Five days later,
Bang!
A muffled sound suddenly emanated from the alchemy room, and the spirit flame under the Nine Dragon Tripod swiftly converged, transforming into a bright yellow fire dragon that slithered back inside the alchemy furnace.
As soon as the lid of the Pill Furnace was opened, a burnt smell wafted out from inside. It was Zhao Sheng's first attempt at alchemy, and he had failed at the penultimate step: the Essence Resonance.
With a wave of his hand, Zhao Sheng materialized a Water Dragon as thick as an arm out of thin air. The dragon twisted its body flexibly and dived into the furnace. Under the control of his Divine Sense, it slowly cleansed the interior of the Nine Dragon Tripod.
Hiss hiss!
Massive amounts of white steam ceaselessly billowed from the furnace, quickly filling the entire alchemy room.
Zhao Sheng wasn't in a rush to start the second batch.
He closed his eyes in contemplation, simultaneously cultivating to restore his Spiritual Power and mental strength while repeatedly recalling the situation during his last alchemy attempt and secretly summarizing his alchemy experience.
Two days later, Zhao Sheng had returned to his peak condition.
Igniting the fire, warming up the furnace, adding the Thousand-Pattern Star Algae Fruit…
Although it was only his second time refining a Foundation Establishment Pill, his series of movements were as smooth as if he had done them countless times, extremely proficient.
Time gradually passed. The amount of Spiritual Medicine in front of him slowly decreased, while several bottles of Spirit Pills like Bone Marrow Spirit Pill, which strengthened and nourished the spirit, were quickly exhausted by him.
In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.
The alchemy room was filled with a misty haze, and a faint apple-like fragrance lingered in the air.
Zhao Sheng's eyes were bloodshot, his expression extremely excited, yet his hands moved with unusual steadiness, and his alchemy formula was not the least bit disordered.
As streaks of white light entered the furnace, the Golden Burning Spirit Flame slowly retracted into the furnace, transforming into a foot-long fire dragon that carefully swam up, down, left, and right around a small grape-sized orange-red Elixir Liquid in the center of the furnace, thus gradually removing the last bit of "discordant" medicinal essence.
Seeing that the Foundation Establishment Pill was at the crucial Solidifying Pill phase, Zhao Sheng summoned up his remaining mental strength and activated his Bullet Time Talent and Absolute Rationality one last time.
"Solidify... Pill..."
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Time suddenly stretched immensely,
At the same time, Zhao Sheng's expression instantly became incredibly calm, his eyes filled with extreme indifference, seemingly devoid of human emotions and desires such as nervousness, fatigue, and excitement, like a perfect humanoid machine.
In an instant, his thoughts were as quick as lightning, his spirit and mind united, and his consciousness soared to an unprecedented pinnacle.
"Pill solidification, out of the furnace!"
Snap!
The lid of the Nine Dragon Tripod was suddenly blown off, and a streak of red light burst forth from the furnace, tracing a curved arc before lightning-fast falling into Zhao Sheng's hand.
"Is it done?!"
Looking at the soybean-sized, wine-red "shrunken" Foundation Establishment Pill lying in his palm, a thought suddenly flashed through Zhao Sheng's mind.
Time then returned to normal!
"Ha ha, it really succeeded."
His eyes slowly regained their brightness, and he couldn't help but reveal a radiant and warm smile.
Bang!
At that moment, darkness veiled his vision, and a severe pain as fierce as a sudden storm overwhelmed his mind.
In an instant, Zhao Sheng's head throbbed violently, veins bulging on his face.
Seven days and nights of alchemy, repeatedly alternating between two talents, had already excessively drained his mental strength.
Now that the Foundation Establishment Pill was finished and he relaxed, the repercussions instantly erupted.
He managed to swallow a bottle of Returning God Pill just before he suddenly fainted.
It was unclear how much time had passed when Zhao Sheng gradually regained consciousness.
He held his head as he sat up from the ground. Although his head still throbbed painfully, it was infinitely more bearable than before.
At that moment, Zhao Sheng was immensely relieved.
During the previous alchemy process, he had been too focused to notice, but he hadn't expected the repercussions to be so severe afterwards.
This time, he had nearly caused irreparable damage to his Divine Soul.
"I can't push myself like this in the future!"
As Zhao Sheng silently admonished himself, he took out a bottle of Nourishing Spirit Pill and downed it in one go without counting.
Closing his eyes to focus, he cultivated and regulated his energy and spirit. After resting for three days, Zhao Sheng finally fully recovered.
Two days later, Zhao Sheng revisited the previous two alchemy processes several times, identified mistakes, summarized past lessons, and slightly adjusted the amounts of certain Spiritual Medicines before he began the third attempt at refining the Foundation Establishment Pill.
Actually, the second attempt at alchemy wasn't a strict success. The soybean-sized Foundation Establishment Pill could hardly even be considered low-grade, barely qualifying as a rudimentary form of a Foundation Establishment Pill.
A normal Foundation Establishment Pill is as big as a grape, low-grade ones being pure red. The better the quality, the lighter the color.
Top-grade Thousand-Pattern Foundation Establishment Pills are pale pink in color, with both their fragrance and medicinal power entirely inwardly contained.
Fortunately, this time, Zhao Sheng had already touched the threshold of success, and the pill was just a bit shy of being perfectly refined, so he was determined to succeed with the third batch.
Igniting the fire, warming up the furnace, adding the Thousand-Pattern Star Algae Fruit…
This followed the same steps as last time, the only difference being that his techniques seemed even more skilled, and his movements were more precise and stable than before.
Generally speaking, the achievement of an alchemist is directly proportional to their level of cultivation.
It's difficult for Qi Refining Realm alchemists to advance to Second-Order Alchemists, not only because their cultivation and energy aren't up to the standard required to refine Second Order Spirit Pills but also because Qi Refining Realm cultivators lack Divine Sense, which prevents them from directly observing the various elixir transformation reactions inside the furnace, and thus they can't react in time.
Of course, Zhao Sheng was already at the Fifth Layer of the Foundation Establishment realm.
Having consumed Jade Spirit Liquid, his spiritual power was far stronger than cultivators of the same realm. Not to mention the scope, strength, and precision of his Divine Sense control, which were even more formidable than those in the Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
With the experience accumulated from the previous two times, Zhao Sheng's refining of the Foundation Establishment Pill this time was even smoother. The risk of loss of control and the pitfalls during the alchemy period were also significantly reduced.