Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Data Alchemy
Upon reaching the county town, Lu Xuanji met his second sister, and her husband.
They were doing well. His second sister was only at the Second Layer of Qi Cultivation, and his brother-in-law at the Third Layer, placing them at the bottom tier of the Cultivation Realm.
Their future in cultivation was not promising, yet as cultivators, they were respected as Immortal Masters in the Mortal World.
A Qi Cultivation Cultivator at the Third Layer could become a City Lord in the Mortal World, guarding a territory.
His brother-in-law was currently serving as the County Magistrate of a county town, managing ordinary citizens.
At the Third Layer of Qi Cultivation, one could refine some elixirs, spiritual artifacts, arrays, talismans, etc. Although these products were of low grade and average quality, they barely had a market in the Cultivation Realm.
But in the Mortal World, these products were quite popular.
Through selling these products, his second sister and brother-in-law were living quite well in the Mortal World.
Upon meeting Lu Xuanji, his second sister and brother-in-law warmly entertained him, growing closer and inquiring about various matters.
After staying for three to five days, Lu Xuanji left behind some gifts and departed.
…
Ten days later, Lu Xuanji returned to Changyuan Mountain.
This time, his travels had lasted about three years, encountering many experiences.
At the Wu Family marketplace, he survived an assassination attempt by Wu Quanwen, narrowly escaping death; at Purple Sun Mountain, he almost became the disciple of Golden Dawn Ancestor after listening to his teachings; he met his older brother and second sister, wanting to grow closer, yet there was a barrier.
The gains were considerable too; not only did he refine three lifebound treasures, greatly enhancing his combat power, but through Golden Ancestor’s teachings, he comprehended many principles, avoiding some pitfalls and taking fewer detours.
Upon returning to Changyuan Mountain, Lu Xuanji first went to visit the Grand Elder, only to find that the Grand Elder was in seclusion.
He then looked for Ye Feixue, but she was also in seclusion.
He sought his father, only to find him in seclusion as well.
Only Sixth Aunt Lu Jinxiu was stationed at Changyuan Mountain.
“According to the clan rules, we take turns going into seclusion and taking turns overseeing the Spiritual Mountain!” Sixth Aunt Lu Jinxiu said, “You know, each level advancement during the Foundation Establishment Stage takes twenty, even thirty years. Although the lifespan during the Foundation Establishment Stage is two hundred and forty years, it seems long, but it’s actually short; in the blink of an eye, it’s gone!”
“Those ambitious cultivators will spend eighty percent of their time on cultivation, leaving other miscellaneous matters to be rotated through or handled by the Qi Cultivation Cultivators below!”
“Xuanji, your time is running out!”
“Yes, my time is running out!”
Lu Xuanji frowned, also calculating his time.
The two hundred and forty years lifespan during the Foundation Establishment Stage seems long but is, in reality, very short.
Without extra words, he directly entered the Cave Mansion to start his secluded cultivation.
During the initial stage of Qi Cultivation, due to the limited resilience of the meridians, one needs to rest after cultivating for a period; but upon reaching Foundation Establishment, the toughness of the meridians improves, allowing for continuous cultivation, accelerating cultivation advancement.
Within the Cave Mansion, Spiritual Qi surged within the spirit spring, continuously pouring into the Dantian, refining into strands of True Essence.
The True Essence settled in the Dantian, continuously accumulating.
Only when the True Essence is full in the Dantian does one achieve perfection in the First Layer of Foundation Establishment.
Originally, it required twelve years to reach perfection in the First Layer of Foundation Establishment; however, due to the Li Fire Sword, Wings of Freedom, and Heaven Mending Cauldron, the cultivation speed slowed; furthermore, the Heaven Mending Cauldron purified True Essence, causing the speed to slow further. Estimations suggested it might take twenty years to reach perfection in the First Layer of Foundation Establishment.
If a bottleneck occurs in the middle, the time will be even longer.
Many Foundation Establishment Cultivators fail to enter the Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment before their lifespan runs out.
“What a big trouble!”
