Chapter 362: Second Thoughts and Reconsideration

Before the alchemy furnace, Han Li's expression was grave, sweat already faintly visible on his forehead, and his breathing seemed somewhat labored.

He had already underestimated the difficulty of refining a Dao Pill as much as possible, but now, refining it with his own hands, he realized how terribly wrong he had been.

The refinement of a Dao Pill was completely different from that of ordinary pills.

Although the formulas for common pills varied endlessly, the process was basically to first refine various medicinal ingredients, then gather them together, condense them into pill form, and finally remove them from the furnace.

Dao Pills, however, were different. Everything centered on materials imbued with the power of laws. Thus, during refinement, one had to simultaneously refine the materials while, like rolling a snowball, continuously fuse various materials with the law-bearing materials. This meant carrying out the refinement of materials and the condensation of the pill form at the same time, making the difficulty more than ten times greater.

The steps of fusing various medicinal ingredients, controlling the heat, balancing the medicinal properties, and so on were even more complex.

In particular, the main material, the time-attribute crystal grains, also had to achieve a certain balance with the various medicinal powers to ensure perfect fusion, making the alchemy process even more arduous.

Han Li felt as if he were commanding an enormous army rehearsing an extremely complex battle formation, but every single person in the army was beyond his control, and they even constantly clashed fiercely with one another.

He had to balance all the conflicts while guiding everyone toward the formation.

If his alchemy skills had not greatly improved before, he would have already been unable to hold on and failed.

Yet even so, as the refinement reached this point, he was gradually feeling the strain, but there were still many materials that had not been incorporated into the furnace.

After adding these materials, there would be more aspects to control.

Because Dao Pill contains the power of laws, before its refinement is complete, it must not come into contact with other law powers; otherwise, the semi-finished pill would undergo changes, and any unexpected incident could lead to failure in pill refinement.

Thus, Han Li's True Word Wheel of Dharma could not be employed at this moment, and he could only rely entirely on his pill refinement techniques to sustain the process.

He took a deep breath, then raised his hand again, took a portion of material, and cast it into the furnace, causing the furnace fire to flare up once more.

As time passed, several more of the remaining materials were added to the pill.

Han Li's breathing grew heavier and heavier, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes involuntarily became covered with bloodshot streaks.

After taking a deep breath, he emitted a beam of green light, enveloping a material—a bottle of green spiritual liquid—and cast it into the furnace again.

The green liquid was refined within the furnace and merged into the white pill that had become round and smooth.

A layer of green light immediately appeared on the surface of the white pill, but it gradually dimmed, seemingly on the verge of disappearing completely.

But at that moment, the white pill suddenly trembled, and various strange lights emerged on its surface, intertwining and shaking violently.

Han Li's expression changed, and before he could do anything, it was already too late.

A muffled sound of 'puff' came from within the white pill, and a crack appeared on its surface.

The next moment, all the light radiating from the pill's surface vanished, and the spiritual energy that had filled the surroundings abruptly ceased.

This all happened so suddenly, and in an instant everything returned to normal, as if he had not been refining a Dao Pill but merely an ordinary pill.

Han Li sighed and waved his hand, sending out a spell seal.

The silver flame at the bottom of the furnace instantly dissipated, condensing into a silver flame figure, and all the flames withdrew into its body.

With a gesture, the cracked pill, wrapped in a green light, flew out and landed gently between his two fingers.

Han Li brought the pill close to his eyes and examined it carefully, the faint ripples in his heart gradually calming.

He had actually been mentally prepared for failing to refine a Dao Pill on his first attempt, especially since what he was refining was a Time Dao Pill, one that contained one of the three supreme laws.

As he pondered, his eyes brightened and a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

This discarded pill might be useless to other alchemists, but to him, it was of great use.

Han Li formed hand seals with both hands. Golden light flashed behind him, and the True Word Wheel emerged, spinning with a hum.

All three hundred and sixty Time Dao patterns on the wheel blazed with dazzling golden light, and in the hollow center, a golden vertical eye appeared—the True Eye.

Light flickered on the surface of the golden vertical eye as it slowly opened, revealing the eyeball within.

Dazzling golden light radiated from the eyeball, and countless strange golden runes swirled across it, like countless stars twinkling in the night sky.

As these runes turned, the golden light emitted by the True Eye flickered incessantly, dazzling to behold, like a kaleidoscope.

With the Time Dao patterns increased to three hundred and sixty, the aura and insight of the True Eye were now incomparable to before.

Han Li closed his eyes and perceived the world around him with the True Eye, his brows lifting slightly.

The several layers of restrictions set up around the cave dwelling were as good as nothing under the True Eye, easily seen through. Not only that, but all the spiritual power flows within the restrictions were clearly presented, as clear as the lines on one's palm.

It was a pity that there were only these few restrictions around him at the moment, so he could not fully demonstrate the True Eye's current observational ability.

Han Li withdrew his gaze from the surroundings. There would always be opportunities to use the True Eye's insight later; for now, his interest lay elsewhere.

The golden pupil shifted, turning to look at the discarded pill in his hand.

