Nine Astra Skies

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Ye Chen remained puzzled even after racking his brains for a long time. Why would the original armguard owner add a refining furnace inside the armguard? This was too difficult to understand.

Just then, a sudden inspiration struck him and he thought, 'This armguard has the word "Skyfire" on it and its artifact spirit seems to be of Fire-type as well. Can there be some kind of mystery here?'

After giving it some thought, Ye Chen extended his Astral Body into the armguard and soon came into contact with the armguard's artifact spirit. Its artifact spirit appeared to be somewhat low in spirits as it emitted a rather dim fiery glow.

Perhaps it was still not used to having a new owner.

What should Ye Chen do to get the armguard's artifact spirit to obey him?

Ye Chen had made various attempts and had tried to use his Astral Body to build a relationship with this artifact spirit but the moment it came into contact with his Astral Body, the artifact spirit would withdraw at once. It seemed like he should not be using his Astral Body so Ye Chen switched to using his consciousness to communicate with the artifact spirit. An hour later, he was still at a loss.

What exactly should Ye Chen do to control this artifact spirit?

Ye Chen wondered if Celestial Chi would be the answer as he let a stream of Celestial Chi flow into the armguard. When its artifact spirit came into contact with this stream of Celestial Chi, it began to stir slightly but then calmed down again in the end.

Indeed, the artifact spirit was somewhat attracted to Celestial Chi but why did it calm down in the end?

An idea occurred to him in an instant. Could it be that only Fire-type Celestial Chi would work?

Ye Chen revolved the Nine Astra in his dantian and converted all his Celestial Chi into Fire-type Celestial Chi before sending a stream of this Fire-type Celestial Chi into the armguard. When the armguard's artifact spirit noticed this stream of Fire-type Celestial Chi, it seemed to jump with joy and quickly wrapped itself around the Fire-type Celestial Chi.

Ye Chen was stunned to see the artifact spirit devouring so much of his Fire-type Celestial Chi!

After having devoured this stream of Fire-type Celestial Chi, the artifact spirit swelled up abruptly and started to glow more brightly as if it were a dying fire that had been reignited.

'Since you need Fire-type Celestial Chi, I'll let you devour as much as you want!' As this thought entered his mind, Ye Chen activated the Flying Dagger in his mind. At once, boundless waves of Celestial Chi surged into his dantian and were converted by the Nine Astra into a great amount of Fire-type Celestial Chi that sent flowing into the armguard.

When the artifact spirit sensed this tremendous Fire-type Celestial Chi, it finally became overjoyed and began devouring the Fire-type Celestial Chi excitedly. As this red ball of fire became brighter and started to burn violently, Ye Chen was astounded to find the armguard's artifact spirit growing increasingly stronger. Nonetheless, the artifact spirit had already recognized him as its owner, so he did not have to worry about it rebelling against him. As the artifact spirit continued devouring more and more Fire-type Celestial Chi, Ye Chen gradually formed some kind of link with it and discovered that the armguard's artifact spirit was pretty much on par with the Scarlet Sky Tiger and the Stormphantom Panther in terms of intelligence.

It was quite impressive that an armguard could possess such a high level of intelligence. After all, it was not a living thing unlike mystical beasts such as the Scarlet Sky Tiger and the Stormphantom Panther.

As ten minutes passed by, his link with the armguard's artifact spirit became clearer, so Ye Chen could now control it to do whatever he wanted.

Y Chen finally understood it was only then that the artifact spirit had completed its process of recognizing him as its owner. Ye Chen glanced at his left arm and noticed significant differences in his armguard. Its surface seemed to give off brilliant lights and radiant colors as well as a faint fiery glow while powerful Fire-type energy hit him directly in his face. As he launched a punch casually with his left hand, Fire-type Celestial Chi surged out of him immediately. Fortunately, he had been standing some distance away from the walls. Otherwise, Ye Chen's fist would have sent the house crashing to the ground. That had been just a casual punch. If he were to throw a serious punch at an enemy, the destructive force of his punch would be comparable to that of Crimson Clouds Searing Skies!