Lu Xuanji showed a hint of worry.
“Need to invest Spirit Stones, need to consume elixirs, need to absorb Spirit Stones to enhance cultivation.”
Contemplating this, his resolve strengthened further.
Without relying on elixirs, without refining Spirit Stones, it is quite difficult for him to reach the Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment before his lifespan runs out.
The Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment is already hard to achieve, let alone challenging the Purple Mansion.
As for consuming elixirs, it leads to elixir poison deposition; refining Spirit Stones causes True Essence to become hollow, etc.
These issues are just minor complications.
It’s like eating pork could lead to high blood pressure; does that mean one should stop eating pork?
The key lies in weighing the pros and cons. As long as the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, it is doable.
Crack!
He took out a Spirit Stone and began refining it.
The Spirit Stone contained pure Spiritual Qi, with few impurities, quickly allowing cultivators to absorb and refine, enhancing the speed of cultivation.
A single Spirit Stone contained overwhelming Spiritual Qi, equivalent to the amount of Spiritual Qi a Foundation Establishment Cultivator would intake in a day.
Within just one hour, Lu Xuanji refined a Spirit Stone.
After refining ten Spirit Stones each day, the True Essence increased considerably, though it was somewhat hollow.
Lu Xuanji activated the Heaven Mending Cauldron, refining the True Essence, purifying it. After half an hour, the True Essence became pure, without any hollowness.
The rest of the time was spent sitting in meditation, resting, or tending to the spiritual fields, or attempting alchemy.
Starting with low-level elixirs, the first step was to extract the essence of the medicinal ingredients.
The extraction process lacked standards, relying entirely on intuition, since each medicinal ingredient required different temperatures, wholly dependent on Soul Power sensing.
If the temperature was too high, the medicinal power would disperse; if too low, precise extraction wasn’t possible.
Next, the extracted essence needed to be purified and fused.
During the fusion process, the order of blending the medicinal liquids affected the potency and power of the elixir.
Finally, an attempt should be made to inscribe a talisman into the elixir, using the talisman as the root to guide the perfect fusion of the medicinal liquids.
After dozens of consecutive failures, Lu Xuanji began to leaf through the Alchemy Manual, searching for patterns, gradually finding some regularities.
“Alchemy isn’t actually complicated; its high threshold is due to requiring both fire and wood attributes, being able to sense flame temperatures, understanding the conditions of medicinal ingredients, and more due to reliance on intuition and mysticism lacking reasonable standards and data!”
“Since there are no standards, then I’ll set the standards!”
Lu Xuanji thought.
The greatest utility of the phone lies in data collection and data computation.
By collecting various data from alchemy, transforming some of the mystical aspects into science and data.
Elixirs become not mystical items, but scientific data and formulas.
Noting down proportions, Lu Xuanji began writing and drawing.
Collecting data and also deducing the data while running simulations.
Jade Emperor Rice, extraction temperature is three hundred seventy-two degrees, duration of one minute, fusion time is two seconds.
Hundred Flowers Fruit, extraction temperature is five hundred seventy-two degrees, duration of thirty seconds, fusion time is three seconds.
Celestial Spirit Fruit, extraction temperature is one thousand two hundred degrees, duration of five seconds, fusion time is one point seven seconds.
A model of the elixir data was quickly established, and Lu Xuanji began alchemy.
Eighteen First Grade elixirs were successfully refined.
Six Second Grade elixirs were also successfully refined.
Due to issues with familiarity and errors along the way, there were three failures, but the other eighty-seven attempts all succeeded.
The efficiency of alchemy greatly improved.
“Unfortunately, I can only refine Second Grade elixirs. Third Grade elixirs involve more than a hundred types of medicinal materials and require inscribing over a hundred talismans within the elixir, which drastically consumes True Qi and damages Soul Power to the point where my current cultivation is totally inadequate to support it.”
Lu Xuanji sighed.
The higher the grade of the elixir, the harder it is to refine.
Without a robust cultivation foundation, refinement is out of the question.
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