Earth Fire Alchemy

The spiritual field, several acres in size, was divided into many plots, each shimmering with different spiritual lights, clearly indicating the presence of several magic formations.

Walking through this spiritual field, some areas were scorching hot, like midsummer, while others were chillingly cold, covered in thick ice. Some sections were also arranged to be exceptionally dark and humid, resembling the environment within deep mountain caves.

The reason for so many different arrangements was that various spiritual herbs have different growth environments; they can only survive and grow in specific conditions. This spiritual field, encompassing over a dozen environments, was considered quite good.

After passing through this spiritual field, Wei Suo entered a courtyard resembling a traditional quadrangle, with a small garden in the center.

Besides the main hall at the entrance, a study, and a side room for sleeping, there was also a quiet room specifically for cultivation, with excellent soundproofing and a soft blanket woven from silver silk grass.

This quiet room was built right against the mountainside, and on the mountain wall, there was a stone door.

Pushing open this heavy stone door and walking about ten steps into the passage within the mountain wall, Wei Suo felt a wave of intense heat wash over him. Inside, there were two rooms. One, about twenty to thirty zhang square, was empty, with its hard stone walls pockmarked by the impacts of various spells, clearly a room designed for cultivators to test the power of their spells and magic artifacts. The other room was the main focus for Wei Suo: the Earth Fire Furnace Room.

The entire Earth Fire Furnace Room was square, about seven to eight zhang in size. Besides a stone table on the left side of the entrance, a bronze earth fire furnace, half the height of a person, stood in the center.

The four legs of this furnace were carved with scale-like patterns, resembling the claws of four qilin. Above the round furnace opening, bursts of scorching hot air continuously rose. Above the opening, eighteen small, open-mouthed green toads were positioned as if spitting, looking very lifelike.

"As expected of a place that costs eighty low-grade spirit stones a month! I wonder what heavenly-grade residences are like."

Standing in this Earth Fire Furnace Room, which could be used for both artifact refining and alchemy, Wei Suo couldn't help but sigh.

With a spiritual field and an earth fire furnace room, if the restrictions were a bit stronger, it would almost qualify as a cave dwelling.

Cultivating in a place like this was countless times more comfortable than in the small stone house in the west of the city, but Wei Suo wasn't here to enjoy himself. For him now, eighty low-grade spirit stones a month still felt like a painful expense.

Although it was still daytime and the Green Robe Old Man was resting in the Ghost Nurturing Jar, Wei Suo didn't idle. After a moment of sighing, he immediately returned to the quiet room, took out a pale yellow mid-grade spirit stone, and began cultivating with his eyes closed.

Wei Suo had already packed everything from the small stone house in the west of the city, including the four portraits of Shui Ling'er, into his Treasure Pouch. However, throughout the day, Wei Suo only cultivated the Purple Profound True Art and did not take out the Golden Silk Talisman Brush or other materials to refine talismans, because he had learned from the Green Robe Old Man that alchemy consumed just as much mental energy as refining talismans.

After it got completely dark, Wei Suo, holding the Ghost Nurturing Jar from which the Green Robe Old Man had emerged, entered the Earth Fire Furnace Room.

"Green Toad Earth Fire Furnace, it's passable," the Green Robe Old Man said, glancing at the bronze furnace in the center and curling his lip. "You familiarize yourself with the furnace's heat first."

Wei Suo nodded and, following the instructions of the two snobbish Tianyi Sect disciples from before, channeled a stream of True Essence into one of the green toad statues above the bronze furnace opening.

"Puff..."

"Holy crap!" Wei Suo was startled as a stream of dark red fire instantly erupted from the toad's mouth, and a somewhat pungent Fire Fiend Qi immediately filled the entire furnace room.

"Is this the Earth Fire drawn from the Earth Heart Fire Vein?"

Wei Suo could feel that the heat contained within this stream of fire, which looked as thick as oil, was incomparably more terrifying than the fireballs produced by his Fireball Talisman. Fortunately, the stream of fire from the toad's mouth was very stable, forming a single column that coiled and burned in the center of the furnace opening.

As Wei Suo channeled another stream of True Essence into the fire-breathing toad, its light flickered and died, and the blazing fire spewing from its mouth instantly vanished.

The eighteen fire toads could spew eighteen streams of flame, representing controllable heat at eighteen different temperatures.

After watching Wei Suo familiarize himself with the Green Toad Earth Fire Furnace, the Green Robe Old Man said sternly, "You only need to activate five fire toads for now, then place the pill furnace on the furnace opening."

Wei Suo nodded and injected five streams of True Essence consecutively. Five streams of thick, dark red flames gushed out from three of the toad's mouths, converging to form a flower-like flame.

Wei Suo took out an ordinary Black Gold Pill Furnace he had bought from a small shop and placed it even more carefully above the flame on the furnace opening.

The Heaven Mending Pill did not have any special requirements for the pill furnace, as long as it could withstand the heat of the Earth Fire.

"Good, two pieces of Cold Dew Root!"

