Devouring the Green Lion Demon Flame

Time passed. Only after a full half hour did Xiao Yan slowly sit up.

No good. Still weak...

Feeling how far his strength fell short of what it had once been, Xiao Yan sighed helplessly.

Still, once I devour this Green Lion Demon Flame, the cultivation method should evolve at least a little. With that thought, Xiao Yan summoned his medicinal cauldron again.

With a flick of his finger, green flames rose once more. He casually beckoned, and numerous medicinal ingredients flew out of his Storage Ring and into the cauldron.

"Just one Magic Core left." Xiao Yan tossed a white Magic Core inside as well.

The blazing green flames began fiercely refining the ingredients, but half an hour later, just as the pill was about to take shape, a bang sounded from the cauldron.

"Am I so weak now that I don't even have the strength to refine a fourth-grade pill...?"

Xiao Yan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. The drastic decline in both the quality and quantity of his Dou Qi had made his control over it far less smooth than before.

"Luckily, it's only a fourth-grade pill." Xiao Yan took a deep breath. After settling his mind, he carefully circulated his Dou Qi several times, only raising the flames again once he was sure his control had more or less recovered.

A fourth-rank ice-attribute Magical Beast's Magic Core, jade marrow mushroom, pulse-generating grass, evergreen flower...

Under the scorching heat of the Green Lion Demon Flame, dozens of medicinal ingredients were quickly purified. Some became powder, while others turned into crystal-clear liquids. The Magical Beast's Magic Core in the center was also burned down into a mass of ice-attribute energy.

Time for the final step. Xiao Yan steadied his mind, and the purified ingredients merged into the central mass of ice-attribute energy in a fixed sequence.

The mingling colors soon muddied the originally crystal-clear ice-attribute energy into a lump of paste. As the flames slowly roasted it, however, that paste was soon reduced to a translucent, snow-white lump the size of a fist.

Next came pill condensation. Xiao Yan remained perfectly still, using his powerful soul strength to control the unstable Dou Qi within his body.

The green flames continuously rose and burned inside the cauldron, finally taking on the vague shape of a lion's head that held the nascent pill in its mouth.

About another half hour passed before a sharp gleam flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes. The lion's head formed from green flames abruptly contracted, enveloping the pill.

A moment later, a translucent, snow-white pill appeared inside the cauldron.

A fourth-grade pill, the Ice Heart Pulse-Protecting Pill!

This was an essential medicine for refining Heavenly Flames and beast flames.

After finishing the pill, Xiao Yan could not help wiping the cold sweat from his forehead again.

In the past, he could have refined ten Ice Heart Pulse-Protecting Pills in one go without feeling this exhausted.

"I need to hurry up and devour this beast flame first." Xiao Yan poured out another Six-Ingredient Earth Emperor Pill and swallowed it. Only after sitting in meditation for half an hour was he certain he had recovered.

Next, it was time to devour the beast flame!

A trace of anticipation appeared in Xiao Yan's eyes. He had gone to such lengths to become Yao Chen's disciple and practice this cultivation method, even accepting a drop in level and this weakness. Hadn't it all been for this very moment?

As long as he could successfully devour Heavenly Flames, everything else would be worthwhile. If he could obtain Tou She Ancient God's inheritance, what would any of this matter?

"Gulp." Xiao Yan swallowed the Ice Heart Pulse-Protecting Pill in one mouthful.

The moment the pill entered his mouth, it turned into a snow-white liquid and flowed down his throat.

It felt like drinking a glass of ice-cold beer on a summer day of 38.6 degrees, making Xiao Yan shiver all over.

"Refreshing!" Xiao Yan exhaled a mouthful of cold air. A thin crystalline layer had already formed over the surfaces of his meridians.

Next came devouring the Green Lion Demon Flame!

Xiao Yan closed his eyes and looked inward. The vast sea of Dou Qi within him swirled, looking somewhat unstable, while a cluster of green flames in its midst had taken the form of a little winged lion that roamed through it.

