Powder Refining

This little tunnel was quite strange. It was the same size throughout. After crawling more than ten zhang, Su Ming saw the end ahead and slowed down.

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He cautiously drew closer to the exit. The moment he looked outside, his whole body froze. He took a deep breath.

This was a Fire Lava Cave. Countless cone-shaped rocks hung upside down from above, their surfaces cracked as if they might break free and shatter at any moment. The ground had originally been pitch-black, but veins of red rock lay scattered across it, casting the cave in a dusky brown glow. The heat was several times more intense than outside.

Not far away lay a black skeleton. It was about ** zhang long, and Su Ming recognized at once that it should have belonged to a python.

On the python's skull was a bone horn as thick as an arm. It was black as well.

Su Ming had never seen such a long python, but he vaguely remembered Grandpa mentioning that, long ago, Wulong Mountain had been home to a kind of python beast that was exceedingly vicious. These pythons had horns on their heads and were called Horned Pythons. Their horns were often sharp enough to become treasures offered to the tribe.

Their Wu Mountain Tribe possessed a Horned Python's Bone Horn. It was an heirloom passed down through generations of tribal chiefs.

"Could this be a Horned Python?" He estimated the size of the python's remains, then looked at the little tunnel he had crawled through, and vaguely found his answer.

After pondering for a moment, Su Ming took out a medicinal herb from the woven basket on his back and tossed it below.

The herb drifted down. The instant it touched the ground, it gave off a sizzling sound. About a quarter of an hour later, it slowly withered. He tried several more times before finally determining that, while the ground here was quite hot, he could endure it for a while as long as he did not touch the red rocks.

Xiao Hong had long since grown impatient. If it had not known this place was dangerous, it would have crawled out and jumped down already.

Su Ming cautiously crawled out and leaped down. The moment his feet touched the ground, they began to sizzle. Heat surged from the soles of his feet through his whole body, but it would not burn his feet in the short term.

Once Xiao Hong entered the Fire Lava Cave, it immediately began sweating profusely from the heat. After thinking for a long while, it returned to the little tunnel. No matter what, it refused to come in again. With a flash, it ran off somewhere to play.

Su Ming did not try to persuade it. Carrying the woven basket on his back, he quickly headed forward. He could guess that this place connected to the interior of Black Flame Peak. Perhaps there might be somewhere suitable for Powder Refining.

After walking a short distance, he found an open expanse ahead that led who knew where. The ground was pitted and uneven, and the heat was much denser here. Su Ming could already feel the scorching heat beneath his feet.

He hesitated slightly. Just as he lifted his foot and was about to set it down, a heatwave suddenly erupted. Su Ming cried out and staggered back repeatedly, his pupils shrinking. He saw an arm-thick flame burst from a pit in the ground ahead, instantly bathing the lava cave in firelight.

Su Ming took a deep breath and retreated again. Only after backing up to the entrance did he focus his gaze ahead. He watched for half an hour before the flames gradually faded. Yet not long after, flames erupted again from another pit.

Over and over, ceaselessly continuing one after another.

"Fire..." Su Ming stared at those pits, and a bright light slowly appeared in his eyes, along with delight.

"There really is fire here! But it appears intermittently, not in a steady eruption..." After his joy faded, Su Ming pondered for a while, faintly feeling regretful.

"Forget it. Entering the mountain from the summit might lead me to a better place, but this place is hidden. And if there is danger, I can leave quickly.

"Then I'll make this place my first Powder Refining cave in this lifetime!" Excitement filled Su Ming's face. As he muttered to himself, he looked around again.

"There is fire. What I lack now is a Wild Cauldron... I can make a Wild Cauldron myself!" Su Ming's gaze fell upon the scattered stones on the ground.

"These rocks have been here for so many years without being burned to ash. They are clearly extremely heat-resistant. They should work for Powder Refining..." Su Ming scratched his head, adjusted the herbs beneath his feet, and jumped down again. He chose a large stone that looked suitable. After hesitating briefly, he touched it. It was not too hot, merely warm.

Having decided to use this large rock as his material, Su Ming took out his Medicine Blade. The blade was extremely sharp, and he often took it out to sharpen it. Holding the blade, Su Ming used all his strength to grind and carve the stone.

It was a tedious process, but Su Ming was already used to it and showed not the slightest impatience. As he ground away, however, inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind. He looked at the python's bones not far away, especially the black horn on its skull.

After a brief pause, Su Ming hurried over. He inspected the area around the skull for a long time, then struck the python's bones. With that strike, a rattling sound echoed out, and the entire skeleton instantly crumbled into powder that scattered across the ground.

Amid the fragments, only one black Bone Horn remained unbroken.

"This horn truly is extraordinary. I was just wondering how that python had crawled in here." Su Ming picked up the Bone Horn and drew it across the wall beside him, immediately leaving a gouge in it. This did not surprise him.

"I just don't know why that Horned Python insisted on drilling its way in from outside..." Su Ming could not figure it out. Holding the Bone Horn, he returned to the large stone and began grinding and carving again.

With the horn's help, several hours later, a stone furnace for Powder Refining took shape. It resembled the Wild Cauldron in Su Ming's memory by fifty or sixty percent. He even made an extra lid, so the heat inside the Wild Cauldron would not escape.

"I'll try it first." Excitement filled Su Ming's face as he pushed the finished Wild Cauldron to the pits. He steadied his mind and slowly waited.

Several more hours passed. Amid one eruption after another, flames finally burst from a pit near him.

The instant those flames erupted, Su Ming fiercely shoved the stone furnace for Powder Refining forward, using the Wild Cauldron to forcibly cover the pit spouting fire.

Su Ming was tense. Whether he could refine powder depended on whether this Wild Cauldron could withstand the high temperature.

Very soon, the stone furnace turned red. Heatwaves scattered outward, and cracking sounds echoed through the cave. Countless fissures appeared over its surface. Su Ming's heart skipped a beat, but after waiting for a long while without seeing the stone shatter, he gradually relaxed.

"One hour... Each Powder Refining session only lasts one hour. That probably isn't enough..." Thoughtfulness appeared in Su Ming's eyes. To refine powder, he had truly racked his brains.

"I can do this!" Su Ming retreated several steps. Though an idea had formed in his mind, he did not act rashly. Instead, he stood in an area where the ground was not too hot and stared unblinkingly at the pits. He watched like that for an entire day.

During that time, Little Monkey came by. Finding it too hot, it left behind some wild fruit before running off to play again.

As for the stone Wild Cauldron, it had withstood the test. Through several blasts of flame, it never shattered.

"The flames erupting from these small holes in the ground have some pattern, yet no pattern at all..." A day later, Su Ming held the Bone Horn and darted out. Reaching the pits, he swiftly carved a trench into the ground, connecting one of the small holes to the underside of the Wild Cauldron.

His movements did not stop. After carving six trenches in succession, he quickly retreated. Not long afterward, when flames erupted from one of the small holes, a noticeable portion was diverted through the trenches in the ground and flowed beneath the stone furnace.

"It worked!" Su Ming watched for a while longer, then took advantage of an opening to carve five more trenches. After observing for another whole day and confirming that his method had greatly extended the furnace fire, he finally set his mind at ease.

In truth, he had hesitated as well. The lines and connections of these trenches could not be carved carelessly. The flames where the Wild Cauldron stood could not be too fierce, nor could they be too weak. Otherwise, something could easily go wrong.

After all, during his observations, there had been several times when flames erupted from several pits at once. If he connected them incorrectly, danger would surely arise.

After resolving these two most basic problems, Su Ming calmed himself and, following the scenes in his memory, began the first Powder Refining of his life within Black Flame Peak.

Little Monkey took care of the food, or Su Ming would go out and hunt small beasts, drag them here, and roast them over the fire. As for the matter concerning Black Mountain Tribe's Grandpa, Su Ming encountered his tribe's hunting party while out hunting during this time and informed them of it.

Day after day passed. From this place of Powder Refining that belonged to him, frustrated cries would occasionally ring out. Half a month later, Su Ming's eyes were bloodshot. Over those fifteen days, he had refined countless times, yet not once had he succeeded!

He was now at the first level of the Blood Condensation Realm in cultivation and possessed four blood lines. As long as he could gain two more, he could enter the second level of the Blood Condensation Realm.

Once he reached the second level, according to the inheritance of the Barbarian Statue that Su Ming had received, he would be able to use his first Barbarian Art!

This was what Su Ming had dreamed of. It was also the source of motivation that drove him to keep refining Medicine Stones.

Yet the failures of this month's Powder Refining had nearly left Su Ming disheartened. But the stubbornness in his bones made him unwilling to give up just like that.

"I refuse to believe it! Xiao Hong, go gather more herbs for me!" Muttering, Su Ming tossed the woven basket toward Little Monkey, which was baring its teeth at the cave entrance, then continued refining.

Little Monkey caught the woven basket, grinned, and turned to run out.

One day, one day, one day...

Failure, failure, failure...

Until another half month had passed. That afternoon, Su Ming stood before the Wild Cauldron with his hair disheveled. He held two kinds of medicinal herbs in his hands, both red. One had six petals, and the other had five.

"Which one should I use..." Su Ming knew he did not have much time to think. He fiercely gritted his teeth.

Seeking Demon was probably a slow-burning book. Its scope was vast, so it could not burst into blazing excitement right from the start... Renegade Immortal's opening was even plainer. Perhaps that was simply my style. It could not be changed.

Keep reading patiently. I will not disappoint my fellow Daoists. This is Er Gen's guarantee.

Take a careful taste of the first volume's title, then think about the book's title. You will discover that If Life Were Like Our First Meeting sometimes speaks of more than just emotion...

It is a kind of sigh, a kind of complexity in the heart when, many years later, one looks back for a single moment... Like how we now look back at ourselves from years ago—what feelings would arise...

The first volume's title may not be referring to the novel's writing or its characters, but to the Su Ming you see now.

Savor it slowly, read it slowly... and I will write it slowly as well...

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