When the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame was sent into the Moon and Star Refining Furnace, the furnace was like a dry riverbed that had finally received nourishment. A bright light slowly began to come from it.
“Could it be that this Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame has a level of agreement with the Moon and Star Refining Furnace?” Long Chen was startled by this reaction.
Just at this moment, a message came from the Nine Lotus Soul Condensing Pill in his spiritual space, and it enlightened him. The original master of the Moon and Star Refining Furnace had also controlled the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame.
“It is truly fate. You needed me, and I needed you.”
Long Chen smiled. It was too much of a coincidence. This was the silent workings of fate that had connected him with the Moon and Star Refining Furnace.
Long Chen had never believed in luck, but this time, his luck had been truly heaven-defying. For a while, he wasn’t able to believe it, but then he understood. It had nothing to do with luck. This furnace had been waiting for him all this time.
Even with the item-spirit slumbering, with the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame, the furnace’s runes began to activate. It was an automatic reaction. Even though his control of the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame was not as great as the old master of this furnace, it gradually grew calm as the furnace activated.
“Now the chances of success are improved.” Long Chen was delighted.
He began sending in the medicinal powders one by one. They gradually became white fluid after being refined. That was the essence of all those precious ingredients.
Long Chen kept his gaze locked on the Moon and Star Refining Furnace and the changes in the medicinal liquid. He was very strict with his control over his flame, not being the slightest bit careless.
Despite that, when the thirty-seventh powder attempted to merge, due to a distraction, all the medicinal liquid turned to ash.
However, Long Chen’s mental state did not even twitch. Everything was within his expectations. Succeeding in one go was definitely impossible.
This was a foreign furnace, with a Pill Flame that he couldn’t completely control, and a kind of pill that he had never refined before. He would need to go slowly.
That was why Long Chen had refined thirty portions of the medicinal powders at the start. Someone who had never relied on luck to live could only rely on power.
The difficulty of refining an eleventh tier medicinal pill still ended up surpassing his expectations. After seven failures, he was forced to come to a stop.
He had lost ten percent of his Spiritual Strength from his efforts. In a battle, that wouldn’t cause any adverse effects, but while refining pills, just this ten percent drop in Spiritual Strength could lower his focus.
Despite his failures, he was comforted by the fact that each failure had led him further into the merger process.
He was already capable of merging one hundred and thirty of the ingredients. His strongest aspect was that he never made the same mistake twice.
As long as he persevered, he would eventually succeed. He had always been a staunch believer that even without good luck, as long as he put in ten times or a hundred times the effort of what other people did, he could still succeed. As for complaining, that was useless.
His heaven-defying bad luck had groomed his unyielding will, allowing him to bear his repeated failures and search for the correct path without giving up.
Long Chen consumed a soul nourishing pill and rested. After his soul was fully recovered, he pressed on.
One failure after another. The thirty sets of medicinal powder had almost been used up, but Long Chen was growing increasingly more confident. He knew that he was growing ever closer to success.
Finally, over two hundred types of medicinal powders successfully merged. He closed the lid, and runes danced on top of the Moon and Star Refining Furnace. This room’s formation was also automatically activated, drawing in energy from the world.
“This alchemy room is worth its weight in gold. I have to get one.” Long Chen looked at the runes on the walls and recorded them with a photographic jade. He would have Xia Chen research this when he got back.
An hour later, a muffled sound came from within the furnace. It shook ever so slightly before it quietened down.
“Success!”
Long Chen slowly opened the furnace, and a burst of dense medicinal fragrance erupted, filling the entire room.
However, Long Chen frowned. Upon extending a hand, a plump pill flew out.
“The medicinal fragrance wasn’t locked in. Most likely, the seventh flame change was too slow, resulting in flaws on the outer seal.”
Long Chen muttered to himself as he closely examined this pill.
There was a single line on top of this pill. It was a one-ring high grade eleventh tier pill. Although it wasn’t top grade, it was still very valuable.
However, to have used up thirty sets of ingredients to refine this single pill, there was no way that he had offset the cost of the ingredients.
His gaze was calm as he examined it. He applied the slightest bit of force with his fingers, and it split open. A dark red liquid dripped out, and the medicinal fragrance grew even stronger.
