Battle Through the Heavens

Seated with his legs crossed in the cave, Xiao Yan extracted the Medicinal Cauldron from within the storage ring and placed it gently in front of him. He then placed all the necessary medicinal ingredients needed to refine the ‘Path Protecting Pill’ and the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ beside him. After he carefully checked everything again, he finally let out a relaxed breath.

Seeing that Xiao Yan was about to start the fire to refine the medicinal pills, Yao Lao slowly and unsteadily floated out from the ring. He landed on a huge rock, folded his arms and watched Xiao Yan work with a smile.

Xiao Yan glanced once at Yao Lao before slowly closing his eyes. Once again, his mind brought forth the two medicinal formulas Yao Lao had imparted him with and rechecked the quantity of each ingredient needed and the overall fire temperature. After revising them once, he began to open his eyes slowly as he gently rubbed his hands together. He then placed his palm on the fire outlet and his mind began to slowly sink into his body, carefully retrieving the purple colored flame from within the center of the vortex.

The purple colored flame was surrounded by Dou Qi as it swiftly passed through his Qi Paths and palm before entering the medicinal cauldron.

When the Purple Flame rushed into the medicinal cauldron, a soft ‘bang’ sounded. The Purple colored flame rose within the medicinal cauldron and began to burn.

Through the glass on the surface of the medicinal cauldron, Xiao Yan’s eyes could see the randomly leaping purple colored flame. When the ice cold medicinal cauldrons temperature slowly rose, Xiao Yan tilted his head and smiled at Yao Lao. His expression once again became serious as his Spiritual Perception exited his body, entering the medicinal cauldron through his hand and successfully controlled the untamed Purple Flame.

“You can begin.”

Seeing the increasingly calm Purple Flame in the medicinal cauldron, Yao Lao nodded his head with a smile on his face as he quietly commented in his heart, “This brat is becoming familiar with the use of Spiritual Perception. He was actually able to suppress the flame’s temperature so quickly.”

Nodding his head slightly, Xiao Yan’s hand habitually grabbed a dark green plant from beside him. This plant was called Evergreen Flower. The warm energy contained within the leaves would make it very suitable to protect his Qi Paths.

Xiao Yan’s eyes glanced at the Evergreen Flower in his hand. His hand paused for a moment before throwing it into the interior of the medicinal cauldron.

Just as the Evergreen Flower entered the medicinal cauldron, the surging Purple Flame pounced on it. In an instant, it’s dark green leaves swiftly became brown. At this stage, Xiao Yan’s Spiritual Perception slowly suppressed the Purple Flame’s temperature with quite a bit of effort. The faint flame seed carried a temperature that was neither cold nor hot as it gradually grilled the Evergreen Flower that was floating in it.

As this method of grilling continued, drops of green colored liquid began to form on the surface of the Evergreen Flower leaves. Following the increase in the amount of liquid that formed, the leaf quickly shrunk. When the last drop of green colored liquid from the Evergreen Flower was forced out, the body of the Evergreen Flower turned into black soot and sank to the bottom of the medicinal cauldron.

“Ah… not bad. With your outstanding Spiritual Perception, even some tier two alchemists cannot compare to you.” Seeing that Xiao Yan succeeded on his first step, Yao Lao could not help but praise with a smile.

Smiling, Xiao Yan beckoned with his hand, sucking out the green colored liquid from within the medicinal cauldron. Finally, he carefully poured it into a jade bottle, storing it as it awaited to be merged with the other ingredients.

After obtaining the energy liquid from the Evergreen flower, Xiao Yan refined three other different colored liquids and a pale green powder that was obtained from grilling the Dark Cloud Spirit Fruit.

When refining these few types of medicinal powders, Xiao Yan destroyed twelve rare medicinal herbs despite his outstanding Spiritual Perception. This was because it was his first time creating this kind of medicinal pill and trying to grasp the necessary flame control and ingredient quantity. If the valley did not possess a large supply of medicinal ingredients, he might have faced the embarrassing situation of exhausting his medicinal ingredients.

Seated on a rock, Yao Lao quietly watched Xiao Yan refine medicine. When the latter managed to refine all the necessary medicinal ingredients, he nodded his head. Xiao Yan may have damaged quite a number of medicinal ingredients during this period of time but this number of failures was quite good considering that he was refining these medicines for the first time.

After refining all the ingredients, Xiao Yan let out a long breath. He took an ‘Energy Recovery Pill’ from the storage ring, threw it in his mouth and crossed his legs as he recovered the Dou Qi in his body.

