96:

  Xiao Feng’s expression reflected the stress he was under as he pursed his lips, his jaw clenched tightly as he drew his left hand outward so it formed a claw-like shape with the tips of his Wind Qi shielded fingertips still making contact with the pill furnace’s side.

  With his thumb serving as the anchor, his fingers began to move in an undulating, wave-like motion, curling inwards with the index finger leading the charge with the others sequentially following, before his pinky finger initiated the retreat outwards, pulling back in an inverted order.

  Using the rhythm of the pattern he was building as a reference point, Xiao Feng began to build the two spirals of Wind Qi that would serve as the base of the weave. With the Essence Cultivation Art active, he could see as clear as day the semi-refined mixture of three potent ingredients rise upwards through the makeshift tubes the two Wind Qi Spirals were serving as.

  Xiao Feng hurriedly slowed down the tempo of the undulating pattern he was weaving with his fingers and with it, he managed to reduce both the speed he was building the weave at and the suction being generated by them.

  Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Xiao Feng watched as the two spirals of wind grew closer to each other and braced himself for the first intersection. The two streams of the semi-refined mixture met and parted in what felt like the blink of an eye, with no adverse reactions to be found.

  A relieved sigh escaped Xiao Feng as he continued building up the spirals in lockstep with the undulating motion of his left hand’s fingers, watching with bated breath as the two spirals intersected for a second time and then a third. So far, the process was going as well as it had in practice sessions, mostly because he had taken Lianhua’s advice to heart and wasn’t trying to imbue his Qi on every step of the refinement, especially not one as tricky as building up the initial weave.

  It was the fourth intersection Xiao Feng had to brace himself for and it arrived sooner than Xiao Feng wanted it to. Still, that didn’t stop him from slapping his left palm against the side of the pill furnace with more vigour than needed, causing the two recently intersected spirals to bloom outwards into an outward sloping umbrella of wind that the refining mixture slid down, returning to the bottom of the pill furnace and beginning the process anew.

  The twenty-fifth cycle of the weaving technique arrived and went and keeping his focus intact for as long as he had caused Xiao Feng’s robes to be drenched in sweat. Still, he could see inconsistencies in the refining mixture, patches where Qi was too dense or too diffused for him to call the method a success. Even his version of the kneading technique, where he targeted each lump with a mini whirlwind of Wind Qi that would break it down, could not work on impurities as small as the one he was dealing with, let alone patches where the Qi appeared to be too diffused.

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  So he had no choice but to persist with the weaving technique, even as it far exceeded the number of cycles he had practiced for.

  It took a total of thirty four cycles for the mixture of three ingredients to be refined.

  Xiao Feng lowered the heat of the amethyst dragonstone burner to allow himself a breather.

  Then he began to imbue unattuned Qi into the refining mixture, upping the intensity to a third of what he had on his first refinement attempt.

  Five minutes later, Xiao Feng reached for the jar that contained the Cloud Moss, an ingredient that would make the pill irresistible to any newly hatched spiritual beast.

  Shielding the mixture proved to be no challenge as Xiao Feng caught it mid-air with a layer of Wind Qi, but even his best efforts could do little about the quick rate the soft, malleable moss dissolved upon making contact with the heated mixture.

  Unlike the Qi Rich Pearl Orchid Bulb, the Qi density of the Cloud Moss could be described as modest at best, which meant that Xiao Feng didn’t need to worry about the mixture destabilizing as much as he normally would.

  Of course, when the Cloud Moss was fully dissolved into the refining mixture, there were inconsistencies introduced, but a majority of them were patches were the Qi density was weaker than the surrounding mixture.

  Once again, Xiao Feng needed to use the weaving mixture, but he was well aware that if he kept trying to push himself to the number of cycles required to remove all inconsistencies, his concentration would fizzle out before the pill refinement reached its end.

  So he could either proceed with the inconsistent mixture and hope that being heated further would result in a homogeneous mixture or he could try something riskier.

  Unsurprisingly, Xiao Feng chose the latter.

  If his concentration wouldn’t last until the end of the weaving technique’s cycles, then all he needed to do was make the cycles quicker.

  There was a very real chance that his efforts would quite literally, blow up in his face, but Xiao Feng had known from the very beginning that if he was to refine a pill without the years of experience it normally required then he would have to exploit every advantage his essence cultivation art could offer him and seek advantages even beyond that.

  This is one of them, He thought. An advantage that I need.

  His fingers moved and for a few minutes, Xiao Feng felt like he was a maestro directing a masterful symphony of classical music as he pushed the weaving method to a speed that was nearly fifty percent faster than before.

  Eight cycles later, a panting Xiao Feng diffused the weave he had built, staring wide eyed at the pill furnace before him.

  “Are you alright?” Lianhua asked, her tone concerned.

  Xiao Feng just took another greedy mouthful of air in as he nodded, his attention not leaving the pill furnace even for a moment.

  The inconsistencies were gone.

  A shiver of excitement ran down his spine as he realized that he had refined the fourth ingredient into the mixture and not a single impurity was visible to his essence cultivation art empowered eyes, as the homogeneous pool of Qi glimmered with a radiance that he had never seen Lianhua’s refinement reach.

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