Chapter 362: Time Reversal Revision
In front of the pill cauldron, sweat had already begun to bead up on Han Li's forehead, and his breathing was also slightly jagged.
He had already tried to mentally prepare himself for the level of difficulty of dao pill refinement, but only when putting the process into practice did he realize just how drastically he had underestimated the process.
Dao pill refinement was completely different from that of normal pill refinement.
There were countless different pill recipes out there, but almost all of them involved refining all of the ingredients before gathering them together to condense into a pill.
In contrast, the ingredient that contained the law power was the core of everything in a dao pill. Hence, during the refinement process, he had to refine the ingredients while constantly fusing them with the material that contained the law power, resulting in a snowball process. Essentially, the ingredient refinement and pill condensing processes had to take place in unison, and that resulted in a massive spike in difficulty.
To further compound his woes, he also had to simultaneously control the fire while balancing out the medicinal properties of all of the ingredients.
In particular, the time law powers within the time crystal had to form some type of balance with all of the other ingredients in order to facilitate perfect fusion, and that only further increased the difficulty of the pill refinement process.
Han Li felt as if he were controlling an enormous army, trying to instruct them to adopt an extremely complex formation, but none of the soldiers in the army were under his control, and on top of that, they were occasionally clashing against one another.
He had to balance out all of the conflicts while guiding everyone into the right formation, and if it weren't for the fact that he had made significant strides in his pill refinement mastery of late, he would've already been completely worn out by now.
Even so, at this point, he was gradually beginning to feel the strain, but there were many ingredients that were still yet to be added to the cauldron, and with the addition of those ingredients, things were only going to become even more difficult to control.
Due to the fact that dao pills contained law powers, they couldn't come into contact with any other law powers prior to the completion of the refinement process. Otherwise, some unforeseen change would take place in the pill, resulting in a failure in the pill refinement.
Hence, Han Li was unable to use his Mantra Treasured Axis to assist him, and he could only rely on his pill refinement skills.
He took a deep breath, then swept a sleeve through the air once again, sending another ingredient tumbling into the cauldron.
As time passed, a few more ingredients were transferred into the cauldron, and at this point, Han Li's breathing had become extremely labored, and his eyes had become bloodshot, while an unnatural flush had appeared on his cheeks.
He took a deep breath as he released a burst of azure light to envelop another ingredient, this time a vial of green spirit liquid, then tipped it into the cauldron as well.
The green liquid swirled around in the cauldron momentarily before fusing into the white pill, which was already beginning to take shape.
A layer of green light appeared over the white pill, but it then slowly faded, and right as it was about to completely vanish, the pill abruptly shuddered as lights of different colors appeared on its surface, clashing erratically with one another.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he was just about to do something, but it was already too late.
A dull thud rang out from within the white pill, following which a crack appeared on its surface.
In the next instant, all of the light radiating from the pill faded, and the spiritual qi permeating throughout the surrounding area also abruptly vanished.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and everything instantly returned to normal, as if Han Li had only been refining a normal pill up to this point rather than a dao pill.
Han Li heaved a faint sigh as he released an incantation seal, and all of the silver flames beneath the cauldron instantly surged back to him to form a fiery silver figure that vanished into his body.
He then made a beckoning motion, and the remnants of the pill flew out of the cauldron before flying onto the palm of his hand.
He held the pill up close to his eye for a thorough inspection, and the slight frustration in his heart gradually subsided.
He was already mentally prepared for his first dao pill refinement attempt to conclude in failure, particularly considering this was going to be a dao pill that contained one of the three paramount laws.
With that in mind, a faint smile appeared on his face.
This failed pill may have been useless to other pill refinement masters, but it was extremely useful to him.
He made a hand seal, and his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.
All of the 360 Time Dao Runes on its surface were giving off dazzling golden light, and the Eye of Truth at its center slowly opened to reveal the eyeball inside.
A beam of radiant golden light shot out of the eyeball, and countless golden runes appeared on the surface of the eye, much like a night sky full of golden stars.
With the emergence of these runes, the golden light released by the Eye of Truth began to flicker incessantly, creating a chaotic kaleidoscope-like effect.
With 360 Time Dao Runes on the Mantran Treasured Axis, the aura and observative powers had both been significantly enhanced.
Han Li closed his eyes so that he could see the world through the lens of the Eye of Truth, and he was able to see through teh restrictions set up in his cave abode with ease.
Not only that, but he was even able to clearly see the flow of spiritual power on the restrictions.
Unfortunately, he only had a few restrictions set up at the moment, and that was nowhere near enough to test the true limits of the Eye of Truth's observative powers.
