Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 25 - Chapter 25 – First Time Refining Pills

The Saintess of the Xuan Yin Sect…

Li Yu vaguely guessed that the identity of that demoness was not simple, but he had never expected her to be this formidable.

Not only did she hold a very high position in a demon sect, her strength was also not to be underestimated. At just nineteen years old, she had reached the Golden Core stage of cultivation. Her talent was in no way inferior to the talented girl from his own sect.

Li Yu didn’t know whether to be happy or upset.

If he truly wanted to be a mole for the demonic path, this would of course be good news.

But unfortunately, Li Yu only sought immortality and had no desire to be an undercover agent, nor did he want to get involved in the conflict between the righteous and the demon sects.

After a long while, Li Yu let out a deep breath.

No matter what, he had managed to enter Kunlun. Even that demoness probably never expected that he could really come here.

At this moment, Li Yu hoped more than anything that the demoness had already forgotten about him.

The fact that she saved him back then was purely accidental. Arranging for him to enter Baiyun Temple didn’t seem to come with any great expectations. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have left him so loosely supervised — not only ignoring his cultivation, but not even giving him a magical conch for communication.

Such a big figure, with so many affairs every day, shouldn’t be bothered remembering a minor Qi Gathering stage nobody for so long.

Moreover, this was clearly her first time sending in an undercover agent. Besides saving Li Yu’s life, she hadn’t found any real leverage over him, nor tampered with him in any way. Except for herself, no one else knew Li Yu was planted in Baiyun Temple by her.

There was no reason for her to shout to the world that a Qi Gathering disciple of Kunlun was her spy planted within the sect.

Thinking this through, Li Yu felt much more at ease.

He yawned, looked up at the sky. The sky was a clear azure, and faintly at the highest point of the celestial dome, some shimmering lights flickered.

According to the time when they arrived, it should be deep into the night now, but there was no sign of darkness here. Li Yu was not surprised — the steward disciple had already told him that Kunlun Sect existed in an independent small world where there was only daytime, no night.

Advanced cultivators didn’t need to sleep. Li Yu hadn’t reached that stage yet, so he closed the courtyard door and headed toward his bedroom.

In his rush to leave, he hadn’t even had time to say goodbye to the little white tiger. He missed the feeling of holding it in his arms, petting it. Next time he returned to Baiyun Temple, he wondered if he could bring it back with him…

With a beautiful hope for the future, Li Yu soon fell asleep.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away by a stream, a little white tiger lay on a huge rock, staring in a certain direction. The anticipation in its eyes gradually turned into disappointment. It let out a low growl, then jumped down and disappeared into the mountains, glancing back step by step…

…

Li Yu was woken by the ringing of a bell in waves.

Opening his eyes, he quickly washed his face with a water ball technique and pushed open the courtyard door.

Others from nearby courtyards were also hurrying out. A steward disciple stood ahead, shouting loudly: “All new disciples who entered yesterday, assemble in the main hall ahead…”

Wu Tong happened to come out of a neighboring courtyard. Li Yu greeted him, and together they headed toward the place the steward disciple had mentioned.

The group arrived at a spacious main hall, where Li Yu saw two familiar figures.

At the center of the hall, sitting on a chair, was none other than the Foundation Establishment elder Li Yu had seen at Baiyun Temple before. Standing respectfully behind the elder was Liu Dong, who had once been a fellow disciple of Baiyun Temple with Li Yu, his hands hanging down and showing utmost reverence.

The steward disciple stepped forward to the crowd and introduced the elder: “This is Elder Han, the steward elder in charge of your group of new disciples.”

Upon hearing this, all the disciples immediately straightened their posture and respectfully said, “Greetings, Elder Han.”

The elder nodded slightly and said, “First, let me introduce the sect rules.”

For new disciples entering the sect, learning the rules was the foremost task. Kunlun was a prestigious orthodox sect that did not tolerate its disciples causing trouble. This was the primary rule that all Kunlun disciples had to follow. Next, among disciples within the sect, fighting or bullying was forbidden. Violations could lead to punishment for minor offenses, or expulsion from Kunlun for severe ones, and so on…

After the steward disciple finished explaining the sect rules, he moved on to address the matter Li Yu cared about.

The Danding Peak was dedicated to training the sect’s alchemists. These new disciples knew nothing about alchemy and needed to start from scratch. At first, they only needed to observe and learn. After one month, they would have to start practicing making pills themselves.

At that stage, the pills they made would be for ordinary mortals, such as hemostatic pills, detoxification pills, insect-repellent pills, and so forth.

The ingredients for these pills were common herbs, not particularly rare or precious, making them suitable for beginners. Even if wasted, it was not a big loss.

Once the disciples became familiar with the alchemy process and could easily make these low-tier pills, they could try making pills for Qi Gathering stage cultivators, the most common being the Qi Recovery Pill.

When a Qi Gathering disciple’s spiritual energy was completely depleted, taking a Qi Recovery Pill would instantly replenish it, allowing them to continue fighting…

If Chen Ming had a Qi Recovery Pill back then, that female ghost wouldn’t have been able to possess him so easily.

There were also Fasting Pills; after taking one, a disciple could go several days without eating. Qi Gathering disciples couldn’t fast on their own yet, and since the sect didn’t provide meals, the consumption of these Fasting Pills was quite high. Thanks to alchemists producing a large quantity of them, lower-level disciples were able to avoid starving to death.

