Explosive Pills Have to Explode!

Back mountain cave.

Xiao Yan sat cross-legged before a massive cauldron, white firelight coiling around him. His white hair fluttered without wind, his pupils had turned a pale, ghastly white, and his hands moved ceaselessly. The various medicinal ingredients floating before him were pierced by streams of pale-white flame, as though threading a needle.

In but an instant, countless black powders drifted down—impurities burned to ash—while the essence of the herbs became a liquid that faintly radiated a chill.

"It's been so many years in the blink of an eye..."

A trace of reminiscence flashed through White-Haired Xiao Yan's eyes. Resting his cheek on one hand, he fell into a brief daze before lightly snapping his fingers.

Snap.

The flames dancing through the air converged like countless fireflies drawn to a blaze, gathering the crystalline medicinal liquid as dazzling light burst forth.

When the firelight faded, a purple pill marked with flame patterns quietly floated before Xiao Yan.

"Kid, how much did you learn?"

An aged voice came from within Xiao Yan's body.

"I got the general idea?"

The white aura in his pupils faded, and his body returned to normal. Xiao Yan rolled his neck.

As far as he was concerned, this Ghost Possession move deserved to be considered a Heavenly Tier Dou Technique. Especially while learning Pill Refining recently, this was practically hands-on instruction, far more detailed than when Ma Xianhong had taught him Artifact Refining.

"Hehe, this is a third-grade Purple Flame Pill, one I created in my younger days. If I had to pick a single pill to represent the first twenty years of my life, it would probably be this one."

Yao Chen's figure flew out of Xiao Yan's body. Smiling, he sat beside Xiao Yan and patted his shoulder.

Whether during his years in the Yao Clan or when he had first made a name for himself after leaving, this pill had played an intensely significant role.

"After taking this pill, one's fire-attributed Dou Qi will greatly increase in both quality and quantity for a short time. It also improves fire control. The flames then temper one's essence, qi, and spirit, and it carries a certain effect of breaking through realms.

"Back when I was a three-star Dou Master, I could leap all the way to a Nine-Star Da Dou Shi with this pill."

"Hiss?" Xiao Yan's eyes immediately gleamed. He was familiar with fighting above his level. This thing could work well with his abilities.

But could a third-grade pill really have such an effect?

Yao Chen merely chuckled.

It was true that he had crossed nearly two major realms, but that had been with five pills layered together with a secret technique. Those details were unimportant.

As for its heaven-defying effects...

Naturally, he had deep feelings for the first pill he had created. After becoming renowned across the continent as the "Number One Alchemist," he might have been busy, but he had still found time to revisit and improve his debut work.

"I gathered the essence of countless sixth- to eighth-grade pill formulas, discarded their flaws, and revised this formula from scratch.

"There are versions from second to eighth grade, though the versions after the fifth grade are basically just for sentiment..."

With a smile, Yao Chen did not hide anything and laid bare his old secrets.

Then he raised a hand and drew over the pill furnace, meticulously demonstrating the entire refining process again—from extracting the herbs' essence, to refining them within the cauldron, to forming the pills. This time, he did not show off as he had before.

In only a short while, a batch of twelve second-grade Purple Flame Pills emerged from the furnace, their fragrance spreading everywhere.

"Although you're currently only a..." Yao Lao paused here, and Xiao Yan beamed as he picked up the thread. "Peak ninth stage Dou Qi, Great Perfection, Half-Step Dou Zhe."

"Ahem. Fine, Half-Step Dou Zhe. But after using your secret technique, your Dou Qi can briefly reach the Dou Master stage. With your soul strength, refining second-grade pills will not be a problem. In three days, you have already mastered all first-grade pills thoroughly. It is time to try second-grade ones.

Hearing this, Xiao Yan nodded happily.

Qi-Recovery Pills, Blood-Recovery Pills, Spring Return Pills, and the like—he could easily refine them without the aid of a special furnace and without opening the Eight Gates to explosively raise his qi.

It was complete overkill.

"Then let me give it a try. First should be..."

A brilliant light flashed in his eyes. After pausing for a few breaths to recall Yao Chen's earlier movements, Xiao Yan began as well. Combining spiritual power with Dou Qi, he activated Suction Palm and Fire-Blowing Palm, drawing over all kinds of medicinal ingredients. Following Yao Lao's earlier actions, he refined them step by step before placing them into the pill cauldron.

His movements were extremely similar. They were not exactly identical, but they were close enough.

At the same time, Xiao Yan multitasked, controlling the specially crafted pill cauldron. Dou Qi and spiritual power poured into it, fully activating the furnace.

Because of the difference in spiritual power, he could not control it as exquisitely as Yao Lao did. But as the old saying went:

A gentleman's nature is no different from another's; he is simply skilled at making use of external things.

As an Artifact Refiner who had gained a solid grasp of Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements, his experience in this area was quite good.

The strange fluctuations inside the pill furnace complemented Xiao Yan's movements perfectly. Before long, an unusual pill fragrance wafted out.