There were definitely going to be more opportunities to test out the observative powers of the Eye of Truth in the future, but this wasn't the time to be doing such a thing, so he returned to the task at hand, focusing its gaze on the failed pill in his hand.
The beam of golden light shooting out of the Eye of Truth instantly fell upon the pill, which immediately began to glow with dazzling golden radiance while giving off bursts of time power fluctuations.
In the next instant, the pill began to revolve in mid-air, and a burst of green spirit liquid abruptly surged out of it.
At the same time, lights of different colors were flashing from the pill, and it was also displaying various other minute changes.
Essentially, the pill refinement process was being played out in reverse right in front of Han Li's eyes, allowing him to clearly observe the entire process.
One of the main things that had given Han Li the confidence to attempt dao pill refinement was none other than this time reversal ability of his Eye of Truth.
A layer of blue light surfaced in his eyes as he stared intently at the failed pill, latching onto every single detail.
All of a sudden, he spotted the misstep that had resulted in the pill's detonation.
The green liquid had been completely extracted out of the pill, and all of the lights of different colors on the pill also faded, restoring it to the state before the green liquid was added.
The scene continued to unfold, and a layer of white light emerged over the pill, following which some white powder was extracted out of it.
Once again, lights of different colors emerged over the pill alongside various minute changes.
Han Li hadn't made a mistake in this step, but he was still eager to see it again so that he could glean some insight and experience.
Thus, more and more ingredients continued to fly out of the pill one after another, and after reviewing the entire process, Han Li had developed a clearer understanding of the dao pill refinement process.
In the end, the pill was restored back to just the time crystal, which was then reverted back into the green liquid from the Heaven Controlling Vial, but Han Li was naturally not interested in this part.
Following a few flickers of golden light, the failed pill re-emerged.
Even though Han Li had reached the late-True Immortal Stage, unleashing the Eye of Truth still exhausted most of his immortal spiritual power.
He exhaled as pulled out a pill before swallowing it, then sat down to meditate, digesting the pill while carefully reviewing the dao pill refinement process in his mind once again.
An hour later, he opened his eyes, feeling completely reinvigorated.
However, he didn't immediately begin another attempt at dao pill refinement as it would take another month to manifest a time crystal.
During the rest of the month, Han Li didn't nothing aside from constantly using his Eye of Truth to review the pill refinement process over and over again.
A month passed by in the blink of an eye, and the Heaven Controlling Vial finally produced a drop of green liquid that was immediately converted into a time crystal by Han Li.
After that, he brought out another batch of ingredients and made his second pill refinement attempt.
Having reviewed the first attempt countless times, Han Li couldn't have been more familiar with the process, and the pill refinement progressed very smoothly, quickly reaching the stage where the green spirit liquid was to be integrated.
He pulled out a vial of green spirit liquid before guiding it into the cauldron, and it quickly shrank down in volume under the sweltering heat.
Han Li raised a hand to release a burst of azure light that enveloped the liquid before integrating it into the pill, and this time, the process was completed without a hitch.
Han Li heaved an internal sigh of relief upon seeing this, then transferred another ingredient into the cauldron.n-)o/-v)-e-/l(.b(-1-.n
Perhaps it was due to his extensive revision of his first pill refinement, but this second attempt was progressing very smoothly, and before long, there were only six or seven ingredients left.
However, at this point, a sheen of sweat had appeared on Han Li's forehead, and he seemed to be nearing his limits once again.
He gritted his teeth and braced himself as he transferred a white spirit gel substance into the cauldron, and a flash of white light abruptly appeared, followed by another dull thump, concluding with a charred odor wafting through the air.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, but he then quickly composed himself.
After resting for a moment with his eyes closed, he retrieved the failed pill from the cauldron, then summoned his Mantra Treasured Axis and began scrutinizing the pill with the Eye of Truth.
A beam of golden light shot into the pill, and the pill refinement process was played out in reverse once again.
Once again, Han Li was able to quickly pinpoint the reason for this failure.
One month later, he repeated the same process, commencing his third pill refinement, and prior to this, he had once again extensively reviewed his previous failure.
The time reversal ability of the Eye of Truth was virtually allowing him to simulate the pill refinement process over and over again, thereby granting him a huge amount of experience.
Just like last time, the pill refinement process progressed very smoothly, and before long, it was yet again time to add the white spirit gel substance into the cauldron.
He had already mastered the key to this step, and he was able to complete it without any trouble.
After that, he transferred another ingredient into the cauldron.
At this point, most of the pill refinement process was already complete, and he should've been very happy to have come so far after just two failures, but his mood was immediately dampened just 15 minutes later.
Another dull thump rang out from within the cauldron, heralding his third dao pill refinement failure.