BTTH : From Humble Beginnings to Dou Di

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**

Leaving the trading district, Lin Feng paused for a moment. The Ice Spirit Pill was only a second-tier pill—so long as he kept a fair distance from the Inner Academy’s main buildings, he shouldn’t attract the attention of any elders.

With that in mind, he decided to head deep into the forest to refine the pills.

After confirming his direction, his figure flickered and vanished, quickly dashing into the forest’s depths.

After more than half a day of travel, Lin Feng arrived at a secluded cave near the edge of the Inner Academy’s borders. After confirming there were no magic beasts nearby, he pulled out his cauldron and skillfully lit a fire.

With a soft sound, blazing orange flames burst to life inside the cauldron, dancing wildly.

The scorching heat quickly warmed up the once-cool cave.

Ignoring the rising temperature, Lin Feng calmly took out his herbs and began tossing them into the cauldron.

With his alchemy skills already at high fifth-tier, this kind of second-tier pill posed no real challenge.

At best, it was just exhausting manual labor.

Time slipped by in the midst of his tireless pill refining. Two full days passed in the blink of an eye.

”Whew…”

With the final, three-hundredth pill extracted and placed into a jade bottle, Lin Feng finally let out a long breath of relief.

While refining low-grade pills wasn’t hard for him, producing them in such bulk was still mentally draining.

After storing the jade bottle, he took out a Spirit Nourishing Pill and swallowed it, closing his eyes to recover.

By the next morning, Lin Feng opened his eyes, fully refreshed from the fatigue caused by nonstop pill refinement.

He exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, then immediately dashed toward the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

By midday, when Lin Feng arrived at the previously agreed-upon meeting spot, the other four were already waiting for him.

”Here—your custom orders.”

Lin Feng pulled out several jade bottles from his storage ring and flicked them toward the group.

Seeing the bottles, the trio quickly caught and inspected the pills inside.

”Lin Feng, I’d say your alchemy skills might even surpass Han Xian from the Medicine Gang,” Han Yue remarked, holding up an Ice Spirit Pill with a glint of admiration in her eyes.

Then, fixing her beautiful gaze on Lin Feng, she added, ”Have you thought about what you’ll do after graduation? Would you consider joining my clan? The Han Clan of North Sky City may not be one of Central Plains’ top-tier clans, but we do have a Dou Zong overseeing us. With our full support, your alchemy skills could grow rapidly.”

She had come to Jia Nan Academy not just for cultivation resources but also to recruit talents for her clan.

Bringing back exceptional talents would only accelerate the Han Clan’s rise.

Given Lin Feng’s age and the fact that he was already a fourth-tier alchemist—just one tier below the strongest alchemist in their clan—Han Yue didn’t want to miss this rare opportunity.

Lin Xiuya and Liu Qing were both momentarily stunned by her offer.

They too had wanted to recruit Lin Feng, but Han Yue had beaten them to the punch, leaving them unprepared.

”Sorry, I don’t have any intention of joining any faction at the moment,” Lin Feng replied, shaking his head politely.

Disappointment flickered across Han Yue’s face, but she still forced a smile. ”That’s alright. If you ever change your mind, the Han Clan will always welcome you.”

Seeing that Lin Feng truly wasn’t interested in joining any power, Lin Xiuya and Liu Qing also gave up on their plans to recruit him.

After transferring the remaining 300 fire energy points, the trio chatted a bit more before leaving.

As for Lin Yan, he soon headed off on his own to train in the forest.

With everyone gone, Lin Feng made his way back to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.

Now with over 2,000 fire energy points in hand, he could train in the Room Number One for more than two months—no need to worry about fire energy for a while.

He pushed the door open and entered the cultivation room.

Feeling the dense energy in the air, he quickly slid his fire crystal card into the slot.

Then he took out the green lotus seat and placed it on the black stone platform before sitting down on it to cultivate.

With this setup, not only would he be protected from fire poison, but the lotus seat would also absorb some fire-attribute energy to strengthen itself.

After all, this was a rare treasure capable of giving birth to a Heavenly Flame—who knew when it might come in handy?

As fire energy was deducted from his card, a projection of the Falling Heart Flame—drawn in from who knows where—appeared near his heart.

However, due to the purification effect of the lotus seat, its wild nature had been cleansed, allowing Lin Feng to use it safely for body refinement.

This time, he had to break through to four-star Dou Wang before Zi Yan returned.

Only then would he stand a better chance in his future confrontation with Yuan Yi.

Time slipped by unnoticed during cultivation. In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

Meanwhile, in the far-off imperial capital of the Jia Ma Empire, the city was buzzing with excitement.

Today marked the opening of the once-every-eight-years Alchemist Grand Meeting.

The Alchemist Association had even put up a low-level sixth-tier pill recipe as the championship reward.

Such a high-tier prize wasn’t just attracting alchemists from the Jia Ma Empire—

Even qualified alchemists from neighboring empires had traveled great distances to participate in this prestigious event.

