Old Bai

Early the next morning, Yue Wen left the affairs office in Zhao Xing'er's care again and boarded a high-speed train to City Number Six.

The satellite cities within the same city were connected by highways and railways. Since they were all inside the barrier of a great formation, there was no need to cross the Wasteland Zone, making travel very convenient.

The other person had even given him his home address, and it was in the city center. There shouldn't be any need to worry about a trap.

The only thing Yue Wen was worried about was whether the other person's Blazing Flame Powder could really meet the requirements for cultivating Chaos Dragon Gang. He didn't know much about alchemy, and had only crammed overnight on how to judge the quality of premium Blazing Flame Powder.

But.

After arriving at the station and taking a taxi to his destination, Yue Wen looked up at the building ahead and couldn't help freezing.

It was a row of connected white buildings. A bright red sign hung in front of the first one: "Jiang City Psychiatric Hospital, City Number Six Branch."

This...

He'd gone to all this trouble thinking he was meeting an online friend, but it turned out he was meeting a fellow patient?

Why were the patients at this psychiatric hospital allowed to use their phones?!

Yue Wen's vision went black.

He couldn't exactly expect a mental patient to be some top-tier alchemist, could he?

Still, a tiny glimmer of hope remained in his heart. Just because someone lived in a hospital didn't mean they were a patient. Maybe this "Old Bai" was a doctor?

It was perfectly reasonable for a doctor to work as an alchemist on the side.

Even a security guard would do...

He knew perfectly well that the odds were slim. In the cultivation world of today, alchemists were highly prized—especially skilled ones capable of making premium Blazing Flame Powder.

With skills like that, there was no need for a side job. Making money would be as easy as playing a game.

But he was already here. After a moment's hesitation, he didn't turn around and leave. Instead, he went over to the security booth at the entrance and asked, "Sir, I'm here to see Old Bai. Can I go in?"

"Old Bai? You're here to buy medicine, right?" The elderly guard inside the booth looked Yue Wen up and down, then pointed to a building nearby. "Turn right. Room 208."

He really was the right guy, huh?

Before Yue Wen could turn away, the guard pulled an unopened gas mask from under the counter. "You'd better buy one of these if you're visiting him. I'll let you have it cheap—eight hundred yuan."

"Don't worry, sir. I have a cultivation base." Yue Wen waved him off.

He was even more curious about this alchemist now.

The building the guard had pointed to seemed to be a high-security ward. The rooms upstairs were all private, and following the floor signs, Yue Wen made his way to Room 208. The room was much larger than the others, taking up almost half a floor.

Through the glass beside the door, Yue Wen saw green mist swirling inside.

It really did look sinister.

He knocked on the door. Rat-a-tat-tat.

No answer.

He'd messaged the other person on Cultivation Chat before getting out of the car, but still hadn't received a reply. He didn't know if the man was still asleep or busy with something. Yue Wen took a deep breath, held it, then carefully pushed the door open and went inside.

Hiss—

The green mist inside was thick and viscous. The moment it touched his skin, it sizzled as if it were corroding him, making his skin sting faintly. Yue Wen's cultivation was strong and his body robust; an ordinary person would have felt like they were swimming in sulfuric acid.

How was a gas mask supposed to solve this?

Strangely, not a wisp of gas escaped when the door opened. It was as if the mist had a mind of its own.

After passing through the green mist and around a broad worktable cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends, Yue Wen entered the inner room and saw a white-clad figure with his back to him, busy at work.

It was a tall man with disheveled long hair, wearing a white hazmat suit and a mask. In front of him was something like a laboratory bench, with a large beaker on it. A mass of unidentified purple liquid inside the beaker was bubbling away.

He kept adding things to it, muttering, "A little of this... and a little more of that..."

Yue Wen watched as he poured in two jars of who-knew-what. Suddenly, the great mass of purple liquid stood up!

That was right—the liquid gradually took on the shape of a grotesque human figure and rose out of the beaker, letting out a faint, wailing cry. "Aah—"

As Yue Wen's eyes widened, the man pulled a gun from his pocket and fired at the liquid's head.

Bang!

Yue Wen's eyebrow twitched.

He was certain he'd seen it right. An alchemist had just "executed" a mass of medicine with a gun?

He knew nothing about alchemy, but he was utterly stunned.

After the shot, the purple liquid settled back down, splattering into the beaker with a slap and turning into an ordinary-looking medicinal liquid.

"Heh heh, success."

The man gave a strange laugh and examined his handiwork with satisfaction. Then he turned to fetch a bottle for the liquid and finally noticed Yue Wen.

"Who are you?" he asked, his tone unfriendly.

"I'm the person who arranged to meet you on Cultivation Chat. I'm here to test the Blazing Flame Powder." Yue Wen gave an awkward smile, feeling deeply wary of the man in front of him.

"Oh."

