Chapter 1479, Heaven Defying Pill
Fortunately, the problem was not serious, so Yang Kai only needed half a month to deal with it properly.
The next thing to do was take account of his gains from the Emperor Garden.
Yang Kai reached out, touched his Space Ring, and in a flash of light, a massive number of herbs appeared in front of him. These herbs were naturally collected in the hidden mountain valley together with the women from Ice Heart Valley.
At that time, Yang Kai did not have time to deal with them properly, so he simply placed them into his Space Ring. Now that he was free, he naturally had to organize and process these herbs, otherwise, their medicinal efficacies would be lost.
As an Alchemist, Yang Kai obviously understood how to properly preserve spirit grasses and spirit medicines, so he took out various boxes refined from different materials from his Space Ring and carefully began storing the various herbs according to their unique characteristics. Those that were suited to preservation in jade were loaded into jade boxes while those that needed Wood Attribute containers were thusly placed. Many herbs had special storage requirements, but this could not baffle Yang Kai.
After finishing up this process, Yang Kai put away all the boxes with a smile on his face.
There were hundreds of spirit herbs, and although they varied in grade greatly, each one was invaluable; after all, these spirit grasses and spirit medicines had all grown inside the hidden mountain valley for at least ten thousand years, meaning their medicinal ages were at least this high as well.
Pills refined from such herbs would have far greater medicinal efficacies than ones refined from ordinary spirit grasses and medicines. Additionally, they would allow Yang Kai to promote his Alchemy technique.
Along with the herbs he had collected from the floating continent when he first entered the Star Field, Yang Kai felt like he had enough materials to support him becoming an Origin King Grade Alchemist, after which, he would still likely have an abundance of materials he could use to practice his skills.
The next thing Yang Kai took out was the Alchemy Furnace he found in the hidden cave mansion of the mountain valley.
This was the Alchemy Furnace the mountain valley’s owner had used when he was alive and was naturally Origin King Grade, an extremely rare and precious treasure.
Yang Kai now had two high-grade furnaces. One was the Origin King Grade Artifact Refining Furnace which was the root of the Firebird Artifact Spirit, and the other was the Alchemy Furnace in front of him, but regardless of which one it was, they were not something that would be commonly seen.
If an Artifact Refiner or Alchemist had a good furnace, they could save a lot of time when performing Artifact Refining or Alchemy and could refine better quality artifacts and pills. There was a saying that, to produce fine work, one must first sharpen their tools; this saying had great truth to it.
Unfortunately, Artifact Refining Furnaces and Alchemy Furnaces were far more difficult to refine than ordinary artifacts, so Artifact Refining Furnaces and Alchemy Furnaces were far more valuable and expensive than other artifacts in the same grade.
The young Third-Order Origin Returning Realm female leader from Ice Heart Valley also knew of the value of this pill furnace, but because she had many of her own thoughts and concerns, she still chose to give it to Yang Kai in exchange for a larger allocation of pills.
This choice was not a loss for her, but it was a profit for Yang Kai.
Yang Kai could refine various high-grade pills, and even refining pills which formed Pill Veins was not a difficult task for him, but an Origin King Grade Alchemy Furnace was still something he hadn’t expected to get his hands on so easily.
This pill furnace was slightly less than a metre tall and had a simple appearance while giving off an ancient feel. Its entire body was a dark purple shade and had a tripod design. There were two large words emblazoned on the furnace’s lip which Yang Kai had not initially checked, but now that he was carefully examining it, he could see the two words were ‘Purple Origin.’
This was obviously the name of this Alchemy Furnace.
Purple Origin, not a bad name.
With this Alchemy Furnace to assist him, refining pills would be easier and their quality would also be higher in the future.
Alchemy Furnaces were different from other artifacts in that one did not need to spend a long time refining them. One only needed to leave their Soul Brand on an Alchemy Furnace to make it their own. However, this Purple Origin Furnace had a master previously, so Yang Kai had to first erase the previous mark before leaving his own.
This was not difficult as the owner of that hidden mountain valley had been dead for ten thousand years, so the mark he had left on it was now extremely weak. Yang Kai easily erased this remnant mark and then took just a few days to leave his own on the Purple Origin Furnace, claiming it as his own.
After playing with the furnace happily for a while, Yang Kai put it away. Since he was not planning on performing Alchemy any time soon, he naturally had no reason to keep it out.
Immediately after, Yang Kai took out another treasure.
What he held now was a pill! This was not one of the pills Yang Kai obtained together with the young woman from Ice Heart Valley, but rather the one he snatched out of the Purple Origin Furnace.
When he discovered this Purple Origin Furnace, Yang Kai had scanned the interior with his Divine Sense and noticed that there was a pill inside. According to the posture that the skeleton assumed before dying, it was apparent that the mountain valley’s owner had spent his last moments refining this pill.
Fortunately, that Grandmaster had succeeded.
But before Yang Kai had time to investigate carefully, the young woman from Ice Heart Valley had joined him inside the hidden cave mansion, so Yang Kai had to quickly hide it from her and did not know what kind of pill it was to this day.
If it was just an ordinary pill, no matter what the quality it was, the internal medicinal efficacies must have dispersed after ten thousand years and it could no longer be used, rendering it a scrapped pill.
Only pills that formed Pill Veins could keep their medicinal efficacies intact over an extended period. Pill Veins were like shackles that firmly restrained a pill’s medicinal properties inside of it.
