Chapter 39: Respect

  Shen Xiang wants to compete with Dan Wang of Nan Wu State in alchemy, which makes the more than ten alchemists present gasp in shock. Shen Lu Zong knows that Shen Xiang is extremely talented in alchemy, but he's too young to challenge Dan Wang.

  However, Shen Xiang's colorful head was indeed very tempting. The secular world had a thin spiritual energy, resulting in extremely rare spiritual medicine. Therefore, the alchemists of the secular world could not resist the temptation of this rare spiritual medicine.

  Meng Bo threw his head back and burst out laughing: "Haha... since that's the case, I'll accompany you. If I lose, I'll give you my Xuan Yang Dan furnace!"

  Xuanyang Dan furnace! That's a famous alchemy furnace, said to be picked up by Meng Bo, made from precious Xuanyang stone, with other mysterious features inside, which is also the reason why Meng Bo has great achievements in alchemy.

  All the alchemists couldn't help but look at Meng Po's scarlet furnace with envy, this small and exquisite furnace looked as if it were carved out of a red gemstone, with many delicate patterns on the outside, just one glance would tell that it was definitely not something that could be refined by ordinary people in the mortal world.

  "If we're going to compare the quality of our pills, I'm definitely going to lose. To be fair, let's just compare one type of pill that I can refine at the highest level - the Leng Qi Pill!" Shen Xiang said, this was his only chance of winning and it was also the highest level pill he could currently refine.

  The Leng Qi Dan is of great help to those in the Mortal Martial Realm's sixth stage, as the seventh stage of the Mortal Martial Realm is the "True Leng Realm", which is the realm where one can convert true energy into "Leng". After taking the Leng Qi Dan, it can help martial artists familiarize themselves with Leng Qi. For those in the seventh stage of the Mortal Martial Realm, taking it can strengthen their true energy, making it faster to convert true energy into Leng and increasing its intensity.

  "No problem, shall we start now?" Meng Bo readily agreed, in his eyes, no matter how talented Shen Xiang was, he was just a young whippersnapper who had no chance of winning against him. If the quality of his elixir wasn't better than Shen Xiang's, then he would lose graciously.

  "Start now, and take charge of the medicinal materials yourself. If you don't have them, then wait until you get them before comparing again." Shen Xiang said, over the past month or so, he had also been continuously learning to refine other types of elixirs. He had refined several furnaces of Ling Qi Dan, except for failing a few times at the beginning, afterwards he grasped the key and never failed again.

  "I have the medicinal materials, let's get started! With so many alchemists here to judge, I'm sure the final result will be very fair!" Meng Bo said, he was actually a bit excited at this time. Originally, he was jealous of Shen Xiang having that Golden Spirit Fruit, and it was only because he owed someone in the Medicine House a favor that he agreed to come here and cause trouble.

  To Meng Bo's surprise, Shen Xiang was a young and arrogant kid who actually proposed this uneven match, and he wouldn't let go of such an opportunity either.

  Shen Lu Zong and those ten or so alchemists were all stirred up, for they could see the Dan Wang refining pills with their own eyes, an extremely rare opportunity!

  Most of the alchemy methods for refining elixirs are similar, but the process of handling medicinal materials is different. Some medicinal materials have very special properties and must be handled with great care, otherwise the refinement will fail, and in severe cases, the furnace will explode. Once failed, all the medicinal materials will be lost. Low-grade elixirs are still acceptable, but if high-grade elixirs fail, it can make an alchemist feel heartbroken for a long time.

  Shen Xiang and Meng Bo have begun to "ignite" the warm furnace, producing fire energy inside the dan furnace while controlling the temperature inside, after which they will add the medicinal materials.

  The medicinal materials needed for the Leng Qi Dan are quite expensive, but they can still be found on the market. The main ingredients include "Yuan Ling Mud", "Di Leng Cao Gen", "Xuan Ling Shen" and "Huang Huo Ye". Then there are some auxiliary medicinal materials, mainly including ginseng, lingzhi, shouwu, dilincao and other common spiritual medicines that are over 50 years old.

  The difficulty of this Lingqi Dan lies in the processing of "Yuán Líng Ní" and "Dì Líng Cǎo Gēn". Yuán Líng Ní is a kind of mud that contains spiritual energy, because it appears in very special places, so this mud can absorb spiritual energy by itself and then refine the spiritual energy to produce a kind of spiritual energy similar to Lingqi. It's extremely difficult to burn Yuán Líng Ní into powder, requiring very high flame quality.

  The roots of the earth are a kind of spiritual grass that even penetrates the yuanling mud, and after nourishment, they produce "earthly aura", but these roots are extremely easy to burn away, and that strange aura is also easily dissipated, so it's necessary to control the flames with divine consciousness and protect them well.

  Shen Xiang initially failed several times due to these two difficulties, but after grasping the subtle key points, he was able to easily cultivate the "Lingdan". At this time, Shen Xiang used flames to refine the medicinal materials into "medicinal powder" and "medicinal spirit energy" with a relaxed expression. Only thorough refinement can drive out impurities, otherwise it will affect the quality of the elixir. Shen Xiang was extremely strict with himself on this point, so the elixirs he refined were all of high quality.

  Shen Lu Zong and the alchemists could feel the temperature around them changing slightly every moment, and the alchemy furnace would occasionally emit some black gas, which was the impurities in the medicine being released. What made them speechless was that Meng Bo was sweating profusely, with a bead of sweat condensed on his brow.

  What a stark contrast with Shen Xiang's carefree expression!

  It's clear that Meng Bo hasn't refined the Linghuo Dan for a while, and after being out of practice for a period of time, he would forget that subtle feeling of controlling the fire, making it difficult to grasp the thermal properties of the spiritual medicine.

  Suddenly, Meng Bo's alchemy furnace, which was like a ruby, slightly shook and emitted a burst of colorful spiritual energy! Meng Bo had actually made an error, and one of the Dan Kings had made a mistake while refining this ordinary middle-grade pill. This caused all the alchemists to feel extremely disappointed and secretly looked down on this Dan King.

  "Uncle, get him a set of medicinal herbs for the Leng Qi Dan. If he refines it again, there's still time!" Shen Xiang said with his eyes open.

  This made Meng Bo stunned, and a hint of shame flashed in his eyes. Shen Xiang smiled at him with a smirk: "You failed just now because the medicine was not enough, which led to a deviation in judgment. It's not fair to try out like this, it's because you were unprepared."

  Meng Bo slightly nodded, he knew Shen Xiang was giving him a way out. After all, he was a well-known alchemist, and making such an error would make it hard for him to hold his head up again. This made him secretly grateful.

  It wasn't until then that he realized Shen Xiang was not as arrogant and dismissive of others as the rumors had made him out to be, and that his character and demeanor were far superior to those of Yao Tianhua, whom he had mentored.

  Shen Lu Zong quickly brought the medicinal materials, and Meng Bo started refining the elixir again. This time he calmed down and no longer underestimated Shen Xiang, but instead treated him as an opponent with equivalent strength!

  As time passed bit by bit, although it was always very quiet, Shen Lu Zong and the other alchemists knew that inside those two furnaces were undergoing extremely complex processes.

  Half a time period passed, and it was finally time to condense the dan. Shen Xiang took the lead, taking out some green liquid from a dan furnace mouth, which was made by dissolving dragon spittle and water. Adding this during the condensation process would improve the quality of the dan medicine, as Su Mei Yao had told him.

  Shen Xiang opened his eyes and let out a soft sigh, while Meng Bo wiped the sweat from his forehead at this time, he had also finished.