Qin Xuan took out the Clear Water sword talisman and turned it over in his palm.
Upon touching it, he felt a bone-deep coolness, and faintly heard the sound of surging tides from within the talisman, like distant waves crashing against the shore across vast distances.
The Clear Water Art recorded sword-kinesis techniques and naturally contained methods for refining and binding it.
The first method involved using a drop of blood from the tip of the tongue so the sword talisman could absorb true essence.
This method relied on the resonance of qi and blood and required extracting the thick earth qi from the Earth Fiend Yin Veins.
Core Formation cultivators might achieve quick success with it, but those in the Qi Refining or Foundation Building stages, having no ability whatsoever to refine fiend qi, could not make use of it.
Qin Xuan then looked at the second method recorded in the sword manual:
"At the onset of sword refinement, open the hidden Li Fire acupoint within your body to temper water and fire alongside the Clear Water quintessence through repeated calcination. The sword talisman will gradually share the same nature and origin as the sword master's true essence, allowing one to fly with the sword at a mere thought."
Considering this, Qin Xuan could not help chuckling.
"No wonder Qian Fan failed to refine it. That fellow possesses a water spirit root and cultivates the Three-Nine Cold Light Art. Opening a hidden Li Fire acupoint within his body would be practically planting a landmine."
In that case, only the third method in the Clear Water Art remained: spirit spring nurturing.
The tenth layer of Qi Refining was called the Flowery Pool.
Once the Flowery Pool opened, a spirit spring would form in the dantian. One could store the Clear Water sword talisman within it; in as little as eighty-one days, or at most three years and seven months, it would naturally respond as smoothly as an extension of one's own arm.
This method was the gentlest, but unfortunately Qian Fan had been stuck at the ninth-layer embryonic breathing stage, falling just a sliver short.
"No wonder that scoundrel claimed he was just a bit of fortune away from a major breakthrough and wanted to borrow a few things."
Qin Xuan shook his head and put the Clear Water Art away.
This sword manual was indeed rare and could be considered a secret lore, prized as a treasure by many Qi Refining cultivators.
Yet having experienced Spring Letters, Autumn Post, looking at this manual again was like sitting before sages—hardly inspiring much enthusiasm.
Furthermore, he could not use any of the manual's three methods for the time being.
Spring Letters, Autumn Post contained no specialized art for refining sword talismans, only an authentic method for refining immortal flying swords called the "Divine Sense True Script." He did not know whether it would work here.
He had always possessed the method without a sword, so having no certainty, he decided to give it a try.
He immediately circulated his spiritual qi, formed a sword-finger gesture, and stroked along the Shangyang point from the talisman's guard to its tip, sending spiritual qi coursing through the pathways of the blade in a full circuit.
Sure enough, the Clear Water sword talisman resisted, buzzing and trembling. The sound of waves inside grew louder, and a fierce sword light was about to strike!
Qin Xuan dared not tarry. He instantly infused his divine sense into the sword, blending it with his spiritual qi to carve the true script for "Water" upon the sword talisman.
The moment the true script formed, it immediately suppressed the sword light. Delicate sword patterns spread outward like ripples in layers, each pattern condensed from water-element energy, shimmering with a soft glow.
In an instant, a clear chime rang out!
The sword talisman leaped from Qin Xuan's palm, turning into a streak of azure light that glided leisurely back and forth around him.
With a flick of his will, he brought the sword down. A corner of the stone table did not even seem to notice until a few breaths later, when it suddenly slid off, revealing a mirror-smooth cross-section.
Qin Xuan was overjoyed, never expecting such miraculous efficacy.
He proceeded to maneuver the sword talisman for a time, like a child with a novel toy, never tiring of it.
Only when his spiritual qi ran dry did he finally stop.
Putting away the sword talisman, he lit a lamp and once again opened Spring Letters, Autumn Post.
The secret art of Divine Sense True Script was recorded in this book, and compared to the sword-refining methods of the Clear Water Art, it was like night and day.
In just a few breaths, he had refined the sword talisman!
"If Senior Brother Qian hadn't generously bestowed this upon me, I never would have tested the true power of this sword art using an ordinary dharma sword."
With a relaxed chuckle and a sigh, he flipped the storyteller's tale to its final page.
This was another romance story about a Qi Refining cultivator named He Qiang who was obsessed with fishing. His wife, after weeping and quarreling repeatedly in vain over his refusal to stay home, ultimately ran away.
At the end of the story, he was just heading out the door to search for his wife, and then...
And then the tale was cut short. The book abruptly ended right there, without even finishing the final sentence, leaving a reader like Qin Xuan thoroughly unsatisfied.
Did the fisherman find his wife?
Besides pondering this question, he felt even more strongly that there must be more than one volume of this book.
'I could check the various bookstores. If I happen upon another volume, that would be sheer fortune.'
That night was another sleepless one...
Because Old Daoist Wu had given instructions, Qin Xuan kept his doors shut and did not step outside, but he was by no means idle.
After meditating and cultivating for several days, he brewed a fresh gourd of tiger ginger spirit dew and directed the spiritual light accumulated in the ancient mirror into the earthenware jar where the vermilion blood lingzhi was soaking.
