Only a Dou Shi? You're Still Doing It

"Ancestor, how about..."

As Xiao Xuan made his move, Xiao Yan began to feel sorry for his little wife again.

"Hmm? Are you really that stupid, or are you just pretending?"

Xiao Xuan spoke coldly, genuinely exasperated. Who was he doing all this for?

Granted, he also intended to weaken the Gu Clan and strengthen the Xiao Clan. After all, although a wisp of Heavenly Flame Origin was tiny, it could still be nurtured and strengthened with some effort.

It was just that the nurturing cycle would have to be measured in millennia.

But once Xiao Xuan became a Dou Di, that would be much simpler.

Tuoshe wasn't the only one who could achieve something on the path of fire.

"Done!"

Mindful of the Gu Clan girl's life, Xiao Xuan had softened his touch somewhat. His grudges with the Gu Clan had never involved anyone else.

Back when the Xiao Clan fell, how could it have declined to the point of ending up in a barren place like the northwest without the Gu Clan's tacit consent, or even its hand fanning the flames?

And even now, members of the Gu Clan were still hidden among them. To say it really had nothing to do with them? Xiao Xuan wasn't going to concern himself with that.

Of course, dealing with the Gu Clan could wait a little longer, until after they had carved up the Hun Clan.

He wondered whether Hun Tiandi had recovered from his injuries over the past thousand years.

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Xiao Xuan pressed the remaining Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame Origin back into Gu Xun'er's body and placed a restriction on her while he was at it.

"Don't reveal my existence. Otherwise, a slight move from me will smash you to pieces, and not even Gu Yuan will be able to save you."

They were both Peak Nine-Star Dou Saints, but there was still some gap between them.

Someone like Gu Yuan was merely at the level of the patriarchs of Emperor Clans at their height throughout the generations, with little room to vent.

Xiao Xuan, however, was different. He had been through far too much, and his foundation was incomparably deep. Now that he was making a comeback... the Dou Qi Continent would no longer remain quiet.

Pfft~

Gu Xun'er couldn't hold it back. Her body's endurance was still extremely weak, and even though Xiao Xuan had been careful, the rampaging Heavenly Flame, its origin weakened, still shook her internal organs.

"It's nothing serious. Just have Yao Chen give her a few pills."

The little girl was just delicate. After some thought, Xiao Xuan summoned Yao Chen while he was at it.

That fellow was being rather irresponsible! Xiao Xuan had already returned, yet he was still in seclusion.

"My pills!!!"

Yao Chen cried out, his heart tearing apart. He felt he must have miscalculated the auspicious time for this round of pill refinement, only to fail at the final hurdle just as the pills were about to form.

They were Eighth-Tier Spirit Recovery Pills!

They were incomparably precious. Even though Yao Chen had recovered the strength of a Three- or Four-Star Dou Zun, finding those medicinal ingredients hadn't been easy.

And since Yao Chen didn't dare reveal his identity casually, they were even harder to come by.

"Hmm?"

Under Xiao Xuan's gaze, Yao Chen, just like his disciple, promptly followed his heart.

"So it was you, Senior! If I'd known sooner, I would have waited here for your return."

Yao Chen's expression didn't change. Even though he was already a powerhouse in his own right, before a true big-shot monster of this caliber, he was nothing more than an inexperienced youngster.

It never hurt to be respectful and speak sweetly.

Yao Chen had experience. Otherwise, how had he learned his pill-refining techniques?

It was precisely because he was good at seizing every opportunity.

"On this trip, I found a Heavenly Flame. Keep an eye on Little Yanzi and let him subdue it!"

With a casual movement, Xiao Xuan produced the imprisoned Green Lotus Core Flame and withdrew his soul power.

The surrounding temperature instantly soared.

"The Green Lotus Core Flame, nineteenth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking?"

As a top-tier alchemist who had once been renowned across the continent, Yao Chen naturally knew the Heavenly Flame Ranking like the treasures in his own home.

