Two and a Half Years

Inside the finest inn in Qingshan Town, in Su Luo's room, the essences of numerous medicinal ingredients were gradually extracted within the medicinal cauldron. Under the control of Su Luo's Spiritual Power and Soul Power, they slowly began to take the shape of a pill.

"Condense!"

As Su Luo continued pouring out his Soul Power, a pill gradually took shape. Yet even after it formed, Su Luo's refinement did not end. Only after it had been nourished for quite some time did he remove it from the medicinal cauldron.

"Still no Pill Pattern?"

Su Luo frowned slightly as he looked at the pill he had painstakingly refined. He was deeply dissatisfied that it had not produced a Pill Pattern.

"It is a Second-grade Pill, after all. Normally, your Soul Power would not be enough to support the refinement of a pill of this level. You had to process the Soul Power I gave you while refining the medicine. Being able to reach this level is already very good," Su Muyue comforted him.

Under normal circumstances, Su Luo's Soul Power was wholly insufficient for refining a Second-grade Pill. Fortunately, Su Muyue and Su Luo not only possessed the same martial soul, but were also mother and son. Thus, when Su Muyue injected her Soul Power into Su Luo's body to replenish him, there was not much rejection.

It was precisely because of this that Su Luo was qualified to refine pills with borrowed Soul Power despite his own insufficient reserves.

Su Luo gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Mother, stop comforting me. At the beginning, I did need to process that Soul Power, but hadn't you already finished processing it for me over the past two years? If I didn't refine it well, then I didn't refine it well. There is nothing to say about that."

Su Muyue rubbed Su Luo's head. "I am not comforting you; it is the truth. In just two and a half years, you went from being able to refine only medicinal liquids to refining Second-grade Pills. That is already remarkable. Reaching the level of a Second-grade Alchemist before even turning twelve—even across the entire continent, you would probably be one of the rarest geniuses."

"Qin Hao kept saying that his son Qin Teng had the potential to become a Title Douluo. Compared with my son, what does Qin Teng amount to?"

Over her more than three years living on the Dou Qi Continent, Su Muyue had gained a great deal of understanding about this world. She knew of Dou Huang experts slaughtering tens of thousands of elite soldiers, as well as Ice Emperor Hai Bodong sealing an entire city in ice, and the many displays of power by Dou Huang experts.

Su Luo had only spent eight years in Douluo Continent and had never seen high-level Soul Masters fight, so he had little concrete understanding of those powerful figures.

But Su Muyue, as the daughter of a Soul Douluo family, had seen Soul Douluos and even some Title Douluos. As such, she had a certain understanding of their power.

Based on what Su Muyue knew, none of the Title Douluos she had seen possessed power on the level of a Dou Huang.

Whether it was slaughtering an army of tens of thousands alone or directly destroying an entire great city, those were powers that Title Douluos did not possess.

Yet Dou Huangs, whose power far surpassed that of Title Douluos, only held status comparable to a Fifth-grade Alchemist at best—and perhaps not even that.

As for a Sixth-grade Alchemist, many Dou Huang experts would gladly work for one, hoping to owe them a favor so that it would be easier to ask them to refine medicine in the future.

Su Luo had refined Blood Coagulating Powder when he was eight. Now, at a little over eleven years old, he could already refine Second-grade Pills. Even Elder Gu He of the Misty Cloud Sect had never achieved that.

One had to know that Elder Gu He of the Misty Cloud Sect had only recently broken through to the Dou Wang realm and refined a Sixth-grade Pill, earning himself the title of Pill King from the entire Gamma Empire.

If someone less talented than Su Luo in alchemy could be called the Pill King, then should Su Luo be called the Medicine Emperor in the future?

Su Muyue thought that was very likely.

Su Luo scratched his head. "I was not comparing myself to him."

The moment Su Luo arrived in the Gamma Empire, once he became capable of cultivating Dou Qi, Qin Teng had already become someone he could not compare himself with. Thus, in Su Luo's eyes, Qin Teng was not his benchmark at all. His true point of comparison was Xiao Yan of this world.

In the original Battle Through the Heavens, Xiao Yan reached the level of a Fourth-grade Alchemist in just two years. That was the goal Su Luo sought to emulate.

He was not sure whether his own talent surpassed Xiao Yan's, but the alchemy Notes left behind by a Sixth-grade Alchemist certainly could not compare to the personal instruction of Medicine Elder, a Peak Eighth-grade Alchemist.

Even if that Sixth-grade Alchemist had come from the Five Great Families of Dan Tower and might even have been taught by a Seventh-grade Alchemist, the usefulness of a set of Notes was ultimately limited. With no one to answer his questions, Su Luo still had to make attempt after attempt and draw experience from failure after failure.

It was only because the money in the cave was enough to squander. If he had also needed to earn money himself to buy medicinal ingredients, he might not even have reached the level of a Second-grade Alchemist in two and a half years.

"No matter who you compare yourself with, I believe in my son. Over the past hundred years, no one from the Su Family has ever managed to cross into another world."

Su Luo: "..."

Were Third Young Master's characters really dumbed down, or had no one simply thought in that direction?

"Never mind that, Mother. Help protect me. It is time for me to break through to Dou Zhe."

Without re-cultivating, without the Eight Extremes Collapse to aid his cultivation, and with alchemy consuming half of his training time, Su Luo had only barely reached Ninth-stage Dou Qi in less than two and a half years by relying on his meridians being able to withstand medicinal assistance.

Su Luo had now remained at the Ninth-stage Dou Qi level for nearly two months. He had confirmed that breaking through would not make his foundation unstable, so he decided it was time.

"Alright." Su Muyue agreed, then began standing guard beside him.

Su Luo sat cross-legged. After adjusting his condition for a while, he took out a dose of Qi Gathering Powder.

Qi Gathering Powder was something that only a Fourth-grade Alchemist could refine, so Su Luo naturally could not make it yet. Fortunately, he had obtained enough gold coins during that treasure hunt in the cave two and a half years ago.

With ample gold coins, along with the many large batches of pills Su Luo had sent to the Mittel Auction House for auction—enough to establish that he was an Alchemist—Su Luo easily obtained a Gold Card from the Mittel Auction House. Using that card, he bought Qi Gathering Powder, something scarcely sold in a small place like Wutan City.

As his condition gradually reached its peak, Su Luo tossed the Qi Gathering Powder, which only a Fourth-grade Alchemist could refine, into his mouth.

After chewing for a moment, a surge of pure energy traveled from his mouth straight into his organs. With the inner vision he had gained upon reaching the Soul Master realm, Su Luo controlled both his Dou Qi and the medicinal power with great precision. He easily guided the power of the Qi Gathering Powder to merge with the Dou Qi in his body, then refined and compressed it repeatedly until it formed the Dou Qi Vortex possessed only by Dou Zhes.

Thus, Su Luo: eleven and a half years old, One-star Dou Zhe, Second-grade Alchemist.