Under Han Li's control, the purple flame sprayed from the dragon heads of the Dao Dragon grew from thin to thick, until it was as thick as a hand. Meanwhile, the Silver Silk Cauldron gradually slowed its rotation and began to tremble slightly amid the flames.
As time passed, wisps of medicinal fragrance drifted from the small cauldron, refreshing the spirit. But Han Li knew that it was still far from the pill's completion. At the very least, he still needed to use more intense earthfire for instantaneous pill condensation. Only then could the pill pellets possibly take shape.
With that thought, the purple flames under Han Li's control grew ever brighter, eventually reaching the thickness of a bowl's mouth and enclosing the entire Silver Silk Cauldron within them. From a distance, the small cauldron had become a huge fireball, while the medicinal fragrance grew increasingly rich.
Han Li knew without guessing that the medicinal powder had begun to condense into pills, so he focused even more intently.
But just then, a muffled cracking sound came from inside the cauldron. Although it was not loud, Han Li's heart sank, and his expression turned somewhat grim.
After hesitating for a moment, Han Li sighed and stopped the earthfire. Then he beckoned with one hand, opened the lid of the still-scalding small cauldron, and leaned over to take a look.
Inside the cauldron lay several pieces of shattered, pale-blue solid matter. They were apparently failed pill pellets from the unsuccessful condensation!
Han Li shook his head, took out a jade box, and placed it on the ground. Then he controlled the Silver Silk Cauldron to tip over and poured the failed pellets into the box before putting it away. Although these were failed pills, they had still been condensed from various spiritual herb powders. Han Li could not bear to throw them away; perhaps they might be useful for something else in the future.
After finishing all this, Han Li returned to the meditation cushion and began meditating again. Only after the Silver Silk Cauldron had cooled completely did he start refining pills once more.
The steps were the same, the raw powders were the same, and the method of controlling the fire was the same. Unfortunately, he still failed at the pill-condensation stage this time.
This time, Han Li's face was expressionless. After adjusting his condition, he silently began the next round.
…
A month passed. Seeing that Han Li had still not come out of the earthfire room, the ugly man was slightly surprised, but even more excited, since this meant he could collect an even larger fee.
After two months, the stone door of Room Eighteen still had not opened. The ugly man was inwardly delighted, but also greatly astonished.
Three months…
After six months, there was still no sign that Han Li would come out. By then, the ugly man's excitement had long since vanished without a trace, leaving only a sorrowful expression and a belly full of unease.
Nearly half a year was not an unusual length of time for pill refining or weapon refining. The ugly man had even seen people stay longer on several occasions.
However, the people who spent such a long time inside an earthfire room were at least Foundation Establishment disciples. He had truly never seen a Qi Condensation disciple like Han Li stay inside for so long to refine pills.
Moreover, a Qi Condensation cultivator's fasting could last only one month. Could it be that this disciple of Elder Li had brought food and drink with him, allowing him to persist until now? The ugly man wondered, full of doubts.
Inside the earthfire room, Han Li sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion, gazing at the more than twenty brilliant blue Foundation Establishment Pills floating before him with a contemplative expression.
These pills were everything Han Li had gained after pouring countless efforts into the past half-year. Obtaining them had been incomparably difficult.
At the beginning, Han Li had been unable to get past the pill-condensation stage during more than twenty consecutive attempts. Watching the failed pills pile up broke his heart. He had nearly given up and planned to learn genuine pill-refining techniques from other pill masters after returning, then try refining Foundation Establishment Pills again. Although that would certainly waste a great deal of time, it would still be better than throwing away the spiritual herbs for nothing.
Yet just as he was about to leave, he had inexplicably set up the cauldron and refined one more batch. This time, as if aided by the heavens, the pills actually condensed. When he opened the cauldron to retrieve them, he miraculously succeeded on the first attempt, obtaining the first Foundation Establishment Pill he had refined with his own hands.
Apart from being slightly smaller, this Foundation Establishment Pill was identical in every other respect to the three pills he already possessed. This greatly invigorated Han Li.
Encouraged by that success, Han Li clenched his teeth, abandoned the thought of returning, and calmed himself to continue.
As it turned out, after gaining that successful experience, Han Li's success rate at pill condensation immediately soared. One out of every three batches he refined condensed successfully. He was even more remarkably talented at opening the cauldron: more than half of the pills could be retrieved successfully on the first attempt. This was something Han Li himself had never expected.
During this period, whenever Han Li began to feel hungry or thirsty, he would take one of the fasting pills he had obtained from the Little Old Man. After eating a single pill, he could persist for another month. This bottle of fasting pills had cost him several hundred-year-old herbs purchased from outside under the pretext of being for someone else. Now, they had happened to come in handy.
