Today, the Inner Academy was particularly lively. Especially the students from the alchemy department; even those who were out on missions had rushed back in time.
It was all to listen to the lecture of the seventh-grade alchemist, the Medicine Emperor Han Feng.
Whether they could understand it or not was another matter. The title alone was worthy of everyone's admiration.
Even the young masters and ladies from the Central Plains did not dare to treat it as an ordinary matter and rushed to the venue.
Watching the open space below become a dense crowd in just a quarter of an hour, the elders sighed silently.
Why had they never been so popular before?
As the time approached, a blue flame flew rapidly from the horizon and landed steadily on the high lecture platform, without stirring up a single wave of air.
Han Feng was dressed in a profound black robe, his handsome face filled with dignity. Just by standing there, his aura had silently transformed.
The entire audience was silent. Han Feng gave a Daoist salute, sat down cross-legged, and spoke softly.
"Today, the content I will be speaking about is the origin of alchemy..."
There was no opening remark, no nonsense. A sermon was about directly speaking of useful things.
Han Feng's voice, amplified by his Dou Qi and imbued with a trace of soul power, spread throughout the entire venue. All the students present listened with rapt attention.
Sometimes, whether a student listens attentively has a great deal to do with the lecturer on the stage.
His voice was captivating, the content was all key points. Gradually, some of the elders couldn't help but become serious and listen attentively.
What? Alchemy didn't have so many demanding conditions at the beginning?
Any cultivator could try to refine pills?
Even ordinary people could learn?
In a few sentences, Han Feng instantly brought down the grand style of alchemy.
Some of the alchemist students felt a little uncomfortable, while some of the non-alchemist students were full of longing.
"The essence of alchemy lies in tempering and fusing. Tempering is to extract the essence from medicinal ingredients. Fusing is to combine the essences of different medicinal liquids, thereby refining a pill with astonishing medicinal power."
"The grading of pills originates from the different medicinal powers of ingredients of different tiers, and the different difficulties in tempering them. Even if the tempering is successful, the subsequent fusion process is even more complicated. The proportioning of the medicinal liquid essences, the order of fusion—any small mistake can lead to failure or even the cauldron exploding."
"Starting from fourth-grade pills, a wondrous reaction will occur during the fusion process, thus producing a pill fragrance. The principle behind it is very simple..."
"..."
What Han Feng spoke of was common knowledge that many people understood, but few knew the principles behind that common knowledge.
"...Therefore, for first- to third-grade pills, the threshold is actually not that high. As long as one understands the principle, even if one is not an alchemist, one can still refine them."
Han Feng had seen many cultivators whose ability to refine medicinal liquid essence was even better than some alchemists.
So the threshold of talent was not absolute.
The development of alchemy up to now has raised its upper limit, not its lower limit. Basic pills were definitely not as mysterious as the Alchemist Guild made them out to be.
This lecture changed the worldview of everyone present.
"So my alchemy skills are not that unique..."
"I can actually learn alchemy too?"
At the final stage of the lecture, Han Feng pointed out that some low-level alchemists needed to study hard and improve their alchemy skills, instead of stagnating at the lower three grades and being complacent.
Other non-alchemist students could try alchemy when they had free time, but they could not treat it as their main profession.
Although it was difficult for cultivators whose talent did not match to climb to the peak in the path of alchemy, refining some low-end pills could also meet their daily needs.
Refining pills yourself was much cheaper than buying them from outside.
Of course, Han Feng also emphasized that pills could not be taken casually, especially those refined without the guidance of a teacher. They needed to be taken with caution. If one refined a waste pill, the loss would outweigh the gain.
After the lecture ended, Han Feng flew directly away from the lecture platform.
The students still sat below, immersed in the insights they had just gained.
"Elder Han's lecture was really good," Elder Huo, who had specially come from the Outer Academy to listen, said with emotion as he stroked his long beard.
He had long intended to change the thinking of the students in the alchemy department.
Alchemists felt that they were superior to others, so they always had a sense of not being in a hurry to improve their cultivation.
This could not be entirely blamed on them, because in many small cities, first- and second-grade alchemists were already honored guests.
In such an environment, they indeed did not need to worry too much.
Although it was not very difficult to refine first- and second-grade pills, the key was that talent in this industry was scarce.
So without much effort, one could become a person of status.
In the alchemy world, only the true geniuses would compete and debate. Below them was a large group of people who were just muddling along, listless.
Han Feng had no intention of changing the ethos of the entire industry, but since he had taken on the role of an elder at Jia Nan Academy, he had to say something useful.
In the last alchemy competition, the performance of the students from the Jia Nan Academy's alchemy department was indeed a bit unsightly. Most of the students had not reached a good standard and could only be considered qualified.
Han Feng hoped that today's lecture could serve as a wake-up call for them.
The academy cultivates talent, not those mediocre people who have talent but no desire to improve.
After leaving the lecture platform, Han Feng went to the elder's courtyard to submit his materials. Su Qian expressed his appreciation for him without any concealment, praising Han Feng's high level of teaching.
This lecture was a formal announcement to everyone of Han Feng's appointment as an elder of the Inner Academy of Jia Nan Academy.
Han Feng's life as an elder also gradually got on the right track.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.
In these six months, Lin Xian'er had entered the ninth stage of Dou Disciple and began to comprehensively study the qi refining stage of the "Poison Pill Method."
In the first three months, Ye Qingyun had successfully advanced to an eight-star Dou Master with the help of the residual medicinal power of the Profound Heart Condensing Liquid Pill. Then, Han Feng refined a Three-Patterned Green Spirit Pill for her. After taking it, she directly advanced to Dou Grandmaster and was now a little expert at the three-star Dou Grandmaster cultivation level.
Qing Lin's body could finally begin to try to sense Dou Qi, starting her懵懂 journey of cultivation.
As for the three-person treasure hunting team, they had reaped great rewards in their diligent work. Zi Yan had received a huge reward and successfully broken through to the Dou King rank, but unfortunately, she still could not transform back.
Cai'er's cultivation had broken through by one star, reaching the two-star Dou Ancestor realm. Not fast, not slow, it was a steady progress.
When Medusa saw that Zi Yan had also caught up in cultivation, she put in a lot of effort and had now recovered to the six-star Dou King realm.
Everyone was making progress.
The same was true for Han Feng himself. Apart from his regular lectures, Han Feng would occasionally make a trip to Feng City to take on some highly rewarding alchemy orders.
While stabilizing the situation in Feng City, he also did not let the other factions in the Black-Corner Region become too dissatisfied.
Now, the ingredients for the seventh-grade Earth Spirit Heart-Replenishing Pill had all been gathered, and the ingredients for the eighth-grade pill he was preparing for his breakthrough to Dou Ancestor were also becoming more and more complete.
Han Feng was one step closer to his goal.