Death Dan

The Longevity Pill was ultimately a pill for extending life and longevity, so the pill formula Qin Ran first devised contained health-boosting ingredients like Centennial Ganoderma lucidum, Thousand Year Ginseng, and Ten Thousand Year Deer Antler.

According to his idea, extracting and combining the medicinal essences of these spiritual medicines could achieve a stacking effect, breaking through the category of health supplements to achieve the goal of prolonging life.

Thus, he prepared the medicinal materials and headed straight for the pill condensation chamber, though not the Earth Flame Chamber. Because the Longevity Pill was critically important, he decided to use his specialty of water refinement methods instead of fire refinement.

Upon entering the pill condensation chamber, he took out the Nine Provinces Cauldron and placed it at the exact center of the chamber.

Stepping in front of the cauldron, Qin Ran took out all the medicinal materials he had devised for the Longevity Pill recipe and threw them into the Nine Provinces Cauldron. Then he placed his hand on the cauldron, closed his eyes, and simultaneously unleashed his magic power, alchemical water, and spiritual force.

He activated the Nine Provinces Cauldron with his magic power to aid extracting the medicinal essences and increase the pill formation rate. He used the alchemical water to separate each type of medicinal material, enveloping them individually to prevent mixing. He manipulated the process with his spiritual force, while simultaneously undergoing the first step of water-based pill refinement – extracting the medicinal potency.

The first step of fire-based pill refinement is to burn away impurities with alchemical fire (or earthly fire if alchemical fire is unavailable), leaving only the essential medicinal potency. Water-based pill refinement, on the other hand, uses alchemical water to extract the medicinal essence from the materials, leaving the impurities behind.

The two methods each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and their refinement steps differ drastically due to the different methods.

Qin Ran was using water-based pill refinement, but his technique was extremely crude. This was thanks to his powerful spiritual force and sufficiently proficient pill refinement ability, allowing him to extract all the materials in one go like this.

Just look at Long Qiqi – carefully and gingerly adding the materials one by one, with the amount and timing needing prudent consideration. That is the normal pill refinement process for ordinary alchemists.

Because being even a little careless could lead to major issues in the second step of pill refinement.

The second step is fusing the medicinal potency to form a nascent pill. For fire refinement, the pure extracted medicinal essences are fused based on the medicinal configuration of the pill being refined. For water refinement, the essences are contained within the alchemical water, so the waters must be combined, also following medicinal configurations.

Fusing the medicinal essences requires extremely meticulous technique. The smallest deviation could ruin the entire pill. Adding the materials individually distributes that step across the first step for each addition, allowing opportunities for adjustment and damage control.

Whereas such crude refinement like Qin Ran’s allowed little margin for error... Without sufficient spiritual power, failure would be guaranteed.

Having extracted all the medicinal essences, Qin Ran hurriedly amplified his spiritual output to begin fusing the pill.

For a novice like Long Qiqi, extracting the potency might be the hardest part of pill refinement. But for a veteran like Qin Ran, fusing the pill was the most critical step.

One can reach a peak of extractive ability through enough practice before too long. But fusing pills is a different story, requiring treating each refinement as a completely new experience due to differences in materials and extraction efficiency every time.

Despite Qin Ran’s spiritual power being strong enough and his power control finely tuned, he still had to cautiously make multiple adjustments before producing nascent pills for three “Longevity Pills”.

The nascent pill from fire refinement is the fused medicinal configuration, so amplifying the fire at that point can instantly complete the pill. But the water refinement nascent pill is the medicinal essences enveloped in alchemical water. The water must first be removed to obtain the finished pill.

Can you see? Fire refinement has a harder early phase while water refinement has a harder late phase.

Fire refinement risks burning the materials during the process. Water refinement risks destroying the nascent pill when extracting the water.

Despite Qin Ran’s formidable spiritual power, extracting the alchemical water while protecting the nascent pills still required utmost care. It was the most time-consuming part.

