Success

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, Xiao Bai discovered that the Bing Fire Yang Thunder inside his body had become exactly like the wisp at his fingertip.

On the surface, it looked like a swaying flame. At the center of the flame, a scarlet lightning sphere drifted within it, wreathed in lightning. Occasionally, a thread of lightning surfaced across the flame, making it exceptionally beautiful.

"Haha. Good Little Bing! Daddy loves you!"

Although he knew it had no intelligence, Xiao Bai still could not help laughing in sheer delight.

The two Thunder Seeds inside him, Yi Wood Positive Thunder and Bing Fire Yang Thunder, were both highly spiritual.

But Xiao Bai knew that for Heaven and Earth Exotic Items like them to give birth to true intelligence was extremely difficult. First, they needed an enormous source essence, and second, they needed a vast amount of time.

And that time was not a matter of centuries or millennia, but calculated in tens of thousands of years.

Just like Tou She Ancient God. Although he did not know what kind of Heavenly Flame he had been at the start, the original work mentioned that he seemed to have spent tens of thousands of years before producing a muddled consciousness, and only by relying on instinct to devour other flames did he finally gain an intelligence comparable to a human's.

Xiao Bai dispersed the wisp of Bing Fire Yang Thunder at his fingertip, letting it return to its main body, then directly summoned the entire Thunder Seed of the Bing Fire Yang Thunder.

Seeing that the Thunder Seed in his palm did not return to its previous state, he used his soul to communicate with the Bing Fire Yang Thunder. The Thunder Seed seemed to sense his thoughts and gradually changed back into its former lightning state. When Xiao Bai's thoughts shifted again, the Thunder Seed returned to its flame state.

Only then did Xiao Bai relax. Looking at the Thunder Seed in his palm as it constantly shifted back and forth, the smile at the corner of his mouth gradually grew wider.

He had never thought a Thunder Seed could be used like this. If not for this medicine refining attempt, who knew how long it would have taken him to discover it?

With the Bing Fire Yang Thunder as precedent, Xiao Bai then thought of the Yi Wood Positive Thunder inside his body. Could it also be used this way?

After taking the Bing Fire Yang Thunder back into his body, Xiao Bai summoned the Yi Wood Positive Thunder, but this time, he did not merely draw out a single wisp like before.

Instead, he summoned the entire Thunder Seed of the Yi Wood Positive Thunder and directly controlled and communicated with it using his soul.

Sure enough, Little Bing's change was no coincidence. It was simply that he understood too little about them.

He saw that the Yi Wood Positive Thunder, like the Bing Fire Yang Thunder, could also be controlled in this way. However, the Bing Fire Yang Thunder was a flame, while the Yi Wood Positive Thunder was a mass of cyan mist.

The cyan mist churned continuously in his palm. At its center was also a pale cyan lightning sphere drifting within it, and from time to time a thread of lightning flashed through the mist. It looked like a kind of beauty entirely different from the Bing Fire Yang Thunder.

Xiao Bai quietly admired the changes of the Yi Wood Positive Thunder in his hand, unable to help sighing at the wonders of heaven and earth and the marvels of creation. It was truly too beautiful.

"Xun Er should really like this!" Xiao Bai suddenly thought of that little girl.

Girls all liked pretty things. Even he was somewhat absorbed in the current state of the two Thunder Seeds in his hand, let alone that beauty-loving little girl.

After silently admiring it for a while longer, Xiao Bai drew it back into his body. Now everything was ready; all that remained was the east wind.

After sorting through his thoughts, Xiao Bai's expression turned solemn. He sent a wisp of flame lightning into the cauldron and tried to use Soul Power to control its size.

Now Xiao Bai felt much more at ease. He no longer needed to divide his attention to control the balance between its fire and lightning attributes. He only had to focus on controlling the intensity of the flame.

After manipulating it for a while and becoming familiar with the changes in this new state, he waved his hand and tossed a Purple Yang Fruit into the Ebony Cauldron.

He controlled the flame down to its smallest size, slowly letting the Purple Yang Fruit gradually approach the flame lightning.

