Pill Refining and Foundation Establishment

Chapter 215: Pill Refining and Foundation Establishment

Under Han Li’s control, the eight dragon heads spewed forth purple flames that thickened from slender streams to the width of a finger. The silver-threaded cauldron’s rotation gradually slowed, and it began to tremble faintly within the blaze.

As time passed, wisps of medicinal fragrance seeped from the small cauldron, sharpening the senses of anyone who caught the scent. But Han Li knew they were still far from forming the pills. A final, far more intense burst of earthly fire would be needed for instant congealing before true pills could take shape.

With that thought, the purple flames under Han Li’s control blazed even brighter, swelling to the thickness of a bowl’s rim, completely engulfing the silver-threaded cauldron. From a distance, the cauldron had become a massive fireball, and the medicinal aroma grew richer still.

Han Li guessed without thinking—this was the powder beginning to congeal into pills. He redoubled his focus.

But just then, a muffled cracking sound came from within the cauldron. Though it was not loud, it made Han Li’s heart sink, and his expression darkened.

He hesitated for a moment, then sighed and extinguished the earthly fire. With a wave of his hand, he summoned the still-scalding cauldron, lifted its lid, and peered inside.

Several fragments of a pale-blue solid lay at the bottom. These were the failed pills—congealed but cracked.

Shaking his head, we took out a jade box and set it on the floor. He tipped the silver-threaded cauldron, letting the broken pieces tumble into the box, then put it away. Even as waste, they were still condensed from various spiritual herb powders. Han Li could not bear to discard them outright; perhaps they could serve some other purpose later.

After that, he returned to his meditation cushion and sat in silence until the cauldron had completely cooled. Only then did he begin another round of pill refining.

The same steps. The same powdered ingredients. The same fire control technique. But misfortune struck again at the congealing stage.

This time, Han Li’s face was expressionless. After steadying himself, he silently started the next round.

…

A month passed. The ugly man noted with mild surprise that Han Li still had not emerged from the earthly fire room. More than surprise, he felt excitement—the longer the stay, the more fees he could collect.

Two months. Still no sign of door number eighteen opening. The ugly man was delighted on the inside, but also deeply puzzled.

Three months.

Six months, Han Li still showed no sign of coming out. By now, any elation the ugly man had felt had vanished without a trace. All that remained was a face full of worry and a belly full of unease.

Nearly half a year was not unheard of for pill refining or artifact forging. The ugly man had even seen longer periods a few times before.

But those who spent this long in an earthly fire room were always disciples at least at Foundation Establishment. To see someone at Qi Condensation stay inside for so long, refining pills, was something he had never witnessed.

And a Qi Condensation disciple’s fasting could only last a month. Could Fellow Ancestral Master Li’s disciple have brought food and drink with him to last this long? the ugly man wondered, full of suspicion.

Inside the earthly fire room, Han Li sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, staring at over twenty azure, gleaming Foundation Establishment Pills floating before him. His expression was contemplative.

These pills were the harvest of six months of tireless effort, poured out with every ounce of his concentration. Obtaining them had been an unimaginable ordeal.

For his first twenty-odd attempts, he could not even get past the congealing stage. Watching batch after batch turn into waste, his heart ached. He nearly gave up, planning to return and learn proper pill refining from a master before trying again. That would take far longer, but at least he would not waste valuable ingredients.

But just before he left, some impulse made him open the cauldron and try one more time. This time, as if guided by some unseen hand, the pills congealed. And when he opened the furnace to retrieve them, he succeeded on the first try, obtaining the very first Foundation Establishment Pill he had ever personally refined.

That pill was slightly smaller than the others, but otherwise identical to the three he already had. Han Li’s spirits soared.

Encouraged by this success, he gritted his teeth and abandoned the thought of leaving. He settled down and continued.

And sure enough, after that first breakthrough, his success rate for congealing soared. One out of every three attempts now succeeded. When it came to retrieving the pills, Han Li proved unexpectedly talented—more than half the time, he extracted the pills cleanly on the first attempt. Even he had not expected that.

During this time, whenever his stomach began to ache with hunger, he would take one of the Fasting Pills he had obtained from the old man, which would sustain him for another month. That bottle of Fasting Pills had cost him several century-old herbs that he had claimed to have purchased from outside. Now it proved its worth.

