Return to Eight-Star Dou Fighter

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Next, Yao Lao had Xiao Yan refine Blood-Coagulating Powder several more times.

On the first attempt, Xiao Yan's movements were even more practiced than before. His left hand steadied the cauldron, his right guided the flame, and all three ingredients were added at once. His control over the fire's temperature was precise down to every degree.

From extraction to fusion, from fusion to bottling, the entire process flowed smoothly.

On the second attempt, he increased his speed slightly. The flames churned more rapidly within the cauldron, and the extraction time for the ingredients was nearly cut in half, yet the finished product did not decline in quality.

By the third attempt, he could compress the entire process to half the time of the first, while his movements became even smoother.

As Yao Lao watched Xiao Yan bottle the third batch of Blood-Coagulating Powder, he nodded inwardly.

After three attempts, Xiao Yan's technique had become remarkably stable. The extraction precision for every ingredient, the timing of every shift in heat, and the intensity of every intervention of Soul Power all remained at the same high standard.

Such stability was something many novice alchemists could not achieve even after months of practice.

Yao Lao sighed inwardly. Who would have thought that Heaven would treat me so kindly, allowing me to take in such a gifted and pure-hearted disciple?

In the first half of his life, he had taken in an ungrateful wretch and nearly ended up with his soul scattered. In the latter half, he had been given such a youth. It was as though everything owed to him had been repaid.

"All right." Yao Lao waved his hand, his tone returning to its usual calmness. "That is enough for the Blood-Coagulating Powder. Next, watch your master refine Burning Blood."

Xiao Yan stepped aside and sat cross-legged on a flat rock, his gaze fixed on Yao Lao.

Burning Blood was a Fourth-Grade Pill, far above Blood-Coagulating Powder in rank. Their refining difficulties were on entirely different levels.

Yao Lao did not slow down to demonstrate as he had before. Instead, he worked at his normal alchemy speed.

His movements were much faster than when refining Blood-Coagulating Powder. Adding ingredients, controlling the temperature, extracting, fusing—every step connected seamlessly.

The flames roiled within the cauldron. The ingredients tumbled in the fire, while the medicinal liquid fused, separated, and fused again beneath the intense heat.

Yao Lao's hands moved swiftly above the cauldron. His left hand adjusted the flame's temperature, while his right added ingredients.

Xiao Yan's eyes followed Yao Lao's every movement closely. His Soul Power spread to its limit, catching every minute change inside the cauldron.

Yao Lao refined all the Burning Blood ingredients Xiao Yan had bought in one go, producing a total of eight bottles of Burning Blood.

Each bottle was roughly the size of a ping-pong ball. The liquid inside was bright red and thick as blood, glimmering with a dark crimson light beneath the sheen of the jade bottles.

Yao Lao pushed the eight bottles of Burning Blood toward Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan stored the jade bottles in his Storage Ring, rose to his feet, and bowed to Yao Lao. "Thank you, Teacher."

Yao Lao waved his hand without speaking. His soul body flickered faintly, becoming a little dimmer than before.

Continuously refining Fourth-Grade Pills was no small drain on his current soul condition.

With a turn of his body, he transformed into a milky-white streak of light and entered the Bone Flame Ring on Xiao Yan's right index finger.

Xiao Yan felt a faint pull from the ring. Yao Lao was absorbing the Dou Qi within his body to maintain the stability of his soul body.

Xiao Yan did not disturb Yao Lao's rest. He took out the First-Order and Second-Order Beast Flames Ya Fei had given him from the Bone Flame Ring, eight clusters of Beast Flame in total.

Eight glass bottles were lined up across the ground.

The bottles were transparent and made from a special heat-resistant material. Each one sealed a cluster of Beast Flame, the flames burning quietly within without struggling or flickering.

Of the eight Beast Flames, five were First-Order Beast Flames and three were Second-Order Beast Flames.

Among the First-Order Beast Flames, two were low-grade, two were mid-grade, and one was high-grade.

The Second-Order Beast Flames were all low-grade.

Xiao Yan crouched down. Soul Power spread from between his brows like an invisible net, covering the eight glass bottles.

His Soul Power penetrated the bottle walls and touched the flames within, sensing the temperature and energy intensity of every Beast Flame.

The dark red Beast Flame on the far left was the weakest. Its temperature was low, and its energy fluctuations were weak, roughly at the level of a Three-Star Dou Practitioner.

This flame came from a Scarlet Fire Ant, one of the lowest-ranked First-Order magical beasts. They lived in groups, and the flame of a single ant was limited in power.