Xiao Bai did not know what temperature was needed to extract the medicinal properties of the herb, so he could only test it bit by bit with extreme caution.

This time, the Purple Yang Fruit was not like last time. It did not immediately turn into a lump of charcoal.

Xiao Bai was delighted at the sight. There was hope!

He slowly controlled the flame to grow larger. As the temperature rose bit by bit, the Purple Yang Fruit tumbled within the flame and gradually shed its outer skin.

Suddenly, a thread of lightning appeared within the flame and struck the peeled flesh. The flesh inside the Purple Yang Fruit instantly turned into a blackened mass.

Seeing the situation inside the cauldron, Xiao Bai was speechless.

However, he was not discouraged. Compared with the last time, this attempt had already improved far too much.

Success was nothing more than the final result built up from failures like this, step by step.

After waving his hand to clear out the charcoal inside the cauldron, he tossed in another Purple Yang Fruit and continued again.

After several attempts, Xiao Bai did not succeed even once. Each time, the medicinal herb was destroyed by a strike of lightning within the flame, whether sooner or later.

He did not continue. He knew that if he went on like this, even if he occasionally succeeded once, it would not have much reference value. It would only be luck, and of no help to the art of medicine refining.

Rubbing his brow with his fingers, Xiao Bai felt that his process of learning to become an alchemist was truly a little too bumpy.

The moment he solved one problem, another appeared. One had to know that this was only the first step of refining medicine—purifying the Medicinal Essence.

After resting for a moment and emptying his mind, Xiao Bai pulled himself together again.

The more difficult it was, the more he had to keep his composure. Only then would the fruit of success he harvested be sweet. Xiao Bai silently fed himself a bowl of motivational soup.

Looking at the small pile of charcoal beside him, Xiao Bai rubbed his chin.

Since the medicinal herb could not withstand the lightning within the flame, and he could not control the flame to prevent the lightning from appearing, could he strengthen the medicinal herb first?

Xiao Bai thought of the Yi Wood Positive Thunder that he had not used yet. It was not that he did not want to use this Thunder Seed, but that he could not.

Unlike other alchemists, they needed the Wood Attribute to neutralize the violent aura of the flame and make the flame gentler.

But his Bing Fire could not come into contact with Yi Wood, or else it would become even more violent.

Since Yi Wood could not be empowered onto the flame, then he would empower it onto the medicinal herb.

It was worth trying, Xiao Bai thought silently.

Xiao Bai first withdrew the flames and thunder inside the cauldron, then summoned a wisp of mist-like Yi Wood Positive Thunder and sent it into the cauldron. With a wave of his hand, he tossed in a Purple Yang Fruit and nourished it with Yi Wood Qi.

Gradually, Xiao Bai realized that this approach seemed to be right. Yi Wood Positive Thunder was already relatively gentle by nature, let alone in this misty state. As the medicinal herb was nourished by it, the fruit, which had originally been a little shriveled, gradually became plump.

Moreover, the Yi Wood Qi itself contained the power of thunder, causing the Purple Yang Fruit to absorb some faint thunder power along with the Yi Wood Qi.

"Does this mean the Purple Yang Fruit won't be struck into charcoal by Little Bing?" Xiao Bai's eyes lit up.

Thinking of this, Xiao Bai sent the Bing Fire flame into the cauldron and let the plump Purple Yang Fruit slowly approach it.

As the temperature slowly rose, the Purple Yang Fruit tumbled within the flames, gradually shedding its skin. Occasionally, a thread of thunder struck it, but not only did it fail to destroy the fruit, it instead caused its medicinal properties to seep out even faster.

In the end, a tiny bit of pale purple powder appeared inside the cauldron.

Xiao Bai knew he had succeeded. His first achievement of refining the essence of a medicinal herb had been accomplished.

"This is one small step for Xiao Bai, but one giant leap for the alchemy world of the Dou Qi Continent!" Xiao Bai thought with a beaming smile, a little narcissistically.

After taking the pale purple powder out of the cauldron, Xiao Bai discovered that it was somewhat different from the description in the pill formula Yao Lao had given him.