After entering the Alchemy Room, Xiao Yu did not immediately begin refining pills. Instead, he studied the pill formula.
The formula Fa Ma had given him was for a fairly ordinary sixth-grade pill.
Nine Lotus Pill.
Ordinary though this pill might be, it was still far beyond anything a fifth-grade pill could compare to.
Its medicinal effects could rapidly heal external, internal, and hidden injuries in an extremely short time. How long the treatment took depended on the severity of the injuries. If the wound was one that would cause immediate death, the pill would do little more than keep the patient clinging to life for a while.
Thus, those who needed this pill were mostly people suffering from hidden or internal injuries.
It had another effect as well: strengthening the foundation and nourishing vitality. After the injuries healed, the remaining medicinal power would seep into the body, subtly nourishing the flesh.
That was why it was considered average among sixth-grade pills. It was not particularly difficult for sixth-grade Alchemists to refine, either, with a success rate of seventy to eighty percent. Even an Alchemist who had just reached the sixth grade had a fifty-percent chance of success.
"Choosing this pill... it seems Fa Ma really does want me to pass the assessment."
Xiao Yu smiled, then began revising the pill formula in his mind.
"Millennium snow lotus, purple lotus, golden lotus, seven-glow lotus, white jade lotus, ice crystal jade lotus..."
"Refining method: ..."
"Heat control: ..."
Time trickled by. Xiao Yu was in no hurry, carefully working through every part that needed revision.
After all, this was a sixth-grade pill. The slightest mistake could make the cauldron explode, and refining a sixth-grade pill would take a long time anyway. These few moments hardly mattered.
Outside, the leaders of the Jia Ma Empire's various factions watched the scene inside the chamber from the raised platform.
"Old Man Fa, why hasn't he started yet? Is he just going to sit there studying the formula?"
Seeing that Xiao Yu still had not begun, Jia Xingtian asked in puzzlement.
Fa Ma replied unhurriedly, "Old Man Jia, you aren't an Alchemist. Naturally, you wouldn't understand."
"When refining an unfamiliar pill, the first thing any Alchemist must do is thoroughly digest the formula. Otherwise, an unexpected situation during the process will leave him scrambling, especially with a sixth-grade pill like this."
"His behavior is exactly what a qualified Alchemist should display. I'm increasingly convinced that he really can refine a sixth-grade pill."
Gu He chimed in as well. "President Fa Ma is right. Even I have to read the formula very carefully when refining a sixth-grade pill, then run through it in my mind before I begin."
"After all, it's a sixth-grade pill. No amount of caution is excessive."
Since the two men with the greatest authority on alchemy in the Jia Ma Empire had both said so, Jia Xingtian set aside his impatience and said no more.
After three hours had passed, Xiao Yu finally finished revising every last detail of the formula and committed it to memory. Now he could begin refining the pill.
Taking out the medicinal ingredients, Xiao Yu discovered that Fa Ma had thoughtfully prepared two sets for him. Apparently, Fa Ma did not expect him to succeed on his first attempt.
Xiao Yu took out one complete set of ingredients and approached the Four-Mouth Cauldron installed in the chamber.
This Medicine Cauldron was used for fourth- and fifth-grade assessments. These chambers had all been built for the assessments of Alchemists above the third grade.
In truth, a genuinely high-ranking Alchemist could refine a sixth-grade pill even with a one-mouth cauldron, provided the Medicine Cauldron could withstand the terrifying heat.
For Xiao Yu, this Four-Mouth Cauldron would serve well enough for refining a sixth-grade pill. At least it was far better than his Two-Mouth Cauldron.
Remembering how he had once refined pills in a cooking pot, Xiao Yu could not help smiling.
"I really was a little foolish back then."
Then Xiao Yu gathered his focus and raised his right hand. The extreme-breaking ice flame sprang forth, and the temperature throughout the Alchemy Room began plummeting, even affecting the area outside.
This time, he did not intend to refine the pill with a Dou Qi flame. He would use his origin flame instead.
Refining a sixth-grade pill took far too long for him. He would save time wherever he could, and he was not afraid of revealing it.
An Alchemist who possessed a heavenly flame was even more worthy of respect and recruitment, because with a heavenly flame, his future would extend far beyond the sixth grade.
