Goal 29: Peak Sixth-grade Alchemist Within Two Years

After entrusting Su Muyue to Miter Ya Fei, Su Luo began considering how to obtain a Peak Sixth-grade healing pill.

Based on Su Luo's understanding of this Dou Qi Continent, he knew of three Alchemists in the Northwest Region capable of refining Sixth-grade Pills.

The first was Pill King Gu He of the Gamma Empire. However, Gu He was the first person Su Luo ruled out. Su Luo was the same age as Xiao Yan, who had not yet turned twelve. Gu He had won the Gamma Empire Alchemist Grand Competition when Xiao Yan was less than two years old, after which the sect master Yun Shan had invited him to join the Misty Cloud Sect.

Reaching the Sixth-grade from the Fourth-grade in less than ten years in a place like the Gamma Empire already proved that Gu He was exceptionally talented. Expecting him to reach the Peak Sixth-grade in a short time was practically impossible.

In the original story, even after Gu He advanced to Dou Emperor, his Alchemy Skill still lost to Xiao Yan, who was then a Peak Sixth-grade Alchemist. Not to mention that Gu He had only recently advanced to Dou Wang. Going from the initial Sixth-grade to the Peak Sixth-grade in two years was simply impossible.

Besides Gu He, there was another existence within the Gamma Empire capable of refining Sixth-grade Pills. In fact, even Seventh-grade Pills were no difficult task for that person.

After all, Venerable Yao, Yao Chen, had been a Peak Eighth-grade Alchemist before his death. After advancing to Dou Saint, he had even refined a Ninth-grade Nine Nether Yellow Spring Pill for Xiao Yan, helping him refine the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame.

A Peak Sixth-grade pill was nothing more than a trivial matter to Venerable Yao.

But the problem was still the timeline.

Su Luo and Xiao Yan were the same age. Su Luo was now eleven and a half, not yet twelve, and Xiao Yan was about the same.

Medicine Elder began absorbing Xiao Yan's Dou Qi when Xiao Yan was twelve, and by the time he officially appeared, Xiao Yan was already fifteen.

He had spent three years merely absorbing Dou Qi, while Su Luo only had two years.

It was not that Su Luo had not considered going to the Xiao Family to find Medicine Elder once Xiao Yan turned twelve. But when Xiao Yan lost all his Dou Qi overnight at twelve, Su Luo might be able to approach the Xiao Family using his identity as an Alchemist. However, Medicine Elder would still need a supply of Dou Qi to recover.

And even if Su Luo's Dou Qi could also be used by Medicine Elder, Su Luo still remembered just how weak Medicine Elder had been when he first appeared.

When Xiao Yan was sixteen, Medicine Elder had only recovered to Dou Ling. During their training in the Monster Mountain Range, Medicine Elder's restored strength was at most at the Dou Wang level. It was not until the Tagor Desert that he reached Dou Emperor strength.

Alchemy did not demand much Dou Qi, but it still had certain requirements. If Su Luo could raise his cultivation to the Dou Master realm within half a year and give his Dou Qi to Medicine Elder, perhaps Medicine Elder could recover faster than in the original story. But if he did not recover that quickly, then Medicine Elder's strength would not be enough to refine a Sixth-grade Pill. And if, after snatching Medicine Elder's Storage Ring from Xiao Yan, Medicine Elder began testing Su Luo's intentions, things would become serious.

If his Dou Qi was gone, Su Luo could recover it in a little over a year with his current reserves of Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid. But if Su Muyue died, her soul strength would not allow her another chance at resurrection.

Furthermore, that Storage Ring had been left to Xiao Yan by his mother. If Xiao Yan's Dou Qi had not been drained for three years, driving his anger to its limit, he would never have simply thrown away that Storage Ring.

Yet it was precisely that burst of rage that made Xiao Yan toss out the Storage Ring in an instant. But he immediately regretted it afterward, because it was the only relic his mother had left him.

Without suffering one or two years of setbacks, Xiao Yan would never trade his mother's keepsake for Su Luo's help in restoring his talent.

Even after enduring enough setbacks, his mother's relic was not something a righteous protagonist like Xiao Yan would casually use as bargaining material.

Perhaps Xiao Yan would agree once the clan rites pushed him to the brink, but by then Medicine Elder should have officially emerged as well. The timing was another trap.

"Gu He, Medicine Elder... every single one of them is blocked by timing."

After assessing Gu He and Medicine Elder's situations, Su Luo cursed under his breath. Then he recalled the last Sixth-grade Alchemist he knew of and immediately shook his head.

As someone who had read the original Battle Through the Heavens, Su Luo hardly needed to think to know the identity of the last Sixth-grade Alchemist in the Northwest Region during this point in the timeline: Han Feng, the Medicine Emperor of the Black Corner Region.

The good news was that Han Feng was a genuine Peak Sixth-grade Alchemist. Moreover, he possessed some pill formulas left behind by Venerable Yao, Yao Chen, and had spent many years in the Black Corner Region. He almost certainly had Peak Sixth-grade healing pills.

And because his stockpile was abundant and he craved Heavenly Flames, information about the Green Lotus Core Flame would definitely be worth more than a single Peak Sixth-grade pill to him.

If someone gave Han Feng accurate information about a Heavenly Flame, it would be perfectly normal for him to break the Alchemist rule of three portions of ingredients for one pill and directly give the informant three Peak Sixth-grade pills.

But his problem was also the greatest among the three.

He did not have a timing issue, but his character was truly terrible.

With Su Luo's mere Dou Zhe cultivation, even if he met Han Feng and gave him news of the Heavenly Flame, Su Luo could not be sure whether Han Feng would kill him after obtaining it and reclaim the pills he had handed over.

For a Peak Sixth-grade Alchemist who possessed a Heavenly Flame, Sixth-grade Pills were nothing. But given Su Luo's strength, which Han Feng could crush with a casual gesture, Han Feng's character made the outcome difficult to predict.

Su Luo still remembered the auction in Black Emperor City. Mo Tianxing had accepted the Seventh-grade Life Reversal Pill, only to turn around and prepare to take Old Man Eagle Mountain's life and seize his Bodhi Body Transformation Saliva.

The people of the Black Corner Region had no credibility whatsoever, especially Medicine Emperor Han Feng, that bastard whose ambitions soared higher than the heavens while his fate was thinner than paper.

Instead of remaining the half-son of Venerable Yao, with a future guaranteed to reach at least Dou Zun and the Eighth-grade as an Alchemist, he chose to betray Venerable Yao and become a dog of the Soul Hall for the highly risky Flame Mantra. In the end, he could only scrape by in the Black Corner Region as a Sixth-grade Alchemist with the so-called title of Medicine Emperor. Even after dying and coming back to life, he failed to reach the Dou Zun level. He could be called the greatest fool on the Dou Qi Continent.

His shortsightedness could not even be described as narrow-minded. Killing the person who gave him the Heavenly Flame information afterward would not contradict his character in the slightest.

"Gu He, Medicine Elder, Han Feng... none of them can be relied upon. In that case, there is only..." Su Luo looked toward Su Muyue and clenched his fist. "I will become a Peak Sixth-grade Alchemist within these two years and bring that Sixth-grade Pill back."