Observing Xiao Yan’s manner, Yao Lao could only helplessly shake his head. No wonder Xiao Yan was going crazy with his desire to evolve his Qi Method. After only refining for a short while, the Dou Qi in his body was already extremely exhausted. The current medicinal pill that he was refining was only tier two. If he was to refine a tier three or even tier four medicine, Xiao Yan might have to put a handful of ‘Energy Recovery Pills’ in his mouth in order to avoid failing due to his Dou Qi being exhausted. After crossing his legs and recovering for a long while, Xiao Yao finally opened his eyes. He watched Yao Lao’s helpless expression and could only smile bitterly. He then placed all the different refined ingredients beside him and flicked his palm. A snow white Monster Core that was emitting cold air appeared in his hand.

Watching the rank two Ice type Monster Core, Xiao Yan slowly let out a breath. He flicked his finger and accurately shot the Monster Core into the medicinal cauldron. At the same time, Xiao Yan’s palm quickly touched the fire outlet of the medicinal cauldron. He used his Spiritual Perception to suddenly release the suppressed temperature of the Purple Flame. Immediately, the Purple Flame began to rise with a crying sound and spread throughout the interior of the cauldron.

Within the soaring Purple Flame, the rank two Ice type Monster Core began to release an icy cold stream as it did its best to struggle again the heat, hoping to avoid being destroyed.

The Purple Flame and the icy fog started to be locked in a stalemate within the medicinal cauldron. Sheets of white colored fog began to seep through the cover of the medicinal cauldron and continued to spread throughout the surrounding area.

Lifting his eyes to see the increasingly thick white gas, Yao Lao lightly waved his sleeves. A ferocious force swept the white gas out. Immediately, the cave returned to its clear state. However, the current Xiao Yan did not have the luxury of noticing all this; all of his attention was placed on the stalemate between the Purple Flame and the ice type Monster Core.

The Purple Flame in him continued to be poured into the medicinal cauldron while the Ice type Monster Core did not wish to be outdone. It continued releasing cold air, struggling to escape its fate of being destroyed.

The stalemate continued until Xiao Yan swallowed another ‘Energy Recovery Pill’. Although the Ice type Monster Core contained a vast amount of Ice energy, there was no reinforcement for the energy. Hence, under the relentless grilling of the Purple Flame, the Ice type Monster Core’s cold air barrier was finally broken.

Following the breaking of the ice air barrier, the Purple Flame released an excited writhing sound. It pounced from all directions and surrounded the Ice type Monster Core before beginning to calcine it.

As the flame calcined it for a long time, numerous crack lines gradually appeared on the Ice type Monster Core’s hard surface. After a while, a clear cracking noise sounded and the surface of the Monster Core turned into ashes and sunk. When the ashes settled at the bottom of the cauldron, a small ball of snow white paste like energy appeared and drifted within the medicinal cauldron.

When he saw this white colored energy paste ball appear, joy finally surfaced on Xiao Yan’s tensed face. After using the Purple Flame to grill for a little longer, he finally sucked it out and stored it properly within a jade bottle.

After refining the energy from within the Monster Core, Xiao Yan swiftly grabbed the few refined ingredients in front of him and poured all of them into the medicinal cauldron.

The Purple Flame surrounded the few ingredients in the cauldron and began to calcine them in a very intense manner.

As the intense flame continued to burn, the different colored medicinal ingredients began to slowly fuse. The liquid and powder began to merge and slowly rolled around in the flame. As time went on, an initial medicinal pill shape began to slowly and faintly appear within the medicinal cauldron.

The current medicinal pill’s surface was extremely uneven, on its surface, the luster was made up of patches of green and purple. When one looked at it, it appeared to be a strange looking object that was covered with edges, totally unlike the roundness and the luster of a fully formed medicinal pill.

Seeing this initial medicinal pill, the heavy weight in Xiao Yan’s heart was finally lifted. At this stage, he had completed ninety percent of the refining process. The remaining step was to condense the pill.

Carrying the refined Monster Core energy in his hand, Xiao Yan tilted his head and eyed Yao Lao. Seeing that he nodded his head with a smile, Xiao Yan took in a gentle breath and poured the Monster Core energy into the medicinal cauldron without any hesitation.

Just as the white colored paste like energy entered the medicinal cauldron, it was controlled by Xiao Yan into covering the initial medicinal pill. After which, the mix of pill and energy began to slowly rotate. At the same time, Xiao Yan’s Spiritual Perception hurriedly suppressed the temperature of the Purple Flame, containing it to a point where it was neither too mild nor too hot as it gradually broiled the medicinal pill that was covered by the energy from the Monster Core.