"Stop playing." With a thought from Xiao Yan, the little lion was dragged out of the sea of Dou Qi.

"Awooo!" The little lion struggled slightly, only for a burst of Xiao Yan's soul strength to scatter it into a mass of green flames. His Dou Qi then wrapped around it, shaping it into a long, slender strand of flame that entered the meridian route of the Flame Mantra.

As soon as the green flames entered Xiao Yan's meridians, he felt a surge of searing pain. In truth, however, the Green Lion Demon Flame did not harm him at all.

After all, he had refined this beast flame into his life-bound beast flame when he was ten. His Crimson Refining Flame Demon Body had also been tempered using the Green Lion Demon Flame, giving him a terrifying degree of resistance to it.

Furthermore, even though Xiao Yan had grown weaker and more depleted, his Dou Qi was still at the level of a One-Star Dou Emperor. Even without an Ice Heart Pulse-Protecting Pill, he would not have been in any danger.

But Xiao Yan had always been the sort to either do nothing or go all the way. Since he had decided to refine the beast flame, he would fight a rabbit with a lion's full strength, holding nothing back.

Of course, the benefits of the Ice Heart Pulse-Protecting Pill soon became apparent: it greatly reduced the pain of the Green Lion Demon Flame scorching his meridians.

It brought what had been level-seven or level-eight pain straight down to level three or four. Though Xiao Yan still felt some discomfort, it was entirely bearable.

As his Dou Qi carried the Green Lion Demon Flame through the Flame Mantra's cultivation pathways, Xiao Yan discovered that a strand of Dou Qi and a strand of Green Lion Demon Flame had actually begun to merge in a strange fashion!

No, rather than merging, it was more accurate to say that the Green Lion Demon Flame was being gradually devoured by the Flame Mantra's Dou Qi!

Holy shit, that's fucking awesome! Delight surged through Xiao Yan, and he continued guiding his Dou Qi onward with the Green Lion Demon Flame wrapped inside it.

Only now could he be certain that this so-called Flame Mantra truly possessed the miraculous ability to evolve!

After one full circulation, the two had almost completely fused. His originally pale-yellow Dou Qi had taken on an eerie green tint.

Wisps of green flame actually rose from the surface of the green Dou Qi, yet these flames would no longer cause any damage to his meridians!

"My Dou Qi finally has a little more staying power, but it's still not firm enough..." Xiao Yan kept his eyes closed, sensing the somewhat greater strength of the Dou Qi within him.

"It's evolved from yellow tier low grade to yellow tier high grade..." Feeling the Dou Qi inside him, Xiao Yan could not help sighing.

No matter how good a beast flame was, it still fell far short of a Heavenly Flame.

Even a Ninth-Rank Magical Beast's beast flame fell somewhat short of the mysterious yellow flame at the very bottom of the Heavenly Flame Ranking. Only by fusing a great number of beast flames into the myriad beast spirit flame could it gain a slight edge.

Looks like I'll still have to head to the Northwest Continent to find Heavenly Flames. The green lotus core flame and fallen heart flame alone should be enough to get me back to earth tier, and might even help me break through to Dou Zong.

Besides, my leading ladies should already be waiting for me.

Remembering the many beauties on the Northwest Continent, Xiao Yan could not help feeling a surge of heat in his heart, and a smile crept onto his lips.

"Heh heh!"

Three days later...

"Teacher, I'm leaving." Xiao Yan glanced at Yao Chen standing before him with his hair hanging loose and disheveled. Suddenly, he felt a little guilty. The old man had already gone somewhat mad in his pursuit of a breakthrough to Half-Saint.

"Leaving?" Yao Chen shook his tangled hair and frowned. "Where are you going? You're an alchemy prodigy who appears only once in a century, and I'm the finest alchemist on the continent!

"You're destined to be molded by my hands into the most dazzling alchemist on the Dou Qi Continent!!"