Martial Arts Overlord

Chapter 51: Six Mystical Pills

For an entire month, Ning Xiaochuan would head over to Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall to read every single morning, only coming back at night. When night fell, he started to train his first Innate Divine Technique, Lightning Divine Beast, and try to understand the foundations behind the Apocalypse Devil Sword.

Within this month, Ning Xiaochuan had perused over three thousand books relating to Heart-nourishing Masters, learning about more than fifty thousand types of different Mystical Medicine of different grades, the various types of Mystical Medicine, the medicinal properties of the Mystical Medicine, the refining technique of the Mystical Medicine, the recipes of the Mystical Medicine, the refining process of mid-grade Pills, etc. He read all sorts of books and then slowly started to analyze and internalize the information.

Of course, within this month, he also followed Yu Qianqian to get lessons from Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall’s Hallmaster, asking the elder for knowledge about how to refine mid-grade Pills.

Sometimes, he would even discuss Heart-nourishing Techniques and Pill Principles with Yu Qianqian.

Yu Qianqian was also preparing to refine mid-grad Pills, preparing to become a true Mid-level Heart-nourishing Master. Hence, the two shared similar topics of interest.

As the two interacted, Yu Qianqian realized that Ning Xiaochuan’s knowledge had exceeded hers on a more comprehensive level. This hurt her confidence even more, as her identity as a genius had been utterly overshadowed by Ning Xiaochuan’s brilliance.

This entire month, Ji Hanxing was seemingly still stalking Ning Xiaochuan’s every move. Wherever Ning Xiaochuan went, she would follow. Sometimes, she would lift Ning Xiaochuan off the ground as usual, but he looked like he did not have a care in the world. He freely allowed her to lift him up, almost as if declaring that he did not care, no matter how often she lifted him up!

Ji Hanxing was out of ideas on what to do with him. In the end, she just gave up on using brute strength and just silently followed behind him. It was almost like he was haunted by a beautiful ghost that he could never shake.

With this entire month of training in Heart-nourishing Techniques, Ning Xiaochuan improved significantly. As he continued to research Pill Principles, he vaguely grasped the concepts behind refining a mid-grade Pill. He was ready to refine his first batch of mid-grade Pills at this point.

Since Ning Xiaochuan’s Cultivation was already at the Divine Body Realm, he could easily control the Devil Sword within his blood orifices. In turn, he also did not have to worry about the Blood-toad Wood being forcefully absorbed by the Devil Sword after it was refined. Hence, he could finally use Blood-toad Wood as the main ingredient to refine a mid-grade Pill.

“I’m gonna go with Blood-toad Wood as my main ingredient. It has a slight Yang Attribute along with a pinch of the water attribute.

“Using Grade Five Snow Lotus Mystical Medicine, I should be able to neutralize the Blood-toad Wood’s Yang Attribute, whereas using Grade Five Hard Cinnabar Mystical Medicine, I will be able to hide the water attribute of the Blood-toad Wood. Grade Five… Would its medicinal properties be too overwhelming? Maybe Grade Four Hard Cinnabar might be a better choice.”

After careful deliberation, Ning Xiaochuan finally decided to use Grade Five Snow Lotus, Grade Four Hard Cinnabar, and Grade Three Heart-nourishing Grass as the sub-ingredients of the Blood-toad Wood.

Just in case of failure, Ning Xiaochuan had bought a total of ten portions of Mystical Medicine and fifty portions of Grade Tree Heart-nourishing Grass.

Heart-nourishing Grass and Magnetite were the foundation of refining mid-level Pills. They were essential.

“Bam!”

His first attempt ended in failure. As soon as the Grade Five Snow Lotus was infused into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron, it instantly caused the Yin and Yang of the Qi within the cauldron to go off-balance. It had failed to form Pill Qi, ultimately resulting in the dispersal of the medicinal Q and turning the concoction into medicinal goop.

On his second attempt, Ning Xiaochuan first refined the Heart-nourishing Grass into Heart-nourishing Liquid, using it as the base for the creation of the pill. Then, he tried infusing the Grade Four Hard Cinnabar into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron. This time, the balance was not broken and Pill Qi started to form.