Eventually, three dark green pills spun inside the Nine Provinces Cauldron.

Gazing at the spinning pills, Qin Ran could not help feeling excited... Not so much from refining a successful Longevity Pill. Simply that every time he refined a new pill, he could scarcely contain his thrill, like welcoming new life.

Taking two deep breaths to settle his raging heart, he reached out his right hand to take the pills. Eyeing the obedient pills in his palm, he picked one up with his left hand and brought it to his lips, wanting to test the effect of this “Longevity Pill”.

Yet before it touched his lips he halted.

Using himself to test pills was still too dangerous and reckless, even if this Longevity Pill was refined from supplement ingredients.

At this moment Qin Ran was struck by the desire to nurture “guinea pigs” again. But he did not know beast control, so cultivating appropriate guinea pigs for cultivation was still too difficult.

He pondered briefly before putting away the pills and heading out of the research building.

It was late night and Danfeng Mountain was pitch black darkness.

Qin Ran wandered Danfeng until finally stopping at Sword Washing Lake. He peered into the water then fished up a fish and forced open its mouth to stuff in a “Longevity Pill”.

“For this treasure, you can count yourself fortunate,” he remarked with a shake of his head.

He then marked this fish for easy monitoring of its prolonged lifespan beyond normal limits.

With such late night hours after pill refinement, Qin Ran also felt tired and headed straight to bed.

The next day, while he was still fast asleep, he was suddenly awakened by Chasing the Wind's noisy bellowing, "Dad! Dad! Bad guy! Bad guy!”

Squinting blearily, Qin Ran irritably got out of bed and marched into the corridor.

At the foot of the corridor on the lawn below, Chasing the Wind ran over, about to leap onto the corridor. Seeing Qin Ran emerge, he halted and stood on three paws, raising one claw to point at Sword Washing Lake, crying, "Dad! Over there, fish!"

Sword Washing Lake? Fish?

Qin Ran was instantly alert and quickly flashed over using his movement technique.

Wow!

What a scene from hell!

The original Sword Washing Lake had clear waters, misty surface, fish and shrimp playing beneath, plus various small aquatic creatures purchased by Danfeng residents, lotus blossoms, aquatic plants. Its banks were lush with grass, flowers and trees, the fruits of half a year's efforts by Danfeng people to create this beautiful lake view.

Yet now the waters were pitch black, noxious green miasma rising, all creatures dead and floating atop the surface, fish turned belly up. Even the trees Qin Ran had planted himself were somewhat withered.

Surveying the utterly appalling scene of devastation, Qin Ran fell into contemplation...

Could he have been infected by Long Qiqi's touch?!

"Dad, bad people! Bad people!" Chasing the Wind scampered about, searching for the intruder who had trespassed Danfeng Mountain.

Qin Ran sampled some lake water and sure enough detected yesterday’s pill concoction.

He gazed skyward in silence.

Long Qiqi's poison pills were tailored to her specific physique so that they were poison to others but fine for her. Yet this "Longevity Pill" Qin Ran had refined...

Qin Ran now had to suspect he had been the one influencing Long Qiqi instead.

With Chasing the Wind running elsewhere for now, Qin Ran quickly collected the lake water into the Nine Provinces Cauldron, then took out another pill to ponder.

"No! Master! Please no!" Suddenly a clear cry like a baby's rang out. Qin Ran looked toward the voice to see the Devouring Demon Willow desperately swaying its branches pleadingly.

It seemed this tree knew everything, so to preserve his dignity as the boss of Danfeng, did Qin Ran need to silence it permanently?

In the end there was no murdering to keep secrets.

Qin Ran returned to the research building and refined several more batches of these pills.

Such extremely lethal concoctions brewed from beneficial spiritual medicines yet showing no outward signs of danger were simply the cultivation world’s equivalent of untraceable poisons that “show no color or flavor before sealing the throat at first blood”!

...Qin Ran treasured away the pills, naming them “Death Notice Pills”.