The next day.
Early morning.
Fang Qing carried a bundle of sky-blue hemp to a mountain peak on Pill Island.
This peak was exceedingly elegant and full of spiritual charm, with a faintly cold, aloof air about it.
Atop the peak was a waterfall that hung down like a jade belt, forming a cold pool below.
Around this cold pool were springheads of icy water, strung together like pearls.
From time to time, several Pill Island disciples could be seen washing and tempering medicinal ingredients with the spring water.
“The first step in water-method alchemy is extraction… extracting the essence of various medicinal herbs and turning them into medicinal liquid. It takes quite some time…”
Though Fang Qing had never truly tried it himself, he had watched quite a lot and could say a thing or two about it.
“Just the techniques for the first step, extraction, already have four major schools: sinking, separating, merging, and gathering… If one truly delves into it, it’s practically endless, broad and profound…”
“And the most important tool for water-method alchemy is not an alchemy furnace, but a good spirit spring… Those senior brothers and sisters who have become alchemists have all spent huge sums to set up spirit pools or spirit springs in their own cave abodes…”
Such spirit springs were tied to underground water veins. They required specialized earth masters to survey the terrain and formation masters to lay down arrays. Not only was the cost enormous, once established, they were difficult to relocate.
By comparison, if a fire-method alchemist ran into trouble, they could simply roll up their furnace and flee. But a cultivator of water-method alchemy could not very well carry a springhead and run off overnight. It counted as a minor shortcoming.
“The best springhead on Pill Island is third-rank and belongs to the lord of Pill Island, who is also the number one alchemist of the Bihai Sect… The remaining second-rank springheads are occupied by Foundation Establishment elders, with only a very small number falling into the hands of true disciples.”
“As for springheads in the wild, most are unranked, while a small portion count as first-rank…”
Those first-rank spirit springs naturally had disciples occupying them, attempting alchemy.
Fortunately, Fang Qing was not planning to refine pills. He was only rinsing fibers, so he had no requirements regarding the spirit spring’s balanced five elements, nor even whether it was cold or hot in nature.
He casually found an unattended springhead and placed the sky-blue hemp into it.
“Hiss…”
The moment his hands entered the water, Fang Qing felt a chill travel all the way up along the skin of his palms.
He hurriedly circulated his magic power to protect his hands, and only then did he feel somewhat better.
“No wonder no one has taken a liking to this spring. Alchemy water emphasizes mildness and gentleness, but this cold energy is somewhat violent… Even if I use magic power to protect myself, I probably won’t be able to last long. This is hard labor.”
Fang Qing was also well aware that truly cushy jobs with lots of money and little work would never fall to him, so he could only keep his head down and continue to toil.
After the sky-blue hemp was soaked in the cold spring, as time passed, the original hemp gradually loosened, turning into fine strands and threads.
At this point, once it was tempered and gathered with magic power, it became a bundle of “Biling Silk.”
The finished Biling Silk was translucent, even finer than silkworm silk, and carried specks of emerald spiritual light.
Fang Qing worked for only a short while before his magic power began to fail. He had no choice but to sit in meditation nearby and recover.
“The ‘Biling Inner Armor’ refined from Biling Silk is quite famous in our sect. It’s a first-rank superior-grade magic artifact…”
“Judging from this, even after I finish all of this, I’m afraid it won’t amount to even half the materials needed for a Biling Inner Armor…”
“Those clad head to toe in silk are not the ones who raise the silkworms…”
After resting for a while, Fang Qing took out a Fasting Pill and swallowed it, preparing to continue working.
By then, more disciples had gradually appeared around the nearby spirit springs.
“Senior Brother Fang?”
A clear voice rang out, carrying a childlike tone.
Fang Qing looked over and saw that it was Zhu’er, with Gong Susu and Hua Lingsu beside her.
“Junior Sister Zhu’er.”
A faint smile appeared on his face. “Long time no see. How have you been lately?”