Following the Green Robe Old Man's instructions, two pieces of pale green tubers, which looked somewhat like potatoes and had clearly been carefully selected and pre-portioned, were placed into the Black Gold Pill Furnace.

As soon as they were put into the furnace, the moisture within the two pieces of Cold Dew Root was instantly roasted and rose up. In just half an incense stick's time, both pieces of Cold Dew Root completely cracked open, baked into two clumps of pale green powder.

"Prepare three Silver Moon Grass and five Seven Leaf Orchids. Good! Quickly, add them simultaneously!"

Wei Suo released them with his hand. Three peculiar silvery plants and five Seven Leaf Orchids, which had small purple flowers and seven leaves, simultaneously fell into the pill furnace.

Under the extremely high heat, the three Silver Moon Grass and five Seven Leaf Orchids quickly turned into ash-like powder, becoming silver and purple dust.

"Prepare ten Purple Void Grass and one Green Armored Beetle Demonic Core. When I tell you to put them in, you must immediately cover the pill furnace," the Green Robe Old Man said with extreme solemnity.

"Okay." Wei Suo took a deep breath, rubbed his hands, his heart also very tense. After all, the rest were minor matters; a single Green Armored Beetle Demonic Core was worth sixty low-grade spirit stones. If it was accidentally ruined, it would be no different from burning money.

"Not yet?" Wei Suo, whose attention was highly focused, waited for a while. Seeing that the purple powder from the Seven Leaf Orchid had already become scorched, baked into black granules, Wei Suo could no longer hold back and quickly asked.

"Stop the nonsense," the Green Robe Old Man reprimanded. After nearly another incense stick's time, when the silver powder from the Silver Moon Grass had even begun to turn snow-white, he suddenly shouted, "Quick, put them in!"

Wei Suo reacted instinctively, throwing the Purple Void Grass and the Green Armored Beetle Demonic Core in, and quickly covered the pill furnace. The moment they were put in, they immediately turned into wisps of purple and greenish-yellow mist.

As time passed bit by bit, faint medicinal fragrance emanated from the small cauldron, invigorating the spirit upon smelling it.

"Open two more fire toads!" Just as Wei Suo was beginning to think the pill was about to be successfully refined, the Green Robe Old Man shouted again.

Wei Suo didn't dare to hesitate and immediately activated two more fire toads.

Under the more intense Earth Fire spewing forth, the entire, not-so-large Black Gold Pill Furnace was almost completely enveloped in flames.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..." Suddenly, a sound like boiling oil came from within the pill furnace.

"What's happening?" Wei Suo was startled.

"This is the various spiritual herbs being roasted into medicinal liquid, and then they will condense into a pill," the Green Robe Old Man quickly said, still watching the pill furnace enveloped in flames with full concentration.

"Quick, extinguish three fire toads!" Suddenly, the Green Robe Old Man yelled.

"What!" Wei Suo hurriedly channeled streams of True Essence into the fire toads. But as he extinguished the second fire toad, a loud "pop" sound came from the pill furnace.

"Extinguish them all." Upon hearing this sound, the Green Robe Old Man's expression turned somewhat grim. "This Heaven Mending Pill has been ruined."

"Ruined?" Wei Suo, heartbroken, extinguished all the Earth Fire from the fire toads. He lifted the extremely hot lid and looked, only to see many greenish-yellow fragments inside, like sparkling crystal shards.

"I can't refine pills by myself either. I need to time it precisely to remind you, which is already difficult. Plus, it's been a while since I last refined any pills, so my control over the heat is still a bit off," the Green Robe Old Man said. This time, he didn't show any contempt towards Wei Suo. Honestly, it was beyond his expectations that Wei Suo could cooperate with him without any major issues on their first try, only failing near the very end when the pill was about to form.

"Again!" After calmly glancing at Wei Suo, the Green Robe Old Man immediately spoke.

"Again!"

In the quiet Earth Fire furnace room, after a long while, the Green Robe Old Man's calm voice rang out once more.

"Again!"

"Did it finally work?"

Using the same materials and the same steps, the Green Robe Old Man had called out "Again!" three times. Wei Suo was drenched in sweat. By the time Wei Suo had extinguished three fire toads in succession, nothing unexpected had happened inside the pill furnace. Instead, an increasingly rich medicinal aroma began to emanate from it.

A hint of joy flashed in the Green Robe Old Man's calm gaze. Suddenly, he let out a sigh and said, "Extinguish all the Earth Fire one by one!"

The surging, dark red pillars of fire were all extinguished.

A rich, unique fragrance wafted from the opened Black Gold Pill Furnace, filling the entire Earth Fire furnace room.

Wei Suo looked at the opened pill furnace before him, almost bursting into tears.

On the lid of the black-gold pill furnace, a pill, yellowish-green, perfectly round, crystal clear, and with faint silver patterns within, was emitting a soft glow.

(Yesterday, my brothers and sisters were mighty! The data reached a new high! Yesterday, the red tickets surged past six thousand! It seems I have to go all out today! Let's all have a explosive new year! Also, the check-in event on the homepage is very useful. You get points and red tickets, and the winning rate is one hundred percent. Don't forget to check in.)