Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor Chapter 323: Material Alchemy

After calming himself down, Wang Wei decided to take his time and not rush. He will do the best he can to speed up the process, but if he failed, then that's fine; it's not a big deal.
Plus, he already had an idea in mind.
In the Exchange Pavillion, he saw that sect points could be used to exchange the Phoenix Heart Pill–which is one of the most famous pills unique to the Origin Pill Dao Sect.
Alchemists are weak by nature compared to other cultivators as they spent most of their time refining pills. As such, in ancient times, they focused on better ways to save their lives in case of danger.
Most alchemists have healing pills on them in case they need to heal, but it is still possible to be killed even before they have the chance to take it out. So, many alchemists of the Origin Pill Dao Sect who wanted to deal with this problem came out with a solution: the Phoenix Heart Pill.
Although the name has phoenix in it, the pill recipe does not have anything to do with that legendary Innate Demon. The pill is one full of vitality that is lodged inside the heart of the alchemist.
Once he or she is injured, it will instantly release the vitality to heal them. This was a way for alchemists to acquire a powerful healing ability similar to Body Refiners.
Unfortunately, over the years, the material to make this pill has become very rare. So, it is not as common as it used to be in the Ancient Emperor Era.
Now, there are only two ways to exchange for this pill. One is being the Heaven Chosen of the Origin Pill Dao Sect that will compete for this generation's Heaven Will.
Wang Wei pondered whether he should show enough talent to become the sect's Heaven Chosen. However, after thinking about it deeply, he refused that idea.
The current political landscape of the Origin Pill Dao Sect was a mess. His master–despite being the sect master–has very little power and is constantly fighting with Fu Caiyun.
If he were to become the sect's Heaven Chosen, he could foresee that Fu Caiyun would do everything possible not only to assassinate him but also reduce the number of resources he would receive.
There is no way he would be treated with the same level as the Dao Opening Sect or other Emperor Lineages.
Furthermore, becoming the sect's Heaven Chosen would draw too much attention to himself–even though his rise will still force him to clash with Fu Caiyun and his faction, it was not on the same scale.
Additionally, although Wang Wei had faith in his [Fate Stealing Technique], he did not want to take any unnecessary risk.
So, the only option left for him is to acquire enough Sect Points to exchange the pill. Although this process will take longer, if he plays his card right, it will be fine.
After making a preliminary plan, Wang Wei spent the next three months inside his cave refining pills and preparing for the future. Then, he left.
He headed straight to the Testing Pavillion; his goal was to raise his Alchemist rank.
One of the advantages of being a disciple of the leader of the Alchemist Association was the fact that, unlike other people, he did not have to go to any of the branches or Main Branch to test his rank; he could do it inside the sect and the information will be sent to the proper authorities.
While Wang Wei was flying to his destination, he quickly caught a group of people surrounding two people competing against one another.
Of the two people competing against one another, one of them caught his attention: it was a girl dressed in blue clothes, sitting on the floor with a cauldron in front of her.
The girl was in deep concentration as she refined her pill. Unlike her opponent that only had a few dozens of materials near him, she had hundreds of them; to be precise, 320.
She would take the material and place it inside the cauldron, control the flame to burn the impurities, then mix them together. She did so with all 320 materials, mixing them in the right ratio.
A few hours later, her opponent started to inscribe runes on the pill, but she was still removing impurities from the material and mixing them. Once everything was done, she started to condense the liquid herbal mixture into pills.
Soon, both of them were done and they showed their pills.
What they were refining was the Top-Level Earth Tier Pill, Primordial Spirit Condensing Pill. This pill allowed the Primordial Spirit to be more condensed and increase in strength.
Once the two competitors finished their refinements, they opened their cauldron at the same time to compare. The boy managed to refine 4 pills, with three normal grades and one superior grade.
The girl made 6 pills with 4 normal grades and 2 superiors. So, the winner was decided.
The boy coldly snorted as he said: "So what if you win? This world is ruled by Rune Alchemy. There is no room for you Material Alchemy people. In your life, you will never become a Tier 3 Alchemist."
