The Demon Slayer Martial Saint Begins with Insect Refining

Chapter 266 Little Zhou Tian’s Star Aperture

After returning from Wangtian Pass, Su Yan immediately began his seclusion at Hanying Peak.

There are three alchemy techniques in total, all of which are of the third-tier high-grade level. If an ordinary person were to cultivate them, it would probably take several years of immersion to fully master them.

However, Su Yan is different from ordinary people.

The Ferocious Insect Cauldron grants the ability to prove something permanently. As the refining techniques are constantly corrected, progress is visible to the naked eye, which is much faster than any guidance from anyone.

Besides the ability brought by the Ferocious Insect Cauldron, Su Yan has already mastered several alchemy techniques, including the basic alchemy techniques of the Transcendent Realm, the Five Elements Alchemy Technique, the Nine Dragons Pill Sealing Technique, and the Gu Pill Technique.

Although their quality varied, they all reached a state of perfection, demonstrating that Su Yan's understanding of alchemy had penetrated to the very core of his being.

It can be said that Su Yan was an outstanding figure even among third-tier alchemists at this time.

The reason for exchanging for three top-grade third-level alchemy techniques was to further improve his alchemy skills so that he could refine all three types of top-grade third-level pills into super-grade ones.

Su Yan took a large batch of medicinal materials from Nangong Hongyue, mainly blood crystals.

Right there on Cold Shadow Peak, with the third-tier Red Gu Cauldron lent to him by Nangong Hongyue, he began to refine basic pills such as Blood Essence Pill and Blood Bone Pill for the Sacred Insect Path.

With the Flame Armored Scorpion as an aid, Su Yan continuously refined pills using three pill-making techniques: the Divine Fire Pill Technique, the Floating Fragrance Pill Technique, and the Returning Spirit Pill Technique.

Before you knew it, more than half a month had passed.

Each pill will definitely yield seven or more. Even beginners can achieve a 100% success rate in refining first and second-tier pills, while the success rate for super-grade pills is only one in ten at the beginning.

Half a month later, the three alchemy techniques had gradually reached the great mastery stage, and the number of pills produced had reached eight per batch, with a super-grade rate of about 20-30%.

In just half a month, no less than a thousand pills were made, and all the medicinal materials were used up.

In Hanying Peak City, Yang Lun personally led a team to open a shop for the Sacred Insect Path, serving Su Yan by collecting intelligence and making connections.

After handing over the pills to them, Su Yan originally planned to take another batch of medicinal herbs to continue practicing.

Unexpectedly, Yang Lun showed a troubled expression. The sect war was intense, and they had to collect many medicinal herbs in batches. Now, they couldn't meet Su Yan's refining speed in a short time.

Yang Lun wanted to risk going out to bring a batch over, but Su Yan refused.

Instead, they approached Yuan Hong and Xiang Ge.

Inside the room, the air was filled with the scent of sandalwood, and Su Yan, Yuan Hong, and Xiang Ge sat around a black round wooden table.

"Boy, what do you want with us?"

Xiang Ge looked puzzled and glanced at Su Yan for a while. In his impression, Su Yan was someone who rarely troubled others.

Yuan Hong maintained the same expression, but his tone was much more concerned: "Nephew, is there anything I can help you with?"

"My two senior uncles, you must both have quite a few medicinal herbs, right?"

Xiang Ge looked surprised, then realized what was going on: "You're short of cultivation herbs? Tell me, and I can provide you with some if you need them."

The best way to refine rare and precious materials into elixirs is to use them to achieve the highest efficiency.

However, there isn't always an opportunity to refine pills, nor is there always a pill formula that can be assembled.

Sometimes, directly consuming rare and precious medicinal herbs is the norm.

Xiang Ge was generous, giving away his gifts without hesitation. A faint light flashed in his storage ring, revealing three rare and precious herbs: Jade Fungus, Dragon Song Fruit, and Silver Star Flower.

"They are all third-tier low-grade, but they are all good spiritual medicines for accumulating true essence and cleansing the golden core..."

