Chapter 237: Alchemy with Laws

Han Li let out a light breath, extended his palm flat forward, and gently lifted it.

The purple copper furnace, supported by an invisible force, slowly floated upward and hovered three feet above the ground.

Then, opening his mouth, he spat out a ball of Nascent Flame, which surged forth like a cloud of fire, remaining condensed and enveloping the purple copper furnace.

With a swoosh, the ancient runes and flame patterns on the furnace surface lit up simultaneously, and the entire furnace began to turn crimson.

Seeing this, Han Li waved his hand, and the candle grass flew gracefully into his palm.

The next moment, a bright green light shone from his palm, and a miniature green light vortex slowly rose, emitting a whistling sound.

The candle grass spun rapidly in the vortex in his palm, as if falling under a millstone, and was soon torn and ground into powder by this force.

With a soft sound, the lid of the purple copper furnace in the flames suddenly opened, and the powdered candle grass immediately flew inside.

Han Li waved his hand, and the furnace began to spin rapidly in the flames.

Time passed bit by bit, and a rich medicinal fragrance began to fill the secret chamber.

Han Li kept his focus on the changes in the furnace, adding various spiritual herbs one by one according to the pill formula, while continuously adjusting the temperature of the Nascent Flame.

After a full day and night, the firelight in the chamber gradually faded.

With a clang, the purple copper furnace slowly descended to the ground.

Han Li stood up, walked to the furnace, gently waved his hand to open the lid, and an extremely rich medicinal fragrance immediately hit his face.

He frowned slightly, leaned over with a somewhat tense expression, and looked into the furnace.

Inside the furnace, everything was pitch black, with only a layer of unformed medicinal powder, but not a single pill in sight.

As expected, the first batch of pills had completely failed.

Han Li reached in, grabbed some of the powder from the furnace, carefully ground it in his palm for a moment, then brought it to his nose and sniffed lightly, vaguely understanding the reason.

It seemed that the heat control had not been precise enough; when the pill was about to condense, the temperature was not high enough, leading to failure.

Having understood the cause, he was not annoyed. After resting for half a day, he began the second attempt.

…

More than ten days passed in a row.

In the secret chamber, on the ground before Han Li, there were nine small piles of black powder, resembling nine pointed graves.

He had attempted alchemy nine times in a row, all ending in failure.

Although he had mentally prepared for this, nine consecutive failures, mostly due to poor heat control, still gave him a sense of frustration and depression.

Previously, he thought that as long as he increased the heat when the pill condensed, it would ensure the pill formed. But the result was that as soon as the pill condensed, the temperature was too high, and it scattered back into powder—charred carbon powder at that.

Therefore, after the ninth failure, Han Li did not continue but stopped to think carefully about countermeasures.

The moment of pill condensation was fleeting, too short to grasp the key to heat control in a short time. At this rate, it would probably take at least a dozen more failures to gradually find the knack.

This showed that Earth Alchemists were precious for good reason; each one was nurtured with mountains of gold and silver.

But the problem was that he did not have enough herbs for practice. If he failed one more time, all the top-grade spirit stones he had spent would be wasted.

How could he seize that brief moment?

Han Li rubbed his brow, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration lit up his eyes with a strange brilliance.

He formed hand seals and chanted incantations. With a hum behind him, a pale golden wheel about a foot in size appeared—the Truthful Speech Wheel.

On the wheel, fourteen semi-transparent time dao patterns flickered nimbly, emitting a strange law fluctuation that slowed the air flow in the entire chamber.

With a thought, Han Li confined the influence of the law fluctuation to within a zhang in front of him, to minimize the consumption of immortal spiritual power.

Then he opened his mouth and spat out a ball of Nascent Flame, which lifted the purple copper furnace and slowly rotated it in midair.

The flames around the furnace rose much more slowly. Han Li could even see the trajectory of every inch of flame and the gradual lighting of the red patterns on the furnace.

He began to manipulate the spiritual herbs, turning them into powder and adding them to the furnace for refining.

The entire process, under the influence of the Truthful Speech Wheel, slowed down by more than three times.

At the same time, the changes of the herbs inside the furnace also slowed down, so that Han Li could see everything clearly with his Brightclarity Spirit Eyes.

What had been unclear before now became distinct.

Seeing this, Han Li immediately put away the Truthful Speech Wheel. Maintaining the wheel, even within a zhang range, was too costly. He had already grasped the key moments of pill condensation; by activating the wheel around those times, he should be able to seize those fleeting opportunities.

Time passed bit by bit. The refining process, which originally took a day and night, was extended nearly twofold. Yet Han Li gained more insights and understanding than from the previous nine attempts combined, especially in controlling the heat during pill condensation, which became much easier.

As the flames outside the furnace slowly faded, Han Li withdrew the Truthful Speech Wheel back into his body.

He waved the furnace over, opened the lid, and with some anxiety and anticipation, tilted the furnace to pour out its contents.

