Battle Through the Heavens

“To obtain the “Bone Chilling Flame”, I had waited in a place without light for eight long years, and when the moment to assimilate the flame finally came, despite all my preparations I was nearly burnt to ashes……” Yao Lao sighed as he shook his head; a rare lingering fear could be seen on his normally serene face. Looks like that encounter had left a strong impression on him.

“Hehe, although it was extremely dangerous, having obtained the “Bone Chilling Flame” in the end, it was all worth it.” Yao Lao proudly declared as he waved about the white flame in the palm of his hand as if showing it off to a large crowd. He then smiled as he continued to elaborate: “With a Heavenly Flame, not only can you refine pills of better quality, but also, when encountering a foe of the same level he would not be a match for you.”

Hearing this, Xiao Yan gazed at that raging dull-white flame, his face filled with envy.

Seeing that envious look on Xiao Yan’s face, Yao Lao let out a laugh as a devious expression flashed across his face. His tone changed as he said: “Something like a Heavenly Flame is still a long way off for you. For now, your greatest wish should be to become a Dou Zhe as soon as possible.”

Feeling regretful, Xiao Yan nodded his head. He could only temporarily slurp back the drool that had formed due to his longing for the Heavenly Flame and drag himself back to face reality.

Yao Lao lightly smiled at the sight of Xiao Yan coming back to his senses. At the center of his hand, the white flame continued to burn as wisps escaped to soar up into the air, only to dissipate shortly after.

A dry hand picked up a stalk of Ink-leaf Lotus and gently dropped it into the flame.

As the Ink-leaf Lotus came into contact with the “Bone Chilling Flame”, it was instantly burned into the form of an ink-black liquid which rolled about within the flame, revealing its hidden luster.

The white flame churned as it grew more and more intense, yet Xiao Yan noticed that strangely, the air surrounding the white flame grew colder and colder.

Yao Lao was concentrating all his attention into controlling the temperature of the flame within his palm. If the temperature were just a slight bit higher, the ink-black liquid would be evaporated into nothingness.

After the temperature of the flame was maintained at a certain point for a period of time, specks of yellow impurity suddenly appeared within the ink-black liquid.

Gazing at the yellow specks of impurity, Yao Lao finally gave a slight nod. With a light flick of his finger, the yellow specks gathered and separated with some of the ink-black liquid into a smaller ball of liquid and was expelled from the main body.

After expelling the yellow impurities, other tiny light yellow impurities started appearing one after another. Likewise, these impurities were cleaned up by Yao Lao.

The white flame continued to burn, within it, the ink-black liquid which was originally half a fist large had shrunk to a mere thumb size amount.

Deep black liquid rolled about at the center of the white flame, like a black pearl, serene and mysterious.

When the first stalk of Ink-leaf Lotus was the size of a thumb, Yao Lao finally stopped calcining. He continued by dropping the other four stalks into the flame, calcining them into four black pearl-like balls of pure liquid.

After a long period of purification by the “Bone Chilling Flame”, five small bodies of fluid slowly fused together. At the moment of fusion, the volume expanded by a large extent, however, a split second later, it shrunk to only a thumb size.

Having spent a long time rolling about in the white flame, it was as if within the inky-blackness of the liquid, a small white flame could be seen dancing about.

Seeing this, in one fluid motion Yao Lao quickly grabbed the Snake Venom Fruit on the table and threw it into the flame.

Once the Snake Venom Fruit entered the flame, it was transformed into a dark green fluid which emitted traces of icy air. Removing the impurities from the dark green fluid, Yao Lao gradually covered the dark green fluid with the now burning ink-black fluid.

“Zi! Zi!……”

Strange noises echoed about as the two liquids of different attributes met and a white smoky plume rose from within the raging flame.

As the plume of smoke given off gradually decreased, a rough pill-like object started to form from within the flame.

Gazing serenely upon the almost formed pill, Yao Lao slightly inclined his head. Once again he threw the Spirit Gathering Grass and the Water Attribute Rank 2 Magic Stone into the flame.

Melt into liquid, remove impurities, fuse together…… these three types of actions were complicated procedures which required a meticulous effort. Yet Yao Lao managed to accomplish all of them as if they were a single fluid motion, not even stopping a single time.

Having seen Yao Lao’s sharp and precise movements, even Xiao Yan, an outsider to the Alchemist ways who had yet to understand even the basics of the art could not help but praise Yao Lao in his heart.

Neutralizing the rampaging power in the Magic Stone with the Spirit Gathering Grass, the pure light blue energy was poured into the pill-like object as it was still forming.

When the last drop of blue energy entered into the pill, the bumpy-looking pill-like object was restored into a smooth and slippery shape. A dull blue gleam could be seen hovering on the surface of the pill, making it look both splendid and magnificent.

Though finished with all the steps, Yao Lao did not stop there. Instead he warmed the pill in the flame for almost ten minutes before finally extinguishing the white flame within his palm.

When the flame died away, Yao Lao’s left hand swiftly sucked a jade bottle from the table towards him and fluidly stored the pill, colored in shades of dark green and light blue, into the bottle.

“Phew……” A long sigh escaped his lips as Yao Lao threw the jade bottle to Xiao Yan. He then proceeded to smugly say: “Take a look.”

Carefully accepting the jade bottle, Xiao Yan excitedly brought it under his nose to take a whiff. A familiar fragrance entered his nostrils which made him feel renewed with energy.

While eyeing the bluish green pill within the bottle, Xiao Yan’s outstanding soul perception let him vaguely know that this Qi Gathering Powder was better than the one previously brought by Nalan Yanran in both quality and effectiveness!

At the thought of Nalan Yanran’s look and tone as she held the pill, Xiao Yan let out a mocking smile.

Shaking his head, Xiao Yan tightly gripped the warm jade bottle, heavily heaving out a breath. It had been four years, now he could finally once again step into that level……