Just as Xiang Ge was about to introduce himself to Su Yan, Su Yan interrupted him.

"Uncle-Master, give me your medicinal herbs, and I'll refine them into pills for you, how about that?"

Upon hearing Su Yan's question, Xiang Ge instinctively replied, "What kind of pills do you refine? You can... wait, you can do this too?"

Xiang Ge's eyes widened, and Yuan Hong also looked doubtful.

He said, "Learning alchemy is a good thing, but third-tier rare and precious materials are probably best handled by third-tier alchemists, otherwise..."

Su Yan slammed a plaque shaped like a furnace cauldron onto the table.

The crisp sound immediately caught the attention of Xiang Ge and Yuan Hong.

Upon seeing this, the two men's pupils contracted immediately, as if they had seen a ghost.

The plaque of a third-tier alchemist from the Beast King Sect's Alchemy Pavilion.

"What's your relationship with that old man Deng Rongqiu? How did you get his badge?"

Su Yan rolled her eyes at him and said irritably, "It's the real deal, mine."

Yuan Hong tugged at his beard, the pain shooting through his cheek, reminding him that this was no joke, nor a dream.

Xiang Ge's vision went black, and he almost slapped his thigh in shock. Damn it, what if Old Man Hu found out...

Alright, I'd better not go back to the mountain gate anytime soon.

Su Yan put away the token and spoke frankly, saying directly, "I recently exchanged for three new alchemy techniques, and I've only just reached the Great Perfection stage. To reach the Transcendent stage, I'll need to refine more challenging pills."

Difficult-to-make pills are roughly equivalent to third-tier pills.

The two exchanged a glance and finally understood why Su Yan had come to find them.

Tier 3 materials—how many people in this city have enough reserves? It's just a few of them.

Xiang Ge discovered the blind spot: "Where is your master?"

Su Yan said matter-of-factly, "Who would use their own master's rare and precious treasures for practice? She's second to last."

Even without Su Yan saying it, Su Yan is definitely going to be last.

Xiang Ge narrowed his eyes slightly: "You've got some good stuff hidden away, kid. I don't believe you haven't exchanged your three million contribution points for something nice."

If you don't know how to refine pills, you should definitely prioritize exchanging for pills.

However, this guy knows alchemy and has specially exchanged for a higher-level alchemy technique.

The answer is self-evident.

Su Yan didn't hide anything from him and said, "I am confident that I can refine the three kinds of third-grade high-quality pills, namely Blood Refining Golden Pill, Spirit Condensing Golden Pill, and Dragon Scale Body Condensing Pill, into a super-grade pill, which is equivalent to raising the pill's grade by half a level."

Yuan Hong and Xiang Ge gasped, their eyes gleaming with envy.

If a third-grade superior-quality pill is upgraded by half a grade, it will almost be a half-step fourth-grade pill.

One pill of this kind will not only make the medicine more potent by one or two percent, but will enhance it in every way.

And look at how others choose their elixirs; that's what it means to have them tailored to their individual needs.

The Blood Refining Golden Pill is used to cultivate contracted beasts, continuously refining their bloodline and strengthening their foundation.

The Dragon Scale Body-Condensing Pill strengthens the physical foundation of a martial artist at the Dan Aperture Realm, while the Spirit-Condensing Golden Pill condenses and strengthens the soul—a fine medicine prepared for the future condensation of the Divine Soul Golden Pill.

"Good nephew/niece"

Speak like a human being.

Xiang Ge revealed a fawning smile: "Since you're planning to refine this elixir, do you think there's any possibility we could..."

Alchemists are hard to find, especially third-tier alchemists who can refine super-grade alchemy.

"You can use all the rare and precious materials in my secret stash to practice on."

Su Yan glanced at him: "Uncle Xiang, although I was just practicing, I still used the rare and precious materials you have to refine them into third-grade pills to aid cultivation according to their medicinal properties. Although they are not as good as the three types of pills I mentioned, they are definitely of low-grade third grade."

