Invincible Divine Doctor of the Beautiful Lady-Chapter 751 - 725 Alchemy

"Tangyu, you can pick whatever you need from the Medicinal Garden," said Xiaobai.

Tangyu was thrilled; he had come out specifically for the He Shou Wu. If he could pick a thousand-year He Shou Wu from this Medicinal Garden, it would be a wonderful stroke of luck. With such a specimen, the certainty of crafting would be greatly increased.

Xiaoqing immediately said, "Hey, I’m telling you, Tangyu, don’t be too shameless, okay? We let you pick, but that doesn’t mean you can take whatever you want. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort nurturing this Medicinal Garden, and we even periodically infuse it with immortal power to accelerate growth. You know the value of these things if they were sold outside. Don’t call me stingy, okay? For the He Shou Wu and ginseng, you take two plants each. If you dare take more, I’ll be angry with you."

Tangyu suddenly felt a toothache. There were at least hundreds of plants here, and he was only allowed to take two of each; how stingy could they be?

Being stingy is for someone else’s family, how can a girl be like this?

If I don’t call you stingy, then who would I call stingy?

Xiaobai said, "Alright Xiaoging, let him take a little more."

Xiaoqing pursed her lips and said, "Sister, you’re too soft-hearted. Why do you always have to be the nice one? Alright, fine. Then ten plants of each kind, and not one more. If you take more, I’ll really get mad."

Tangyu curled his lip and said, "Alright, alright, ten plants each is enough. Xiaoqing, you are really generous, a true beauty. Praise you."

Ten plants were enough. Such a harvest far exceeded Tangyu’s expectations. If used well, even a single He Shou Wu could produce quite a few Healing Pills. With ten plants, if perfectly utilized, he could craft a considerable number of Healing Pills, which would sustain Tangyu for a while. Once he had the Tempering Spirit Pills, he would find a way to establish connections and buy them at the Inner Gate.

Having said that, Tangyu quickly dove into the Medicinal Garden, salivating secretly at the sight of all the exotic treasures of heaven and earth. If all of this were his, he would have made a fortune!

The thousand-year He Shou Wu and ginseng were not few in number, but Tangyu didn’t just pick the thousand-year ones indiscriminately. He only picked two thousand-year He Shou Wu and another two that were three hundred years old; the rest were five to six hundred years old. He did the same with the grade of ginseng.

"Yo, I thought you would choose all thousand-year ones. It seems you haven’t reached the point of insatiable greed," Xiaoqing looked at Tangyu with some newfound respect.

Tangyu curled his lip and said, "I was satisfied to begin with."

Actually, it wasn’t that Tangyu didn’t want all-thousand-year ones, but his alchemy skills were still immature, and he hadn’t truly found his path. Therefore, he didn’t dare to experiment with thousand-year specimens directly. If he failed, it would be a painful loss.

Moreover, thousand-year specimens could probably be used to craft Middle Grade Pills. They were overkill for crafting Lower Grade Healing Pills; Tangyu didn’t want to misapply good materials.

So, this choice was actually the most suitable for Tangyu.

What suits him is the best.

Pursuing the best blindly can be counterproductive.

"Sister Bai, do you have a pot here? My friend won’t be waking up for a while, so I might as well use your precious land to refine some Pills," Tangyu said.

Xiaobai nodded with a smile, "Yes, Xiaoqing, go get it. You can refine it right here; it’ll also be an eye-opener for me. Actually, I’ve always wanted to learn alchemy, but never had the means. I’ve tried to figure it out on my own, but without success."

Alchemy is a vast and profound subject. It’s hard to get started without someone to teach you, no matter how powerful you are.

Soon, Xiaoqing brought over a big pot for Tangyu, who found a clear space and began to light a fire.

He took out a large pile of medicinal herbs and was all business, meticulous in his approach. This was his first real attempt at crafting Pills, and he couldn’t afford any carelessness.

Xiaobai and Xiaoqing watched silently from the side.

For his first attempt, Tangyu only used a small piece of the three-hundred-year-old ginseng. Since he hadn’t found the Blood Lotus yet, he could only try to make the Detoxification Elixir first. Having seen his master, the Ghost Doctor, craft it once, he followed the steps based on memory.

All the herbs were in the Pill Furnace. There are several important steps in alchemy: Fusing medicine, harmonizing, and Core Formation.

The first two steps went smoothly, and it took a full seven hours before he reached the last step. Tangyu’s face became extremely solemn; this was the most critical final step, where success or failure would be determined.

Tangyu cast one Hand Art after another, trying to coalesce a core and extract the essence from within the Pill Furnace to create the Pills. Once the Pills were formed, they would be infused with a hint of spirituality.

A single Detoxification Elixir could neutralize hundreds of poisons, even for those in the Innate Realm.

"Coalesce!"

Tangyu exclaimed softly, unleashing a wave of Spiritual Immortal Power.

"Buzz—"

The Pill Furnace trembled and started shaking until it finally exploded with a ’boom’.

Tangyu frowned and shook his head, "Failed, just by a bit. No, no, I felt like I was about to succeed. Why would it explode at the last moment? What went wrong? There shouldn’t have been any problems, right?"

Tangyu thought seriously about what could have gone wrong.

However, Xiaoqing looked on with schadenfreude, "Tsk, you’re just an apprentice, after all. I really thought you were some high-level Alchemy Master. If you can’t even craft something at this level, that’s just pathetic."

