“Living Elixir Technique?!”
The female disciples below immediately began murmuring among themselves. Only those who had advanced directly from Lingyue Chuzong remained calm, already familiar with the Living Elixir Technique.
In her past life, Mu Yanxi had known that the Daoist Sect distinguished between internal and external alchemy, and that some Demonic Cultivators could devour a cultivator’s inner core.
She never expected Lingyue Palace to actively use internal alchemy as a method of pill refining.
“Everyone, calm down. Let me explain the benefits of the Living Elixir Technique. First, it requires no alchemy furnace, alchemy room, or fire vein—only your own body to refine pills.
Second, it doesn’t require expensive materials; you can produce priceless treasures. Third, it doesn’t waste your time; you can nurture the living elixir while doing other things.” Qiongdann Laoren smiled.
He had basically already stated these benefits before, when Shangguan Yun explained them. Hearing them again, Mu Yanxi felt it sounded better than it was.
It was true that there were no hard requirements—but how could pill refining happen without fire?
Earlier, he had mentioned that what was needed was the cultivator’s heart fire. That meant cultivators practicing the Living Elixir Technique still had to expend mana to fuel the heart fire.
“It doesn’t interfere with other tasks,” but the process of nurturing the living elixir actually amounted to constantly cultivating the inner core, which itself was a hindrance to one’s cultivation.
And the claim about needing no materials was utterly impossible. If one didn’t consume external substances, they would have to pour all their essence, energy, and spirit into the inner core, turning themselves into a living elixir.
Finally—and most importantly—if one painstakingly refined such a living elixir and then swallowed it themselves, it would be meaningless.
It was already a process of cultivation; taking a detour only wasted effort. If they extracted it for someone else to consume, they would simply be making a wedding dress for another. What was the point?
But Mu Yanxi could deduce this because she had Nascent Soul Stage knowledge and had practiced pill refining in her previous life.
The other female disciples had no idea about this crucial point. They felt Qiongdann Laoren made perfect sense and eagerly awaited him teaching the Living Elixir Technique.
“First, you need to learn the heart fire technique. ‘Mingtang kidney water enters the Huachi; Chonglou liver wood ignites the heart fire.’ Only with this heart fire technique can you refine the living elixir,” Qiongdann Laoren began his instruction.
What he taught was an improved method based on internal alchemy, treating the five organs as the Five Elements: using kidney water to generate liver wood, and liver wood to ignite the heart fire, then using the heart fire to refine the inner core.
Such a basic technique—Mu Yanxi didn’t even need her immortal brain to master it easily. Disciples like Shangguan Yun and Wei Ling, who had trained in Lingyue Chuzong before, had long since learned it.
The remaining disciples tried, and most succeeded quickly. After all, they were elite class Qi Refining disciples. Only a small portion seemed to need more time to grasp the essentials.
Qiongdann Laoren displayed none of the airs of a senior Magnificent Truth Stage expert. He walked down from the platform, pointed his finger at his own chest, and guided their mana to ignite the heart fire.
This scene made everyone feel that the old man was a gentle, patient, and tireless teacher. Many girls’ affection for him skyrocketed.
Next, Qiongdann Laoren continued explaining the refining method of the Living Elixir Technique.
From this point, it differed from internal alchemy. Internal alchemy was ultimately the method to form a golden core—unifying essence, energy, and spirit into a single golden core. If one extracted the inner core, the cultivator died.
Since the purpose of the Living Elixir Technique was to refine a pill, it couldn’t possibly use the cultivator’s own essence, energy, and spirit—or at least only a tiny amount.
Moreover, women were inherently deficient in essence, so a substitute was necessary.
Sure enough, after explaining, Qiongdann Laoren brought out a basket of black berries and said:
“These are Blackberry Langya Fruits. Their nature is warm and mild, making them the most suitable foundation for a living elixir. Take one each, consume it, then purify its medicinal properties and condense them into a pill embryo. That’s the first step.”
“Without external aids, it really is impossible to repeatedly refine a detachable living elixir—unless the cultivator doesn’t value their life. In the end, you still need to swallow spirit herbs and spiritual medicines.”
Mu Yanxi thought, ‘As expected.’
“This… can we really eat it? How many spirit stones per fruit?”
Some female disciples from less affluent families looked at the basket of spiritually imbued Blackberry Langya Fruits and asked uneasily.
“Of course it’s free. This is a necessary expense for teaching. You’ve all paid tuition; how could I charge you again? Eat your fill, one each. If you fail, you can have a few more,” Qiongdann Laoren said with a smile.
He really did make it sound better than it was.
Mu Yanxi sneered inwardly. According to the Living Elixir Technique, a living elixir refined from purified medicinal properties was worth dozens or even hundreds of times the raw material. How could the sect begrudge a few decade-old spirit fruits?
Moreover, a quick search of the Dao web would show that Blackberry Langya Fruits had no direct medicinal effect on cultivators.
Their only use as medicine was to serve as a pill embryo foundation, harmonizing other spiritual medicines. In other words, they were a base.
This prevented the disciples from overindulging, since eating them would be useless anyway. The sect was really shrewd.
The female disciples stepped forward one after another, swallowing the Blackberry Langya Fruits.
Then Qiongdann Laoren began teaching them how to separate the medicinal essence from the waste, how to purify the properties, and how to condense the active components into a pill embryo.
He was indeed a Grandmaster of Alchemy. Every step was explained in simple terms, and every alchemical term was clarified clearly. Even Qi Refining disciples could understand.
Soon, a female disciple shouted excitedly:
“I did it! I refined a pill embryo! It’s floating in my heart fire!”
“Well done. Learn from her. As a reward for being first, take this Jade Zhi root. Try to purify its medicinal properties and refine them into your living elixir.”
Qiongdann Laoren took out a slice of jade-colored root cut into rounds.
The girl said eagerly:
“Yes, teacher!”
She swallowed the jade root and began separating and purifying the medicinal properties. This process was essentially the same as purifying the Blackberry Langya Fruits earlier, relying on the cultivator’s powerful digestive ability.
And though it was called a reward, the girl gained almost nothing.
Not to mention that the effective components of the Jade Zhi root were mostly refined into the living elixir; the truly valuable thing was a thousand-year Jade Zhi. The root was mere leftover scraps—not even fit for use in a proper furnace.
If it had any real value, they wouldn’t be giving it to disciples to practice the Living Elixir Technique.
It was hardly better than recycling waste.
Now it was Mu Yanxi’s turn.
After Yu Qiuyu swallowed a Blackberry Langya Fruit before her, she said with a smile:
“Interesting, truly interesting. This is worthy of Lingyue Palace’s Living Elixir Technique.”
Mu Yanxi also swallowed one.
For someone who had already formed a golden core and knew pill refining, refining a living elixir was child’s play. She had planned to just coast through this lesson.
At that moment, the immortal brain spoke:
“Would you like to learn the complete Living Elixir Technique?”