Successful Refinement

"Success." Xiao Changge had successfully refined a second-tier pill.

In the setting of Battle Through the Heavens, pills were divided into tiers one through nine, as well as the Emperor tier.

Second-tier pills still had relatively faint medicinal properties, but compared to first-tier pills, which had only basic effects, their efficacy was significantly improved.

These pills were mainly used by cultivators at the Dou Qi and Dou Zhe stages, and they were the type Xiao Yan encountered and refined most often during his early growth.

Xiao Changge had also successfully refined a second-tier pill.

In Battle Through the Heavens, the explicitly mentioned second-tier pills included:

Cultivation and burst-type pills:

Foundation-Building Spirit Liquid: This was Xiao Yan's most important auxiliary cultivation medicine in his early days. Though called a spirit liquid, it belonged to the category of second-tier pills. It was effective only for Dou Qi cultivators below the Dou Zhe stage. Dripping it into clean water and soaking one's body in it could greatly increase the speed of Dou Qi cultivation. Its ingredients were Purple-Leaf Orchid Grass, Bone-Washing Flower, and a first-tier wood-element magic core. The formula had been created by Yao Chen.

Qi-Enhancing Powder: A burst-type pill capable of forcibly raising one's strength for a short time. Someone at the eighth stage of Dou Qi could unleash the strength of a Dou Zhe for a brief period after taking it, but the side effects were enormous. Once the effect ended, the user would be completely defenseless for an entire month.

Heavenly Flame devouring assistance:

When Xiao Yan first used the Flame Mantra to devour the Amethyst Winged Lion King's violet flame, Yao Chen specifically prepared the following two pills to safeguard him:

Meridian-Protecting Pill: A jade-white pill. It could coat the meridians traversed by the cultivator with a faint layer of energy film, mainly protecting the channels from the invasion of Heavenly Flames.

Iceheart Pill: A green pill. It could dispel the violent intent that eroded the mind, protect one's consciousness, and prevent madness while devouring Heavenly Flames.

Healing and detoxification:

Bone-Growth Pill: It possessed excellent healing effects and could help seriously injured people recover quickly.

Body-Restoring Pill: It could heal internal injuries while also promoting the healing of external wounds. During his time at Jia Nan Academy, Xiao Yan had once refined this pill in large quantities for Panmen members to recover.

Ice Spirit Pill: A pill specifically used against fire poison. It could temporarily suppress the fire poison within the human body, preventing it from eroding the body and mind.

Ice-Clearing Pill: A peak second-tier pill. Its ability to balance fire poison was even more remarkable than that of the Ice Spirit Pill, and it could extremely effectively slow the spread of fire poison. It was often used to assist cultivation in special environments such as Fallen Heart Flame.

Recovery-type pills:

Qi-Recovery Pill: A peak second-tier pill, pale cyan in color. Its main effect was to restore Dou Qi over a short period and accelerate the body's natural recovery of Dou Qi.

What Xiao Changge had refined was a second-tier pill recorded in the Pharmacopoeia. It could temporarily increase combat power, though the user would enter a weakened state afterward.

[Three-Flame Pill]: It was refined by extracting the essence of various herbs, then using three types of flames.

Like the Three-Pattern Green Spirit Pill, it required three types of flames, but unlike it, this pill temporarily increased combat power.

The Three-Pattern Green Spirit Pill could raise a Dou Practitioner's level.

Back to the main point.

In the Dou Qi Continent—or rather, in Battle Through the Heavens—there were many secret techniques. Some had side effects, while others did not.

For example: Three Mysterious Transformations of Heavenly Flame: a secret art of Burning Flame Valley and the Xiao Clan that drew upon Heavenly Flames to erupt and raise one's star level. Its common side effects were violent energy, damaged meridians, and a period of weakness afterward. However, because Xiao Yan possessed the Mantra of Burning's flame control and Three Thousand Burning Flame's self-healing, its side effects became nearly negligible in the later stages.

