Chapter 248 Ancient Alchemy
"I'm sorry to make you laugh."
Li Ran took a deep breath, suppressed the bitterness in his mouth, then smiled at the two of them, feeling a little embarrassed.
"It's okay, your place is really nice."
Du Ruo looked at the characters in the distance. The lush forest scenery was very quiet and pleasant. It would definitely be a good place to live in seclusion. No one would disturb him and he wouldn't have to worry about trivial matters.
"But I have a question. Are your senior sisters and junior brothers arranged according to the order of their joining?"
At this time Xiang Yuanyuan spoke. She was a carefree and straightforward person. Seeing that these two people had good personalities, she asked whatever she wanted.
In fact, she was curious about this question when Wang Ping called her senior sister, but she only asked it now.
"Hehe~"
Li Ran smiled, but just looked at Wang Ping without saying anything.
"Alas, I am 28 years old this year, I just look older, my senior sister three..."
Wang Ping naturally knew why Xiang Yuanyuan asked this. While speaking, he subconsciously scratched his sparse hair with his hand.
"Junior brother!"
Women care about their age the most. Seeing that Wang Ping seemed to be about to start talking, she couldn't help but shout and interrupt him. Then she smiled and started asking about Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan to change the subject:
"Boss Du, Boss Madam, what are your plans next? Do you need to stay here for a few days? If you need, I'll go down and make room for you."
Xiang Yuanyuan did not answer, but looked at Du Ruo.
"Okay, if you don't want to bother me, you can stay for a few days. I have a lot of questions about alchemy that I want to ask Master Wang...Master Wang."
When Du Ruo heard this, he nodded and agreed without hesitation.
He had already thought about it and decided that this time when he returned, he might have to teach Xiang Yuanyuan the Virgin School's mental skills and also wanted to start refining pills.
The Virgin Girl Sect's core method is the method of gathering and training Qi, which he has almost completed research on, but he is still a little lacking in the area of alchemy.
After all, he had never made pills by himself before. Now there was a professional in front of him. If he didn't ask for advice, it would be a waste of such an opportunity.
"That's fine. However, our conditions here are limited. You two have to be more tolerant."
Li Ran didn't expect Du Ruo to agree so easily.
It was just a casual question. Wang Ping didn't know how popular Du Ruo was on the Internet recently, but she knew about it. She didn't expect to have the opportunity to be with such a famous person.
Of course, she didn't have any other thoughts. She was just pure joy that the internet celebrity suddenly came to visit her home.
"Junior brother, you talk to Boss Du. I'll go clean up a room first."
Li Ran knew the purpose of Du Ruo's stay, so she asked Wang Ping to entertain Du Ruo, while she went to clean up. It had been a long time since outsiders stayed in the Taoist temple, so cleaning up was a big project.
"Sister Li, I'll go with you."
Xiang Yuanyuan had no reason to go downstairs to accompany Du Ruo. She didn't want to trouble her too much, so she just helped if she could.
"Boss Du, my sister said you are a martial arts master, do you know the kung fu like you see on TV?"
After the two left, Wang Ping immediately started asking impatiently. He had seen Du Ruo's Qinggong performance, so he felt that even if Du Ruo said he knew Tathagata Palm, he might have wondered if Du Ruo was fooling him.
"It's not that exaggerated. I practice traditional martial arts, such as Xingyi, Tai Chi, and Bagua. If you want to learn, I can teach you."
Du Ruo smiled and waved his hand, but what he said was the truth. As for teaching the other party, it was not perfunctory. Wang Ping was different from Xiaoqiang. Wang Ping was a Taoist and was 28 years old. He was different from young people in their twenties. More importantly, the Taoist mentality would not make him impulsive and hurt others.
Of course, just because Du Ruo is willing to teach doesn’t mean you can learn it, nor does it mean you can reach Du Ruo’s level just because you have learned it.
"How long does it usually take to get started?"
When Wang Ping heard that Du Ruo was willing to teach, he immediately became interested.
"If you want to get started, it will take about three months. Generally, it takes three months to change your strength, which is also called building a foundation for a hundred days. It can be considered getting started."
"Then how long would it take to train to be able to climb the stairs as fast as Boss Du did just now?"
"What you just did is a light body method. If you lose weight to about 100 pounds, and then practice leg skills with weights for seven or eight years, you should be able to do it."
Du Ruo thought about it and thought that it was not impossible to practice the natural school's light body skills alone with some hard work, but of course, the opponent's current body shape would definitely not be able to do it. "Is that so... then forget it."
Wang Ping gave up immediately after hearing this. He had a good idea of what traditional martial arts were like. Du Ruo must be extremely talented to become the contemporary "martial arts master" in the eyes of his senior sister. He knew his own limitations and thought that it might be more appropriate for him to deal with elixirs.
