Chapter 200 - Ancient Pill Formula
"Unfortunately, I'm the only one who can maximize the effects of this method. Others will not have an accurate sense of how many medicinal properties are left in the herbs... It's such a pity, otherwise, I would definitely offer it as a contribution to the development of the human race."
Chen Chen lamented while thinking.
As a person with ideals, ambitions, and a deep sense of righteousness, he often condemned and reproached himself for contributing too little to the human race.
He was not being pretentious but rather, he meant it from the bottom of his heart.
Only after he had made some contribution to the human race similar to how places like the ancient battlefield did, would he have the cheek to go around scouring for treasures without restrain.
...
A few moments later, Chen Chen made his way to the palace hall.
Chen Chen had arrived at the large house near Yu Qiong's residence.
His eight Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters had already arrived at this time. Looking at the haggard Ye Ping, their hearts went out to him.
Ever since he joined the Jade Tripod Alchemy Clan, he hadn't slept as he spent all his time learning to refine pills.
Such a fact made them feel guilty and ashamed.
"Junior Brother, I refined a few Awakening Pills for you this morning that will help with rejuvenation. Take them."
Second Senior Sister took out a bottle of pills and handed it to Chen Chen with a benevolent expression.
Seeing her action, Chen Chen was extremely touched. In order to repay her kindness, he took one out on the spot and consumed it.
He then immediately pretended to look like he had been thoroughly energized as he praised, "Second Senior Sister, your pill is really miraculous. It removed my tiredness immediately! Your alchemical skills are an example for us to follow!"
Hearing his words, she became so excited that she started blushing.
As a noble alchemist, there was nothing more precious to her than being complimented by her peers, especially in front of her Senior Brothers.
'Junior Brother is a nice person, I must give him more pills in the future."
Second Senior Sister secretly made up her mind.
The rest also had similar thoughts after seeing Chen Chen's reaction.
...
Yu Huo's lesson lasted for four hours, during which Chen Chen had been extremely attentive.
Throughout the lesson, he had gained a deeper understanding of alchemy.
Traditional alchemists struggle with the concept of mathematical formulas and equations as everything depended on their experience.
Hence, they had to put in a lot of time to practice.
Those who had a weaker perception of medicinal properties would never be able to become alchemists regardless of how hard they practiced.
"That's it for today, do you have any questions?"
Yu Huo glanced at his Junior Sisters and Junior Brothers and asked with a smile.
At this moment, Chen Chen smiled coyly and asked softly, "Uh... Senior Brother, I tried to refine some elixirs today, can you give me some guidance?"
Hearing this, Yu Huo raised his eyebrow and asked in bewilderment, "Of course you may, I didn't expect you to start practicing so soon. Is it a Spirit Gathering Elixir?"
"No, it's the Foundation-Building Elixir."
Chen Chen blushed, seemingly a little excited because of his joy.
He looked just like a young man who was waiting to hear his parents praise him for a remarkable achievement.
Hearing this, the eight Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters looked at each other in shock. Although the Foundation-Building Elixir was not an elixir of superior quality, it was still very difficult to refine for a newbie in alchemy.
Eight types of medicinal herbs were needed and a slight mistake would result in failure.
"Foundation-Building Elixir? Tsk, tsk, tsk, Junior Brother, if you can refine Foundation-Building Elixir as a beginner, you'd really be talented!"
Third Senior Brother praised.
If it wasn't for the fact that Junior Brother was pure in nature and couldn't possibly lie, he would have wanted to scold him for being overly ambitious.'
Each of the Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters were now interested as they all spoke up one after another and insisted that they would teach their new Junior Brother who had refined a Foundation-Building Elixir as soon as he started.
After a short while, the group of nine arrived at an alchemy cauldron beside the house.
Looking at the alchemy cauldron that looked exactly like the one in his residence, Chen Chen heaved a sigh of relief and then took out a set of herbs for the Foundation Establishment Pill from his storage ring.
In fact, the formulas for the Foundation-Building Elixirs that were generally circulated in the world were not very accurate.
They only included the eight types of medicinal herbs and refinement time needed for the Foundation-Building Elixir to be refined, without mentioning anything about the medicinal properties.
Chen Chen had tried out the formulas in the past few days. If he used medicinal herbs that all had the same amount of medicinal properties left, only Foundation-Building Elixirs of ordinary properties could be refined. The condition was that the intensity of fire had to be controlled and the alchemy cauldron had to be of good quality.
Of course, if it was as simple as medicinal herbs with 10% medicinal properties left being matched with other raw materials with 10% medicinal properties left, he would not have to spend so much energy to list eight formulas.
"Junior Brother, you may begin." Yu Huo said, pointing to the alchemy cauldron with a smile.
Chen Chen nodded solemnly and began to ignite the spirit fire.
Sensing the fluctuations in Chen Chen's body, all eight Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters were stunned.
'Nascent Soul realm cultivation!'
They didn't expect Chen Chen to have reached the Nascent Soul realm at such a young age.'
With such a great cultivation level, there was no need to worry about unstable fire.
That aspect alone allowed him to surpass 99% of beginners in alchemy!
"Junior Brother has such a strong talent for Qi training, but he still came to learn alchemy. I'm so touched by his love for alchemy."
The Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters could not help but be amazed.
Chen Chen didn't feel glad despite hearing the compliments.
He had been brainwashing himself for several days and experimenting with the system to come up with dozens of perfect ratios. He eventually deduced a universal formula that could be applied all the time. Now that it was his time to shine and perform today, how could he mess up?
The more focused he was, the more amazed his Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters were.
However, Chen Chen did not waver.
