A Commodity Called "Spark"

The heavy wooden door creaked shut behind him, completely sealing off the clamor of the outside world.

Su Chen leaned against the rough door panel, his chest heaving violently, every breath carrying a searing pain.

Only when the palpitations from his desperate flight finally subsided did he stand straight and carefully retrieve the warm jade bottle from his robes.

The bottle was fashioned from low-quality green jade; through its semi-transparent surface, a wisp of dark red flame could be seen thrashing about.

At times, it transformed into the phantom of a furious lizard, slamming against the bottle walls and emitting a dull, humming vibration.

At other times, it stretched into a thin, long line of fire, darting frantically in search of any gap through which to escape.

The bottle fluctuated between freezing cold and scorching heat; holding it felt like gripping a white-hot, struggling branding iron.

This was a primitive beast fire.

It was filled with the brutality, chaos, and unwillingness of a magical beast at the moment of its death.

Let alone using it for alchemy, if an ordinary Dou Practitioner dared to absorb it directly into their body, the mixed and violent fire-attribute energy would be enough to incinerate their meridians into charcoal in an instant.

High in value, yet difficult to tame.

This was the common pain point for all low-level alchemists in Wutan City, and indeed, the entire Dou Qi Continent.

Su Chen's knuckles turned white from the force of his grip.

He stared at the unruly flame in the bottle, yet there was not a hint of worry on his face.

What others saw as waste was, to him, an unpolished gem capable of turning stone into gold.

He walked to the center of the room and sat down cross-legged.

Closing his eyes, his mind sank deep into his consciousness like water.

That familiar void appeared once again.

The ancient stone platform floated unchanging in the center, the profound patterns on its surface emitting a reassuring, faint glow.

Su Chen's intent locked onto the jade bottle containing the Rock Fire in reality.

"Enter."

A silent command.

Hum!

The jade bottle in his hand shuddered violently.

That wisp of violent, dark red flame seemed to have its throat gripped by an invisible hand, and all its struggling ceased instantly.

The next moment, it was forcibly pulled from the jade bottle by an irresistible suction, turning into a streak of light and vanishing into thin air.

At the same time.

Within Su Chen's consciousness space, that wisp of dark red Rock Fire appeared atop the stone platform.

Freed from the constraints of the jade bottle, it instantly reverted to its violent nature, expanding into a basin-sized cloud of fire that radiated a chaotic and scorching aura.

The stone platform lit up.

A soft white light, several times brighter than when he had analyzed the candle flame or the Flame Rat beast fire, rose from the patterns on the platform's surface, instantly shrouding the fire cloud like a vast net.

Lines of profound information flooded into Su Chen's mind once again.

Item: Fire Rock Lizard Beast Fire (Inferior)
Category: Beast Fire
Composition: Impure fire elements, magical beast essence blood, lingering demonic energy, chaotic will fragments
Analysis: Energy structure is extremely unstable, contains large amounts of harmful impurities, fire nature is fierce and difficult to control, forced absorption carries risk of severe injury, possesses certain growth potential.
Functions: Refineable, Replicable, Purifiable

Su Chen's attention skipped over all the preceding analysis, locking firmly onto the word "Purifiable."

Without a moment's hesitation.

His intent transformed into a heavy hammer, slamming down onto that option.

Boom!

The entire stone platform erupted with an unprecedented roar.

Countless runes that Su Chen could not comprehend emerged from within the platform, rotating at high speed around the Rock Fire to form a massive grinding wheel of light.

The grinding wheel turned.

An indescribable power of purification began to exert the most thorough crushing and stripping upon the beast fire.

Sss... sssss...

Wisps of visible, foul-smelling black mist were forcibly squeezed out of the flames.

These were the lingering demonic energy and impurities contained within the beast fire.

Strands of pale gray thoughts, filled with madness and malice, were forcibly ground into nothingness.

These were the chaotic remnants of the Fire Rock Lizard's will.

As those "impurities" were continuously stripped away, purified, and annihilated, the originally massive cloud of fire began to shrink rapidly.

Its color also underwent a earth-shattering transformation.

It evolved from a mottled, murky dark red into a pure, vibrant crimson.

Then, from crimson, it condensed into an even deeper, more stable orange!

The volume of the flame eventually shrank to just one-tenth of its original size, roughly the size of a fist.

Yet, the energy fluctuations contained within were more than ten times more refined than before!

The entire process lasted for a full incense stick's time.

When the last wisp of black mist was purified and the light dissipated, the stone platform returned to tranquility.

