“Boom…”
All of a sudden, a soft explosion could be heard coming from the furnace. It was not loud, but it was thunderous to the people in the alchemy room.
Ou Yangming immediately curbed his thought. As for the 3 Venerable Ones, they looked over as well.
White smoke was seen rising from the top of the furnace. The air flows interlaced and formed a rare scene.
Yuqi the Venerable One’s face changed. ‘If you’re afraid of something to happen, it’s more likely to happen indeed. By the looks of this, is the refinement process unsuccessful?’ He had previously watched alchemy processes many times, where pills that were successfully refined were stable. If there was a sudden change during the process, it could only mean one thing.
An accident occurred because the alchemist could not control the overall situation.
Once an accident happened during a refinement process, one could imagine what the outcome would be.
Nonetheless, the smoke above the furnace at the moment was different. Instead of dispersing quickly, they were condensed. They seemed to be in a gaseous state, but they were also vaguely collapsing inward, forming an extremely wonderful scene.
Yuqi the Venerable One and the others looked at Gu Jiacheng in confusion. Not to mention seeing anything like this in the past, they had not even heard of it before.
As for Gu Jiacheng, he was staring at the smoke with a straight face, but his eyes were filled with excitement and joy. Needless to say, amidst the look of ecstasy, there was also a hint of nervousness and worry.
Upon seeing his expression, Ou Yangming and the others instantly understood that the refinement process for the Eternal Pills had not failed.
Gu Jiacheng suddenly extended both his arms. He could not be bothered if the furnace’s fire was vigorous or not; he focused all of his energy on the white smoke.
Ou Yangming widened his eyes. Perhaps because he was assisting the alchemist in the process, he could see more and more clearly than the 3 Venerable Ones did.
The liquids of the materials were still inside the furnace, but they no longer had active molecules as the medicinal herbs’ real essences were already absorbed by the white smoke at the furnace’s outlet.
In a way, the essences of the pills were not the medicinal liquids anymore, but the white smoke.
Ou Yangming could sense it clearly because a hint of his Heavenly Phoenix Fire’s unique energy could still be found among the white smoke. The energy was similar to a light in the distance during a dark night; it was distinctive and dazzling, such that one could not ignore it.
“Hah! Condense—”
Without warning, Gu Jiacheng widened his eyes and grunted.
Followed by his voice, the white smoke surged and quickly circulated.
Judging from the direction that was controlled by Gu Jiachen, it seemed like he wanted to guide the white smoke back into the furnace. Even so, the smoke’s various energies seemed to have their own consciousness as they resisted his control as much as they could.
Ou Yangming and the others could tell that this was the more crucial time.
If Gu Jiacheng succeeded in controlling the white smoke, the outcome would somewhat be set; if Gu Jiacheng failed, and the white smoke escaped, the consequence would be unbearable.
Nevertheless, this fight belonged to the alchemist. As capable as the others were, they could not meddle in.
Ou Yangming watched quietly. Especially when he sensed Gu Jiacheng’s hard work, it somehow reminded him of the poisonous pill’s spirit.
Was the spirit’s self-made world not filled with numerous nebulas? The scale could not be compared by the area above the furnace at this moment, but the scene seemed to follow the same pattern.
The white smoke circulated for some time while the unique yet peculiar energy inside the furnace was assimilated into the smoke without an end. As a result, the smoke eventually spun slower and looked heavier.
Ou Yangming’s eyes slowly lit up. His heart pounded.
One could comprehend things by analogy. After witnessing Gu Jiacheng’s refinement technique, Ou Yangming felt like he had learned by analogy and also thought of a new smithing technique. Needless to say, he would need to put it into practice to see if the technique would be successful.
Despite that, after watching Gu Jiacheng’s technique, he had a basic thought of how he should do it.
A thought suddenly crossed Ou Yangming’s mind at this moment.
‘I wonder if this can be considered something that I came up with after learning the strengths of many other people.’
The white smoke kept circulating and finally could not persevere anymore. With that, the smoke returned to the furnace under Gu Jiacheng’s guidance and control.
Once this step was done, Gu Jiacheng finally looked like a heavy burden was lifted off his chest. He seemed to have become more exhausted, but his eyes were still in high spirits as though his mind was still under extreme excitement.
As he kept turning his hands, the furnace released dissimilar energies, which were being mixed inside.
Ou Yangming and the others could see everything clearly, but they could not understand the theory behind it, thus they could only watch quietly.
Gu Jiacheng exhaled deeply after 15 minutes and yelled, “Stop!”
