The month was meant to give Gu He time to prepare, but it also gave Xiao Lei time to make some preparations of his own.
He still hadn't had the chance to sort through the many resources he'd obtained in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. This was the perfect opportunity to strengthen his overall abilities; cultivation alone was useless if he had nothing to back it up.
"Young Master, these are all the magical beasts you asked Xiao Xuan to hunt!"
Seeing the mountain of magical beast corpses, Xiao Lei nodded. Having someone by his side was a good thing, at least. He no longer had to do everything himself.
"Well done. Go stand guard outside, and don't let anyone come near."
Hearing Xiao Lei praise her again, Qing Lin beamed, a sweet smile spreading across her face as a rosy blush colored her cheeks.
Once Qing Lin had left, Xiao Lei took out the corpse of the Amethyst Winged Lion King he'd killed earlier. It would serve as the main ingredient for refining Blood Flame.
After arranging all the corpses around the Amethyst Winged Lion King according to their cultivation levels, Xiao Lei waved a hand and summoned the Purple Fire he'd obtained earlier.
Whoosh!
The Purple Fire fell upon the many corpses, and a blaze shot skyward.
Xiao Lei poured all his strength into driving his Dou Qi. With the power of his Four-Star Dou Emperor cultivation behind it, the Purple Fire was formidable, quickly extracting drops of essence blood from the magical beasts' corpses.
Only the Amethyst Winged Lion King's corpse at the center could somewhat resist the Purple Fire, but even the amethyst covering its body quickly melted away.
The Purple Fire Xiao Lei wielded now was no longer as weak as it had been when he first obtained it. Nourished by the Born Amethyst Source, its might had surged, even surpassing the Purple Fire the Amethyst Winged Lion King had once wielded.
Once everything was ready, Xiao Lei changed his hand seals. The Purple Fire became a stream of flame, forming a strange pattern on the ground.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, Xiao Lei wrenched out the source flame within him and tossed it onto the Amethyst Winged Lion King's essence blood.
Whoosh!
The Purple Fire, which had been relatively calm, erupted into a storm the moment it touched the essence blood. The entire strange pattern burst into flame.
Then, a strange sight appeared.
The essence blood scattered across the ground seemed to come alive. It began to creep along the nearby streams of fire, slowly flowing toward the Purple Fire.
At the same time, the Purple Fire's pure violet hue began to shift, slowly turning bloodred.
The process was incredibly slow. It continued for more than ten days.
During that time, Xiao Lei watched the Purple Fire's transformation while absorbing the knowledge he'd gained from Gu He. His alchemy skills soon reached the Sixth Grade Intermediate level.
Alchemy was influenced by many factors: flame-control techniques, soul force, cultivation...
And Xiao Lei now surpassed Gu He by far in both soul force and cultivation.
Xiao Lei also took some time to hand the Mystic Ice Python over to Qing Lin, continuing to help her cultivate.
By then, the Beast Flame in front of Xiao Lei had finally reached its last stage.
The Purple Fire of old was gone for good, completely transformed into a bloodred flame.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
The previously quiet surroundings suddenly filled with the roars of countless magical beasts. Faint images of the beasts they'd once been appeared above the essence blood that hadn't yet burned away.
The sight was truly bizarre. Xiao Lei didn't interfere; according to Otto's records, the process would take its natural course.
As the beasts roared, a fierce giant beast suddenly rose from the Amethyst Winged Lion King's essence blood at the center. A closer look revealed it was the Amethyst Winged Lion King itself.
Roar!
Its mighty roar drowned out the unwilling cries of all the other magical beasts.
Whoosh!
All the remaining essence blood exploded in an instant, turning to blood mist. Even the Amethyst Winged Lion King's essence blood was no exception.
The blood mist fell onto the scattered flames, and they immediately drew together. In a mere dozen seconds, they had become a bloodred Heavenly Flame.
"It worked!"
After waiting more than ten days, Xiao Lei had finally refined Blood Flame. Even he couldn't help shouting in excitement.
He snatched up Blood Flame and found that the imprint he'd left on the Purple Fire was still there, saving him the trouble of starting over.
Blood Flame burned peacefully in Xiao Lei's hand. A faint smell of blood wafted from the rising flames, and the Amethyst Winged Lion King's image occasionally appeared at their center, leaving Xiao Lei amazed.
