Chapter 184: Thousand Pills Different Formula
Song Yan placed the specially crafted jade case containing the spiritual fire into his Cosmos Bag.
After exchanging for the treasure, he didn’t linger any longer and immediately left Harmony Peak.
He forcefully suppressed the urge to return to his cave dwelling right then and refine the spiritual fire, and headed toward the Inner Sect Library.
This trip out was to collect all his rewards.
Among them was one extremely important reward – the right to choose any technique manual from the Inner Sect Library.
He mainly wanted to see if there was a better Qi Refining technique.
The Inner Sect Library was divided into five floors. Inner Sect disciples could only enter the first three floors.
With his qualification as the second-place winner in the Sword Tempering competition, Song Yan could enter the fourth floor and browse these more advanced technique manuals.
As for the fifth floor, it seemed to be the resting quarters of the elder who guarded the library.
The high-level texts and secret records stored there were not something a Qi Refining disciple like Song Yan could hope to understand.
Entering the library, there were quite a few cultivator disciples moving about.
As he passed a corner, several young disciples approached from the opposite direction.
After taking a careful look at him, they immediately stepped aside and bowed respectfully. “Senior Brother Song!”
Song Yan was briefly stunned, then nodded.
After the Sword Tempering competition, he had become quite famous in the sect. Being recognized was perfectly normal.
He headed straight upstairs.
The technique manuals on the third floor and below – there would be plenty of time to look at those later. Today, he would go straight to the fourth floor to broaden his horizons.
The higher he climbed, the more disciples recognized him. Some watched from afar, not daring to approach, while others mustered the courage to greet him.
Song Yan responded briefly to each.
Being recognized and surrounded by so many people brought him a secret thrill, but it also made him, who usually preferred solitude, somewhat uncomfortable.
On second thought, perhaps this was the change that strength brought.
At the entrance to the fourth floor, two deacon disciples stood guard. When they saw the visitor, they immediately clasped their hands. “Senior Brother Song.”
With their assistance, his disciple token was verified.
He ascended to the fourth floor of the library, and a faint scent of ink and spiritual wood assailed his senses.
The space on the fourth floor was slightly smaller than the three floors below, but each manual was carefully placed on a special jade shelf, emitting a faint spiritual glow.
One manual, one jade slip.
The manual was for preview, the jade slip for borrowing.
He first picked up one.
“Three Transformations Mystic Flame True Technique,” a fire-element technique that used fire as the cultivation foundation. When cultivated to a specific realm, it could condense one’s own spiritual flame.
This technique appeared to be the first volume of some fire-element Taoist scripture. It could be cultivated to the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, but once one broke through to Core Formation, it could no longer be practiced.
“Green Wood Eternal Life Technique, a wood-element technique withlong spiritual vitality, endless cycles of life…”
“Geng Qi Spirit Refining Scripture…”
“Wu Ling Forged Origin Technique…”
He browsed through technique after technique, many of which were extraordinarily sophisticated cultivation methods.
However, Song Yan frowned slightly.
These techniques were indeed sophisticated – at least far more advanced than the Qi Condensation Chapter he currently practiced.
However, most were limited to a single element, which didn’t harmonize well with the Sword Dao Seed within his body.
Sword intent and the Dao Heart were not affected by the five elements of spiritual power.
But the Sword Dao Seed and sword qi had a significant connection to spiritual power.
The Transformation of Spirit Chapter stated that cultivating sword qi required compatibility with all elements. If one only cultivated spiritual power of a single element, it might actually limit future development.
Therefore, for sword qi, the best spirit-refining technique was actually one of mixed elements.
He casually browsed the Wu Ling Forged Origin Technique, but unfortunately, this technique also didn’t cultivate mixed spiritual power. Instead, it cultivated different elemental spiritual powers at different stages.
A cycle of five elements.
“It seems that for now, the Qi Condensation Chapter is still the most suitable.” Song Yan sighed softly and returned the manual to its place.
“Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment. Better to build a solid foundation first before constructing a tall building.”
Although the Qi Condensation Chapter was a basic technique, it was balanced and harmonious. The mixed spiritual power it produced was solid and refined, far more versatile than these five-element techniques.
The Qi Condensation Chapter came from the “Lesser Mystic Qi Scripture.” It wasn’t a particularly rare or precious technique, so it could be borrowed from the third floor of the Inner Sect Library.
It just required some sect contribution points.
Song Yan had saved quite a few contribution points. Spending a little on it wouldn’t hurt.
Actually, before Foundation Establishment, he didn’t even need to exchange for it, because the Qi Condensation Chapter was sufficient for him to cultivate to the tenth level of Qi Refining. After Foundation Establishment, it would still be time to exchange.
But if he didn’t use this technique manual opportunity now, it would be a waste…
Song Yan’s gaze was no longer confined to techniques and secret arts. He scanned the entire fourth floor.
Aside from techniques, there were many other precious texts here.
Pill refinement, formations, artifact crafting, talisman arts, history, and local customs.
Finally, his gaze settled on a corner.
“Pill refinement texts.”
Song Yan, who had already been collecting pill refinement texts, walked directly to the pill refinement section and began browsing.
However, the pill refinement texts here were somewhat too abstruse for Song Yan to comprehend.
“New Compilation of Spirit Pill Secrets,” “Discourse on Combining Medicines and Transforming Spirits,” and so on…
They were clearly prepared for alchemists of higher grades.
For a junior alchemist like him who had only ever refined Qi-Gathering Pills, reading these was no different from reading heavenly texts.
“Forget it. Better to go back and study for a while before making a decision.”
Just as he was about to set aside this precious exchange opportunity for now, one pill manual on the shelf caught his attention.
“What is this…”
Song Yan carefully took down this somewhat aged text.
“Thousand Pills Different Formula.”
With curiosity, he opened to the first page.
The first page didn’t contain much pill refinement content – just some reflections from the author and the reasons for compiling this book.
“The path of pill refinement lies in flexibility.”
“Natural spiritual objects undergo ten thousand transformations. Following rules and sticking to established methods is actually the inferior approach.”
After carefully reading through the preview section, Song Yan became increasingly surprised.
This text recorded pill refinement methods that were entirely different from mainstream alchemy.
For example, pill refinement using thunder techniques, water-based pill refinement, and other strange and wonderful methods…
The author described his understanding of pill refinement with great humility. He believed his knowledge of pills was not even one ten-thousandth of an elder’s.
This “Thousand Pills Different Formula” was actually compiled from his experiences following that elder, listening to his conversations with various masters of the pill dao.
So most of the content recorded within consisted of strange and unusual pill refinement methods.
“So-called pill refinement, at its root, is extracting the spiritual energy and essence of various natural spiritual objects and refining them into a single pill.”
“How to extract this spiritual essence, how to remove impurities and waste – there are actually no fixed rules.”
“It’s just that step by step, following the path blazed by predecessors, one doesn’t easily get lost.”
“Step by step, following the methods summarized by seniors for pill refinement, one doesn’t easily cause the furnace to explode. That’s all.”
“The simplest, most convenient, most universal method with the highest success rate will naturally spread widely and be passed down through the ages.”
“But this doesn’t mean that pill refinement only has the method of fire refinement.”