Alchemy and the First Encounter

Stepping out of the tower doors, warm sunlight poured down, easing Lin Yuan a little after he had spent a full half a month inside. He raised his head and took a look at the blue sky, then drew in a deep breath of fresh air. Cultivating inside the Heavenly Flame Refining Tower was indeed more efficient than cultivating outside, but after all, being there for too long was somewhat oppressive.

As Lin Yuan's thoughts wandered, he could not help thinking of those Jiejie Monsters from the Hall of Souls. Spending all day in gloomy environments with eerie laughter ringing around them—after so long, did they really have no psychological problems?

Lin Yuan shook his head, casting the stray thoughts from his mind and pulling back his wandering thoughts. After pondering for a moment, Lin Yuan walked toward the Medicinal Herb Repository.

"Dou Qi has already been tempered properly, and through the process of refining my Dou Qi, my use of Soul Power has also grown proficient. It's time to complete the alchemy task Fire Master gave me and polish my Alchemy Process. If I'm lucky, I might even run into Zi Yan in the medicinal herb room."

Lin Yuan had already confirmed through the Strong Ranking that Zi Yan had been brought back by the Great Elder, Su Qian, two years ago. Zi Yan was one of his most important targets in coming to the Inner Academy.

Before long, Lin Yuan arrived at the Medicinal Herb Repository. Elder Hao, who managed the repository, had clearly already been informed by the Great Elder, but even so, when he looked at Lin Yuan's young face, he could not help clicking his tongue in wonder. His attitude also became even warmer, and he readily handed over the large quantity of medicinal herbs and Magic Cores listed on the inventory Lin Yuan had provided.

After Lin Yuan obtained the medicinal herbs, though he felt a small regret that he had failed to "coincidentally meet" Zi Yan this time, he still smiled and bid Elder Hao farewell.

"Looks like, for me, fate really can't be relied on. I'll use a scheme instead. Perfect—last time I went fishing, I happened to harvest a decent piece of bait!"

Having made up his mind, Lin Yuan came to a secluded mountain. This mountain was near the necessary route from the rear mountain range to the Inner Academy student area. Afterward, Lin Yuan took out all the medicinal herbs he had withdrawn from the Medicinal Herb Repository from his storage ring. They were all herbs used to refine fourth-grade and lower medicinal pills. Then he also took out the Spirit Pulp Fruit, one of the main ingredients for the Dou Spirit Pill he had obtained while fishing in the Black Corner Region after breaking through to Dou Wang, and placed it outside.

"The Ancient Void Dragon has a treasure-seeking talent, and Zi Yan often goes into the mountains to look for treasures. As long as she travels between the mountains and the academy, with this many medicinal herbs and pills here, there's no way she won't sense them. Next, I can just wait patiently!" Lin Yuan calculated inwardly.

After that, Lin Yuan took out his medicinal cauldron and prepared to begin refining some fourth-grade medicinal pills to hand over to the academy, such as Qi Gathering Powder, Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill, Spirit Gathering Pill, and Meridian Cleansing Pill.

"I'll warm up with the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill first!"

For the current Lin Yuan, refining a fourth-grade medicinal pill that only had ten or twenty medicinal ingredients was already something he could do with ease. With a thought, he conjured a cluster of Azure Spirit Flame and sent it into the medicinal cauldron. Then he lightly waved his sleeve, accurately sweeping the dozen or so medicinal ingredients for refining the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill before him, placing them in and extracting them one by one according to the standard steps, completing the refinement process.

Afterward, Lin Yuan placed the refined essences into the medicinal cauldron together and began the pill fusion step. Powerful Soul Power surged out from between his brows, precisely controlling the flame temperature and the merging of the medicinal substances. Not long after, as the medicinal pill was about to be completed, a wave of pill fragrance spread out.

"It's done!"

Lin Yuan lightly waved his hand, and a round, plump, purple medicinal pill the size of a dragon eye and carrying pill mist flew into Lin Yuan's hand. Lin Yuan examined it, then nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. A top-quality Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill."

Putting away the medicinal pill, Lin Yuan began refining the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill again. However, this time, he did not use his previous method. Instead, he began testing the method he had envisioned. During the extraction step, he directly gave up using the medicinal cauldron and instead used the Azure Spirit Flame, finely controlled by his exceptional Soul Power, to wrap around the medicinal herbs and extract their essences through its temperature. At first, he seemed slightly awkward, but later he became smoother and smoother, until he could refine multiple medicinal ingredients at once as fluidly as flowing clouds and running water.

