Spirit Flame

"Hundred Flower Pill—no wonder Old Long's medicinal garden was planted entirely with flowers. So that was why."

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

An alchemist... he had 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 had been laid bare before him. He could completely steal the art of 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 honored profession than Gu cultivators.

Moreover, they cherished their own skills like a broom they refused to throw away, and their methods could not be passed on lightly. Alchemy techniques and pill formulas were things one could hardly buy anywhere.

As a result, every alchemist basically possessed several exclusive pill formulas. Each formed a school of their own, and their sectarian prejudices ran extremely deep.

Now that he had a chance to secretly learn alchemy, how could he not be thrilled? He had truly been excited far too many times today.

It was precisely because of this that alchemists were extraordinarily rare in this world. Their rarity also made their status exceptionally noble and detached.

One had to know that spirit pills could increase a Gu cultivator's chance of breaking through a realm. They could refine life-saving spirit pills that healed Gu cultivators' injuries, and some could even allow Gu insects to shed their mortal shells and exchange their bones, completing a transformation.

Thus, the spirit pills refined by alchemists held a fatal allure for every Gu cultivator. This also caused every Gu cultivator to desperately curry favor with alchemists, even serving them with their lives and allowing themselves to be commanded.

Therefore, every alchemist in this world possessed terrifying connections and a vast circle of acquaintances. They might befriend any sort of great figure.

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

It was also because alchemists were so scarce that spirit pills were equally rare. They were nowhere near as common as cabbages in a market as they were in other worlds.

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

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

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

Since his aptitude was insufficient, he would make up for it with cultivation resources.

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

Having made up his mind, Long Xuan focused completely and continued observing Old Long's alchemy process. He even magnified it to carefully study every detail, striving to steal the art of alchemy as quickly as possible.

A day soon passed. Old Long was exhausted to the point of collapse and finally finished his day's work. He fell to the ground and immediately began snoring like thunder, the sound piercing enough that Long Xuan could hear it 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 peeping had brought him considerable gains.

He quickly sat down at the table, took out paper and brush, and busied himself once more.

Before long, the page 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 to outsiders, and their importance even surpassed that of 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 or above, special flames were indispensable. This was a hard requirement. Without special flames, one could only refine the lowest-grade first-grade spirit pills for life.

Setting aside the naturally born Heavenly Flames of legend, the flames used by most alchemists came from only three sources.

Either they found a place of magma and used Earth Flame for alchemy, or they slaughtered fire-attributed spirit beasts and used Beast Flame for alchemy.

The final type was artificially created Spirit Flame.

Spirit Flame was a peculiar flame that alchemists refined through all kinds of wondrous methods and with all manner of rare materials. Its formula was extraordinarily precious.

Spirit Flame formulas varied in strength. A superior Spirit Flame formula might not be much inferior to the legendary Heavenly Flames.

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 to outsiders.

Yet Long Xuan had obtained it with ease. Old Long could only blame his own carelessness—why had he taken such an important Spirit Flame formula out of his storage bag? He had truly been far too careless.

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

With this Spirit Flame formula, he could refine Violet Demon Flame. Using a special flame for alchemy could increase a spirit pill's potency and further boost his cultivation speed. He was beside himself with joy.

Yet his smile quickly faded. His eyes filled with hesitation, and his heart grew increasingly calm.

In this world, secretly learning another person's secret never passed down to outsiders 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 art had thought exactly the same thing at the time.

Why were exclusive Gu formulas so difficult to steal? Could one not kill for treasure, then torture the victim into confessing? One truly could not.

Gu insects of the same kind could sense each other even from a great distance. If one dared refine an exclusive Gu formula belonging to a great clan, then one could wait to be hunted down by that clan's entire family.

Since Gu insects of the same kind could sense each other and were extremely sensitive to their own kind, might Spirit Flames possess the same trait?

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

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

That truly was possible. The problem was that he simply did not dare gamble. 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 them.

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

That was because he knew nothing whatsoever about the process of creating Spirit Flame. Even if he wanted to create one, he would have had nowhere 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 for refinement.

As long as he followed the formula's principles and imitated its structure, creating a Spirit Flame of his own 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 surged again. He took out another blank sheet of paper, brimming with enthusiasm.

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

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 no novel. It was a real world. How could such a flame, one that defied common sense, exist?

This world had likewise never seen a cold flame capable of releasing freezing air.

Burning had to release heat. Without releasing heat, it could not burn. Burning while releasing no heat was utterly self-contradictory. From a scientific perspective, it was completely impossible and belonged to pseudoscience.

Yet Long Xuan still wanted to make one wildly fanciful attempt.

After all, creating things himself never cost him anything. At most, he would waste some time. Why not try once? What if he succeeded?

Long Xuan first came up with a name for this Spirit Flame and wrote 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.

Creating something based on a set topic would undoubtedly increase the difficulty and waste even more time.

After writing the title, the first thing Long Xuan thought of was the saltpeter ice-making principle 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 a second thought, he wrote "saltpeter" directly beneath the title and specifically noted that a large quantity was required.

The moment 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 actually be possible in the real world...