Chapter 50: Drawing a Circle with Left Hand, Drawing a Square with Right Hand
Translator: celefoata_ Editor: RegiusProfessor
If it was about martial arts, Ye Yuan might be more humble. But as for alchemy, Ye Yuan really did not know how to be modest.
It could be said that Ye Yuan spent his entire past life busying with alchemy. He was simply too familiar with medicinal herbs and pills.
This sort of familiarity was engraved into the soul. Even if he changed his body, that sort of familiar feeling which came from the soul would automatically make the body carry out the most appropriate actions.
Originally, Ye Yuan wanted to be low-key. But once he touched those medicinal herbs, he could not help but to complete the preparation of herbs and refine the medicinal essence.
Others might be filled with trepidation towards measuring the quant.i.ty of the medicinal herbs and did not dare to carelessly leave out anything. But Ye Yuan just had to casually grab them with his hands, and the quant.i.ty of the herbs would definitely be accurate.
This was the ability developed through million and million times of practice. n.o.body could imitate that.
Feng Ruoqing stared blankly at Ye Yuan and did not know what to say.
Refining a Tier 1 medicinal pill was . . . simple?
"D-do as you like. I-I'm going to the quiet chamber to meditate!"
After saying that, Feng Ruoqing turned around, and entered the quiet chamber once more.
This round of meditation was four hours; it was much longer than initially planned.
Feng Ruoqing's mental state was a mess and was not able to enter a meditative state for a long time. She only managed to purge her distracting thoughts after two hours, and then she entered the empty state.
After exiting the quiet chamber, Feng Ruoqing recovered her haughty and cold att.i.tude once again. Walking in front of the Red Lotus Cauldron, she instructed emotionlessly, "Bring the medicinal essence over. Fire up the cauldron. Refine!"
Ye Yuan did not waste these four hours either. He was training while meditating the whole time.
In comparison with his past life, the current Ye Yuan was much more diligent.
The Ye Yuan who managed to become an Alchemy Emperor before understood that there were no shortcuts to cultivation. No matter how talented one was, there was only hard work and more hard work.
Hearing Feng Ruoqing's instructions, Ye Yuan pa.s.sed the two jade containers with the medicinal essences in them over to her and prepared to fire up the cauldron.
Feng Ruoqing looked over at Ye Yuan in surprise. Initially, she was prepared to open her mouth to instruct Ye Yuan on what to do. But who would have thought that Ye Yuan would perform what an a.s.sistant should do with such familiarity.
The Dan Wu Academy's pill refinement chambers were established on top of an Earth Vein. Earth fire was guided over to refine pills.
This sort of pill refinement style was only suitable for low tiers. High tier pills must use heaven and earth flame sources. But Ye Yuan was not a stranger to this style of refinement.
Opening the fire valve, the scorching earth fire burst out from the ground, instantly raising the temperature in the pill refinement chamber.
Although earth fire could not be compared to heaven and earth flame sources, it was extraordinary among the mortal fires. It was more than sufficient to refine a Tier 1 medicinal pill.
Ye Yuan rapidly formed seals with both hands and slowly moved towards the fire. The fire immediately became like an obedient baby while still being incomparably docile. 1
Following which, Ye Yuan spread his hands apart and cried out, "Stabilize!"
The earth fire automatically separated into two and scorched the two sides of the Red Lotus Cauldron uniformly.
Looking at this scene, a trace of surprise flashed across Feng Ruoqing's eyes once again.
She had never heard of this kind of fire controlling skill!
Earth fire was abnormally wild. It could only be used after layers upon layers of array formations were placed on top of the academy.
Even so, this fire was not something that an average Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm could easily control.
But this fire was just like a house pet in front of Ye Yuan. If he asked it to lay down, it would not dare to stand.
However, the refinement procedure had already begun. Feng Ruoqing could not afford to be surprised and hastily recollected herself.
Feng Ruoqing formed hand seals with one hand and pointed a finger towards the Red Lotus Cauldron. The cauldron lid flew up by itself.
Following that, she gestured with her other hand, and the two medicinal essences flew through the air into the pill furnace.
"Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique! Activate!"
With a low cry, Feng Ruoqing's two jade-like hands moved like phantom images.