After the extraction of the medicinal herbs was complete, Lin Yuan used the medicinal cauldron to complete pill fusion and obtained a high-grade Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill. After seeing it, Lin Yuan furrowed his brows slightly. "There's no problem with this line of thought, but directly using flame to extract the essence still requires practice. I'll practice properly during this task!"

After thinking through the details of his previous alchemy process, Lin Yuan continued refining pills, gradually correcting and perfecting all kinds of details in his pill-refining process.

More than ten days later, after finishing a round of pill refining, Lin Yuan, who was sitting there with his eyes closed and regulating his breathing as if asleep, suddenly curled the corner of his mouth into a smile. "Finally took the bait! My waiting this long wasn't in vain."

Behind him, a sneaky, petite figure was approaching. That little hand was also reaching toward the Spirit Pulp Fruit. Just as it was about to touch it, a slightly lazy and teasing voice entered her ears: "Little sister, what are you doing?" At the same time, that Spirit Pulp Fruit flew away as if it had a mind of its own.

The little girl's gaze followed the Spirit Pulp Fruit until it landed in a slender hand, while the owner of that hand—the young man who had clearly been asleep—had already turned around and was looking at her with a faint smile.

Lin Yuan looked at the little girl before him. She seemed no more than eleven or twelve years old, with long, pale-purple hair hanging straight down to her waist. Her cheeks were extremely fair and tender, and her delicate, jade-carved appearance was exceedingly cute. She was emitting the aura of a Dou Wang. It was indeed Zi Yan without a doubt.

"Give my spirit fruit back, or I'll eat you." Seeing her target fall into someone else's hands, Zi Yan shouted somewhat angrily.

"No, it's my spirit fruit." What answered Zi Yan was a reply tinged with a smile.

Hearing Lin Yuan's words, a dangerous look appeared in Zi Yan's eyes. Without saying more, she stamped her foot fiercely on the ground. Her powerful physical strength stomped a small pit into the earth, while her body shot rapidly toward Lin Yuan. Her target was precisely the spirit fruit in Lin Yuan's hand.

The corner of Lin Yuan's mouth, who had long since enveloped Zi Yan with his Soul Perception, curled up. He activated his movement Dou Skill, which had become as natural as habit, and with a flash of his figure, avoided Zi Yan.

Seeing that her strike missed, Zi Yan used her feet to brake herself, swiftly turned around, and pounced toward Lin Yuan again. Unfortunately, she still missed. After repeating this several times, she did not even touch the corner of Lin Yuan's clothes.

The puffed-up Zi Yan shouted at Lin Yuan, "You're making me so mad! If you've got the guts, don't run! Fight your grandaunt head-on, and watch your grandaunt eat you!"

Hearing this, Lin Yuan tossed the Spirit Pulp Fruit in his left hand. He extended the fingers of his right hand and crooked them at Zi Yan, smiling as he said, "Then I'll do as you say. Come on, little girl."

Hearing this, Zi Yan pounced toward Lin Yuan again. This time, Lin Yuan did not dodge directly. Instead, he circulated his Dou Qi and clashed with Zi Yan, assessing Zi Yan's combat strength as they fought.

"Her physical body and Dou Qi are both quite good, roughly at the level of a two- to three-star Dou Wang. Her fighting style is wide open and forceful, her attack intentions are too direct, and her methods of attack are too monotonous. Compared to the way humans fight, it's closer to the way Magic Beasts fight. Overall, she has plenty of strength but lacks technique."

After figuring out Zi Yan's level, Lin Yuan decided to wrap things up. He activated his overwhelming Soul Power to disrupt and interfere with Zi Yan's perception. Then, while making a few feints, he overlaid Instant Step onto Roaming Dragon Steps and created an afterimage.

The somewhat heated Zi Yan punched through the "Lin Yuan" afterimage. The instant the afterimage dispersed, under Zi Yan's somewhat puzzled gaze, a hand pinched into a sword finger had already appeared before her eyes. There was no longer time to dodge. This is bad!

However, unexpectedly, the gesture of the hand before her eyes smoothly changed from a sword finger to a finger flick, lightly flicking Zi Yan's delicate forehead. Then a soft laugh entered Zi Yan's ears.

"Getting distracted before a battle is over isn't a good habit, little girl!"

Lin Yuan's figure flashed, and he stood two meters in front of Zi Yan, smiling as he looked at her.