After saying that, he left without looking back. All the people who watched the battle left with a few people sighing in pity. As for the girl, she was calmed during the entire process–even when she left.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei who was watching this competition began to rummage through his mind to remember the information he read about Material Alchemy in the sect's library and Secret Archive.
In the Ancient Emperor Era, after Wang Wei's ancestor Emperor Qiyuan gained the title of [Daofather] and started the era, many people were competing for the title of Ancestor, including many Alchemists who wanted the title of [Alchemy Ancestor].
At that time, the only existing form of alchemy was what the boy called "Material Alchemy" as the concept of using runes for alchemy did not exist yet. Runes were only used in talisman making, weapon refinement, and formation.
Material Alchemy revolved around combining many different herbs to accomplish a certain effect by the consumer; it did not rely on runes for anything.
At that time, this kind of alchemy was the mainstream was steadily being developed–until the Danyuan Emperor appeared and developed the concept of Rune Alchemy.
Unlike Material Alchemy, Rune Alchemy had many advantages, one the main ones being the few materials needed in the process. As long as the few main materials of a pill are used, runes can be used to replace the auxiliary materials.
As for Material Alchemy, each pill required hundreds of auxiliary materials. Furthermore, the higher the pill, the more material required. The profession of alchemy is a resource-burning one as each alchemist require many trial and errors before successfully refining a pill.
When it came to Material Alchemy, each failure was the loss of hundreds or thousands of materials. Because of this, back then, Alchemy was truly a noble profession that only a few people could partake one, that only the wealthy could become.
Then, the Danyuan Emperor invented Rune Alchemy; this method lowered the number of resources required for alchemists. Because of this, this form of Alchemy soon became mainstream in the world.
And once he managed the [Alchemy Ancestor] proved the Dao and acquired the title, this form of alchemy became the orthodox one practiced by all the cultivators of the Myriad Emperor World.
From historical records, Wang Wei knew that at that time, Material Alchemy was still a very powerful type of alchemy practiced by many people. The Alchemy Ancestor did not discriminate against it and even preached about learning from it and taking some of the advantages it had.
Unfortunately, his descendants were not as open-minded as him. The other Great Emperors of the Origin Pill Dao Sect started a campaign to forever suppress it.
They destroyed countless pills recipes, ruined the reputation of material alchemists, and erased some of their contributions to the world. Things got so bad that at some point, the only recipe for material alchemy left could only refine Top-level Profound Pill that only Divine Altar Realm cultivators could use.
It was only after the sect did not produce a Great Emperor for so long that material alchemy got a chance to breathe and develop. However, without many people developing it, the highest level of pill that they could make now was Top-level Earth Pills.
While floating in the air, Wang Wei was thinking about the Alchemy Ancestor and Rune Alchemy. From the records he read, material alchemy is the mainstream of the majority if not all worlds in the Endless Void.
Most Alchemy System is a variation of this. Using runes for alchemy probably did not exist. In one of the books that he read, it was implied that the concept of Rune Alchemy was most likely invented by the Alchemy Ancestor and spread through other World's Communities.
"Based on the little information that I've read about Danyuan Emperor, why do I feel that this guy was not ordinary; that he was more than he seemed on the surface," muttered Wang Wei as he watched the girl fly away.
Personally, he also agreed with Rune Alchemy becoming the mainstream of the world. Based on the resources needed to cultivate an Alchemy Master, imagine if material alchemy was the mainstream of this world.
After so many Eras, how much resources would have been used and wasted; the number is simply astronomical. Not to mention that there would never have been as many alchemists throughout history without Rune Alchemy.
Although, he still thought that the Great Emperors of the Origin Pill Dao Sect went too far on their suppression of this form of Alchemy. Although these guys used the issue of resources as an excuse for their actions, Wang Wei could see that they were doing it for luck.
With Rune Alchemy being invented by their ancestor, once it became mainstream, their sect would be blessed with abundant Qi Luck and ensure their survival for many Eras to come.
Without such abundant Qi Luck, their sect might not have cultivated so many Great Emperors; they might become as miserable as the sect created by the Formation Ancestor.
After shaking his head, Wang Wei continued to fly to his destination.