Immortality: Starting with the Fruit of Taiyin

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When the spirit boat landed, the foundation-building experts from the Han and Huang families went to greet it.

Nothing unexpected happened, and no one paid attention to the little alchemist in the corner.

Stepping off the spirit boat, Lu Qingyi, dressed in a pale yellow dress, gracefully accepted the greeting from several Foundation Establishment cultivators, showing no trace of the arrogance rumored to exist.

It's unclear whether it was the result of being reprimanded by the clan's elders, or whether the rumors were incorrect and spread through misinformation.

In short, none of this has much to do with him.

As the sun began to set, Wang Xuan, having acquired three batches of spiritual herbs for free, returned to the Earth Fire Chamber below the Pill Pavilion.

Upon opening the seal on the storage bag, a wisp of heat from the alchemy room rushed out, dispelling some of the escaping alien aura.

Instead of taking the corpse of the second-tier demon beast 'White Water Thunder' out of the bag, he reached into the storage bag.

A moment later, he withdrew his right hand.

Within Wang Xuan's sea of ​​consciousness, another sphere of second-tier origin shone brightly, far surpassing even a single sphere of second-tier essence blood.

Clearly, compared to the essence blood refined by cultivators, directly absorbing corpses is much more efficient.

"...Come on, it's time for my alchemy skills to improve."

Wang Xuan whispered to himself, then sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

"[Baiyang Danshu] First-Order Chapter... Extract it for me!"

This time, he did not divide the first-tier part into three volumes, since the first-tier superior grade was already the last of the first tier.

Moreover, the Dan Shu is an integrated system, and the more complete the comprehension, the more efficient the comprehension will be... In the future, if he wants to break through to the second level, he will need to comprehend the first level of the Dan Shu to the 'great success' stage, rather than just the minor success stage.

That's right. Although mastering the corresponding stage of alchemy to a minor level can make one a recognized alchemist of the same level by major powers.

However, to cross the threshold of the first and second tiers, one must at least possess the advanced alchemy skills to consistently refine high-quality pills in order to have a chance to reach a higher realm.

This is why Wang Xuan became a formal alchemist in six or seven years and is expected to reach the first-grade high-level realm around the age of forty or fifty. In the eyes of outsiders, he is only "qualified" to break through to the second level after the Foundation Establishment stage, and the probability is no more than one or two percent.

After all, the distance between minor and major mastery alone is enough to make a master alchemist of this caliber spend several decades or even a hundred years.

Even for those with mid-grade spiritual roots, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage is difficult. Even if their lifespan doubles after Foundation Establishment, they may not be able to comprehend second-tier alchemy techniques.

Because at this stage, even sects at the Core Formation stage lack the financial resources to provide a large quantity of spiritual herbs, allowing disciples on the threshold to continue experimenting.

Given limited resources, it's more likely that they can only refine one or two types of second-tier pills, becoming 'quasi-second-tier alchemists' who are not widely recognized by major powers...

Of course, these are just other people's opinions.

With the Dao Fruit within him, Wang Xuan never worried about his future.

Therefore, when the first-level scroll of the [White Yang Elixir Book] transformed into a 'concept' in his mind, he immediately relaxed his mind and tried to let this profound understanding linger in his mind for as long as possible.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Every minute and every second, the essence from the second-tier demon beast was burning.

Compared to the stripped essence and blood, the source that can be extracted from this complete demon body is much more powerful and complete.

It is like the shadow of the Great Dao, and also like facing the root of all things.

Until a certain moment, when that mysterious feeling dissipated from the depths of my heart.

Feeling dejected, Wang Xuan took out his alchemy cauldron and put the raw materials for the newly acquired Yellow Sprout Pill into it.

The operation was still somewhat unfamiliar, but my previous experience in alchemy made up for it.

Several hours later, as he performed the pill-collecting incantation in his hand, eight pills flew out of the cauldron.

Six of the pills exuded a fragrant aroma, were perfectly round, and had two white lines encircling them.

Only two pieces had a few faint traces of gray, indicating they were of significantly lower quality.

"The success rate of one batch of pills is 65%, and the percentage of genuine pills is 50%."

"First-order alchemy manual, minor completion without error."

Wang Xuan let out a soft breath, and an uncontrollable smile crept onto his lips.

As expected... this was the path he was meant to take.

What kind of genius in talismanic arts is this? What kind of chosen one of destiny?

With his unparalleled talent and extraordinary wisdom, he only needs a tiny bit of assistance from the "insignificant" Dao Fruit to far surpass the diligent cultivation of the world's most outstanding talents.

"call--"

After a short while, he exhaled a breath of stale air.

Sit cross-legged in quiet contemplation, and savor the lingering effects of the rapid advancement in Daoist alchemy.

Looking back, Wang Xuan couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.

"A first-grade high-level alchemist... If I had reached this level before the sect was destroyed, I wouldn't necessarily have needed to hold a position in the Han family's alchemy pavilion."

"After all, unlike weapon refiners and talisman masters, who only cross the bottom of the cultivation world's 'dumping trap' after reaching the second tier and begin to embody the noble craftsmanship of artisans."

"It is not as incredibly difficult as the Way of Formations, which involves many intricacies of talismans, weapon crafting, earth spirits, celestial phenomena, etc., and its breadth of knowledge ranks among the top of all arts."

"As an alchemist, as long as you can refine pills that help cultivators break through the bottlenecks of the mid and late stages of Qi Refining, you will be respected by rogue cultivators and befriended and valued by ordinary Foundation Establishment families."

"Therefore, the first-order inheritance of alchemy is much harder to obtain than the other first-order arts... Even newly established Foundation Establishment families have to pay a huge price to acquire it."

Without rushing to refine the Lesser Jade Marrow Pill, Wang Xuan carefully put the pill away and left the Earth Fire Chamber.

Using the bones of a second-tier demon beast as the main ingredient in alchemy, he would probably need to use a high-grade alchemy cauldron to do justice to the materials.

Therefore, to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, Wang Xuan decided to wait until the Han family had completed their foundation building before making any decisions.

After all, although the Earth Fire Chamber was equipped with relevant formations when it was first built, this was not a reason for him to be careless.

This is Han family territory after all; who knows if they can bypass the array's restrictions without making a sound?

With Wang Xuan's late-stage Qi Refining spiritual sense, and the unknown grade of the Spirit Refining Technique, the spiritual sense of a Qi Refining cultivator could not hide from him.

Only Han Changming, being a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was someone he couldn't detect.

After leaving the Pill Pavilion, Wang Xuan planned to take advantage of the time to inquire about the price of raw materials for first-tier breakthrough pills.

"Breakthrough pills are considered strategic resources by Foundation Establishment families."

"Because once a cultivator's qi and blood decline, not only is it extremely dangerous to attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, but it is also very dangerous to break through the bottleneck of the mid-to-late stage of Qi Refining. Only breakthrough pills can solve this problem."

"A mid-grade spiritual root needs it to accelerate the breakthrough of its bottleneck, save several years, and complete the Qi refinement before its Qi and blood decline."

"A low-grade spiritual root needs to break through to the late stage of Qi Refining after reaching a certain age to enhance its status and strength for the rest of its life."

"Under these circumstances, even if the Nascent Soul sects are high and mighty, they are unwilling to see a large number of Breakthrough Pills circulating in the market, which would allow more talented low-level cultivators to reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage before their Qi and blood decline, and then rely on a large number of them to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage..."

Theoretically speaking, Nascent Soul sects wouldn't care about Foundation Establishment cultivators.

However, the prerequisite is that their numbers cannot be too large, and they cannot all be rogue cultivators who have risked their lives to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage.