Xiao Yun

Such a large complex belonging to the Alchemy Hall had been specially ordered by Xiao Zhan to be built on a large plot of land within the clan for the Xiao Clan's Alchemists. Though the location was somewhat remote, there was a reason for it.

Beneath this area lay an active Earth Fire vein. Drawing Earth Fire from the active vein underground to serve as the flame source for Alchemists refining pills was an essential condition for building an Alchemy Room.

"Young Master Yan!"

Seeing Xiao Yan, the most prominent figure in the clan, the guard at the entrance bowed in greeting.

Xiao Yan nodded faintly and led the two little girls into the Alchemy Hall. The moment he entered the Inner Academy of the Alchemy Hall, he smelled a strange, subtle fragrance mixed with the scents of medicinal herbs and pills.

Xiao Yan smiled faintly. That familiar scent.

Xiao Yan strolled into the building with Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin. He saw several Alchemist apprentices slightly older than himself talking and moving about inside. The apprentices all nodded to Xiao Yan in greeting; there were none of those brainless antagonists from the legends stepping out to mock him. After all, in the strictly managed Xiao Clan, anyone who still failed to recognize the young master of the main family would have been beaten to death on Xiao Zhan's orders long ago. How could they have lived this long?

"Young Master Yan."

At that moment, a sharp-witted Alchemist apprentice stepped forward to greet him.

"Yes. Take me to Elder Xiao Yun," Xiao Yan said, glancing at him.

"Yes, Young Master Yan. This way."

Seeing that Xiao Yan had given him an order, the apprentice hurriedly led the way ahead with excitement.

"Elder Xiao Yun is refining pills inside. He ordered that no one disturb him."

The apprentice stopped before an Alchemy Room with its doors tightly shut. The sounds of flames crackling within made it obvious that someone was refining pills inside.

"Mm, you may leave," Xiao Yan said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, Young Master Yan." The apprentice's delight was written all over his face.

Xiao Yan pushed open the doors to the Alchemy Room, and a wave of heat rushed straight at them.

"Cough, cough." Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin coughed, somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Xiao Yan laughed softly at the sight. With a sweep of his robe, he isolated the heat from those behind him.

Looking ahead, Xiao Yan saw a disheveled middle-aged man in the center of the Alchemy Room, utterly absorbed in controlling an Earth Cauldron atop a platform connected to the underground Earth Fire.

Xiao Yun deftly manipulated the flames within the Earth Cauldron on the stone platform, continuously controlling them as they fused the medicinal ingredients. Then, at the final step of pill fusion, the Earth Cauldron exploded with a bang.

"That shouldn't have happened! This is already my seventh attempt!"

Xiao Yun scratched his messy hair in frustration.

"Elder Xiao Yun."

Seeing Xiao Yun stop what he was doing, Xiao Yi Xian called out.

"Oh, Xiao Yi Xian. Have you already finished the medicine I prepared for you the day before yesterday? I don't have time to prepare more medicine for you today."

Xiao Yun turned around and saw the three of them, speaking to Xiao Yi Xian before noticing that there were others in the room.

"No, I didn't come to ask you to prepare medicine today. It was Brother Xiao Yan." Xiao Yi Xian tugged Xiao Yan beside her.

"Young Master Yan, you've returned from your training outside?"

Xiao Yun stared at Xiao Yan beside Xiao Yi Xian in a daze.

"..."

"Elder Xiao Yun, Brother Xiao Yan has been back for almost three months already."

Xiao Yi Xian covered her mouth and giggled as she looked at this elder, who seemed even more absentminded than Qing Lin usually was.

"Hehe, Young Master Yan."

Only then did Xiao Yun come to his senses and hurriedly rise to greet him.

"Perhaps it was precisely because of such focus that he had risen from an Alchemist apprentice to a third-tier Alchemist in less than five years. And judging by his current state, he seemed to have reached the peak of third-tier Alchemist. He was only one step away from becoming a fourth-tier Alchemist," Xiao Yan thought.

"I'll give him a push."

"Elder Xiao Yun, do you know why you failed when refining the Green Spirit Pill just now?"

The moment Xiao Yan spoke, he firmly captured Xiao Yun's attention.

"Young Master Yan, do you know why?" Xiao Yun said anxiously, stepping forward and grabbing Xiao Yan's sleeve.

"Oh, right. Young Master Yan is the disciple of that lord who taught us, so he must be highly skilled in alchemy as well."

Xiao Yan looked amusedly at Xiao Yun, whose face was filled with eager longing.

"Elder Xiao Yun, the main reason you failed to refine the Green Spirit Pill just now was that you invested insufficient soul power during the final pill-fusion step. Your guiding technique became distorted, and in the end, the medicinal ingredients failed to fuse harmoniously."

"Also, judging from your technique just now, you were trying to refine a Two-Pattern Green Spirit Pill, weren't you? The quality of the flames you prepared was far too poor."

Xiao Yan glanced at the two flames inside the Earth Cauldron. One pale yellow flame should have been Earth Fire drawn up from beneath the Alchemy Room, while the dark-red flame appeared to be Beast Flame extracted from some third-tier magical beast.

"To refine a Two-Pattern Green Spirit Pill, you must prepare two entirely different flames. The Beast Flame you prepared was passable, but that Earth Fire drawn directly from the underground Earth Fire vein would not do."

"The flame energy is impure, and that will inevitably make the pill fusion unstable during refinement."

"So that was it. So that was it." Xiao Yun clapped his hands in sudden realization.

"But how do I solve that problem? I don't have any spare flames of a different kind on hand." Xiao Yun said bitterly.

"You don't, but I do."

Xiao Yan smiled faintly and extended his right hand.

With a whoosh, a blue-golden flame lotus appeared in Xiao Yan's palm, slowly rotating.

The instant the blue-golden Heavenly Flame appeared, the two flames in Xiao Yun's Earth Cauldron immediately sank low, as though bowing in submission to the Heavenly Flame in Xiao Yan's hand.

"Th-this is? When Heavenly Flames emerge, all flames bow! This is a Heavenly Flame!"

Xiao Yun's face was filled with shock as he noticed everything.

"I only saw such a scene when that lord took out that unknown forest-white Heavenly Flame to teach us. I never expected that you, as that lord's disciple, would possess a Heavenly Flame as well."

Xiao Yun looked at the quietly burning blue-golden flame in Xiao Yan's hand with envy. This was a Heavenly Flame—the dream lover of every Alchemist on Dou Qi Continent.

Xiao Yan was clearly pleased with Xiao Yun's reaction and nodded faintly. Yet he had no idea that his action had caused some people a great deal of trouble. In several neighboring Alchemy Rooms, quite a few Alchemists were stomping their feet and cursing.

The rooms where pill refinement had already ended were fine. But several Alchemists still refining pills suddenly found that, for an instant, they had lost control of the flames in their hands. When an Alchemist lost control of their flames, the nearly formed pills would abruptly explode, and everything would be ruined.

Several Alchemists stared at the scene before them, on the verge of tears. They thought the Earth Fire was truly acting strange today. Their poor pills!