Spirit Flame

"Hundred Flower Pill. No wonder Old Long's Medicine Garden was planted entirely with flowers—so that was why."

Long Xuan's eyes darted about, his gaze brimming with excitement.

An alchemist—he realized that he seemed capable of becoming one.

With Thousand-Mile Sight and a slight degree of x-ray vision, Old Long's entire alchemy process lay exposed before him. He could completely steal-learn Alchemy, and occasionally swipe a few pill formulas as well.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became.

In this world, alchemists were an even rarer and more prestigious profession than Gu cultivators.

Moreover, they guarded their craft even more jealously, believing that the law must not be lightly passed on. Things such as Alchemy and pill formulas were basically impossible to buy anywhere.

As a result, every alchemist generally mastered several exclusive pill formulas. Each alchemist formed a school unto themselves, and sectarian prejudice ran extremely deep.

Now that he had a chance to steal-learn Alchemy, how could he not be excited? He had been excited far too many times today.

It was precisely because alchemists were so exceedingly rare in this world that their status was extraordinarily noble and their position lofty beyond compare.

One had to know that spirit pills could raise a Gu cultivator's chances of breaking through a realm. They could refine life-saving spirit pills that healed a Gu cultivator's injuries, and some spirit pills could even let Gu Insects shed their mortal shells and remake their bones, completing a transformation.

Thus, the spirit pills refined by alchemists held a fatal allure for every Gu cultivator. It also led every Gu cultivator to desperately curry favor with alchemists, even selling their lives into their service and allowing themselves to be commanded.

Therefore, every alchemist in this world possessed terrifying connections, made friends far and wide, and could potentially befriend any great figure.

Offending an alchemist could mean poking a hornet's nest and drawing countless powerful enemies.

It was also because alchemists were far too rare that spirit pills were equally scarce. They were nowhere near as common as cabbages in the street as they were in other worlds.

Long Xuan had never seen a spirit pill at any street stall or shop. Perhaps this place was simply too barren; spirit pills were probably only seen at auctions.

If he became an alchemist and refined this Hundred Flower Pill, then cultivated by swallowing pills every day, it might even be possible to increase his cultivation speed tenfold.

Long Xuan grew excited just thinking about it. He had suffered enough from that damned cultivation speed.

If aptitude was insufficient, then cultivation resources would make up for it.

If he could not buy spirit pills, then he would create them himself. Once the Hundred Flower Pill became useless, he would create the Thousand Flower Pill and Myriad Flower Pill. Long Xuan swiftly mapped out his future cultivation path.

Having made up his mind, Long Xuan focused wholeheartedly and continued observing Old Long's alchemy process. He even magnified it, carefully studying every detail in an effort to steal-learn Alchemy as quickly as possible.

A day soon passed. Old Long was exhausted to the point of collapse and finally finished the day's work. He fell to the ground and began snoring soundly, his thunderous snores astonishingly penetrating; Long Xuan could hear them even from far away.

Only then did he put away the Eye of Heavenly Secrets. Though his expression was weary, his little face was full of excitement.

This day of spying had brought him considerable gains.

He quickly sat down at the table, took out paper and brush, and got busy again.

Before long, the sheet was filled with writing. At last, he wrote the three large words "Violet Demon Flame" at the top, set down his brush, and gazed at it in satisfaction.

Flames were every alchemist's secret never passed down, and their importance surpassed even pill formulas.

Naturally, alchemy could not be performed with flames produced by burning firewood.

At the Spirit Gathering Stage, one could make do with flames generated from fire spiritual power to refine first-grade spirit pills.

But to refine spirit pills of the second grade and above, special flames were absolutely necessary. This was a hard rule. Without special flames, one could only refine the lowest-ranked first-grade spirit pills for life.

Setting aside the Heaven Flames said to be naturally born, the flames of most alchemists came from only three sources.

One could find a place of lava and use Earth Flame for alchemy. Or one could slaughter a fire-attributed spirit beast and use Beast Flame for alchemy.

The last kind was artificially created Spirit Flame.

Spirit Flame was a peculiar flame refined by alchemists through all manner of wondrous methods and the expenditure of various rare materials. Its formula was extraordinarily precious.

