The essence of the art of alchemy is probably not simple.
Moreover, heaven and earth are furnaces, and creation is work. Yin and Yang are charcoal, and all things are copper.
Thoroughly study the changes in physical properties, clearly understand the principles of transformation and rebirth, and then create all things in one furnace, refine the heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, and refine all living beings.
The way of alchemy is the way of creation.
This is a bit scary.
Xu Ke thought of the legendary Taishang Laojun. Perhaps, the way of creation is the highest state of alchemy.
The intention of the Hunyuan Yiqi Sutra is that the innate Qi from the beginning evolves all things in the world.
This "Way of Creation" is very consistent with how the Qi of the Absolute Beginning evolves all things, so the way of alchemy must be studied diligently.
Of course, this "way of creation" is just a "dream" for Xu Ke now. You can think about it when dreaming.
For now, we still need to stay down to earth and face reality.
Putting away the "Qi-Returning Pill" he had just refined, Xu Ke sat cross-legged on the ground, released the magic weapon "Hunyuan Yiqi Taichu Talisman", and began to explore the Qi-Returning Pill.
With the help of the power of the magic weapon, Xu Ke can also penetrate a ray of his consciousness into the elixir following his spiritual power and sense the situation inside the elixir.
This is more reliable than "microscope".
A wisp of Hunyuan spiritual power enveloped his consciousness and seeped into the elixir. Xu Ke discovered that... the various spiritual powers integrated in the elixir were instantly transformed towards the Hunyuan spiritual power.
In less than a moment, all the spiritual powers in the Qi Recovery Pill were transformed into Hunyuan spiritual powers.
This is the reason why the Qi-Rejuvenating Pill is "universal".
After taking the elixir, the monk uses his own spiritual power to refine the elixir. This refining process is equivalent to using one's own spiritual power as a guide to transform all the various spiritual powers in the Qi Recovery Pill into the nature of the monk's own spiritual power.
What kind of spiritual power is used to refine the Qi Recovery Pill will be transformed into what kind of spiritual power.
In order to verify this speculation, Xu Ke used the magic weapon "Hunyuan Yiqi Taichu Talisman" to transform metal, wood, water, fire, earth, and spiritual power of various properties.
After the spiritual power penetrated into the Qi Recovery Pill, the various spiritual powers integrated in the Qi Recovery Pill were indeed transformed into corresponding spiritual powers.
Through this test, Xu Ke already knows the reason why the "Qi Recovery Pill" can be used universally.
The various spiritual powers integrated in the elixir are at a critical point of "not yet transformed". The spiritual power used by the monks to refine the elixir will destroy this critical point, triggering the transformation of the spiritual power inside the elixir, thereby generating the corresponding spiritual power.
The same is true for other general-purpose elixirs.
It's just...how is this critical point of "will be transformed but not yet transformed" achieved?
This definitely involves "physical property changes".
Xu Ke put down the elixir and turned to look at the various alchemy materials placed on the storage shelves in the elixir room, with a helpless smile on his face.
By the way, is there a "periodic table of elements" in the spiritual world? !
To summarize the laws of "physical property changes" from various materials and substances, isn't the workload too huge?
This kind of knowledge must exist in the spiritual world.
It's just that Cangmang is a rural place where there are only gangs of bumpkins and no "institutions of higher learning".
well……
Xu Ke let out a long sigh. Without the opportunity to acquire advanced knowledge, he could only study slowly on his own.
Fortunately, there is no need to rush to complete the study of "laws of changes in physical properties". It should be treated as a long-term study and accumulated slowly.
Xu Ke stretched out his hand and took out various materials for refining the Qi Restoration Pill.
Then, with the help of the magic weapon "Hunyuan Yiqi Taichu Talisman", he released a ray of consciousness, penetrated into the alchemy materials, observed the internal structure, observed the spiritual energy movement of the medicinal materials, and then recorded them one by one with jade slips.