As far as he knew, the only other flame that manifested the images of beasts was the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame. But the magical beast images it produced appeared at random, while Blood Flame always showed the image of its main ingredient.
Opening his mouth, Xiao Lei swallowed Blood Flame in one gulp. He immediately drove his Dou Qi, guiding the flame through his body along the Flame Mantra's cultivation route several times.
"The Flame Mantra's tier should go up now!"
In the original story, Xiao Yan had used the Amethyst Winged Lion King's Beast Flame to raise the Flame Mantra's tier, though it had only reached Yellow Tier Intermediate.
But Xiao Lei's Blood Flame was far more powerful.
Another half day passed, and everything went smoothly.
"Yellow Tier Advanced!"
Though the result had already exceeded his expectations, Xiao Lei couldn't help laughing wryly. A Dou Emperor like him was still using a Yellow Tier cultivation technique. At least he'd soon have a Heavenly Flame!
With that thought, Xiao Lei left and headed toward Gu He.
"Yan Shi, this is all the Ice Spirit Cold Spring. I got it from your younger brother, Gu Te, though he gave me quite an earful."
As he spoke, Yan Shi handed Gu He more than ten jade bottles.
Gu He nodded slightly. His younger brother, Gu Te, loved collecting rare treasures, so Gu He had thought of him first.
As for the quantity, the original story's claim that Gu Te had only one bottle to give Xiao Yan was complete nonsense. The same went for Xiao Yan's claim that there had been only one bottle of Born Amethyst Source.
Gu He didn't feel particularly guilty about taking something from his younger brother. If he failed to absorb the Heavenly Flame and died, a Second-Rank Alchemist like Gu Te would have no hope of protecting these treasures anyway.
Perhaps that was why, although Gu Te had made a huge fuss at Yan Shi, he'd still handed over all the Ice Spirit Cold Spring.
"How are the preparations coming?"
Just then, a figure flashed into the hall.
Seeing Xiao Lei appear, Gu He hurriedly cupped his hands. "I've brought all the auxiliary treasures I could find. I've only just gathered the ingredients for the Blood Lotus Pill, though, and haven't started refining it yet."
Xiao Lei nodded, satisfied with Gu He's efficiency. After all, he'd given him a month, and it had only been a little over ten days. Gu He had already prepared almost everything.
"Sit down and regulate your breathing. I'll refine the Blood Lotus Pill. Once it's ready, we'll begin."
There was only so much one could do to prepare for a Heavenly Flame. The rest depended entirely on luck.
Gu He didn't refuse. Refining pills would take up his energy and might affect his condition when absorbing the Heavenly Flame.
Xiao Lei, meanwhile, wanted to test his current alchemy skills and help Gu He absorb the Heavenly Flame sooner.
Gu He quickly took out three sets of ingredients and handed them to Xiao Lei.
Taking the ingredients, Xiao Lei promptly brought out a medicinal cauldron and began refining the pill, making no effort to hide what he was doing from Gu He.
His casual manner left Gu He somewhat embarrassed. They usually avoided refining pills in public, lest anyone learn their techniques, but Xiao Lei didn't seem concerned at all.
Xiao Lei thought, That's your alchemy technique, after all. Go ahead and learn if you want!
But when Gu He saw the medicinal cauldron Xiao Lei had taken out, his face immediately darkened. Wasn't that his Volcano Flame Cauldron?
Bloodred flames slowly rose over Xiao Lei's palm, then turned into fine streams of fire that rapidly passed through the ingredients.
The bold technique left Gu He stunned. It wasn't that he couldn't turn flames into streams, but refining this way placed immense demands on one's soul force and ability to control flames.
And Gu He simply couldn't manage it!
But this method also cut the refining time to a minimum, since it sped up the most time-consuming step: extracting the ingredients.
Yet the longer Gu He watched Xiao Lei refine the pill, the more confused he became:
Why did Xiao Lei's alchemy technique look so much like his own?
In just half a day, Xiao Lei had successfully refined the Blood Lotus Pill. Gu He stared in astonishment. If he'd been the one refining it, it would have taken at least several days.
"Here!"
Xiao Lei tossed the Blood Lotus Pill to Gu He, and couldn't help praising Blood Flame for how much it boosted his Dou Qi.
"Take out the Heavenly Flame. We can begin!"
At that, Gu He's expression grew solemn.
The real test was only just beginning!
Before you continue