The Path to Immortality

In the past ten years, in addition to cultivation, Fang Ping has also been busy with alchemy.

With continuous research, his attainments in alchemy have made great progress.

He has mastered the common first-grade low-grade elixirs, including Huiyuan Dan, Bailian Ningxue Dan and other elixirs.

As for the recipe of the foundation-building pill, he has repeatedly comprehended and pondered, and the refining process is very familiar to him.

Without deliberate preparation, Fang Ping released the Yuan Ding and began to refine this famous first-grade medium-grade elixir.

He took out the carefully sealed elixirs one by one and processed them as necessary.

Among the three main ingredients of the foundation-building pill, Hualong Ginseng, Purple Jasper, and Ninghun Dew, the Hualong Ginseng in Fang Ping's hand is undoubtedly the most abundant.

As for the purple chalcedony, Fang Ping said that if one portion is not enough, he can add more.

The last Ninghun Dew, although the amount is not sufficient, is enough to refine one furnace.

Many other auxiliary materials, such as Xuanyuan fruit, Tianling flower, Wuliu root, etc., have been collected long ago and can be used at any time.

With such a perfect configuration, Fang Ping is fully confident that he can refine three or four foundation-building pills in one furnace!

………

After a while.

As all the processed medicinal materials were placed in the Yuan Ding, Fang Ping concentrated his mind and calmed his breath, hit the scorching sun true fire, and officially began to refine the foundation-building pill.

Under Fang Ping's meticulous control, the true fire burned quietly.

The seemingly pure green color contained a terrifying temperature.

Soon, one rare spiritual medicine after another melted, and the medicinal power and essence in them were extracted.

Fang Ping, who has been immersed in the alchemy for decades and has the help of the Yuan Ding, has reached a level that ordinary first-level alchemists cannot reach in terms of the changes in medicinal properties and fire.

Even though it was the first time he tried to refine the foundation-building pill, he still showed an amazing level, and even gave people a sense of ease.

He easily controlled the flames, observing the changes in the temperature and medicinal properties in the cauldron from time to time, and making subtle adjustments when necessary.

It seemed that several hours had passed in the blink of an eye.

It would probably be a great consumption for ordinary Qi-training cultivators to maintain the scorching sun true fire continuously.

But for Fang Ping now, it can be said to be extremely easy.

Under his steady control, the auxiliary materials in the Yuan Ding merged into one, and soon it was time to merge the Xuanyuan fruit.

Fang Ping had a detailed understanding of the medicinal properties of the Xuanyuan fruit.

Knowing that this spiritual fruit repelled the medicinal properties of the five willow roots in the foundation-building pill recipe, it was necessary to actively use mana to promote the fusion in the refining stage in order to successfully pass this process.

If Fang Ping was already a foundation-building cultivator, he could release his spiritual consciousness and accurately grasp every change in the Yuan Ding, and the difficulty of this process would be greatly reduced.

Unfortunately, Fang Ping's attainments in the way of alchemy were too far beyond his cultivation, and his soul was still a step away from condensing his spiritual consciousness.

As a result, he could only rely on his experience in alchemy and his own feelings to judge, which inevitably led to minor mistakes.

The next moment, the liquid in the alchemy cauldron began to bubble, and then quickly changed color and turned black.

"Is it really a failure..."

Fang Ping had never thought that refining the foundation-building pill could succeed in one go.

His expression was neither sad nor happy. After summarizing the previous gains and losses, he activated the Yuan Ding's ability to retrace the past and began to try again.

………

One month later.

After experiencing a large number of failures, Fang Ping's experience in refining the foundation-building pill has made great progress.

The common medicinal materials involved in the first half of the refining process, as well as the Xuanyuan fruit and the Tianling flower, have been perfectly mastered, leaving only the three most critical main materials.

However, the nearly three hundred-year-old Hualong ginseng from Xu Chongdao contained too amazing medicinal power.

It had just been refined by the true fire, and its violent medicinal power made the half-formed liquid boil.

Fortunately, he had been prepared after several previous failures.

On the one hand, he reduced the output of mana and lowered the temperature in the Yuan Ding to make the integration of the Dragon Ginseng's medicinal power more stable; on the other hand, he took advantage of the secret formula recorded in the Sun family's alchemy inheritance to actively suppress the conflict between the Dragon Ginseng's medicinal power and the liquid medicine.

With two-pronged approach, Fang Ping overcame the first real difficulty in refining the foundation-building pill with a little thrill.

But just a moment later, he encountered the second difficulty.

As the scorching sun fire continued to burn, the solid purple jade began to melt gradually.

But this main material must be integrated into the liquid medicine almost at the same time as the soul-condensing dew in order to perfectly enter the final liquid-condensing pill stage.

Fang Ping was a little slow in grasping the timing, which led to a conflict between the medicinal properties of the two again.

"What a pity~"

Fang Ping sighed slightly and traced back again.

Considering that the first half of the process was handled well this time, he did not trace back to the beginning, but directly traced back to a few breaths ago.

Having learned his lesson, he deliberately brought forward the fusion of the purple jade and the soul-condensing dew.

Unfortunately, he used too much force and missed the best opportunity.

………

Another month.

After six hours of continuous refining, the liquid in the Yuan Ding had turned into an attractive light blue and gradually stabilized.

Even though Fang Ping was not far from the twelfth level of Qi training and his mana was far more powerful than that of ordinary Qi training cultivators, he still felt a little tired at this step.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to control the true fire with the remaining mana, pushing the refining of the foundation-building pill to the last step with difficulty.

Finally, the exciting moment arrived.

As the true fire was extinguished, the invisible restriction dissipated, and Fang Ping reached his hands into the Yuan Ding and began to divide the pill!

Perhaps there were still many details that were not perfect in the previous refining process. When the pills were divided, Fang Ping only had two more blue foundation-building pills with attractive pill fragrance, plus a waste pill!

One of the finished foundation-building pills had a slight flaw on the surface, and even the shape was not very regular. The rate of loss of medicinal properties would be much faster than that of normal pills!

Despite all these shortcomings, and despite the fact that there was a lot of luck in the refining process, this was the first time Fang Ping personally refined a foundation-building pill!

After taking a deep look at it for a few times, he did not take the separated pills out of the cauldron and started the backtracking again!

………

The foundation-building pill is indeed the most difficult elixir to refine among many first-level intermediate pills!

After spending more than two months to successfully refine the foundation-building pill for the first time, Fang Ping spent several more months persevering in continuing to familiarize himself with and consolidate the techniques of refining this kind of pill.

Today, his success rate in refining foundation-building pills has increased a lot, and can be stabilized at about 50%.

The number of foundation-building pills in each furnace can be guaranteed to be three at least, and four at most.

He already knew every detail and difficulty of refining foundation-building pills, and he could refine them with his eyes closed after practice.

However, even though this success rate is not low, and even though he has tried many times, Fang Ping has not been able to refine even one fine foundation-building pill.

While further honing his alchemy skills, Fang Ping, after weighing the pros and cons, could not help but turn his attention to a niche technique recorded in the Sun family's alchemy inheritance.

Its name is: Yundan!