Tempered Immortal

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After achieving the fourth layer, Lin Xuan was also faced with a problem. The effect of the Purifying Essence Pills was greatly reduced, thus making his cultivation once again rise in difficulty and slowing down.

It’s no surprise that cultivation would become harder and harder the further one went, and so with Lin Xuan’s increase in skill, low-grade Purifying Essence pills just weren’t enough anymore.

Per common sense, it was possible to make up for the poor quality by increasing the quantity, however, the problem lied with the limit of nine pills per day, thus not allowing him to overcome quality with quantity.

Lin Xuan, after some careful consideration, finally decided that the next step would be to once again try and purify beyond low-grade.

Since according to the ancient texts, it only stated that Purifying Essence Pills can only be taken nine times a day, but it did not specify a specific grade of the pill. In other words, since he was able to consume nine low-grade pills a day, he should also be able to eat nine pills of a higher grade per day.

Since the low-grade pills were unable to meet his requirement, then, of course, the only option was to increase the quality. Although Lin Xuan had tried once before to purify a low-grade in the past, he found it difficult and eventually failed.

The situation now was different. The last time he tried he was only at the second layer of the Spirit Condensation Stage and he was now at the fourth layer of Spirit Condensation Stage. Since the blue lights are synchronized with his spiritual power’s growth, the amount of blue lights he now possessed was also much greater. Although Lin Xuan couldn’t say for certain whether or not he had enough to purify further, the only way to find out if it was possible or not was to try and see.

After finally making his decision, Lin Xuan began to prepare, deciding to first take a short break so that his spiritual power and blue lights could be restored to their best condition.

Lin Xuan then sat down cross-legged, poured out a low-grade Purifying Essence Pill from a jade bottle, held it in his hand, and used his Spiritual Sense to begin observing for any changes. It also grew greatly along with Lin Xuan’s cultivation.

Of course, his Spiritual Sense was still nothing compared to that of those legendary cultivators who were said to be able to spread their Spiritual Sense over hundreds of miles. However, as far as Lin Xuan was concerned, that had nothing to do with him.

The priority now was to purify a mid-grade pill.

Thinking this, Lin Xuan began to circulate the blue lights, causing the blue lights to gather together, converging into a blue ribbon before moving along his meridians. This process which was once very difficult can now be considered to be relaxing, as Lin Xuan had by this point purified thousands of pills, and practice does make perfect. Along with the improvement of his skills, his meridians were also a lot stronger than before, having more endurance, so the process truly no longer felt awkward.

Eventually, the lights moving along his meridians reached his wrist and began to enter the pill in his hand.

Immediately, Lin Xuan’s consciousness entered the pill, magnifying the scene several times in his mind, giving Lin Xuan a clear view of the essence and impurities in the pill. He carefully controlled the speed of the blue lights, allowing them to slowly enter into the pill as the purification began. Lin Xuan watched as the blue lights slowly began to move the impurities.

This process was very difficult because the impurities were usually tied closely with the essences contained within the pill, making it very hard to separate the two. However, the blue lights were able to do so, as they simply passed right through the essences and only affected the impurities.

Unfortunately, the impurities in a low-grade pill and a trash pill were very different, as, in a trash pill, the impurities are more spread out into a sort of powder, and thus easy to push out. But the impurities in a low-grade pill were in a thick, semi-liquid form and so it was much harder to separate them from the essence.

Similarly, the size of the impurities is also much bigger than those in a trash pill, taking about three times the amount of blue lights to achieve the same result as it would in a trash pill. The last time the purification failed because the amount of blue lights that Lin Xuan possessed was not enough. But there was now a larger amount of blue lights now, allowing the process to run through to its end.

It was also impossible to interrupt the purification process, meaning that he couldn’t purify half of it today, and then try again the next day. The blue lights only allowed for success or failure, as there was no way to re-purify the pills which were partially purified.

Due to his previous experiences, Lin Xuan predicted that with his current volume of blue lights, his current chance of success should be at about seventy percent, given that there were no unexpected accidents.

So far, although it could be said that Lin Xuan had a lot of experience in regards to purifying pills, as this was only his second attempt in purifying a low-grade pill, Lin Xuan was still not completely sure of the results.

However, even if this failed, Lin Xuan still owned a large number of low-grade pills. He would be able to try again and build up more experience, and slowly increase his success rate, just as he did with purifying trash pills. In addition, unlike at that time, he was not starting from scratch, so his success rate should not be too low.

Having mentally prepared himself thus, Lin Xuan was no longer afraid of failure and boldly continued the purification.

At first, there were no issues. The impurities in their semi-liquid state were being steadily pushed out, although it required more energy, it looks to be sufficient.

But as the impurities were gradually separated from the essence and pushed out to the edge, they stop moving further, refusing to be pushed out.

How could this happen?

Such a situation never occurred when purifying trash pills. Lin Xuan frowned as he began to think it over, but he did not panic, as that wouldn’t help anything.

Using his Spiritual Sense to focus on the edge of the pill, Lin Xuan saw that the edges of the pill were blocked with the liquid.

“I see,” Lin Xuan maintained the flow of blue lights as he analyzed the situation, the impurities in a trash pill were are in a powdery form, so pushing them out was easy. But a low-grade pill was already purified, and the impurities were semi-liquid and thus too big to fit through the small openings, making it difficult to push out.

That has to be it!

Translated by: James1kd2

Edited by: UnderTheMoon