However, when it came time to infuse the Grade Five Snow Lotus into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron, the medicinal Qi went off-balance once more, causing the Pill Qi to disperse again. It was another failure.

“This time, it’s probably an issue with the timing. When I put in the Grade Five Snow Lotus, I need to be a bit faster.”

Learning from his two failures, Ning Xiaochuan was even more cautious this time. After adding the Grade Four Hard Cinnabar, he immediately added in the Grade Five Snow Lotus.

This time, it was a success! The medicinal Qi did not disperse!

As he continued refining, the medicinal Qi slowly transitioned into Pill Qi.

‘That’s a good sign!

‘Let’s continue!’

“Bam!”

In the end, it was still a failure. The Blood-toad Wood’s medicinal Qi was too intense, and the Pill Qi could not be formed. In turn, it was not able to turn into a Medicinal Pill, ultimately leading to the remnants in the Heart-nourishing Cauldron to be wasted.

Failure! Failure! Failure!

For his first seven tries, Ning Xiaochuan had failed all of them. He just could not manage to get it to form a Pill.

By his seventh failure, all of his Mystical Medicine was wasted. Tallying it all up, the Mystical Medicine cost him over two million copper coins. Understandably, Ning Xiaochuan’s mood turned sour by that point.

“Calm down! Calm down! Don’t panic! Don’t overreact! There must be something wrong with what I did. If the Blood-toad Wood’s Yang attribute is so strong, then I’ll just add in two Grade Five Snow Lotuses and double the amount of Magnetite.

With that, Ning Xiaochuan carried out his eighth attempt.

By now, he had already become quite proficient at the refining process and seemed like a complete natural. When all the Mystical Medicine and Magnetite was added into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron, the medicinal Qi started to boil, turning into a crimson red Pill Qi. At the bottom of the Heart-nourishing Cauldron, the Heart-nourishing Liquid kept being absorbed into the Pill Qi, ultimately, turning the Pill Qi into a liquid.

Pill Liquid!

Ning Xiaochuan started to get excited.

When Pill Qi transitions into Pill Liquid, it signified a ton of progress.

Ning Xiaochuan did not rush it, but rather, started to use a gentle method to enrich the blood-red liquid in the Heart-nourishing Cauldron. He kept on pouring the Qi in his body into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron, infusing it into the liquid.

At this point, the process was nearing its final steps. Once the condensation of the Pill Pattern occurs, it will become a physical Pill.

Ning Xiaochuan sat cross-legged under the Blood-toad Wood tree as his body started to emit layers upon layers of herbal scents. This attracted many passing birds, surrounding the area of Begonia Manor.

Yu Yan stood a short distance away, looking on worriedly. She said, “Master has been sitting there for a total of four whole days. If he continues to not eat or drink, he will definitely harm his body.”

Official Tian had been standing by the lakeside almost like a ghost. He had been standing there for the past four days. Chuckling with a hoarse voice, he said, “What does a little girl like you know? He’s in the middle of refining mid-grade Pills. Just the Pill Qi that the mid-grade Pills release can provide him sustenance. What an amazing sight! He’s only sixteen years old and he’s already a Mid-level Heart-nourishing Master! His innate potential might even be higher than Skilled Master Guo.

Ning Xiaochuan, who originally had his eyes shut, suddenly opened his eyes and shouted out a single word, “CONDENSE!”

A small cauldron suddenly flew out from his body, enveloping the Qi as it floated in front of him. This thing was emitting a strong herbal fragrance as it turned into the form of a Blood-toad, still floating in the air.

“The pill is almost formed!” Official Tian yelled.

When a person’s Cultivation reached the Divine Body Realm, the Heart-nourishing Cauldron would have been reinforced enough from all the refining, allowing it to fly out from the heart and present itself in the air.

If and when Ning Xiaochuan’s Cultivation progresses even more, even if he leaves his Heart-nourishing Cauldron outside of his body, he would still be able to refine Pills.

