After coming back, Feng Shaoyang first went to the library of the middle courtyard and found a book related to pills to bring back, ready to read it at night.

Seeing Feng Shaoyang holding a scroll in his hand, Qingxu Dao Chang thought that he was reading a book in the afternoon, so he was very happy, and hurriedly came over, and praised after reading it: "Yes, this 'Jindan General Record' explains the selection of alchemy utensils, the types of materials, and the refining methods in detail, you look at it slowly first, and if there is anything you don't understand, I will explain it to you in detail." ”

Feng Shaoyang heard this and hurriedly said, "Thank you Dao Chang for taking such a hard time, Shaoyang will definitely not let you down." ”

Qingxu Dao Chang was very relieved to see him working so hard, and nodded in approval again and again.

In the evening, Feng Shaoyang opened this volume of Jindan General Records and looked at it carefully. In fact, Feng Shaoyang had read this book before, and according to his character, every book had to be read twice, but this book was not carefully read at the time, so it was put aside, and tonight's study, he mainly wanted to find out what kind of pill was helpful for his qi training.

It turns out that Taoist cultivation is divided into two ways: "internal cultivation" and "external cultivation".

Internal cultivation is based on the practice of qi, believing that the human body is a natural furnace, absorbing external qi, forming true qi, and then passing through the meridians, combining the five elements of yin and yang, until the change of the universe, and finally reaching the realm of the unity of heaven and man.

Inner cultivators emphasize the cultivation of the mind, step by step, and believe that the path of cultivation should be natural and fraternal. The benefit of internal cultivation is that the foundation is solid, the cultivation is profound, and when the advancement fails, the body will not suffer great damage because of the strong internal foundation, and only part of the cultivation will be lost.

Of course, there are also disadvantages of internal cultivation, for example, the progress of cultivation is slow, and mortals often have a limited lifespan, and many people have reached the end of their life before they have cultivated the Great Dao.

External cultivation is mainly based on refining the body, so as to strengthen the muscles and bones and strengthen the physique, and then quickly increase the cultivation by directly eating some Lingguo Zhicao, or taking Jindan, and absorbing the essence and qi contained in it through qi training. The disadvantage of external cultivation is that the foundation of internal strength is weak, and once the advancement fails, the cultivator will suffer a great loss in cultivation at least and will be unable to continue the cultivation, and at worst, the meridians will be completely destroyed and he will die immediately.

Cultivate Qi inside, and cultivate the body outside. However, these two cultivation methods are not incompatible, and internal cultivators will also take the risk of taking Jindan assistance to become external cultivators in order to advance quickly, or before the life limit comes. Outside cultivators, on the other hand, will also turn to internal cultivation after their advancement is successful, and no longer take pills to quickly increase their cultivation, but meditate on cultivation to stabilize their foundation and minimize the disadvantages of taking golden pills.

Therefore, many cultivators alternate between the two ways, in order to advance as soon as possible and break through the limit of lifespan.

The pure method of external cultivation can only be used by the outer disciples with poor qualifications of various sects, because these outer disciples are not for the purpose of cultivating, usually to find a career within the sect, or to learn a skill for future development, and strive for a better life through their own efforts, so they often take Jindan to quickly improve their cultivation.

Alchemy is to smelt and refine the essence and aura contained in different materials to achieve the purpose of detoxification, purification, enhancement, or transformation, and finally make various pills that can be used and absorbed by practitioners.

The same pill may have no effect on cultivators in the Qi cultivation period, but for cultivators in the foundation building period, it may be a golden pill that greatly improves their cultivation, and similarly, for beginners in the Qi cultivation period, it may be a deadly poison.

Therefore, the pills are also divided into different grades, and cultivators can only take pills that are suitable for their own level to improve their cultivation.

Refining elixir is also a very important part of Taoism, from the perspective of cultivation, whenever a cultivator encounters great difficulties in upgrading or advancement, he needs to be assisted by corresponding elixirs, which can increase the probability of success of advancement, or reduce the damage to the body when the advancement fails.

For example, there are 'Qi Suppression Pills' that assist in condensing qi to increase the probability of success, and there are also 'Qi Suppression Pills' that reduce damage to the body if qi condensation fails.

In addition, there are various pills such as "hemostatic powder" that can heal injuries and stop bleeding, "bone strengthening pills" that strengthen the body and enhance physical fitness, not only can be used by cultivators, but also can be taken by ordinary people.

What disappointed Feng Shaoyang was that although this book explained the refining principles, material composition, utensils selection, and refining essentials of various pills, it did not explain in detail the proportion of main and auxiliary materials, how to control the refining temperature, and the order of various materials during refining, that is, it only told what pills could be refined with those materials, but there were no pills and refining methods.

You must know that the temperature of refining, the amount of materials, and the order of putting are slightly different, then the result is completely different.

Feng Shaoyang turned to the back, and saw that there were other elixirs such as rejuvenating the skin and prolonging life, which were really all-encompassing and strange, and he couldn't help but secretly admire, this practice for the pill is also an extremely cumbersome and complicated thing.

Feng Shaoyang was depressed and puzzled, and only heard the Qingxu Daoist outside the house say: "Yang'er, rest early, and watch it tomorrow." ”

It turned out that when the Qingxu Daoist was about to rest, he saw that there was still a candlelight in Feng Shaoyang's house, and knew that he must be reading hard, so he hurriedly came over to advise.

Feng Shaoyang responded, quickly put down the book, turned off the lights and rested.

The next day, Feng Shaoyang came to the main house where he practiced qi early to wait, and when he saw Qingxu Dao Chang coming in, he hurriedly saluted and said goodbye.

Qingxu Daoist smiled and said, "I studied so hard last night, why don't I sleep more, but I can rest." ”

"Dao Chief, I read that there was something incomprehensible in the general record of the Jindan yesterday, so I woke up early. ”

"Hehe, it seems that you have really worked hard, you must have read the refining principles of various pills described in the book, but there are no pills and refining methods. ”

"Yes, Dao Chief, this book only talks about which materials can be refined into the corresponding pills, but why is there no detailed record of how to refine them. ”

"The refining of this elixir is not an easy task, it is not simply to mix various materials together and put them in the alchemy furnace to burn, but to ensure that the precious ingredients in the main ingredients are not lost, and to remove as many harmful components as possible in the auxiliary materials. Therefore, for an alchemist, it is necessary to repeatedly operate and practice, summarize lessons from failures again and again, and spend countless efforts to master the alchemy of a pill. ”

Feng Shaoyang couldn't help but smack his tongue when he heard this, and said, "In that case, wouldn't alchemy be difficult to learn." ”

"Hehe, that's not, with the Dan prescription and refining method left over from the summary and practice of the predecessors, the alchemist can refine the pill with proficiency, but he will not easily change the pill, because it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and there is not much time to verify the effect, not to mention that there are so many precious materials that can be tested over and over again, so the alchemist can master the refining method of a variety of pills according to the pill, but he may not be able to successfully create a new pill and refining method above the intermediate level in his life. ”

Daoist Qingxu said this, and added: "Fortunately, through the efforts of the Danshi of the past dynasties, the Bishan Sect has also retained the pills and refining methods of dozens of pills. However, most of them are intermediate and low-grade pills, and those high-grade pills are not only difficult to find because of their preciousness, but also cannot be refined if the alchemists do not cultivate enough. ”

As he was talking, suddenly, Qingyun hurriedly walked in.