Chapter 1588
Combined Refinement
After putting away the pills in the furnace, Li Zhirui pushed open the door and went out. He saw an unfamiliar disciple standing outside the door with a worried look on his face. The disciple was about to knock on the door again when he happened to come out.
After a hurried greeting, he immediately said, "Sect Leader, the Sect Leader has an extremely urgent matter that he wishes to discuss with you."
"Is it in the sect's main hall?"
"Yes."
After receiving an affirmative answer, before the disciple could even react, Li Zhirui disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared in the main hall.
"Greetings, Sect Leader!"
When a figure appeared in front of them, everyone was so frightened that they all stood up and even subconsciously activated their magic. When they saw who it was, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"How far has the great calamity progressed?" Li Zhirui asked the question he was most concerned about as soon as he spoke.
"It's only the beginning of the outbreak..."
The reason why many forces in Mingzhou planned to join forces to attack Tongtian Sect was because a great calamity had unknowingly begun!
Otherwise, how could they have made such a big move?
However, according to the original plan, the great calamity was not scheduled to occur now, but rather some time later.
However, due to the large-scale plundering that broke out in various parts of the Dao Spirit Realm, too many living beings perished. In a short time, a large amount of spiritual energy was fed back to heaven and earth, accelerating the world's advancement.
And because there wasn't enough energy, the great calamity followed immediately!
A look of realization flashed across Li Zhirui's eyes. No wonder he didn't sense much malevolent energy in the world when he went out. At first, he thought it was because of the protective mountain formation, but now it seems he was overthinking it.
“But several forces are planning to join forces to attack the sect, wanting to take our lives to help them settle their karmic debts,” Li Qiankun said in a deep voice.
Otherwise, he wouldn't want to ask the sect leader to take action at this time.
Given the current strength of the Tongtian Sect, it should be relatively easy for them to survive the early stages of the Great Calamity, so there's no need to disturb the sect leader now.
Moreover, this makes it seem like they've wasted so many of the sect's spiritual resources, yet it's all been for naught.
"Is this information accurate?" Li Zhirui asked.
Everyone understands the principle that things are accomplished in secrecy, especially when it comes to the plan to destroy the Tongtian Sect. Such a dangerous operation, which could potentially result in heavy losses for one's own side, should be kept strictly secret. So how did it get leaked?
Therefore, he suspected that this was a scheme by the other party, and that they did not really intend to attack the Tongtian Sect. It was just a gimmick to attract attention, but he had no idea what they were actually planning.
"This……"
After hearing these words, Li Qiankun and the others looked at each other in bewilderment; they really hadn't considered this possibility.
Or rather, when they learned that several forces were going to join forces to attack the sect, they became flustered and afraid, and then they couldn't wait to invite the sect leader, without sending anyone to investigate carefully and confirm the truth.
"Sect Leader, this is my fault. I spread the news hastily without verifying its authenticity, causing panic within the sect and disturbing your cultivation." Li Qiankun immediately stood up and admitted his mistake.
Li Zhirui waved his hand and said, "There's no need for that. When the great calamity begins, the world will be filled with malevolent energy, making it impossible to cultivate. Besides, I'm not cultivating at all."
"Besides, that's just my guess. Maybe they think they're too strong and the Tongtian Sect is no match for them, so they never even thought about keeping it a secret?"
"We'll have to wait and see how we determine the specifics based on the intelligence we gather."
But Li Qiankun still felt somewhat guilty, and said earnestly, "This disciple will definitely keep this lesson in mind and will never repeat it in the future!"
"Alright, go and find out if the intelligence is accurate. If they are going to attack the Tongtian Sect, I believe we will give them a huge surprise."
A fierce glint flashed in Li Zhirui's eyes; he hadn't made a move in many years!
Moreover, since he has decided to stay in the Dao Spirit Realm, he can take this opportunity to eliminate all the karma on his body.
"Yes!"
Hearing this, Li Qiankun felt full of confidence. With the sect leader in charge, those clowns were not worth mentioning at all.
Then, full of fighting spirit, they began to use the channels at their disposal to verify the authenticity of the intelligence.
After leaving the sect's main hall, Li Zhirui did not return to his cave dwelling, but instead left Dengxian Mountain.
