Fictional Transcension System - Chapter 46 Forging Pills

Lightly removing Kan Kai’s hands from his shoulders, Lu Fengyi stepped back before thinking for a moment. He knew from his research that the higher the grade of pill flame, the more heat one would be able to apply to their cauldron and the control of the flame would increase proportionally as well.

The attendant stepped out before sighing deeply, “Please do not mind the outbursts of my boss. While your flame is indeed the blue flame, indicating a decent level of zhenqi purity, you mustn’t think anything big of it. If I were to compare your level of pill flame to other ranks, your flame only falls under the second level of purity.”

Lu Fengyi frowned at the statement, “Second level? Are you saying that there are many more levels?”

While the attendant had the appearance of a young man, the aura he was giving off right now felt like a knowledgeable elder.

“Of course there are. If we begin listing the ones just from the mortal plane, the weakest, as you already know is the yellow flame. This level is separated into three different accomplishment sectors, the beginner yellow flame, the orange intermediate flame and the red advanced flame. Following these, there is your flame, a blue with the slightest tint of red within it, then follows the purple flame and so on and so on.”

Lu Fengyi thought back to when he had read the Library of Heaven’s Path. From what he could remember, the specifics of each individual flame levels had not been elaborated upon, however, he knew that it was indeed true that flames generated from a cultivator’s zhenqi would display different colours based on one’s innate power.

Putting the thoughts aside for the moment, Lu Fengyi stepped up to the cauldron before gathering a set of herbs that would be suitable for crafting basic grade 1 recovery pills.

Lu Fengyi went through the process of crafting the pill once more before beginning, muttering each step as he did so.

“Place in the Dasel Flowers.”

“Wait four breathes before following with the Long Rock Bellies.”

“Turn up the flame intensity by 5% before leaving it for eight breathes.”

While Lu Fengyi did want to try his pill forging technique, any pill forging process would first involve the utmost basics before one would implement their own additions.

Seeing the blend of spiritual essence swirl and condense into the most basic form of a pill, Lu Fengyi’s eyes gleamed in excitement before implementing his technique.

“Increase flame intensity by four fold!”

“Insert Dark Yin Stalks and Sun Grass Roots simultaneously.”

“Wait a breath before placing the Hundred Hand Leaves.”

Both the attendant and Kan Kai stared in astonishment as the flames beneath the cauldron rose along the sides, crawling to upwards and eventually enveloping the entire cauldron in a coat of fire.

One may ask, where did he get the inspiration to do this? After all, no past apothecary had ever done such a feat, using fire to envelop their cauldron.

Before Lu Fengyi debuted as an author, he had worked part-time at a local restaurant with a relatively famous chef. The most prominent technique that the chef was known for was *Bao Chao* or stir frying. As Lu Fengyi watched the chef cook in the kitchen, the intense flames that surrounded the wok and even danced upon the food itself piqued his interest.

“Why do you do that, chef?”

The chef had turned towards him, “Do what?”

“The thing with the fire. Why do you do that?”

“Ahh, you mean stir frying. The intense heat from the rising flames cook the food so quickly, leaving no chance for the juices within the ingredients to escape, essentially retaining most of the natural flavour of the food.”

As Lu Fengyi had contemplated in the apothecary library, he realised that pill forging in its most basic form was simply trying to meld the spiritual energy and properties of natural ingredients together, forming a pill with specific uses due to the complementary combinations found by trial and error.

During the formation of his technique, he had read within a diary that the faster a pill was formed, the less energy was lost and hence the higher quality the pill would be. Lu Fengyi quickly realised that the words of his previous boss fit almost perfectly to the forging of a pill. If he could apply the stir frying technique to pill forging, would that not raise the quality of the pill when done correctly?

Before realising it, Lu Fengyi was blasted backwards with intense force as a scalding heat radiated before him.

‘Shit! Is this a cauldron explosion? What intense power!’ Lu Fengyi thought.

Slamming into the wall, even if Lu Fengyi had the cultivation of a Zhizun realm pinnacle, he was still put into a miserable state. If he had been prepared, Lu Fengyi could have used his cultivation to block the shock waves, effectively preventing any force from reaching his body, however since he was deep in thought, being blasted back was the only option.

Realising that both the attendant and Kan Kai had been near the explosion as well, Lu Fengyi stepped out of the hole he had made in the wall before calling out, “Hey! Are you two okay?”

At first, Lu Fengyi could not see much, however, as the airborne dust began to settle, he was met with the sight of a large, translucent barrier before him. The attendant stepped out from behind the wall before sighing, “Such a volatile technique. I don’t think I’ve met anyone as interesting as you.”

Lu Fengyi felt relieved that the attendant and Kan Kai had not been injured, “Did you prepare that ahead of time?”

The attendant nodded, “I knew you would fail on your first pill forging and seeing how extreme your technique was, it was only natural that I would be on guard.”

“Hehe, sorry about that.” Lu Fengyi scratched his head in embarrassment.

“Still though, isn’t your technique a little too risky? During your entire process, you must have quadrupled the flame intensity several times, making the cauldron explosion over fifty times more dangerous than it should have been. If not for your supposedly hidden cultivation, you would have died a hundred times over, and there would still be excess force.”

The attendant sighed before continuing, “I guess the only method for you to improve is to continue practising. I’ll keep this shield here so the old man and I don’t get blown to bits by your experimenting.”

Lu Fengyi nodded before going to the cauldron once more. While the attendant was still offering for him to use the sets of herbs provided by the store owner, Lu Fengyi decided against it, pulling out his own herbs. Taking a small favour was fine, however if these small favours built up, it could become hard to repay in the near future.

Lighting a fire once more, Lu Fengyi’s fingers trembled with excitement before reaching for a set of ingredients.

Throughout the entire day, the shop was filled with unceasing tremors.