Chapter 42: Choosing the Recipe

There was still another set of ingredients left, and Chen Jingzhai did not waste them. He had successfully created another pill cauldron. It was still another beginner-grade cauldron, but the design was much better than the first one.

He didn’t leave right away after he had finished making the cauldrons. Instead, he remained in the chamber, reviewing what he had achieved.

It was his first time performing item alchemy, and it could be considered a success. He had created a magic item and two spiritual items out of 10 sets of ingredients. It was enough for him to become a beginner item alchemist. The process wasn’t arduous as he had Grade 2 ingredients and ready-made restrictions. Not only that, but Chen Jingzhai also made prior preparations and memorized every step of the process.

Satisfied, he got up and put everything back into the storage bag, including the first rod that he had made. He then took a token out, and the formation, along with the fire, disappeared.

With a relaxed smile on his face, he left the alchemy stone chamber.

“Grand Master-Uncle! Congratulations!” Yu Antai congratulated him with a grin.

“I was just practicing.” Chen Jingzhai shook his head and smiled. “There are many things left for me to learn in item alchemy, and I’ll need a lot of time to learn them all. Unfortunately, I’ve chosen the path of pill alchemy, and I don’t see myself leaving it.”

He was telling the truth. Although he had only spent five days and five nights doing item alchemy, he managed to find a sense of happiness that he had not felt for quite a while. It was as if he had completed a piece of handwork in his past life.

He also had a lot of wild ideas for item alchemy and even wondered if he could use the knowledge he had from his past life and make things like vehicles or armored battle suits.

The surroundings of the temple were perfect as well, especially the fire. He was able to freely control the flames because of the formations. It was something hard to come by. However, these could only remain as ideas, as there was no reason for him to do that.

Chen Jingzhai was a complete greenhorn when it came to item alchemy. Unless he had joined the Heavenly Artisan Temple, it would take him an extremely long time and energy to master the craft.

It would clash with his training plan.

He chose the path of pill alchemy because he had inherited the path where a bug existed. As a result, he was able to gather resources quickly, and the resources were what he needed the most at that time.

“Do not worry. You’ll be able to come here whenever you are free, Grand Master-Uncle,” Yu Antai said, with a grin still on his face. “The atmosphere here at the Alchemy Temple is amazing. And, if you really want to learn more about item alchemy, you can ask the alchemists here for advice.”

“Alright. I’ll stop by if I have the time.” Chen Jingzhai nodded and paid in spiritual stones.

Now that all of his matters at the temple had been concluded, he descended the mountain on foot.

Once he was at the foot of the mountain, he stepped on the Five Bamboo Sword and returned to Hongluan Peak.

After Chen Jingzhai had left, Sage Huang Shi went to meet Yu Antai at the Mortal-grade alchemy stone chamber.

“Master-Uncle!” Yu Antai immediately greeted.

“Did my Master-Uncle succeed?” Sage Huang calmly asked.

“Yes!” Yu Antai replied. “If I’m not wrong, he has created a spiritual item grade pill cauldron.”

“How long did it take him?” the sage then asked.

“Five days and five nights!”

“He really created a spiritual item on his first try, huh?” Sage Huang exclaimed with a mixed expression. “He would’ve become a master of item alchemy if he had joined us.”

“But, he only managed to create one out of ten sets of ingredients…” Yu Antai was puzzled.

“You still have lots to learn!” Sage Huang laughed and turned to leave.

The reason the sage gave Chen Jingzhai such high praise was that his celestial bone was the Backbone Grand Dragon. It was a type of celestial bone best for cultivating the Taoism body.

The celestial bone had no effect that would help its host in item alchemy, but Chen Jingzhai was able to succeed in his first attempt. In the eyes of item alchemy, that was pure talent.

People had seemed to forget that Chen Jingzhai hadn’t joined the peak for long, and yet, he was able to establish his foundation in less than 100 days and create spiritual items just five days into learning item alchemy.

Even Sage Huang had only heard of such a talent that could grow so fast that it was visible to everyone else.

What was more was that Chen Jingzhai was part of the Hongluan hidden branch and had cultivated the methods of Daoxuan Peak. However, he had never learned item alchemy from other people.

