"Absorb me?" A trace of joy surfaced in the Mysterious Yellow Flame's calm, unruffled eyes as he said, "I will cooperate fully. Master, if you also use the Emperor Flame to help absorb me, you can absorb me completely in ten years at the shortest."
Xiao Ce's eager expression froze. Stunned, he asked, "Ten years? Why would it take so long?"
The Mysterious Yellow Flame's eyes dimmed slightly. "That isn't a long time. Once you absorb me, Master, you will gain a tremendous boost."
Xiao Ce rubbed between his brows and asked a question he had been somewhat curious about but had never actually voiced. "Mysterious Yellow, measured by human cultivation, what level are you?"
The Mysterious Yellow Flame glanced at the Ninth Grade Golden Pill, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of inferiority. "Two-Star Dou Saint."
Xiao Ce: What on earth are you feeling inferior about?!
A Two-Star Dou Saint-that was absolutely as powerful as one of the top five Heavenly Flames!
"No wonder you said ten years. With my current physique of a mere Sixth Rank Magical Beast and my Dou Shi cultivation, dreaming of absorbing a Heavenly Flame at the level of a Two-Star Dou Saint... even ten years is a conservative estimate, isn't it?" Xiao Ce sighed helplessly and could only abandon the idea of absorbing the Mysterious Yellow Flame.
He knew that if he truly spent ten years absorbing the Mysterious Yellow Flame, he might just raise his cultivation to the Dou Sheng level in one stroke within those ten years.
But that would mean spending far too long on a single undertaking.
With ten years, the Deployment System, the deployment feedback he had already obtained, and his avatar's legacy, Xiao Ce felt that reaching Dou Sheng cultivation himself was not necessarily beyond him.
Besides, once his cultivation rose-to the Dou Zun stage, for instance-the time needed to absorb the Mysterious Yellow Flame would be greatly shortened.
At this thought, Xiao Ce comforted the somewhat downcast Mysterious Yellow Flame. "Absorbing you now would take too long. Let me cultivate on my own for a few years first and raise my cultivation. Absorbing you then will be more efficient.
"Besides, even without absorbing you, you can still stay inside my body and let me use you, can't you?"
The Mysterious Yellow Flame nodded, reluctantly accepting this outcome.
The Ninth Grade Golden Pill snickered twice, turned back into a golden pill, and hung against Xiao Ce's chest again.
Xiao Ce shook his head with a smile, then took the Falling Star Cauldron out of his Storage Ring.
In the month since coming to the Magical Beast Mountain Range, he had devoted most of his energy to memorizing the legacy in preparation for his third deployment. He had yet to actually refine a pill with his own hands.
Before returning to the Xiao Clan, he ought to personally refine at least a first-tier pill.
With that thought, Xiao Ce took some medicinal ingredients from his Storage Ring.
These ingredients had all been gathered from the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. They were not particularly precious and could be used to refine first-tier pills.
The pill he intended to refine came from a prescription passed down by his avatar: the first-tier Body-Recovery Pill. It could repair both internal and external injuries, with effects superior to the so-called Blood-Clotting Powder, Rejuvenation Powder, and Injury-Recovery Pill. It ranked among the finest first-tier pills.
Xiao Ce opened his palm. Without drawing on the Emperor Flame or the Mysterious Yellow Flame, he summoned a scarlet-gold flame. This was none other than the Beast Flame he had awakened after fusing with the Dragon-Phoenix Bloodline-the Dragon Phoenix Flame.
The strength of this flame depended entirely on his own strength.
When Xiao Ce infused it with his relatively low-quality Dou Qi, it displayed the power of an ordinary second-rank Beast Flame.
Xiao Ce did not mind. He poured the flame into the Medicine Cauldron, then tossed a medicinal herb inside.
Without thinking, Xiao Ce instinctively controlled the flame to burn and refine the herb.
Without the slightest deviation, the palm-sized green herb gradually turned into medicinal liquid under the flame's refinement, while the remnants of leaves and stems that held no medicinal properties were not burned in the slightest. The resulting medicinal liquid contained not a trace of impurity!
An inexplicable sense of accomplishment rose in Xiao Ce's heart, and he began tossing medicinal herbs into the Medicine Cauldron one after another.
Time slowly passed. His Two-Star Dou Shi Dou Qi was more than sufficient to sustain the pill refinement.
At last, all the medicinal ingredients had been refined. Only clumps of medicinal liquid without the slightest impurity remained in the Medicine Cauldron, along with the impurities from the ingredients, which had not been burned at all.
Even the very best Alchemists could only nod in approval at this Fire Control Technique, which controlled flame down to the finest hair.
The impurity-free medicinal liquid greatly reduced the difficulty of forming the pill.
Without even expending much soul power, Xiao Ce had already gathered the medicinal liquid together, forming an emerald-green pill the size of a longan.
"A first-tier Body-Recovery Pill, of the finest quality!" Xiao Ce smiled.
He had succeeded on his very first attempt at refining a pill and had even produced the finest quality. Xiao Ce was delighted, but he did not grow arrogant.
He knew his talent for alchemy was not so heaven-defying. It was the supreme Fire Control Technique inherited from his avatar that had played an enormous role.
Regardless, I definitely have the skills of a first-tier Alchemist now. Next, I'll keep mastering more varieties of pills and pills of higher tiers. Xiao Ce quietly set his goal.
Without resting, he put away the Bone-Recovery Pill and began bringing the other prescriptions in his mind into reality one by one.
Time always passed fastest when one was focused.
Xiao Ce's daily routine was frighteningly regular.
Starting early each morning, Xiao Ce first practiced two Dou Techniques in the valley: the Blazing Flame Sky-Splitting Palm and the Flowing Wind Shadow-Stealing Step. By now, both techniques were nearing minor accomplishment.
Xiao Ce realized that although his talent for cultivation was more than several times inferior to that of his fourth younger brother, Xiao Yan, the reverse was true when it came to Dou Techniques: he was far more talented than Xiao Yan.
At noon, he sat in meditation and cultivated. Even with the Emperor Flame-Fallen Heart Flame helping temper his Dou Qi and raising his cultivation at every moment, he did not abandon cultivating on his own.
Within a month, his own cultivation combined with the Emperor Flame-Fallen Heart Flame brought him straight to Three-Star Dou Master.
By that reckoning, he had gained one star of cultivation in two months in this little valley. That was slower than the original story's Xiao Yan, who had gained one star in a month by digesting Earth Fire Lotus Seeds. But he had no Earth Fire Lotus Seeds to absorb, so being a little slower was normal.
Back to the matter at hand.
From the afternoon until bedtime, it was time for alchemy.
With a Fire Control Technique among the best on the continent, Xiao Ce's refinement of these low-tier pills was nothing short of a higher-dimensional strike.
Only three things limited the tier of pills he could refine: soul power, the amount of Dou Qi he possessed, and medicinal ingredients.
As a result, every pill Xiao Ce attempted now succeeded, and not a single one fell below the finest quality.
During this period, the ingredients he had on hand happened to be enough to refine a low-grade third-tier pill called the Bone-Continuation Pill. He boldly attempted it and actually succeeded, though the refinement drained all the Dou Qi in his body, leaving him unable to refine any other pills that night.
But regardless, the moment he successfully refined the Bone-Continuation Pill, he had become a genuine third-tier Alchemist!
Inside the stone chamber, Xiao Ce packed all his belongings into the Gilded Ring.
He had been away from home for two months. Now... it was time to go home!
Before you continue