Thus, Ye Chen discovered another function of the armguard, which was to store Fire-type Celestial Chi. If he kept channeling Fire-type Celestial Chi into the armguard regularly, the artifact spirit would devour his Fire-type Celestial Chi and store it up. Then, he would be able to use the Fire-type Celestial Chi in his armguard according to his needs during a battle, although Ye Chen was not sure how many times he could use it consecutively after filling the armguard up to the brim. He would have to study this later.

As Ye Chen caressed the armguard happily, its artifact spirit also became rather excited as though it could sense his emotions.

The artifact spirit was still devouring his Fire-type Celestial Chi and Ye Chen felt his armguard slowly becoming scorching hot. There seemed to be no way to satisfy this artifact spirit's appetite at all. No matter how much Fire-type Celestial Chi he had channeled into the armguard, the artifact spirit would take it in without hesitation. Nonetheless, as the armguard's temperature grew higher, he eventually could not handle the increasing burning sensation anymore and stopped instantly.

The armguard's artifact spirit appeared to be somewhat dissatisfied and Ye Chen could not help laughing bitterly while wondering what tier this armguard was as a spirit artifact. It seemed like he would have to keep enhancing his capabilities first before he could unleash its full power.

A sudden thought occurred to him. Would it be possible to get the artifact spirit to help him refine and produce pills?

Just as the thought entered Ye Chen's mind, there was suddenly a roaring fire underneath the refining furnace that stood at the center of the space inside the armguard. As tongues of fire licked at its bottom, the refining furnace soon became burning hot.

As expected, this furnace could be used for alchemy!

This was such a magical way to practice alchemy. Ye Chen hurriedly placed all the ingredients for refining and producing the Chi-amassing Pill into the space inside the armguard. Then, with a flicker of thought, the furnace lid opened. Soon, a few medicinal herbs that had been properly processed were sent flying into the furnace and were mixed together as the lid closed shut.

Ye Chen used his mind to carefully control the temperature.

It should take around three days for a batch of Chi-amassing Pills to be refined to perfection.

Usually, a beginner apothecary's success rate at alchemy could be anywhere between two percent to twenty percent. Meanwhile, a master apothecary's success rate could go up to eighty percent. Some beginner apothecaries could successfully refine and produce a few Chi-amassing Pills or even tens of such pills in one go whereas a master apothecary was capable of refining and producing thousands of pills at a time.

Ye Chen had placed one hundred portions of ingredients into the armguard. Anyway, these ingredients consisted of normal medicinal herbs, so they were quite cheap. He wondered what the result of his first attempt at alchemy would be.

Only half an hour had passed when he scanned the refining furnace with his mind and found that the herb mixture inside the furnace had been burnt black. He had failed to refine and produce this batch of pills!

Ye Chen anxiously extinguished the fire and removed the charred mixture from the space inside the armguard. An unpleasant burnt smell pervaded the room at once.

How could Ye Chen have failed so soon? The Chi-amassing Pill should be quite easy to refine and produce. He had strictly followed the instructions written in the "Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy" and had not made any mistakes throughout the process. Why had he ended up failing? After giving it some thought, he remembered that the mixture had been burnt black. In that case, perhaps the temperature had been too high.

Well then, Ye Chen would have to learn to control the temperature first!

Ye Chen felt a little annoyed at the fact that he had failed the first time. Nonetheless, he was still very interested in learning alchemy.

After concluding his failed attempt, he prepared another portion of ingredients, which was more or less equivalent to one hundred Chi-amassing Pills. He would be losing one hundred taels of silver every time he failed but if he could successfully refine and produce just two pills, he would be able to fully recover his costs.

Since he had kept so much silver and gold in the space inside his armguard, Ye Chen naturally would not care about such an insignificant amount of money. As long as he could successfully learn alchemy, money was not a problem.

He proceeded to refine and produce the second batch of pills but failed again.

Then, he failed once again.

Thereafter, he still failed!

It took Ye Chen over thirty failed attempts to realize how difficult alchemy truly was. Even the most basic Chi-amassing Pill was so difficult to refine and produce, let alone those high tier medicinal pills.

After failing more than thirty times, Ye Chen showed some improvement after all. His last batch of herb mixture managed to last two hours in the refining furnace without becoming charred.