A Temporary Farewell to the Flame Clan

"Your medicinal cauldron as well." Huo Zhen pointed at Xiao Yan. "It is also an excellent cauldron from the Heavenly Cauldron Ranking. To overcome your dependence on it, start now by trying to directly condense flames with dou qi to refine pills, and avoid its influence as much as possible. I only use my own medicinal cauldron because someone specially gifted it to me and I have grown accustomed to it. That does not mean I cannot do without it."

"Your teacher, Yao Chen, presumably never emphasized these matters to you, because they concern the true threshold of the ninth tier, a realm he himself never truly entered. Moreover, Yao Chen's own path of advancement was likely far more rugged and difficult than yours. With such a fine teacher guiding you, you naturally took very few detours along the path of alchemy. Yet sometimes, the necessary experiences gained from certain detours are precisely the true tempering needed to reach the peak!"

Huo Zhen looked at the attentively listening Xiao Yan, expectation gleaming in his eyes. After a pause, he continued introducing the realms beyond the ninth-tier chasm. "This final ninth tier itself is divided into superior and inferior levels; it is not the end. I mentioned earlier that the Creation Heaven-Returning Pill was a ninth-tier treasure pill, merely one kind among them. As far as I know, ninth-tier medicinal pills can be subdivided into three stages: ninth-tier treasure pills, ninth-tier Mystic Pills, and ninth-tier golden pills."

"Ninth-tier treasure pills are the mark of one's first entry into the ninth tier. To refine one, an alchemist must exercise perfect control at their limits, bringing out the medicinal potency to its utmost, condensing its essence into a pill, and finally giving rise to a trace of spirituality."

"The heart of this step