Chapter Fifteen Refining the Elixir Once More!

  He wants Qinglian's claw, but he needs 500 contribution points, which he naturally doesn't have on him now.

  In the past, monthly income was mostly around 100 contribution points, occasionally a little more, but only saved for reserve, in case some months' spiritual medicine harvest was insufficient. Now, at most, there are only 200 contribution points on hand, still short of more than half.

  Of course, Ling Xiao wasn't completely out of options either.

  The method he could think of was naturally alchemy.

  Walking back to his residence, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. After wandering around, he still ended up returning to alchemy. He had originally wanted to keep a low profile and not practice alchemy for the time being, but now he was forced to have no choice and could only try again.

  Fortunately, the sect's management of alchemy is still quite relaxed, as long as he is careful and pays attention, it may not be impossible to cover up.

  Refining the elixir requires earth fire and sufficient materials... The Ling Xiao sect naturally doesn't have any, but fortunately, they can rent an earth fire room from the sect for a small contribution of points; as for the materials needed to refine the elixir, he has to figure it out himself. Fortunately, he has that mysterious flame, at least he won't lose money on this deal.

  As for whether he can refine a high-quality Pei Yuandan again, he really has no confidence. Of course, it doesn't matter to him either, and he doesn't care much about it.

  The plan has been decided, and Ling Xiao still plans to borrow some contributions from Feng Yi.

  First, he wanted to use alchemy to produce more pills, with the mysterious flame in his body, so he didn't have to worry about failure, and the more materials the better. Second, he also wanted to take the opportunity to help Fengyi a bit.

  As for the mysterious flame, it's not convenient to say too much to Fengyi, but taking advantage of this opportunity to help her a bit, at least let her not have to go on a dangerous adventure to hunt poisonous spiders, is that still easy?

  Waiting at home for Fengyi to return, Ling Xiao went to find her and said straightforwardly: "Fengyi, I want to try refining the elixir. Do you still have any remaining contribution points from the sect?"

  Feng Yi nodded without hesitation, "Mm-hmm, there's more, wait and I'll give them all to you!"

  She agreed so readily that Ling Xiao's heart warmed up a little. Feng Yi was just like him, an ordinary outer sect disciple after all. These contribution points were either accumulated by her going to the deep mountains to gather medicine or saved from hunting poisonous spiders, and now she could unhesitatingly agree to lend them to him.

  Although he knew that Fengyi would definitely get more returns, she didn't know! However, they had been close since childhood and it wasn't good to be too polite. So Ling Xiao just nodded silently and remembered the kindness in his heart.

  ……

  Ling Xiao borrowed some from Feng Yi's hands, and added more than 200 contribution points he had accumulated, all of which were exchanged for alchemy materials. Together, they got a total of seventeen sets of materials.

  This is also the sect's rule for refining elixirs. You can bring your own materials in, or use 20 contribution points to exchange for a set of materials from the sect. After refining them into pills, you can then exchange the pills for contribution points.

  The refined elixirs, on the one hand, maintain the consumption within the sect, and on the other hand, can also be sold externally to earn a certain amount of spirit stones, maintaining the operation of the sect. Accumulating small amounts into large ones, this is also an important source of spirit stones for the Qi Yun Sect.

  Seventeen pieces of material may sound like a lot, but actually it's really not that many.

  Refining a low-grade Cultivation Pill can earn 50 contribution points, and after deducting the original material cost, you can still make a profit of 30 contribution points. However, even a skilled disciple who refines Cultivation Pills can barely maintain a success rate of two or three portions of materials to refine one pill. Thinking about it, even with such a low success rate, if all that is refined are low-grade pills, at most it would only be able to break even without making a profit.

  Not to mention, for a disciple like Ling Xiao who is just starting out in alchemy, this success rate would be even lower...

  It's hard not to lose money.

  So outer sect disciples rarely go to learn alchemy, it's just because the success rate is too low.

  As for refining a top-grade pill? That's something even outer sect disciples don't dare to think about! The medicinal power of the elixir, every additional fraction preserved, every additional fraction purified, the difficulty almost increases exponentially. Middle-grade pills might occasionally be successfully refined, but top-grade pills? Everyone treats that as a joke.

  As a result, Ling Xiao's last successful refinement of a top-grade Pei Yuan Dan also caught the attention of Fu Ling, who was moved and impressed. Of course, it also drew Qi Ming's jealousy and alarm. This is because even if it was just a temporary stroke of luck that allowed him to successfully refine a top-grade Pei Yuan Dan, it was still extremely difficult. It also showed off Ling Xiao's potential in alchemy.

