It was worth mentioning that Zhao Ming had already begun to condense his own Yin-Yang Core Flame.
The origins of this Yin-Yang Core Flame were rather convoluted.
Alchemy required Pill Fire, and the quality of the Pill Fire directly determined both the quality and success rate of the pills.
Fortunately, the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art contained a method for condensing the Yin-Yang Core Flame. It required two flames of opposing yin and yang attributes as a foundation, which would then be fused and nurtured within the body through a special flame-control method.
The higher the quality of the Yang Fire and Yin Fire, the purer the Yin-Yang Flame formed after their fusion, and the higher the quality of the pills refined with it.
Qian Renxue had gone to great lengths to find suitable flames for Zhao Ming.
She had originally intended to give Zhao Ming the sacred fire of her Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul. It was a god-grade flame inherited through the Angel God's bloodline, and its quality was among the very finest on the entire Douluo Continent. In Douluo II, it would have been a flame at the Ultimate Fire level.
However, the requirements for Yin-Yang Flame were extremely stringent. The Yang Fire and Yin Fire had to reach a delicate balance. If the quality of the Yang Fire greatly surpassed that of the Yin Fire, the flames would become unbalanced during fusion. At best, the Pill Fire would collapse; at worst, it would backlash against its wielder.
Qian Renxue searched throughout the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit City, yet she could not find a darkness-attributed flame that matched the sacred fire of the Six-Winged Angel.
In the end, she could only settle for the next best option and select an Angel Soul Master from the Angel Legion, taking the sacred flame from that person's Martial Soul as the Yang Fire.
The Yin Fire, meanwhile, came from a Dark Demon Dragon that was just over ten thousand years old.
This sub-dragon Soul Beast possessed a relatively pure Dragon Clan bloodline and was one of the lower dragon species of the Dark Sacred Dragon. Its beast flame contained rich dark-attributed energy. While its quality could not compare to the sacred fire of the Six-Winged Angel, it was evenly matched with the sacred flame of the Angel Legion Soul Master.
After the two flames were delivered to Zhao Ming, he followed the flame-control method recorded in the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art and successively drew them into his dantian.
The process was extremely dangerous. The slightest mistake could result in backlash from the flames. At best, his meridians would be damaged; at worst, his dantian would be destroyed.
Zhao Ming spent a full three days and three nights before he could securely place the two flames within his dantian. Then, using his dantian as a furnace and Soul Power as fuel, he nurtured the flames day and night without pause.
The nurturing process was long and tedious.
Every day, Zhao Ming had to devote a great deal of attention to maintaining the balance between the two flames in his dantian, preventing them from devouring or repelling one another.
After two months, his flame-control method finally made a breakthrough. The two flames began to slowly merge within his dantian, like two rivers of different colors flowing into the same sea. They formed a taiji pattern in his dantian, and the Yin-Yang Flame was complete.
As soon as the Yin-Yang Flame was formed, Zhao Ming could not wait to test its power.
The result satisfied him greatly. The flame's temperature was so high that it could easily burn through the fifth soul skill of a defense-type Soul King.
One had to know that the fifth soul skill of a defense-type Soul King possessed enough defensive power to withstand the attacks of an ordinary Soul Emperor. Yet it had been effortlessly pierced by the Yin-Yang Flame, showing just how terrifying the flame's power was.
When Zhao Ming fought others, he only needed to attach the Yin-Yang Flame to his Steel Whip to inflict tremendously impressive damage.
With his own Pill Fire, coupled with his in-depth study of the medicinal herb system of the Douluo Continent over the past half year, Zhao Ming finally possessed the basic conditions for alchemy.
Thus, on his eighth birthday, he purchased three medicine cauldrons and the first batch of medicinal herbs through the Crown Prince's Palace, preparing to attempt the most basic Origin-Recovery Pill.