Ou Yangming was well-prepared, so he cut off his Heavenly Phoenix Fire right away and stopped releasing energy.
It was worth noting that equipment smith was much more power-consuming as compared to pill refinement.
Of course, a meticulous controlling ability would be needed to refine pills, hence an alchemist’s mind would be more exhausted than a blacksmith.
There was no way to compare which was stronger or weaker.
The moment Ou Yangming curbed his Heavenly Phoenix Fire, the fire below the furnace gathered at the center abruptly. It took only a blink of an eye for the flame, which had initially spread to almost half of the room, to disappear.
As for the energies in the flame, they were completely absorbed by the furnace and incorporated into the pills inside.
Subsequently, Gu Jiacheng waved his hands faster than before. This was a technique to condense pills, where the mysterious gestures could make one dizzy.
Having said that, everyone else was not paying attention to his hands, but the little liquid that was left inside the furnace. Through the alchemist’s technique and the support from the furnace’s power, the liquids quickly condensed and were turned into pills as if numerous invisible hands were stirring them.
After being tempered countless times, the liquids had become incredibly sticky, so they were easily turned into solids after they were stirred.
Of course, it did not seem difficult to Ou Yangming and the others, but they knew it was only because Gu Jiacheng was controlling the furnace. If they were in charge instead, the pills would have been discarded already.
At last, a rich fragrance was released from the furnace as the liquids had successfully condensed into 2 golden yellow pills.
The pills were formed!
There were only 2 pills, but it was a success indeed.
The eyes of Yuqi the Venerable One and the others lit up. They were surprised yet overjoyed.
Before the pills were successfully refined, no matter how confident they were, they were still anxious. Now, they were much less worried than they were before.
After all, Eternal Pills had disappeared for many years. Gu Jiacheng might have successfully refined them, but nobody knew how effective they would be.
Before they were tested, nobody could guarantee that they were real Eternal Pills. Besides, nobody could also vouch for the pills to be as magically effective as they were said in legends.
“Puff…”
At the spur of the moment, Gu Jiacheng’s body swayed. He opened his mouth and vomited blood, and his body even fell backward.
However, his body did not fall to the ground because Yuqi the Venerable One had gone over to him the instant he puked blood to catch him.
Lingfeng the Venerable One frowned. He scanned with his mental conception and shook his head as he remarked, “He has reached the end of his life, so nothing can be done.”
Gu Jiacheng’s body was already weak, to begin with, so the pill refinement made things worse as it exploited whatever bit of potential that was left inside his body. Therefore, the moment the pills were formed, the alchemist’s energy, essence, and spirit were completely spread out, causing him to be at the brink of death.
Everyone else looked at the 2 pills in the furnace again.
Ou Yangming expressed without any hesitation, “Seniors, the pills can be refined again, but if a person’s gone, he’ll be gone forever.”
Yuqi the Venerable One nodded. “Brother Ling, Master Ou, let’s give the first pill to Jiacheng. If he’s saved, it means that the Eternal Pills are effective; if he isn’t saved…” He paused for a while before he sighed and continued, “That’s his fate, and nobody else can be blamed.”
The Eternal Pills were refined by Gu Jiacheng, after all. If they were failed products, it would only mean that he was not skillful enough; there was nothing that other people could do.
“That’s only right,” Lingfeng the Venerable One uttered. He looked at Ou Yangming and the old macaque before he asked them, “If he’s safe, can Mount Wuzhi have the second Eternal Pill?” He added firmly, “Mount Wuzhi will be sure to compensate you well.”
Ou Yangming declined to comment, but the old macaque chuckled and responded, “As long as Master Ou can get another branch of the Phoenix Fire Bamboo, I’m okay with that.”
Lingfeng the Venerable One laughed and sighed a breath of relief.
He knew very well that they were fortunate to have Ou Yangming around, so Eternal Pills could be continuously refined. If not, as nice as he made everything sound, the old macaque would not give in.
Yuqi the Venerable One reached out and waved to retrieve one of the pills in the furnace. He opened Gu Jiacheng’s mouth and pushed the pilled inside.
The pill melted at once and entered Gu Jiacheng’s stomach.
Everyone else remained calmed, but they focused on the alchemist.
This was because Eternal Pills were exceptionally important to all of them, so they were concerned.
The honorable figures naturally could not be bothered with window dressing. Before the situation was known, they were patient enough to wait.
That said, the Eternal Pill did not make them wait for too long. After just half an hour, Gu Jiacheng, who was lying flat on the ground, started to cough.
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