"Can you tell me about alchemy? I'm quite curious about it."
Seeing that the other party had no intention of continuing to ask questions, Du Ruo began to ask his own questions.
"Alchemy, what do you want to hear about, Boss Du?"
Speaking of this, it is exactly what he is best at, which made him unable to help but straighten his back and take a sip of tea.
"Tell me all about it. I've been quite interested in this lately."
Since Du Ruo needed a favor from someone, he naturally would not put on airs and hurriedly picked up the teapot to add tea for Wang Ping.
"Oh, then let me tell you about the art of gold and stone alchemy first."
Wang Ping didn't know what Du Ruo meant by "very interested", so he simply started talking about alchemy, which was misunderstood by the public.
Du Ruo had no objection to this. This was an opportunity to systematically learn the art of alchemy. It was better to have a professional explain it than to try and learn it on his own again and again.
"The pursuit of alchemy since ancient times is to refine the elixir of life. Various metals or minerals such as gold, mercury, lead, jade, cinnabar, etc. in nature are refined through various means, and finally reach the goal of making them safe for human consumption."
When Wang Ping said this, he saw that Du Ruo was listening seriously and had some feelings in his heart, so he became more and more excited. He held the tea and took a sip occasionally. The breeze blew, blowing up the hem of his clothes. If it weren't for the sparse hair on his head being blown up at the same time, he would have really looked like a master.
“There are good and bad things that are refined, and the Tibetan medicine Zuotai (a Tibetan medicine that is washed to remove the toxicity of mercury and finally becomes edible and medicinal) is a typical example.
Of course, there are also byproducts such as tofu and gunpowder. In general, the art of alchemy is more like a chemistry course, but it is also more unstable. Explosions, fires, and poisonings are common occurrences. "
Speaking of this, Wang Ping couldn't help swallowing. It was obvious that he must have seen it before.
"The process of gold and stone alchemy is not only complicated, but also tedious, and it is also an extremely time-consuming task. It was extremely difficult to refine gold and stone into elixirs in ancient times, so there are ancient books that record refining elixirs for 49 days or 81 days, all for the purpose of calcining these gold and stone."
"Of course, technology is now more convenient, and we can raise the temperature of the fire immediately, which is convenient and quick, but this will also make the recipes recorded in ancient books invalid. After all, the recipes do not record what temperature to heat to."
"Plus, science has proven that like cures like is useless, and countless emperors have died from taking elixirs over the years, so the art of refining elixirs has actually been completely eliminated."
When Wang Ping said this, he subconsciously looked around. After seeing that only Du Ruo and he were there, he spoke so confidently.
"Then your junior sister will inherit this?"
Du Ruo was curious. He himself said it was useless, so how come their Taoist temple still had a legacy?
“Ahem, the elixir of life cannot be made, but over the past thousands of years, generation after generation of people have made many achievements in the research of these minerals. The gold and stone alchemy technique is mainly divided into the gold sand school, the lead and mercury school, and the sulfur and mercury school.
My junior sister is studying the lead and mercury school. Her main research is to remove the toxicity of lead and mercury and then use it as medicine. It is a bit dangerous, but in fact, my junior sister has done a lot of research. "
Wang Ping explained to Du Ruo that this kind of thing is a kind of pursuit and obsession. In fact, there are still many people in modern society who are studying this, but they are not understood and are often regarded as crazy.
"Let's talk about the Herbal Medicine School next. It's actually very simple to learn the Herbal Medicine School. Usually, you refine specific pills according to the needs, but you use various herbal medicinal materials. It's a bit like treating the disease with the right medicine.
Ge Hong and Zhang Zhongjing are the representatives of the Herbal Alchemy School. They are experts in medicine, so they can prescribe medicine and make elixirs according to the needs.”
Wang Ping said this and looked at Du Ruo.
"I see. The Herbal Medicine Sect actually refines targeted medicines based on the prescriptions. It's not much different from boiling medicine. Is that what you mean?"
Du Ruo continued speaking along with what Wang Ping said.
"That's right, boiling with water and refining with fire are actually both to make the medicinal effects of herbs better, and combined with other medicines, to produce better results.
It’s just that boiling in water usually cannot bring out all the medicinal properties, but it is milder and more suitable for human absorption.
Fire refining is usually used to refine more precious medicinal materials in order to maximize the utilization of the medicinal materials, but the medicinal properties are stronger, and are usually used to refine precious emergency and life-saving elixirs.
Among them, the most important thing in refining medicine is not the medicine itself, but the prescription, that is, the dosage of the medicine recorded on the prescription. This is the most critical. If a pill wants to have extremely high medicinal properties, then its dosage ratio must not be wrong. "
What Wang Ping said actually explained the art of alchemy in the simplest terms.
"If I have a pill recipe, can you help me check the dosage of the herbs?"
(End of this chapter)