Of course, the knowledge of alchemy also includes the identification and processing of medicinal materials.
However, those contents are only superficial knowledge such as "what a certain medicinal material looks like, what method it needs to be collected, and what method is used to preserve it."
The "physical properties" Xu Ke needs are completely absent.
Soon after, Xu Ke thoroughly "observed" the various medicinal materials used to refine the Qi-Returning Pill, and recorded the characteristics of each material on jade slips.
Then... Xu Ke encountered another level.
What is the material in the spiritual world made of? Is it "qi"? Or are they the fundamental particles of that world?
Or, all "qi" are elementary particles with corresponding properties?
For example, fire aura is the basic particle of fire attribute? Will there still be "wave-particle duality"?
It’s so difficult! Totally can’t figure it out!
Xu Ke rubbed his eyebrows and felt his head hurt.
It’s better not to study so deeply or so far, just start from the most basic.
Therefore, Xu Ke no longer thought about what matter was made of, or whether spiritual energy was particles or waves, and directly used each medicinal material as a research object.
What phenomena and results will occur after refining this medicinal material and another medicinal material.
This kind of research is more intuitive, simpler, and even... more practical.
Through this kind of research, Xu Ke easily grasped the "medicinal properties" of each medicinal material in the Hui Qi Dan.
According to this "medicinal property", various different elixirs can be made by combining different "medicinal properties".
After lowering the difficulty, the research became very smooth.
People should not embarrass themselves too much. The goals are set too high and are unrealistic.
Xu Ke couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Sure enough, I still don't have enough realm and knowledge to do the kind of research involving the origin of heaven and earth.
It’s not enough to aim too high, let’s start with the basics!
Next, Xu Ke focused his research on the "properties" of medicinal materials, and no longer insisted on the "laws of changes in physical properties."
That thing involves the "Way of Creation", which is not something Xu Ke can get involved in at the moment.
——
Time passed slowly in Xu Ke's painstaking research.
In the blink of an eye, three months have passed.
It is now October, entering the early winter season.
The spiritual fields and orchards, tea gardens, and mulberry forests that Xu Ke planted on the island in the center of the lake have begun to take shape. The perennial medicinal materials are still in the growth stage, but some spiritual rice grains have begun to bear ears.
Because the seeds were sown relatively late, and the Bishui Pond was protected by a large array, Xu Ke planned to wait another month to harvest the grains regardless of the weather.
Of course, such a trivial matter does not require Master Xu to do it himself. The monkey is already a mature monkey and needs to learn to farm and support his family.
In the past three months, the war between the Haoyang Sect and the Four Factions Alliance was still tepid. Small fights occurred every day, but no major fights occurred.
If Li Muzi hadn't talked about the progress of the war from time to time, Xu Ke would have almost forgotten that the sect was still at war with others.
In the past three months, another golden elixir master was born in the sect.
After Wang Changqing received Xu Ke's teaching, his cultivation progressed steadily. Just a few days ago, Wang Changqing came to Bishuitan with perfect cultivation. With the support of Xu Ke, he successfully achieved the Golden Elixir.
The two golden elixirs and two true teachings of the Sinong Palace made the Sinong Palace grow in popularity. Many disciples of the Wood Spiritual Root and the Water Spiritual Root sought connections and applied to be transferred to the Sinong Palace to farm.
The farming disciple of Sinong Hall has become a good position that countless people aspire to.
Xu Ke himself has gained a lot in these three months.
After three months of practice, Xu Ke's "Hunyuan Yiqi Sutra" was officially promoted to the third level of foundation building, and he mastered the three true talismans of "spiritual energy", "demon energy" and "demon energy".
From then on, Xu Ke could cast magic spells and demon cultivating spells at will without the help of the magic weapon "Hunyuan Yiqi True Talisman".
The four saplings of the "Spiritual Wisdom Experiment" have grown very lush.
