Chapter 0127 - Bottleneck
The first time refining the Building Foundation Dan, Chen Xiang failed. However, he found out it was indeed true that the difficulty in refining the Building Foundation Dan was similar to that of a High-Grade Spirit Level Dan, and ten times harder than the refinement of the True Elemental Dan and the White Jade Dan. Though he failed completely while refining High-Grade Spirit Level Dans, but he had accumulated experience from them. And regarding control he had gained a lot of experience or else he would not be able to refine using the Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace for more than an hour, and that was equivalent to half of the refining process.
If it was someone else, in the absence of the herbs for refining a High-Grade Spirit Level Dan, they absolutely would not try to refine a Building Foundation Dan. Even if they wanted to refine a Building Foundation Dan, they would first refine a Low-Grade Profound Level Dan. If those alchemists came to know that Chen Xiang was using so many herbs for the Building Foundation Dan unprofitably, they would definitely scold Chen Xiang to death.
For these material, it could be said that Chen Xiang simply had no shortage of them, just give him some time, and he would have as much as he needed. As long as a seed was left with him, using the [Dragon Saliva Exercise] he would be able to grow a large amount of it. Just take the Azure Profound Fruit for example, he had not even taken a full month to grow twenty of them!
In addition to learning how to refine the Building Foundation Dan, Chen Xiang also created Dragon Saliva. Because he feared that his current materials were not enough for refining a Building Foundation Dan.
Bit by bit time passed, and in the blink of an eye twenty days passed, while refining the Building Foundation Dan. Chen Xiang had already failed more than fifty times, and he was now only left with eight set of herbs.
"The Building Foundation Dan is a little bit harder than the White Jade Dan and the True Elemental Dan, and I feel I like I’ve almost succeeded!" At this time Chen Xiang was somewhat excited. After experiencing several failures, he had managed to grasped a bit of something, and it was exactly that subtle feeling.
Su Meiyao had already passed down her experience to Chen Xiang, allowing Chen Xiang to pay some attention regarding some important points which could allow Chen Xiang to take less detours!
In this case, Chen Xiang was step by step getting closer to successfully refining the dan. Now he was finally at the most crucial step of solidifying the dan. He was confident, and if he was successfully able to refine the Building Foundation Dan, it would be much more handy when he once again went to refine the True Elemental Dan and the White Jade Dan.
The Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace was radiating a blood red light, and from time to time a hot Qi would surge out from it. Both of Chen Xiang’s hands were placed on the two places on the Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace dedicated for hands, which allowed the alchemist to pour the flames, True Qi and divine sense in.
At this time in Chen Xiang’s mind there was a sea of fire, where multitudes of spirit herbs were being baked by the flame at varying temperatures. He was slowly transforming them into powder, overflowing with colorful Spirit Qi, while the Spirit Qi drifted at the top, which were tyrannical as well as trubid. Chen Xiang used his divine sense to squeeze them together, for fusion and purification!
At the same time he also started integrating those herbs transformed into powder in the sea of fire, and he could not allow any of them to be even a little bit burned, or else it would fall short. This was the test of an alchemist’s divine sense.
The flames were burning in the Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace for ten day and ten nights, but outside it was just past half an hour, even so, those herbs had not even completely fused!
As the time went by, Chen Xiang was already drenched in his sweat, but his True Qi was very vigorous, so he was not worried about his True Qi consumption, but currently the consumption of his divine sense was very formidable and this was because his divine sense had to take into account many powders, while at the same time he also had to appease various violent herbal Spirit Qis as he fused them together!
Chen Xiang, using his divine sense, had already squeezed all of the various powders transformed from the herbs, and those colorful tyrannical herbal Spirit Qis had already calmed down and gradually started fusing. Now it was the most crucial step which was to, in one breath, make the herbal Spirit Qi and the herbal powder fuse, and then solidify the dan. In this process there was no room for a single mistake, and if the Spirit Qi was not enough, or made even a little bit of herbal powder disperse, then everything would be for nothing.
Chen Xiang had failed many times at this process!
