Chapter 682 - 581: Refining the Elixir of Immortality
Chapter 682: Chapter 581: Refining the Elixir of Immortality
Fifty years later.
Jeming put down the "Principles of Soul Stabilization" in his hand and rubbed his temples.
The complexity of the longevity drug was even higher than he expected.
The bodily part was easier to handle—cell biology, histology, organology—he already had a foundation in these areas.
But the soul part was difficult.
Soul stabilization, Sea of Spirit stability, the connection between consciousness and the body...
Each branch of this knowledge could take an ordinary person a lifetime to learn.
"But I’ve already grasped the basics of this knowledge. Next, I can try using the Entropy Brain."
Jeming picked up a light blue crystal from the side, examined it for a few seconds, and then pressed it to his forehead.
Light spots surged in.
The knowledge absorbed but not yet fully digested in his mind began to automatically organize and archive.
Half an hour later, Jeming opened his eyes, feeling refreshed.
Various pieces of knowledge connected with each other and even linked with what he had obtained on the Information Plane, allowing him to quickly grasp the entire knowledge system’s structure.
This thing was truly a cheat artifact.
"It’s almost time to try a practical test..."
Jeming stretched lazily and sent a message through the Magic Network Terminal to the Black Giant Priest below.
A few minutes later, Jeming stood before the lab table, seventy-three kinds of materials neatly arranged on a metal platform in front of him.
"Is everything ready?"
He asked without turning his head.
A Black Giant Priest behind him bowed and said, "According to your list, everything is prepared. Each material has been verified three times, and the purity meets standards."
Jeming nodded, gazing over the materials.
The dried petals of the Longevity Flower, a pale golden color, emitted a faint soul fluctuation.
The root of the Condensing Soul Grass had to be cut with a wooden knife to maintain its activity.
The powder of the solidification crystal, ground to nanoscale, was used to stabilize structures.
And seventeen different biological glandular extracts, each representing a specific biological function—metabolism, division, energy transformation, information transmission...
Jeming took a deep breath.
He had prepared for today for fifty years.
Although the first phase of the Daoist Soldiers system wasn’t complete, he felt his knowledge reserve was sufficient.
He knew the refining method of the longevity drug by heart.
Theories about the body, soul, and elemental balance were already second nature to him.
It was time to begin.
"Leave. No one is to disturb me."
"Yes."
The Black Giant Priest exited, the heavy metal door closing silently.
Jeming was left alone in the laboratory.
He raised a hand and drew in the air; a faint golden light shield enveloped the entire laboratory, soundproofing and isolating energy fluctuations to prevent accidental explosions from affecting the outside.
He then walked to the lab table, closed his eyes.
When he reopened them, his gaze was clear and focused.
"Begin."
He lifted his right hand, lightly touched the Longevity Flower petals with his forefinger.
Spiritual Power ventured in.
The petals slowly floated in mid-air.
Jeming’s Spiritual Power, like a intricate web, enveloped all the petals, arranging their internal structures in a specific order.
"The essence of life forms is the fusion of matter and energy."
He muttered, his voice echoing in the empty laboratory.
"And the carriers of matter and energy are elements."
He raised his left hand, and the root of the Condensing Soul Grass also floated gently.
Under the penetration of Spiritual Power, the internal structure of the root became apparent.
Under Jeming’s control, the floating petals and root began to "fuse."
But fusion wasn’t a simple mixing.
Jeming’s Spiritual Power, like an invisible carving knife, engraved specific runes on each cell of the plants.
Those runes controlled how the cells connected, dictated what kind of structure they would form after combining, and ultimately, what kind of effect they could achieve.
Essentially, it was treating the two materials as if refining a Witchcraft Artifact.
The Longevity Flower provided the trait of "longevity"—the limit of cell division infinitely extended, DNA replication with no errors.
The Condensing Soul Grass provided the trait of "stability"—the soul would not wane, consciousness would not become chaotic.
The two traits had to be perfectly combined to form the basic framework of the longevity drug.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Jeming’s forehead.
This level of operation required an astonishing amount of Spiritual Power and Calculation Power.
Without the help of the Fate System, he couldn’t have lasted three minutes.
Golden light flickered at his forehead, and the Fate System operated at full capacity.
The massive calculation tasks were distributed, processed, optimized.
The connections between those light spots were undergoing tens of thousands of micro-adjustments per second.
Time passed by the minute, by the second.
When the two clumps of materials fully fused into a mass of pale golden light, Jeming finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The first step was complete.
He didn’t rest and immediately began the second step.
Seventeen glandular extracts simultaneously flew up, suspended around that mass of pale golden light.
These extracts came from different organisms, some from a type of lizard that could regenerate limbs, some from a turtle species that lived over a thousand years, some from a microorganism that could withstand extreme environments.
Each extract represented a "biological function."
Jeming’s Spiritual Power split into seventeen strands, penetrating those extracts simultaneously.
"The essence of the longevity drug is not a magic potion, but a Witchcraft Artifact that can integrate with the human body and continuously exert its effects."
Jeming recalled the definition of the longevity drug in his mind: "So although it’s called a ’drug,’ it doesn’t belong to Magic Potion but rather Alchemy. After taking the longevity drug, the user undergoes a biochemical transformation, allowing them to obtain the functions these materials offer."
His spirit was tinged with fatigue, but his hands didn’t stop moving.
"Directly transplanting these glands would cause rejection. These biological glands must be transformed into actual rune structures to exert their effects continuously."