Yuan Hong waved his hand and shoved Xiang Ge, saying, "Go away, you shameless bastard, trying to take advantage of the junior. For the practice pills, you just take your cut according to the rules for alchemists for each batch. As for the three types of pills, I will collect rare and precious materials and give them to you to refine. Just make sure each batch contains one top-grade pill, how about that?"

Yuan Hong was also generous. Generally speaking, the commission for pills is not low, usually between one-third and one-half.

Xiang Ge interjected, "That's not what Fatty Yuan meant, I meant the same thing." Su Yan pondered for a moment, then said, "For the practice, I asked my two senior uncles for help. Why such a heavy cut? Just take one pill from each batch. As for the three types of pills, take one out of every three, how about that?"

"Can"

Without a second thought, the two agreed immediately.

This isn't some junior apprentice; this is their beloved alchemist father.

Both of them were single and trusted Su Yan. Kuangkuang emptied out his entire savings, from third-tier rare herbs to second-tier spiritual herbs, and in the blink of an eye, he had hundreds of them.

Normally, the two of them would not have been able to keep so many second-tier medicinal herbs.

But this is wartime. If we kill the enemy, most of the treasures in their storage rings will belong to them.

Once accumulated, it will naturally amount to a considerable sum.

Su Yan accepted everything without hesitation, and a few days later, Xiang Ge and Yuan Hong left Hanying Peak.

They were either attacking the occupied territories of demonic sects or ambushing their Danqiao Realm cultivators. The two were calculating and ruthless, and their results were quite impressive.

The surrounding mountains of Hanying Peak have relieved many of the siege.

However, their actions alerted Long Qiushui to the problem.

Within a few days, he sent over all his rare and precious materials, leaving Su Yan with the words, "Half for each of us."

With three Danqiao Realm cultivators as a safety net, the resources at hand suddenly became more plentiful.

As he said, Su Yan directly combined the third-tier natural treasures according to their medicinal properties to create temporary nameless pills. All of them were third-tier pills, and some with similar medicinal properties could even become mid-grade third-tier pills.

A skilled alchemist is not simply someone who can replicate a recipe exactly as it appears.

A true alchemist is one who has a deep understanding of the properties of medicinal herbs and can combine them in the right proportions to create a elixir.

As for the pill formulas, they are all refined through countless trials and refinements. Only after the effects of the pills are stable, and the refining techniques and methods are stable, can they be passed down to the world for ordinary alchemists to refine.

Su Yan's recipe relies entirely on skill, and the refining process cannot be taken lightly.

As a result, thanks to the use of alchemy techniques, Su Yan's three alchemy methods improved rapidly.

In less than seven days, the first alchemy technique reached its pinnacle.

Five days and four days later, they successively mastered the alchemy techniques and reached the level of perfection.

Having mastered the art, Su Yan rested for a day and briefly inquired about the situation of Xiang Ge and Yuan Hong.

The two of them worked hard, but unfortunately, the raw materials for the three types of Golden Elixir were not easy to collect.

He immediately started refining pills, producing the three types of pills in sequence.

This refining process took more than half a month.

Ten batches of the Seed Aperture Elixir were produced, yielding a total of 81 elixirs, of which 41 were in perfect condition and 40 were of superior quality.

Ten batches of Blood Refining Golden Elixir were completed, yielding a total of 84 elixirs, of which 52 were in perfect condition and 32 were of superior quality.

The Dragon Scale Condensation Pills were produced in ten batches, yielding a total of 88 pills, of which 45 were in perfect condition and 43 were of superior quality.

Ten batches of the Concentrated Golden Elixir were completed, yielding a total of 90 pills, of which 64 were in perfect condition and 27 were of superior quality.

There were over three hundred pills in total; any one of them could fetch tens of thousands of gold coins or over ten thousand contribution points. If they were of superior quality, they would be priceless.

"I underestimated the difficulty of refining a third-grade high-quality pill."

Su Yan shook his head slightly, adjusted his breathing, and then put away all the pills.