A shower of lead-black powder fell from the furnace mouth, followed by the sound of pills rolling inside.

Han Li was overjoyed. He turned the furnace upside down and reached out to catch.

Seven or eight round, light golden pills the size of dragon eyes rolled out of the furnace and fell into his hand.

According to the pill formula, a successful batch of Unified Origin Pills should yield fifteen or sixteen pills. Thus, this attempt was not entirely successful.

However, Han Li was quite satisfied. After all, he had treated these ten attempts as experiments, so accumulating experience to this extent was already remarkable.

Moreover, with the Time Wheel to assist, the success rate for refining this pill would greatly increase in the future.

He examined the pills in his hand repeatedly, then took out a porcelain bottle to store them, leaving only one. He picked it up and put it into his mouth, then closed his eyes slightly and began to cultivate the Truthful Speech Wheel Sutra.

Whether the pill was effective or not would be determined by this final test.

…

Two months later, above the spiritual fields at the foot of Red Cloud Peak, a green shadow descended from the sky, revealing Han Li's figure.

The pills he had refined earlier were extremely effective, so he had stayed in the secret chamber, taking the pills and continuing to cultivate, with noticeably improved speed. He only emerged today.

In the spiritual fields, Sun Buzheng and others were busy working.

Meng Yungui had apparently returned and was also busy among them.

Most of the spiritual fields near Red Cloud Peak had been cleared, arranged in neat rows, quite a sight.

After the fire miasma receded, not only had the climate recovered, but the spiritual vein of the fields had also returned to normal, no longer limited to planting fire-attributed materials.

Han Li nodded to himself. These fields, close to the main spiritual vein of Red Cloud Peak, were rich in spiritual power, so planting spiritual herbs should yield rapid growth.

He landed silently, and Meng Yungui and the others did not notice him. Since he did not conceal his presence, he was soon spotted by someone.

“Elder!” the man quickly bowed.

Hearing the sound, the others immediately saw Han Li in midair, put down their work, and bowed in unison.

“Elder Li, you’re back.” Meng Yungui, Sun Buzheng, and others, having interacted with Han Li for some time, roughly knew his temperament and no longer spoke in a consistently rigid manner.

“Mm, I just returned and came to have a look. You all continue your work. Meng Yungui, come with me.” Han Li waved his hand, telling the others to continue, then turned and flew toward the peak.

Meng Yungui acknowledged and followed.

After a moment, the two arrived at the cave residence.

“You’ve been running around for me all these years; it must have been hard. What did you gain?” Han Li got straight to the point.

“Elder Li, you flatter me. It is my honor to serve you; I don’t find it hard at all. By the way, here are the gains from these years. Please have a look.” Meng Yungui quickly said, then took out a storage device and respectfully handed it to Han Li.

Han Li took the storage device and probed it with his divine sense.

After a moment, a look of surprise appeared on his face. He nodded and said, “Well done.”

When he had originally asked Meng Yungui to look for spiritual herb seeds, it was merely a whim, and he had not held much hope.

After all, Meng Yungui’s cultivation was too low, and the circles he could access were limited.

But Meng Yungui’s harvest far exceeded his expectations. Each of the seeds he found was quite extraordinary, and many were auxiliary herbs needed for the Unified Origin Pill he had been refining. If these seeds were planted, he could save a large amount of spirit stones when refining Unified Origin Pills in the future.

In addition, he discovered several unfamiliar seeds that looked like stone, with granite-like patterns on the surface, yet clearly emitted traces of life energy.

“Elder Li, you flatter me. I was just lucky.” Meng Yungui said modestly, but could not help showing joy on his face.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then took out some seeds and handed them to Meng Yungui. Some were from Meng Yungui’s collection, and others were his own.

“Plant these seeds in the spiritual fields at the foot of the mountain and take good care of them,” he said.

“Yes, disciple understands.” Meng Yungui took the seeds and replied.

“Also, do not slack off in the search for seeds; continue the work. I bestow this magic treasure upon you for self-defense.” Han Li took out another storage pouch and gave it to Meng Yungui, instructing him.

“Thank you, Elder! Rest assured, Yungui will not fail your mission.” Meng Yungui immediately agreed, then turned and left.

Han Li stood still for a moment, then turned and went to the medicine garden in the cave residence.

He took out several seeds. Some were shaped like earthworms, some were crystal clear like jade beads, and others were pea-sized with uneven surfaces, looking like small clods of earth at first glance.

These seeds were part of the auxiliary materials needed for the Unified Origin Pill and the Spring Rain Pill.

Han Li carefully planted these seeds, watered them with spiritual liquid, and busied himself for half a day before stopping.

Looking at the expanding medicine garden, Han Li could not help but show a slight smile.

Then, he summoned the giant ape puppet, instructed it to take good care of the newly planted spiritual seeds, and turned to leave the medicine garden.