Chapter 518: Flawless Grade Elixir
Liu Ming felt the spiritual power depleting quickly in his body; his face was full of solemnity.
At this moment, he had been waiting for a long time. He slapped the two black leather bags on his waist, and two black mists rolled out. They condensed slightly on both sides, turning into a silver mini Bone Scorpion and the hideous Demon Flying Skull.
“Master!” The voices of a girl and a boy sounded.
Liu Ming didn’t speak. He just glanced at them, and simply commanded them with Divine Thought.
The next moment, Bone Scorpion immediately swung the pair of pincers to hug Liu Ming’s thigh, while Demon Flying Skull released its hair to wrap tightly around his arm.
Liu Ming nodded slightly and carefully checked all the materials in the Sumeru Snail and storage talisman around his waist. He then closed his eyes and formed gestures, starting to control the flow of the spiritual power in his body. He was waiting to enter the mysterious space after the spiritual power absorption was complete.
As time passed slowly, his face turned from the previous redness to gradually pale. The black mist that had been surging constantly on his body appeared to become thinner.
When most of his spiritual power was drained, the suction in the dantian suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Liu Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Before he could think much, a buzz sounded and his vision turned black.
When he saw the front clearly again, he was already in a gray space.
This space had the size of acres which was much larger than when he entered last time.
Liu Ming glanced at the Demon Flying Skull and Bone Scorpion around him, and both were successfully taken into the mysterious space.
“Okay, now we have plenty of time. You two should go practice.” Liu Ming waved his hand and said in a low voice.
“Yes… Master…”
Bone Scorpion waved its pincer and jumped down quickly. It flashed and appeared in front of a gas wall more than a hundred meters away. It then stabbed its tail hook on the gas wall.
Demon Flying Skull also transformed into nine phantasms in an instant and flew away vaguely in the direction of the other gas wall.
Seeing his two spirit pets began to practice, Liu Ming looked at the surroundings. He shouted,
“Senior Luo Hu, junior has something to ask for advice, please show up.”
The sound reverberated in the space, but after waiting for about fifteen minutes, he didn’t get any response.
He called this a few more times, but after a while, he still didn’t see Luo Hu.
Seeing this, Liu Ming shook his head helplessly.
It seemed that Luo Hu was unwilling to show up at this time or he had fallen asleep again.
He immediately sat cross-legged. He began to silently recall the contents of some classics that introduced the Middle Sky Continent’s elixir system and types that he had read in Hall of All Things.
According to the records, Middle Sky Continent Immortality Cultivation Realm divided elixirs into many different branches. It had become a large system of the Cultivation Realm on its own. Yunchuan Continent’s elixir system couldn’t compare with it.
Although the general cultivator classified elixir’s applicable level by giving it the simple Spirit Apostle level and Condensation Period level, the Crystallization Period level or even Real Pellet State level and above was even more distinguished, then according to the difficulty of refining, they would be categorized as low grade or upper grade elixir.
But in fact, each level of elixir could be divided into inferior, ordinary and flawless grade elixir according to the degree of elixir purity.
Every kind of elixir, after being refined, would inevitably contain some impurities that were not beneficial to the user. It could be easily identified by various means.
Among them, inferior grade elixir was elixir with more than 50% of harmful impurities in elixir, and elixir with a purity of less than half. Normal grade elixir was elixir with a purity of between 50% and 70%, and flawless grade elixir was elixir with a purity of more than 70%. Among them, 70% to 80% purity could be classified as pellet grade elixir. 80% to 90% purity could be defined as an earth grade elixir, and those with a purity of more than 90% were the rumored sky grade elixir.
Once the elixir was defined as a flawless grade, its spirit patterns could be seen on the surface of the elixir. The higher the grade, the more the spirit patterns. These spirit patterns were also called elixir patterns. Therefore, even if one was not an alchemist, he could simply distinguish the flawless grade elixir by the number of elixir patterns.
Generally speaking, pellet grade was a pill with three or fewer elixir patterns; earth grade had elixir patterns between three to six; sky grade elixir had more than six elixir patterns.
Once the elixir was flawless grade, its value and price were incomparable with normal grade elixir. After all, the higher the elixir purity, no matter the effect and the drug resistance it had, it was far from the latter.
Even some elixir with special effects may have a world different effect if the purity had 10% or even 5% difference.
In the Middle Sky Continent, only an alchemist who can refine a flawless grade elixir could be called a true alchemist.
Liu Ming now recalled that the Qingsan Pill that Fang Yao refined for him in the South Sea Region seemed to have two elixir patterns on the surface, so he was really worthy of the title of alchemy master.
