According to the records of the classics, Zhao Di accurately controlled the size of the fire of the innate true fire. After about an hour, he finally smelled a hint of medicinal fragrance wafting out from the alchemy furnace. This was a sign that the elixir was about to take shape. He waited for another moment before hastily closing the innate true fire and opening the lid of the alchemy furnace.

  As Zhao Di opened the lid of the stove, a thick fragrance of medicine wafted out.

  "Next batch!" Zhao Di's face revealed a disappointed expression as he muttered to himself, although the alchemy furnace had produced over a dozen bean-sized pellets, the spiritual energy and medicinal properties were almost depleted, it was a batch of inferior Gathering Spirit Pellets.

  It was probably because the timing of the firing was a bit too early, and the Dan Wan was not yet stable, so the spiritual energy along with the medicinal properties had all dissipated. This was Zhao Di's conjecture.

  There was still time, so he continued with the next batch of Gathering Qi Pellets refinement.

  Still a delicate manipulation, but this time Zhao Di's patience was more sufficient. He waited until the fragrance of the medicine wafting from the Dan furnace became even thicker before stopping the Xiantian True Fire.

  But when he opened the lid of the furnace, he smelled a hint of burnt smell. In the crucible, there was not even one formed dan pill, but some blackened dan residue.

  This time it's even worse, a furnace of completely useless and harmful waste elixir residue was refined.

  It wasn't until the sixth furnace that Zhao Di finally successfully refined a dozen or so Gathering Qi Pellets after ruining five furnaces in a row. He then went on to refine seven or eight more batches, succeeding twice and managing to raise his success rate to around 20%.

  The Lianqi San is said to be the easiest to refine among the Danwan-class spiritual medicines, but he only has a success rate of less than 30%. It's really not a very talented performance. According to what he knows, the initial-level alchemist Liu Yuying had a success rate of over 60% in refining the Jiqi San!

  A loud bleating sound came from outside the room, and the first monster had arrived!

  Zhao Di immediately stopped refining the elixir and stepped on the Wind Python, rushing in the direction of the sound.

  A moment later, he saw a giant crab, all over bright red, five or six feet in size, waving its two huge pincers and crawling onto the small island.

  He just took a glance at Zhao Di in mid-air and ignored him, heading straight for the Tianxiang Huanqing Formation.

  "Extreme Yang Crab, the first one to take the bait is actually a fifth-grade demon beast!" Zhao Di said in a low voice. He took out a red ritual plate with a faint electric glow and cast a spell on it, immediately triggering the Heavenly Thunder Earth Fire Array.

  In an instant, a flash of lightning and thunder appeared beside the giant crab, and more than a dozen fire snakes emerged from the ground, rushing towards the giant crab and blocking it in the array.

  Without waiting for the giant crab to respond, Zhao shook his sleeve and dozens of light balls fell down, landing on the ground behind the giant crab, transforming into dozens of life-sized puppets.

  These puppets had just landed when, under Zhao Di's command, they quickly took out a mid-grade spiritual artifact in the form of either a shield or a bow from the beast skin bags behind them.

  These puppets stood in three rows, with the first row of eight puppets closest to the giant crab all holding shields in both hands and opening several defensive light screens to protect themselves and the puppets behind them. The last two rows of puppets were all holding various longbows.

  Zhao Di issued another command through his divine sense, and the puppets holding longbows drew their bowstrings in unison, firing wave after wave of arrows at the giant crab.

  Colors of different lights transformed into fire snakes, golden knives, wooden spears, ice cones, water arrows, sharp thorns and so on, covering the sky and attacking the giant crab in a very intimidating manner.

  This wave of attacks was like twenty or thirty foundation-building cultivators launching a simultaneous assault, and even the fifth-grade demonic beast giant crab revealed a human-like look of terror in its copper bell-sized eyes.

  The giant crab opened its big mouth and sprayed a ball of flame, surrounding itself with it. At the same time, its pincers danced wildly, blocking those attacks one after another.

  However, the dense attacks of the two to thirty bows that fired continuously were too intense. Most of the attacks still landed on the giant crab's flame mist, but they were actually blocked by the flame mist.

  After two or three waves of attacks were resolved by the giant crab, Zhao Di, who had planned to end the battle quickly, directly took out the top-grade spiritual artifact, Blazing Heaven Blade. In mid-air, he grasped the hilt of the Blazing Heaven Blade with both hands and swung it at the giant crab with force.

  A fire dragon over ten zhang long with sharp teeth and claws flew out from the knife and rushed straight towards the giant crab.

