Chapter 173: Quasi-Five-Star Spiritual Pill

Seeing the shockwave roaring towards him, Jiang Xincheng did not dodge. Instead, he leaped up and shielded the Qingming Cauldron and various alchemy materials. A dark bronze glow flickered across his body.

The shockwave instantly tore Jiang Xincheng’s clothes to shreds, leaving him looking like a beggar. Fortunately, it did not reach the Qingming Cauldron or the alchemy materials. As for Jiang Xincheng, protected by the Black Fiend Copper Body, the shockwave only ripped his clothes apart and posed no other threat.

A bitter smile crossed his face. After thinking for a moment, Jiang Xincheng immediately understood what had happened. The explosion occurred because the Hetian Jade was contaminated with ordinary jade, totaling more than one ten-thousandth of a gram, which he had failed to notice.

This kind of thing was quite common. Even a five-star alchemist might encounter such a situation when refining the Yangshan Pill. Shaking his head, Jiang Xincheng continued with the refinement.

From then on, Jiang Xincheng worked even more carefully and cautiously. Droplets of jade liquid appeared one after another—the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth… until the twentieth, when another problem arose.

Jiang Xincheng’s control wavered slightly during the fusion process. Luckily, it did not cause an explosion, but the batch of Misty Cloud Jade and Hetian Jade was wasted.

Then came the twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third… up to the thirtieth droplet. Only then were the jade liquids required for refining one Yangshan Pill fully prepared.

Out of thirty-six sets of Misty Cloud Jade and Hetian Jade, four remained. Two sets were wasted. This efficiency was already quite high, and Jiang Xincheng felt quite satisfied. Even in his previous life, wasting only two sets at this stage while refining the Yangshan Pill was considered good, let alone now, during his first attempt in this life.

Wait, no—the last time he refined the Yangshan Pill in his previous life was only about a year ago. It made sense that he still had such skill. Jiang Xincheng smiled slightly and began fusing the thirty droplets of jade liquid.

This step was simple and succeeded on the first try without any failures. The subsequent steps were relatively easier, and Jiang Xincheng completed them smoothly, getting closer and closer to forming the pill.

But before that, he still had to face one last major hurdle: infusing the fragrance into the pill.

Using his spiritual sense, Jiang Xincheng perceived the milky-white pill inside the Qingming Cauldron. A look of seriousness crossed his face as he placed the prepared osmanthus flowers into the cauldron. Under the influence of the Yuanli Flame, he refined the flowers into a cloud of yellow mist.

This was the osmanthus fragrance mist. The next step was to gradually fuse this mist into the pill. This stage was the most dangerous; the slightest mistake could cause a pill explosion. Given the power the pill had accumulated by this point, an explosion would blast the entire cave into the air.

Jiang Xincheng dared not be careless. Perceiving the pill and the osmanthus fragrance mist inside the Qingming Cauldron, he controlled wisps of the mist, guiding them to merge with the pill.

Time flowed like water. Sweat beaded on Jiang Xincheng’s forehead as the fusion progressed slowly. Inside the Qingming Cauldron, the yellow osmanthus fragrance mist drifted and curled, gradually seeping into the pill. A layer of yellow patterns began to emerge on the milky-white pill, exquisitely beautiful, like delicate flowers.

Yet Jiang Xincheng remained expressionless, utterly focused. The pill was almost complete; these were the final steps. If he failed now, all his efforts over the past two or three days would be in vain.

Every second felt agonizingly slow. Jiang Xincheng concentrated fully, continuing to fuse the osmanthus fragrance mist.

“Ribbit…”

Just then, to Jiang Xincheng’s complete surprise, while he was totally absorbed in infusing the fragrance, a toad suddenly appeared from nowhere and leaped onto the Qingming Cauldron.

Jiang Xincheng’s face changed. Without hesitation, he opened the cauldron, threw the pill out, then firmly hugged the Qingming Cauldron and lay flat on the ground.

“BOOM…”

Accompanied by a deafening explosion, the entire cave collapsed, burying Jiang Xincheng under the rubble. Everything within a few hundred meters was scorched black. As for that toad, which had followed the pill’s scent and hopped onto the Qingming Cauldron while Jiang Xincheng was fully focused on refining, it was reduced to ashes.

A long time later, Jiang Xincheng crawled out from underground, covered in dust and grime, his face grim. He never expected that at the most critical moment, a mere toad would ruin the nearly completed Yangshan Pill. But upon reflection, he couldn’t entirely blame the toad.

If the pill he had refined hadn’t been so unstable and fragile, it wouldn’t have cracked from just a toad’s leap and a slight tremor. In the end, the toad was just a trigger; the real issue was that the pill hadn’t been properly refined.

After all, it had been a long time since he last refined one. His spiritual sense hadn’t reached the level of his previous life, and his Primordial Force hadn’t advanced to the Cloud Condensation Realm of a Great Yuan Warrior. Refining the Yangshan Pill was still quite challenging.

If he hadn’t spent over a decade refining the Yangshan Pill in his previous life, accumulating rich experience, Jiang Xincheng wouldn’t have dared to attempt refining it while still in the Bone Training Realm.

But with the lesson from this first failure, the next attempt would be much easier.

After spending a day to restore his energy and focus, Jiang Xincheng began his second attempt at refining the Yangshan Pill.

He successfully passed the challenges of extracting jade and fusing jade liquid one after another. Once again, he reached the step of infusing the fragrance into the pill. Learning from his previous mistake, Jiang Xincheng was even more cautious and meticulous this time. The initially formed pill was much more solid, several times better than before.

Watching as wisps of osmanthus fragrance mist merged into the pill, a smile finally crossed Jiang Xincheng’s face. Only a few more strands remained. Once these were fused, the most difficult stage of refining the Yangshan Pill would be over.

After several dozen breaths, the final wisps of osmanthus fragrance mist blended into the pill, signaling that Jiang Xincheng had preliminarily succeeded in refining the Yangshan Pill. The following steps were much easier, nowhere near as challenging as these three major hurdles.

As time passed, an hour later, Jiang Xincheng pointed at the alchemy furnace with both hands and chanted, “Heaven revolves, earth shifts, the spiritual pill emerges!”

Following his words, a thumb-sized, jade-white Yangshan Pill leaped out and landed in the jade tray beside it, spinning round and round. As the pill rotated, an intoxicating fragrance wafted through the air, refreshing the mind and spirit.

Jiang Xincheng picked up the Yangshan Pill and examined it carefully. Inside, clusters of white clouds seemed to float, emitting an extremely powerful medicinal aura. Its potency had surpassed that of ordinary high-grade four-star pills, almost reaching the level of a low-grade five-star pill.

Quasi-five-star!

This was a quasi-five-star Yangshan Pill. Even in his previous life, Jiang Xincheng had rarely refined a Yangshan Pill of such quality. He never expected that after one failure, he would produce such an excellent Yangshan Pill.

A smile spread across Jiang Xincheng’s face. With this quasi-five-star Yangshan Pill, advancing to the Cloud Condensation Realm was now within reach.