Of course, the normal alchemist who could refine Spirit Apostle level elixir was totally different from the listed alchemist who could refine Condensation Period level and Crystallization Period level elixir..
After all, the former could still rely on the sect or family power to refine using the abundant material resources; the latter could only rely on his own alchemy talent.
Liu Ming’s thoughts turned, then he vaguely remembered that when he entered the mysterious space in Xuanjing, Yunchuan, he refined the same Spirit Apostle elixir numerous times in order to get a pellet grade elixir with an elixir pattern.
The same was true for the entire Cultivation Realm. The higher the level of cultivation cultivator, the harder it was to find an alchemist master who could refine the elixir that matched the cultivation level.
After thinking about this, Liu Ming suddenly thought of taking out the jade box containing the silver elixir wrapped in tri-color flames from the Sumeru Snail around his waist. He opened the lid, and gently picked it up with two fingers, looking it carefully.
After checking the tri-color flames, it was confirmed that there were three golden elixir patterns on the surface. After Liu Ming thought slightly, he kept away the elixir.
“Then let’s start with the cold condensing pill.”
After he muttered to himself, he took out the elixir recipe from his sleeve and studied it carefully.
After half a day of reading, he threw out a small silver cauldron from his sleeve. It blurred, became several ten meters high and landed safely on the ground.
He touched his sleeve again and pulled out a pale yellow talisman.
The surface of the talisman was covered with dense silver spirit patterns. It was an ordinary storage talisman used to store alchemy materials.
He smashed the storage talisman to pieces. After a flash of yellow light, a pile of materials needed for alchemy scattered all over the place.
These materials were carefully allocated according to the proportion of the materials required by the cold condensing pill in the previous month. It was enough for him to refine pills for a day.
Since it was in a mysterious space, the materials used for alchemy would not really be consumed, so theoretically he only needed to prepare one portion of alchemy materials to refine endlessly. However, he was always cautious, so he prepared five copies.
Liu Ming’s eyes flashed, and he made one gesture and launched a symbol at the silver cauldron.
The silver spirit patterns on the surface of the cauldron suddenly lit up. With a rumbling sound, the cap of the cauldron slowly opened.
As soon as he raised his sleeves, a gust of wind blew, bringing the alchemy materials from the ground into the cauldron.
He waved his sleeve lightly again to close the cover.
After doing all this, Liu Ming sat cross-legged and chanted. He kept forming gestures to launch waves of symbols into the silver cauldron.
After the cauldron trembled slightly, the crimson flame ignited below, wrapping the silver cauldron.
The second day.
There was a sudden crackling sound from the silver cauldron, and a burnt smell emanated from the cauldron.
Liu Ming frowned slightly. He stopped the gesture and took out a mass of black material residue from the cauldron. He then immediately took out a faint yellow talisman from his sleeve, pinched into pieces, poured the materials into the cauldron and started the second trial.
…
One day later, when Liu Ming once again took out a mass of black residue from the silver cauldron in front of him, he couldn’t help frowning.
This was his thirtieth time refining the cold condensing pill, and he had never succeeded once. He didn’t even get the elixir with the lowest purity.
He thought he already had some knowledge in alchemy, but this made him sigh slightly. It seemed that this Condensation Period elixir was more difficult by a few more levels than Spirit Apostle Stage elixir.
He got up and stretched his muscles. After observing Bone Scorpion and Demon Flying Skull practicing, he then sat cross-legged and continued to refine elixir again.
…
Another month has passed, Liu Ming was still sitting in front of the cauldron. He was focusing on controlling the cauldron’s fire. Even sweat dropped from his forehead.
Three months later, Liu Ming smiled bitterly at a furnace of elixir emitting a burning smell.
Six months…
Time flies, and a year had passed in no time.
In the mysterious space, Liu Ming still sat in front of the silver cauldron, looking at a silvery pill in front of him and finally showing a hint of joy on his face.
This cold condensing pill was Liu Ming’s only successful attempt after hundreds of repeated trials this year. All these thanked to his previous experience in alchemy.
After a little identification through a simple mystic arts recorded in the classics, this first cold condensing pill only had 30% purity. It could only be regarded as an inferior grade elixir.
Although it was only a 30% pure elixir, it still greatly enhanced Liu Ming’s confidence.
For ordinary people, let alone facing hundreds of repeated failures, even if they faced a dozen of failures, they would have given up with their confidence collapsed.
He immediately put this pill into a jade box that was already prepared on one side, then he crushed a storage talisman, took out the material and put it in the silver cauldron in front of him, and then began to concentrate on refining the elixir.
Since Liu Ming had his first success, he believed that it wouldn’t be long before refining the next elixir.