Chapter 192: Penniless
Gazing upon these traces of the sword cultivator seniors who had once existed, it seemed as though that era when the Sword Dao flourished was laid out before his very eyes.
Where had it gone…
Song Yan shook his head, dispelling the impractical thoughts from his mind.
“Without strength, I cannot even protect myself, let alone seek out the traces of those who came before.”
He turned his attention back to the “Thousand Pill Formulas.”
Sword qi alchemy was a method of pill refinement.
In other words, so long as he could master it thoroughly and apply it with fluency, he could in the future take up any pill formula and attempt refinement directly.
Though it would require much practice to ensure a reliable success rate.
Over the next seven or eight days, Song Yan’s days were extraordinarily fulfilling.
Cultivating spiritual energy, refining divine sense, practicing sword arts, studying alchemy texts.
And these alchemy texts were not limited to the “Thousand Pill Formulas”—he also possessed the many foundational alchemy scriptures he had received from Granny Qin.
Certain matters of medicinal properties and pharmacology still required careful study.
During this period, the Sword Spirit Linjun had also completed its reforging.
The entire flying sword now appeared utterly renewed, bearing fully the might of a superior-grade flying sword.
Though he wished to begin studying sword formations immediately, the Dao of Pills had only just begun its infancy. To pursue too many disciplines simultaneously was to risk becoming mediocre in all of them.
Greed leads to indigestion. Better to proceed step by step and allow the Dao of Pills to reach a stable footing first.
On this day, the courtyard of Residence Earth-Two-One and the protective wards upon the cave dwelling’s entrance were all completely sealed.
Even Xiao He was “forbidden” by Song Yan from entering the pill refinement chamber.
She strongly protested his secretive behavior.
Yet there was no help for it. Pill refinement required an environment of absolute quiet and stability.
Especially for a novice like himself, still groping at the threshold of the craft. Should he be disturbed during the process, both his spirit and his meridians would be easily affected.
Having prepared everything, Song Yan sat cross-legged.
His palms, resting upon his knees, slowly turned and rose, forming a posture of embracing the void.
Within the pill refinement chamber, sword qi suddenly stirred.
Song Yan’s hair and Daoist robes trembled faintly beneath the surging sword qi.
Before him, a mass of roiling sword qi gathered gradually, coalescing into a spherical field of sword energy.
This was the most critical step in replacing fire-based refinement.
Senior “Chen Yi” called this the “Sword Qi Pill Furnace.”
In truth, a true Sword Qi Pill Furnace could entirely employ sword qi of extreme density to strip away the impurities of spirit materials and pills.
Song Yan’s attainment in the Sword Dao was far from sufficient to reach that level.
Fortunately, he had only just refined the Burning Ruin Karmic Fire.
According to the “Thousand Pill Formulas,” if one’s cultivation in the Sword Dao had not yet reached that standard, then sword qi infused with the supreme spirit of thunder or fire attributes could serve as a partial substitute.
The effect of impurity removal, however, would not be as thorough as with pure sword qi.
Furthermore, during pill refinement, a portion of spiritual essence would be lost, resulting in a reduced yield of finished pills.
This was readily understandable—it amounted to a compound method combining two modes of alchemy.
No matter. So long as it did not affect the success rate of pill formation.
Song Yan considered thus in his heart.
For him, even a single success—even a single pill—would be enough to kindle hope.
With a stir of will, the aura of the Burning Ruin Karmic Fire enveloped the entire field of sword qi. The once transparent, white-tinged sword qi was now veiled in a layer of dark crimson.
The temperature within the pill refinement chamber began to rise rapidly.
His clean hand seized a stalk of Spirit Calming Grass, chose an angle at random, and gently tossed it into the field of sword qi.
Sss.
A very faint sound.
The moment the Spirit Calming Grass entered, it was violently decomposed by the fierce and scorching sword qi, reduced to a pile of dregs.
“Hss…”
The sword qi was too violent, and not yet sufficiently condensed.
He held his breath and focused his mind, slightly restraining the sword qi, then compressing it a fraction further.
He seized another stalk of Spirit Calming Grass and tossed it in.
Sss.
As expected, he failed once more.
Yet this time, a visible trace of Spirit Calming Grass essence was precipitated—only to be almost instantly evaporated by the heat of the Burning Ruin Karmic Fire.
“I need to reduce the Burning Ruin’s aura somewhat.”
Again!
Once, again, and yet again.
Song Yan had imagined that mastering sword qi alchemy at the outset would prove exceedingly tedious.
But in truth, he discovered that within this process, his control over sword qi—which had been exceedingly crude—was also gradually growing finer.
He could not say how many stalks of Spirit Calming Grass he had consumed before finally adjusting to a certain delicate balance.
A stalk of herb was cast in. Its stem, leaves, and solid impurities were each decomposed in turn. With the churning of the Sword Qi Pill Furnace, they were reduced to dust and flung outward.
