Shaping the stone took some time.
Ban Wan’er spent a full hour carving the boulder into a shape that could barely be called a pot. It was more like a hollow.
At the hour of moonlight divination.
Ke Li Nü took out the Silvermoon Grass from his bosom.
The silver-white leaves emitted a faint shimmer in the dim cave, like a sliver of moonlight.
Ban Wan’er moved the stone pot deeper into the cave and stood respectfully to the side, waiting for the Senior’s next instruction.
He placed the spiritual herb next to the stone pot, then brought some dry firewood from outside the cave and stacked it under the pot.
Ban Wan’er blinked.
‘Is he… going to start a fire?’
Her mind couldn’t help but conjure images of her senior fellow apprentices on Alchemy Peak refining pills. Bronze alchemy furnaces engraved with intricate array patterns, earth fire surging from the furnace base, spiritual qi overflowing, and the scent of elixirs wafting.
Every time they lit the furnace, it was accompanied by various supernatural phenomena, either brilliant rays filling the sky or rumbling thunder.
But the Senior before her simply crouched on the ground, using the most ordinary flint to strike a fire.
Crackle.
Sparks landed on the dry grass, slowly igniting the kindling.
Orange-red flames leaped up, illuminating Ke Li Nü’s expressionless face.
Ban Wan’er’s lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she swallowed her words.
‘This Senior isn’t refining pills at all; he’s clearly just making a fire to cook.’
But she dared not question him, so she just watched quietly.
Ke Li Nü placed the Silvermoon Grass into the stone pot, then fetched some clear water from the mountain stream outside and poured it in.
The water covered the leaves, and the silver-white luster spread through the water.
The fire grew stronger, and the water in the stone pot began to emit small bubbles.
The Silvermoon Grass leaves slowly unfurled in the water, and a clear, cool spiritual qi rose with the steam, filling the entire cave.
Ban Wan’er took a deep breath.
‘Just smelling this medicinal fragrance makes my spiritual power circulate more smoothly.’
But the confusion in her heart only deepened.
‘Can this really refine a pill?’
Although she had never studied the Alchemy Path in the sect, she knew that refining pills required an alchemy furnace, spiritual fire, formations, and precise guidance of spiritual power.
This stone pot, this ordinary fire, these things…
‘How could they possibly refine a spiritual herb!’
Yet Ke Li Nü’s face still betrayed nothing.
He sat cross-legged in front of the stone pot, eyes slightly closed.
The flames cast dancing shadows on his face, making it seem even more profound and unfathomable.
The Silvermoon Grass was melting.
Starting from the edges of the leaves, it gradually turned into silver light particles.
Those particles floated in the water, rolling and rotating slowly with the current, like a miniature galaxy.
Ban Wan’er held her breath.
Although she didn’t understand alchemy, she could sense how pure the spiritual qi within those silver particles was.
That wasn’t ordinary extraction of medicinal power; it was stripping away every strand of lunar essence that the Silvermoon Grass had absorbed over a hundred years, without missing a single bit.
And the Senior…
He did nothing at all.
He just sat there with his eyes closed, as if asleep.
But the fire under the stone pot seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, sometimes vigorous, sometimes weak, completely changing with the water temperature and the medicinal power.
To achieve this required a level of control over the heat that she couldn’t even imagine.
‘How did he do it?’
Ban Wan’er’s heart pounded.
She suddenly realized that she was witnessing a true alchemy session.
This was the most ancient, purest form of alchemy, one that tested the alchemist’s own skill the most.
Using the earth as a furnace, and all things as fuel.
The Senior wasn’t boiling medicine.
He was using the simplest method to demonstrate the origin of the Alchemy Path.
Ban Wan’er’s eyes felt a little hot.
She remembered what the Senior had said earlier.
Cultivation cultivates not the technique, but the heart.
Those alchemists who rely on furnaces and spiritual fire cultivate “technique.”
But the Senior cultivates the “Dao.”
[Ding! Target Ban Wan’er’s Fantasy Value toward the Host has skyrocketed!]
[Current Fantasy Source switched to: Ban Wan’er]
Ke Li Nü’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
He actually hadn’t been controlling the heat at all.
He had just thrown the Silvermoon Grass into the pot, lit a fire, and sat there spacing out.
As for why the fire went up and down, or why the Silvermoon Grass turned into silver particles…
He had no idea either.
Probably this spiritual herb was just like that.
Anyway, the Eternal Alchemy Sutra was running automatically; he just needed to sit here and leave the rest to the System.
But Ban Wan’er seemed to have imagined something incredible again.
Ke Li Nü glanced at the line of ever-increasing Fantasy Value prompts on the System Panel without changing his expression, and nodded inwardly.
Time passed little by little.
The water in the stone pot had turned silver-white.
Those silver particles gathered more and more, slowly converging toward the center of the pot’s bottom.
The Lunar Essence was condensing.
It was only one step away from forming the Moon Essence Liquid.