And so, as his ingredients were finally exhausted, he was left with this astonishing batch of Foundation Establishment Pills—far more than he had ever anticipated.

He had originally thought that if he managed to produce seven or eight pills, it would already be remarkable. But now, faced with this result, he began to wonder: was pill refining really as difficult as the cultivation world claimed? Or were the alchemists deliberately misleading everyone? Or perhaps he himself had a natural talent for it?

Han Li was slightly confused.

In truth, he had it backward. Pill refining was even harder than the rumors suggested. An ordinary alchemist could not be trained without two or three decades of practice and an astronomical amount of money.

And Han Li’s current skill in refining Foundation Establishment Pills already placed him among the upper tier of ordinary alchemists. The reason for this unbelievable outcome was entirely due to his nearly six months of uninterrupted practice on the same pill formula.

A sect, no matter how wealthy, would never allow an alchemist to refine the same rare pill day after day for half a year using precious ingredients.

This was barely possible for the lowest-grade pills. But for those, there was no need to specially accumulate experience—the ingredients were cheap, so failure meant simply starting over.

Han Li, unaware of this, did not dwell on it. After brief consideration, he set the question aside. A new thought had seized him: to swallow a Foundation Establishment Pill right here and attempt his breakthrough in this very room.

The idea was so compelling that he seriously considered the feasibility of secluding himself for Foundation Establishment inside the earthly fire room.

…

Eleven months later. The stone door to Han Li’s earthly fire room remained shut, showing no sign of opening.

That day, the ugly man stared blankly at door nineteen, his face full of despair. By now, he was certain something had happened to Han Li inside. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator should have come out by now.

He was not worried about Han Li himself. He was terrified that Ancestral Master Li would blame him for his disciple’s accident. Though he was a distant relative of Sect Leader Zhong and had gotten this job through that connection, the ugly man knew well that if Ancestral Master Li became truly angry, that connection would not protect him.

Just as he was drowning in worry, the stone door before him suddenly flashed with white light, then slid open without a sound. A person stepped out, his face bright as spring—it was Han Li, who had stayed inside for nearly a year.

The ugly man froze for a long moment before snapping back to reality, both shocked and overjoyed. He hurried forward a few steps and blurted out:

“Junior… Brother, why only come out now? If you had stayed any longer, I would have… Huh? You…?!”

Before he could finish, his eyes went wide as saucers, as if he had seen a ghost. He pointed at Han Li, mouth open and tongue-tied, unable to form words.

“What’s wrong? Is there something unusual about me?” Han Li looked at the ugly man, a faint glow flickering across his face, and spoke with a slight smile.

“You… your cultivation technique! How…? Could… could you be at Foundation Establishment?” The ugly man took a long time to recover, his face a mixture of confusion and fear, finally stammering out the question.

“Mm. After finishing my pill refining, I felt the environment here was quite good, so I took a Foundation Establishment Pill and went into seclusion. I managed to break through. Yes, I’m now a Foundation Establishment cultivator.” Han Li stretched lazily and answered with an air of casual nonchalance.

“Here? Foundation Establishment?”

The ugly man looked at the earthly fire room behind Han Li, then at Han Li himself, still unable to believe it. Conducting a Foundation Establishment breakthrough in a room designed for pill refining and artifact forging—he had truly never heard of such a thing.

He moved his lips several times but ultimately swallowed the questions on the tip of his tongue. Not only was the other party Ancestral Master Li’s disciple, but the mere identity of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was already not something a mere Qi Condensation disciple like him could afford to provoke.

“Is there a problem?” Han Li glanced at him lightly, his tone carrying a hint of dismissiveness. The unique pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator immediately radiated outward, forcing the ugly man, who was only inches away, to retreat several steps, drenched in sweat.

“Of course not! There’s no rule against it. Congratulations, Martial Uncle, on your successful seclusion!” The ugly man was quick to adapt. He immediately bowed and scraped with a flattering smile, even changing his address from “Junior Brother” to “Martial Uncle.”

Since the other party had successfully established his foundation, he could now be considered an elder. A little deference was only proper.

The ugly man was quite capable of seeing reason. He understood the cultivation world’s rule of strength all too well.