Chronicles of the Green Vine: A Mortal’s Path to Immortality

A month later, he had almost mastered the Fire Control Technique. He arrived at a secluded small mountain in the south of Falling Star City.

This was a volcanic mountain with underground fire veins in Falling Star City. The entire mountain was a blackish-red color. An underground fire from the earth's core had been guided up here by high-level cultivators, creating this volcanic mountain.

The earth fire had a high and stable temperature, making it suitable for alchemy and crafting. It was extremely convenient for Qi Refining stage cultivators.

Cultivators had certain requirements for the flames used in refining pills. Generally, they could use innate true fire from their bodies, but this consumed a lot of their spiritual power and couldn't be sustained for long.

Moreover, only Foundation Establishment stage cultivators possessed innate true fire. Qi Refining cultivators could only use external flames for refining pills.

Earth fire was the best choice. In terms of temperature, it was even higher than true fire, and it was stable and continuous.

Every spiritual herb had different properties and medicinal power. If the flame temperature was too high, it would damage the herbs. If it was too low, it wouldn't be able to separate the impurities.

Of course, besides earth fire, one could also use beast fire from妖兽 or other heaven and earth flames for alchemy and crafting.

However, these special flames were hard to find, and their effects might not be better than earth fire. Therefore, in the eyes of cultivators, earth fire was the most commonly used flame for refining pills.

Before long, Zhang Ling arrived at a stone house at the foot of the mountain. Inside, there was a bald, burly man holding a small sword that emitted a blue light, seemingly studying a magical artifact.

"Alchemy or crafting?" the bald man said in a muffled voice without looking up.

"Alchemy," Zhang Ling replied indifferently. After hearing his words, the man glanced at him. "Renting an earth fire chamber costs one spiritual stone per day."

"Okay."

Zhang Ling replied softly and took out thirty spiritual stones from his pocket, placing them in front of the man.

Without further ado, the man waved his hand, and a black token flew out of the stone house behind him. The man's hand glowed with spiritual light, and he gently tapped the token, throwing it to Zhang Ling.

"Earth Fire Chamber Number Thirty-Five, Block D. Go there yourself."

Zhang Ling took the token and looked at it. On one side, a large "D" was written. On the back, it said "Thirty-Five." The token was made of an unknown material and felt cold to the touch.

"The token will turn white as time decreases. When it turns completely white, it means the time is up. If you delay, you will have to pay double the spiritual stone fee when you come out."

After throwing out the token, the man looked at the small sword in his hand, playing with it as he spoke slowly.

"Thank you," Zhang Ling cupped his fist and walked forward along the path beside him with the token.

After walking for a while, a stone wall appeared in front of him. The stone wall was about ten zhang high and connected to the mountain beside it. There were more than a dozen stone caves below the stone wall, each with a bluestone in front of it, with characters such as A, B, C, D engraved on them.

Zhang Ling looked at the Block D stone cave. A yellow light flashed in his hand, and a stream of spiritual power was injected into the token. The token flew out of his hand and flew towards the Block D cave entrance.

Zhang Ling quickly followed and entered the cave. It was dark inside. The ground and walls were made of cyan-black boulders, which looked quite oppressive.

The stone cave was square, with a closed stone door every distance. After walking for a while, the token stopped in front of a stone door.

There was a white stone slab on the wall to the left of the stone door, with the number thirty-five written on it.

Zhang Ling grabbed the token. He felt that there was an extra spiritual power in the token that did not belong to him. After a little thought, he knew its use.

A flash of spiritual light appeared in his hand, and the spiritual power hit the token. The token vibrated and emitted a blue light that hit the stone door.

The stone door made a clicking sound and opened upwards. He walked in and closed the stone door in the same way.

Whether it was refining pills or crafting, one had to concentrate. If one was disturbed, all previous efforts would be wasted. The earth fire chamber did a good job in this regard.

The entire stone chamber was a circular space, not too big or too small. In the center of the room was a circular platform made of reddish-black stones, with some runes engraved on it.

Around the circle, there were several stone carvings of dragon heads, with their mouths slightly open, facing the center of the circle.

Several small gourds were hung on one side of the wall. These gourds were of two colors, red and cyan.

In a corner of the stone chamber, there was also a stone bed with several yellow futons on it, which seemed to be for resting.

After looking around the stone chamber, Zhang Ling came to the stone wall on the left and looked up to carefully read the words on the other wall.