'No matter how you praise me, I will not waver! People like me hear the praises of everyone else all my life. Why would I care about this?'
Chen Chen thought to himself sneeringly.
Two hours later, the elixir had been refined in the cauldron and Chen Chen began to look coy.
"Senior Brother Yu Huo, I'm a little nervous, so I'd like you to open the cauldron for me."
Yu Huo nodded after hearing his words and carefully made his way to the side of the cauldron. He then lifted the lid.
However, after taking another look, he became so frightened that he retreated incessantly.
Fortunately, Chen Chen was prepared and quickly held onto him.
"Senior Brother, what's wrong?" Chen Chen asked loudly.
"It… it's actually a Foundation-Building Elixir of the best quality... How is this possible?"
Yu Huo subconsciously asked in a high-pitched voice with his eyes full of horror.
A hundred years ago, he made a bet with his master about refining the Foundation-Building Elixir and eventually his master Yu Qiong refined the Perfect Foundation Establishment Pill to defeat him.
He did not expect to see the same quality Foundation-Building Elixir again.
If he was at Chen Chen's level a hundred years ago, he wouldn't have been defeated.
After he came back to his senses, his thoughts and beliefs began to waver.
Even a hundred years ago, he had already learned alchemy for decades, but he was still no match for his Junior Brother who had just learned alchemy for a few days.
'I'm really not cut out for alchemy?'
'Is talent really such a scary thing?'
At this point, several other Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters had also noticed the Perfect Foundation-Building Elixir. All of a sudden, their hearts began to waver as they started doubting their lives.
There was even a trace of despair in their eyes, as if they had developed the thought of giving up on alchemy forever.
Seeing that the eight Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters had suffered a major setback in their alchemy career, Chen Chen of course could not stand by and watch since he was their junior brother.
He immediately cleared his throat and whispered, "Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, in fact, this Foundation-Building Elixir is the only thing I can refine. I can't refine the other ones, not even the simplest Spirit Gathering Elixir."
Hearing Chen Chen's words, the eighth Senior Sister muttered with tears in her eyes, "Junior Brother, you don't need to comfort us. Since you can refine the Foundation-Building Elixir, you should be able to refine other pills very quickly. Maybe in a few months, I, as a Senior Sister, will have to ask you for advice."
After hearing her words, the few of them began to weep secretly as if they had suffered a huge blow.
When their master accepted them as disciples, she said that she would teach them personally when there was nothing more for the rest to teach them.
However, now that they were almost going to surpass Yu Huo, their junior brother came over to take over.
It seemed that they would never be taught by their master throughout their entire lives.
'That's so pathetic.'
'This is such a huge misfortune!'
Seeing that the few of them had been greatly agitated, Chen Chen hastily took out a piece of paper that had all the formulas on it.
"Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, in fact, I managed to refine the Foundation-Building Elixir because of this ancient formula!"
After seeing the 'ancient formula' in Chen Chen's hands, the eight of them immediately gathered around him, only to be dumbfounded after seeing what it was.
"Are these ancient words?" Yu Huo murmured.
"The words are too profound, I can't understand." Said the second Senior Sister who kept shaking her head.
...
An hour passed.
In the big house, Chen Chen became the one to teach them.
On the other hand, the eight of them sat down in rows and listened carefully to Chen Chen's explanation.
Although they were honest, it didn't mean they were stupid.
If they were really stupid, Yu Qiong probably wouldn't even bother to take them in.
Hence, after hearing Chen Chen's explanation, all eight of them seemed to have come to a sudden realization.
"The ancient pill formula is indeed mysterious!"
"Could it be that the ancient alchemists can perfectly perceive the medicinal properties of the herbs? That's really impressive!"
"Although we can't accomplish such a thing, we should be able to improve the chances of refining a perfect Foundation-Building Elixir by working towards this direction."
"The person who came up with this formula... is really an incredible genius! And these ancient words are really extraordinarily vague. Only a talented person like Junior Brother can understand it!"
The eight people discussed, growing pleased as their doubts began to clear.
At this moment, Yu Huo finally could not help but ask, "Junior Brother, where did this ancient pill formula come from? Are there any other formulas?"
After a long time of trying to recall, Chen Chen sighed and said in a tone of self-reproach, "Senior Brothers, I accidentally entered an ancient cave abode when I was in the State of Jin. These words are written all over the stone walls."
"Unfortunately, I didn't care much about these ancient words and I only collected some treasures. Only after I started refining pills did I understand what these words actually meant! They're all ancient pill formulas!"
At this moment, each person in the group began to grow so agitated that they blushed and their hearts skipped a beat. They couldn't sit still anymore so they stood up straight and craned their necks, for fear that they would miss.
However, what Chen Chen said next made their hearts sink to rock bottom.
"Unfortunately, I was young and I only recorded the pill formula without remembering everything else..."
"Ah!"
The eight of them sighed as if they had lost something very valuable.
Seeing this, Chen Chen grinned sincerely.
"Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters don't be discouraged, that cave is still in the State of Jin. If there's time, I will take you to visit the State of Jin to learn. I might not be a talent but I'm not selfish either. I'll need you to take care of me during the initiation and I feel very bad about it. I hope you will share this opportunity with us."
Hearing these words, the eight honest people looked at Chen Chen with different gazes.
The Dao of alchemy was like cultivation, and there was also competition.
Yet, Chen Chen was willing to share the opportunity with them... The ancient pill formula is the most terrifying!
'What a loyal Junior Brother...'
No matter how much concern they showed him, it wouldn't be too much!
They were full of admiration for him!
"Junior Brother... you're so loyal! I'm far from being comparable to you!"