"Uh..." Tangyu blushed, at a loss for words.

Can one really blame oneself? Although the Ghost Doctor, my master, knew some of the Pill Refining Path, his knowledge was rather superficial. Having only learned the basics from the Ghost Doctor, achieving this level of skill is quite commendable.

Xiao Bai said, "I think I might know where the problem lies."

"Oh, sister Bai, you know? Please do enlighten me," Tangyu said with a gleam in his eye, immediately looking over.

Xiao Bai said, "You’re using ordinary firewood. The issue is most likely with the fire. You can’t use ordinary fire for alchemy. How could you refine Pills with spirituality using ordinary fire? Even though the Pills you’re refining now are the most common, I believe this fire is also insufficient."

"That’s right!" Tangyu slapped his forehead in sudden realization, "Yes, yes, it’s the fire. I remember now, when my master refined Pills, he indeed borrowed Earth Fire. The temperature wasn’t high enough, so the Pill Furnace exploded during the final Core Formation. Ha ha, Sister Bai, you’ve really given me a valuable pointer."

"Fire from Heaven and Earth is also graded. The most common is firewood, and a step higher is Earth Fire. Earth Fire arises from the terrain itself and contains a trace of Heaven and Earth Spirituality. Above Earth Fire is Heavenly Fire, and even higher is Samadhi Fire. Skilled alchemy masters use Heavenly Fire. Those in the Earthly Realm are able to cultivate Heavenly Fire, harnessing the formidable divine Heaven and Earth Fire for alchemy. As for Alchemy Masters, they cultivate Samadhi Fire and naturally can refine Immortal Pills," Xiao Bai explained.

Tangyu nodded, "I have very little knowledge in this area."

To use Earth Fire for alchemy would indeed be problematic.

Earth Fire is not so easily found. Shaking his head, it seemed that he could only give up on this idea for the time being. This aspect was something that had never occurred to Tangyu before, catching him off guard.

Xiao Bai said, "How about this, I’ll use Heavenly Fire to help you. However, Heavenly Fire might be too powerful for you, I’m not sure if you can control it, but I will try to suppress its might as much as possible."

Upon hearing this, Tangyu was immediately overjoyed, "If that’s the case, then it would be ideal indeed, but it would trouble you, Sister Bai."

"Hmm, no problem, I want to learn your method of alchemy anyway," Xiao Bai replied.

So Tangyu prepared the medicinal ingredients anew, and with a flick of Xiao Bai’s jade-like finger, a clump of Heavenly Fire burst forth from her palm, igniting the Pill Furnace.

With the assistance of Heavenly Fire, it took less than two hours to reach the final stage of Core Formation.

With the painful experience of the previous failure, Tangyu was even more cautious this time, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Coalesce!" Tangyu shouted, thrusting out his palms fiercely.

The Pill Furnace suddenly flew up and began to spin in mid-air, beams of light shooting out from it.

Tangyu rejoiced inwardly, it was almost done.

"Emerge!"

Tangyu struck out another palm, and the lid of the Pill Furnace flew off, immediately revealing countless beams of brilliant light, numbering in the hundreds. They were like little sprites, each one a Detoxification Elixir.

Tangyu did not let his guard down and immediately took out the Jade Vase he had prepared, scooping up all the Pills. Counting them, Tangyu was filled with joy, "Ha ha, to actually refine two hundred and thirty-one Detoxification Elixirs in one furnace, not bad at all. I truly am a genius at alchemy."

To think that when the Ghost Doctor refined Pills, he barely produced ten per furnace.

Of course, Tangyu’s abilities had now far surpassed the Ghost Doctor. Moreover, with the help of Sister Bai’s Heavenly Fire and these fine ingredients, it was natural for the results to be abundant.

"Hmm, not bad, you do have a talent for alchemy," Xiao Bai said with a smile as she nodded.

Xiao Qing, however, said disdainfully, "Tsk, narcissist."

Tangyu ignored Xiao Qing and continued, "Sister Bai, could you help me once more, this time I want to see if I can try refining a larger batch."

"Okay," Xiao Bai nodded.

The two set to refining once again.

With the successful case in mind, Tangyu was naturally more confident and experienced this time. He put in five times the ingredients he had used before.

Although the process was much tougher than before, in the end, it was still a success.

This furnace produced over twelve hundred Detoxification Elixirs, and it only used up two three-hundred-year-old ginseng roots.

Worth it, incredibly worth it.

It’s just a pity that these are Detoxification Elixirs. If they were Healing Pills, that would be a major win.

Unfortunately, there’s no Snow Lotus. Otherwise, with Sister Bai’s Heavenly Fire, one could have reaped so much more. Tangyu felt an itching in his gums with urgency—a great opportunity missed due to the lack of ingredients, leaving him helplessly staring.

In the following days, Tangyu asked Sister Bai to assist with alchemy whenever he could and played chess with her in his spare time. The relationship between the two grew closer, which left Xiao Qing in a state of utter amazement. With nothing better to do, Xiao Qing could only take Liang Youshan as a plaything.

Occasionally, Xiao Bai even offered guidance on Tangyu’s cultivation, which was immensely beneficial for him.

As for Xiao Bai, Tangyu’s gratitude toward her deepened, and an intangible affection grew stronger, stirring certain impulses in Tangyu.