Another three days passed.
Qin Xuan fished out a markedly different vermilion blood lingzhi from the jar.
Having been cleansed and tempered by the ancient mirror's spiritual light, it had shrunk several times from its original large coral-like form, yet it radiated an even richer spirituality.
He then followed Patriarch Geng's formula for the Three Flowers Qi-Subduing Pill, carrying out the secret alchemical arts of cyclical addition and subtraction and timing the furnace heat, setting to work on concocting pills.
He used up one vermilion blood lingzhi, tossing in all of the auxiliary ingredients given by the little fox demon—the duck-tongue vine and the curled lily stamen.
The threshold for alchemy was actually quite low; any Qi Refining cultivator could attempt it.
So long as the pill formula was accurate, even if one ended up with a charred black lump, it would still retain some medicinal properties—though whether it would poison someone was another matter.
Therefore, if one lacked confidence, one could hire someone else to do the refining.
Yuansong Temple had an Alchemy Hall. Any disciple unwilling to waste herbs could either pay spirit stones or submit temple contributions to engage the elders of the alchemy lineage.
There were many cultivators with wood and fire spirit roots there, naturally granting them an innate advantage in medicine refinement.
Because Qin Xuan received an annual subsidy of spirit herbs and medicines from his maternal grandfather's side, combined with the resources provided to core disciples by the sect, he had plenty of chances to experiment through trial and error, so he had no need to ask the Alchemy Hall for help.
As long as an elixir formed normally into a pill and retained over fifty percent of the spirit herbs' medicinal efficacy, it was called a minor pill.
One that brought forth over eighty percent of the efficacy and manifested spiritual light was a major pill.
Higher still were crimson pills and purple pills.
Both could absorb worldly spiritual qi during the condensation process and had specific environmental requirements. Both exceeded one hundred percent efficacy, and purple pills possessed wondrous spiritual rhymes that could surpass the limitations of the pill formula.
A single furnace produced more than one pill; compared to the absorption efficiency of raw herbs, producing a standard minor pill was already considered a gain for a Qi Refining cultivator.
He fanned the flames, fed charcoal, and spread sand, toiling for three or four double-hours before finally extinguishing the furnace fire.
The furnace he used this time was the three-legged, two-eared small copper furnace named "Jinhua" left behind by Patriarch Geng. This was a true treasure, far superior to the alchemy caldron he had used before.
Wrapping his hands in green cloth, he lifted the furnace lid.
"Huh?"
Qin Xuan, usually unflappable, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
He did not consider himself an alchemy genius.
He had merely followed the formula step by step with mechanical precision—the sort of technique that would make obsessive-compulsive elders in the Alchemy Hall curse him out over sloppy details.
And yet...
A thread of faint light suddenly seeped from the rim of the furnace, pale gold in hue, winding upward like silk spun by a silkworm. Moments later, the golden light swelled, bursting out from beneath the lid and banishing every shadow from the room!
A golden legendary!
Qin Xuan froze, almost thinking he had become a Special Class Chef... a Special Class Alchemist.
Leaning over the furnace, he saw three pills resting at the bottom, perfectly round like pearls, reddish-gold in color, their brilliance subtly restrained within.
Around the furnace walls, the various auxiliary ingredients had dissolved completely, leaving only a thin, snow-white layer of jade-like ash spread evenly across the surface.
A dense, misty vapor carried an intoxicating fragrance—neither orchid nor musk, but the pure quintessence of herbs and flora, bringing profound peace to mind and spirit.
The Three Flowers Qi-Subduing Pills were done, and they were crimson pills!
This was the first time in Qin Xuan's life he had ever concocted crimson pills; in the past, he had not even managed to produce a major pill.
Thinking it over, he had switched to Patriarch Geng's furnace this time, and the vermilion blood lingzhi had been sufficiently aged and further cleansed by the ancient mirror's spiritual light.
In the final analysis, it was nothing more than sheer stats.
With medicinal properties overflowing, there was nothing strange about it.
Immortality seekers refined qi and ingested elixirs; once pills were made, they were meant to be eaten. While they were still warm, Qin Xuan swallowed two in succession.
The medicinal power surged at once, filling his entire body with dry heat. He lit the heart-calming incense given by Old Daoist Wu, took the censer in hand, and went to meditate beneath the cool pine tree in the courtyard.
Old Daoist Wu had said that Qi Subduing was a protracted process requiring one to guard against pride and impatience.
Qin Xuan naturally trusted the elder's words.
And so, as he meditated, he relaxed his mind and let nature take its course.
To his surprise, for reasons unknown, he drifted into a deep sleep beneath the pine tree during his meditation.
Perhaps it was the work of the medicinal potency: the spiritual qi within his body continued to circulate on its own, stirring up a breeze. That wind stoked the true fire within him, causing spiritual qi to steam through every passage and acupoint, cycling endlessly in a minor heavenly circuit.
Right at this moment,
The green pine behind him swayed gently, bringing a brush of coolness.
Beneath the pine roots, at the very spot where Qin Xuan usually poured spiritual water, the soil bulged, as though something was about to break through the earth...
Chapter 18