Condensing the Pill Flame, First Attempt at Alchemy

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 a pill flame, and the quality of that flame directly determined both the quality and success rate of the pills.

Fortunately, the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art contained a method for condensing a Yin-Yang Core Flame. It required two flames with opposing yin and yang attributes as a foundation, which would be fused and nurtured within the body through a special flame-control method.

The higher the quality of the yin and yang flames, the purer the Yin-Yang Flame produced by their fusion, and the higher the quality of the pills it could refine.

Qian Renxue had put considerable thought into helping Zhao Ming find suitable flames.

She had originally intended to give Zhao Ming the sacred flame of her Seraphim martial soul. It was a god-level flame inherited through the Angel God's bloodline, one of the finest flames in all of Douluo Continent. In Douluo II, it would have been considered an Ultimate Fire-level flame.

However, the requirements for the Yin-Yang Flame were extremely strict. The yin and yang flames had to reach a subtle balance. If the quality of the yang flame far surpassed that of the yin flame, the fusion would become unbalanced. At best, the pill flame would collapse; at worst, it would backlash against its wielder.

Qian Renxue searched throughout the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit City, yet could not find a dark-attributed flame capable of matching the Seraphim's sacred flame.

In the end, she could only settle for the next best option. She selected an angel soul master from the Angel Legion and took the sacred flame from their martial soul as the yang flame.

As for the yin flame, it came from a Dark Demon Dragon that had just passed ten thousand years of cultivation.

This subspecies dragon soul beast possessed relatively pure Dragon Clan bloodline and was one of the lesser dragon species descended from the Dark Sacred Dragon. Its beast flame contained dense dark-attributed energy. Although its quality could not compare to the Seraphim's sacred flame, it was evenly matched with the sacred flame of an Angel Legion soul master.

After these two flames were delivered to Zhao Ming, he followed the flame-control method recorded in the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art and drew them into his dantian one after the other.

The process was extraordinarily 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 three days and three nights before he finally stabilized the two flames within his dantian. He then used his dantian as a furnace and Soul Power as fuel, nurturing the two flames day and night without rest.

The nurturing process was long and tedious.

Every day, Zhao Ming had to devote a great deal of focus to maintaining the balance between the two flames in his dantian, preventing them from devouring or repelling each other.

After two months, his flame-control method finally made a breakthrough. The two flames began slowly merging within his dantian, like rivers of different colors flowing into the same sea. They formed a Taiji pattern within his dantian, and the Yin-Yang Flame was complete.

As soon as the Yin-Yang Flame took form, Zhao Ming could not wait to test its power.

The result satisfied him greatly. Its 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 a defense-type Soul King's fifth soul skill possessed enough defensive power to withstand the attacks of an ordinary Soul Emperor. Yet it had been pierced so easily by the Yin-Yang Flame, showing just how terrifying the flame's power was.

When fighting an opponent, Zhao Ming only needed to coat his Steel Whip in the Yin-Yang Flame to inflict considerable damage.

With his own pill flame, along with the deep study he had devoted over the past half year to Douluo Continent's system of medicinal herbs, Zhao Ming finally possessed the basic conditions necessary for alchemy.

Thus, on his eighth birthday, he purchased three medicinal cauldrons and his first batch of medicinal ingredients 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 Douluo Continent's terms, it rapidly replenished Soul Power. It was one of the most basic pills in the Taiqing Lineage Alchemy Art. After consumption, it could restore a soul master's expended Soul Power in an extremely short time, with effects more direct and efficient than any recovery-type soul skill on Douluo Continent.

Inside the Mustard Seed Space, Zhao Ming sat cross-legged before the crooked wooden hut, with a bronze medicinal cauldron placed before him.

Though this medicinal cauldron was not a Soul Tool, it was made of excellent material and conducted heat evenly. It was more than sufficient for refining the most basic Origin-Recovery Pills.

More than a dozen medicinal ingredients were arranged neatly beside the cauldron, each one carefully selected and processed.

Zhao Ming drew a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. The Taiqing Lineage's alchemy art emphasized "heart and flame as one, spirit entering the cauldron."

It required an alchemist to devote their entire mind to the pill cauldron during the refinement process, using spiritual power to guide changes in the pill flame's temperature and Soul Power to control the rhythm at which the ingredients fused. The slightest distraction could destroy the pill and blow up the furnace.

This was his first time refining pills. There could be no carelessness whatsoever.

A moment later, Zhao Ming opened his eyes. All distracting thoughts had vanished from his gaze, leaving only absolute concentration. He formed hand seals, and the Yin-Yang Flame in his dantian began to surge. A wisp of intertwined black-and-white flame emerged from his palm, writhing like a nimble serpent.

Guided by his spiritual power, Zhao Ming sent the flame beneath the bronze medicinal cauldron. The flame spread evenly across the bottom, slowly heating the cauldron.

Preheating was the first step of alchemy.

The cauldron's temperature had to reach an exact critical point before the medicinal ingredients could be added.

If the temperature was too low, the active components in the ingredients could not be fully released. If it was too high, the ingredients would be scorched instantly and lose all medicinal properties.

Zhao Ming used his spiritual power to sense the temperature changes within the cauldron while carefully adjusting the output of the Yin-Yang Flame.

After roughly the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, the temperature within the cauldron finally reached the required level for adding ingredients.

Without the slightest 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 gave off a soft hiss. Under the high heat, their leaves quickly curled and changed color. Their medicinal potency was forced out, turning into a pale green medicinal liquid that spread through the cauldron.

Zhao Ming immediately increased the output of the pill flame while using spiritual power to firmly envelop the green medicinal liquid, preventing its potency from dissipating.

He then added the various supplementary ingredients into the cauldron one after another.

He failed more than a dozen times in the process, because the timing for adding every ingredient was crucial. A moment too early, and its medicinal properties would not yet be fully released; a moment too late, and its potency would have already scattered.

The prepared medicinal ingredients dwindled at a visible rate.

On the nineteenth attempt, Zhao Ming strictly followed the sequence and rhythm recorded in the inheritance, adding more than a dozen ingredients one by one. At the same time, he continuously adjusted the pill flame's temperature and the intensity of his spiritual power, guiding the different medicinal properties within the cauldron to merge and permeate one another.

Second by second, the medicinal properties within the cauldron gradually changed from their initial disorder into something orderly under the continuous refinement of the Yin-Yang Flame.

The medicinal liquids of different colors began drawing closer and blending together, eventually forming a slowly rotating vortex within the cauldron.

At the center of the vortex, a thumb-sized lump of liquid medicine was gradually taking shape.

Zhao Ming's eyes lit up. Next came the most crucial step of the alchemy process: condensing the pill.

Who could have expected 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 ran off to wash his face before taking out the second medicinal cauldron and continuing.