The further one goes in the refining process, the harder it becomes to concentrate, to the point that the success rate of producing top-grade pills continues to decline.

However, with such a high success rate in producing top-grade pills, his alchemy skills probably already qualify him as a fourth-tier alchemist.

"Let's try the Seed-Planting Pill first."

Su Yan took out the Superior Aperture Pill and swallowed it without hesitation.

The seed pill melts instantly upon entering the mouth, a refreshing sensation flowing down the throat into the abdomen and then spreading throughout the body.

The flow of spiritual energy instantly transformed into a raging torrent, constantly surging through his meridians, searching for the existence of the minor star aperture within his body.

This wasn't the first time Su Yan had taken the Seed of the Aperture Pill, but this time the pill was clearly more potent, and the intense pain it caused was constantly increasing.

The more Zhongqiao Dan (种窍丹) you take, the stronger the resonance of the star apertures in your body becomes with each additional pill, and the greater the pressure on your meridians.

For ordinary martial artists who haven't reached the Danqiao realm, being able to hold three or four is already quite impressive.

Once you enter the Danqiao realm, there are only ten star apertures in the first level of heaven.

Su Yan possessed a powerful physical body and robust constitution, and had already opened twenty star apertures.

To open it again now would be as painful as having one's bones broken.

The veins on his forehead bulged slightly, his face was flushed, and pain was emanating from his body, as if his bones had been broken.

He remained completely still, enduring the pain entirely.

About fifteen minutes later, the surging spiritual energy found its outlet, and a star aperture gradually formed, sitting next to the True Essence Golden Core.

Su Yan opened his eyes, his true essence surged, and his aura continued to strengthen.

"With one Seed-Opening Pill, the Star Aperture opened is much larger than before. The true essence in my body has also increased by at least 30%."

A hint of joy appeared in his eyes. The more he planted the star apertures, the more he focused on laying a solid foundation, transforming them into star maps to communicate with nature.

While the increase in pure product might decrease, the fact that it can still increase by 30% shows that the effects of the super-grade product are extraordinary.

"continue"

Su Yan rested briefly, then continued taking the pills, consuming fifteen in a row, bringing the total number of Star Apertures he had planted to thirty-six, matching the number of the Heavenly Gang.

The small star apertures form their own universe, scattered among the upper, middle, and lower dantian, resonating with each other from afar, vaguely as if they are constructing a star map.

Su Yan knew this was just an illusion. Of the three dantian, only the True Essence Golden Core had been lit up; the Blood Qi Golden Core and the Divine Soul Golden Core were not yet formed. The current resonance was not real.

However, the future is promising, but the strength of his physical body is no longer sufficient for him to continue cultivating his spiritual core.

After he stopped, he instead took the Dragon Scale Body Condensation Pill and the Spirit Condensation Golden Pill to continuously refine his body and soul.

This practice lasted for more than a month.

Xiang Ge and Yuan Hong finally gathered enough raw materials and handed them over to Su Yan.

While cultivating, Su Yan refined pills for all of them, producing eight pills, more than half of which were of superior quality.

Su Yan drew one out of three pills, but the two were still overjoyed. They took the pills and went out again.

Compared to the two, Su Yan's progress in cultivation was truly terrifying; he was clearly at the first level of the Danqiao Realm.

His aura alone was so profound that even a martial artist at the second level of cultivation would have to doubt their own cultivation level if they stood in front of him.

Qi and blood flowed freely, and true essence was as vast as the sea.

He has not yet entered the Poison Dragon Valley to receive the inheritance of the Poison Dragon Master and further temper his body.

Based on his current physical strength alone, Su Yan felt that he had already reached the threshold of the eighth stage of the Core Formation.

Just then, in Hanyingfeng City, Yang Lun quietly sent a message: "The Tianshui Sect, Huoyun Sect, and Tieying Sect have besieged the Yanwu Mountain Range. The three major tribes have gathered together, and it is a critical moment."

The time has come.

(End of this chapter)