Nine Astra Skies

Ye Chen made another portion of the herb mixture and placed it into the refining furnace. Although he would always become gloomy and agitated after failing, he quickly immersed his heart when it came to alchemy. He knew that only with peace of mind would he be able to succeed. If he was going to do things with a restless heart, he might as well not do it at all!

Whoosh. The flame under the refining furnace rose but it was not very hot. Ye Chen carefully controlled the temperature and the armguard artifact spirit was also very cooperative.

When controlling the flame, Ye Chen gradually fell into a mysterious realm. Ye Chen’s Astral Body entered the refining furnace and he was acutely aware of every change happening to the herb mixture in the refining furnace.

When refining pills, Ye Chen tried countless methods including inserting his Astral Body into the refining furnace and learning more about the process of alchemy. Therefore, Ye Chen put his Astral Body to good use with every pill he had refined.

Holding down the heat of the flames using his Astral Body, he felt the subtle changes. Ye Chen could feel his Astral Body transforming bit by bit. Before, the smallest size his Astral Body could see were grains of rice but now, he could observe smaller objects clearer and meticulously.

Ye Chen had never thought that using his Astral Body to refine pills would cause it to improve. This unexpected event made Ye Chen delighted.

At this time, the herb mixture slowly became yellow.

“Oh no, it’s going to fail again!” Ye Chen was extremely chagrined. Every time the herb mixture turned yellow, it would then start to burn. He quickly flipped the herb mixture several times and poured some Heavenly Pure Water on it. He anxiously began to manipulate it in an orderly way according to the alchemy process.

Turning it carefully again and again, stirring, controlling the temperature, cooling it, and yet…

It still failed. Ye Chen looked at the black herb mixture in frustration and felt vexed. There was nothing wrong with the process but why did he keep failing?

If only there was a teacher to guide him.

Alas, just as Ye Chen was upset, he suddenly noticed an intact lump of the herb mixture among the pile of charred herb mixture.

Ye Chen thought for a moment before immediately taking out that small lump of the herb mixture and making it look like two pills. The two pills were about half the size of a little finger. They were dark red and emitted a strange aroma.

It was not a Chi-amassing Pill!

Ye Chen was bewildered. He was refining using the materials for a Chi-amassing Pill but why was the end product not a Chi-amassing Pill?

Could these two pills be eaten?

Ye Chen was hesitant.

“Squeak squeak!” Little Tanuki’s eyes flashed upon seeing the pills in Ye Chen’s hand.

“You want to eat this?” Ye Chen asked Little Tanuki in surprise.

Little Tanuki nodded excitedly and jumped onto Ye Chen’s shoulder. Its chubby little claws pawed at the two pills.

“No, these pills can’t be eaten carelessly. Let me find out what kind of pills they are first.” Ye Chen hurriedly held the two pills tightly. What if the pills ended up being poisonous and were eaten by Little Tanuki? He had to first check what pills they were.

Seeing Ye Chen keeping the pills, Little Tanuki widened its big watery eyes and looked at Chu Li piteously.

Ye Chen sat down again and quickly leafed through the ancient texts left behind by the armguard owner.

After more than three hours, he finally found a few words in an ancient book. The failure rate of refining medicinal pills using ancient alchemy methods was relatively high but the pill refined would produce some unpredictable changes. For example, when refining a Chi-amassing Pill, it might become the White Spirit Pill, which had very weak properties and was much inferior to the Chi-amassing Pill. It may also become something like the extremely mysterious Soul-amassing Pill and Spirit-amassing Pill that even the ancient texts did not describe. However, materials used to refine a Chi-amassing Pill would never end up becoming poisonous.

From these ancient data, Ye Chen speculated that the book “The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy” recorded orthodox alchemy methods that had been passed down to this day. However, ancient alchemy methods were too challenging and required the help of True Yang fire¹ but it had been lost after countless years.

Ye Chen did not know what True Yang fire was but the flame released by the armguard artifact spirit was much hotter than ordinary flames. Could it be the True Yang fire needed for the ancient alchemy methods?

After figuring it out, Ye Chen finally understood. So that was it!

Ye Chen was wrong for refining the pills in the space of the armguard using The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy’s method. The flame that the armguard artifact spirit was the True Yang fire which far exceeded ordinary fire. Of course the herb mixture would get burnt. Furthermore, the alchemy technique left behind by the owner of the armguard was an ancient alchemy method that was extremely difficult to master and had a high rate of failure. It was not surprising that he suffered a complete defeat despite trying so many times.

In his latest attempt, Ye Chen accidentally refined two strange pills, which were most likely due to strange changes that occurred to the herb mixture during the refining process. Ye Chen did not know what these two medicinal pills were but at least he was sure that they were not poisonous!

“Alright, I’ve checked. These two pills aren’t poisonous. We’ll each take one and find out what it does!” Ye Chen spread out his hand and stuffed a pill into Little Tanuki’s mouth and the other into his own.

Little Tanuki swallowed the medicinal pill and jumped to the side before focusing on cultivating.

Ye Chen had just swallowed the pill when he felt a raging flame burning in his stomach as if it were a fire.

‘Just what kind of pill is it? It’s so potent!’

Instantly, he felt the soaring flame rush straight to his mind and there seemed to be an explosion in his head. Bam bam bam, sparks flew everywhere as bursts of stabbing pain assaulted his brain like pins and needles. The pain seemed to make his thinking clearer and his consciousness extended upward to the infinite open sky of the universe.

Ye Chen’s Astral Body strengthened bit by bit and an armored soldier holding a long sword gradually materialized in the space above Ye Chen’s head. It let out a roar as red flames burned on its body as if it were a fire giant. The sense of realness grew stronger.

Ye Chen could feel the strength of his Astral Body. He was one step closer to true Daemon Kings.

Ye Chen’s Astral Body was different from the Psyche of Celestial Beasts and could not be directly compared.

However, it was a good thing that his Astral Body had improved.

Were these two pills the legendary Soul-amassing Pills?

Ye Chen’s stomach still felt like a fire was burning in it, not extinguished yet. Ye Chen quickly opened up some ancient texts and found a page about the Soul-amassing Pill.

“Soul-amassing Pill: A pill that was produced when strange changes occur when refining a Chi-amassing Pill. After swallowing it, the abdomen burned like fire for several months but strengthened the soul. It was greatly beneficial to cultivation but cannot be taken continuously as it would harm the soul.”

Seeing the introduction of the Soul-amassing Pill, Ye Chen finally confirmed that what he refined was the Soul-amassing Pill.

Although Ye Chen wasted so many materials and failed so many times, he still refined two priceless Soul-amassing Pills. That was worth it!