  The giant crab was shocked and forgot to attack, its eight claws moved horizontally as it tried to escape. If this were in the ocean, the giant crab's speed would be extremely fast, or it might even be able to escape. But on a small island, the fire dragon's speed was much faster, the fire dragon enveloped the giant crab, swallowing all the flames and revealing its body shape.

  At this time, a wave of golden knives and ice cones attacked the giant crab again. The giant crab's pincers swung wildly, but could only withstand half of the attacks.

  Soon, the giant crab's body was pierced with over a dozen large holes under the attack of the golden knives and ice cones transformed from the spiritual energy, and it died on the spot.

  Zhao Di rummaged through the giant crab's corpse and pulled out a bright red orb about an inch in diameter, which was precisely the demon's fifth-grade demon dan.

  Then he took out a small black bottle and used the soul-calling technique to slowly extract the beast's soul, putting it into the bottle.

  This Soul Summoning Technique requires a relatively high level of spiritual awareness, and generally speaking, only cultivators in the middle stage of foundation building can use it. However, Zhao Di's spiritual awareness far surpasses that of his peers, and during the half year he spent flying with his sword, he attempted to comprehend this technique with an open mind, and surprisingly, he was able to master it without too much effort.

  Although it's not clear what the advanced demon beast's demonic soul is used for, he still won't waste such a valuable item. Since this demonic soul is expensive and in high demand, there will naturally be a use for it in the future.

  Zhao Di took another look at the giant crab's corpse, shook his sleeve, and with a flash of silver light, cut off one pair of giant pincers from the crab, storing them in his storage bag.

  The giant crab's other materials were somewhat disappointing to Zhao Di, he lightly flicked his finger and a fireball flew out, turning the beast's corpse into ashes.

  Then he put away the twenty or thirty puppets, closed the Heaven and Earth Fire Array, and hid in the hidden array at the center of the small island, continuing to study his alchemy.

  Not long after, another fourth-level demon beast climbed onto the small island. This time, Zhao Di did not use the Blazing Heaven Blade, and relying solely on the puppet's one round of fierce attack, he easily annihilated it.

  Zhao Di still took the demon core and demon soul of this demon beast as well as some materials, then returned to the hidden formation.

  Like this, Zhao Di stayed on the small island for five days. During this time, a total of seven or eight demon beasts landed on the island, and he killed them one by one.

  According to his estimate, the demon beasts within hundreds of miles should have been attracted by the Tianxiang Huanqing Array to the small island, so he withdrew various arrays, packed up everything, and stepped on the Treadwind Jiao to leave the island.

  A few days later, he settled down on another small island of the same kind, laid out a heaven and earth net, and quietly waited for the arrival of the monster.

  With the help of Tianxiang Huanqing Formation and a group of puppets, Zhao Di's efficiency in hunting and killing demon beasts was astonishingly high. He stayed on a small island for only a few days, but his harvest was equivalent to what other cultivators would gain from hard work for one or even several years!

  In just half a year, Zhao Di not only obtained nearly a hundred third to fifth grade demon pellets, but also acquired an abundance of rare and precious demon beast materials. Ordinary demon beast materials were no longer worthy of his attention, and he would directly burn them to ashes along with the demon beast corpses. If other demon-catching cultivators were to witness this scene, they would surely exclaim at what a waste it was!

  Apart from that, after spending a large amount of original materials repeatedly practicing the art of alchemy, Zhao Di also made some progress in his alchemy skills. Now, he began to use third-grade elixirs to refine foundation-establishing pills, a type of pill that could enhance the cultivation of foundation-establishing cultivators, which was just suitable for his current realm.

  This Pei Ji Dan requires three types of third-grade elixirs as main materials, two of which are relatively common on the Fifth Island and Zhao Di has a good amount; another type is extremely rare on the Fifth Island, and Zhao Di only has seven or eight pieces, all of which were purchased in the market. These are only enough for him to refine seven or eight furnaces. Therefore, he must have some confidence in his elixir-refining skills before he dares to refine this Pei Ji Dan.

  This is also why Zhao Di had to start learning alchemy from the lowest level of Qi Refining Pill, because the raw materials for low-level pills are relatively cheap and abundant, allowing him to experiment freely. As he continued to improve his alchemy skills, he also obtained a large amount of "by-products", namely a pile of low-level Qi Refining Pills and secondary pills, from Gathering Spirit Powder, Clear Spirit Pill to even better Washing Marrow Pill, there were quite a few.

  Although these dan pills were of no use to Zhao Di, throwing them away would be a waste. So she found several wooden boxes and collected all the dan medicines.

  (2nd update! Seeking collection, recommendation, and advertisement.....)