Chapter Twelve Rewards

  After a while, the medicine cauldron seemed to be boiling, and in the midst of a rumbling sound, there were occasional bursts of crackling explosions.

  Bang!

  Nie Kong's slightly raised index finger and thumb suddenly flashed like lightning onto the rapidly rotating cauldron body.

  This finger popped out, without affecting the rotation of the medicine cauldron at all. However, just as Nie Kong's fingers touched the medicine cauldron, a thick and intense spiritual power shot out, piercing directly into the interior of the medicine cauldron. For a moment, the crackling explosion sounds became even more intense.

  At this time, the hot air rising from the cauldron lid turned into a faint and delicate fragrance.

  "Sip sip!"

  Tiān Xīn sniffed his nose, nodded slightly in satisfaction, and then lowered his voice to comment: "The Zi Xu Dan has begun to take shape. The little guy's spiritual power just now should be exactly where the Zi Xu Dan cracked open, this timing is extremely well chosen. If it were earlier, it would directly cause the Zi Xu Dan to explode, if it were later, not only would it fail to work, but also expand the crack in the Zi Xu Dan, ultimately leading to the explosion of the spiritual medicine."

  Nie Xingyun said with a hint of pride, "Not even looking at who the apprentice is! Among all the Nie family's spiritual medicine practitioners, those who can achieve such an excellent performance in their first attempt at refining a second-grade spiritual medicine are only two. One is this apprentice of mine, and the other is that little girl Feng Hua."

  Xian Tianxin rolled her eyes: "He's your disciple, isn't he also my disciple? However, the young daughter of the clan leader is indeed talented, unfortunately she was taken in by the Great Elder of Mo Xue Sect."

  "Bang!"

  Nie Kong's left hand struck the cauldron again. Nie Xingyun and Lian Tianxin both stopped talking, their four eyes fixed tightly on the medicine cauldron floating above Nie Kong's right palm.

  Time slowly passed by, Nie Kong's left hand struck the body of the cauldron with increasing frequency, and the rumbling sound coming from within the medicine cauldron also grew more intense.

  Unconsciously, Nie Kong's forehead had already sweated fine beads of sweat.

  "Hum!"

  Suddenly, a loud crash, the lid of the cauldron shot up to the sky, and then, a purple shadow flew out of the medicine cauldron, swirling around, and the thick fragrance of medicine spread everywhere.

  "Good!"

  Nie Xingyun let out a soft shout, his right hand beckoned, and the small cluster of purple shadows fell into his palm as if they were iron filings attracted to a magnet.

  Peanut-sized, elliptical in shape, with a glossy purple sheen all over.

  It's exactly Zi Xuan Dan!

  "Clang!"

  The lid of the cauldron fell down, covering the mouth of the cauldron. The spiritual energy emanating from Nie Kong's right palm gradually dissipated, and the medicine cauldron lost its spiritual support, lightly spinning and falling into Nie Kong's palm.

  At this moment, Lian Tianxin couldn't wait to lean in and sniff the fragrance of the Zixiandan, immediately beaming with joy, clapping his hands repeatedly and praising: "Not bad! Extremely not bad! Little guy, your first attempt at refining Zixiandan has actually reached an 80% fusion degree, far surpassing my own skills when I was your age!"

  Nie Xingyun didn't say a word, but his constantly twitching eyebrows also revealed the joy in his heart.

  The purple pill with a fusion degree of 80% is very common, like the one refined by Lian Tianxin himself, each grain can reach a fusion degree of 90%. But Nie Kong is refining for the first time, and he hasn't been in contact with alchemy for long, to have such a standard, it's enough to make people look at him differently.

  "Unexpectedly, refining the Purple Qilin Dan is so laborious."

  Nie Kong let out a long sigh with a bitter smile.

  Just now when refining the medicine, it looked calm on the surface, but in reality, it was extremely dangerous. During the process of fusion and shaping, the spiritual medicine almost exploded several times. From the first time Nie Kong's fingers struck the medicine cauldron, his spirit had been in a state of high tension, constantly paying attention to the situation inside the cauldron.

  Moreover, the speed of spiritual energy consumption during alchemy is also astonishingly fast. With Nie Kong's cultivation base at the fourth grade of the Spirit Temple, after successfully refining this Purple Swallow Pill, his body's spiritual energy was consumed by more than 90%. Now, the three spiritual orifices are almost completely dry, with only a small portion remaining in the meridians.

  Now Nie Kong finally understood why a first-rate or second-rate spiritual medicine like this would often be out of stock in the Nie family. After all, there were only a few spiritual medicine masters in the Nie family, and people like Nie Maozi and Nie Fengyan could usually only refine medicine four or five times a day, and couldn't guarantee success every time. The refined spiritual medicine had to be supplied not only to the Nie family members but also partly sold for profit, so it was normal that supply would not meet demand.

  Upon hearing Nie Kong's complaints, Nie Xingyun couldn't help but smile wryly and scolded with a laugh: "Little guy, you think refining medicine is like eating and drinking? Refining this second-grade Purple Swallow Pill is still considered easy. Even if it fails, there's no great danger, at most it'll just waste spiritual power and medicinal materials. If you were to refine a sixth-grade or higher spiritual medicine, a slight carelessness could cause the spiritual medicine to explode, and even take the life of the spiritual medicine master."

  "True indeed. Nie Kong, you might not have heard of it. Hundreds of years ago, there was an Alchemist King who, while refining the eighth-grade 'Silent Destruction Spirit Flower Pill', had his spiritual medicine suddenly explode, destroying his residence and leaving no remains of himself."

  "Can such a thing really happen?"

  Nie Kong was shocked. Those who can be called the King of Medicine are all successful in refining multiple eighth-grade spiritual medicines, and their own cultivation is at least above Dan Ling fifth grade, and it's possible that they are Dong Ling strongmen. But such a person was actually killed by a spiritual medicine explosion, which is also too unbelievable!

  After the shock, Nie Kong secretly felt fortunate that he had "Medicine Cauldron Phantom Body", and the danger of alchemy in the future would surely be greatly reduced.

  Taking the refining of "Huishen露" as an example, if the little guy doesn't need to rest, Nie Kong can even refine it continuously for a whole day. The consumption of each refining is extremely low. Although he has not used the medicine cauldron to refine the second-grade "Zi Xun Dan", it is unlikely that he will exhaust his entire spiritual power. Based on this inference, when refining high-grade spiritual medicines, Nie Kong can communicate with the medicine cauldron's spirit, and the risks he encounters will not be as great as others.

  Nie Kong's mind turned and he calmed down, laughing: "Master, I, your disciple, have successfully refined an 80% fusion rate of the Violet Qi Pill on my first attempt. Shouldn't there be a reward?"

  "A reward?"

  Nie Xingyun and Lian Tianxin looked at each other in shock, then saw Nie Kong staring at the remaining herbs on the table with a drooling expression, and both of them burst out laughing.

  Nie Xingyun helplessly said: "Want to eat medicine grass again?"

  "Alas, two masters, I don't want to either, but what can be done? This illness may not show on the surface, but in reality, it has never been completely cured. It requires constant consumption of medicinal herbs to suppress the symptoms with their potency. The higher one's cultivation is, the stronger the required medicinal potency will be. If I stop taking medicine for a long time, the symptoms might relapse immediately, and there's even a possibility that I'll lose my life and join my father and brother in death."

  "Really like this?"

  Nie Xingyun and Lian Tianxin stared at each other, suddenly a figure flashed, one left and one right appeared beside Nie Kong, two palms pressed down on his shoulders. Immediately, two hot breaths entered Nie Kong's body, then quickly spread out to explore...

  ……