Chapter 9: Nourishing Body Fluids

  As the morning sun had just risen from the east, and all things on earth had not yet fully awakened, Ye Chen had already arrived early in the dense forest where he usually practiced, starting his daily compulsory course.

  "Wow~~"

  As a mouthful of turbid air was expelled, Ye Chen jumped down directly from the top of the tree, his body making an extremely strange movement in mid-air before landing. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Ye Chen bent his knees and crossed his arms in a bizarre manner. As he made this extremely strange movement, his muscles began to tremble slightly.

  "Seize the Dragon and Gaze at the Moon!"

  With that, Ye Chen let out a loud roar, his body's center of gravity shifting forward slightly, his right hand transforming into a claw shape as he fiercely swiped at the small tree in front of him.

  Bang!

  A crisp sound rang out, and a small tree as thick as an adult's arm was suddenly snapped in two at the waist by Ye Chen.

  Ye Chen looked at the effect of his one move and revealed an excited smile, excitedly muttering to himself: "The Dragon Capturing Hand is indeed a fourth-grade martial skill. Just the first style alone, with my cultivation of Shattered Body One Heavy, is equivalent to a full-force strike from someone with Shattered Body Three Heavies!"

  Thinking of this, Ye Chen's future was filled with hope.

  Ye Chen rested in place for a while without continuing his cultivation, but quickly returned to his own independent courtyard to prepare the 'Nourishing Elixir'.

  Ye Chen returned to the courtyard, first washing his body and resting for a while, making sure he was at his peak before preparing to start refining.

  Ye Chen didn't have a crucible for refining elixirs, so he simply found a pot he used to cook with and modified it slightly to make it airtight. Then, he began refining in the kitchen. Although his tools were crude, Ye Chen was full of confidence.

  "First, grind a plant of seven-bug grass into juice and put it in the furnace for simmering with gentle fire for one-tenth of an hour!"

  For refining elixirs, what is most important is neither the medicinal materials nor the elixir formula, but rather the indispensable refining flames during the refinement process.

  The higher the level of alchemy, the stronger the flame power required. Generally speaking, unless the practitioner can cultivate their own innate flame, they must either seize some naturally formed divine flames from heaven and earth or extract flames from the bodies of some demon beasts for their own use.

  Of course, some naturally formed divine flames in the world are extremely rare and have great power. To say nothing of ordinary people being unable to find them, even if they were found, with low cultivation, forcibly taking them into one's body would only lead to a miserable death.

  Ye Chen's mind kept recalling the refining medicine formula, his hands moved extremely lightly, afraid that one misstep would cause the medicinal materials to be scrapped.

  Of course, Ye Chen refined all the fire into the lowest grade flame, which is the kind of fire people usually use.

  After boiling, first add half of the Ling Shan, then quickly put in Huang Ren Shen with harmony, at this time grasp the intensity of the flame, then put in Bai Yang Hua, and finally put the remaining half of the Ling Shan.

  Ye Chen followed the steps one by one and soon smelled a medicinal fragrance coming from the pot.

  "Success!"

  Ye Chen's eyes suddenly widened, staring intently at the reaction inside the pot. At this moment, a dull sound came from the pot, followed by a burnt smell.

  Ye Chen was stunned, he didn't expect that just when he thought he had succeeded, he actually failed.

  "What the...! It actually failed!" Ye Chen said extremely dissatisfiedly, staring at the medicinal materials in the pot.

  However, Ye Chen did not know that no alchemist could guarantee a 100% success rate for every refining attempt. Even the great masters had failures, let alone Ye Chen who was attempting it for the first time.

  Ye Chen sat slowly in the distance, constantly thinking about where he went wrong and why he failed.

  "What?"

  Ye Chen smelled the sticky smell coming from the pot and suddenly had an epiphany: the medicinal materials were not the problem, nor was the order in which they were added, but somehow the medicine ended up being sticky. Could it be a problem with the fire?