Seven pale-purple pills were sent out by a force within the cauldron.

"Not bad, not bad. As expected of someone who has practiced Artifact Refining for several years. You succeeded in refining second-grade pills on your first attempt." The admiration in Yao Chen's eyes was impossible to hide.

Setting aside the later stages, Pill Refining and Artifact Refining had many similarities in the early stages. Especially for Xiao Yan, whose spiritual power was even stronger than Yao Chen's had been at the same age, reaching this point was truly heaven-gifted.

Yet Xiao Yan merely tilted his head.

He had only used the methods Yao Lao taught him.

Since he had succeeded by following the process precisely, it was time to challenge himself and try some fancy tricks.

The next moment, Xiao Yan waved one hand, and six special artifacts storing Dou Qi floated around him, continuously pouring the Dou Qi stored in advance into his body.

At the same time, Xiao Yan looked at the jade bottle by his side, thought for a moment, and swallowed three second-grade Purple Flame Pills in one gulp. He swiftly refined their vast medicinal power, and his aura surged wildly.

The first gate of the Eight Gates, the Opening Gate, opened. His spiritual power and Dou Qi increased dramatically.

Xiao Yan perfectly controlled the three different violent forces. The next instant, he clapped his hands together, and all the medicinal ingredients for refining second-grade Purple Flame Pills rose into the air. As his fingers moved, Dou Qi transformed into flames and wrapped around every ingredient. In mere moments, the herbs seemed to shrink slightly, while becoming increasingly crystalline, as though they had transformed from plants into crystals.

"This is... Artifact Refining?" Yao Lao frowned.

His soul power could sense that Xiao Yan's step seemed similar to tempering materials during Artifact Refining, yet it also incorporated certain procedures he had taught him for Pill Refining.

"That's right. Humans can be refined as artifacts, so why can't medicine be treated as an artifact?" A smile appeared on Xiao Yan's face. With Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements activated, he refined each of the medicinal ingredients into objects resembling artifacts in only moments.

Although they could now be used as some low-grade artifacts, their nature was entirely different from ordinary artifacts under his wild imagination.

Fully unleashing his spiritual power, Xiao Yan enveloped the preliminarily refined medicinal ingredients in surging Dou Qi. With a sweep of his hand, he carved them one by one with flame.

For some reason, he felt innately fated with fire, as though he had been meant to play with flames in this life. His fire control came naturally, as easily as moving his own arm.

"Mystic Jade Flower. Its medicinal properties are mostly in the petals, balanced and gentle." With a wave of Xiao Yan's hand, every part aside from the petals transformed into streams of light and flowed into them, making the whole flower increasingly crystalline.

"Shortwood Lotus. Though called a lotus, it actually grows on land. Its core lies in the roots and stems." In another instant, its jade-belt-like leaves and stems were sent into the pill furnace.

"Sky Rainbow Grass. Seven-colored like the streak of sunset after rain, its essence lies solely in its rainbow-like leaves." Flames flowed, and those sunset-colored leaves seemed to come alive as they entered the furnace amid streams of fire.

Following the process Yao Lao had demonstrated earlier, combining his knowledge of medicinal ingredients with his insights into Artifact Refining...

Xiao Yan felt as though he had entered a mysterious state. Perhaps it was akin to enlightenment. His thoughts were extraordinarily unconstrained, yet they could still be put into practice.

Following his instincts, Xiao Yan emptied his mind and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the process.

By the time he had processed every medicinal ingredient through methods resembling Artifact Refining, Xiao Yan was drenched in sweat.

His vast Dou Qi had unknowingly nearly run dry. Even in a place he had not noticed, a vortex formed from condensed Dou Qi quietly spun within his dantian.

Although his Dou Qi regeneration speed had increased so dramatically it was like heaven and earth compared to before, it was still a drop in the bucket for Xiao Yan's current actions.

Just as he was wondering whether to open the second and third gates, which could greatly improve physical strength and autonomous Dou Qi recovery, Xiao Yan felt an immense power flow into his body. He instinctively looked up and saw Yao Lao's illusory palm pressed against his shoulder.

Heavenly Tier Dou Technique, Ghost Possession!

"Don't get distracted. This kind of enlightenment is something you can only encounter by chance."

Xiao Yan did not seem to hear Yao Lao's words. He merely nodded heavily, his fingers moving continuously in accordance with the vague insight guiding him.

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, an even more peculiar pill fragrance drifted out from the furnace.

There even seemed to be a faint hint of color within it.

Yao Chen could not help widening his eyes.

Was this the embryonic form of colored pill fragrance?

How could a brat who was not even a Dou Zhe achieve this?!!

Then, in but an instant, Xiao Yan abruptly clapped both hands together, and the pill furnace before him suddenly erupted with a loud explosion.

With a boom, cloud-white mist billowed up. The column of white smoke lingered for a long time, reaching the top of the cave more than ten meters above.