The black sandalwood, red pine, cold bamboo, and the unknown tree that Xu Ke casually named "Jianmu" have all successfully entered the "qi training period", and there is already evil energy circulating in the body.
As far as Lingzhi is concerned, he hasn’t found it yet, and he still needs to wait.
As for the research on alchemy... it has made great progress.
Regardless of the "laws of physical properties", Xu Ke specialized in studying the "properties of medicine". In the past three months, he had studied all the medicinal materials for alchemy in the Haoyang Sect and compiled a "pharmacopoeia".
In this "pharmacopoeia", Xu Ke summarized the "medicinal properties" of various medicinal materials based on the theory of yin and yang and the five behaviors, and based on the phenomenon of spiritual power changes of medicinal materials in the process of refining alchemy.
Interpreting the principle of alchemy from the perspective of "medicinal properties" is naturally much simpler and easier to understand than the "laws of changes in physical properties".
In fact, the so-called "medicinal properties" are just a "phenomenon" and not the essential law of alchemy.
The real essential law must be the change of physical properties.
However, that is the way of creation. No matter from any angle, Xu Ke is still too far behind. He can't even get started and can't continue his research at all.
This is the difference between "pharmacy" and "chemistry".
Xu Ke was not very satisfied with the "Pharmacopoeia", but the master of the Alchemy Palace felt like he had found a treasure.
Didn’t the Master of the Alchemy Cauldron Palace give him a golden elixir level treasure cauldron? Xu Ke took the "pharmacopoeia" he compiled as a return gift and gave it to the master of Danding Hall.
Then, the master of the Alchemy Palace was so excited that his face flushed, his eyes shone, and he called this "the foundation of Alchemy, the true teaching of the law."
With this pharmacopoeia, all the alchemists in the Alchemy Hall have a "foundation of alchemy", instead of just following the "alchemy" of alchemy.
Therefore, the master of the Alchemy Hall named this pharmacopoeia "Kunwu Pharmacopoeia" and regarded it as the fundamental canon of the true transmission of alchemy in the Alchemy Hall.
The two words "Kunwu", of course, come from Xu Ke's "Kunwu Academy".
When Xu Ke knew this name, he was stunned for a long time, so...I inexplicably got a Taoist nickname "Kunwu Zhenren"?
"Dayan Zhenren" sounds better than "Kunwu Zhenren", right?
I hope no one in this spiritual world knows how to read the word "Kun" separately, otherwise... Xu Zhenren's wise life will all be wasted!
After thinking about it, this name at least sounded better than "Mang King Kong", which also gave Xu Ke a little psychological balance.
——
Hengduan Mountain.
Since receiving Wang Changqing's guidance, Zhuang Yuting went deep into Hengduan Mountain and collected high-grade spiritual trees for Xu Ke.
Especially after learning that Wang Changqing successfully formed the elixir and became the second golden elixir master in the Sinong Palace, and also created a true path of water system, Zhuang Yuting could not sit still.
"Fangzheng, we have collected a lot of spiritual trees these days. These are the seeds."
A former disciple of Bishuitan took out a box of seeds from his storage bag, handed it to Zhuang Yuting, and said: "It's just a golden elixir grade spiritual wood...it's so rare."
"Thanks for your hard work."
Zhuang Yuting took the seeds and thanked him, but felt a little regretful.
It’s just the spiritual plant seeds at the foundation-building level that you can’t get rid of at all!
How precious is the opportunity to form elixirs? How can it be exchanged for just the seeds of a foundation-building spirit tree?
At least there must be the seeds of the golden elixir spirit tree.
Even so, it's just a chance to meet the palace master. It's still uncertain whether he can get a Dharma from the palace master!
When Zhuang Yuting was secretly worried, another former Bishuitan disciple ran over.
"Fangzheng, Fangzheng, I heard a piece of news."
