Book 2 - Fame Spreads - Chapter 22.1 - Engendering Techniques

“Ha…..”
The furnace blazed, increasing the temperature of the room. However, Xie Zhien and the two attendants evidently seemed accustomed to it, not feeling troubled at all.
Xie Mingjin’s body was dripping with sweat. He’d already drunk two big jars of water but to no avail.
He Yiming, on the other hand, was attentively watching their every movement, as if committing all of their actions into his memory.
Actually, He Yiming’s emotions were quite aroused at the moment. Before opening the furnace, Xie Zhien had told him that to become a distinguished alchemist, one needed to possess exceedingly high innate talent. This talent, in addition to possessing a high comprehensibility about medicines, also referred to an imperative possession of fire and wood- these two types of Internal Energy attributes.
Of course, if you possessed three kinds, even among the alchemists, you would be seen as an extremely rare kind of alchemist and would be deemed as a pioneer of alchemy.
Be it Grand Extension country or various countries of northwest, all of the reputed Xiantian alchemists were at least fire and wood dual-attributed, powerful characters. As for the three attributed alchemists, their success rate in refining was beyond comparison.
This introduction naturally moved He Yiming.
Suddenly, Xie Mingjin, who stood beside him, spoke in a low voice, “Brother He, are you getting it?”
He Yiming blankly turned his head and honestly said, “No.”
Xie Mingjin was quite surprised as he asked, “Were the books I left for you not detailed enough, or you actually didn’t read them at all?”
He Yiming whispered, “I have read them, but couldn’t quite understand.”
Indeed. The dao of alchemy was a unique subject. He Yiming could understand the written characters independently, but the words, phrases, and sentences they constituted had simply gone above his head.
After copying, He Yiming flipped through the pages again and again but still couldn’t get the gist of it and had no choice but to leave it alone.
Xie Mingjin blankly stared, then smilingly said, “I understand. Take out your stuff, I will teach you.”
He Yiming was thrilled and immediately took out the copies. While he was copying, he’d specifically separated the parts pertaining to the refining process with that of recipes. Thus, at this moment, his hand only held a tiny amount of pages.
Xie Mingjin had the fortune of being born into the Xie family. He’d been in contact with these things since childhood. Although his alchemy lacked far behind his seventh grandfather’s, his basics were quite strong.
After being explained to by Xie Mingjin, He Yiming felt enlightened.
The old man and the two attendants turned a blind eye on their whisperings and treated them like air.
After seven full days, a rich aroma pervaded the chamber. However, currently, alchemy was no longer greek to He Yiming. He immediately understood that the gold core was about to be taken out of the furnace.
Xie Zhien’s movements were as quick as lightning, enough to make anyone wonder how many times had he done this throughout his life. Barely relying on his perception, he could tell the condition of the core in the furnace.
As he eventually opened the furnace, his expression turned exceedingly grave, as if he wasn’t lifting the cover of the furnace, but the entire heavens and earth, causing He Yiming to feel admiration from the bottom of his heart. This was an expression which could only appear on the face of a person who had completely immersed his entire being into a certain occupation.
With a roar, the old man eventually removed the cover.
He Yiming was still sitting wordlessly, but Xie Mingjin involuntarily tensed up. He poked his head out and looked around a few times before his face turned delighted.
Xie Zhien heartily laughed and said, “Youngster, this old man has fortunately not disgraced himself and has succeeded in refining five gold cores.”
He Yiming deeply bowed at him and said, “Elder, may I ask how many times have you performed the refining process of gold cores”
Xie Zhien pondered for a bit, then sighed, “In my entire life, throughout my hundred years, I’ve refined gold cores three times.”
“If you’ve only refined three times, then how can you obtain eighty percent success rate?”
Xie Zhien faintly smiled and said, “Youngster, the dao of alchemy equals to the dao of accumulating experience. If you have performed ten thousand refinings of ordinary pills, you will naturally have eighty percent success rate while refining low level gold cores.”
He Yiming felt aghast, ten thousand times….
He deeply bowed before the old daoist. Although he didn’t say a word, his actions clearly illustrated his heartfelt respect for the latter.
Refining of ordinary pills wouldn’t require seven days, but even if one refining process required one day, it would require about thirty years to complete ten thousand refinings.
He Yiming had nothing but admiration for such determination, such perseverance, and such will power.
Xie Zhien’s was quite satisfied with He Yiming’s behaviour. His vision shifted when he suddenly saw the papers in Xie Mingjin’s hands.
An embarrassed expression suddenly covered the latter’s face before he quickly hid his hands behind his back and revealed an idiotic smile which only made the situation worse.
He Yiming’s face also turned slightly red. This kind of feeling of being caught wasn’t too good.
Xie Zhien bitterly smiled while shaking his head and said as if speaking to himself, “Those recipes in the Gold Core chamber should have been made public a lot earlier.”
He Yiming and Xie Mingjin relaxed, knowing that this old man was intending to turn a blind eye on this matter.
Sure enough, Xie Zhien shifted his vision onto He Yiming and unhurriedly spoke, “I heard from Grace that you wish to hunt a spiritual beast above five hundred years?”
He Yiming grimly said, “Yes.”
“Your age is quite modest and yet you have managed to attain the absolute peak of Houtian realm. Your desire to breakthrough is only natural. However, relying on your strength alone, you might not win against a five hundred year spiritual beast,” The old daoist lightly sighed and said, “For spiritual beasts, five hundred years is a threshold as well. If they managed to pass it, their inner core gains a miraculous effect of transforming Worldly Qi. Refining the inner core and using it to absorb Worldly Qi is the most simple method to enter the Xiantian realm. However, after five hundred years, spiritual beasts can also arouse Worldly Qi, gaining tremendous might. This is undoubtedly shedding their mortal body. If not for a Xiantian realm expert, they are extremely hard to kill.”
He Yiming’s complexion slightly changed. He naturally understood that this old man wouldn’t cheat him. So it turns out that five hundred year spiritual beasts were as strong as Xiantian cultivators. He seemed to have been thinking of these beasts too simply.
The old daoist hesitated for a bit before sighing, “Unfortunately, you are not a dual attributed cultivator. Otherwise, you could have directly entered the Xiantian realm without requiring to use a gold core at all.”
He Yiming’s eyes momentarily brightened before he respectfully asked, “Senior, please advise.”
The old man stroked his long beard and said, “According to the historical texts, the ancient human cultivators didn’t rely on gold cores to breakthrough at all. For most, the tenth layer’s peak was the absolute achievement. However, some Houtian cultivators who mastered two different attributes techniques, which further mutually engender each other, managed to breakthrough the boundaries of Houtian realm and enter the Xiantian realm.
“Houtian techniques that engender each other?” Suddenly, an idea flashed in He Yiming’s mind.
“Correct. Like this old man’s fire and wood techniques, or metal and water…and so on, mutually engendering techniques,” The old daoist solemnly said, “If some genius, talented in two engendering attributes, could also cultivate two peak level Houtian techniques, in that case, at the time when both of these two techniques would reach the tenth layer, he could force one of these techniques to transform such that it could engender the other. If the transformation succeeds, he could automatically absorb the Worldly Qi and make the breakthrough.”