The final step of condensing the pill took nearly half an hour. The energy from the Monster Core was grilled into the medicinal pill slowly by the flame. At this moment, Xiao Yan suddenly recalled his Spiritual Perception that he was using to suppress the Purple Flame. Immediately, the Purple Flame turbulently poured forth and carried a wild temperature as it surrounded the medicinal pill in an instant.

The Purple Flame was suppressed again soon after it was given full freedom and was quickly brought back down to its lowest temperature. As the Purple Flame slowly retreated, a jade white round pill appeared in an attention grabbing manner within the medicinal cauldron.

Seeing this jade white medicinal pill. Xiao Yan involuntarily opened his mouth and grinned. He beckoned with his hand and sucked it from the medicinal cauldron. Following which, he quickly took out a jade bottle by his side and stored the pill in it.

Xiao Yan’s hand pulled away from the medicinal cauldron and the Purple Flame within it quickly disappeared. A moment later, the hot medicinal cauldron quieted down.

Shaking the medicinal pill within the bottle, Xiao Yan gently inhaled the fragrance released from the mouth of the bottle. His face could not help but revel in it. A long while later, he finally laughed to Yao Lao by his side, “The Path Protection Pill is a success!”

“Yes, not bad. Although there were some small errors during the process, your performance was quite good…” Yao Lao praised Xiao Yan with a nod. He glanced at the medicinal ingredients meant for the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ on the floor and smiled, “Rest for a little while. Next, you will need to refine the ‘Icy Heart Pill’. With that success, I believe you should be able to damage fewer medicinal ingredients this time.”

Nodding his head, Xiao Yan carefully put away the Path Protecting Pill’. Once again, he took out another ‘Energy Recovery Pill’ and swallowed it. Afterwards, he closed his eyes and waited for the Dou Qi in his body to recover.

Half an hour later, Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes. He had finally recovered to his peak condition. Seeing the medicinal cauldron in front of him, he took in a deep breath and extended his hand; once again he began to refine a pill.

Things went according to what Yao Lao had said, with the prior success from refining the Path Protecting Pill’, the refining process for the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ had become much smoother. Other than the choppiness originating from the different flame intensities for the different medicinal ingredients, the remaining steps were extremely natural and unforced. The refining process satisfied even the extremely picky Yao Lao. From this, it could be seen just how outstanding Xiao Yan’s performance was.

Two hours after the start of the refining process.

At that moment, Xiao Yan’s face appeared slightly exhausted. However, there was an even greater feeling of excitement and joy. This was due to the two jade bottles he tightly held in his hands; contained within these transparent jade bottles were white and green round sleek pills that were naughtily rolling around.

Seeing Xiao Yan’s tired expression, Yao Lao glanced at the already dark sky outside and smiled, “The time taken to refine the pills was approximately what I anticipated. Due to the strong sun during daytime, the Purple Flame would have increased strength. If you were to swallow the Purple Flame during that time, it would increase the difficulty of doing so. Hence, now is the most suitable time to swallow the Purple Flame. So? Can you still persevere?”

Xiao Yan rubbed his temples and smiled. “Of course. I’m only slightly tired, staying up for for the entire night should not be a problem.”

“Hehe, that’s good.” Yao Lao smilingly nodded. Voicing his thoughts, he asked, “How many ‘Energy Recovery Pills’ do you have with you?”

“Eighteen.” Xiao Yan’s finger probed the ring before replying.

“That should be sufficient. After the swallowing process begins later, you should immediately consume one whenever you feel your Dou Qi is insufficient. It would not be anything fun if you suddenly find your Dou Qi exhausted at any time.” Yao Lao seriously said.

“Yes.” Xiao Yan nodded his head heavily. Naturally, he did not dare fool around with his life.

“Alright, we’ll now see the result. To be honest, I am also interested in seeing how much ‘Flame Mantra’ can evolve with this Purple Flame.” Yao Lao released his breath as he said in a manner that suggested he was looking forward to the result.

“In any case, it cannot directly leap to the Xuan Class.” Regarding this, Xiao Yan still understood his limits. Although the strength of the Purple Flame was good there was still a huge gap between it and a ‘Heavenly Flame’.

“Naturally, I know that it is impossible to reach the Xuan Class. The jump between each class for a Qi Method is like the distance between the earth and sky. The Purple Flame may be able to evolve Mantra to a different level within the same class but if it wants to evolve it to a different class… difficult!” Yao Lao rolled his eyes and scolded with a smile.

