Creating a Golden Alchemy

That night, Qin Ran was in his study. The room was filled with soft light, while outside was the dark of night. The desk was covered with books, all open, and a gentle night breeze blew in through the window, lightly fluttering the pages.

He was hunched over the desk, drawing and scribbling. He was sketching the circulation routes of his cultivation techniques, and writing...the Golden Series Alchemy Method.

What is the essence of alchemy? Ten thousand alchemists would give ten thousand answers. But for Qin Ran, the essence was to organically combine the medicinal components with effects from the ingredients, in order to achieve the desired results.

To some extent, as long as you have the pill formula and ingredients, you just need to extract the medicinal parts from the ingredients, and combine them in the amounts required by the formula, and you can refine the medicinal pill.

So what is the key? The key is how to extract the parts with medicinal effects.

And the quality of a medicinal pill is judged precisely by this - the purer the part with medicinal effects, the higher the quality of the pill.

Similarly, impurities, or dregs, are judged by how much is left over - the more dregs left, the lower the quality of the pill. When the dregs reach a certain level, the pill loses its effectiveness and is considered a waste pill.

Therefore, the most basic skill of an alchemist is the ability to purify ingredients.

Fire spirit root cultivators practice fire elemental techniques, using fire to burn away the dregs (impurities) from the ingredients - this is fire refinement. Water spirit root cultivators practice water elemental techniques, using water to rinse and soak, extracting the medicinal essence - this is water refinement.

Qin Ran was water spirit rooted, so he used the latter purification method, water refinement.

As for whether there were cultivators of other spirit roots who created other refinement methods in this world, such as lightning, wind, earth, etc., one could only say it was possible. He didn't dare say absolutely not, after all the world was so vast.

But in this little corner where Qin Ran was, he had never heard of any.

It was still that reasoning - everyone knew wet nurses were important, but who didn't want to be that awesome warrior at the front? Able to fight and take hits.

If you had a gold spirit root, why not go practice the sword?

Probably only a silly girl like Li Shiyin would take a top gold spirit root and go learn alchemy.

The disciple was silly, it couldn't be helped. Taking on a disciple like this, the master could only try to remedy things.

No Golden Refinement Method? Then create one.

Fire refinement used fire to burn away impurities. Water refinement used water to extract essence. Then how should Golden Refinement work?

Perhaps Golden Refinement could take a middle path - grind metals into a liquid state, then use fire refinement to remove impurities.

Qin Ran thought and wrote, feeling this method could work.

If Li Shiyin practiced a golden elemental object control technique, using that to control metal powder, using the metal powder to grind away impurities and obtain the medicinal essence...

The idea and framework were there, next he needed to design the cultivation route map.

Gold elemental techniques didn't have the effect of grinding and purifying ingredients. To make it have this effect, he could make it follow the cultivation route of a fire refinement technique.

That was to say, one could cultivate two techniques. First guide the heaven and earth spiritual energy according to the gold elemental technique, turning it into personal golden elemental power. Then guide that golden elemental power according to a fire elemental technique, obtaining a fire-natured golden elemental power.

But doing this would bring about many, many problems. First was the issue of requiring two spirit roots to cultivate two techniques, while Li Shiyin only had the gold spirit root. Next was the issue of cultivation efficiency and technique conflict that needed attention.

After scribbling half the night, these problems were still not thoroughly solved. Even the spirit root issue was still minor. Technique conflict was the big unsolvable problem. In the end, Qin Ran only obtained a preliminary idea.

He put away his brush. On the paper was a sketch of controlling golden sand. On the desk were technique references, mostly sword control techniques. He raised his head and looked out the window. The night was very deep now. In the distance, the sounds of birds and beasts could be heard from the forest.

He narrowed his eyes, considering other plans. Even under him, Li Shiyin could still learn the sword. Maybe better than Sword Peak, because Sword Peak had too many people, resources were limited.

It was just that Qin Ran was still hesitating, mainly over whether it was worthwhile, after all he had only taken this disciple for two days.

The next two days, Qin Ran didn't make Li Shiyin recite ingredients anymore, but gave her a basic sword technique to practice on her own. Because he saw that this was a failing student - one look at books and she'd fall asleep.

And unsurprisingly, she really was silly. Have her read and she'd fall asleep in three minutes. Have her practice the sword, and she'd be excited, even forgetting to eat. With just two days of practice on a basic sword technique, she could already perform it properly.

If not for the short time, without condensed qi cyclones, Qin Ran felt she could've condensed sword qi in two days.

That morning at breakfast, Qin Ran glanced up to see Li Shiyin happily popping sugar beans into her mouth, completely complacent. He was a bit speechless. This girl had cried and screamed to come learn alchemy, but now she was here practicing sword every day, extremely happily.

Hmm, so it was still that question, why did he think she was a cool beauty?

"I'm going to the Master Peak today. Write down anything you need on a paper and I'll bring it back for you," he said. "Oh right, can you sew clothes?"

Li Shiyin stirred her cup with a spoon, mumbling shyly, "Father made me learn before."

From her manner, it meant she couldn't. Qin Ran expressionlessly said, "Write down your measurements. I'll have someone custom make them."

"Okay!" Li Shiyin agreed very readily, then asked, "Master, can I go with you?"

"You're too slow. Coming and going would waste too much time," Qin Ran replied.

"You're walking there too, aren't you?" Li Shiyin questioned. "I can keep up."

Qin Ran's eyebrow twitched slightly. Could it be she had exposed his fear of heights? But he was the master after all. His expression didn't change as he rumbled, "I'm using the Divine Walk technique. My speed will be very fast."

"Oh!" Li Shiyin nodded disappointedly.

"When you condense your qi vortex, you can start learning techniques. At that time if you learn a flight technique or divine walk technique, you'll be able to freely come and go between Dan Peak and Master Peak," Qin Ran said.

Li Shiyin was unhappy and slumped over the table, feeding herself sugar beans.

"Since you're home alone today, I'll arrange a task for you," seeing her manner, Qin Ran spoke up.

"What is it?" Li Shiyin didn't seem very interested.

After breakfast, Qin Ran brought her outside. Following along the creek, they walked to the middle of the front lawn. He pointed around them and said to Li Shiyin, "I want to build an artificial lake here. I could do it myself with techniques, but to temper you, you will dig this lake."

"You want to build an artificial lake here?" Li Shiyin was shocked. What's more, did she mishear - she had to dig it alone!?

"I told you, cultivation is a process of becoming stronger. Why is the foundation establishment stage called foundation establishment? It's a stage of laying foundations. During foundation establishment, the more spiritual power you accumulate, and the purer, the better the gold core formed. The stronger your physique, the faster you can gather spiritual power, purifying it more, and the easier it is to break through boundaries, greatly benefiting your future cultivation," Qin Ran said expressionlessly. He definitely didn't have any intention of retaliation.

"So you will dig this lake, of course you can use techniques and empower yourself with spiritual power, but you cannot use tools or pills."

Master seemed serious...

"Master?" Li Shiyin spoke pitifully.

It had only been a few days and she was already acting cute and fawning! This evil unorthodox influence must be stopped!

Qin Ran's heart was like iron stone, completely ignoring the pitiful act of Li Shiyin. He raised his hand pointing to the storage room, and coldly said, "Tools are inside the storage room. Start now!"

Having said that, he silently activated the Divine Walk technique and swiftly disappeared into the forest path, not giving himself a chance to change his mind.

Li Shiyin sighed up at the sky, then resigned herself to her fate.