Yu Antai could not understand what his Master-Uncle had said because he had compared his Grand Master-Uncle to the disciples of Alchemy Temple.

Cultivators of the Alchemy Temple were almost all able to create spiritual items, but there was a reason for that.

For example, Xu Ziyue was a casual disciple, but the first thing he learned after joining the temple was item alchemy. Throughout his journey to becoming an inner disciple, he had accumulated a lot of experience in item alchemy. That was why it wasn’t weird that he could create spiritual items.

When Chen Jingzhai returned to Hongluan Peak, he didn’t announce his return. Pearl was nowhere to be seen, but Chen Jingzhai did not mind it.

He sat on his bed and took the White Crane Cloud Tree Celestial Cauldron out to check it. Unlike a normal pill cauldron, the one in his hands looked weird. It had crane mouths for handles, a huge body, and three short and weird-looking legs.

Although it was a beginner-grade spiritual item, he could freely change its size. He could hold it freely, and when he needed to create pills, he could make it big. There were other functions that Chen Jingzhai could activate by injecting his spiritual power to trigger the restrictions.

Naturally, as a pill cauldron, its primary function was to create pills.

“Which pill should I make first?” Chen Jingzhai mumbled.

Pill alchemy and item alchemy were two completely different processes. But, just like item alchemy, it was his first time performing pill alchemy. That was why which pill he decided to make first was important. In the end, it would make sense to create something easy first. Not only was he able to gain confidence by doing that, but it could also increase his experience.

He could create a few pills from the Pill Extraction and Purification Scripture, but most of them were ancient recipes and of high quality.

Even the weakest of them was a Grade 2 pill, the Foundation Establishment Pill, an item known to shorten one’s cultivation time by ten years and increase the chances of establishing a foundation.

The Foundation Establishment Pill was a necessity for celestial clans. Some of the three or four spiritual roots disciples would need these pills to achieve the Foundation Establishment Plane. However, achieving that plane was the hardest for rogue cultivators, as most had four or five spiritual roots.

The path for them to establish their foundations was so hard that they would need to seek other methods to achieve it. One of them, and the most effective one, relied on Foundation Establishment Pills.

The recipe for the Foundation Establishment Pill in the scriptures was much more potent than a normal one. Unfortunately, it was hard to make, and the main ingredients were hard to come by as well.

Chen Jingzhai decided to leave that for another time and chose to create the Essence Cultivation Pill written in Hermit Guangmiao’s record. There were two different recipes from the record that he could try making. One was the Grade 1 Essence Cultivation pill and the Grade 1 Nerve Calming Pill.

However, he had decided to create the former one for two reasons. First, it was the most circulated one on the market and the safest to use. It could amplify the effect of essence cultivation, and it was even beneficial for ordinary people to use. It was extremely useful for cultivators in the Meditation Plane, especially those below Level 3 of the Meditation Plane.

On the other hand, the Nerve Calming Pills were the only low-grade pills that could recover a damaged soul. Although it wasn’t a high-grade pill, its ingredients were hard to find.

The record mentioned how Hermit Guangmiao managed to save a person by creating the Nerve Calming Pills.

Compared to that, Chen Jingzhai would be able to get his hands on the ingredients for the Essence Cultivation Pill easily. Although he didn’t have some of the Grade 1 herbs in his bag, he would be able to get them from the Hongluan Peak’s herb garden easily.

He had visited the garden halfway up the mountain a few days before when he was looking for the bugged land on Hongluan Peak. Although the garden was well-tended, most of the herbs could be found there.

According to Pearl, most of the hidden branches were self-sufficient in terms of resources. Therefore, other than the salary from their sects, the hidden branches would have to earn the rest on their own.

That was why Chen Jingzhai had decided to walk the path of pill alchemy. There was no way he was going to stay poor when the salary for ten years only totaled 12 thousand spiritual stones. Those wouldn’t even be enough for him to cultivate for a year, maybe not even sufficient for half a year.

Chen Jingzhai couldn’t help but feel on edge when he thought of that. He put the cauldron away and hurried to the herb garden.