He intended to observe the density of the malevolent energy permeating the world in order to better assess the situation of the great calamity.
He stood suspended in mid-air, and looking out, the once clear world was now covered by a thin layer of gray gauze.
The bright world thus turned gray and lost its former vibrancy, replaced by a heavy, lifeless atmosphere.
"Has the situation become so serious in just a few days?"
Li Zhirui's expression became more serious, because Li Qiankun said that the great calamity had only just broken out a few days ago, but judging from the evil aura in the world, it did not seem to be in the early stages of the outbreak at all.
He personally experienced the world's upgrade and was very familiar with the entire process.
Moreover, by cultivating the purification laws, he became even more sensitive to the aura of calamity and evil, and he was very confident that he would never make a wrong judgment.
What exactly caused this?
This left Li Zhirui completely baffled and unable to understand it.
After struggling with it for a while, he finally decided to keep it to himself and stop wasting time and energy thinking about it. Besides, he had many other things to deal with.
He had almost finished refining the pills he had prepared for himself, but he hadn't even started refining the pills his disciples needed yet.
Of course, with Li Zhirui's current alchemy skills, it wouldn't take him long to refine some low-level pills.
He then returned to the mountain gate and went to the storeroom, which he rarely visited.
"Greetings, Sect Leader! May I ask what kind of spiritual items you require? And how many?" The steward in charge of the storeroom asked respectfully.
Li Zhirui simply nodded and said, "Give me all the spiritual items below the ninth rank that the sect has accumulated."
"what?!"
The disciple couldn't help but exclaim loudly. The disciples who were already paying close attention to the scene were now even more curious and eager to know what the sect leader had said that had elicited such a strong reaction from him.
The steward was initially curious about what the sect leader was doing in the storeroom. Shouldn't he have gone directly to the treasure vault to select spiritual items? After all, he was dealing with most of the disciples, so the spiritual items in the storeroom were mostly of low quality.
But after hearing the sect leader's outrageous request, he understood why he had come to the warehouse.
"May I ask, Sect Leader, what is the purpose of receiving so many spiritual items?" the deacon asked boldly.
"Of course it's for alchemy, what else could it be?" Li Zhirui frowned slightly, not wanting to waste time on such matters.
"But the sect currently has hundreds of thousands of spiritual items below the ninth rank. If you were to refine them all by yourself, wouldn't that be a bit too many?"
"I know, so don't waste any more time, just bring it all to me quickly." "This is what was prepared beforehand, intended to be sent to the Alchemy Mountain. There are tens of thousands of materials for refining Jade Spirit Pills. Sect Leader, please take them first. I will sort out the rest in the next two days and then send them to you."
What he said was perfectly reasonable and the reasons were quite valid; it was indeed necessary to properly organize the spirit objects.
Ultimately, however, they didn't trust that Li Zhirui could refine a large number of pills in a short time, so they used this method to buy time.
"Send me another batch of low-level spiritual items this afternoon."
He didn't bother to argue about it; the truth would come out in a few days!
They took these tens of thousands of spiritual items with them before returning to their cave.
"Ugh!"
The deacon couldn't help but sigh.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"Did the sect leader give you any instructions?"
"I just saw the sect leader take away a storage magic item. It seems to be a spiritual item that was being sent to the Alchemy Mountain. How did he manage to take it away?" a sharp-eyed disciple said.
The disciples nearby gathered around, curiously inquiring about the news.
For many disciples, the sect leader is a very mysterious figure!
In their minds, Li Zhirui was mysterious and powerful.
Because he had been cultivating in the void for hundreds of years, none of them had ever seen this legendary sect leader in person.
This is the first time we've met!
However, they were considered lucky; many disciples hadn't even seen them yet.
However, since this matter involved the sect leader, even though the deacon had a lot to say, he dared not say more. He shook his head, turned around, and went into the storeroom to start collecting spiritual items.
As soon as Li Zhirui returned to his cave, he went straight to the alchemy room. He didn't need to make any preparations; with a thought, he took out all the spiritual items and suspended them in mid-air.
There's no need to spend time preparing the spiritual ingredients according to the recipe; just put the same spiritual ingredients together. Then, simply make a hand seal and start extracting the essence from the spiritual ingredients.