Ning Xiaochuan repeatedly waved his hands in the air, trying to use his Qi to carve out the Pill Pattern he needed to transform it into the symbol of a Blood-toad and infuse it into the Heart-nourishing Cauldron.

A moment later, the Pill Pattern creation was complete.

Ning Xiaochuan’s heart was beating rapidly as he wondered if his mid-grade Pill refining was a success.

If he had succeeded, that would mean that he would officially earn the right to become a Mid-level Heart-nourishing Master. From then on, his identity and position would become unbelievably higher.

“Boom!”

As the Heart-nourishing Cauldron was opened, six rays of blood-red light shine out from within the cauldron. Enshrined within these rays of light were six separate pea-sized pills. Shining glaringly bright, they emitted an intense fragrance.

It turned into Pills!

Ning Xiaochuan kept the six Blood-toad Pills as Yu Yan immediately brought over a Mystical Frost Jade Box.

“Congratulations on your success in refining a mid-grade Pill, master. You have become an amazing Mid-level Heart-nourishing Master.”

“Whether these are mid-grade Pills or not… Will still depend on the appraisal results. I’ll bring this over to the Heart-nourishing Hall to have them be appraised by the Hallmaster.”

Ning Xiaochuan placed these six Blood-toad Pill into the Mystical Frost Jade Box and immediately set out to Jinpeng Heart-nourishing Hall.

Skilled Master Guo had not expected Ning Xiaochuan to have succeeded in refining a mid-grade Pill so quickly. When he opened up the jade box, a dazzling light poured out from the box.

“You managed to refine six Pills on your first attempt? Amazing!”

As he picked up one of the Blood-toad Pills, it floated on his palm.

On the pill itself, the symbol of a Blood-toad twisted around, looking as mystical as ever.

That was the Pill Pattern.

As Skilled Master Guo observed the Pill momentarily, he let out a small sigh. “How unlucky, these Pills can only be considered a partial success.”

Ning Xiaochuan questioned, “How could that be? I was sure I felt that the medicinal Qi in the Pills was no weaker than other mid-grade Pills.”

Skilled Master Guo nodded. “That’s because your Seven-orifice Devil Heart is simply too special. It caused the Pills you partially succeeded in refining to have medicinal properties comparable to the average mid-grade Pill that others would refine. If you sell these six Pills, you could definitely sell it for the value of an average mid-grade Pill, but, at the end of the day, it will ONLY be the value of an average mid-grade Pill.”

Naturally, even mid-grade Pills had different qualities. For an average mid-grade Pill, the price could go from around one to three million copper coins.

On the other hand, for top grade Pills, they could even go up to about fifty million copper coins.

If Ning Xiaochuan sold three of these Pills that he partially succeeded in refining, he would at most get around one to three million copper coins1. There was no hope of earning any more than that.

Ning Xiaochuan asked, “Then, why would such a situation occur? I’m sure I managed to control the timing and manipulation to the tiniest degree, the pills shouldn’t have been just a partial success.”

Skilled Master Guo replied, “You’ve probably spent a lot of effort trying to refine these Blood-toad Pills, even using top-grade herbs, especially the main ingredient – Blood-toad Wood. It has a high level of liveliness, it was obvious that they were taken fresh from a Blood-toad Wood tree. However, the sub-ingredients you used were dead herbs that were picked a long time ago. Live herbs and dead herbs are polar opposites, there was no way for them to form Pills. However, you’ve somehow brute-forced your way into a partial success in refining it into a Pill. That was already quite an amazing feat in and of itself.”

NIg Xiaochuan finally understood. No wonder he had failed seven times in a row. The biggest reason behind all that failure was that he did not pay attention to the difference between live herbs and dead herbs.

After learning the reason, Ning Xiaochuan immediately went to buy live Grade Five Snow Lotuses and Grade Three Heart-nourishing Grass.

These live Mystical Medicine might be more expensive than dead Mystical Medicine, but if it could allow him to successfully refine a mid-grade Pill, Ning Xiaochuan paid no attention to this measly pocket change!