Xiao Yan bitterly laughed but did not continue speaking. He sat crossed legged and closed his eyes. After he deepened his spirit and quietly sat for a moment, his eyes suddenly opened. Within his black eyes, a brilliant light flashed past. When the brilliant light in his eyes to diminish, Xiao Yan tilted his head and faced Yao Lao.

“Yes, begin. It’s time.” Noticing Xiao Yan looking over, Yao Lao smiled and gently nodded.

Nodding his head with great force, Xiao Yan’s gaze swept across the two jade bottles in front of him. After which, he closed his eyes and his mind sunk into his body.

Under the control of his mind, the vortex in his lower abdomen suddenly began spinning at a high speed. Following its increased rotation speed, clusters of Purple Flame in the vortex were thrown out.

The Purple Flame that was thrown out seemed to be puzzled. Why had the partner that was working with it days before suddenly chasing it out? The Purple Flame that was thrown outside slowly gathered all the Purple Flame that had been thrown out of the vortex, finally forming an intense ball of Purple Flame.

Just as the Purple Flame attempted to charge into the vortex without thought, the surging pale yellow Dou Qi within the vortex came gushing outwards from the vortex and encompassed the Purple Flame within it. Under the control of Xiao Yan’s mind, the surrounding pale yellow Dou Qi pulled the Purple Flame and began to move along the fixed Qi Paths dictated by ‘Flame Mantra’.

When the Dou Qi surrounded the Purple Flame, the latter felt danger. Instantly, it began to angrily attempt to shoot out of the surrounding Dou Qi energy. Each time they struck, they would burn a large amount of Dou Qi energy into nothing. However, an unceasing supply of Dou Qi from the vortex continued to be emitted. Regardless of how the Purple Flame burned, it could not escape being trapped by the Dou Qi.

When Xiao Yan’s Dou Qi surrounded the Purple Flame, he completely lost control of it. However, it did not bother him. He focused all his attention into controlling the Dou Qi, pulling the Purple Flame into becoming a long and thin flame before swiftly moving it into the Qi pathways for training ‘Flame Mantra’.

Just as the Purple Flame that was encompassed by Dou Qi entered the Qi Paths that was predetermined, Xiao Yan’s body trembled violently. Numerous small drops of cold perspiration continued to appear on his forehead. Like dripping water, it flowed along Xiao Yan’s face and smashed against the mountain rock with a tapping noise.

Xiao Yan clenched his teeth. The Qi Paths in his body emitted a twitching like terrible pain that almost caused his face to grimace. He did not expect that even with Dou Qi as the initial protection, the pain caused by the Purple Flame would be this intense.

“Consume the Path Protecting Pill!”

When Xiao Yan was clenching his teeth and enduring, Yao Lao’s soft order suddenly sounded in his ears.

Hearing the order, Xiao Yan’s hand did not hesitate as he grabbed a small jade bottle in front of him, poured out the jade white pill and threw it into his mouth.

Once the ‘Path Protecting Pill’ entered into his mouth, it began transforming into a warm and smooth current. It swiftly rolled into his throat and entered his body. Finally, under the control of Xiao Yan’s mind, it swiftly covered all the veins that the flame must pass through when using ‘Flame Mantra’ with a layer of faint white colored energy membrane.

Although this layer of white colored energy membrane was extremely thin, the effect that it brought was very notable. Not long after he swallowed the Path Protecting Pill’, Xiao Yan’s tensed muscles began to gradually relax. His distorted face was also slowly becoming normal. There was still some occasional searing pain that was emitted from his Qi Paths, but this was entirely within the parameters that he could endure.

The gradual relief from the intense pain caused Xiao Yan to sigh in his heart. He could not imagine whether the Qi Paths in his body could continue to absorb and contain Dou Qi if he did not have the help from the Path Protecting Pill’. It might be that after the Purple Flame had completely passed through his Qi Paths, he would become a real cripple.

“It is indeed true that having an elder at home is like having a treasure.” Xiao Yan happily mumbled in his heart. The position Yao Lao held in Xiao Yan’s heart instantly sped higher.

With the help from the Path Protecting Pill’, Xiao Yan was much more relaxed. Although his Dou Qi was consumed at an incredible rate under the burning of the Purple Flame, the help given from his uninterrupted swallowing of ‘Energy Recovery Pills’ allowed him to barely maintain an equilibrium.

