When refining pills, qi was a must have medium. Only by utilizing qi can people extract the properties of the ingredients, and then use it to combine them, creating an ideal new state.
Alchemists relied on their own qi to go through this procedure. Thus, one needed to be at least at the Meridian Mentor stage to consider studying with even the pill furnace.
... Well, that was for the average person.
As Gang Xin was a Nascent Soul cultivator, not to mention also a sub alchemist who could refine pills, he had another way of refining pills.
This was using the qi around him as if it was his own, and then directing the said qi to refine pills.
However, this wasn't just another way of refining pills. In higher level alchemy, using surrounding qi was a must as one's own qi would no longer be enough. After all, some ingredients might have denser and more absurd qualities that could take a person even up to a few years to refine.
Of course, as the previous world Cultivation Dynasty was a VR game, the game had implemented traits that could speed up the process much quicker.
Only, even using this way of refining pills usually required the person to be at the Meridian Mentor realm, as before that, people couldn't find a way to produce their own qi.
However, Gang Xin was an expert cultivator before. With cultivation and experience came insight. And just as luck would have it, he had discovered a refining inheritance while searching an ancient clan's ruin before.
A refinement technique called "Sealing Body and the Mind" from this inheritance allowed the person to use their own body to help direct the qi around them. Previously, he just threw it to the back of his mind after learning it because not being able to control qi was only a beginner's problem.
Besides, there were better quality techniques and more valuable information in there.
Now, it was finally going to be of use.
...
The reason Gang Xin chose the advanced cultivation room was because of the abundance of natural qi inside it.
Cultivating in such an environment would increase a person's focus, and also their cultivation speed, hence the extravagant price for it.
Now, Gang Xin was ready to begin the refinement. But before he should actually start, he will have to try out the technique he learned first. It would be wasteful if he wasted such expensive materials because he was indulgent and thought he could achieve everything on the first try.
First, Gang Xin practiced the cultivation technique Undying Phoenix. Using it here in this room allowed for an even more phenomenal result than before.
It didn't take even a few seconds before the fire particle qi he noticed before had appeared. Only this time, he didn't let it enter his body and instead used the refinement technique to make it stay outside.
And as Gang Xin progressed from the first set of movements to the 2nd, and 3rd, and so on, the room's qi gradually got more attracted to him. He had long reached the needed amount of qi, but since it was his first try going this far, he wanted to see how much he could handle.
And when Gang Xin reached the 8th set, the last set of movements, he sensed an extraordinary thing happening.
Instantly, he could sense almost of the room's fire qi getting attracted to him. As if he was a giant magnet attracting small iron. This was undoubtedly leaps better than other techniques and people would definitely be overjoyed seeing this result.
But for Gang Xin, he didn't even take a moment before he stopped practicing the technique. Now, his dirty face had become even uglier, as a fearful expression remained.
"I could've died..." Gang Xin muttered as he recalled the last moment. This phenomenal result was undoubtedly better for other people, but definitely not for him.
It was because his foundation was still built on another technique, not suitable for the enormous amount of fire qi at all.
For the current him, that fire qi was akin to a group of poison laced iron needles heading towards him. Not only did it contain the initial shock from the overwhelming amount of energy, it would also destabilize his body like a poison.
Fortunately, he stopped it right when he noticed it. With the stop in his cultivation, he had also stopped practicing the refinement technique.
Thus, all of the fire qi he gathered also dissipated.
Well, no matter. He will just start again.
After gathering himself and calming down, Gang Xin once again started the entire process. However, this time, he only practiced Undying Phoenix to the 4th stage before he stopped and started focusing on the refinement technique instead.
There were two stages to external qi manipulation alchemy. First one was stationary refinement, when he used the qi around him to control them. As for the second, he had to do it while also attracting qi - which meant he had to split his attention, and also body movements in this case.
It sounded far easier than it was.
Even an expert like Gang Xin needed experience before he could pull this off. After all, the second stage was something he had to create personally. Everyone had to because of their unique cultivation method.
Gang Xin extended his right hand, it being in a strange claw like position - except the fingers had been contorted and placed differently. If a person saw it, they would say it was random, but in truth, they had to follow a strict placement.
Then he started rotating his palm, as he also made another strange gesture with his left hand, however it was placed down.
The difficulty of this just one set of movement was extraordinarily high but fortunately, hand techniques were a specialty of him.
Soon, he was able to grasp ahold of the qi outside him.
A small part of the fire qi had moved in accordance to his mind, and slowly formed a palm shape mid air.