Herbal Spirit Qi and herbal powder fusion. Chen Xiang using his divine sense slowly cemented a dan from the herbal powder, Chen Xiang at this time dropped a drop of Dragon Saliva, and began to enter the final phase of solidifying the dan. Before he had failed dozen of times at this final moment and the furnace had exploded.
The Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace was slightly trembling, and sweat was dripping from Chen Xiang’s face like rain while his eyebrows were tightly knit together, his complexion was also somewhat pale. At this time he could clearly see that the Building Foundation Dan, which was about to solidify in the Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace, had fiercely started shaking, and it looked like it would explode at any time.
Su Meiyao’s beautiful hands were holding a silk towel tightly, anxiously watching Chen Xiang, and Bai Youyou’s ice cold and bright pretty eyes were also open wide, with a look of encouragement in her eyes looking at Chen Xiang!
"Would I fail once again? This has already happened to me more than ten times, is it this is my bottleneck? The bottleneck of my spirit! My divine sense is not enough, so I need to breakthrough!" Chen Xiang thought, and at this time all his divine sense was almost dried up, but he still needed to continue.
Usually, divine sense still occupied a pivotal position, such as some martial arts required very high divine sense. Divine sense was also required to gather True Qi outside the body, otherwise True Qi would scatter. But in such cases, there was enough divine sense. However, when forging weapon and refining dans, such as alchemists refining some relatively high level dan, or refiners engraving lots of spirit veins on spirit weapon, when the divine sense was not enough, that would lead to failure!
If martial artists completely depleted their divine sense, it would be the same as an energetic man without any spirit, unable to play out any strength of his body!
Or they would even fall in a state of drowsiness. Chen Xiang had now consumed his divine sense to his limit, but also didn’t know by virtue of what he was able to sustain!
He felt he was about to fall down so Chen Xiang operated his [Tai Chi Subduing Dragon Divine Exercise], and controlled the vigorous True Qi in his body, making the True Qi madly impact the meridians, so that his whole body was covered in endless pain, so that he could stay awake. At the same time he exercised his power to fuse his True Qi and spirit to quickly condense out divine sense!
Chen Xiang tortured his own body till blood was overflowing, mixing with sweat on his body, exuding a strange stench. Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou both knew Chen Xiang’s reason for doing so.
"Do not force yourself! Give up!" Su Meiyao faintly sighed, and gently said. She could not bear to see as Chen Xiang continued his self-mutilation.
Give up? Chen Xiang knew if this time he was not successful, not only would he fail refining the Building Foundation Dan, but also he would be unable to breakthrough his own bottleneck!
When he remembered Elder Dan using her superior might against him, he had no power to resist, and he remembered Liao Shaoyun humiliating him, trampling his dignity, he told himself, in any case if he wanted to become stronger he had to endure! He needed to refine out the Building Foundation Dan, and this was the only way possible for him advance to the True Martial Realm in a short time
Not only was Chen Xiang currently sweating, but he was still bleeding, and in order to keep himself awake, he continued the self-mutilation of his own body!
Chen Xiang gradually lost consciousness, but his subconscious, continued to condensed out divine sense, constantly pressing on that restless Building Foundation Dan in the Brilliant Flame Dragon Furnace.
Unconsciously, Chen Xiang suddenly felt losing the sense of his own body, and no matter how he tortured himself, he was unable to feel any pain. Chen Xiang suddenly awakened, however, he found himself in a space full of white light, and this was shocking for him. He also saw an infant inside this space, very small, like a newborn baby, and this infant had his eyes closed, looking very cute.
Suddenly, that baby opened his eyes, and Chen Xiang was fiercely startled, because what this baby could see, he was also seeing!
The baby smiled to him, and Chen Xiang also left the bizarre space, again returning to the state of alchemy. He surprisingly found out that his divine sense was actually very abundant, and many times more powerful than before. It was as if he had not consumed any of his divine sense before.
Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou also felt something strange, and they originally thought Chen Xiang was giving up, but saw Chen Xiang’s raised mouth, exposing a trace of confident smile.
Just a moment passed by and Chen Xiang opened his eyes, raised his head and insanely laughed, "Ha ha... I have refined Building Foundation Dan!"