But for this step, ordinary fire was no longer enough.
The Eternal Alchemy Sutra gave a clear prompt in Ke Li Nü’s mind:
Lunar Essence is yin, while ordinary fire is yang. Boiling yin power with yang fire can extract the medicinal power, but cannot truly fuse them.
To condense those scattered silver particles into a liquid required a more powerful force.
Ke Li Nü opened his eyes, glanced at the silver particles suspended in the stone pot, then at the System Warehouse.
The Taixu Life-Protecting Bead.
The description was very clear:
No spiritual power required to activate; automatically takes effect when worn, can withstand a full-force attack from a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.
And the Eternal Alchemy Sutra had just conveyed another piece of information to him:
The core of the Taixu Life-Protecting Bead is a strand of Taixu Qi.
Taixu is undifferentiated chaos, before yin and yang are separated.
This power is inherently capable of harmonizing yin and yang, precisely the key needed for the Moon Essence Liquid to take shape.
Ke Li Nü took out the Life-Protecting Bead.
The moment the bead appeared, the entire cave suddenly brightened.
That nail-sized bead displayed an indescribable luster, as if it contained an entire universe within.
What truly shook Ban Wan’er was the aura emanating from the bead.
Although she didn’t understand alchemy, she understood magic artifacts.
As a direct disciple of the Great Phoenix Immortal Sect, she had seen no small number of artifacts.
The high-grade artifacts in the sect’s treasure vault, though she couldn’t use them, she had at least seen them with her own eyes, even touched them herself.
But compared to this bead before her, those artifacts were like fireflies next to the bright moon.
Ban Wan’er’s legs even felt weak.
‘What level of treasure is this?’
‘Spiritual tool? Dharma treasure? Dao treasure?’
‘Or the legendary…’
She already dared not continue thinking.
Ke Li Nü suspended the Taixu Life-Protecting Bead above the stone pot.
The bead rotated gently, and a faint, almost imperceptible strand of Taixu Qi dripped from the bead into the silver-white medicinal liquid.
In that instant.
The silver particles in the stone pot seemed awakened by some power, madly converging toward the center.
Countless particles collided and merged.
The silver-white light grew brighter and brighter, illuminating the entire cave like daylight.
Gurgle—
Ke Li Nü’s stomach suddenly growled.
The sound was not loud, but in the quiet cave, it was especially clear.
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Nearly a whole day and night had passed since the last bowl of Yangchun Noodles.
Although he was now a Golden Core True Person, he was still essentially a mortal body that needed to eat.
Not eating for a day was really hungry.
But a Senior must not have his stomach growl from hunger.
Ke Li Nü’s brain raced.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at Ban Wan’er, who was sitting there in a daze.
“Wan’er.”
Ban Wan’er snapped back to attention:
“Senior, what are your orders?”
“Venerable Self needs to warm and nourish the spiritual liquid here. It will take half an hour.”
Ke Li Nü said calmly.
“During this half hour, you will do one thing.”
Ban Wan’er immediately sat up straight:
“Senior, please instruct.”
“Your aptitude is acceptable, but you have one weakness.”
Ban Wan’er’s heart tightened:
“Please enlighten me, Senior.”
“Your understanding of mundane matters is too shallow.”
“…”
“True cultivation is maintaining a steady Dao Heart in any environment. You have cultivated for over a decade, yet you have never truly come into contact with mundane affairs. That is a flaw.”
“The cultivation Venerable Self gives you is very simple.”
“There are wild beasts in the forest outside the cave. Go hunt one, bring it back, and personally slaughter, clean, and roast it. From beginning to end, you must not use spiritual power or techniques. Only your hands are allowed.”
Ban Wan’er blinked.
‘Hunting?’
‘The Senior wants her to go hunting?!’
Her mind was in a mess.
But the Senior spoke with utter seriousness, every word carrying weight.
‘Perhaps…’
‘It really is that her cultivation is too shallow, and she can’t fathom the Senior’s profound intent!’
“Yes, Senior.”
Ban Wan’er stood up and respectfully bowed.
“I’ll go right away.”
She turned and walked toward the cave entrance.
When she reached the entrance, her steps suddenly paused slightly.
‘Wait.’
‘Is the Senior deliberately trying to get rid of her?’
‘Is the next step something inconvenient for her to see?’
‘Right, it must be!’
‘So in the Senior’s eyes, she is not yet qualified to observe the subsequent alchemy process.’
Ban Wan’er bit her lip, withdrew her gaze, and quickly walked into the forest.
Inside the cave.
After confirming that Ban Wan’er’s aura had completely faded away, Ke Li Nü immediately slumped down.
He collapsed onto the ground and rubbed his protesting stomach.
“Half an hour. By the time this girl gets back, I should just about have some hot roast meat to eat.”
Ke Li Nü licked his lips, sat back down cross-legged, and continued preparing to refine the spiritual liquid.