Thus, by the time the raw materials in Han Li's hands were completely exhausted, he had obtained an astonishing number of Foundation Establishment Pills. The quantity of these pills far exceeded what he had originally expected.
When he had first heard how difficult pill refining was, Han Li had thought that obtaining seven or eight pills would already be quite good. But judging from the current result, opening a cauldron to refine pills did not seem as absurdly difficult as the cultivation world claimed. Were those pill masters misleading the other cultivators, or did he truly possess a talent for pill refining?
Han Li was rather perplexed.
In fact, Han Li had drawn the wrong conclusion. Pill-refining techniques were actually even more difficult than the outside world proclaimed. An ordinary-level pill master could not be trained without twenty or thirty years and a fortune bordering on astronomical.
Han Li's current skill at refining Foundation Establishment Pills already ranked among the upper tier of ordinary pill masters. The reason such an unbelievable thing had happened was entirely due to his uninterrupted refinement of the same kind of pill for nearly half a year.
One had to understand that even the wealthiest sect could not provide any pill master with ample precious materials every day to refine the same pill, and keep doing so for half a year.
Such a thing might be possible only with the lowest-grade pills. But if they were low-grade pills, why specially cultivate and accumulate experience? The raw materials were inexpensive; if a batch was ruined, one could simply start over.
Han Li did not understand this, so he naturally failed to see the point. After thinking about it briefly, however, he let the matter go, because he had suddenly conceived the idea of swallowing a Foundation Establishment Pill immediately and attempting Foundation Establishment right there.
The thought was so intense that Han Li could not help seriously considering the possibility of entering secluded cultivation in this earthfire room.
…
Eleven months later, the stone door of the earthfire room where Han Li stayed was still tightly shut, without the slightest sign of opening.
On this day, the ugly man stared blankly at the stone door of Room Eighteen, his face filled with sorrow. By now, he was certain that something had happened to Han Li inside. Otherwise, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator should have come out by then.
He was not worried about Han Li himself. What he truly feared was that Elder Li would blame him if something happened to his disciple. Although he was a close relative of Sect Leader Zhong and had been able to manage this place because of that connection, the ugly man knew very well that if Elder Li truly became angry over this, that backer would certainly not stand up for him.
Just as the ugly man was worrying himself sick, a flash of white light suddenly appeared on the stone door before him. The door then opened soundlessly, and a person walked out with a springlike smile on his face. It was Han Li, who had stayed inside for nearly a year.
It took the ugly man quite a while to recover. Then he was both shocked and delighted, and hurried forward several steps, complaining loudly:
"Junior Brother, why are you only coming out now? You should know that if you didn't come out soon, I was going to… Hmm? You…!"
The ugly man had only spoken a few words when his eyes suddenly widened to an extreme degree. He pointed straight at Han Li and stammered wordlessly, as if he had seen a ghost.
"What is it? Is there something wrong with me?" Han Li glanced at the ugly man. A glimmer of radiance flashed across his face as he asked with a smile.
"Your… your cultivation technique! How could I…? Could… could it be that you've reached Foundation Establishment?" Only after a long while did the ugly man recover. Finally, with confusion and fear on his face, he asked in a stammer.
"Mm! After finishing the pill refining, I felt that the environment here was quite good, so I took a Foundation Establishment Pill and entered seclusion for a while. As a result, I successfully broke through. I am indeed now a Foundation Establishment cultivator!" Seeing the other's reaction, Han Li stretched and spoke grandly.
"You established your foundation here?"
The ugly man looked at the earthfire room behind Han Li, then at Han Li himself, still unable to believe it. He had truly never heard of anyone establishing their foundation in an earthfire room specifically used for pill and weapon refining.
He moved his lips several times, but still did not voice the question at the tip of his tongue. The other party was not only Elder Li's disciple; simply possessing the status of a Foundation Establishment cultivator meant that he was no longer someone a Qi Condensation disciple like himself could afford to provoke.
"What? Is it not allowed?" Han Li glanced at him lightly and asked bluntly. At once, the unique pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator radiated outward. The ugly man, standing only a few feet away, was immediately forced back several steps and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Of course not. There is no such unreasonable rule above. Congratulations on successfully completing your seclusion, Martial Uncle!" The ugly man was quite clever. He immediately bowed and nodded with an ingratiating smile, changing his form of address from "Junior Brother" to "Martial Uncle."
Since the other party had successfully established his foundation, he could now be regarded as his elder. Showing a little more deference was only proper.
The ugly man was remarkably capable of accepting reality. He understood the cultivation world's principle of strength above all else very thoroughly.