  Of course, apart from Ling Xiao, no one else knew that his so-called potential and talent were actually due to the strange flame in his body...

  Ling Xiao made all necessary preparations and then came again to the Purple Cloud Temple, renting a place in the Earth Fire Room.

  Because of the big show last time, he really made a big splash. So this time when he came to refine the elixir, he deliberately kept a low profile, but still attracted the attention of many people in the sect who had their eyes on him. Those who were friendly with him, such as Fengyi, Pangshan, and Huangjian; those who were at odds with him, like Qiming... even Fuling Elder, all noticed him. She specially called out to Huangjian, asking him to hand over the elixir refined by Ling Xiao for her to examine personally. Of course, this is a later event, let's not mention it for now.

  Ling Xiao's purpose was actually very simple, he just wanted to refine the elixir, in exchange for a piece of Qing Lian Claw. With that strange flame on his body, it's hard to say whether he can successfully refine the top-grade Pei Yuan Dan or not, but one thing is certain, he won't suffer any losses.

  Dan medicine is to be swallowed by monks, and it is closely related to the progress of their own practice. Therefore, the division of Dan medicine grades is also more detailed.

  All elixirs are divided into one to nine grades, with the first grade being the lowest and the ninth grade being the highest. For the same type of elixir, there is also a division of lower, middle, upper, and extreme grades.

  Of course, this is just a very rough classification.

  The difference in quality and value of the same kind of Dan medicine mainly lies in the medicinal properties it contains. The more sufficient and pure the medicinal properties, the higher the quality of the Dan medicine.

  Due to the limitations of the material quality, a Dan medicine, no matter how skilled the refining technique is, how sufficient the fire spirit is, and how sufficient the firing time is, the medicinal power that can be contained is also limited. Reaching this limit or approaching this limit is an extremely rare top-grade Dan medicine. The next best ones are upper-grade Dan medicines; the next ones are middle-grade; and the next ones are lower-grade.

  Generally, those with 50% or less medicinal power are considered low-grade elixirs; those with 50-70% medicinal power are considered medium-grade elixirs. Those with 70-90% medicinal power are considered high-grade elixirs. Those above 90% are considered top-grade elixirs.

  The more pure and refined the medicinal power is, the less unnecessary waste of medicinal power there will be in the refining process, and naturally, the refining will become exponentially more difficult.

  It's like the sand in a cup of water, from having half sand to removing some and being left with 40% sand is much easier than going from 40% to 30% or even 20%. The less sand that remains, the more difficult it becomes to pick out. The principle of alchemy is actually similar to this.

  This can imagine the difficulty of refining high-grade elixir.

  Ling Xiao sat calmly in the earth fire room, casting a spell to activate the formation and seal off the entire room. This was also to avoid being disturbed while refining the elixir, which would affect the success rate of the refinement. Of course, Ling Xiao had specifically rented this independent earth fire room to better conceal that strange flame.

  There is only one exit for the earth fire in the room, and there is also a guardian formation. Once activated, it's almost impossible to sneak a peek.

  Ling Xiao took out all the materials and put them on the ground.

  He was only refining the elixir to earn contribution points and didn't have any intention of practicing his alchemy skills, so he simply threw all the materials into the furnace one by one, then secretly stimulated the flames within his body to emerge, using the flames to purify these materials one by one.

  This process didn't have to be done in the furnace, he also had a careful thought, just to cover it up.

  Soon all the materials were purified, and none of them failed. The purity was estimated to be around 70-80%. It's even better than before, probably due to his recent frequent practice in driving that flame.

  Next is Jing Dan...

  Refining the elixir is difficult and extremely challenging, but that's not a problem for Ling Xiao. However, repeatedly refining the same type of elixir can be quite dull and uninteresting. Especially for someone like Ling Xiao, who relies on the strange flame in his body to repeatedly refine the elixir - fail - burn - continue refining... This process becomes even more tedious and almost mechanical.

  However, after repeatedly doing this, not to mention anything else, just the process and method of refining the Pei Yuan Dan, he has become much more skilled than others. It can also be considered an unexpected gain.

  Time flies.

  A whole day has passed in the blink of an eye. Ling Xiao is focused on refining the elixir in the Earth Fire Room, unaware that others have been waiting anxiously.

  They had already heard that Ling Xiao only had a dozen or so materials, and by rights should have finished long ago. However, there was no rule that said how much time it took to refine a material, and besides, Ling Xiao was just an apprentice at refining elixirs, so being cautious was completely understandable. So it didn't arouse anyone's suspicion.

  However, as night falls, Ling Xiao should also come out...