Three days later, a middle-aged cultivator arrived at Ning Fa's home.
He wore cultivator robes with gold patterns on a black background. His build and appearance were ordinary.
However, his gaze was sharp, and he exuded a strong aura of killing intent.
This caused Ning Xiuying, who was also at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, to show a flicker of apprehension in her beautiful eyes.
"I am Wu, sent by the young lady to deliver ten sets of Three Yuan Pill spiritual materials. Another ten sets will be delivered in ten days," the man said expressionlessly to Ning Fa. He handed Ning Fa a storage bag and left without another word.
Ning Xiuying watched his retreating figure, seriousness flashing in her eyes. She said solemnly, "This is one of Miss Wei's subordinates."
Ning Fa nodded, recognizing him as well.
He was one of the subordinates brought by Wei Shiqin of the Xudong Merchant Guild when she inspected the Red Coral Stone waters that day.
He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Sister Xiuying, you are both at the seventh level of Qi Condensation. Do you think you could defeat him?"
Ning Xiuying slowly shook her head. "I'm likely not his match. Judging by the killing intent he emits, I fear he has killed quite a few cultivators. Such people are usually exceptionally skilled in combat. I estimate only the elite disciples of our family's Blood Wind Hall could possibly defeat him."
"Blood Wind Hall..."
Ning Fa's eyes narrowed slightly.
He had heard a little about this mysterious branch of the family. It was said that only family disciples who were exceptionally skilled in combat were recruited into it.
They underwent rigorous training, and the members of the hall were far stronger than cultivators of the same level. They were specifically tasked with carrying out secret missions or tackling difficult objectives for the family.
For example, hunting down family traitors, or eliminating Calamity Cultivators who had offended the Ning Family.
They might even be responsible for wiping out small factions that refused to comply.
It was a force that made many Calamity Cultivators, rogue cultivators, and small families in Thousand Wave Lake tremble at the mere mention of it.
Ning Fa's heart stirred.
In reality, he possessed the Great Five Elements Thunder Body and a top-tier lightning cultivation technique, but he had a fatal weakness: a lack of combat experience.
He was like an unpolished jade, needing to be honed. If he were to fight Wei Shiqin's subordinate now, he would likely be defeated quickly.
Ning Fa had made up his mind. After the alchemy competition was settled, he would focus on improving his combat experience while continuing his cultivation.
After all, cultivation and strength were the foundation. Without the strength to protect himself, even the most brilliant alchemy skills would leave him at the mercy of others.
A look of determination flashed in Ning Fa's eyes. He then greeted Ning Xiuying and returned to his alchemy room. After activating the Guardian Spirit Array, he did not emerge again.
Inside the alchemy room.
Ning Fa did not immediately begin refining the Three Yuan Pill. Instead, he held the jade slip containing the pill formula and fell into deep thought.
He had carefully studied the formula over the past three days and had a preliminary understanding of it.
Although he hadn't started refining the pill yet, judging by the description of the formula alone, he knew it was extremely difficult, not comparable to the Essence Replenishing Pill. The difficulty had likely increased by at least fivefold.
For instance, the Essence Replenishing Pill required seven processing steps for its spiritual materials, while the Three Yuan Pill required sixteen. Each additional step didn't just add difficulty linearly; it increased the difficulty of all the preceding spiritual material processing steps.
The hand seals for extracting spiritual grass also increased from twenty-four for the Essence Replenishing Pill to forty-nine. This wasn't the total number of hand seals to be performed, as many seals had to be repeated. The entire spiritual material extraction process required around three hundred hand seal repetitions, compared to just over a hundred for the Essence Replenishing Pill. Furthermore, there were strict requirements for the timing between each hand seal; even a slight deviation could lead to impurities in the extracted spiritual liquid, resulting in a failed pill.
This was only the first step, spiritual material extraction. The subsequent stages of pill nurturing, pill formation, and furnace opening were even more challenging, with each step becoming progressively harder. Every stage required performing more hand seals than the spiritual material extraction. Any unqualified operation would prevent the formation of a usable pill, and even a failed pill would be a luxury.
This was also why mid-to-high-tier Pill Masters were so rare. It was a highly technical skill, especially when the spiritual materials for high-tier pills were very scarce.