However, to be able to produce first-grade pills, one needed to be at least a first-rank alchemist. Generally speaking, going from an alchemy apprentice to a first-rank alchemist required at least twenty years. This was not something Li Yu or the other alchemy apprentices needed to worry about right now.

There was no distinction between day and night in the Kunlun small world, and in the blink of an eye, Li Yu had already been here for a month.

He had spent the whole month observing the steward disciple’s alchemy process and was now very familiar with every step.

This month had been quite fulfilling for Li Yu.

Not only did he have to study alchemy, but he also had to ensure his cultivation did not fall behind. When tired, he had to rest and replenish his energy. There was almost no free time, and he was exhausted to the point of feeling dumb. He even somewhat regretted choosing the alchemy path in the first place…

But despite the exhaustion, there were things to be happy about.

Just yesterday, Li Yu had finally opened the third acupoint of his Fire spirit vein without any external aid. This meant he could open roughly one acupoint every four months.

This talent wasn’t comparable to the sect’s geniuses, but it was still decent. Unless his luck was terribly bad, there was still a good chance he could form a golden core in this lifetime.

At Danding Peak, Li Yu had his own small courtyard with an underground quiet chamber.

Every small courtyard here had an underground room about 30 to 40 square meters in size. The walls of the room were embedded with glowing stones, illuminating the entire space as bright as daylight.

The room’s furnishings were simple, with several large stone tables. On one stone table, some jade bowls and jade bottles were neatly arranged. On the opposite stone table stood an alchemy furnace.

The alchemy furnace had three legs and two handles, stood a little over a foot tall, and was less than a foot wide. It was engraved with some simple patterns.

This was Li Yu’s alchemy room.

After a month of observation, he had officially become an alchemy apprentice. Today was his first time actually making pills.

Just entering Danding Peak didn’t mean he could relax. These new disciples had to master the preparation of at least one low-level pill within a month. Otherwise, they would have to leave and be reassigned by the sect.

Low-level pills like hemostatic pills and detox pills were made from ordinary medicinal ingredients and posed no great technical difficulty— even ordinary people could make them successfully. For cultivators, if you couldn’t produce even such simple pills after a month, you might as well quit early.

Compared to other peaks, Danding Peak had a limitless future. Naturally, no one wanted to leave, and all the disciples were eager, cracking their knuckles and ready for their first pill-making.

Li Yu chose the hemostatic pill as his first pill. Whether it was internal bleeding or external bleeding, just one pill could immediately stop the bleeding.

This pill was in great demand in the secular world and also very useful for Qi Gathering cultivators. It was popular among disciples who often went on missions outside the sect.

The hemostatic pill required thirteen ingredients. Twelve of these were common herbs in the secular world, such as notoginseng, purple pearls, and agalloch, while the final ingredient was a spiritual herb from the cultivation world called Blood-Clotting Vine, which was the main ingredient of this pill.

Li Yu first placed the fresh Blood-Clotting Vine into a medicine jar, crushed it with a pestle, then squeezed out the dark juice and put it into a nearby jade bowl for later use.

He wasn’t sure if it was because the incense burner on his chest disliked lower-grade spiritual herbs, but half a month ago, he found that even when he touched ordinary herbs or low-level spiritual medicines directly, the incense burner remained unresponsive.

The other twelve medicinal ingredients also had to be freshly picked. Li Yu took another medicine jar, crushed them together, extracted their juices, and put the liquid into another jade bowl. With that, the preparation for making the hemostatic pill was complete.

This most basic pill had the fewest and simplest steps, making it the preferred first pill for most disciples starting their furnace.

With the pill liquids prepared, the next step was to put them into the alchemy furnace for refining.

This step was not difficult at all—it was just the lowest-level pill. Without an alchemy furnace, an iron pot and burning wood could be used, though that would result in a low success rate. Cultivators used specially designed alchemy furnaces, using energy-infused flames to refine pills faster and with higher success rates.

Li Yu poured all the liquid into the main chamber of the furnace, covered the lid, and condensed a ball of fire using his spiritual energy to begin refining.

He had observed this process countless times but was now practicing it for the first time.

Li Yu stared at the dancing flames beneath the furnace and suddenly looked a bit dazed.

A moment later, he snapped out of his daze and hastily extinguished the fire, muttering to himself, “Crap, crap… I actually spaced out during alchemy. All that effort just went down the drain…”

Alchemy required complete focus. Even a slight distraction that caused flame fluctuations could cause mistakes, ranging from failed pills to furnace explosions. Many alchemists had been injured or killed from furnace explosions.

Li Yu didn’t even know why he had gotten distracted, and hastily opened the furnace to look inside, only to be stunned.

Ten dark red pills were quietly lying there. After opening the furnace, a faint medicinal fragrance filled the room.

Could it be—successful?

He focused his mind, and one pill, smaller than his pinky, slowly floated up and landed in his hand. Li Yu examined it carefully—the pill was smooth and round, with no flaws on its surface. Its color was the dark red that a hemostatic pill should have.

On the pill’s surface were five shallow lines that looked quite elegant.

These were the pill’s markings. Senior Brother Zhao, who taught them alchemy, said that a successfully refined pill would have these markings. If there were none, it meant the pill was a dud.

The only difference was that Li Yu’s pill had more markings. Senior Brother Zhao’s hemostatic pills only had one or two lines at most, while his had five.