As its name implied, the Origin-Recovery Pill restored vital energy. In the Douluo Continent, it rapidly restored Soul Power. It was one of the most basic pills in the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art. After consumption, it could replenish a Soul Master's depleted Soul Power in an extremely short time, with effects more direct and efficient than any recovery-type soul skill on the Douluo Continent.
Inside the Mustard Seed Space, Zhao Ming sat cross-legged before the crooked wooden hut, with a bronze medicine cauldron placed in front of him.
Although this medicine cauldron was not a Soul Tool, its material was excellent and conducted heat evenly. It was more than sufficient for refining the most basic Origin-Recovery Pill.
Beside the medicine cauldron lay more than a dozen medicinal herbs arranged neatly in rows, every one of them carefully selected and processed.
Zhao Ming took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. The Taiqing Lineage's alchemy art emphasized "the heart and fire becoming one, the mind entering the cauldron."
It required an alchemist to devote all of his focus to the pill cauldron during refinement, use spiritual power to guide changes in the Pill Fire's temperature, and use Soul Power to control the rhythm at which the medicinal herbs fused. Even the slightest distraction could lead to ruined pills and an exploded furnace.
This was his first time refining pills. He could not afford even the slightest carelessness.
A moment later, Zhao Ming opened his eyes. There were no stray thoughts left in his gaze, only absolute focus. He formed seals with both hands, and the Yin-Yang Flame within his dantian surged. A strand of black-and-white intertwined fire emerged from his palm, writhing like a spirit serpent.
Guided by his spiritual power, Zhao Ming sent the flame beneath the bronze medicine cauldron. The fire spread evenly across its base and began to slowly heat it.
Preheating was the first step of alchemy.
The temperature of the medicine cauldron had to reach a precise critical point before the medicinal herbs could be added.
If the temperature was too low, the active ingredients in the herbs could not be fully released. If it was too high, the herbs would be scorched in an instant and lose all their medicinal properties.
Zhao Ming sensed the changing temperature within the cauldron with his spiritual power while carefully adjusting the output intensity of the Yin-Yang Flame.
After roughly the time it took to burn half an incense stick, the temperature within the cauldron finally reached the required level for adding the medicinal herbs.
Without any hesitation, Zhao Ming flicked his right hand and tossed three Qi-Replenishing Herbs into the cauldron.
The instant the Qi-Replenishing Herbs entered the cauldron, they let out a soft hiss. Their leaves rapidly curled and changed color beneath the high heat, while their medicinal potency was forced out and transformed into a pale cyan medicinal liquid that spread through the cauldron.
Zhao Ming immediately increased the output of the Pill Fire while using his spiritual power to firmly envelop the mass of cyan medicinal liquid, preventing its potency from dissipating.
He then added the various auxiliary herbs to the cauldron one after another.
He failed more than a dozen times during the process, because the timing for adding each medicinal herb was crucial. A moment too early, and its medicinal properties would not yet be mature; a moment too late, and its potency would have already dispersed.
The prepared medicinal herbs dwindled at a visible rate.
On the nineteenth attempt, Zhao Ming strictly followed the sequence and rhythm recorded in the inheritance, adding the dozen or so medicinal herbs one by one. At the same time, he constantly adjusted the temperature of the Pill Fire and the intensity of his spiritual power, guiding the various medicinal potencies within the cauldron to fuse and permeate one another.
Second by second, the medicinal potency within the cauldron gradually changed from its initial chaos into order under the continuous refinement of the Yin-Yang Flame.
The medicinal liquids of different colors began to draw together and merge, eventually forming a slowly rotating vortex within the cauldron.
At the center of the vortex, a thumb-sized mass of liquid medicine was gradually taking shape.
Zhao Ming's eyes lit up. Next came the most critical step in the alchemy process: condensing the pill.
Who would have thought that the instant he became excited, his spiritual power destabilized? This time, the cauldron exploded outright, shattering into pieces.
Covered in soot and dust, Zhao Ming went to wash his face, then took out the second medicine cauldron and continued.
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