His origin flame was no weaker than a heavenly flame to begin with. Presumably, anyone who saw it would mistake it for one.
With his right hand, Xiao Yu sent the extreme-breaking ice flame into the Medicine Cauldron. As icy-blue firelight rose within it, he tossed in the first medicinal ingredient, the millennium snow lotus.
The extreme-breaking ice flame possessed both extreme cold and extreme heat. The aura it gave off was freezing, but the flame itself was scorching hot. As soon as the herb touched it, threads of snow-white liquid began seeping out.
After roughly half an hour, the millennium snow lotus burned to ash beneath the origin flame, leaving only a mass of medicinal essence.
As the flame refined it, the liquid grew smaller and increasingly concentrated.
Once the extraction was complete, Xiao Yu placed it in a jade bottle.
"This millennium snow lotus was fairly easy to extract. The rest won't be so simple."
Looking at the other ingredients, Xiao Yu muttered to himself. Then, without wasting any time, he began extracting the second ingredient.
Fa Ma and the others were quietly watching the projection. When Xiao Yu summoned the extreme-breaking ice flame, its bitterly cold aura seeped through gaps in the chamber too tiny to see and reached the hall, leaving everyone momentarily stunned.
"What's going on? Why is cold air pouring out of the Alchemy Room? Isn't he afraid of blowing up the pill furnace?"
Jia Xingtian sounded somewhat astonished. Although he knew nothing about alchemy, even he understood that cold of this intensity appearing during pill refinement was completely abnormal. The cauldron was very likely to explode.
Fa Ma was equally puzzled. He had no idea what Alchemist Zhou had done to produce cold air while refining a pill.
"No... there's something strange about this cold!"
Relying on the soul power of a sixth-grade Alchemist, Gu He detected something different.
Then he said uncertainly, "There's also a trace of scorching heat hidden within this cold!"
Hearing Gu He's words, Fa Ma froze. As though the same thought had occurred to both of them, he exchanged a knowing look with Gu He.
"Could it be... a heavenly flame?!"
Fa Ma cried out in shock.
He was already quite old. Having lived so long, what had he not seen? As the saying went, the elderly had eaten more salt than the young had eaten rice. On the Dou Qi Continent, that was no idle joke.
After all, these powerful experts could easily live for hundreds or thousands of years. There really was a very good chance that they had eaten more salt than young people had eaten rice.
Yet in all his life, Fa Ma had never seen a heavenly flame. This was something every Alchemist dreamed of!
Gu He clenched his fists tightly, staring without blinking at the flame in the luminous figure's hand within the projection.
He had searched for a heavenly flame for a long time, but they were so rare and difficult to find that he still had not discovered a single lead.
If someone offered him a heavenly flame in exchange for his entire fortune and collection, he would have traded them without hesitation.
That alone showed just how irresistible heavenly flames were to Alchemists like them.
"It should... be a heavenly flame."
Gu He gazed blankly at the projection, speaking slowly.
Everyone else wore expressions of astonishment as well. Although they were not Alchemists, anyone from the Dou Qi Continent knew the reputation of heavenly flames.
Those were divine treasures of the utmost rarity. Forget obtaining one-people from a small place like theirs had never even seen one.
Jia Xingtian could not help marveling either. "To think we'd have the good fortune to see a heavenly flame during an assessment. This fellow is no ordinary man."
The others nodded in agreement.
Fa Ma added, "Now I'm even more convinced that he is a sixth-grade Alchemist."
Gu He shook his head with a bitter smile. "Even if he isn't sixth grade yet, he'll certainly reach it in the future. He may even become a seventh-grade Alchemist."
He had never expected to encounter the very thing he had sought in vain here, by such a coincidence. The moment he confirmed that the flame this Alchemist wielded was a heavenly flame, the thought of killing him outright and seizing it even flashed through his mind.
But he dismissed that thought the instant it arose. Gu He might not be some great saint, but he could not bring himself to murder someone for his flame. He could only sigh inwardly that he lacked such good fortune and had no destined bond with a heavenly flame.
When Gu He said this man might become a seventh-grade Alchemist, the others' eyes all lit up. Their expressions varied, each plainly harboring his own thoughts.
One esteemed reader really did call it: refining a pill really would take three chapters of padding.
Before you continue