Bringing the Whole Family Along?

When Elder Liu heard Wu Bai's price, he didn't hesitate. He immediately went back to rummage through his private savings.

Before long, footsteps sounded upstairs. Han Yue came down in a pale yellow dress and sat beside Wu Bai, resting her slender, fair hands on his shoulders and gently massaging them.

"The elder from yesterday?"

"Mm. He wants me to refine a Dou Ling Pill for him. Fire Energy is important in the Inner Academy, and I happen to be running low, so I agreed."

"Is the Fire Energy I have—more than three hundred days—considered a lot?"

Han Yue took out her Azure Fire Crystal Card. She had no idea where she stood.

"For students in the Dou Shi Realm, it's a fortune, enough to support a year of cultivation. But for a Dou Ling, it would only last a month."

As he spoke, Wu Bai took out his Purple Fire Crystal Card and showed it to Han Yue. "Take my card, for example. One day cultivating on the ninth floor costs me thirty days of Fire Energy."

"So your eighteen hundred days of Fire Energy will only last two months?"

Han Yue blinked. She hadn't realized Fire Energy mattered so much in the Inner Academy!

"Mm. That's why I agreed to help the elder. The Fire Energy they've saved up is far beyond what those senior students have."

Dozens of senior students together had scraped up less than four hundred days of Fire Energy. They were broke, plain and simple.

Then again, what robber carried tens of thousands on him when he went out to steal?

"Come on. I'll show you around the Inner Academy first. Elder Liu will be a while."

With that, Wu Bai took Han Yue out.

Compared with the Outer Academy in the heart of Jia Nan City, the Inner Academy did look rather small.

But its students were few and exceptional. Students and elders together numbered just over a thousand, so it had no need for a sprawling campus like the Outer Academy's, which served tens of thousands.

Though the Inner Academy's campus was small, it had every facility they needed. Besides, they could climb over a wall and enter the boundless Magical Beast Forest for all the thrilling training they could want. The Outer Academy couldn't compare.

Most important of all was the Inner Academy's heart—the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower.

"As for what makes the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower so remarkable, all I can say is that you'll feel it once you're inside."

While Wu Bai had been showing Han Yue around, they had run into several members of the Han Family and some friends of hers.

They were practically his own people, so Wu Bai brought them along.

Before they entered the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower, Wu Bai carefully explained the Heart Flame Projection they might encounter inside.

"If you can't keep your mind steady and the Heart Flame Projection gets through, circulate your Dou Qi and push through it."

"Remember that?"

Wu Bai's stern gaze passed over every face.

"Mm, got it, brother-in-law!"

"Yes, young master-in-law."

"...Follow me."

Wu Bai turned, took the bashful Han Yue's hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

As they crossed the threshold of the black tower doors, a wave of heat rushed toward them.

But they were prepared and reacted at once. Those who could steadied their minds; those who couldn't quickly used their Dou Qi to push through the Heart Flame Projection.

By the time they recovered, Wu Bai was already speaking with the elder guarding the tower.

"Elder Song, are you on tower duty today?"

"Wu Bai! You're officially a student of the Inner Academy now, aren't you?"

"Mm. I brought them over to pay you a visit."

"A visit? As if I'd refuse you a favor!"

Smiling, Elder Song pointed Wu Bai toward the advanced cultivation room in the middle.

"I heard you were bringing the whole family along, so I saved this room especially for you."

"Thank you, Elder Song. If there's a Sixth-Grade Pill you'd like refined, I could give it a try."

"Sixth-grade? You've become a Sixth-Rank Alchemist!"

Elder Song's eyes widened. He instinctively lowered his voice, afraid of disturbing the distinguished Sixth-Rank Alchemist.

"Not long ago, I refined a few lower-tier Sixth-Grade Pills. I suppose that makes me a Sixth-Rank Alchemist."

Wu Bai smiled and nodded modestly.

"It does. Of course it does!"

Elder Song nodded at once. On the Dou Qi Continent, the accepted rule was simple: if you could refine a pill of a given grade, you were an Alchemist of that rank.

The elders who remained at the academy weren't especially talented. They had only kept advancing thanks to a cultivation treasure like the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower.

Away from the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower, they might not advance even one star in decades.

But if they had a chance to ask a Sixth-Rank Alchemist for help, things might be different. Someone stuck at Eight-Star Dou Wang, for instance, could swallow a Dou Ling Pill and advance to Nine-Star Dou Wang.

Even reaching the Dou Huang Realm might become possible...

Once he had settled everyone in, Wu Bai left the Heavenly Flame Qi Refining Tower.

He had barely returned when he saw Elder Liu standing at the door.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Elder Liu. I took them around the Inner Academy. I didn't expect you back so soon."

Wu Bai quickened his steps and opened the door.

"It's fine. I only just arrived."

Inside, Elder Liu nervously brought out his offer.

Five thousand days of Fire Energy, plus three portions of precious Medicinal Herbs, each potent enough to serve as the main ingredient of a higher-tier Sixth-Grade Pill.

There was also a Storage Ring containing three sets of Medicinal Herbs for refining Dou Ling Pills.

"That's very generous. Rest assured, Elder Liu. I'll have the Dou Ling Pill ready at noon three days from now."

"Good, good. I won't disturb you any longer." Elder Liu let out a long breath. A weight had finally lifted from his heart, and he promptly took his leave, unwilling to impose further.

He wasn't worried in the slightest that Wu Bai would fail. With talent for alchemy that defied all reason, how could Wu Bai fail?

He also trusted Wu Bai's reputation. Wu Bai wouldn't make a promise like that unless he was certain.

Back when Wu Bai had still been a Fifth-Rank Alchemist in the Outer Academy, he had refined eighteen Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills in just two days.

Elder Liu remembered it clearly.

Two days. Eighteen Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills.

Those two numbers proved one thing: Wu Bai's success rate had reached a level ordinary Alchemists could never hope to match.

More importantly, Sixth-Rank Alchemists weren't everywhere. You couldn't meet one just because you wanted to.

And not every Sixth-Rank Alchemist was as approachable as Wu Bai.

A Dou Wang was nothing special to a Sixth-Rank Alchemist. Without an offer sincere enough, the Alchemist wouldn't even give you the time of day.

Unless you were a Dou Huang expert and could trade a favor—or a promise to lend your strength once—for a Sixth-Grade Pill.

In the past few decades at Jia Nan Academy, Wu Bai was the only Sixth-Rank Alchemist they had been able to approach.

With all that taken together, who could resist taking a chance?

If the Medicinal Herbs were lost, so be it. Better that than leave them sitting there growing mold.

Those Medicinal Herbs weren't going to multiply on their own.

Still, whatever he told himself, Elder Liu hoped that in three days he would finally see the Medicinal Pill he had dreamed of countless times.