A brand-new flame hovered quietly above the stone platform.

It presented a warm, orange-red hue throughout, burning silently like a piece of meticulously carved warm jade, devoid of any violent aura, leaving only pure, stable, and condensed fire-attribute energy.

Perfect.

It was simply a work of art.

Su Chen suppressed the excitement in his heart and focused his intent on the "Copy" option.

Hum!

A wave of exhaustion, a hundred times more intense than when he copied the candle flame, surged from the depths of his spirit, as if a small piece of his soul had been ripped away.

Su Chen's face turned slightly pale, but this consumption was still within his tolerance.

The stone platform trembled slightly.

A copy, identical to the orange-red flame, condensed out of thin air and hovered quietly beside the original.

It worked!

Su Chen felt a sense of certainty in his heart and did not stop.

Gritting his teeth, he endured the exhaustion of his mental energy being continuously drained, activating the "Copy" function again and again.

The third copy.

The fourth copy.

The eighth copy.

When the ninth copy condensed into shape, a strong wave of dizziness struck; Su Chen's mental energy was already on the verge of depletion.

"One last one!"

He let out a low roar from the depths of his soul, squeezing out the last shred of his mental energy and pressing down fiercely!

Hum--!

As the tenth copy condensed, Su Chen's mental world spun, and he nearly fainted on the spot.

He forced himself to withdraw from the consciousness space, gasping for air, his entire body drenched in cold sweat as if he had just been pulled out of water.

After resting for a full hour, the sense of mental collapse finally eased slightly.

Su Chen did not delay, immediately dragging out a wooden box he had prepared long ago from under the bed.

Opening the box, ten inferior jade bottles, identical to the ones before, were neatly arranged inside.

This was his entire fortune, traded for the corpses of the Flame Rats.

He sank his consciousness back into the mental space.

"Come out."

With a thought, the ten purified and copied orange-red flames transformed into ten streaks of light, surging out from the void and diving with pinpoint accuracy into the ten open jade bottles on the table.

Su Chen quickly capped the bottles one by one.

Only after finishing all this did he let out a long sigh of relief.

He looked at the ten jade bottles neatly arranged on the table, his eyes erupting with irrepressible brilliance.

Inside the bottles, ten identical orange-red flames were burning quietly.

They were no longer violent, no longer struggling; they were as docile as tamed kittens, steadily radiating pure and gentle heat.

This was the true commodity.

It was completely different from the "inferior raw materials" on the market that required alchemists to spend a great deal of energy to suppress and adapt to.

This was a standardized, ready-to-use, perfect "industrial finished product"!

Su Chen picked up one of the jade bottles and held it before his eyes.

The orange-red firelight illuminated his young and resolute face.

"It's time to give you a name."

He whispered to himself.

"Purifying Beast Fire"?

Too crude, too plain; it completely fails to reflect their true value.

"Refining Rock Fire"?

That seems a bit too ordinary, lost among the masses.

Su Chen's gaze remained fixed on the tiny flame within the bottle.

Though small, it contained the purest power of fire; it was the starting point of all things, the source of all transformation.

It was a seed.

A seed that could allow the dreams of alchemist apprentices to take root and sprout.

A seed that could allow him, Su Chen, to establish his foundation on this continent.

A thought suddenly dawned on him.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth slowly curled upward.

"Rock Fire Seed."

He spoke the name in a voice that was almost a whisper.

As the words fell, he was slightly taken aback himself.

Rock Fire Seed.

This name not only pointed to its origin but also imbued it with infinite hope and possibility.

Perfect.

Su Chen gently set down the jade bottle in his hand, lining it up alongside the other nine.

Ten "Rock Fire Seeds."

These were his first official products.

They were the first bit of startup capital he had exchanged for with his wisdom, courage, and even his life.

The fear of those nine-deaths-in-a-lifetime hunts had already vanished without a trace.

In its place was an unprecedented, powerful confidence in controlling his own destiny.

He knew what kind of waves these ten small jade bottles would stir up once they appeared in the markets of Wutan City.

They would be the first lever he used to pry open the wealth map of the entire Dou Qi Continent.

Su Chen stood up, walked to the window, and pushed open the dilapidated wooden shutters.

The twilight sun pierced through the lattice, spilling onto the ten jade bottles on the table and gilding them with a layer of brilliant gold.

His gaze drifted past the low courtyard wall, toward the center of Wutan City.

There lay the city's most prosperous market, filled with countless alchemist apprentices harboring their own dreams.

"My first buyer..."

"Who will it be?"