A mass of medicinal essence was pressed inward, drifting slowly toward the very center of the Sword Qi Pill Furnace, reflecting a dark crimson luster.
“Remember this feeling…”
He then repeated the attempt countless more times, until this sensation was engraved into instinct.
In truth, it was not a universal answer. Every type of spirit herb and every type of pill required a different state of sword qi at each stage.
But it provided Song Yan with a standard.
Henceforth, no matter what pill he might seek to refine with sword qi, beginning from this standard and adjusting incrementally would quickly lead him to the path.
Just as with fire-based alchemy, this was the “fire mastery” of sword qi alchemy.
He still possessed many of the materials previously used for refining Qi Nourishing Pills, and the ingredients required were relatively few. Song Yan intended to begin with those.
The principles of pill refinement converged at their root. Many aspects were nearly identical. Using them to familiarize himself with and enter the practice of sword qi alchemy could not have been more fitting.
Speaking of which, he found the thought almost absurd.
The lowest-grade pill used as an example of sword qi alchemy in the “Thousand Pill Formulas” was the Foundation Establishment Pill.
It seemed that for them, any pill ranked below the Foundation Establishment Pill was mere candy—devoid of any practical value in refinement.
This had its merits and its drawbacks.
The merit was that should Song Yan ever require a Foundation Establishment Pill to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and should he have gathered sufficient materials—
Then with this alchemy text in hand, even if he went about it with the methodical blandness of stir-frying vegetables, he could at least coax out a few pills.
The drawback was that every pill before that point, every detour he would have to make, must be explored by himself, one step at a time.
At this moment, suspended within the Sword Qi Pill Furnace, was a large mass of orange-yellow spirit liquid.
This was the essential essence of the Dragon Liver Melon.
Song Yan carefully manipulated and adjusted the sword qi’s fluctuations. In moments like these, the slightest instability would cause this mass of spirit liquid to be instantly evaporated.
Or simply flung out of the furnace by the sword qi outright.
At a certain moment, fine traces of impurity appeared within the spirit liquid, drifting along the current of the sword qi, slowly settling downward.
At last, they were expelled by the sword qi.
This process cycled through multiple rounds. The spirit liquid, once the size of a fist, was gradually compressed bit by bit.
Until it condensed to the size of a lotus seed, churning slowly within the Sword Qi Pill Furnace.
Song Yan’s fingers formed a seal. Two stalks of Spirit Calming Grass were cast in, one from the left and one from the right.
After the extensive experimentation prior, he was now well versed in the rhythm.
The impurities were stripped away. Two smaller masses of spirit essence drifted slowly toward the center.
They merged with the central mass of spirit liquid. In the process, further impurities were purged.
At this moment, it resembled a single emerald dewdrop, floating within.
The sword qi showed faint signs of faltering, yet pill refinement had already reached its final stage. Song Yan resolved to see things through to the end and complete this batch of pills.
He produced one last Form Spirit Fruit and cast it into the Sword Qi Pill Furnace.
The emerald spirit liquid, now essentially free of impurities, received the Form Spirit Fruit. The instant it entered, the fruit dissolved into threads of clear essence that surged inward.
They spiraled around the emerald dewdrop, slowly contracting.
Ssss—
The instant the two made contact, a wisp of faint white vapor drifted upward.
Within, the nascent form of a pill gradually took shape.
At this moment, the pill refinement chamber was suffused with a subtle fragrance of medicine.
It invigorated the spirit upon inhalation.
Yet at this very instant, the sword qi ran dry.
“Not good.”
He hastily dispersed the sword qi while drawing an empty pill bottle from his cosmos bag. He then channeled a wisp of spiritual energy to cradle the pill, lifting it into the bottle.
“Whew—”
Song Yan slowly exhaled a turbid breath.
An uneasy premonition stirred within his heart.
He sent his divine sense probing into the pill bottle. His feelings were mixed.
The emerald hue of this single Qi Nourishing Pill was mottled and impure—far inferior to the Qi Nourishing Pills he had previously refined by fire.
An inferior-grade Qi Nourishing Pill, and a poor one at that.
Yet he was glad. On his very first attempt with a new alchemical method, he had succeeded.
Moreover, the poor quality was solely due to the excessive number of prior attempts, which had depleted his sword qi, forcing him to hastily conclude the refinement.
In comparison, he could clearly perceive that for a sword cultivator, the advantages of sword qi alchemy far outweighed those of fire-based alchemy.
In ordinary circumstances, a sword cultivator wielded sword qi against his enemies.
Within the sword case, the nurturing of the sword body also involved the participation of sword qi.
It could be said that this was the substance most familiar to a sword cultivator.
So long as he practiced this alchemical method until he became proficient, mastery would come naturally.
Just as cultivators who specialized in fire-attribute cultivation techniques—with all their power and skill invested in flame—used fire-based methods to refine pills, and achieved the same result.