Right now, it was no longer Ye Yuan's business. He took it easy as he watched Feng Ruoqing repeatedly change seals continuously to temper the medicinal essence. Watching this, he could not refrain from nodding his head.
This woman more or less had some standards. It looked like she spent no little effort on the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique.
But she had yet to fully master the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique, so it appears executing it was a little forced. It seems like this furnace of medicinal pills was going to be wasted.
The Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was not so easy to master. During the refining process, the alchemist had to do two things at once. One hand had to perform Yang-attribute seals, while the other hand had to execute Yin-attribute seals. Furthermore, it had to be carried out simultaneously with no room for any error.
Any mistake during the process would result in the furnace of medicinal pills to be wasted.
This was an extremely challenging test towards the alchemist's mental strength, soul strength, and familiarity with the seals.
In the beginning, Feng Ruoqing did quite well. But around the mid-stage of the refinement, it was clear that her strength was failing. Small beads of sweat started appearing on her forehead, and she looked like straining herself.
Puff!
A black cloud appeared.
The pills were ruined . . .
Feng Ruoqing stomped her feet angrily and shouted at Ye Yuan, "Again!"
Ye Yuan looked at Feng Ruoqing but did not say anything and immediately went to prepare the herbs.
This time around, Feng Ruoqing finally saw how Ye Yuan prepared the herbs, and she was left utterly speechless.
Ye Yuan grabbed at this herb and grabbed again at another herb. After that, he threw them into a jade container and started mas.h.i.+ng them; appearing highly irresponsible.
However, Feng Ruoqing was unable to open her mouth to scold him. That was because she knew that the medicine essence Ye Yuan refined, regardless of quality or precision, was much better than her doing it.
Just how in the world did this guy do it? Could it be that his hands were measurement tools? How did he know exactly how much was required?
The way Ye Yuan prepared the herbs was really too casual . . .
Seeing Feng Ruoqing's expression, Ye Yuan gave a dry cough and laughed awkwardly. "This . . . came from family teachings. You are also aware that my father is an Alchemy Grandmaster. I was forced since young. Haha . . . Haha."
Feng Ruoqing glared fiercely at Ye Yuan. Believe my foot!
But she also knew that Ye Yuan would not tell her the truth, so it was pointless to ask.
After 15 minutes, Ye Yuan finished refining the medicinal essence once more.
Feng Ruoqing swallowed a Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill. After meditating for a while, her essence energy had more or less recovered.
Looking at this, Ye Yuan was secretly dumbstruck. Just what was this Feng Ruoqing's background?
A Tier 2 Qi Returning Pill naturally was not much in Ye Yuan's eyes. But it was not something common in the State of Qin. The price was very high.
Feng Ruoqing casually took one out to eat and did not even blinked.
Also, that Red Lotus Cauldron, it was absolutely a high-grade medicine cauldron in the State of Qin. Ordinary people simply could not get a hold of it.
It seemed like this Teacher Feng had a very powerful backing!
The result of the second try of the Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique was inevitably another failure.
Following this, the third time, and then the fourth time. Not even once did it succeed.
The medicinal essence would basically turn into a black cloud of smoke when refining at the latter stages, becoming ruined.
Feng Ruoqing became increasingly depressed, and she actually knew that the reason why she could last only up to the latter stages was due to the medicinal essence Ye Yuan refined, as well as his control over the fire. Otherwise, she might not even have lasted to the late stages!
Just how in the world do I master this d.a.m.n Yin-Yang Separation Flow Technique?!
"Again!" Even though there were Tier 2 Qi Returning Pills to recover essence energy, in reality, Feng Ruoqing already could not hold on much longer from such an intense day of refining.
Ye Yuan looked at Feng Ruoqing again and felt a little conflicted in his heart.
"What are you looking at?! Go prepare the herbs!" Feng Ruoqing barked irately.
Ye Yuan did not go to prepare the herbs but sighed instead. He walked to the table and grabbed a piece of paper and two brushes.
Feng Ruoqing was curious about what Ye Yuan took the brush and paper for, so she went toward him.
It was only to see Ye Yuan holding one brush each with his left and right hand, then he simultaneously drew two shapes on the paper. His left hand drew a circle, while his right hand drew a square.
"Don't train anymore. This way of training won't work. We will see again after you master this."
After he finished, Ye Yuan pa.s.sed the two brushes over to Feng Ruoqing.