Xiao Yan reached out and picked up the glass bottle, pulling out its cork as a wave of heat surged from its mouth.

He tilted his head back, aimed the bottle at his mouth, and swallowed the dark red flame in one gulp.

The instant the flame entered his throat, it felt as if a red-hot iron wire had pierced through his esophagus and stomach.

A burning sensation exploded from within his body. The dark red flame split into dozens of tiny streams that rampaged through his meridians.

Part of it surged upward toward his throat and face, while another part sank downward toward the area around his dantian.

Xiao Yan did not move. His eyes remained closed, and his breathing was steady.

The flames charging recklessly through his meridians had wandered through his body for less than two breaths before being intercepted by a golden-red glow emerging from his dantian.

The golden-red radiance of the Undying Divine Flame spread from his dantian like a massive net, covering every dark red spark fleeing in all directions.

The net tightened, dragging the flames toward his dantian. They passed through his meridians and acupoints before finally being pulled into that massive golden-red blaze.

Before the golden-red Undying Divine Flame, the dark red Beast Flame was like a drop of ink falling into the sea. It was instantly swallowed, melted, and absorbed.

The impurities within the flame were stripped away by the Undying Divine Flame's high temperature and expelled through Xiao Yan's pores, forming a thin layer of gray powder over his skin.

The remaining essence transformed into a stream of pure Dou Qi that surged from his dantian. Xiao Yan simultaneously activated the Heaven-Burning Divine Art and the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique, dividing that Dou Qi into two portions.

The first portion flowed into his Dou Qi vortex and merged with the rapidly spinning pale-gold airflow, causing the vortex to expand slightly.

The second portion flowed toward the golden-red Myriad Flame Source Seed deeper within his dantian. The seed flickered faintly, releasing a warm energy that coursed through his meridians and into every part of his body. His muscles, bones, and skin all underwent subtle changes.

"It really works."

After a long while, having finished digesting the Dou Qi, Xiao Yan opened his eyes. Feeling the slight increase in strength within his body, a smile appeared on his face.

After condensing the Flame Spirit Body, the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique required one to continuously devour flames in order to advance from the Flame Spirit Body to the Flame God Body, then ultimately transform into the Myriad-Flame Divine Physique.

The Flame Spirit Body stage had nine levels in total, from one stripe to nine stripes.

The physical strength of a One-Stripe Flame Spirit Body was already comparable to that of a Three-Star Dou Master, while a Nine-Stripe Flame Spirit Body possessed physical strength equivalent to a Battle King.

One after another, he swallowed the remaining seven Beast Flames. With the Undying Divine Flame and the Flame Spirit Body, neither Beast Flames nor Heavenly Flames could harm him in the slightest.

As the final Beast Flame was completely refined, the impurities accumulated in some of Xiao Yan's smaller meridians were expelled from his body in great quantities.

Gray-black mucus seeped from his pores, covering his entire face, neck, and arms, giving off a scorched stench.

At the same time, his cultivation rose all the way from a Four-Star Dou Practitioner, breaking through the thresholds of five stars, six stars, and seven stars, finally returning to the peak he had reached at the age of eleven—an Eight-Star Dou Fighter.

The Myriad-Flame Divine Physique also broke through to the One-Stripe Flame Spirit Body under the push of the Beast Flames.

Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes. His clothes had already turned to powder due to the Flame Spirit Body's breakthrough, with fragments scattered around the meditation cushion.

He lowered his head and looked at his chest—at the location of his heart, a golden-red stripe extended downward from the center of his breastbone, passing over his chest muscles and reaching the lower edge of his ribs.

The stripe was as thin as a hair, golden-red in color and faintly glowing, like cinnabar branded into his skin with flame.

He clenched his fist. The moment his fingers closed, the air in his palm was compressed, letting out a low explosive crack.

With the Dou Qi cultivation of an Eight-Star Dou Fighter, physical strength equal to a Three-Star Dou Master, and the Mystic Tier Dou Techniques in his hands—Eight Extremes Collapse, Explosive Step, Lingxi Sword Fingers, and Five-Flame Heaven-Burning Seal—none below the Dou Master realm could be his opponent.

Even against a Four-Star Dou Master, he felt no fear.

After using Beast Flame to completely burn the shattered glass fragments and accumulated gray-black powder on the ground into ashes, Xiao Yan finished gathering his belongings. He bent down and crawled out of the cave entrance, pushed aside the hanging vines, and entered the mountain forest shrouded in dusk.

Mountain wind poured through the cracks in the cliff, stirring the fresh robes he had changed into. The hem of his clothes fluttered behind him, making a faint rustling sound.