This disciple hurried up and said to Zhuang Yuting: "Some time ago, when the master of the formation hall led a team to explore the spiritual veins in Hengduan Mountain, someone discovered a golden elixir-level spiritual tree in the northern part of Hengduan Mountain."
"Is this true?"
Zhuang Yuting was surprised and happy, and asked repeatedly.
"I heard this from Peng Zhengqing. He said that he was just sitting on the formation master's flying boat and did not go down to take a closer look. Judging from the fluctuations in spiritual power, it should be a golden elixir-level spiritual tree."
As the disciple spoke, he took out another jade slip and said, "There is a map on it. Whether it is true or not, you have to go and see it to find out."
"Yes! Regardless of whether it's true or not, you have to go take a look."
Zhuang Yuting took the jade slip and thanked the disciple, "Thank you for your hard work. Thank you all brothers for your help. If you gain anything in the future, I will definitely not forget your friendship."
"You're welcome, Fang Zheng!"
Several former Bishuitan disciples nearby returned the favor with their hands.
Back at his residence, Zhuang Yuting picked up the jade slip map and looked at it, frowning slightly. This place is a bit far!
The location marked on the map has reached the northernmost "break" of Hengduan Mountain.
The name Hengduan Mountain comes from the fact that the northernmost point of this mountain range, where it connects to the Cangshan Mountain Range, was suddenly disconnected, as if it had been cut off by a knife.
The Hengduan Mountains, known as the "Ten Thousands of Miles in Radius", refers to the width of the mountain system derived from the Hengduan Mountains.
The northernmost fracture in Hengduan Mountain is more than 30,000 miles away from the gravel plain. The distance between Haoyang Sect and Manghe Sword Sect is not that far!
It's a little far, but it's not a problem.
The Golden Core Demon King in Hengduan Mountain has been finished for a long time. Even if he travels tens of thousands of miles alone, there is not much danger.
With the flying speed of the foundation-building spiritual weapon flying boat, it would only take several days of continuous travel.
Therefore, Zhuang Yuting immediately prepared various supplies needed for the long-distance trip.
Three days later, Zhuang Yuting took a flying boat and set off from the gravel plain Heilong Ridge, heading all the way to the Hengduan Mountain rift tens of thousands of miles away.
The flying boat flew through the air, from south to north, directly across the entire Hengduan Mountains, and then arrived at the northernmost rift.
According to the location on the map, Zhuang Yuting quickly found a towering tree growing in a mountain depression near the gap.
This is a purple-gold nanmu. Judging from the fluctuations in spiritual power, it is definitely a golden elixir grade spiritual material, and the branches are also bearing fruits.
Since there are so many seeds, there is no way to become a demon.
In the spirit tree that becomes a demon, every seed is important and will not bear fruit easily.
Zhuang Yuting released a spiritual weapon, flew out towards the purple nanmu tree, circled around the treetops, and easily removed a few seeds.
Got it!
With a smile on his face, Zhuang Yuting collected the seeds and took off in his flying boat, preparing to return.
Just as he turned around, Zhuang Yuting suddenly felt that there seemed to be some movement on the other side of the crack in Hengduan Mountain.
Turning his head to look, he saw a large black flag suddenly raised on the cliff opposite the chasm.
On the dark flag, there is a blood moon, and below it is the head of a dog with thick fangs.
"Woo..."
The desolate trumpet sound echoes between heaven and earth.
Under the cliff opposite the gap, countless monsters with dog heads and human bodies were howling and roaring, sweeping over like a wave.
Alien?
Are the aliens in Cangshan planning to invade Cangmang Plain?
Zhuang Yuting's expression changed drastically, he quickly drove the flying boat, turned around and ran away.
"Whoosh whoosh..."
A series of jet-black crossbow arrows, sparkling with blinding blood, roared towards Zhuang Yuting's flying boat.
Damn it!
Zhuang Yuting burst out a popular phrase from the Haoyang Sect, dodged wildly, and fled in embarrassment.
(End of chapter)
