"Whoosh!"
The flames in Long Chen's hand surged rapidly, the raging flames like billions of fire dragons, enveloping the Qiankun Cauldron. The flames shot straight into the clouds, burning a huge hole in the sky.
Long Chen had no choice but to go all out. Refining so many pills at once, if the heat wasn't right, particles would appear when the powder turned into liquid. Once the particles appeared, the batch of pills would become a complete mess, making it impossible to refine pills again.
"Buzz buzz buzz... The
powder inside the Qiankun Cauldron instantly turned into medicinal liquid and began to boil. The cauldron locked the liquid tightly, preventing any aura from leaking out, causing the power inside the cauldron to surge rapidly.
At this moment, Long Chen's soul power erupted, wildly pouring into the alchemy cauldron, continuously suppressing the pill's strength. As Long Chen's strength pressed down, the medicinal liquid began to resist.
The greater the pressure, the stronger the resistance. Soon, waves of conscious power began attacking Long Chen's soul power—one after another, two or three times... In an instant, nine hundred and ninety-nine consciousnesses awakened. They began absorbing the power of the medicinal liquid to strengthen themselves, while simultaneously attacking Long Chen's soul power.
They burned like clusters of flames, burning madly. Logically, no matter how they burned, their power would soon be completely burned away.
But alchemy requires the spiritual energy between heaven and earth to continuously flow into the alchemy cauldron, and the power consumed by burning it is all the power of heaven and earth.
Their source power is never consumed at all, because they absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, making them grow stronger and stronger.
"Boom boom boom... Inside
the furnace, nine hundred and ninety-nine flames surged, like a giant fireball trailing its tail, rolling relentlessly and relentlessly attacking Long Chen's soul.
At this moment, Long Chen was like a chef; his soul was like a spoon, constantly stirring the fireballs inside the Qiankun Cauldron. He couldn't let them attack each other and kill each other, nor let them merge to fight him.
These 999 fireballs needed to distribute all the energy in the pill furnace evenly. Any pill could be neither too much nor too little, or it would become unbalanced. Once this imbalance occurred, the pill would explode, or even the furnace would explode.
So, usually only nine pills per batch are used. On one hand, 'nine' is the number of destiny, which is usually the limit of a pill cultivator's control. On the other hand, if nine pills are destroyed, the cultivator still has hope of survival. There are too many pills, and if something goes wrong, their life could be lost.
Moreover, alchemists all know that accidents during pill refining are quite normal; it has little to do with personal skill. Even the strongest alchemists would never dare to claim that every batch of pills would succeed without fail.
Take Long Chen himself, for example. He possesses the memory of a Pill Emperor, and his alchemy skills are unrivaled, never having met a worthy opponent. Yet even so, Long Chen still makes mistakes.
To put it more broadly, the Qiankun Cauldron is one of the ten great chaotic artifacts, and when it paired with Huo Ling'er, it even experienced pill explosions.
In the words of the Qiankun Cauldron, the failure of pills is sometimes related to personal fortune, changes in the laws of heaven and earth, and the laws governing the universe. Even it cannot be helped.
Therefore, no matter what level of pill cultivator one has, as long as they are refining pills—even the most familiar ones—one must focus wholeheartedly and not dare to be careless.
"Rumble rumble... The
fireballs inside the furnace surged fiercely. Long Chen's expression grew grave, his soul power surging, not daring to be careless, constantly stirring the fireballs while observing their changes to prevent them from attacking or merging with each other.
"Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish; understanding the Dao is like refining an elixir. Have you ever thought about what you are in the world inside this alchemy furnace? What are those fireballs? What are those medicinal liquids? What are your hands?" Qiankun Cauldron said.
Long Chen's heart stirred. The words of the Qiankun Cauldron were a reminder to him. At that moment, he suddenly remembered what the Lord of the Pure Institute had said.
If this pill furnace is the Nine Heavens World, then these 999 fireballs represent 999 races? Faction? Dimension?
The medicinal liquid is the source that nourishes them, and the hand of his soul is the law that balances this world? So what about me? Is it really the Sovereign?
If I were the master, my goal was to devour them, but they didn't realize that the seemingly balanced world was actually controlled by someone else alone.
"One-handed control?"
Long Chen suddenly thought of himself. If he was also one of these nine hundred and ninety-nine pills, could it be that his own power had caused the world to become unbalanced, and that giant hand wanted to eliminate him?
"Boom!"
"Not good!"
Long Chen cried out in alarm. In that moment of distraction, three fireballs merged together. After merging, they formed a massive fireball. When Long Chen's soul power touched it, it actually dodged his soul's hand. He charged straight at the other fireballs.
Those fire orbs thought they were attacked and launched a counterattack, but were instantly absorbed, and the fireball grew even larger.
"It's over."
When the fireball devoured six fireballs, Long Chen sighed. It had devoured too many fireballs. If he destroyed them, the medicinal power they absorbed would be withdrawn.
But if nine pills are missing, the other pills have to split their medicinal power equally. Although there are 990 pills, if the power of nine pills is split equally, the impact of each pill is minimal.
But alchemy is like this—even the slightest influence can ruin all your previous efforts. Otherwise, why would you need to precisely control the dosage before refining?
Even if he tried to win them back now, it would be meaningless. Even if he eventually formed a pill, the quality of the pills wouldn't be good. Long Chen simply ignored them and quietly watched, since the Qiankun Cauldron wouldn't explode anyway.
When Long Chen's soul hand withdrew from the Qiankun Cauldron, without his intervention, the fire orbs immediately went berserk. Some began to frantically devour the medicinal liquid, others attacked other fire orbs, and to Long Chen's shock, several fire orbs had actually gathered together, seemingly discussing something.
"This ..."
This scene left Long Chen stunned. Previously, these fire orbs had at most only consciousness, but when Long Chen's large hand withdrew, the pills seemed to give birth to intelligence.
Long Chen even saw several fireballs hiding in corners, neither fighting nor absorbing the medicinal liquids, quietly observing everything around them like spectators.
"When your soul power is inside the cauldron, everything inside is under your control. You intervene in the Heavenly Dao, interfere with the laws—or rather, you are the Heavenly Dao, you are the law.
But when your soul power withdraws, this is a microcosm of this world. Do you remember the Heavenly Dao that sweeper told you? "The Qiankun Cauldron said.
"The Way of Heaven knows neither its beginning nor its end; None know its origin, nor its source; Its greatness has no outside, its smallness has no internal ....
I understood now: the world has no big or small, no cause or source, no inside or outside. The so-called big and small, inside and outside, is just our way of understanding.
From what I see here, the furnace is just a space inside. If I am one of the light orbs within it, then the pill furnace is the whole world..." At that moment, Long Chen gained a new understanding of the Heavenly Dao. When Lord Jingyuan spoke, Long Chen was still confused. Now, with the reminder from the Qiankun Cauldron, Long Chen instantly understood.
"Boom!"
At that moment, a sudden change occurred inside the pill furnace.