“The merger didn’t have any flaws. There aren’t any major problems. The overall experiment is very satisfactory.” Long Chen smiled.
After finding the problem, it was easy to fix it. There would definitely be many flaws in his first refinement.
Originally, he had thought that there had been some problem in the merger. That would be troublesome because he wouldn’t know which part of the merger process the problem lay in. Trying to figure it out would have taken much longer. However, based on his observation, it wasn’t the merger but one of the temperature changes.
What he had been dreading was having a whole heap of problems in his process. The fact that there weren’t that many was definitely thanks to the Moon and Star Refining Furnace and this special alchemy room. They had made up for any tiny mistakes he had made.
After another two hours, he finished his second refinement. His Spiritual Strength went all-out, and red ripples appeared over the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame, covering the entire furnace.
The furnace shook, and the runes on the walls began to send a torrent of energy within it. Rumbling voices rang out.
Long Chen was starting to sweat. Huo Long could not perfectly control the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame, so Long Chen was forced to increase the amount of Spiritual Strength he was using.
Long Chen was now using his Spiritual Strength as fuel to urge on the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame. It was being used up rapidly, and in just an incense stick’s worth of time, his entire body was soaked in sweat.
When merging the powders, due to having to keep track of multiple things, he couldn’t use the full force of his Spiritual Strength. But with the lid sealed, all he had to do was control the temperature.
During this time, he could wildly burn his Spiritual Strength. If the temperature grew a bit too hot, it wasn’t a problem. The Moon and Star Refining Furnace was more than capable of adjusting it as long as it wasn’t too great. On the other hand, if he didn’t put enough power behind his flame, it would be like last time. The outer layer of the pill would end up porous, which allowed the medicinal energy to leak out, lowering the final quality.
Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength was surging out without hesitation. He wanted absolute control over the Inverse Dao Water Spirit Flame at this time. As a result, the furnace was shaking and rumbling. An invisible energy slowly grew within, causing Long Chen’s expression to twitch.
“Seal!”
Long Chen shouted, slamming his hand on top of the lid.
The item-spirit wasn’t awake yet. Hence, the furnace was running purely on instinct and couldn’t help him too much.
The pill within it was too powerful. It was starting to have a desire to break free of its restrictions and fly out.
This was a dangerous moment. Many alchemists died at such junctures. Considering their positions, master alchemists should have long lives. However, seventy percent of alchemists ended up dying because of the pills they were refining.
An alchemist’s greatest desire was to challenge themselves and refine a unique and unmatched pill. However, such pills possessed so much power that they might explode once they escaped from the alchemist’s control.
Even if the furnace didn’t explode, for that kind of power to erupt within it would still be enough to instantly annihilate an alchemist with their weak body.
Long Chen was sweating hard. He hadn’t expected this pill to be so terrifying.
He didn’t know what that mysterious woman had done to him at the bottom of the divine pool in the Brahma Divine Palace, but his Pill Sovereign memories had gone through a second awakening, and he had learned this pill formula at that time.
The furnace was shuddering. If he allowed this energy to explode, then everything within a thirty mile radius would be annihilated. This place was the Dongfang family’s precious ancient city. If he allowed something to explode here, wouldn’t the Dongfang family take his life?
“What a miscalculation. If I had known this would happen, I would have used one of Pill Valley’s formulas…” Long Chen sighed.
He was already running out of Spiritual Strength. He had to control his flame while also sealing the furnace. Things had already surpassed his expectations.
“Damnit, I’m running out of Spiritual Strength.” Long Chen’s expression was starting to get ugly.
In order to increase the quality of this pill, he had calculated just how much Spiritual Strength he should use to get the best quality. In his calculations, he wouldn’t have much remaining Spiritual Strength after the pill formed.
However, something unexpected had occurred. Long Chen wanted to curse. As expected, his bad luck hung over him constantly.
The rumbling grew more intense, and Long Chen was pale. He did his best to suppress the eruption. The pill was about to take form. If he let up now, it would charge out and explode.
BANG!
Suddenly, Long Chen’s hand was blown off the lid, causing his expression to completely change.