Spirit Flame formulas varied in strength. An exceptional Spirit Flame formula might not be much inferior to the Heaven Flames of legend.

What Long Xuan had recorded now was a Spirit Flame formula called Violet Demon Flame. It was Old Long's exclusive secret and the Long Family's treasure never passed down.

Yet Long Xuan had obtained it with effortless ease. Old Long could only be blamed for being careless—why had he taken such an important Spirit Flame formula out of his storage bag? It was far too careless.

Holding this copied Spirit Flame formula, Long Xuan was unable to contain his excitement.

With this Spirit Flame formula, he could refine Violet Demon Flame. Using special flames for alchemy could enhance a spirit pill's medicinal potency and further accelerate his cultivation speed. He was wild with joy.

However, his smile quickly faded. His eyes filled with hesitation, and his heart became increasingly calm.

In this world, steal-learning another person's secret never passed down was a great taboo. Once discovered, one would be beaten to death.

He could certainly use it in secret and avoid being discovered, but every person caught stealing a master's craft had thought the same thing at the time.

Why were exclusive Gu Recipes so difficult to steal-learn? Could one not simply murder for treasure or use torture to force a confession? One truly could not.

Gu Insects of the same kind could sense one another even across a great distance. If one dared refine a great clan's exclusive Gu Recipe, then one only needed to wait for that great clan's entire family to hunt them down.

Since Gu Insects of the same kind could sense one another and were extremely sensitive to their own kind, might Spirit Flames possess this trait as well?

Once he refined Violet Demon Flame, would Old Long immediately sense it, then storm in furiously and chop him down?

Long Xuan immediately shrank his neck, a chill running down his spine.

That really was possible. The problem was that he truly did not dare gamble on it. Even if there was only a one percent chance of being sensed, he absolutely would not gamble.

No matter how low the odds, gambling with one's life was foolish.

Long Xuan took a deep breath. There was no helping it. Since he did not dare use it, he could only create one himself. So what if he created a Spirit Flame of his own?

Long Xuan's eyes grew brighter and brighter, excitement shining from his gaze.

Before obtaining this Spirit Flame formula, he could never have created a Spirit Flame formula himself.

That was because he knew nothing about the process of making Spirit Flame. Even if he wanted to create one, he would have had no place to begin.

But now that he had the Violet Demon Flame Formula, he had a template and a format. He knew what kinds of materials to use and what methods were needed to refine it.

As long as he followed the formula's principles and imitated its structure, creating a Spirit Flame might not be difficult for him.

It was merely a matter of how long he would have to grind at it.

Long Xuan's spirits soared again. He pulled out another blank sheet of paper, brimming with motivation.

The first step in creating a Spirit Flame was to decide what sort of flame to create—what characteristics it would have and what abilities it would possess.

The first thing Long Xuan thought of was the sort of flame often found in novels from his previous life, a flame that radiated cold air.

But this world was not a novel. It was a world that truly existed, so how could such a flame that violated common sense appear?

This world had likewise never seen a cold flame that could release cold air.

Burning had to release heat. Without releasing heat, burning was impossible. Burning while releasing no heat was entirely self-contradictory; from a scientific perspective, it was completely impossible to achieve and belonged to pseudoscience.

Yet Long Xuan still wanted to try this wild fantasy once.

After all, there was never any cost to his self-created things. At most, he would waste some time. Why not try once? What if it succeeded?

Long Xuan first created a name for this Spirit Flame, writing the four large characters "Divine Ice Flame" on the paper.

This already counted as setting the topic. If the Spirit Flame he created next had nothing to do with the word "ice," then the incomplete formula would show no progress at all, because it would not match the title and would be self-contradictory.

Topic-based creation would undoubtedly increase the difficulty and waste even more time.

After writing the title, the first thing Long Xuan thought of was the principle of making ice with saltpeter from his previous life.

Saltpeter also existed in this world, and it was rich in spiritual power. Its ice-making effect was likely even stronger than in his previous life.

So without another thought, he directly wrote "saltpeter" beneath the title and specifically noted that a large quantity was required.

As his brush fell, he discovered that [0.1%] progress had suddenly appeared on the paper. Long Xuan was overjoyed.

He understood. He had succeeded. A flame imagined in novels might truly be possible in the real world...