Everything in his body proceeded in an orderly manner under the tense atmosphere. Until now, Xiao Yan did not find anything wrong but he continued to remain alert. As Yao Lao had said before, other than the danger of one’s Qi Paths being burnt during the swallowing process, one’s mind would also be slowly corrupted by the wild instincts of the Purple Flame, causing one to lose control.

Bearing in mind Yao Lao’s words in his heart, Xiao Yan solemnly kept guard of his mind, not daring to allow even the slightest mistake.

After Xiao Yan slowly moved the Purple Flame encompassed by Dou Qi for half the Qi Path route of the ‘Flame Mantra’, Xiao Yan’s expression gradually became serious. He had begun to vaguely feel that as the swallowing process became more intense while threads of faint agitation were slowly climbing into his mind.

Feeling that his mind was changing, Xiao Yan heart immediately grew fearful. He did not require Yao Lao’s reminder as he retrieved the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ from in front of him and threw it into his mouth.

Once the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ entered his body, an icy bone cutting feeling slowly penetrated from his throat region. His mind felt this icy cold feeling and shivered slightly. That gradually increased agitation in his heart was like a remanent snow meeting a flame, swiftly melting away and vanishing.

With the ‘Icy Heart Pill’ to protect his mind, Xiao Yan was finally no longer afraid of losing guard of his mind. Immediately, he used all his strength to crazily circulate the Purple Flame encompassed in Dou Qi through his Qi Paths.

Following the Purple Flame circulating through the designated Qi Paths for ‘Flame Mantra’, Xiao Yan suddenly realized that a thread of Dou Qi and Purple Flame began to strangely merge together.

No, rather than say that they were merging, it was more appropriate to say that the Purple Flame was being gradually consumed by ‘Flame Mantra’ Dou Qi.

Looking at this scene, Xiao Yan heart felt both shocked and happy. From this situation, he could confirm one thing. This ‘Flame Mantra’ Qi Method did indeed possess the miraculous ability to evolve.

As the pale yellow Dou Qi and the Purple Flame were about to pass through the last Qi Path for the ‘Flame Mantra’, the two of them had almost entirely become one. That originally pale yellow colored Dou Qi had at that moment, completely transformed into a pale, purple color. Moreover, on the surface of this pale purple Dou Qi, there was a rising faint Purple flame. However, this Purple Flame did not cause the Qi Paths any harm.

Seeing that the Dou Qi had entirely changed color, Xiao Yan’s heart was filled with unrestrained happiness. He put in a greater amount of effort to direct the Dou Qi into completing the final portion of the circulation.

The circulation of the Dou Qi grew increasingly fast and finally, the Dou Qi with its color already changed, finally rushed out of the last Qi Path. Completing one perfect and complete cycle, the new Dou Qi stream returned to the lower abdomen.

After rushing out of the Qi Paths, the purple colored Dou Qi directly and unceasingly charged into the continuously spinning pale yellow vortex.

As more and more Dou Qi which had consumed the Purple Flame rushed out of the Qi Path, the vortex color was also slowly beginning to change from a pale yellow color into a pale purple color.

When the final thread of purple colored Dou Qi came out of the vein, the vortex had almost completely changed into a pale purple color.

At Xiao Yan’s lower abdomen, the rotating vortex suddenly stopped and stood quietly.

At the same time, in the cave, the closed eyed Xiao Yan suddenly opened them. A glaring purple light shot out from his eyes for about half an inch, much like a real substance. A moment later, Xiao Yan slowly tilted his head and eyed Yao Lao. Stupidly, he opened his mouth and grinned. “Did I succeed?”

“You’ve succeeded!”

Yao Lao sighed heavily as he smiled and nodded. He could already feel that Xiao yan contained a Dou Qi that was many times more powerful than what it had been before.

Seeing Yao Lao nodding his head in confirmation, the corner of Xiao Yan’s mouth opened, releasing an untamed laughter that announced his unrestrained happiness in his heart. However, his face abruptly changed as he suddenly felt the energy from all around him unexpectedly flow uncontrollably into him.

“Teacher? What’s happening?” Tilting his head, Xiao Yan asked in a frightened voice.

The unexpected change also caused Yao Lao to be a little shocked. He frowned, then moved toXiao Yan’s front and touched the latter’s body with his palm. A moment later, a smile surfaced on the aged face.

“Good things really don’t come alone. When one comes, a second and third follows. Congratulation, the time for you to break through a Dou Zhe and become a Dou Shi has arrived!”