Zhu’er had grown quite a bit taller, but the closeness on her face had faded compared to before. She said, “Zhu’er has been well…”
“Junior Sister Zhu’er has already been accepted as a disciple by my master, Fuyunzi… In ten years, she has hope of becoming a true disciple.”
Gong Susu spoke from the side, then glanced at the sky-blue hemp on the ground. “Junior Brother Fang, are you… rinsing fibers? Mm, although studying artifact refinement is somewhat neglecting the proper path, it can still be considered a steady approach.”
After the few of them exchanged some pleasantries, Zhu’er took her leave.
Only before parting, she stuffed a gray, palm-sized pouch into Fang Qing’s hand.
“Mm? This is… a storage pouch?”
“In our sect, generally only disciples at the middle stage of Qi Refining, or even the late stage of Qi Refining, are equipped with one…”
Fang Qing refined it with his magic power and sensed that there was roughly one cubic meter of space inside. He could not help feeling overjoyed.
At last, he would no longer have to carry sacks around every day.
Even though this storage pouch was only the smallest kind, with a single cubic space, it was more than enough for his use.
Inside the storage pouch, there were also a few low-grade spirit stones.
When Fang Qing saw this, however, he fell somewhat silent.
……
“Junior Sister Zhu’er…”
After Cha Zhu and Gong Susu had walked some distance away, Hua Lingsu thought for a moment, then still spoke up. “That storage pouch just now?”
“I already have a better one bestowed by Master. That low-grade storage pouch, I simply gave it to Senior Brother Fang.”
Cha Zhu’er patted the little scented sachet at her waist, and the smile on her face faded. “My grandfather always said that during the Sea Dragon King’s Birthday, we used him to block calamity for us, and wronged him greatly… After this, we’re even.”
“Mm. Junior Sister, your future is broad. There is no need to be entangled in too much karma.”
Gong Susu nodded. Cha Zhu’s transformation made her very pleased.
As for a low-grade storage pouch and a few spirit stones? She truly did not take them to heart.
……
There was no sense of years in cultivation.
In the blink of an eye, three years passed.
Bihai Sect, Pill Island, inside a cave abode.
Fang Qing had grown much taller. He was seated cross-legged, spiritual power flickering uncertainly around him. Clearly, he was in the midst of attempting a breakthrough!
Rumble!
After an unknown amount of time, he sensed the dark Blackwater magic power within his dantian qi sea boiling, cheering and roaring as it rushed into another circuit of meridians, causing his dantian to expand and deepen considerably.
“Finally… the third level of Qi Refining!”
Fang Qing opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them. “This speed counts as neither fast nor slow among mid-grade spiritual roots… It’s still a bit inferior compared to someone with superior aptitude like Zhu’er.”
According to the news he had obtained, Zhu’er had already reached the perfection of the third level of Qi Refining and was preparing to charge at the bottleneck of the middle stage of Qi Refining.
And for those with superior aptitude, cultivation in the Qi Refining stage basically had no bottlenecks; their chances of breaking through were very high.
Thinking of Zhu’er made him think of these past three years, and Fang Qing’s expression gradually became calm.
“Zhu’er and I have gradually reduced our contact. It happened naturally… It’s good for both her and me.”
After sighing, he gave more thought to his own path of cultivation. “Cultivation in the early stage of Qi Refining is the simplest. Even so, it still took me one year to reach perfection of the first level of Qi Refining and break through to the second level, then another two years to accumulate my magic power at the second level to perfection and break through to the third level… If I want to accumulate the third level of Qi Refining to perfection, perhaps it will take three years?”
“Moreover, although my aptitude is middling and breaking through to the middle stage of Qi Refining shouldn’t be much of a problem, the late stage of Qi Refining is another matter… Cultivation in the Qi Refining stage becomes harder with each level.”
“And according to the scriptures, the best age for a cultivator to establish their foundation is before one sixty-year cycle! If one still cannot establish their foundation before the great limit of sixty, though it doesn’t mean there will never be a chance, the probability will be greatly reduced.”