The seventeen extracts simultaneously turned into light spots, with each light spot stripped of its original biological imprint under the influence of Spiritual Power, leaving only the core ’functional element structures.’
Then, Jeming began blending these core element structures’ runes into that pale golden fundamental framework.
This time, the fusion was several times more challenging than the first step.
Each function had its unique frequency, its specific mode of operation.
Once they entered the fundamental framework, they had to find appropriate positions, coexist harmoniously with their neighbors, avoiding conflicts, avoiding interference.
Jeming felt as if he was building an extremely intricate castle of blocks.
Every single block had to be placed in exactly the right position, every layer perfectly aligned.
Just a little off, and the entire castle would collapse.
The load rate of the Fate System was climbing steeply.
71%... 78%... 85%...
Time seemed to have frozen.
Unsure how long had passed when the final functional light integrated into the framework, that pale-golden glow suddenly trembled violently.
Jeming was startled.
No, this isn’t right!
He instantly realized—the balance between functions had been disrupted.
The last functionality integrated clashed with one of the earlier ones, causing the whole structure to start collapsing.
"Damn it!"
Jeming immediately cranked the power of the Fate System to the maximum.
At the same time, Spiritual Power surged in wildly, forcibly isolating the two conflicting functions.
This was an extremely crude method, wasting a lot of materials, but at present, it was the only way.
The flood of Spiritual Power helped stabilize the glow temporarily.
Jeming seized this precious moment, his Spiritual Power weaving countless fine threads between the two conflicting functions.
These layers of isolation, made of pure Spiritual Power, could temporarily block their mutual interference.
Then, he began fine-tuning.
The frequency of the two functions was repeatedly adjusted until they no longer interfered with each other, and instead began to produce a subtle Resonance.
When the Resonance reached a certain critical point...
Boom!
The glow abruptly expanded, then sharply contracted.
Jeming’s eyes widened.
Was it a success?
As the glow dissipated, a dragon’s-eye-sized elixir floated in mid-air.
The entire body was pale-gold, its surface flowing with faint light patterns, and within, an intricate structure could be faintly seen, slowly operating.
A Long-Life Elixir.
Jeming reached out to catch it, feeling the warmth emanating from his palm, his lips slowly curling up.
"It’s done..."
Although this thing might be considered defective because a lot of materials were wasted during Refining, causing its effects to last only three hundred years.
But, it was still done in the end.
Fifty years of study had finally led to this moment.
Yet, before he could relish the success for long, a violent tremor suddenly emerged from the depths of his Sea of Spirit.
Jeming’s expression changed, immediately introspecting.
Within the Sea of Spirit, the Ring of Truth was spinning furiously.
The three models representing core Witchcraft—All-Purpose Eye, Alchemy, Extraction Technique—were all trembling violently.
Among them, the model representing Alchemy suddenly began disintegrating.
Jeming’s pupils narrowed.
No, it wasn’t disintegrating—it was "reorganizing."
The runes comprising the model peeled off one by one, wandering through the Ring of Truth.
They collided and fused with other runes within the Ring of Truth, then returned to their original positions, reassembling into a new structure.
The entire process lasted a full quarter of an hour.
When all was calm again, Jeming discovered that his Alchemy Model had completely transformed.
It had become more complex, more intricate, more dynamic.
Originally just a fixed sequence of runes, it now seemed like a living entity, gently breathing within the Ring of Truth, each breath inhaling and exhaling massive amounts of Spiritual Power.
"What is this..."
A realization surged within Jeming’s mind.
His Alchemy had advanced.
From ordinary Alchemy to genuine "Life Alchemy."
"Did this really happen?"
Jeming couldn’t wait to try out his new ability.
His gaze swept across the laboratory, finally landing on a metal ingot in the corner.
It was common metal material used for routine experiments.
Jeming pointed his finger.
Spiritual Power surged forth, and the iron ingot was instantly enveloped by a glow.
Under the influence of Spiritual Power, the ingot began to morph.
Its atomic structure was forcibly altered, various base elements were rearranged, and various organic substances were created.
Proteins, fats, sugars, cell membranes...
A few seconds later, the glow dispersed.
The iron ingot had vanished, replaced by a fist-sized chunk of meat.
Red muscle tissue, white fatty textures, even a faint hint of a bloody aroma.
Jeming peered closely, a satisfied smile emerging on his face.
Yet before he could celebrate for long, the chunk of meat began to collapse.
The muscle tissue lost its elasticity at a visibly fast rate, the fat began liquefying, the entire chunk of meat resembled being doused with thick sulfuric acid, rapidly sinking into a murky puddle.
Jeming paused, then shook his head helplessly.
"Alright, even though Alchemy has evolved, my own skills still lack refinement..."
The reason for the meat’s collapse was simple: structural instability.
The cells hadn’t formed a complete tissue structure, the tissues hadn’t formed an intact organ system.
They had merely been crudely piled together, devoid of Life Energy.
"Though the direction is right."
Jeming gazed at the liquid puddle, eyes gleaming with excitement.
The new Alchemy indeed could create living substances.
He just wasn’t adept enough, his knowledge slightly insufficient.
But as long as he continued to learn, continued to research, someday, he’d be able to genuinely create Life.
True Life.
Jeming withdrew his gaze, looking down at the Long-Life Elixir in his hand.
The pale-golden pill rested calmly in his palm, warm and steady.
He chuckled, storing the elixir in a container, then turned to leave the laboratory.