”Pah! Disgusting. Why are the medicinal herbs here all such low grade?”

In a small alleyway along the street, Zi Yan bit into a fourth-tier medicinal herb she had ”borrowed” from a nearby shop, only to immediately spit it out in disgust.

If Lin Feng had seen this scene, he would probably have remembered what he had forgotten—

He forgot to remind this glutton not to randomly ”borrow” herbs from other people!

”Dong!”

Just as Zi Yan was grumbling about the herbs, a crisp bell chime rang out, long and resonant, echoing across the sky above the square.

”The final round has started? Let’s see if I can find that guy who uses white flame today.”

She casually tossed aside the precious medicinal herb that others would have treasured, then her figure abruptly disappeared from the alley.

In the blink of an eye, she had already arrived at the spectator seats beside the arena, attentively observing the matches taking place on the stage.

But after all the contestants had summoned their flames, Zi Yan was once again disappointed.

There were all kinds of flames on display, but none of them were white.

”Sigh, looks like this so-called Alchemist Grand Meeting doesn’t have anyone using white flame. I’ll head over to Yun Lan Sect tomorrow then.”

Staring at the alchemists immersed in their pill refining, Zi Yan pouted and muttered.

”Huh? Aren’t those the Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pill and the Three Lines Green Spirit Pill?”

Recognizing the pills Lin Feng had once refined for her, Zi Yan immediately recognized them with a surprised gasp.

But thinking of Lin Feng’s mission, she reluctantly gave up the idea of stealing them for now, turning to leave instead.

Since no one here was using white flame anyway, she might as well head to the Alchemist Association to see if she could find something tasty.

Thinking this, and noticing that everyone’s attention was focused on the final round of the Alchemist Grand Meeting, Zi Yan’s little eyes flickered a few times before she revealed a mischievous grin.

With a flash, her figure disappeared again—no one knew where she had gone.

—

On the arena stage, Xiao Yan was also fully focused, his gaze locked onto the Three Lines Green Spirit Pill inside his cauldron.

Whether he could defeat Nalan Yanran would depend on this pill, as well as the two Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pills in his storage ring.

A few days earlier, during the preliminary rounds, he had coincidentally caught sight of Nalan Yanran.

However, due to a treasure on her body that concealed her dou qi level, even his master was unable to detect her exact strength.

Later on, though, he obtained information from the Imperial Clan that she was at least a mid-stage Da Dou Shi.

Although he himself had advanced to an eight-star Dou Shi after absorbing the Imperial Clan’s Serene Sea Scaly Beast and a few Rank 6 beast flames…

His Flame Mantra had only just barely evolved into a Low-Grade Black Class technique—or more accurately, a Quasi-Black Class technique.

But due to the unique nature of the Flame Mantra, while it wasn’t as strong as a Mid-Grade Black Class technique, it was definitely superior to most low-tier ones.

However, his master had said that unless he used an Rank 8 Beast Flame, or a true Heavenly Flame, there was no hope of upgrading the Flame Mantra further.

At present, Xiao Yan couldn’t find a Heavenly Flame anywhere, nor did he dare to consider extracting a beast flame from an Rank 8 magic beast—creatures on par with human Dou Zun powerhouses.

So, for now, he could only rely on pills to quickly boost his dou qi level.

—

Time passed swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, a whole day went by.

The next day, Xiao Yan woke up early, ready to head to Yun Lan Sect for the long-awaited Three-Year Agreement.

Clenching his fist tightly, feeling the surging power of a four-star Da Dou Shi within his body, a confident smile slowly surfaced on Xiao Yan’s lips.

Although he had consumed one Three Lines Green Spirit Pill and two Purple Heart Barrier Breaking Pills in a single day, which caused his dou qi to become somewhat unstable…

His master had already told him that after the Three-Year Agreement, there was a method to stabilize his dou qi again.

With his current strength as a four-star Da Dou Shi, and that Earth Class Dou Technique as his trump card, his chances of defeating Nalan Yanran were very high!

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yan strode toward Yun Lan Sect with firm steps.

This time, he would definitely wash away the humiliation his clan had suffered from the annulled engagement!

—

Yun Lan Sect—the most powerful force in the Jia Ma Empire.

Generations of continuous inheritance had made this ancient sect stand proudly at the empire’s pinnacle.

If it weren’t for the sect’s doctrine that forbade the seizure of imperial power…

Then in the past, during several dynastic changes, Yun Lan Sect might have completely seized control of the entire empire.

Precisely because of this, every generation of the Imperial Clan viewed this colossal power nearby with deep wariness.

Now, under the current Jia Ma Imperial Clan, with Jia Xingtian as their guardian and the mysterious magic beast’s protection…

This generation of royalty finally possessed enough strength to make even Yun Lan Sect feel somewhat apprehensive.

Thus, the elite army stationed at the base of Yun Lan Mountain had been able to coexist peacefully with the sect.

The royal clan had stationed that battle-hardened legion here for many years—everyone knew exactly why.

They were guarding against Yun Lan Sect.

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