At that time, the pills split between Yang Kai and the young woman from Ice Heart Valley in the hidden cave mansion all had Pill Veins. Such pills were rare, however, while most of the ones they found had turned into waste.
As for whether the pill inside the Purple Origin Furnace actually formed Pill Veins, Yang Kai wasn’t sure, but that didn’t dampen his anticipation; after all, this was a pill that an Alchemy Grandmaster had exhausted the last of his life force to refine.
But the moment Yang Kai looked at the pill in his hand, his complexion changed dramatically as he immediately revealed a look of ecstasy and cried out, “Pill Clouds?”
He never expected that the pill he fished out of the Purple Origin Furnace would have formed Pill Clouds!
On the surface of this pill, there was a layer of dense, swirling clouds, as if a mass of seven coloured clouds had been shrunk down innumerable times and wrapped around it, giving it an incredibly beautiful look.
There was no doubt these were Pill Clouds! Yang Kai was stunned and checked several times to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.
Pills that formed Pill Clouds weren’t something Yang Kai had never seen before; he had even swallowed one and refined another personally.
The first pill that formed Pill Clouds he swallowed had allowed his Five-Coloured Soul Warming Lotus to evolve into its Six Coloured form and dramatically improved his strength.
The pill he refined, on the other hand, was a Burning Flame Pill used to save Xue Yue’s life.
The one he ingested was found in an Ancient Ruin on the seabed of Tong Xuan Realm while the one he refined had been done on Rainfall Star.
Yang Kai deeply understood the difficulty of refining a pill that formed Pill Clouds! This was not something ordinary masters could achieve. Currently, the probability Yang Kai could refine a pill that formed Pill Veins was actually quite high, on average about twenty to thirty percent, but after so many years refining pills, only that single Burning Flame Pill had ever formed Pill Clouds.
That pill had been refined under extreme conditions by cornering himself to break through his limits and had nearly exhausted him to death.
Judging from the other pills obtained inside the hidden cave mansion, Yang Kai also knew that the owner had been an extraordinary Alchemy Grandmaster when they were alive, otherwise they would not have produced so many pills that formed Pill Veins.
Yang Kai originally thought that the pill this Grandmaster had exhausted his remaining life essence to refine had formed Pill Veins, but now he discovered that the truth of the matter was far more shocking than he expected.
This Grandmaster refined a pill that formed Pill Clouds!
And judging from the medicinal efficacies and energy fluctuations that emanated from this pill, it was undoubtedly an Origin King Grade pill.
[The Grandmaster was truly extraordinary!] Yang Kai was secretly praised.
Any Origin King Grade pill was already incredibly valuable, let alone an Origin King Grade pill that had formed Pill Clouds.
On top of that, this pill was already at least ten thousand years old!
Yang Kai took a deep breath to calm his raging emotions. The value of such a pill could no longer be judged with common sense. Even Yang Kai, who prided himself on his ability to remain composed, suddenly found his face twitching unconsciously as his hands refused to stop shaking.
Once a pill formed Pill Veins, as long as it was stored properly, it would retain its medicinal efficacies indefinitely and would also have twice the potency of an ordinary pill. However, if a pill formed Pill Clouds, not only would its effects be at least four times that of an ordinary pill upon refinement, as time passed, the layer of Pill Clouds would continuously absorb the surrounding World Energy to nourish the pill, increasing its potency over time.
The longer the time such a pill was left untaken, the greater its potency would be.
The pill that Yang Kai took at that time allowed his Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus to evolve precisely because of the vast amount of energy it had accumulated over thousands of years. When Yang Kai had taken that pill, he had nearly exploded and died because of the flood of energy; fortunately, his Soul Warming Lotus had absorbed most of the medicinal efficacies in the end.
However, when compared with the one in front of him, that pill was simply trash. Not to mention, the vast gap in the two pills’ grades, just the number of years it had been left to absorb World Energy was unmatched.
What kind of concept was ten thousand years?
Suddenly, Yang Kai felt that his mind could not keep up with the situation somewhat. His luck was simply too good, being able to obtain this Heaven-defying pill.
Everything he had obtained in that hidden mountain valley was instantly eclipsed by this Origin King Grade pill in front of him.
After feeling shock and excitement, Yang Kai wore a bitter smile.
Just how astonishing was the amount of medicinal energy contained within this pill? Regardless of what purpose it had, it was basically impossible for Yang Kai to take it with his current cultivation realm.
Swallowing this thing haphazardly would only result in a single outcome: death by explosion!
Even an Origin King Realm master may not be able to withstand the immense medicinal energy contained within this pill.
Considering all this, Yang Kai’s excitement gradually calmed down. The most urgent thing right now was for him to figure out what this pill’s purpose was.
Squinting at this pill, Yang Kai found that its interior was crystal clear and had some kind of translucent wisp of energy flowing through it, like a fine hair that was freely swimming about like a living creature.
[Impossible…] Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked once more.
It seemed this pill was about to achieve sentience!
The thin, gossamer-like existence was obviously formed after years of accumulation. If this pill was given some more time, perhaps it really could achieve sentience and become a completely different kind of life form.
A sentient pill was just a theory, not even the stuff of legends. Yang Kai had not expected that he would be able to witness poof of such an outlandish theory one day.
Unfortunately, since it had fallen into his hands, it was destined to only fulfil its original role with no possibility of it truly obtaining sentience.