His familiarity with sword qi, combined with his familiarity with the Qi Nourishing Pill, was what allowed Song Yan to succeed on his very first attempt at sword dao alchemy.
He still possessed some leftover materials from before. Song Yan intended to purchase more once these were exhausted.
Rest and recover. Raise the sword furnace. Extract the medicinal essence. Condense the pills and disperse the qi.
The medicinal fragrance within the pill refinement chamber lingered only briefly before it soured.
This attempt at refinement seemed to have gone awry in the control of sword qi—the pills did not even take form.
“Strange…”
Song Yan was indeed well-versed in the Qi Nourishing Pill, but this was an entirely new alchemical method. Failure was perfectly normal.
After failing, he did not rush to refine again immediately. Instead, he carefully recalled his movements and control.
Wherever he encountered an ambiguous question, he would consult those alchemy texts, as well as the descriptions within the “Thousand Pill Formulas.”
In the meantime, he slowly recovered his sword qi and spiritual energy.
Only after half a shi-chen did he resume refinement.
…
Three months later.
“Whew…”
A soft, relieved exhalation within the pill refinement chamber.
Song Yan sat cross-legged, his complexion somewhat haggard, his black hair disheveled and hanging loose, his gaze lowered.
Yet the light in his eyes, as he looked upon his palm, was bright.
In his open palm lay three pale yellow pills, resting quietly.
” My success rate for the Yellow Sprout Pill has now surpassed seventy percent…”
“The Qi Condensing Pill, roughly fifty percent.”
Song Yan rose to his feet and tied back his disheveled hair with a casual motion.
Before him was piled a heap of failed pills and residue, forming a small mountain of black and crimson.
Over these three months, he had been consumed by pill refinement as though possessed.
At first, even the Qi Nourishing Pill required three or four attempts before one would succeed.
Yet once he found his footing, given Song Yan’s familiarity with sword qi, within a few days he had already achieved a success rate of eighty to ninety percent.
This nearly matched the standard he had previously attained with fire-based alchemy.
The path of alchemy was inherently fascinating, and the rate of improvement with sword qi alchemy was almost visible to the naked eye.
This sensation—the feeling that “the more I refine, the better I become”—and the feedback it provided, were almost addictive. He had devoted himself to it almost entirely.
With a flick of his finger, the three Yellow Sprout Pills flew into one of the pill bottles arranged in a row within the chamber.
His current success rate for the Yellow Sprout Pill stood at roughly seventy percent, and for the Qi Condensing Pill, fifty.
However, compared to conventional methods, sword dao alchemy still possessed one drawback.
Though the grade of the finished pills was generally higher, the quantity per batch was slightly lower than with ordinary techniques.
At most, he could now produce only five pills per furnace.
Perhaps with continued refinement and greater fluency, he might one day achieve seven.
The reason he intended to pause for the time being was not that his alchemical skills had encountered any bottleneck.
It was that…
He had run out of spirit stones.
Over a thousand spirit stones in savings, every usable spirit herb and medicinal ingredient, even his sect contribution points—all had been squandered.
Alchemy had stripped him bare.
“An abyss with no bottom…”
He now truly understood what it meant to “burn through money.”
Back when he had scraped by in the outer sect of the Eastern Abyss Sect—refining a few small pills here, scavenging a bit of scrap there—it had taken the better part of half a year to accumulate thirty or forty spirit stones.
A single furnace of failed pills, and it all vanished into smoke.
Thankfully, he had not been so ambitious as to contemplate the Dao of Pills back then.
With his level of skill at that time, he could never have sustained himself on this path. The very failures he would encounter along the way might have shattered his cultivation entirely.
The efficiency he now enjoyed was entirely due to sword dao alchemy—a method supremely suited to his nature. Without it, the resources consumed would have been even more staggering.
Such terrifying expenditure was beyond the means of even many small cultivation clans.
And precisely because of this, so few ever achieved anything of note on the path of alchemy.
The stone door of the pill refinement chamber opened, and a foul miasma of scorched residue and medicinal fragrance surged outward.
Xiao He had been curled up before the chamber door. At the sound, the little snake poked her head out curiously.
Song Yan emerged and cleared away the debris methodically.
When all was tidied, he shed his Daoist robes and descended into the warm pool.
Threads of water-attribute spiritual qi flowed from the pool into his limbs and bones, soothing the fatigue that had accumulated over so long.
The process of pill refinement had constantly drained his sword qi to empty, then restored it, then drained it again.
This, invisibly, had also driven the advancement of his cultivation.
His current realm had finally reached the critical threshold.
He intended to wait until his condition recovered, then set about breaking through to the eighth level of Qi Refining.
“The realm-breaking pill is ready, yet I have no spirit stones to prepare the rest…”
Song Yan frowned slightly, vexed once more by the matter of spirit stones.
(End of Chapter)