Chapter 73

In the narrow cave, the flames in the alchemy cauldron reflected on the cave walls, flickering wildly.

Xiao Yan focused intently on the surging flames in the cauldron. His slightly pale face was covered in sweat. Long-term alchemy was an extremely exhausting task that consumed a lot of battle qi. Moreover, Xiao Yan's current cultivation technique was only the lowest level of the Yellow Rank, which made it difficult for him to have any advantages in terms of strength and endurance. Therefore, it was already quite impressive that he could persist in alchemy for nearly two hours in front of the cauldron.

Nodding slightly, Old Medicine, who knew Xiao Yan had reached his limit, said softly, "Alright, take a break for a while."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan's shoulders, which had been maintaining balance with great effort, suddenly slumped. His body felt as if it had lost all strength, and he collapsed onto the cold ground, panting heavily. His chest rose and fell continuously, and his entire body felt so numb that he couldn't even move a finger.

"This is the best time to cultivate."

Glancing at Xiao Yan, who lay on the ground like a lump of soft mud, Old Medicine said indifferently.

After a brief internal struggle between laziness and diligence, Xiao Yan reluctantly groaned and sat up, trembling hands forming the cultivation gesture, then slowly closed his eyes.

Seeing Xiao Yan's state, Old Medicine smiled, his gaze shifting to the dozen or so jade boxes placed in front of the cauldron. These boxes were filled with the pale white powder extracted from the Blood Coagulating Grass, the fruits of Xiao Yan's hard work.

From left to right, the pale white color of the powder became increasingly intense, and by the last jade box, the white powder had almost reached a pure white quality.

Seeing this significant improvement, Old Medicine nodded in admiration, once again praising Xiao Yan's outstanding soul perception.

Glancing at Xiao Yan, who was recovering his battle qi, Old Medicine leaned against the stone wall, closing his eyes to rest. Xiao Yan had just extracted the first material, and there were still two more to go.

...

After nearly an hour of cultivation, the dim vortex in Xiao Yan's body, which had been drained of battle qi, finally emitted a bright glow. This time, the light seemed a bit brighter than it had been a few hours earlier.

Slowly opening his eyes, the numbness and weakness in his body had mostly dissipated. He twisted his neck, and the sound of his bones cracking made him exhale in relief.

"Feeling better? Then let's continue." Opening his eyes and seeing Xiao Yan, who was once again full of energy, Old Medicine smiled.

Shaking his head with a bitter smile, after the painful process of alchemy, Xiao Yan finally realized that he had been tricked by Old Medicine. In the past, when Old Medicine performed alchemy, he would simply wave his hand and burn a few times, and the highly sought-after pills would be ready. This simple process had left Xiao Yan with the impression that alchemy was very easy. But now that he was doing it himself, he realized that it was even more tiring than hard labor in the mines.

Realizing this a bit late, Xiao Yan could only sigh in frustration and sit back in front of the cauldron, starting to extract the essence from the other two materials.

With the experience of extracting the Blood Coagulating Grass, this time Xiao Yan found it much easier. After burning eight Vitality Fruits and ten Poppy Flowers, he finally successfully extracted the necessary components for the healing medicine.

The substance extracted from the Vitality Fruits was a slightly black, fine powder. This powder had the effect of removing blood stasis and promoting blood circulation. In the wild, experienced injured mercenaries often crushed Vitality Fruits into a paste to reduce their injuries if they lacked sufficient healing medicine.

The substance extracted from the Poppy Flowers was a light red liquid, which had a numbing effect on the nerves and could be used as a pain reliever.

Looking at the three medicines neatly arranged in front of Xiao Yan, Old Medicine nodded slightly and said softly, "The required materials have been extracted. Now, we need to combine their medicinal powers. This is the most important step in alchemy."

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan nodded solemnly, skillfully dropping the pure white powder into the cauldron and heating it with a gentle flame for about ten minutes. When the powder turned slightly red, he quickly poured in the liquid from the Poppy Flowers.

As soon as the liquid entered the cauldron, it enveloped the white powder, and after a brief rolling in the flames, the two gradually merged into a light red, viscous liquid.

Xiao Yan's soul perception carefully controlled the temperature of the flames, slowly heating the light red, viscous liquid.

As the flames continued to heat, the viscous liquid gradually turned into a dark red paste.

Staring intently at the dark red paste in the cauldron, Xiao Yan hesitated slightly before adding the black particles from the Vitality Fruits.

The black particles entered the cauldron but did not change much. The small particles bounced around in the flames, refusing to merge with the dark red paste.

"Each material has a different tolerance to temperature, so you must learn to control the temperature of the flames in any part of the cauldron at will. Where you need a low temperature, you must suppress the flames, and where you need a high temperature, you must increase the flame's intensity..." Seeing Xiao Yan sweating profusely, Old Medicine said indifferently.

Licking his dry lips, Xiao Yan nodded and quickly divided his soul perception to gradually increase the temperature under the small particles.

"Boom..."

As the soul perception released the temperature control, a flame that was no longer under control suddenly surged up, burning half of the black particles to ashes in just a moment. Xiao Yan, drenched in cold sweat, hurriedly suppressed the flames.

Controlling the temperature of the flames on one side while increasing it on the other was a demanding task that gave Xiao Yan a headache.

However, after several close calls, Xiao Yan finally calmed down, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and took a deep breath. He poured all the remaining battle qi in his body into the fire.

Inside the cauldron, the small black particles, unable to withstand the increasing temperature, finally burst, and black powder slowly drifted into the light red paste, deepening its color.

When the last bit of black powder drifted into the paste, Xiao Yan let out a long sigh of relief, slowly removing his hand from the fire. As he withdrew his hand, the flames in the cauldron gradually extinguished.

Looking at Xiao Yan, who was panting heavily, Old Medicine smiled, waved his hand, and the lid of the cauldron flew off. With a gesture, a large mass of dark red paste flew out of the cauldron and suspended in the air.

Glancing at the dark red paste, which emitted a strong medicinal smell, Old Medicine sliced the air with his hand. As his hand moved, the flowing dark red paste was divided into at least a hundred small pieces.

Taking the storage ring from Xiao Yan, Old Medicine flicked his finger, and a hundred small jade bottles instantly filled the narrow cave.

After arranging the jade bottles, Old Medicine casually waved his hand, and the paste in the air accurately fell into the bottles.

Picking up a jade bottle, Old Medicine smiled and handed it to Xiao Yan, teasing, "Congratulations, you've successfully completed your first alchemy!"

Eagerly taking the jade bottle, Xiao Yan looked at the dark red medicine inside, which was not very pure, but he couldn't help feeling a surge of excitement and pride.

"Hehe, from now on, I can also be considered an alchemist!"