Fang Qing made some calculations. Even if no bottlenecks existed, he still felt somewhat uneasy about whether he could cultivate to the great perfection of the ninth level of Qi Refining before his sixtieth birthday.
“As expected… I still need to increase my investment of resources, even to the point of taking pills.”
Over the past three years, he had mainly relied on his own bitter cultivation, and he already understood that he was no genius.
“If I want pills, I need to earn contribution points… The ordinary tasks within the sect can only barely allow me to survive. If I want to get rich… unless I become an alchemist, or take on even more dangerous missions.”
Whether it was capturing criminals or joining a fishing team, the rewards were generous, but they were also extremely dangerous, and Fang Qing would not choose them.
“Over these three years, aside from cultivation and working, I’ve been reading pharmacopoeias, identifying medicinal properties, and going to the Danding Platform to listen to lectures…”
“I’ve also mastered one water-control technique. Together with the contribution points I’ve accumulated, I can barely scrape together one set of raw materials to refine ‘Yuhua Spirit Water’… Then I’ll give it a try. If I discover that I have some talent in water-method alchemy, I can use it to earn cultivation resources without having to go out and risk my life.”
Half a day later, beside a spirit spring.
Fang Qing took a deep breath and patted the storage pouch at his waist.
Amid ripples of magic-power light, three jade boxes appeared and opened one after another. They were all raw materials for refining “Yuhua Spirit Water.”
“Qi-Nourishing Grass, Spirit-Harmonizing Flower… and the most crucial main ingredient, the fish extract of the Yuhua Treasure Fish…”
Fang Qing checked them over once more. After confirming that the raw materials he had bought by spending nearly all he had were of excellent quality, he could not help nodding.
The alchemy methods of this Little Huan Sea fully embodied the spirit of living off the sea. Spiritual creatures and sea beast materials from the ocean occupied a very large proportion.
“This Yuhua Spirit Water is relatively suitable for early-stage Qi Refining cultivators to increase their magic power, especially cultivators with water spiritual roots… This pill formula, these materials… I’ve thrown in all the savings I had left from the past few years.”
Fang Qing’s expression was somewhat unpleasant, but he quickly calmed himself and formed hand seals.
Splash!
Blackwater magic power surged. The spirit spring stirred with faint ripples, quickly transforming into a vortex.
“First step, extract the Qi-Nourishing Grass…”
Fang Qing tossed the Qi-Nourishing Grass into the spring water and formed hand seals with both hands, causing the vortex to devour the grass, then… crush it, spin it…
This was a water-control technique he had cultivated—the Three Turns of Xuanyuan!
Among the techniques of water-method alchemy, water-control arts were extremely important, and were further divided into the different levels of three, six, and nine.
It was said that Zhu’er’s master, Fuyunzi, was a second-rank alchemist and had mastered the water-control technique known as “Six Whirlpools Flying Stars.”
As for the lord of Pill Island, the Bihai Sect’s number one alchemist, he had cultivated his water-control technique to the realm of “Nine Dragons Joining as One.” When he performed water-method alchemy, the entire network of spirit springs on Cold Spring Peak would wind and turn in nine bends and eighteen curves. With every surge and circulation, the purity of the medicinal liquid would rise another level.
Moreover, water-method alchemy was famously grand in scale, and one could even summon many alchemists to assist.
Whenever the Bihai Sect had some large-scale alchemy task, the entire Pill Island would seem like it was holding a celebration, with medicinal springs washing over the whole peak…
Amid his thoughts, Fang Qing formed hand seals with both hands, causing the vortex’s rotation speed to continually increase.
Gradually… that mass of green medicinal liquid actually began to separate into layers…
‘This… somehow has the feel of a centrifuge.’
Fang Qing muttered inwardly, swiftly collecting the most essential portion of the medicinal liquid, then immediately put in the “Spirit-Harmonizing Flower”…