Blood Sect—Blood Transformation: It exchanged the blood of others for triple attack power. Its side effects were extremely severe—Dou Qi purity declined, one's foundation was damaged, rationality was lost, and excessive use could cause the meridians to rot apart and lead to death.

Ordinary secret techniques, such as certain magic beast or evil sect techniques: the original work mentioned many times that "secret techniques squeeze out potential, leaving hidden damage to one's foundation afterward and causing cultivation to stagnate." This was a common flaw of secret techniques on the Dou Qi Continent, unlike bloodline enhancements such as the Xiao Clan Mark.

However, Battle Through the Heavens also contained some secret techniques that increased combat strength without side effects.

For example: combat power enhancements with basically no side effects—bloodline, physique, or external objects.

Xiao Clan Mark: It activated the Dou Di bloodline to enhance combat strength, with no period of weakness and no damage to one's foundation. It was the ultimate destination of the fourth transformation of the Three Mysterious Transformations of Heavenly Flame, and Xiao Yan's main replacement for the Three Mysterious Transformations in the later stages.

Ancient Dragon-Phoenix Armor: Zi Yan bestowed the power of the dragon-phoenix to form armor. It purely enhanced defense and the physical body, with no backlash afterward. It only consumed Dou Qi to maintain.

Vajra Glazed Body: A Heaven Tier body-refining Dou technique that transformed the user into a glazed golden body. The price was pain during cultivation, Dou Qi consumption when activated, and a larger body that reduced attack speed. However, it did not damage one's foundation after battle and caused no period of weakness, so it did not count as a "secret technique side effect."

Three Thousand Lightning Phantom Body: A clone substitute that could self-destruct without harming the original body. It had no overdraw cost, merely consuming energy without damaging the meridians.

Heavenly Flame body protection and Flame Mantra enhancement: Heavenly Flames themselves increased combat power, while the Flame Mantra's devouring and conversion was a normal enhancement rather than a secret technique that overdrew one's potential.

Emperor-Realm Soul: Soul power that crushed those of the same tier, a pure advantage in realm with no side effects.

This kind of pill inherently had side effects, but those side effects would not affect the body or damage one's foundation. They would merely cause the user to enter a brief weakened state.

How long it lasted depended on the user's strength. For the strong, it would probably last one or two hours; for the weak, perhaps one or two days.

That was already quite good. Most sects on the Dou Qi Continent had many secret techniques with side effects, and the higher the grade of the secret technique, the more so. A second-tier pill that could temporarily raise part of one's strength, only causing a weakened period afterward without damaging one's foundation, was already an extremely powerful type.

"This pill can temporarily increase your combat power, and it's quite good. I think you can use it to temporarily raise your Soul Power to the level of a Soul King. That should be pretty useful for you.

"But your level will still remain around level 30, so you won't gain two additional Soul Rings."

"After I absorb a new Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, my strength will become even greater. If I take this pill then, my combat power will become even stronger. If I have to participate in the Soul Dueling Tournament at that time, I'm confident I can defeat Ma Xiaotao."

Ma Xiaotao was one of the people Xiao Changge hated most deeply. In his eyes, all of Shrek were hypocrites, but Ma Xiaotao was the most unforgivable of them all.

Ma Xiaotao had relied on Xiao Changge's Martial Soul and Soul Power to solve her Evil Fire problem and enhance the power of her Martial Soul. And what happened? When it came time to discard him, she was faster than anyone else, yet she still claimed it had been his own choice.

Therefore, no matter what, Ma Xiaotao was unforgivable. No matter what, she had to pay the price. Even Shrek had to pay the price.

Moreover, this was also for revenge—for the sake of avenging his benefactor, for that nameless Soul Engineer, and to seek justice for the person who had helped him. No matter what, Ma Xiaotao and Shrek had to pay a bloody price.