The golden light on the True Eye suddenly surged, and a tangible beam of golden light shot out, striking the discarded pill and merging into it.

The discarded pill immediately emitted dazzling golden light, rolling and tumbling, radiating waves of time power fluctuations.

The next moment, the discarded pill suddenly spun in midair, a green light flashed on its surface, and a stream of green liquid separated from within.

At the same time, various colors flickered on the discarded pill, and subtle changes occurred in different parts of the pill.

These were all changes resulting from the fusion of the green liquid with the various medicinal materials. Although what was now presented was the reverse process, the entire process could still be clearly observed.

To be honest, one of the main reasons Han Li had the confidence to attempt refining the Dao Pill was precisely the time-reversal ability of his True Eye.

A layer of blue light appeared in his eyes as he stared intently at the waste pill, not missing a single detail.

Suddenly, his gaze shifted slightly.

It was at this step that an error occurred, causing the pill to explode.

The green liquid quickly separated completely from the waste pill, and the various colors on the pill dimmed, returning to the state before the green liquid was added.

With blue light flickering in his eyes, Han Li felt a surge of joy.

By reviewing the process in reverse like this, he indeed discovered the reason for his failure, just as he had expected.

The changes on the waste pill continued; a layer of white light reappeared, and then some white powder separated from it.

Various colors emerged on the pill again, accompanied by some subtle changes.

Han Li had made no mistake in this step earlier, but now, reviewing it again and pondering it carefully in light of his previous experience, he naturally gained a deeper understanding of this step.

In this manner, materials would occasionally separate from the waste pill, presenting the alchemy process in reverse.

Having watched the entire process from start to finish, Han Li gained a clearer understanding of the Dao Pill's refinement.

The waste pill eventually reverted to the time crystal grain, and finally, the condensation process of the time crystal grain was also reversed until it completely ended.

However, he paid no attention to this part.

The golden light flickered twice and dissipated, and the waste pill reappeared.

Although he was now at the late True Immortal stage, performing the True Eye once still consumed most of his immortal spiritual power.

Han Li let out a long breath, took out a pill and swallowed it, closed his eyes to refine the medicinal power, and at the same time carefully reviewed the entire process of refining the Dao Pill in his mind.

Half an hour later, he opened his eyes, a gleam of light flashing in them, and his spirits lifted greatly.

He did not immediately start refining because the time crystal grain would take a month to condense.

During the following month, Han Li did nothing else but continuously use the True Eye to watch the previous alchemy process over and over again.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed.

The Celestial Bottle finally condensed another drop of green liquid, and Han Li immediately refined it into a time crystal grain.

Then he took out another set of materials and began the second round of refining.

Having watched the alchemy process countless times, Han Li was thoroughly familiar with the earlier steps and completed them very smoothly and fluently, quickly reaching the step of fusing the green liquid.

He took out a bottle of green liquid, guided it with one hand, and poured the liquid into the alchemy furnace.

In the scorching furnace, the green liquid was refined and reduced by more than half.

Han Li waved his hand to emit a stream of green light, enveloping the green liquid, and merged it into the pill.

His hands quickly formed seals, and the green liquid gradually integrated into the pill. The pill flashed with green light and then settled down without any issues.

Seeing this, Han Li breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the next material, and threw it into the furnace.

Perhaps because he had watched the alchemy process so many times, the subsequent refining went smoothly, and he successfully incorporated the materials into the pill one after another.

In the blink of an eye, only six or seven materials remained.

But at this point, Han Li's expression turned serious, a layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and it seemed he was reaching some kind of limit in all aspects.

He gritted his teeth and focused his mind, waved his hand to take a white gelatinous material, and added it to the furnace.

Suddenly, a white light flashed inside the furnace, followed by a dull thud, and then a burnt smell slowly emanated.

Han Li frowned, but soon relaxed his brow.

He closed his eyes and rested for a moment to recover his weary mind, then waved his hand to take out the waste pill while forming seals with his hands.

Hum!

The Truth Wheel appeared again, and soon the True Eye was activated, looking at the waste pill.

A beam of golden light shot out, entered the waste pill, and immediately a large area of golden light emerged on the waste pill, beginning to reverse the alchemy process.

With the True Eye, Han Li quickly found the reason for this failure...

A month later, he followed the same method and began the third round of alchemy.

During this period, as before, he continuously used the True Eye to watch the previous alchemy process.

The time-reversal ability of the True Eye was almost equivalent to allowing him to repeat the refining process so many times, accumulating rich experience.

As before, Han Li completed all the previous steps extremely smoothly, then took a portion of white gelatin and threw it into the furnace.

He had already understood the key to this step, formed seals with his hands, and quickly completed it successfully.

Han Li took the next material and threw it into the furnace.

At this point, the pill refining was nearing its end; he only needed to incorporate the remaining seven materials into the pill to be considered more than half successful.

Having failed only twice and achieving this result, he was quite pleased.

But after just a quarter of an hour, he could no longer be happy.

With a "bang" sound from within the furnace, it meant that his third attempt at refining the Dao Pill had ended in failure again.