Watching this scene, Yao Chen's gaze turned somewhat unfocused. It was far too familiar. This was exactly what had happened when he first refined third-grade Purple Flame Pills...

Immediately afterward came another rumble. Xiao Yan flipped his hand and slapped the pill furnace. The pill aura that had shot into the sky surged back into the furnace. With another light turn of his hand, he lifted out a purple pill glowing with a golden sheen.

Without allowing it to remain exposed to the air for long, Xiao Yan flipped his hand and took out a Jade Purification Bottle. With a light flick, it produced a burst of suction and swallowed the pill into the bottle.

"Pill aura returning to the cauldron, the sign of a supreme-quality pill..." The emotions in Yao Chen's voice were especially complicated.

Seeing Yao Lao's expression, Xiao Yan grinned. He removed the bottle cap that had automatically closed, tilted it lightly, and poured out the pill within.

It was vastly different from both the Purple Flame Pills Xiao Yan had refined before and the Purple Flame Pills Yao Lao had refined.

From a certain perspective, the pill Xiao Yan had refined was neither round nor really a pill.

It was a jade-like polyhedron.

It was nothing like the smooth, rounded shape of ordinary pills. It looked spherical as a whole, but upon closer inspection, it was a thirty-six-faced polyhedron.

"In the second-grade weakened version of the Purple Flame Pill, I reduced some of its explosive power and converted that portion of the medicinal effect into nourishment. This medicinal power can be released all at once at will, or retained within the body to temper Dou Techniques and the physique, becoming a lasting source of nourishment. It can also increase resistance and affinity toward flames.

"Of course, the third-grade Purple Flame Pill has all those effects as well. I have an entire series of pill formulas that can be continuously fine-tuned. Purple Flame Pills are actually a whole series..."

As Yao Lao explained the functions of the weakened version of his original high-grade pill, he took out another perfectly round pill in addition to the original third-grade Purple Flame Pill, comparing it with Xiao Yan's heavily modified version.

Although it was inferior to the third-grade pill Yao Chen had refined, Xiao Yan's pill was far beyond what an ordinary second-grade pill could compare to.

There would be no problem treating it as a pseudo-third-grade pill.

"Teacher, mine should have all of those functions too, except..." Xiao Yan scratched his head after carefully sensing it.

"Except what?" Yao Chen raised an eyebrow.

"It possesses the traits of both a pill and an artifact, and I amplified its flame aspect." As he spoke, Xiao Yan lightly tapped with his left index finger. The special polyhedral pill transformed into streams of purple flame, burning from his fingertip and swiftly covering his entire left arm.

The sight resembled Iron Man's nanotech armor, or a spark falling onto extremely dry grass.

"It looks like flame, but it's actually a crystalline arm guard." Xiao Yan lightly flicked the Purple Flame Armor on his arm, then held it out toward Yao Lao.

"It can be worn like this and slowly absorbed to strengthen the body and meridians?" Yao Chen's eyes lit up. "And it seems it can also be used against enemies, channeling the energy outward to amplify Dou Qi and flame while increasing destructive power."

This little idea was truly not bad.

The moment Yao Chen saw this, he immediately thought of how pills could transform into pill beasts after gaining sentience.

If Pill Refining and Artifact Refining were combined like Xiao Yan had done, it seemed it could be extremely useful once pills gained sentience in the future.

"That's not all, Teacher. Your Purple Flame Pill is an explosive power pill. Even if you changed it from a one-time burst into a sustained, self-draining effect, that doesn't change its fundamentally explosive nature."

Xiao Yan grinned. Under Yao Chen's somewhat startled gaze, he slapped the specially made storage artifact at his waist, releasing a first-tier magical beast that was unconscious and sealed.

"Isn't your use of turning it into a special weapon explosive enough?"

"Explosive pills have to explode."

The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth lifted. Under Yao Lao's puzzled gaze, he flicked a finger, and another modified Purple Flame Pill easily pierced the first-tier magical beast's skin and entered its body.

"Snap." Accompanied by a crisp snap of his fingers, the magical beast's body began to tremble violently.

Yao Chen's expression changed abruptly.

BOOM!!!

The next instant, a semi-illusory purple-red hemisphere emerged from inside the magical beast's body, like a jade barrier. Countless streams of light spun within it, while innumerable dazzling radiances burst from the translucent flowing flames.

Then violent energy was compressed, triggered, compressed again, triggered again, over and over. All of it was condensed into a single instant.

The next moment, the violent energy wave erupted, and a thunderous roar like a mountain collapse deafened the ears.

After a long while, the smoke and dust dispersed.

"You call that a pill?"

"I call it the Pill Explosion Technique." Completely unconcerned with his tattered clothes, Xiao Yan wiped the black ash from his face, looking exceptionally excited.

Just like Yao Chen's Purple Flame Pill series, which had produced a range of pills based around enhancing fire attributes, Xiao Yan felt that he had found a pill system suited to himself as well!

"Art really is explosion."

"Art my fucking ass, you @#%&!!!" Yao Chen cursed loudly.