The usage and precautions of the earth fire stone were engraved on this wall.

Half an hour later, Zhang Ling had a certain understanding of the operation of the earth fire. The circular stone platform was a formation used to control the earth fire, which could be driven with spiritual power.

The gourds on the wall contained clear water and a powder called Flame Star Powder, which could be used to enhance the power of the earth fire.

After understanding these things, Zhang Ling patted his storage bag, and a bronze pill furnace flew out. With a point of his hand, the pill furnace flew to the center of the circular platform.

Another magic spell hit the pill furnace, and the bronze pill furnace became several times larger, falling onto the circular platform.

After placing the pill furnace, Zhang Ling activated the formation on the stone platform. Suddenly, the ground trembled slightly, and the runes on it were lit up at once. Red lines filled the entire ground, followed by a few soft sounds.

The stone carvings of the dragon heads around the circular formation spewed out hot flames, which wrapped the bronze pill furnace in the middle.

Zhang Ling did not immediately refine pills but closed his eyes to rest. He reviewed the essentials of alchemy in his mind while preheating the pill furnace.

It was his first time refining pills, and the pill furnace was newly bought. Letting the earth fire wrap the pill furnace could make the pill furnace more adapted to the temperature of the earth fire.

After half an hour, Zhang Ling stood up full of energy. The bronze pill furnace had turned black and red, looking quite gorgeous.

Zhang Ling cast a spell on the ground, and the flames spewed out by several dragon heads decreased.

Then he repeated this action, testing the strength of the earth fire. After several times, the earth fire stabilized.

He took out a few large bags from the storage bag and placed them beside him. They were filled with a kind of light yellow rice grains.

This was Yellow Sprout Rice, a low-level spiritual plant, a mutation of ordinary rice, containing a small amount of spiritual power. Eating it all year round can slowly increase a cultivator's strength.

In addition to ordinary consumption, Yellow Sprout Rice is also the raw material for refining the Grain Avoiding Pill.

Qi Refining cultivators are still in the category of mortals and cannot avoid grains. The Grain Avoiding Pill is prepared for low-level cultivators. Eating one can keep an ordinary person from being hungry for ten days.

Cultivators will prepare some. He had a jade bottle containing a few Grain Avoiding Pills in the storage bag he took from Li Changfeng.

Now he plans to use the Grain Avoiding Pill to practice. The refining of the Grain Avoiding Pill only requires this one raw material.

This is a pill without any grade. It is simple to refine and is an entry-level pill for learning alchemy.

While controlling the earth fire, Zhang Ling threw some Yellow Sprout Rice into the bronze pill furnace. He released his divine sense to carefully observe the condition of the Yellow Sprout Rice in the pill furnace.

However, the rice grains turned into ashes as soon as they entered. Zhang Ling couldn't help but darken his face. He looked at the dragon heads next to him and controlled the formation to weaken the earth fire a little, so as to lower the temperature in the pill furnace.

In this way, he controlled the flames while throwing in Yellow Sprout Rice.

An hour passed, and Zhang Ling sat on the ground sweating profusely.

Looking at the light yellow powder in a wooden box on the ground, this was his achievement in one hour. These powders were the essence of Yellow Sprout Rice.

Naturally, Zhang Ling was not very satisfied with only extracting so little, but it was considered the completion of the first step of alchemy.

Next, using ordinary spiritual water to fuse the powder and condense the pill, he could refine the Grain Avoiding Pill.

In this way, three days passed. When he was tired, he would meditate. After recovering, he would extract Yellow Sprout Rice.

At this time, dozens of wooden boxes were placed on the ground. He had extracted all the hundreds of pounds of Yellow Sprout Rice he had brought into powder.

Zhang Ling's face was dried by the earth fire. He took out a jade pot, drank a few mouthfuls of spiritual water, and his face improved a little.

Then, he used his divine sense again, urging the magic spell, staring at the pill furnace motionlessly.

Suddenly, he groaned, and the magic spell in his hand hit the pill furnace. The pill furnace made a buzzing sound.

"Rise!"

The pill furnace lid flew up, and he grabbed a flash of red light in it in his hand.

Looking at the light yellow, transparent pill in his hand, Zhang Ling breathed a sigh of relief. He finally succeeded.

Although the Grain Avoiding Pill in his hand was not of much value to cultivators, it did not affect his mood at the moment.