills.
This time, he didn't dare to slack off for a moment.
From the moment the medicinal ingredients entered the pot to the control of the temperature, he meticulously observed every detail with his spiritual power.
As a result, he actually managed to discover the reason for the previous alchemy failure.
It turned out that due to the working principle of the electric pressure cooker, heat was supplied by the metal disk at the bottom of the entire pot, and then conducted through the inner pot to complete the heating process.
This caused the heat at the bottom of the pot to rise faster than in other areas.
Although the inner pot itself conducted heat quickly, heat conduction was still different from direct contact.
And the medicinal ingredients were extremely sensitive to temperature at high temperatures.
This led to the situation where the herbs at the top had not yet turned into medicinal liquid, while those at the bottom were already burnt, as had happened before.
Fortunately, this time Qin Xuan maintained control throughout the entire process. If any herbs lacked sufficient temperature, he would move them to the bottom.
If any herbs were overheated, he would move them up.
Through repeated adjustments, he ensured even heating.
Only then did he finally manage to transform these dozens of medicinal ingredients into a rich medicinal liquid.
"It looks pretty good; at least there's a possibility of forming a pill!"
Dividing the medicinal liquid into nine portions with his spiritual power, Qin Xuan couldn't help but exclaim excitedly.
As soon as his voice fell, he began to carefully dehydrate and dry these nine portions of medicinal liquid, slowly "kneading" them into pills.
Yes, the reason why pills are so round is because alchemists knead them into shape bit by bit.
It's just that cultivators have spiritual power and don't need to use their hands directly.
Pill formation, open the furnace…
Open the pot!
As Qin Xuan took the round pills out of the pressure cooker, a rich aroma of pills immediately filled the entire room.
Upon smelling it, Qin Xuan's spirit was greatly invigorated, and Qin Shijiang felt that his bottleneck as a Grandmaster of Perfection was even loosening.
It seemed that this attempt at alchemy using a pressure cooker had been successful.
However, they felt that its usefulness was yet to be determined; it ultimately depended on what the Pei Yuan Dan formula had to say.
So, Qin Xuan placed the Pei Yuan Dan he had refined in front of the Pei Yuan Dan formula, and the formula's inner voice was transmitted.
Pei Yuan Dan Formula: It has been formed, but the medicinal efficacy is overflowing. If you eat it now, the effect will be eighty percent of that of a genuine pill. If it's left for a while longer, it will likely become a废丹 (waste pill).
"Will eating this affect the upper limit I can reach?"
Hearing that the Pei Yuan Dan formula mentioned a discount in efficacy, Qin Xuan couldn't help but feel a little worried.
After all, the more Pei Yuan Dan one ate, the less effective it became.
If consuming his own low-grade pills affected his future cultivation with genuine pills, then he might as well start another batch and try to refine pills with better effects.
Fortunately, the Pei Yuan Dan formula's answer did not disappoint Qin Xuan.
Although the efficacy of the pills he refined this time was not perfect, they were still Pei Yuan Dan.
There was no pill toxin, and the upper limit of his cultivation would not be affected in any way.
It was just that to achieve the best effect with the low-grade Pei Yuan Dan he refined, a sufficient quantity would need to be accumulated.
If the quantity was insufficient, it might not be possible to reach the upper limit recorded for Pei Yuan Dan in the cultivation world.
"If that's the case, then there shouldn't be much of a problem!"
Taking out the jade medicine bottle that had previously contained the Soul Nourishing Pill, Qin Xuan directly placed these nine low-grade Pei Yuan Dan into it.
As the formula said, he needed to use a sufficient amount of medicinal accumulation anyway.
So, it would be better to make the last batch of Pei Yuan Dan and use them all at once.
This way, he wouldn't have to interrupt his cultivation to refine them again if he found the efficacy insufficient halfway through.
With the previous experience, Qin Xuan was now clearly much more proficient.
Furthermore, through the process of the last refinement, he had gained some new insights into alchemy.
For example, compared to waiting for the temperature to stabilize completely before opening the lid to add ingredients, it was clearly more reasonable to use his own spiritual energy to wrap the ingredients and release them when the temperature was suitable.
Another example was the timing and order of the ingredients' exposure to heat, who came first and who came last, who needed instant heating, and who needed slow heating, and so on.
Therefore, in just over ten minutes, he had already extracted all the medicinal liquids.
Dehydration and pill formation were completed in one go.
When he opened the pot lid again, the overflowing pill aroma was significantly less than before.
Pei Yuan Dan Formula: The efficacy of the formed pill is ninety-five percent, basically reaching the standard of a first-grade alchemist. The pills can be stored for a long time and are considered qualified Pei Yuan Dan in the cultivation world.
It was only the third refinement, and the efficacy had already reached ninety-five percent of that of a genuine pill?
Looking at this, I seem to have considerable alchemy talent, don't I?
Upon hearing the Pei Yuan Dan formula's evaluation, Qin Xuan couldn't help but feel a little smug.
After all, from the novels he had read, failure was the norm for alchemists and pharmacists.
And he, after only one experimental attempt, had successfully refined pills.
This should be considered a very talented existence in any world, right?
After a moment of self-admiration, Qin Xuan could finally begin his cultivation plan.
After informing Qin Shijiang, he directly took the previous low-grade pills and began to cultivate.
The Pei Yuan Dan formula had said that low-grade pills could not be stored for too long.
So, he decided to first try to improve his cultivation with the low-grade pills, and if the effect was insufficient, he would then use the good Pei Yuan Dan.
After the first low-grade Pei Yuan Dan went down, Qin Xuan felt a surge of powerful spiritual energy spread from his abdomen, permeating his entire body.
Although it was a low-grade pill, the effect it displayed was still stronger than he had imagined.
Without time to be happy, Qin Xuan immediately focused his attention on guiding this spiritual energy from all corners of his body to his meridians, and then circulating it within the meridians according to the cultivation technique, transforming it for his own use.
The vast spiritual energy was like a rushing stream, constantly impacting Qin Xuan's newly opened meridians.
And with every inch of meridian the stream of spiritual energy passed through, the meridian itself became tougher.
After an unknown amount of time, the spiritual energy from the first Pei Yuan Dan had been completely refined by Qin Xuan.
Without any hesitation, Qin Xuan directly reached out and put the second pill into his mouth.
As Chen Xuan had said, the effect provided by the second pill was indeed inferior to the first.
However, given that Qin Xuan's pills were of lower quality, the amount of medicinal energy his body could absorb had not yet reached its limit.
Therefore, after taking the second pill, his cultivation still increased at an extremely rapid pace.
In just a few short moments, he broke through the bottleneck of the fifth level of Qi Refining and reached the sixth level.
The jade bottle was opened.
The third pill, continue.