In a short while, only clumps of spiritual essence of various colors remained, floating beside Li Zhirui.
However, compared to ordinary alchemy, the volume of these essences is hundreds of times larger!
After all, this was extracted from tens of thousands of spiritual plants, so how could it not be large?
Then Li Zhirui poured out a large amount of purified spiritual water, put various essences into it in order, changed his hand seals again, and all the spiritual essences began to merge.
The materials were meant to refine thousands of batches of Jade Spirit Pills, but under his masterful manipulation, the essence of these materials fused together very smoothly, and then a giant pill, over three feet in size, appeared before him!
He remained calm in the face of this.
Because Li Zhirui already knew the final result before he started refining, he wasn't worried about failure at all.
Of course, there's still one last step left: separating the elixir!
This is also one of the most difficult parts of this alchemy process.
If the medicinal properties of each pill are not kept completely consistent during the pill-dividing process, one pill may have an extra medicinal property, while several or even dozens of pills may have less.
This incomplete elixir is not necessarily unusable, but its effects will vary, and sometimes it may even bring pleasant surprises.
Strictly speaking, however, all of these are useless pills!
Therefore, for a large elixir like this, which is made by combining thousands of ingredients, the final step of dividing the elixir requires extremely powerful and precise control, as well as a strong divine sense.
However, this was not difficult for Li Zhirui at all.
Others might have been on high alert, but he made his move with apparent casualness, and the three-foot-long pill instantly shattered into tens of thousands of smaller pills.
The whole process was so smooth and unexpected that it caught everyone off guard. One moment it was a giant dan, and the next it was an ordinary dan.
Compared to normal alchemy, although it took a little more time and effort, it produced pills comparable to thousands of batches in one go, saving an unknown amount of effort and time.
However, only someone with an extremely high level of alchemy skill like Li Zhirui could master this special method, and the Jade Spirit Pill he refined this time was also a low-grade pill.
If it were a Loose Immortal-level pill, he could still use the combined refining method, but the quantity would definitely not be this many, probably only two or three hundred batches.
Of course, compared to other alchemists, this is already an extraordinary achievement.
In the afternoon, the steward arrived with a large number of spiritual items, looking exhausted.
"Give these Jade Spirit Pills to the sect leader and let him distribute them as needed." Li Zhirui handed over the refined pills to the other party as he took the spiritual items.
"what?!"
The disciple instantly perked up, and probed the storage magic treasure with his divine sense. The spiritual items that were originally full of them had all disappeared, leaving only jade bottles filled with pills.
"This...this..."
He was so shocked that he was trembling all over and couldn't speak.
Keep in mind, only an hour or two has passed!
Tens of thousands of materials have been transformed into perfectly round pills.
"Calm down!"
Seeing this, Li Zhirui gave a clear shout. Once he recovered, he instructed, "By the way, don't forget to organize all the low-level spiritual items and send them to me in the next two days."
"Yes! Your disciple obeys!"
The steward was still somewhat dazed until he arrived at the sect's main hall and handed the pills to Li Qiankun, at which point he fully came to his senses.
"what?!"
After hearing the other party's account, Li Qiankun did not believe it was true and questioned, "You said that the sect leader alone refined so many Jade Spirit Pills in just one or two hours?"
After confirming repeatedly and receiving an affirmative answer, coupled with the presence of these Jade Spirit Pills, he finally believed that the other party was not deceiving him.
Just how many more skills does the sect leader have hidden?
After instructing the steward to diligently carry out the tasks assigned by the sect leader and seeing him off, Li Qiankun sat alone in a chair, his mind filled with many thoughts.
……
The sun rises and the moon sets.
In the next few days, Li Zhirui alone refined hundreds of thousands of pills!
He almost single-handedly depleted all the low-level spiritual items that the Tongtian Sect had accumulated over the years, as well as those that they had quietly acquired recently.
The reason he still had some spiritual items left was because other disciples also needed spiritual items to refine pills, and since he saw that he already had enough pills, he simply stopped.
In the past few days, disciples have been discussing why Li Zhirui took away so many spiritual items when he appeared in the storeroom.
But no one knew the answer until that day came! (End of Chapter)