Ning Fa's brows furrowed, and his eyes shone with fervent fighting spirit. Difficulty brought challenge, and he relished this feeling.
He sat cross-legged on the cushion and began simulating the refining steps of the Three Yuan Pill in his mind. Simultaneously, his hands moved ceaselessly like a spinning wheel, sending various colored hand seals into the air.
A faint white light appeared above his ceiling, like a net, intercepting these hand seals. While the Guardian Spirit Array's defensive capabilities were average, these alchemy hand seals lacked significant offensive power, so the array could naturally block them without issue.
For the next few days, Ning Fa spent all his time simulating alchemy, except for the two hours he slept each day.
During this period, his mana consumption was naturally very high, as he was practicing hand seals almost non-stop.
This was also why cultivators had to reach the corresponding cultivation realm before they could begin refining pills of that rank.
The mana and spiritual sense consumed during alchemy were immense, and those with lower cultivation realms simply lacked the ability to sustain it.
However, this was where Ning Fa's advantages came into play.
Firstly, he practiced a top-tier cultivation technique, the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture, and had cultivated five Lesser Thunder Sources.
In terms of total mana, he surpassed even many late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators.
Furthermore, the quality of the silver mana within him was exceptionally high.
This meant that the consumption when he performed hand seals was significantly lower.
Additionally, after advancing to the Qi Condensation mid-stage, his spiritual sense strength directly increased to about ten zhang, reaching the level of a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator.
This was sufficient to meet the demands of alchemy.
At the same time, possessing the Great Five Elements Thunder Body made his spiritual energy perception astonishing, and his mana recovery speed was equally remarkable.
For instance, when Ning Fa consumed mana from his body.
Even without meditating or taking pills to restore spiritual energy, his body would automatically recover mana at a not-slow pace.
It was as if he had taken a mana recovery pill.
This ability for his body to automatically recover mana became significantly apparent only after Ning Fa advanced to the Qi Condensation mid-stage and underwent bone cleansing and marrow purification.
Later, when Ning Fa consumed mana to refine pills, he discovered this ability, which naturally sent him into a state of ecstatic joy.
He once again deeply felt the might of his Great Five Elements Thunder Body.
This ability was not only extremely useful in combat.
It was also remarkably effective during his alchemy, saving him a considerable amount of time that would otherwise be spent meditating to recover mana.
After all, even with ample mana recovery pills, one couldn't take them indefinitely, as pills developed resistance, and their efficacy would diminish with overuse.
On the eighth day, Ning Fa felt he had a good grasp of the process and began the actual extraction of spiritual materials.
He planned to extract the spiritual liquid from each material one by one, using the scroll to trace its origin and repeat the extraction process.
His goal was to become extremely proficient in extracting every single spiritual material.
Using this method, he skillfully mastered the extraction of the first two spiritual materials.
However, when extracting the third spiritual material, a spiritual flower called the [White Jade Flower], he misjudged the interval while performing a hand seal.
This White Jade Flower directly exploded, scattering into countless droplets of juice, which then quickly evaporated and vanished without a trace.
In this situation, Ning Fa could only stare helplessly, as the scroll could no longer trace its origin.
He had no choice but to use other White Jade Flower spiritual materials.
It wasn't until he used the fifth portion of White Jade Flower spiritual material that he managed to barely extract it into spiritual liquid.
Then, through continuous tracing with the scroll, he continued until he had mastered it.
In this manner, over nearly ten days, Ning Fa mastered the extraction methods for all ten-plus types of spiritual materials.
The most difficult material to extract was the main ingredient, the [Mist Spirit Flower].
If there was even the slightest carelessness during extraction, this spiritual material would directly turn into a mass of white spiritual mist and disappear without a trace.
In such cases, even the scroll was powerless.
Ning Fa had to use the tenth portion of the spiritual material before he could barely master the extraction method for this flower.
At this point, Wei Shiqin's subordinates delivered another ten portions of spiritual materials for the Three Yuan Pill.
Ning Fa's confidence soared, and he began the true pill refining stage.
Every day, he would refine pills, then fail.
Then he would use the scroll to trace the spiritual materials, review and summarize his experiences, and then start a new round of pill refining.
He forgot about time, forgot about the outside world, and even forgot about his scheduled competition with Ning Ruiming, completely immersed in the world of alchemy, unable to extricate himself.