Although this Heavenly Flame didn't rank very high, it had been found in such a short time!

A big shot really was a big shot!

Even with Yao Chen's composure, he felt a twinge of envy toward his own disciple at that moment.

More than that, though, he breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Yao Chen himself possessed a Heavenly Flame.

The Bone Spirit Cold Flame, eleventh on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.

Yao Chen had been worried that if the senior couldn't find a Heavenly Flame, he might start by taking the knife to him.

Given that the senior had saved his life and sheltered him, Yao Chen actually wasn't all that reluctant to offer up his Bone Spirit Cold Flame.

But what alchemist could truly be willing to lose a divine weapon like a Heavenly Flame, even for the sake of his own disciple?

"Senior, I, Yao Chen, will not fail in this task. It's just that Little Yanzi's cultivation is still a little low right now. How about waiting until he reaches a higher level?"

The Green Lotus Core Flame admittedly ranked rather low, and from the look of it, it had only been nurtured for a thousand years, so the energy it contained wasn't particularly vast.

But that was only from the perspective of a Dou Zong or Dou Zun.

If Little Yanzi were really made to subdue it now... Yao Chen was genuinely afraid that if he let Xiao Yan die through a moment's carelessness, he himself would be slapped to death.

So it was better to stall for now.

"Little Yanzi's cultivation?"

Hearing this, Xiao Xuan looked at Xiao Yan beside him, his face thrust forward. The fluctuations around him showed that he had only just broken through to Dou Shi.

"It's been this long, and he's only at the Dou Shi level?"

There was obvious anger in his voice. Even Gu Xun'er, watching from the side, was somewhat dumbfounded. She herself was only a high-star Dou Zhe, though that was also for the sake of building her foundation.

But wasn't it inappropriate for Senior Xiao Xuan to say that?

So Gu Xun'er couldn't help speaking up. "Senior, shouldn't building a foundation still be the focus of cultivation at the lower levels?"

She wasn't just making this up. Gu Xun'er had a Divine Grade Bloodline, a rarity in the Gu Clan over the past thousand years, and perhaps the only one. If she really wanted to cultivate quickly...

She wouldn't need many resources. Just by releasing her bloodline's potential, she could easily reach the Dou Emperor level before the age of twenty.

But what good was cultivating too quickly? Exhausting one's potential too early would definitely do more harm than good when it came to the final Dou Sheng bottleneck.

If too little had been accumulated in the early stages, it wouldn't even be hard to understand being trapped at the Dou Sheng bottleneck for hundreds or thousands of years.

There were all too many such people in Dou God Clans.

Gu Xun'er naturally didn't want to become one of them.

By rights, Xiao Xuan had once been the head of an Emperor Clan at its peak. He should have understood these principles!

"Are you teaching me how to do things?"

His tone was clearly unfriendly, although Xiao Xuan's gaze remained calm.

"Ancestor, Xun'er just doesn't know any better. Please be magnanimous and let it go... for the sake of me selling myself to you, all right?"

Xiao Yan sidled over and started sucking up again.

"Hmph! You haven't even sorted out your own affairs."

"Your cultivation is a little low, but you brought that on yourself. Even at the Dou Shi stage, you're refining the Green Lotus Core Flame for me."

Xiao Xuan naturally had his reasons for doing this.

With no Heavenly Flame invested in it at all, the Flame Mantra's cultivation speed was far too slow in the early stages. Building a foundation at that level... Xiao Xuan really did think it was useless.

In that case, it would be better to raise his Dou Qi level as quickly as possible. As long as it wasn't quite so unsteady, that would be enough.

Unfortunately, this fellow had no ideas of his own and thought only of building a solid foundation. But in reality? Without making trade-offs in cultivation, he could never reach the peak.

But if he was going to start by digesting a Heavenly Flame, it would be better to refine some lower-level flames first to temper it.

Xiao Xuan recalled this matter.

As it happened, Little Zi, whom he had brought back, could breathe fire.

Perfect!