  Ye Chen thought of this, hurriedly got up, cleared out the scrapped medicine from the pot, and again brewed a smile in his mind. He went through every step of refining, and finally put in the second batch of medicine to refine again. This time, Ye Chen's full attention was on controlling the size of the flame, trying not to let it be too fierce.

  However, what awaited Ye Chen was still a dull thud from within the pot.

  "Failed again?"

  Ye Chen hastily looked into the pot, seeing the medicinal materials inside that resembled thin mud. His face suddenly turned dark: "Not done! Still not enough, there are only three portions of medicinal materials in total, and two have already been wasted. If it fails once more, it's all over!"

  Thinking of this, Ye Chen did not continue with the refining process. He understood that if he couldn't find where the problem lay, he probably wouldn't succeed even after a hundred attempts at refining.

  "What's wrong with it after all? The medicine is correct, the fire is almost right, and the order of putting in is also correct, what's wrong with it after all?"

  Ye Chen sat on the ground, constantly thinking in his mind. Actually, this can't be blamed on Ye Chen. Although Ye Chen had obtained the divine inheritance of alchemy, after all, there was no leader, and everything relied on his own continuous research.

  "Could the problem be with the equipment?" Ye Chen thought for a long time, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't find any mistakes. The only difference was that others used a furnace to refine medicine, while he used an ordinary pot to refine medicine.

  Having found the problem, Ye Chen quickly took action. He needed a furnace, even if it was the worst one. Thinking of this, Ye Chen hastily ran outside. He remembered that when he and Shen Xiang were playing in the back mountain before, they had discovered a furnace for refining medicine, but at that time, neither of them understood how to refine medicine. Moreover, the furnace was somewhat damaged. If they didn't bring it back, it would be a waste. Later, Ye Chen asked Shen Xiang to take it away.

  "Xin'er!" Ye Chen saw Shen Xin alone in the distance and hurriedly ran over, asking urgently: "Xin'er, do you still remember that old broken furnace we picked up last time?"

  Shen Xian stopped her cultivation and looked at Ye Chen in confusion: "I remember! You're supposed to be here, what do you need?"

  Ye Chen's eyes lit up as soon as he heard that the furnace was still there, and he hastily said: "Give it to me! I need it now!"

  Shen Xiang knew that Ye Chen was currently refining medicine, so he understood the purpose of Ye Chen's request for a furnace. Not daring to delay and waste Ye Chen's time, he quickly turned around and led Ye Chen towards his own residence.

  Before long, Ye Chen and Shen Xiang returned to Shen Xiang's residence.

  Shen Xiang let Ye Chen wait at the door for a while, then turned around and entered the room. A moment later, she walked out with a 1.5-meter-tall furnace in her arms: "Brother Chen, here you go!"

  Ye Chen's face lit up with joy, and he hastily stepped forward to take it away. However, as soon as Ye Chen took hold of it, he suddenly discovered that this furnace, which seemed to be only about half a meter high, weighed at least around 500 catties. Ye Chen almost dropped it due to carelessness.

  Crucible, essential equipment for refining elixirs, generally divided into one to nine grades, with heavenly and divine grades above the ninth grade.

  The furnace in Ye Chen's hand, at a glance, even if one didn't understand, could easily tell that this was the worst of the worst furnaces, probably a defective product of the first grade.

  Shen Xiang suddenly remembered that Ye Chen was no longer the same person who had possessed the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and hastily stepped forward to hold back the furnace, saying with a guilty tone: "Brother Chen, let me do it! I'll help you send it back!"

  "No need!" Ye Chen smiled stubbornly at Shen Xiang and said: "You go cultivate yours, I can do it!"

  Then, Ye Chen moved the stove with great difficulty, one step at a time, towards his own courtyard.

  Shen Xiang looked at Ye Chen's back, full of stubbornness, her eyes slightly moist, her face filled with guilt and shame. Suddenly, she thought of Xu Fei, who had caused Ye Chen to be abandoned, and a faint, indescribable killing intent appeared on her face. She muttered to herself: "Xu Feng, you shouldn't have abandoned Ye Chen!"