The man thought for a moment before nodding. First, he finished bottling the liquid without paying Yue Wen any mind, then took out a gourd. He raised it into the air, and all the green mist in the room was sucked into its mouth.

In the blink of an eye, the room was clear again.

Yue Wen was finally able to breathe.

Only after the air had cleared did the man remove his mask, revealing a disheveled face with a very high hairline, a hooked nose, and a drooping mustache. He looked to be in his forties or fifties. One eye stared straight at Yue Wen, while the other looked off to the side.

He looked like a real sage.

"I was refining Soul Dream Yellow Springs Water just now. It contains a hundred or so living nightmares, so it's highly active. I released the Yang Poison Miasma to keep it from escaping and to block the yin entities."

After explaining, he took a small, sealed bottle of transparent white powder from a nearby box and tossed it onto the workbench. "Go ahead and test it."

There was only a tiny amount of powder in the bottle, specifically set aside for him to test.

Yue Wen had looked into it beforehand. The most important property of Blazing Flame Powder was that it ignited when it came into contact with qi, allowing the flames to burn at full strength within the qi sea. But he'd never actually tested it himself, so he put on the air of an expert and said to Old Bai, "Just light some for me. I'll take a look."

"Mm..." Old Bai took a few steps back and shook his head. "I only sell the stuff. I don't touch it."

Huh?

Yue Wen found that a little strange, but there were already plenty of weird things about this man. He had no choice but to pick up the little bottle himself and remove the stopper.

There was only a pinch of powder at the bottom. He figured nothing would go wrong, so he gathered his true qi, drew out the fire energy, and ignited the powder.

According to what he'd found online, if a small pinch of Blazing Flame Powder—about half a fingernail's worth—could produce a spiritual flame as tall as a palm, it was acceptable; if it reached a foot, it was excellent; and if it reached three feet, it was the finest quality in the world.

As the fire spiritual energy he summoned touched the small pinch of Blazing Flame Powder, every grain at the bottom of the bottle suddenly lit up. A warning bell rang in Yue Wen's heart.

He flung the bottle from his hand.

A winding fire dragon several yards long erupted from the bottle in midair. It scorched the air with a rumble like a dragon's roar, stretching across the sky!

Boom—

If Yue Wen hadn't reacted in time, the fire dragon would have exploded in his hand and left him badly scarred.

"What's going on?" He turned and glared at Old Bai. No wonder the man hadn't touched it. He probably knew the stuff was dangerous!

"You saw it for yourself." Old Bai's eyes gleamed with excitement. "The Blazing Flame Powder I make is absolutely more powerful than any fire-boosting medicine on the market! A mere pinch is enough to make your qi sea erupt in flames!"

"Isn't that a little too much?" Yue Wen frowned. "Are you sure this stuff is safe to swallow?"

"No idea." Old Bai shook his head at once.

Yue Wen: "..."

Well, at least he was honest.

"You only said you wanted high-quality Blazing Flame Powder. You never said it had to be safe to swallow." Old Bai seemed to notice Yue Wen's displeasure and scratched the back of his head. "Just look at how good the quality is. That's all that matters."

What a novel idea.

If I'm not buying Blazing Flame Powder to swallow and refine Gang in my qi sea, what am I supposed to do with it? Stuff it into fireworks and set them off for the New Year?

"Could you make me something a little more normal? High quality is good and all... but it doesn't have to be this high." Yue Wen tried asking.

"No." Old Bai refused flatly. "This is my exclusive secret recipe. I'm the only person in the world who can make this peerless Blazing Flame Powder! If I made ordinary stuff, how would I be any different from all those mediocre alchemists out there?"

"Master, I understand your principles," Yue Wen urged. "But the customer is king. Who can you sell this stuff to?"

"Of course I'd sell it to a peerless genius of this era, someone destined to rise like a dragon!" Old Bai gripped Yue Wen's shoulder, took a deep breath, then continued, "I can smell it. The true qi you released just now was exquisite—absolutely first-rate Cultivation Method! A breakthrough with true qi of this quality deserves my Blazing Flame Powder!"

"It is a little dangerous..."

"But my peerless Blazing Flame Powder can catalyze spiritual flames to the fullest, making the Gang you refine as pure as possible! The moment you break through, your Gang's strength will rival that of experts who've spent years in the Gang Realm. You'll start far ahead of everyone else, with unlimited potential!"

"And it's not as if failure means you'll die. As long as you can find the finest Grand Unity Profound Blazing Cinnabar to protect yourself, even if your attempt to refine Gang fails, you'll only lose a little cultivation and have to start over. What's there to fear?"

Yue Wen listened to his enticing pitch and found himself somewhat tempted. But seeing the way Old Bai's eyes kept darting around, as if standing guard one moment and keeping watch the next, he still asked with some concern, "Has anyone ever died from taking your medicine?"

"Why do you think I live here?" Old Bai shrugged. "The main reason is that I don't have to pay rent or utilities. The second is that killing people isn't against the law here."